Happy 4 months!!

Happy 4 months old to my precious daughter! I can't believe Christmas has come and gone and she is 1/3 of a year old. I dreamed about this time in my life for a long time now. When I found out last New Years Eve I was pregnant, I thought...I can't believe we will have a baby next Christmas...and well here we are. Christmas was a good time. We spent the few days at Lake Lure with my family. However, I must say that she is a different baby than 2 weeks ago...and well I hope this personality does not stay around too long.
I guess what I mean is the past 7 days have been so trying on our patience. We have a different child on our hands...she has been tuff. What's wrong you might ask? I am really not sure...is she teething?...doc says no. We started cereal...is her stomach upset? We are so confused as to what is causing our daughter to be so fussy. We go to her 4 month well visit next Monday, so I hope we will get some in site then.

On a better note, she is developing so good. She was 15 lbs. 6 oz a week ago, so she has slowed down quite a bit, which is a good thing. However, she is still really long for her age, is is wearing 6-9 months already. WOW. She is still not able to roll over on her own (she has done it a handful of times), but she is starting to grab things a lot. She wants to rub on shirts and blankets and fell the texture. She also loves to hold her bottle, when she gets one! The best part for me right now is napping with her. I have been off work for the holidays, so the last 2 days I have laid on the couch with her and taken a morning nap...which has been great for the both of us.. She is not so fragile anymore, so it's easier to lay with her. She has always been such a good cuddlie!!I also love her laugh...she is starting to giggle out loud more and it melts my heart. Love it!!

Happy 4 month Bday to my precious (sometimes fussy) little baby girl!!

Christmas Eve Miracle...not what you think!

What did I get for Christmas? Well I will tell you what I was begging for on Christmas eve eve...Christmas Eve until 6pm... Can you guess? Remember Brinlie eating rice cereal? Well, the poor thing got constipated from it...I know you are saying well yes that is common, it makes sense doesn't it? Well yes it does make sense, something she has never had in her body before, but going from having alot everyday to nothing in 2+ days...will cause a mom and dad to worry. We ended up calling the doc to make sure this was normal and sure enough some babies can go up to a week with out having a bowel movement. Who knew? That is a long time.

Well, it was a moment we celebrated...My family will never forget the moment that our miracle happened...I will not gross you out anymore! We were blessed and not worried anymore. Enough about that...

Cereal..hmmm

So I knew the day would come when my daughter would need more than just breast milk to survive, well we have hit that point. We dove in head first to the adventure of feeding with a spoon. I must say I am glad we had the camera and video ready, it was a "must" capture moment. First step was to get out the fantastic high chair and make sure we knew how it worked, these things are more complicated these days. Brinlie has plenty of room to grow in this high chair, but with a little recline mode, she fit great. We put a bib on...and off we go, but wait, how much, mix with? Well we mixed with breast milk, b/c we know that she is not allergic to that. We started with 1 tbsp cereal, 3 tbsp breast milk. However, rice cereal does dissolve in breast milk, so you must be quick.

Well off we went...Brinlie loved staring at the spoon, she thought that was so cool. She actually did really good and loved the taste of the cereal. She did get impatient with us, as we could not feed it to her quick enough. It was funny...she would scream when we took the spook away. Hope her body takes this well!

Brinlie...Take a NAP...PLEASE!!!

OMG- my child is the spawn of me...her inability to take naps during the day is our biggest struggle right now. My thriving daughter does not like to nap during the day, I know I should be thankful she is sleeping 10 hours at night, but she needs to nap. The biggest problem is she gets so tired during the day but does not want to sleep for longer than 20 min naps. Without taking naps, she will get cranky at some point during the day, which is not a fun experience. We have tried putting her in her crib to sleep, her swing, bouncy seat, someone's arms...still only 20 mins.


Okay, so here is my plan...back to my books...what does it tell me to do about napping...I need HELP! Well, I re-read Babywise on the way to Ohio and it tells me to place her in her crib, same time everyday. (I have tried this, but we will try again) It tells me to let her cry for 20 mins, wow that is so long in "baby crying land." I have gotten better, I can let her cry for 8-10 mins at a time, but 20 is a long time. But I will try it...let's see if it works...It will be a great thing if we can get her to take 2 naps during the day!! A great Christmas present to her parents!!

DRAMA QUEEN..funny too!

Well, she is starting to get such a sense of humor, her personality is really starting to show. She has begun to do this high pitched laugh or squeal. I do not think she realizes that she is making this noise, but when she hears it, she wants to do it more. She is so loud and funny. She gets tickled at herself and so do we. She is laughing away and smiling all the time now!

However, I must say my daughter is a "DRAMA QUEEN" already. How can it be that a 3 1/2 months old and can be so dramatic. I could understand if she was to learn this drama queen style from her mother, but she is too young to have learned this so soon. Could this be in her DNA? Gosh, we are in trouble if she keeps this up. Everything needs to be done just so perfect for precious Brinlie and it needs to be done as quick as yesterday. Let's hope she grows out of this drama queen style and becomes a sweet little girl!! Fat chance...