3 MONTHS!

Hello All!

Molly is officially no longer a newborn. I am sad and excited all at the same time. I can't wait to learn more about her little personality, but I know she will be a year old before we blink!

She makes us laugh everyday and she is constantly laughing and smiling herself! We love it!

She is eating about 6oz every 3-4 hours and sleeping anywhere between 9-11 hours and sometimes even 12! But, most of the time she gets up {or may be already up} when she hears her Daddy's alarm at the dreaded 5:30am. :( But, that's okay she eats and usually falls back asleep for an hour or so! But, on the weekends she is our little wake up alarm! She is wearing mainly 3 months and at night her pajamas are 0-3 months. She has started wearing the big girl sleeping blanket instead of the swaddle...she was getting too long for the newborn swaddle!

Molly loves....

• the TV! that child will even turn her head while eating to watch the television. it is a horrible habit, but sometimes it even gets her asleep. as soon as she is interested in the 23,949 toys i bring out to play with there will be less and less tv. 
• her Daddy! he swears she doesn't like him, but he never notices her smiling at him when i am holding her and he is doing something as simple as looking at his phone or watching tv. 
• smiling and laughing! i can say anything in a exciting voice and she smiles away. or changing her diaper she just starts to laugh and laugh.
• her voice! before she gets really upset because she is hungry, needs a diaper change, or is bored she starts 'talking.' she has really found her voice and that is how we hear her in the morning. rarely does she wake up and start crying! {counting my blessings}
• squealing. she has got really into squealing lately, but it goes hand and hand with 'i'm hungry' and feed me before the tears start flowing. 

Molly does not like......

• loud noises! both arms go up and legs get stretched. she is used to Riley barking, but any other loud noise startles her. watching football last Saturday she cried for a few seconds after both Tyler and I yelled during the game. 
• putting on her long sleeve pajamas at night. it may be because she is sleepy but the 'face' where her lip pouts and you know the crying is coming always begins when we put on our pajamas. 

Other than that... she is a pretty tough girl. We had our first couch incident. She was laying on her back next to me on the couch- which she loves, but she scoots now on her back and she scooted herself all the way to the edge with her head closest to the end of the couch. And, I turned around for a second and next thing I know our little gymnast in training did a back flip off the couch! THANK GOD she didn't hit the coffee table {she was like half an inch away from it} and cried for maybe 30 seconds and was back to laughing. I think she was pretty proud of herself. 

Other than that she does something new to impress us every day. The other day she took her sunglasses off before our walk. It was so cute... she was not into wearing them. 

We are ALL very excited (including Riley) to be able to introduce Molly to everyone over Christmas break. It's going to be a long drive and I am not sure how it's going to work with an almost 4 month old baby, but we are going to get to Columbia, SC somehow or another even if I haven't slept for 48 hours or if I have to sit in the back with Molly and Riley the whole time! If you noticed I said Christmas break not moving home over Christmas. That's right, Tyler is not deploying {for now}! Yay! It's such a blessing and he's going to be able to see Molly reach so many milestones. But, we are a little bit sad about not moving home. Although, I'd take living in El Paso one more year if it meant Tyler stays home stateside. TRUST ME. Nothing could replace that or even be better than that other then him getting out of the Army and us all moving home! 

pumpkin patch!

someone is getting very sleepy!

someone got their very first package in the mail! 

i just fell off the couch

intensely watching Cinderella

hmmmm

3 months!

Two Month update AND WE SURVIVED....

Hello All!

Wow, I can't believe it's been two months already AND Molly's parents both turned the big 3-0 in those two months!

This will probably be short and sweet and a quick photo dump! Molly is napping and has been for about an hour and a half, which is rare these days and I am convinced she will wake up at any moment. She HATES going down for a nap. Unless, of course, it's in my arms then she would sleep all day! She fights them so bad and then gets uber cranky when she doesn't. Some days she will only have a few 20-30 minute naps. It's pretty frustrating. Which, also means I have no intention of waking her up to get a cute 2 month old picture! It probably doesn't help that she has had a stuffy nose for a few weeks. We went to the doctor, but she was fine. She just needed some eye drops for blocked tear duct and some face cream because of some blemishes. Otherwise, we just suck the snot out, keep the cool mist humidifier on, and hope for the best. She has started sleeping great at night. She even slept 10:30-6:30 {I had to wake her up because we had to be somewhere}. And every night after she has done well, but the past three nights I have woken her up around 4-5 because I just hate hearing her try to breathe and hear all the snot in nose. How frustrating to not be able to blow your nose!? But after I get the snot out and feed her she will do down for another four hours or so. That's the good news!

But, the second month has been rougher than the first... for sure. She gets super irritable around 5/6ish. Which was definitely hard this last month because Tyler was in the field for a WHOLE MONTH! Luckily my sister in law and mom came for two of those weeks, but still 4-5 days all by yourself with a dog and a newborn is HARD and NOT FUN. I have always respected single mothers, but now I would bow at their feet. I don't care if your child is 2 months or 12 years, it's HARD! And it's even harder when your family is 1600 miles away. There were moments where I just wanted to give up and put me, Riley, and Molly in the car and drive to South Carolina. Sorry dear, but we'll be back in a few weeks! You have no idea how happy I was to have to wake Molly up at 6:30am to go pick up Daddy! But, now we are back to a snotty  nose and even though she will probably sleep through the night I can't let her sleep try to breathe through her nose and hear all that snot!

We recently upped her bottles to 5oz. She would eat 4oz then an hour or two later be hungry for more! But the good stuff... she's smiling! She's pretty happy the majority of the time except when she is over tired from no nap. But, she will smile away especially in response to our smile! She can hold her head up pretty good on her own for short periods and she has found her hands when sitting in her bumbo chair (with my support). She isn't quite sure what to do with them yet, but we'll get there. She isn't fond of tummy time yet ,but loves to lay on her play mat and stare at the lights. She has had a few moments where she looks like she is trying to roll over, but isn't positive if she is supposed {at least that's what I think}. But, her most favorite thing and I am probably a horrible mother for letting her do this... but she LOVES the TV. She will stare for hours. She likes watching from her monkey chair, when she has had enough of play mat she looks up at the tv, or she will sit in my lap and just watch.

She is growing every day.. I do not have any stats yet because our doctor appointment is Thursday {first set of shots ekkkk}. Tyler was shocked about how much she had grown. About two weeks ago when she went to the doctor for her stuffy nose she was weighing in at 9.12 oz! Now, that life is somewhat back to normal I should have more exciting pictures and stories! But, for now ... photos....

she has grown to love the bath. her favorite is having water poured on her!

a rare moment of her practicing from tummy time!

her Dad picked out this dress before she was born! so sweet. 

break.down.

happy Molly!

she loves this chair!

i HATE seeing this face!

i have a fear something is going to slip up over her nose and mouth so i took this picture to send to my Mom so she could assure me she looked safe! 

Daddy is home! YES, I put socks on her before we left the house!

still a little too small for the million smocked dresses we have, but i am trying to get her to wear all her 3 month summer outfits before is way too cold! 

MBA 1 Month

Hello All!

I apologize I am a week late on Molly's one month check-in :) But, I have been a bit busy! When Molly goes down for a nap I have three choices - 1) get work done around the house 2) take a nap 3) or get on the computer and write a blog post. Number two usually wins, but sometimes I will get some housework done!
Molly is doing great and we are so smitten with her. We are pretty sure she is the cutest baby there is, but we are her parents!

She is officially eating up to 3-4 oz and we recently made this change. Sometimes she will take down 4 oz easy! We are still formula and breastfeeding which, for me, is working best. I had my first over protective Mother moment and took her to the doctor on Saturday morning because I was sure she was having retractions while she was sleeping, had a cough, and wheezing. Turns out, she's just fine! I was also able to get her current weight and this girl weighs 8.3 lbs! Yay! She is gaining weight back well! She is sleeping 3-4 hours at a time with her longest stretch being at the beginning of the night when I first put her down. After that she will go 2.5-3 hours or so until we decide to finally get up anywhere between 7am-9am. Sometimes, she will go back to sleep with me after her 7 am feeding. I will put her in the bed with me and we get a little bit more shut eye. But, sometimes she is up and ready to go! She is still wearing newborn sizes and 0-3 months. Hopefully she grows a little more because I have a TON of smocked outfits ready and waiting in her closest, but they are all just a tad too big!

She has a very strong grip and loves watching anyone and everyone on the computer. She will stare at the computer screen forever! We give her a little bit of tummy time on her play mat and she seems to like it for the first few minutes. She is working on lifting her head and she is getting practice while laying on our chest. She will take a paci {sometimes}, but she isn't attached to it which, I think may be a good thing until she is then we have to worry about weaning her off eventually.

Well, here is a photo dump of some pictures from her first month.... WARNING overload!!

This is the best I could do...she was hesitant about growing older... I'm convinced. 

we are going to check the mail. 

holding the mail for me on the way to the mailbox! she's a good helper!

She is growing attached to this lovey and will hold onto while sleeping {sometimes}

first bath after her cord fell off! 

she is taking a nap in her Daddy's spot while he is at work! shhhh...

meeting her Grandpa for the first time!! 

she LOVES her swing her cousin Tiffany got her! 

go Gamecocks! 

she is quickly becoming a Daddy's girl {which is perfectly okay with me!}

i told her this how cranky her Daddy gets when he really hungry too. 

i LOVE this denim dress her Mimi made for her.

Mister Mom. 

2 weeks! {or 16 days}

Hello!

Molly is officially 2 weeks old {well, she is 16 days old today, but I am late on the blog writing}.

This is definitely one of my most favorite pictures, so far.... This dress is just something I picked up from Carter's {we live 2 minutes from the outlet} But, it's SO CUTE. 

Well, we left the hospital on Thursday August 22nd and that was the day both of our Mom's happen to be flying into town {thank goodness}! We left the hospital and I was so tired I didn't really have time to think about the fact that the hospital just sent me home with a new life to keep alive take care of all by ourselves. We got home and Molly and I immediately took a nap together while Tyler and his Mom did some grocery shopping. I got up feeling refreshed and ready for motherhood-- HAHA. That first night was crazy! She wouldn't sleep {little did I know what things I needed to try in order for her to sleep}. She finally fell asleep around 2am until about 5am. Then back to sleep until 7am. I called my Mom in tears telling her to come over, help, and I needed a nap. haha! That Friday I slept for four hours and got up once in between to nurse. That day was pretty much a blur. We've made HUGE strides since then and I must say I am pretty proud of myself! I am not sure what new mothers would do without the help of their Mothers {the Grandmothers}. 

Molly then had her first visit to the doctors office. The doctors visit was my first scare as a Mother. We took her in thinking everything was fine. When they weighed her she weighed 6.3 lbs! She was 7.5 lbs at birth. We all know babies lose some weight in the first few days of life, but over a pound was too much. She was also jaundice. The doctor suggested I start supplementing with formula because my milk wasn't coming in fast enough and I wasn't really producing enough. We started supplementing right away and it's seemed to have worked. Our doctor also called us on Sunday to come in {her first appointment was on a Saturday} to check her again- talk about my heart stopping! Why is the pediatrician calling me on a Sunday! But, it was for the best. She always gets the breast first then the formula unless I have pumped for some reason. I still don't produce a whole lot of milk and for now, I am happy with the breast and formula combination. We had to see the doctor five times. Today was the fifth time and she is up to 7 lbs! yay! The doctor said we are doing everything right and her color looks great. We didn't even have to get blood drawn today to check her bilirubin score! 

Other than the weight/jaundice issue she is doing great. My milk supply isn't great, but I feel good about giving her what I have because any breast milk is better than no breast milk at all. She is definitely growing because we are breastfeeding and she is then downing about 2 ounces of formula! Molly is eating about every 2-3 hours and sleeping around 3-4 hours a night. As much as I complain about sleeping, she really is a good sleeper. We are slowly getting into a routine and her last feeding before bed is around 11pm, we burp, and then she gets rocked to sleep. She is usually asleep between 11 and 12, gets up around 2-3am, and back to bed until about 7am. I am getting used to it and starting to enjoying our 3am feedings together. I know these moments won't last forever. Soon, she will never want to cuddle in the middle of the night! 

Molly is looking all around. She sometimes looks like she is focusing hard on certain objects. The ceiling fan in the living room is a big focus for her. She also keeps an eye on the pictures that are on our wall in the living room. She has so much personality already. She is such a good baby! When we take her out in the car seat she is silent! The only time she cried was once on the way home because she needed to be changed. We are so lucky {hope I just didn't jinx us}. Sometimes she cries and just prefers to be held, but not all the time. She likes the paci, but isn't addicted... she can go without. She LOVES to sleep in her boppy lounger. I have no idea what we will do when she outgrows it!! 

Everyone is getting used to the changes including Molly. We are very excited to watch her grow. She has even changed so much since she came home from the hospital!

I hope I am not forgetting anything...she is up and ready to be fed as we speak! Tyler goes back to work on Monday and Mimi and Grammie have left. It's just me and her..... keep your fingers crossed for us ;) 

picture dump...

Not a big fan of diaper changing

Mom thought I was a boy at first... so I have a few blue onesies. Thank goodness Mimi was able to add some embroidery to make them more girly!