A year ago today....

This is March 31st baby girl, it will forever be burned in my brain!  Why, you ask?  Because I didn't even know you existed until a year ago today...and I TOTALLY wasn't expecting it either!  We weren't sure we were ever going to get pregnant....and then God completely caught us off guard at my yearly appointment!.  One minute I am talking to my doctor about getting on Clomid (fertility drug) to help us get pregnant, and the next minute she is rounding the corner to the room I was in saying, "You're pregnant!".  Wow...what a ride the last year has been!  And as I look back at all the fears of miscarrying, fears of diabetes and you in my belly, monitoring blood sugars, waking up every night at 3am to test my blood sugar, being very deliberate about my eating, testing, figuring out new insulin needs, levels, resistance, precautions, etc....the list could go on and on...I look to NOW and see you on the video monitor sleeping so beautifully and perfectly in your crib.  And I think, "Really?  I have a four month old?".  Yes I do...you are the best and most welcomed surprise I have ever gotten.  And God placed you perfectly in our lives at the right time.  You are a gift and we are all blessed because of you.

In case you forgot about the day....here's a link to a year ago and my posts about finding out about you - from finding out at the doctor's office, telling your Daddy and then your Sisters!  It's so fun to look back and read these!  I can't wait for you to one day do the same!

http://anothermariniscoming.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

And...one of my favorite posts ever.  This describes how you were no coincidence my dear - you were and are a God thing!

http://anothermariniscoming.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

Love you baby!  I'll be back soon to talk about you being four months old on Saturday, your doctor's appointment and other good stuff!

A Day in the Life...

Hey baby girl....you are fast asleep right now all clean and smelling good from your bath!  I thought I would jot down what a day looks like for us at this point.  Probably more for me and my memory than anything...especially if we have another baby, these are the things I know I will want to remember!

So...here we go...as of you at 3.5 months old...this is what our day looks like:

7 am  Wake up - you sometimes lay around your crib for 30 minutes or so talking to your monkeys on the mobile...but Mommy has a few things to do first.  I wake up, test my blood sugar to make sure I am high enough to feed you (breast feeding drops my blood sugar) and brush my teeth.  I go get you and have one of my favorite moments of the day - your super smiley face when you see me coming!  We talk a bit and change your diaper and smile some more.

And you are quite chatty lately!  Here's a typical conversation with you.  Your Daddy thinks I'm mean, but I say it sounds like you are a dying kitty!


(Admit it....dying kitty, right?!)

And if you weren't convinced...here's another:



7:15 am   Eating time!  You eat anywhere for the next 10-15 minutes.  Then...we play!  You and I go downstairs and see your Sisters off to school.  You sit in your Bumbo chair and watch us all scattering around the kitchen eating breakfast, making coffee, etc.  We also try to do a little tummy time and I am lucky if you last 10 minutes.  Not your favorite thing.

8:30 am   Sleepy time!  Time for your first nap!  You go down pretty easily...especially if I hold you and bounce with you a bit first.

10:45 am   Wake up!  Sometimes you are just waking up, talking to your monkeys...other times I wake you up and wait for that awesome smile to come across your face again.  Repeat of smiles, changing diaper, etc.  =)  Oh, and Daddy comes over and makes you grin from ear to ear too!

11 am   Eating time!  Then, more playing - and you sitting in your Bumbo while Daddy and I fix some lunch!

Sorry Baby Girl...couldn't resist the ears!

12:15-12:30 pm   Sleepy time!  You are like clockwork....about an hour and a half after waking up, you are ready for bed again.

2:45 pm  Wake up!  I get to see that smile again when I come and get you!

3 pm   Eating time!  And play time with your Sissy's when they get home from school!

4:15pm   Sleepy time (hopefully).  This is where things start to not be as predictable with you.  You will take a short cat nap here usually (unless we are out and about running errands...and you still sleep some then too usually).  I've just found a way to get you down closer to 4:30 and then I can make dinner and we can sometimes even eat before you wake up.

5-5:15 pm  Wake up!  This is where you sometimes get a little crabby.  This last 30-60 minutes of the day is a little touch and go with you!  Sometimes you have a split personality during this time - one minute you are smiling, the next crying!  You are just a tired baby at the end of the day!

6:30 pm   Bedtime routine - every other night this includes a bath, which you love (and we do too!).  Other than that, we change your diaper into a 12-hour Pampers diaper and put a sleeper on.  Then you and I go to the rocking chair in your room with the lights low and you eat.  As you eat, I pray that God has your heart and fills you up with peace and that you feel like He is right by your side holding you as you fall asleep.  After that, I rock you for a few minutes on my shoulder and sing "Sweetheart Tree", then we get up and walk around the room for another few minutes and sing.

7 pm   Nighty night!  You may cry a wee little bit, but usually not much at all...you find your fingers to suck on and you're out!  Mommy and Daddy either have some alone time now...or when we have your Sissys, we get to finish up homework and spend some time with them.

10:30 pm  Dream feed - this is your last feeding of the night and you really aren't even awake for it (hence, the "dream feed" name!).  As you are fast asleep, I pull you gently out of your crib and let you eat.  Your eyes are closed the whole time.  Another one of my favorite times each day happens right now.  After you are done eating, you are absolutely zonked still...and I put you up on my shoulder.  Nothing is as sweet as this moment with you.  You are completely passed out, but I am loving every second.  You are all scrunched up with your face on my shoulder and we rock a little.  I can't imagine that anyone else in this world has such a sweet baby as me!  Then, I realize that I must be crazy for thinking this...of course there are tons of other sweet babies out there like you.  And then you turn your head so that your sweet little face is in the crook of my neck, you keep sleeping there as I feel your breath against my skin....and then I think - never mind.  There is absolutely no way another baby is as sweet as this.  I relish this time with you for several minutes, then I put you right back in your crib and you keeping sleeping.

After that, it's rinse and repeat from the beginning when I see your big smiles in the crib at 7am!  This makes you sound pretty easy, huh?  It probably sounds a lot easier than it really is, but I have to admit...you are easy and this Mommy thanks you so much for that!  You have no idea how in love we all are with you!

Spring Break!

Hey there sweet pea!  It's spring break week for your Sisters...so you get to hang out with them all week long!  We've already gone to a Cubbies spring training game - and you did quite nicely there.  (Although they lost to the Rockies...which is your Daddy's team...so we've got a healthy competition brewing to see who you will eventually root for!).  Since your Uncle Ryan and Aunt Nikki loaded you up with Cubbie apparel, you were sporting the Cubs yesterday at the game.  Sorry Daddy...you snooze, you lose...no outfits to wear, then the Cubbies it is by default.  (This is going to be easy to get you on my side!)

Playing with Kyndall at the game

You can tell which team Kyndall was rooting for, huh?  I'm sure you want to be just like your big sister!

Let's see...what else has been happening?  You are right around 3.5 months or 15 weeks.  You LOVE to sit up in your Bumbo on on someone's lap and look around.  I can tell that you are trying to figure so much out, which now includes your feet.  You'll just sit in your Bumbo and move them around as you stare and them.  You are even more in love with your Daddy's "Stinkerbabies!" and love to smile at your Sisters when they keep you company in the back seat of the car.    You are a talker - more and more all the time!  We are currently working on saying "good girl!"...and right now you are just getting that first little "gaaa" sound out.  =)

  

You make us feel sooooo special when you smile, baby girl.  You have no idea how much power you have with that amazing smile.  And you have all different kinds of smiles.  You have a crooked little smile when you are tired and still want to smile...or you are so sure about whether to smile or not.  You have a just-woke-up-and-see-Mommy-looking-at-me-in-my-crib smile.  I personally love this one.  It is followed by excited kicking of your feet.  Then, there is the smile-off-into-space smile which makes me wonder if you have an imaginary friend already!  And last but not least....the I-am-so-happy-I-can-barely-stand-it-so-I-am-going-to-open-my-mouth-as-wide-as-I-can smile.  We LOVE this one!  This is usually when I am changing your diaper on our bed after a nap and you are laying on your back and we are talking back and forth.  Or, when Daddy comes by and gives you a "Stinkerbabies!".  That'll do it for you too!

We are already cycling through different gadgets and toys for you.  The swing that used to keep you occupied when you were tinier...we don't ever really use it any more because you like to be upright more than laying down.  Same with your little lamby seat...we barely use that anymore.  We are looking at getting you an exersaucer because you are ready to be up and bouncing around with toys in front of you to grab.  You aren't too much of a grabber yet...you love your hands and definitely know you have them...but don't realize that you can do soooo much more than put them in your mouth yet.  This is probably a good thing!

You are a finger/thumb sucker for sure.  The pacifier is a 2nd class citizen to you.  You may take a pacifier at the end of the day....but most likely, you'd rather have your fingers.  Speaking of end of the day...we need to work on this!  It is the only crabby time of the day.  Anywhere from 5-6pm, you start to be a bit bi-polar.  One minute smiling, the next screaming.  And then once you're crabby...it's walk-around-the-room-with-you-a-million-times-until-you-stop-screaming time.  Sometimes you fall asleep a bit (whew!), but others we just wait it out until your bedtime around 6:30pm.  I really need to get you to take a better short nap around 4pm.  I think that would help all of us out!    

And you are on a 4-hour eating schedule now (used to be 3 hours).  I always had to wake you up from a nap to eat and you started to not eat as much at each feeding...so I tried this out with you just a few days ago.  Seems to be okay so far (as long as we get the crabby time a little less crabby, we'd be peachy!).  You have always been a good eater....but at the same time, you don't get too crabby when you are hungry.  So, it's always hard to tell with you if you need more/less food.  And the same holds true when I moved to four hours...you don't get crabby when it gets near four hours (you just sleep longer at your nap!)...but you definitely will eat when it's offered!  And you are a bit of a chunkster...so I figured it was time to space out your feedings a little further.  A lot of babies don't move to this schedule for another couple months...so we'll see how this goes!

We are all falling in love with you more every day.  You are such a sweet addition to our family.  You make it easy to love you.

Three Months!

I will say this...this last month has been the best yet!  I hope it continues with this pattern!  You are a joy, completely.  We have a routine and you love it.  And when you wake up in the morning, you are so happy and ready for the day.  You love to smile and gurgle and coo at us (or the fan...or the blinds...).

I feel like there are so many milestones that have happened in the last month.  I hope I can capture them all for you....

• You sleep through the night, with just little peeps here and there.  I put you to bed at 7-7:30pm and you get a dream feed (you are barely even awake) at 10-10:30pm and then you sleep until 6:30-7am.  I would prefer that to be 7-7:30am....but I am not complaining!  =)  It took about a week to get you settled into that routine, so by about 10 weeks you were pretty good at it.
• You now are like clockwork for naps too!  We just started this the past week or so.  You wake up and eat and we play together for a while...then by 8am or so, you are ready for a nap already!  You sleep for about an hour and a half and then the cycle repeats!  Except in the late afternoon, you don't nap as much there because we are getting your Sisters, making dinner, etc....but that's okay...we want your Sissy's to see you too!  It's not your most smiley time of the day, but you do okay.
• You LOVE your hands.  You watch them intently, move your fingers and just are intrigued by these things!  I will put up my hand and move my fingers around and you do the same.  I can even (sometimes) get you to mimic me when I put just my pointer finger up.  I can clasp my hands together and you will do that at times too.  You are so much fun.  =)
• You still love to talk to us.  When I am changing your diaper, you will look at me and try and make your lips vibrate together and make a noise because you want me to make that same noise to you.  And then when I do make it, you just smile so big.  And you love making a gurgly, spitty sound in your throat...so we do that back and forth a lot too.  And then you just smile, smile, smile.  
• You love it when your Daddy says "Stinkerbabies!" in that goofy voice of his!  For whatever reason, that is his thing with you and you love it.  You look at him for a second with wide eyes....and then a HUGE smile goes across your face.
• You love your mobiles.  Your doggy one downstairs in your playard is your favorite I think.  When we change your diaper, you are enthralled by the doggies dancing above your head!  Because of this, we thought you would like a playmat and got you a Baby Einstein one with a ton of stuff hanging down for you to play with and look at.  So far though, it's a no go...you don't seem to like it at all!  Hope that changes!
• You LOVE to suck on your hands.  And I thank God for those hands every day because it is part of your sleeping routine.  When I put you down to sleep, you make fuss just a bit, but then you remember those hands of yours and you put them in your mouth.  Before I know it, you are out!  We barely use a pacifier anymore with you (the crib is a no paci-zone!)...so with you loving your hands in your mouth...and taking naps so well and sleeping almost 12 hours at night in crib...there's no time for paci's!  =)

Your Grandma Frances just left and we had a blast with her.  She loved holding you and cooing at you.  And you would love to smile right back at her.  Luckily, she comes back in a couple months so she can hold you again!  I can't even imagine how big you'll be by then!  Here are a couple pics from her being with us....

 It was your Uncle Ray's 40th Birthday while Grandma Frances was here - so we got him some funny "Over the Hill" gifts.  

 All of your cousins!

You two are so cute!

It's crazy how quickly time goes.  The first month with you was kind of surreal and we were in a adrenaline-fed daze.  The second month was when reality all sunk in, you were kind of fussy, and I wasn't sure I would be able to clean the house and cook dinner ever again without being stressed about you crying if I put you down.  Now, the third month was awesome.  You settled into a routine, you are so happy...and we just fall in love with you more everyday.  You recognize me and smile when I come into your view.  I will admit, that is the best thing in the world.  When you are smiley and we are playing, time just flies!  I see you yawn and I think, "Wow, it's nap time already?!".  Sometimes I wish there was a little less nap time!  =)  

You are still breastfeeding like a champ too.  My plan is to breastfeed until six months...then we'll see.  I'd love to say I could go a whole year, but it may stop at six months when we introduce solid foods to you.  We'll see!  Sure can't wait to feed you a jar of smooshed peas and see them all over your face!  =)

Baby girl, you fit so well into our family.  I can't even describe it to you because you just do.  Your Sisters love you to death.  Sometimes I worry that they don't get to see you as much (since they are only with us half the time)...but I'll give that one to God and know that He will take care of that.  Kyndall loves to take you and sing to you....Megan loves to make you smile.  She is still waiting for the day when you are a little bigger and she can really play with you.  They both can't get enough of you.

Each night  before bed while you are eating...I just look at you and soak it all in.  I pray for you to sleep well and have peace...and then I also pray for you and your little heart and that it is filled with love for God.  I love this verse that a friend gave me too...a blessing as a prayer to you before you sleep for the night.

Numbers 6:24-26

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace."

You got a little sick last weekend too.  Probably your first real sickness...hasn't been too bad though and I hope that continues.  There is so much talk about RSV (a nasty lung virus in babies) that I am still keeping an eye out even though you seem better now.  You had one day where you were sleepy and fussy - had a little rattling in your lungs and congested.  You still are congested, but you seem normal otherwise.  This is what you looked like the majority of the day last Sunday.

Oh, and there is a new craze around here...have you heard of it?  It's called, "Daily Avery".  =)  It all started when I would send a picture message to your Pa and Mimi every so often of you and I said something like, "here's your Daily Avery...".  Then, I started posting the pics on Facebook too so that other family could see you (and friends).  I didn't realize I created a frenzy until I didn't post a picture of you one day and a couple people wrote on my Facebook wall wondering where their Daily Avery was!  Now, it's kind of routine, and I rarely miss a day!  If I do...I get hounded.  =)  I love that everyone likes to see you so much.  I can't tell you how many people have said that they check out Facebook to see the Daily Avery.  So cool.

Here are shots of you long the way of Daily Avery....

 4 days old

 3 weeks (your legs are so tiny!)

 5 weeks

 8 weeks

 10 weeks (one of my favs!)

 Couldn't resist - had to throw this one in!  11 weeks....

Another 11 weeker

12 weeks - sitting in your Bumbo - so big! 

Another 12 weeker - found your hands!

 Almost 13 weeks!

Baby Love, Babies, Stinkypants, Sweet Pea, Baby Girl....you are a joy.  I get to wake up everyday and take care of you - I get to do that for my job!  I help you learn new things and make you smile.  I am so blessed to have that job.  I used to work in Corporate America and I cannot even fathom ever doing that again..  You and your Sisters make this all so fun and worth it.  You're my little buddy - it's you and me throughout the day - and you just tag along for the ride.  You were just in my arms after you ate...and you were headed to sleepyland already (because you just played in your crib for your 1st nap!), so your eyes were droopy...and I said softly, "you're so sweet baby girl, you're so sweet....do you know that?".  And you just looked at me with those half-open, sleepy eyes and smiled...and then you closed your eyes for good.  That's what this is all about Baby Girl.  You're my smiley, loving, sweet sidekick...and I love you to pieces!