London Claire is Eight Months

My My My, what a big month it's been for our girl - and for us! With every milestone comes a new set of a challenges, and I am so thrilled to be able to face them all full-time as her mommy starting next month. Her personality is really starting to flourish these days and she is such a joy to be around. She loves to entertain herself and anyone else who will give her the time of day (which is everyone - how could you not pay attention to this kid?!). She definitely keeps Ben & I laughing and as sweet and funny as she is, she grows more and more beautiful every day. We are so blessed with the perfect baby for us!

One thing I'd like your help on - we are looking for a new soft carrier. She has always done so well in the baby bjorn but girlfriend is HEAVY. So we need something new. Preferably something that goes back and front and allows a pretty high (45lbs?) weight limit. I'd love your suggestions on carriers that do / do not work well for older babies.

Age: Eight Months
Height: Still Unknown. Mom Fail.
Weight: 18lbs 14oz as of last week
Hair: Ashleigh is insisting I let her cut the back. She has these strands in the middle of the back of her head that never fell out and they're pretty terrible. Thoughts on haircuts before a year? I never thought I would care, but it makes me a little sad to think about!
Eyes: No change. Can I take this one off yet? Moms whose babies' eyes changed color: how late did it happen?

killin' me with those eyes, kid

Favorite Outfit: My cousin Daniel bought her these jammies for Christmas that have mop-like attachments on them. Now that she's CRAWLING (?!?!?!), they were perfect. Get her started on house chores early!
Sleep: Cold + Teething meant she started waking up around 5 to eat. I gave in, because I knew her congestion wasn't allowing her to eat as much during the day. So our norm now is putting her down at 7:30 or close to, feed sometimes between 4:30 - 5:30 (sometimes as late as 6) then back to sleep for an hour or two. Of course I wrote this yesterday, then last night she slept 7:45 to 6:45. Praises!! Napping is still not great, but she always naps in the car, and I actually got her to nap in her crib yesterday so we're making progress. Really hoping I can get her on a solid nap schedule once I'm home. Wishful thinking, probably.
Eating: Oh my. This girl loves. to. eat. I can't imagine where she gets it from (ha ha!). She still adores cottage cheese, and we use animal crackers to keep her occupied during church, etc. She was eating strawberries last night and couldn't get enough - was grunting and slamming her high chair tray because Ben wasn't cutting them fast enough for her liking. She loves dill pickles and has recently tried turkey bacon, chicken, limes, mandarin oranges (she ate an entire can at dinner the other night. word to the wise, they don't fully digest), pancakes, refried beans, tater tots, hush puppies ... pretty much anything we eat. We're so blessed she's a good eater!

eating pumpkin bread at school

Illness: After a two-week cold, I finally took her in to find out she has another mild ear infection. So we're back on antibiotics, but hopefully getting her out of daycare will prevent many more of them. She never ran a fever and never acted like her ears were bothering her, but had a consistently runny nose and was up all night coughing, poor baby.

she entertained everyone at the pediatrician

Development: She got her first tooth last week, but does not want me to see it. She runs her tongue along her gums from time to time, and I can feel its little sharpness cutting through (not too bad when it comes to nursing yet, thank goodness). She loves to clap, especially for herself (after crawling, while looking at pictures of herself, etc). She's starting working on "B" sounds and talks all. the. time. Again, don't know where she gets that from!
Movement: Crawling! It's a funny little wobbly crawl but I definitely think it counts. It gets her where she needs to go, that's for sure - she's into everything, overnight. Opening drawers, pulling things down / over, we have to watch her constantly. And she can get from laying down to sitting now, which means when she wakes up she sits straight up in her crib and often times stares into the monitor and yells at us. Not awesome. She loves to walk / stand, and jumps ALL the time!

Favorite Toy: This giraffe thing. No one really knows what animal it is, but this is pretty much the exact one we have and she adores it. So much so that I had it line-drying (he was a spit-up victim) in the kitchen while I was feeding her dinner and she started freaking out when she saw it. It attaches to her wrist or a stroller / high chair, has a mirror and other hard discs for her to chew on, and has a crunchy neck, soft nose, all those good things babies like. Bright Starts has a lot of great baby toys she likes, as does Sassy.
Funniest Habit: She crawls a few steps, then claps for herself. Clapping is pretty much her favorite thing. Honestly, it warms my heart because it means we're giving her so much praise and encouragement that she does it for herself - I hope she never stops being proud of her accomplishments!
Best Moment of Last Week: Learning how to crawl, of course. She celebrated her first Valentine's Day and looked adorable as always, wearing a shirt from her best friend Estie Jo. No major events, but she makes us smile every day.

her shirt says "born to break hearts"

Trials and Tribulations, London Claire style

I'd like to promise that I won't update you on London more than once a month but whatever, that's a lie, and I don't want to lie to y'all.

So here's what's up: we are having a time of it. I hate to ask for prayer for such seemingly trivial things like baby sniffles, but this prayer isn't for ME, it's for the BABY ... so it's ok, right? Don't get me wrong, I personally don't mind asking God to help with seemingly trivial things, I just hate to burden other people to ask Him for my trivial things when they could have very big things to ask Him for ... or their own trivial things. Whatever. But I know His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Did you follow all that?

London is sick. Currently, she's snoring on the couch next to me, because she's so congested she can hardly breathe. It's depressing. Almost as depressing as her greasy Donald Trump comb-over hair. Looks like mommy needs to give daddy a lesson in bath time, am I right?

But I digress ... the child has been congested for what feels like weeks. I get it, she's in daycare, she's going to get sick. We humidify. We saline-ate. We snot-suck. And the congestion continues. The past few mornings, she's thrown up after she eats "breakfast" (AKA boobie milk). And she started coughing, but I wasn't really sure if it was a real cough or if she was just coughing because she figured out how and it amuses her. The kid is adorable, what can I say? Anyway, yesterday, she was running a low-grade fever, and that was about enough for me. Since I couldn't send her to school anyway, we went to see Dr. Seidel. Ears are good, chest is good, yadda yadda just a cold. I admit, it's good to hear your child's pediatrician say you're already doing everything you can, but it's also somewhat frustrating. Can't I do MORE? I'm a doer, you know?

she's still pretty

By yesterday afternoon, she was just a big ball of pathetic. Lethargic, fussy, barely eating, in and out of sleep, wouldn't be put down. I mean, just pitiful, y'all. I have to admit, I cried a few times with her while she whimpered in discomfort. Is there anything more disheartening then seeing your child in pain? If there is, I don't want it. Ever.

Praise the Lord, she slept well last night, thought she would half-fuss every thirty minutes or so, moaning a little bit, then put herself back to sleep. Can I get an AMEN for sleep training? This morning, wouldn't you believe the child's fever was up to 102.8?! Mama just can't get down with that. So, back to the pediatrician we went. Ears are good, chest is good, but let's just do a quick blood test. White blood cells elevated, thinking this is more than a virus, need to test for a UTI ... wait a second, you're catheterizing my four month old?! But I am thankful for a thorough doctor, and I'd much rather us unnecessarily catheterize the baby than have it go undiagnosed and affect her kidneys. She was so brave during the finger stick and just whined during the whole cath process, which was heartbreaking. Poor little dear.

If that doesn't just break your heart

There are a whole lot more words on this page than if I had just gotten right down to it: London is sick. She might have a urinary tract infection. If you have some prayers to spare, send them our way.

• Pray for her comfort, because right now she has very little; specifically, for the fever to break and her congestion to ease up.
• Pray for Ben & I to properly care for her, and not to take our frustrations at her illness out on each other.
• Pray for the doctors to be thorough in her care, but not to rush toward medicinal intervention unless it's necessary.
• Pray she is healthy enough to return to school on Tuesday, because we are quickly wearing out our ability to work from home.
• Pray that no one else, among our family, friends, coworkers or her class, gets whatever is plaguing her sweet little body.

Thank you, sincerely, for any talking to The Father you can do on our behalf.

London Claire is Three Months

... or, she was. a week ago. whatever.

Age: three months (three months, six days today)
Height: about 24 inches (haven't checked recently)
Weight: as of 9-20-12, she weighs 13lbs 3 oz
Hair Color: still brown, though lighter than when she was born, and has a reddish tint to it
Eye Color: blue

Favorite Outfit: she wore "real" blue jeans for the first time last week, with a pink & white striped onesie - it was precious. I've been dying for her to wear this outfit and she looked like such a little girl (not a baby!), perfect for a fall school day.

watching daddy's soccer game

Sleep: she is back to doing a long stretch when we first put her down, anywhere from 4.5 - 6.5 hours (praise Jesus). bed time is anywhere between 8-9 and as much as we try to make wake-up time 7am, she rarely sleeps past 6:30. we did a little bit of sleep training, because we were having such a hard time after she started daycare with her getting up. all we did was - for about a week - only feed her at night every 3-4 hours. so if she woke up before it had been at least 3 hours, ben would go in a soothe her while she was still in her crib - rub her belly, give her a paci, etc. seems to have worked, or maybe it's the combination of her getting more to eat during the day and being worn out by daycare.
Eating: I started sending 4x 5oz bottles (instead of 4x 4oz) to daycare and she's been taking 3 of those a day. she normally wants to eat when we get home from school / work, nurses to sleep, up anywhere between 1-3am to eat, whenever she wakes up (in the 6am hour) and a little bit right when we drop her off at school. so she's averaging eating 7-8x each day, every 3ish hours (during the day).
Illness: she has her first stomach bug, according to the pediatrician, but her demeanor has not changed and she hasn't been running a fever, so I think we've gotten off pretty easy in terms of her first "illness".

at the dr's office - doesn't look sick to me!

Development: the teachers have started putting her in a baby einstein exersaucer and she LOVES it! she is supporting herself on her feet in that, and reaches out to play with the spinning toys. miss tracy is very impressed with her fine motor skills, and so was my mom - she said that I wasn't reaching / playing with toys like that until 4 months. she can sit up while propped against the couch and much prefers that to laying down, unless we're paying constant attention to her (such a diva!).

still a little unsure of herself sitting

Movement: I actually got to see her roll over (from belly to back) this morning, and I got so excited. she tries so hard to pull her head forward when she's in her car seat, bouncy seat or laying down.

Funniest habit: she gives kisses with her mouth wide open - as soon as one of us leans in and gets close to her mouth, her mouth is as big as it can be!

giving daddy kisses at brunch after church

Best moment of last week: I walked upstairs last night when Ben was getting her ready for her bath, and she was in hysterics at Ben because he was talking in a British accent. no matter how hard I try, I will never be as silly as daddy! it's a little voyeuristic, but I love watching them play together.

she loooooves bathtime now

What I'm looking forward to: her baptism (october 14) - I've been shopping nonstop on etsy and looking for ideas on pinterest. if you have any suggestions, send them our way.

this template is a work in progress, as I couldn't find one online that I liked. if you have suggestions of things I should add or things you'd like to know, please let me know!

oh, and I still haven't uploaded her three month photos, so here are some of my recent favorites. the three month photos will be coming in a separate post, hopefully soon.
 

lunch with the hughes' - evan gave london her first kiss

tailgating for the nc state game - too hot for clothes!

Finally

I am the worst {blog}mom ever.

But, finally, I am writing an entry. I'm writing it from my phone so I can't guarantee how pretty it will be. And there's a baby sleeping on my chest so I can't guarantee how long it will be. But I'm writing it, so bear with me.

I swore I would update constantly, documenting every aspect of my daughter's life like I did my pregnancy. Then motherhood happened. Being a stay at home mom is hard, y'all. But I'll be damned if I didn't just have the best three months of my life.

Then reality set in. And on Monday, London started daycare and I went back to work. Hardest thing I've EVER done is leaving that precious baby with virtual strangers. I worked my ass off to grow that kid for nine months, and have worked my ass off to keep her growing for three months since she's been born, and now you just want me to ABANDON HER?!

But seriously, it gets easier. The emotional wounds start to scab over and you both start to adjust. And then, if you're a control freak like I am, it gets harder - when you realize you're not succeeding as a mom or a wife and your house is a wreck and you're not contributing at work and OH MY GOSH, MY LIFE IS IN SHAMBLES! The next thing you know, it's 1am and your husband is laying on the floor of the nursery while you feed the baby and google, "how young is too young to cry it out?"

I wrote on a friend's facebook wall, "Being a working mom sucks sometimes."

But then sometimes it doesn't. Like when you get a paycheck and you're able to buy your daughter diapers or occasionally even cute clothes, or when her doctors appointments and medicines are taken care of. Or when you go to pick her up from school and she gets a huge grin on her face. It sucks a little less then.

We are figuring it out, just like we are STILL figuring out how to parent this little nugget. And it'll continue to get easier. It has to, or else no one would do it - right?

The important thing is we survived the first week. Now, here are some gratuitous photos of the week that you've probably all seen on instagram. Sorry I'm not sorry.