Emarie's 2... 2 months!!!

mom's everywhere want to bottle time, because our babies need a pause button.  i can't believe this little bug-a-boo is 2 months old today!

5.26.11: 2 months

iphone pic, kinda blurry

on this monumental day i wanted to share her growth stats so far.  i just realized i need to include her 1 month stats too.  Here we go:

E @ 1 month:
height- 20 3/4 inches
weight- 9 pounds
head circumference- 14 inches

about 1 month old

E @ 2 months:
height- 22 1/8 inches
weight- 10 pounds 12 oz.
head circumference- 14 3/4 inches

her facial expressions are hilarious

how can she sleep like this?

with this wonderful 60th day of my babe's life came an AWFUL requirement... her first set of shots!  i totally held it together in the doctors office, and cried on the way home.  to see her face as she realizes she's just been pokes with a needle was the worst thing i've ever seen.  she cried so hard for 3 minutes that she fell asleep before we even got out of the room.  i immediate called my better half and requested he take her for her 4 month shots.

as i was putting her back into her carseat i whispered that i'd cuddle her all afternoon and i didn't care if she had another restless night because i felt terrible for her getting the shots.  they use cute bandaids, but who are they kidding.  a cute bandaid won't make a baby/kid feel better after they get poked.  ya know shots are an inevitable evil, but i guarantee you moms are stronger than dads when it comes to seeing their little angels cry.  if ryan does take E for her next shots, i put money on it that he cries too {wimp :)}.

she basically slept all afternoon and each time she woke up, poor baby cried out.  i think her legs are sore.  she's so tiny and if her legs hurt like my arms do after a shot, then she has every right to sleep all day.  lately she has really started to l.o.v.e. her baths, so we let her relax in the tub longer than usual tonight.  i wanted to end this blog with this picture... i am obsessed with this little girl.  she has my heart.

haha, her face says it all- she's in heaven

tara

holy tornado warning, batman

what an eventful day-before Emarie turns 2 months old!  a tornado warning in KC.  i've lived in the midwest almost all my life (short and heavenly hiatus in college while on a student exchange to Colorado, then a year in oregon), so this isn't my first {tornado} rodeo.  i haven't experienced bad weather as a mom though.  a friend put it best yesterday on fb, she said, "tornado's aren't cool when you have kids", and this is SO true.

today started pretty much like any other day, well except that ryan woke up on the couch, due to the weather last night.  the craziness started about 11:15ish with this loud beeping in my kitchen. i realized the 30 bucks i spent on an all-weather radio yesterday (yes, just yesterday) was notifying me of a tornado watch.  i turned on the news station and didn't see anything.  soon the new station had started giving warnings and information.  i was watching all these funnel clouds forming in south KC.  and i started calling ryan at work.  he didn't think it was so bad, but he agreed it'd be a good idea to get things together just in case (smart as a whip that one is).  BUT what kind of things... i've never done this.  do you strap a baby into their carseat, maybe you grab their diaper bag, how about extra clothes, food, a paci?  i don't know, all their possessions?  if i could have, i would have taken her entire pack-n-play to the basement.  not sure why, but i would have.  in the end, i only grabbed two pillows, a blanket, the dogs, and her diaper bag.  and her, strapped to my chest with the baby bjorn.  once i was sitting under the stairs and waiting for a loud train-like noise (that's what people always say it sounds like), i realized neither E or me had shoes on.  she was in a t-shirt, pants, and no socks for gosh sakes.  OMG!  if a tornado was to come, we were to survive it, we'd be screwed afterwards.  what kind of mother am i... a brand spankin' new one, i guess.

next thing i know, i hear the sirens going off and the radio upgraded the tornado to a warning.  thunder is crashing, the dogs are nervous; am i painting a good picture?  i even heard the trash/recycle truck go down the street.  (and people say some city workers are lazy, ha, not the ones here).  i've actually never gone to a basement to take cover from a tornado.  we didn't have basements in OK, just a closet under the stairs, a bath tub, or in the hallway, if you were unlucky enough to be in Mrs. Jamison's first grade class at Peters Elementary in 1986-87.  why did mother nature brew up a tornado today, while my husband was at work.  doesn't she know i need help here.

obviously we are okay since i'm blogging about it, but there are people all over MO, KS, OK, and AR that are not as lucky as we are.  my heart goes out to the people that are rebuilding, mourning the loss of a loved one, and all the volunteers that are still looking for survivors.

with E turning 2 months tomorrow, i documented this nerve-racking event so she can appreciate chuckle at my parenting skills later on.  our family is thankful for our safety and we are thinking and praying for those people that have been affected by the devastating midwest weather these past few days. (some pics were taken on the iphone and aren't that good)

scary clouds from my back door

from my front door

closer up from my back door

here we are, taking cover

yes, i strapped my kid to my chest

under the stairs to the basement

not sure how safe we really would have been...

tara

this is a BIG DEAL!!!

so as i sit and drink my morning coffee {fully loaded :)}, listening to the dishwasher run, watch E in her swing, and see the neighbor's dog poke his head through the already broken screen door, i have to say, this is shaping up to be a GREAT DAY!  it actually started last night {mom's will know what i mean}, E went down after her now routine bath at 8:30pm and {Hallelujah} slept until 1:37am, to be exact!  for those mathematically challenged, like myself, that's 5, count them, F.I.V.E. hours!!! and if you thought it couldn't get any better, she fell right back asleep after eating until about 5:15am.  another good stretch.  figuring she'd be up for the day i braced myself to get up.  all of a sudden i realize my neck is killing me.  i've slept wrong and now with each turn of my head i'm in a lot of PAIN.  darn you temper-pedic-pillow-top-mattress-thing-that's-supposed-to-be-awesome, you stink!  but ryan loves you.  i digress, struggling through the neck pain and feeding a baby was tough.  i even lashed out at ryan...oops.  can i get a free pass, i was {still am} in pain?  after E was done eating, i thought, lets see if she will go back down.  wrapping her back in her swaddling blanket and laying her back in her pack-n-play, i tip-toed slowing back to bed... she stayed still. no squirming, grunting, or crying.  again, this perfect {so far today} baby fell back asleep.  THANK YOU JESUS!!!  {side note: thank you also for not letting today be the end of the world}.

she woke up about an hour and a half later, but that was fine with me.  now, i'm rip-roaring-and-ready-to-go.  i sincerely hope this will become a regular occurrence.  it's a happy saturday at this house.

my life with baby...and other issues

melt-down mania... that's what happened at my house last night.  and the melt-down didn't happen to our 7 week old- it was ME!  bless ryan's soul for loving the crazy side of me.  i am the kind of person that appears to have her business in order ALL the time, however, like many women, i do not.  i do great {almost} all the time, but last night was one of those nights.  i talk everything, i mean everything, out with ryan (again bless is soul), and it helps, but it also makes me realize how not-level headed-i-am.  i get so anxious about the most random things and sometimes i feel like i need to go on one of those retreat workshops on how to say no (some of you reading this will know i'm a big people pleaser and some of you have even talked to me about the lack of strength in my backbone).  so this post doesn't get out of control, i'm not going to have a personal therapy session on here.  some of you might know exactly how i feel, but i'm deciding to take my {flaws} and turn them into {quirks}.  i might be a softy or not able to say no, or scared to disappoint people, but maybe, just maybe, that means i have a huge heart!  and not someone without a backbone.  it's all how you look at yourself, right.  

ok, so my baby update.  emarie is a great kid.  i'm sure that's what all parents say.  so the real story is that i don't have her on a schedule just yet.  to all of you "baby-wise parents" try to keep your advice to a minimum, i'm not a follower.  i believe all kids are unique and i'm going to parent by doing what {works} for my family.  if you have some friendly advice, i'm all ears.  here's how it's going in my world:  emarie eats, plays (and by plays, i mean looks around, kicks her legs a bit, or tries to crawl up my chest), and sleeps.  pretty normal.  since she's almost 2 months old, i thought now is a good time to try to implement the dreaded schedule...muuuuaaaahhhhaaaahhhaaa (evil laugh)!!! so starting two days ago, we started our routine bath and bedtime activities.  i start slow.  thank you, mandy kraft, for telling how this changed your life.  i hope it, too, changes mine :)!  emarie gets a bath every night at 7 (haha, well really sometime between 7 & 8, see i told you i start slow), then a good lotion rub with j&j's lavender lotion (sorry aveeno, you gave emarie a rash), and then some food, and a good rock in the rocking chair. it's been exciting to see if i notice any changes... so far, no.  but i'm hopeful i will over time.  it's only been 2 days, right.  i couldn't get any of this done without ryan.  he's not big on giving the baths. sometimes emarie doesn't like it and her daddy can't bear to see her cry.  he's there for the grand finale with a warm towel just out of the dryer (thank you for this idea, heidi).  if it were up to her, the lotion step would be dropped.  she doesn't really like that part either.  come to think of it,  she really just likes the eating and rocking parts.  

we also took up swaddling again.  i think there is something to this part of baby wise.  emarie does seem to calm down, sleep heavier and longer when she's all wrapped up like a little papoose (i'm indian, so i can use this term).  i stopped because she seemed to like being "free" and i didn't want to fight her or over-heat her.  live and learn.   it seems to work, for now.  

lastly, i took christian's advice about the Playtex VentAire bottles.  $5.09 at walmart (that's with tax) compared to the ones i registered for at $11.99 each (eckum...tommy tippee) that drown her.  some "slow flow" nipples aren't really slow flow.  the Playtex bottles have my endorsement... for whatever it's worth.    

now, the things i love: watching emarie sleep, this is when she practices her smiles.  she also looks at the same things over and over, but each time it's like she's seeing it for the very first time.  the fan is probably her favorite.  hearing her toot.  it's so loud for a tiny creature, and i giggle each time she does it.  mature, huh.  this love of the simple things makes me realize my {other issues} don't really matter.  my family is what matters.   

{this is what matters}

with all the advice, it really does take a village to raise a child.  thanks! 

Tara