Alive

I just wanted y'all to know I'm still alive!

Last week was really rough for Jillian and I. For whatever reason, she barely ate her bottle. Solids? Not a problem. However, she would only eat between 18 and 20 oz total for the day. I know that she's ok as long as she continues to gain weight and is hydrated if she wets 5 diapers a day. However, my frustration and fear got the best of me. I was impatient and at the end of my rope. I cried at least once a day because I was so worried. Jillian had no signs of sickness and didn't even really seem that hungry. My mom had to remind me repeatedly that Jillian is her own person. If she's not hungry, I can't make her eat. All I can do is be there and ready to tackle whatever need she has at the moment. Even if I think she needs more food, she will only eat when she's ready. {Thank you for the support mama! I don't know how I would have gotten through last week without you.}

Nothing like a baby to keep you humble right?

Aside from possible teething, there does not seem to be a reason behind this sudden lack of appetite. However, she's been fine overall and eating her solids like a champ. We don't have a set schedule, but she is consistently sleeping for 90 minutes around the same time in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. She will usually take a quick cat nap before her bedtime routine. This doesn't seem to throw her overtime sleeping off so we let her sleeps as she needs.

After the weekend, I've have been trying a new attitude with her food. It still is a little frustrating, but I don't get nearly as upset and on edge as I did last week. As long as she gets 15 oz of just formula, anything else is icing on the cake. With this change, she seems to be more relaxed and ate better yesterday than she has in awhile. Let's hope this pattern continues!

I have no idea of if the boxes and constant chaos in our apartment has anything to do with it or not. Even though this is temporary, I don't want this move to cause Jillian any anxiety.

My mind is going a million directions at once, but I know this is for the best. We'll be in a safer environment and moving on to the next stage in life as a family. Can we just skip the next 2 1/2 weeks so I can be all moved in, unpacked, and mostly decorated?! A girl can dream right? HAHA

It's still hard to think that I will have keys to our home in 13 days. Our home. This is something I've wanted for a long time. The time is finally near and I'm beyond thrilled!

If I continue to be a little sporadic about posting and/or commenting on blogs, you know why. I should be mostly settled by the second weekend of August! We'll be done just in time for Jillian and I to visit my folks in Minnesota again. {Poor Phil has to work and cannot join us :(} Then football season starts and a whole new form of hectic will begin!

It's going to be a crazy life, but it'll be our crazy life :)

Jillian: {Seven Months}

Jillian –

You are seven months old today! You are such a sweetheart and I’m so in love with you! According to our at-home measurements, you are 16 lbs, 4 oz and 26 inches long.

You are now in 6 Month and 6-9 Month clothes and you wear size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 diapers at night.

Eating is hit or miss with you. You are now up to two meals a day with 5-6 formula feedings. Fruit mixed with oatmeal is your breakfast and veggie and rice cereal is your lunch. You have tried the following foods: Rice Cereal, Oatmeal, Green Beans, Carrots, Squash, Green Peas, Sweet Potatoes, Pears, Bananas, Prunes, and Apples. You seem to like most the foods you have tried, but you don’t like green peas or pears very much. Your favorite food as of now is green beans, (you inhale them!) So far, you are only eating Stage 1 veggies and fruit. We may try giving you watermelon or plums in your teething feeder before they are out of season. Some days you eat like a champ while others you barely finish a single bottle. Even when you frustrate us with fickle eating, we still love you!

You are still taking Zantac twice a day for your reflux. You did have your first elevated temperature due to your 6 Month vaccines. We gave you Tylenol and you recovered quickly. You didn’t even act fussy with your temperature.

Teething got a little worse this month. You had a night where you woke up crying because your mouth hurt :( However, you still only have your two bottom teeth for now. You’re getting better about not being upset with brushing your teeth before bed.

You finally rolled over! You rolled from your belly to your back on June 22nd, and then from back to belly on June 26th. You love grabbing your toes and kicking/dancing. We can tell you are really concentrating to get into crawling position. Even without being a crawler, you manage to scoot your way around. You even got a hold of mama’s shoes the other day and we caught you trying to put it in your mouth! (Don’t do that baby girl. It’s really gross…) Sitting up unassisted is still a challenge for you. You are getting better, but you usually fall backwards after about 20-30 seconds. You will get the hang of it, I promise. You’ll be fully mobile before we know it! Time to baby-proof our home.

This will be our last month in our current apartment. We bought a house and I’m sure you’ll love having a whole house to explore :) We will always be fond of this place because it is the place we brought you home from the hospital. Trust me, it’s a good move!

You are almost able to wave bye-bye! You seem to practice everyday by waving at anything and everyone. I’m hoping to teach you to blow kisses next! You are going to speech therapy twice a month for an hour and you always do really well. You seem to love playing with balls so we’re going to stock up when we get a chance. You can say “mama” when you’re getting tired and/or frustrated. You can also make happy screeching sounds, but no other words just yet. Your daddy is trying really hard to get you saying “dada” as soon as possible.

Separation anxiety has just started. You cry when I leave the room and you’re starting to be wary of males you don’t know very well. Females are still ok with you as long as they smile and fawn over you. You had a few nights where you woke up lonely and just wanted to be held. I hope you know that we will always be there for you with a hug just your size.

Some of your favorite things include: having mommy and daddy’s undivided attention, your Piglet, bouncing/kicking (especially when you’re excited about something), books, your bath book (you screech at it as if you’re reading aloud to us), sticking your pacifier in daddy’s mouth, pulling on mommy’s hair, being swaddled, and being tickled.

Things you do not enjoy include: being sleepy, being too hot (we’re really trying on this one baby girl), your love/hate relationship with the Bumbo seat, teething, being hungry, having mommy or daddy out of sight for even a moment, and getting stuck on your belly when you’ve forgotten how to roll back.

Sleep is hit or miss with you. I think some nights are hard to get you to sleep because of teething pain. For the most part, you sleep close to 9 hours every night. We started swaddling you for your daytime naps. Since it is so warm in our home, we have to strip you down to your diapers to swaddle you. However, you seem to sleep much better. You even had a 2-1/2 hour nap on day!

We love you more than we can express sweet pea. We love watching you grow, learn new things, and show your personality. It is truly a delight and privilege to be your parents :)

Outtakes:

{I want out of this chair mom!}

{Wait a minute, I can sit up like a big girl in here!} 

{Cheesy grin} 

{Say what?!} 

{*sigh* Are we done yet? This flower is wilting!}

And some comparisons :)

 

Life Lately

On July 3rd, I lost a church family member. Her name was Ardith and she was a lovely woman. She fought cancer multiple times, but she lost her battle and went home to Jesus. I was unable to attend the funeral which made me very sad. I did make it to her viewing at the funeral home. However, I ended up being in the room alone. I'm not sure how my parents handle open caskets like that. I've only been to two other funerals like that, (one was my grandpa), and it was a little scary. I just kept waiting for her to  breath or open her eyes. I only stayed about 5 minutes or so, but I'm glad that I went. She was a great woman and I will miss her. I'm fairly close to her family and hope that God will be with them during this time.

Our weekend was fairly quiet. Phil had some work issues last week, but they all got resolved on Friday afternoon. They were moving to a new building and they didn't even get the keys until Friday. {They were ready to unpack on Monday.} 

Sunday morning, Phil told me he found a dead fly on top of our fridge. I looked at it and noticed something interesting. Of course I took a picture ;)

That's right, the fly died standing up! How weird right?! We threw it away after I took the picture of course. I just thought it was cool.

Due to the heat and our sub-par air conditioner, Jillian usually hangs out at home in her diaper. We put clothes on her when we are out and about. She is usually pretty sweaty when we get home so I just undress her. For the past 30 days or so, this is usually how she plays :)

{Even without clothes, she's cute!}

As I took her photo, I looked behind me and saw another cute sight...

{Phil and Petey - this doesn't happen often anymore since Jillian is usually in his arms}

I only have two bibs that are the over-the-head style. All the others have velcro. Well, I used the over-the-head style this morning for Jillian's breakfast of oatmeal and apples. When we finished, I pulled it off and this happened...

{What's so funny mama?} 

{I can hold that camera for you!} 

{Oh it's something on my face. Ok, I'll do a cute pose}

Yep, it smeared oatmeal from the bib ALL over her forehead and hair! I was able to get it out, but it was pretty darn cute :)

Happy Tuesday y'all!

Semi-Wordless Wednesday 7/4

 {For my grandpa, a Marine pilot in WWII...}

{and for all the other military personnel and their families...} 

{whose sacrifice lets us have a day together as a family...} 

{and dress up in our nation's colors...} 

{in a country where a sweet girl like this...} 

{can be whoever she wants...} 

{and enjoy freedom...} 

{even when she's distracted ;)}

Happy 4th of July from our family to yours!

Destructive Behavior

I don't believe I have said anything on my blog about this before. Tuesdays are special for me. You see, I am a fan of trashy television. I'm sure most of us have at least one show that we hate to love or love to hate. It could be The Bachelorette, or Real Housewives of {fill in the blank}, or even a daytime soap opera of some kind. If you don't want any reality TV, then you are a stronger person than I.

Like many television-obsessed Americans, Phil and I mourn the loss of our fall shows. We know from mid-May until mid-September, nothing but reality television will be on. Some years, we are lucky enough to have the summer Olympics, but even those are towards the end of summer. What are we supposed to do?

Last summer, I was able to go home for my lunch break. Between what I could keep down and what I was craving at the time, it would have been hard to eat at the office I worked at. {For a few weeks, my lunch consisted of 20 pizza rolls and a quarter of a watermelon. Thank you pregnancy hormones!} Due to what was available on TV at the time, I got into a few shows: Dance Moms, Pretty Little Liars, Tia & Tamera, and Teen Mom. {I blame the last one on the fact that I was pregnant and wanted to watch other pregnant people.} Due to having nothing else to watch, I became involved with the people on these shows. I would talk about them to others as if I knew them in real life.

Well, thanks to some network scheduling, Tuesday nights are my "Trashy TV" nights. Starting at 7 p.m., Phil is sweet enough to take over Jillian's care while I unwind and watch my shows. It starts with Pretty Little Liars, then Dance Moms, and ends with Teen Mom. Usually I really enjoy myself. However, something has been really bothering me lately.

If you recall from this post, I had an episode where I was releasing tension and scared Jillian. I scared her so much that I made her cry. Now I fully admit that I have a short temper at times. What can I say? I do have Irish blood. Well, I have been re-watching Teen Mom on Netflix when Jillian is napping. Most of the couples have fights, but this is the group of girls that have Amber and Gary in the line-up. These two yell nearly every time they are on camera. It's almost exhausting to watch.

I started to notice something after I upset Jillian: the more I watch Teen Mom, the shorter my temper becomes. It is completely subconscious. I don't remember what exactly made me come to this realization, though I'm sure it was a God thing :) It is destructive behavior and it can only cut me down.

After a conversation with Phil, I have made a decision. I will watch Teen Mom because I am honestly curious about a few of the other girls. However, I will be muting the TV whenever Amber and Gary are shown, and I will not be watching anymore after this season ends. No Teen Mom 3, no 16 & Pregnant, or anything else like that.

It's not fair to Phil or to Jillian when I do things like this. They deserve my absolute best and I want to give it to them.

Around

Wow you guys, that was a crazy week. Despite having Phil home at night, I felt like a hybrid working mother-stay at home mother all in one! I didn't have time, (or energy) to do laundry OR grocery shopping. We ate out way too much over the past week. Luckily for me, the week came to an end and we had 0 plans for the weekend. This turned into a long weekend. It was nice to be home for the most part, but I did lots of catching up. I got through most of the laundry, went grocery shopping, picked up/organized a little and we're a little over halfway through the 2nd season of Grey's Anatomy via Netflix :)

I was uncertain if I wanted to say anything or not, but I'm pretty confident that God is seeing us through this process. We are officially under contract on a house! We found one we really like and we're so excited about it! It's a newer home, (built in 2005), so we're not too worried about the inspection. As long as everything goes well, we'll be closing on July 30th!! I can't believe this will be the last month in this apartment. Honestly? I'm sure I'll be a little nostalgic because this is the place we brought our baby home from the hospital :) And it was a God-send last summer when I could just go home for lunch with my weird pregnant diet. Now I'm in full organizing/tossing out/packing mode. I ordered some moving kits online so that I would have good boxes and all the wrapping paper, tape, and bubble wrap I need without having to run to Target every other day. {Like I need an excuse. I'm already surprised they don't know me by name yet!} It's going to be a whirlwind, but worth it for sure.

There is a post in my head that I'll do later this week. It's really important to me and I hope I stick to it.

I really haven't taken many photos of Jillian lately. It makes me sad that I'm slacking, so I'm already making up for lost time!

And because I feel like I owe you guys some pictures...

{Carrie, this is as close to the bulldog face as I could get!} 

{This was actually taken by someone else at church during VBS. It's the only photo I have of her for the whole week. Still adorable though :)} 

{We were a bit messy with our oatmeal and fruit this morning...} 

 {Really concentrating on that spoon. See that forehead crinkle of hers? She gets that from Phil}

{What a smile :)} 

{Have I mentioned before how much I love her feet? I really do} 

{And her tiny hands too <3} 

{This may be out of focus and blurry, but this is a very typical outtake for us. Like Laura has said before, sometimes you have to save the blurry ones}

{Notice the small piece of oatmeal on her arm even after I bathed her LOL} 

{Leaning and smiling :) We'll get this sitting up thing at some point. No rush baby girl!} 

{We got this outfit at Babies R Us the other week. It's a 6/9 Month outfit which is why it's a little big on her. I just love the Minnie Mouse cupcake :)}

Happy Monday y'all!