Please HELP!

Ok so we all know my girl Lo is a TERRIBLE sleeper!! But she is getting better at night...at least now we are up to 8-9 hours straight. Unfortunately this is b/w 630pm-330am/4ooam. I SERIOUSLY do not mind this at all, yeah, sure I wish she went to bed a little later ie 730/8oopm, but I will take it! Our bedtime routine and the fact that she is nearing 6 months is working like a charm (everyone please take this moment to knock on wood!).

Anyway it is NAP HELP I require! It doesn't really matter where I put her for naps (ie swing or her bed) neither really does the trick for longer than 30-40 minutes. I am trying to transition her out of the swing and to her bed for obvious reasons. I even put up black out curtains in her room to make it darker for nap time thinking that would work...so far no luck!

I REALLY REALLY need some suggestions! And I REALLY REALLY need her to nap better. It is important for several reasons
1. My/Chad's sanity
2. Her health (poor sleep habits, poor health status...)
3. So she can be the happy fun baby we know she is deep inside and so we can enjoy that happy fun baby!

Thanks in advance for making this face happy all the time!

Mommy's BIG little Helper!

This my BIG little helper. She loves to watch me work and now that the cast is off we can sit in our bumbo again! (not that we need it anymore, since we can sit up BIG girl now...but it just isn't safe for me to sit her on the counter while I work!)

Here she is (pre-broken leg) helping me do laundry on the 4th!

Helping me put away the dishes and clean the kitchen

Off to do some grocery shopping!
Look how happy I am to help!

This has been the BIGGEST help of them all, because our carseat didn't fit up top so we always had to put her carseat in the basket...needless to say you can't get more than a handful of groceries that way! So if we needed more than just milk, she either stayed at home with daddy or daddy would push her around in her stroller. Now I can feel free to go shopping with or without Chad's help and fill the basket FULL! :)

And now I leave you with a picture of my darling daughter! Some days I can't get over how cute she is!

I am 23 weeks old today and cast free!!!

Adventures in...

Babysitting

This past week I have been going over to my sister's house to "babysit" her and Landrey. My poor sister has "thrown her back out" for lack of a better description, mostly because we do not know yet what is wrong?!?! You can read about her troubles here if you want too. We have been having some great times. Of course, Lo is a little disappointed that when she is up and ready to play L. Jo is down sleeping and vice versa. They usually only overlap for breif moments. But here are a few fun shots of their "playdates."

Playing in Landrey's play gym! I am just so impressed with how good Lo can sit up at 5 months!
Daddy dressed her in the morning, obviously no one told him red and pink don't match!

Landrey is learning to roll over, but not yet too excited to be on her tummy!

Cast Removal

On Wednesday we got baby girl's cast off!! I can not tell you how excited I/we are! It was weird though being back in the doctor's office, it truly felt like we were JUST there, and in a way were (2.5 weeks ago). We both were hoping and anxious to hear if the cast would indeed come off. We felt like it would since just this past week she has been lifting her cast leg high in the air and kicking us with it! :) (Let me tell you that felt so nice during our 3AM when I was changing her diaper!) So to us that was a GOOD sign that healing had occurred!

The X-rays showed new bone growth and the Dr. said the cast could come off! Only because she was not yet mobile, otherwise it would have to stay on...I guess the bone is still healing and "weak" so only she is allowed to put weight and movement on it, we aren't allowed to just stand her up on it. But that is ok as long as the cast is OFF!

So next up is actually taking the cast off. Now for those of you who have never experience this they use an electric saw to cut it off...and this saw freaks out the young and old! I remember when I was 15 with a broken leg scared to let them cut off my cast, because I was just sure the were about to cut my leg off!! Anyway, as we waited a 12 year old boy was getting his casts off and that buzzing sound FREAKED Lo out! (Honestly, because she was so little I really didn't expect her to get upset since she is not at the age of understanding...oh how wrong I was!!!) She and I had to leave the room while the saw was going, she just screamed and cried. Then, it was OUR turn! Let's just say she cried less when she actually broke her leg, she doesn't even cry this hard and loud when she gets shots! As she sat in my lap crying out in bloody murder my heart was breaking. If it wasn't for the fact that I was being "brave" for her I think I too would have broke down. No parent should have to listen to their child cry like that!

Here we are finally cast free and happy! (A little before and after if you will, notice we FINALLY can wear our "spanky" pants again!!!) :)
We go back in 6 months to make sure growth plates and everything are still growing properly.


Thank you to all who prayed for Lo and us during this time. And we would appreciate your prayers for my sister as she is hurting and has a 3.5 month baby to tend to herself. It is hard on her (and any mother) to feel as though they can't take care of their baby.

Takin' a Stroll

Look at how big girl my little girl is getting! She is sitting up so good now, we decided to let her face out in her stroller and she loves it! I hate it! I can't see her and smile at her or talk to her while we are on our walks! :( I just can't believe how more and more grown up and independent she is getting! Seriously where is the time going, I just gave birth to her yesterday (so it seems).

It has been awhile since we have been on a walk so we all were a bit excited, first night in weeks it hasn't been melt your skin off hot!

Here we are ready to go!
"Let's get this show on the road mom!"

Here is my TErRibLe view :(
While you can't see it, she is all smiles, and I am all frowns.

At one point she decided she did not want to wear the hat, to bad it wasn't her choice.

Home again!
"So, that was it?! I could get use to this."
Look at that little personality, foot propped up, shades pulled down...diva, perhaps?!

This is just to show you how well she is sitting up on her own! We totally skipped the tripod stage.
She will just sit there for quite some time.
Such a good mommy letting her play with the diaper cream :)

Note: No baby was harmed while taking this picture :) Chad was taking the picture and I was off to the side ready to catch her if need be.

5 months old!

Today my little baby girl is 5 months old! She has changed and grown so much. I find myself going back and looking at all her newborn pics and wondering when and how she grew up without me really seeing it! Part of me misses that little bundle of tininess, but most of me loves each and every new stage and age that comes! She gets more and more fun every single day, and I feel truly blessed to be her mother and stay at home with her. THANK YOU CHAD!

on our way home from the hospital
she truly was our little bundle of tininess, not so much anymore

5 month happenings:
reader beware: another LONG post

Activities:
*she has discovered her feet, she is not yet sucking on her toes or anything, but she loves to grab and play with her feet.


*she is starting to reach for me and her daddy (and the dogs)! That is enough to melt your heart. When ever I walk by her exersaucer and she is done she reaches her hands up for me or daddy to get her out. Also, when other people are holding her she will reach out for me to get her.

Here she is petting Toby. He is the only dog that will let that happen!

*she is starting to have some real belly laughs, and I think I have found a few ticklish spots! She just laughs so loud and hard it just makes my day every time I hear it.

*she also will give you the BIGGEST smiles when she sees me or her daddy, she is finally starting to turn into our happy baby girl we always knew she was!!!


*she is also getting more vocal, she is especially talkative in church! :) Therefore, we spend most of the service in the lobby.

*likes to roll and wriggle out of your arms or wherever she is.

One day she was on her changing table and her musical elephant was behind her playing...I turned around to grab her clothes and when I turned back around she had leaned back and grabbed it and brought it to herself. I couldn't believe it! I think at that moment I realized how big she truly was getting.

*sitting up on own for 20-30 secs (of course, while I thought she was close to this feat, I am not sure how big of a roll her cast is playing in keeping her propped up?!?!)

*She is just really getting into all of her toys now she can sit in her play gym for quite sometime and just really focuses on getting her toys.

Focusing very intently...I am always in awe of how they need to learn and figure out EVERYTHING!
We put the boppy around her to "catch" her when she tips over, otherwise she sits there for quite sometime playing.

I like to call this the Baby Lazy Boy
Sometimes when we are done sitting we like to scoot down and relax from all the hard work! ;)

*she pretty much wants everything you have whether it be your food, the phone, or a magazine...she wants it all and wants it in her mouth!

*I think she is starting to recognize her name?!?! or at least she starts to look around when we call her.

"Hey mom, what are you doing back there?!"

*she does everything with her left hand...do we have another lefty in our midst?

Eating:
*started her on rice cereal in hopes it would help her sleep through the night...no such luck. Also, have been giving her some mashed up banana, and applesauce. She seems to really like all these so far, of course the banana and her digestive system don't seem to like each other. ;)

*we are down to 6-7 nursings a day!! This is HUGE for me because I finally feel like I am not nursing all the time! I actually can go places with her and not worry about having to stop to nurse!

*she is also at the stage where she gets easily distracted while nursing, sometimes we are more interested in the world around us then nursing. So the days of nursing with a cover on are long gone.

*she is starting to say "mmmm ba" and we think it means "good milk" or "mommy" which is pretty much synonymous. :) She only really says it when it is practically time to feed again, coincidence?!? or genius?!?!


Sleeping:
*needless to say she is STILL not really sleeping through the night!
Bedtime is around 730pm (and she knows it!) She gets really fussy around this time of night and knows she needs to go to bed, so sadly it is hard for us to leave the house and be out during that time. She wakes up after 4-5 hours and I usually let her cry it out for a bit and 90% of the time she will fall back to sleep for a few more hours. Either way 7-8 hours is where she maxes out before she demands to be nursed! (this occurs around 230AM!) Then she goes back to bed for another 3-4 hours and is usually up by 730am the next morning.

*she now rolls over onto her tummy in her crib at night and falling asleep that way.


*napping is more consistent in the fact that she takes them about the same time everyday. But for how long is such a mystery. She had been starting to roll out of her swing, so we moved her to her bed...naps decreased to 40 minutes ARRGGG! Now we moved her back to her swing and buckle her in and they are back up to 1-1.5 hours! Don't get it, but I do what works!!

*she also does this cute little rub her eye thing that Chad and I jump on and get her to a nap spot, which usually makes nap time less of a battle.

I know another LONG montly update, but I just think everything she does is just so cute and worth remembering! Trust me if you only knew what I wanted to say and didn't! :)

happy 5 months baby girl
I LOVE YOU!

My Little Pony

Every little girl needs a pony, maybe one day she will get a real pony, but for now this one shall do.

Leighton riding her pony...Princess Buttercup

My poor baby

On Sunday, Chad was coming down the stairs with Lo and slid down the last 4 steps with Lo. While he did his VERY BEST to protect her, her left leg must have got caught in the mix, causing it to fracture her femur. Chad is just SO UPSET that he hurt his little girl, but it was an accident and it happens to the BEST of parents!!
We weren't sure it was broken because while she cried and was upset she could be soothed, (according to my Baby 411 book , broken bones cause lots of pain and you can't soothe your child) however we kept watching her and realized she would NOT stand at all and would "flamingo" her left leg, she also kicked her right leg tons, but refused to move the left.

Here we are at the site of the accident doing the "flamingo".
As you can see I thought it was funny...a few hours later when the results
came back I DID NOT think it was so funny!!!

This struck us as weird, so we called the doctor first thing Monday morning! Of course, our doc was not in the office, so they worked us in with another doc. I was honestly expecting them to say "she sprained it, if it isn't better in a few days come back." Well, instead they took x-rays to be safe...again not expecting it to be broken...the doc comes back and says he thinks it is fractured, but can't be for certain since baby legs are hard to read! They sent the x-rays to radiology to read.

At 1:00pm Monday the doc called and said IT WAS FRACTURED! To head to the pediatric orthopedic doc and get it casted! He also said to be prepared for the possibility of surgery if she didn't have enough leg to cast! We were a little taken back and nervous...but she handled all of it like a trooper! You wouldn't even know she had a broken leg. She talked up a storm and giggled and was happy through our 2 HOUR wait at the orthopedic office!!! She even did great while they casted her leg!

Here Chad and Lo are waiting and waiting...
but she was SUPER GOOD!

Here the Dr. is finishing up the cast! (thankfully, no surgery!!)
It was surprisingly a quick process.
Now I have had my fair share of broken bones, but didn't remember it going this fast!
(Mommy broke her leg when she was 18 months...so it is a family tradition?!?! I guess)

Isn't the pink pretty!

Now she is home and NOT RESTING! I think she is super uncomfortable. You would think after being up practically all day she would crash. I just ask for prayers that she would find rest and comfort. We would gladly trade places with her!

Here she is playing, "talking" and being happy!
This cast may help her sit up soon, it almost acts as a kick stand to hold her up!
The "silver lining" if you will!

Finally, we go back in 2.5 weeks to re x-ray and remove the cast, provided it has healed! Thankfully babies are MUCH quicker healers than adults!

Baby's First 4th!

The 4th is probably THE biggest holiday we celebrate in my family. It just a fun holiday to celebrate plus it is a great way to honor my sisters' and celebrate their birthdays! They both were born on the 8th, 7 years apart, but we never celebrate on their actual birthday!

Pictures are worth a thousands words, so here our whirlwind of a day. Two babies, five dogs, and seven adults later!

Everyone in their 4th outfits!

L.Jo and Lo in their matching outfits!
Their bibs say "Baby's 1st Fourth!"


Going to buy fireworks!
Every year we buy fireworks from the Newton Christian School stand!
Our babies should make the yearbook as their youngest customers!!

Happy 25th Melissa!

Happy 18th Meg!
I can't believe she is 18!!! She is growing up SO FAST!

Birthday Photo
Of course Lo and I sneaked in the back! Hehehe
PRESENTS!


I played a "Deal or No Deal" game with Meg!
She eventually won what she wanted:
Us to take her to HP6!
(it's a tradition we've taken her to see all the HP movies since she was 10!!! now she is 18! HEAVY SIGH!)
This is what she got from my parents for her 18th birthday!
Misa and Lo outside enjoying the air.
This is all of the festivities she enjoyed since once the fun began she went to bed!


L.Jo took a good nap, so she was up to enjoy the fun for a bit!

We were watching the Newton Fireworks to end the evening!

Happy 4th Everyone!