A day in the life..

Since Lakelyn's 4 month check up visit when the doctor asked how she was sleeping and I was able to say "she is doing well I think. Goes to bed around 8pm and wakes around 3am to eat and then 6-7 to eat and then up for the day by 8am." He said that was awesome to get a stretch that long and that she should soon move that 3am feeding to 4am and then 5am and so forth. I agreed and we left there all happy go lucky!

Fast forward a few weeks and her sleep habits turned into a total shit show. excuse my language! I have NO idea what got into her. I've heard teething, sleep regression, growth spurt you name it its been suggested! Her sleep at night is completely up in the air at this point in time and I never in a million years thought that my 5 1/2 month old would be so far from sleeping through the night. I have tried giving her a bottle before bed, breast, formula, cereal, a combination of them and none of it makes a difference!

So all of that to say this is typically how our day goes down (a good day I should say):

• 8am- up for the day and some morning snuggles in my bed watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• 9am- breakfast (favorite is bananas & rice cereal or apples & rice cereal)
• 9:30-9:45am- head out for our walk (we have been doing 1.5 miles) and she usually falls asleep before we are finished with the walk
• 10-10:15am- back home from our walk and I lay her down for her nap and I jump in the shower (unless I will be doing something to get sweaty again) and then try to get either some house work or blogging done
• 11-11:30am- she wakes up and we play a little bit
• 12-12:30pm- she eats lunch (a bottle) and then I try to let her have some independent play time while I do what I need to do (usually some type of house work)
• 1:30-2:30pm- she usually goes down for another nap sometime in that time frame.
• 3:30-4pm she wakes up and eats another bottle and we play or watch more Mickey Mouse or a movie
• 5pm- I usually start dinner while she hangs out in her walker or high chair in the kitchen with me
• 6-6:30pm- We eat dinner and give her some baby food if she wants it (usually sweet potatoes or carrots) after dinner she plays with daddy
• 7:30pm- bath time and get ready for bed
• 8pm- bottle and bed
• from this point on its fair game on when she wakes up. On average I would say around 2am she'll wake to eat, then again at like 4-5am and then again at like 6-7am and then by 8am we start all over!

Obviously, this is not how every day goes down and we don't always stay at home. Sometimes I like to go to town and just walk around and window shop or pick up a few groceries just so we can get out of the house. And there are also days when I have to work so someone else is with her.

All in all we do not have it all together and most days its bat-shit crazy around here, but we love every minute of it!

First 4th of July

Lakelyn spent her first 4th of July at the lake of course! We did take her out on the boat for the first time! She LOVED the boat ride and fell asleep as soon as we started going! She did great in the water of course, but the sand bar we go to had so many waves and it was making me nervous because they were pretty big waves and i didn't want the water to get in her face. we had a little umbrella we set up in the water with some chairs and we sat there a good bit of the time and the rest of the time we sat on the other pontoon boat that had an inclosed area. After a few hours though she was done and ready to go back and honestly so was I. Taking an almost 4 month old on a boat in the middle of the lake is a lot of work (at least for me it was). Maybe its because she is my first child so everything makes me nervous, but something about a baby that little and water and a boat scares me unless i have her in my arms. I get bad anxiety when someone else had her, even Tyler!

4th of July was also the one year mark of telling everyone that I was pregnant! It will always hold a speacial place in my heart! She had two super cute 4th of July outfits and bathingsuit, but i (surprisingly) forgot to get pictures!! I know what kind of mom am i?

The fireworks were amazing and i absoluetly LOVE fireworks (when someone else buys them and shoots them and all i have to do is watch). She slept through them all!

All in all it was a fun time and memories were made! I LOVE the holidays and having a child makes them so much more fun!

meal planning 101!

Let's start out with honesty here. I don't mind cooking. I'm not some great chef or anything, but I'm able to cook a meal that we can actually eat. However, I HATE thawing out meat and then going back later and cooking it. If I could instantly cook it when its frozen without the in-between time I'd probably cook more.

Which brings me to meal planning and meal prep. I've heard so much about this and decided since I have a 5 month old baby that wants all of my attention all of the time and a hard working husband that shouldn't have to come home and cook every night (although, he is perfectly capable helping out and cooking some nights- don't get me wrong), that maybe it's time to give this a shot. If I completely suck at it then what have I lost? Not a thing, my friends!

So here is what I did Saturday afternoon, while Lakelyn was napping and the husband was working his 6th 10 hour day in a row. Meal planning. I didn't have time to go through pinterest and read everything I found, so I winged it!

I googled a "meal planning chart"  and then wrote down quickly all the meals I could think of off the top of my head. I also included a few of my pinterest meal ideas to the list. Beside each meal I would write down the main ingredients that I would need. (By the way, after I finished I forgot SO many meals, but I will just throw them in the next rotation).

Then I printed 4 of the meal planning charts and went right to the dinners and wrote them down, trying to mix them up so that we didn't have chicken every night of the week ;) I only did 5 nights of the week because we typically eat at his parents house at least once a week and plus I figured we should have a free night of no cooking at least once a week (pizza?) I also write down some sides to go with that meal and hallelujah, thank the lord some of those meals didn't need sides, like spaghetti (besides garlic bread), soups, casseroles, ya know the "easy stuff".

As for the breakfast column, I only did a breakfast for Sundays because every other day we eat something quick like cereal, toast, pop-tarts and Saturday's are consumed by hunting season so no big breakfasts there either! But I did write those quick breakfast in the other days, but who is to say we'll actually go by that? For lunch, Tyler takes leftovers or a sandwich and I eat (whenever I find time) something quick like a sandwich or pizza rolls in 30 seconds flat! And for snack, I basically skipped, but did decide that once a week I will try to make a dessert. Maybe a cake, cookies, ice-cream. Whatever the heart desires (and is easy to make since I'm no Betty Crocker).

Anyway, so on Saturday or Sunday whenever I feel like doing it, I cook the meats that can be cooked. Like this week we are having spaghetti and loaded baked potato and chicken casserole so I went ahead and cooked the hamburger meat and added the sauce and then poured into a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer and for the chicken I just boiled it, shredded it and put it in a bag and into the freezer. Now when the day comes for these meals I just pull it out, let it thaw (or throw in a pan) and then finish it up. For some meals you could probably cook the entire thing and freeze it, but I try to keep it somewhat fresh!

 Hope this helps! And of course I couldn't leave without a picture of this cutie and her spit bubbles!

5 months

 

At five months old Lakelyn can do all the things a baby her age should be able to do including:

• hold head steady when upright
• on stomach, raise chest, supported by arms
• pay attention to an object as small as a raisin 
• squeal in delight
• reach for an object
• smile spontaneously
• smile back when you smile
• grasp a rattle held to backs or tips of fingers
• keep head level with body when pulled to sitting

She can also do all the things a five month old will probably be able to do including:

• roll over at least one way
• bear some weight on legs
• say "ah-goo" or similar vowel-consonant combinations
• turn in the direction of a voice
• making a "razz" (wet) sound

 

 

She can also do the one thing that babies her age may possible be able to do:

• sit unsupported

Lakelyn can do most of the things a baby her age may even be able to do including:

• stand holding onto someone or something
• work to get a toy out of reach (she doesn't do this much, but she can)
• pass a cube or other object from one hand to another
• look for dropped object
• pull up to standing position from sitting
• object if you try to take a toy away (I'm not exactly sure what this means, but she will pull back if you try to take something from her so I'm assuming that is what this means)
• babble, combining vowels and consonants such as ga-ga-ga, ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma, da-da-da (she babbles, but not with ma-ma or da-da is usually ga.)

 

 

Somethings she cannot yet do from the may even be able to do category include:

• rake with fingers a tiny object and pick it up in fist

 Other things lakelyn likes:

• baths, water, swimming
• being held
• kicking her legs constantly, like a ninja
• holding her own bottle
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• apple juice, bananas, apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, peaches
• being outside
• her stroller
• smiling
• grabbing her feet
• eating her hands, feet and anything else she can get
• dogs

Things that she does not like:

• green beans
• being put down/ walked away from
• when you make a "waaaahhhh" sound
• getting clothes put on her

She is such an amazing baby! I love being her mommy and watching her grow. She is learning so much and is getting so attached to me. I secretly love that she loves me so much, but I'm also worried about what this will lead to. However, I'm not worried about the future that much. Right now I'm enjoying those sweet baby cuddles and loving on my girl because I know it won't be like this for long. We love you so much, baby girl!  

Family Pictures

When Lakelyn was born we had some newborn pictures done. They were amazing and I loved them! However, we only had 1 family picture done and we did not like how it turned out. So we decided to get some done while she was still little, but they aren't "newborn" ones. It's one of those things where I will know better for next time!

 

I have a new found love of photography and taking pictures (not of myself at this point because I still do not like my post-baby body) and I would really LOVE to get a professional type camera for Christmas (I have been looking at the Nikon 3300). I know they are expensive, but I have been doing a lot of studying and trying to practice with taking pictures and I feel i could really get it down and with the pictures i could take, i could save some money and take my own pictures of my children and only have to pay someone to do family pictures for us! So i'm trying to be a good girl so maybe Santa will get it for me :)

Anyway, we went to the Ponds and got some great pictures done. At this age, it was hard to get her to look at the camera or smile or anything for that matter. So they aren't some world famous pictures, but they are of us and i will cherish them forever.

Lakelyn's First Vacation

July 22nd- July 26th we went to Key Largo, Florida (actually it was Taverneir) with Tyler's parents, sister, aunt, uncle and cousins. We obviously drove my car for the carseat, and because we had to take half of our home and my car gets good gas miledge anyway so it wasn't too bad. It took 10 hours to get there including stopping for lunch and gas and it took 12 hours to get home! All together we spend $140 in gas and i still have half a tank left. So I didn't think that was too bad. I was expecting a miserable trip there and back. I had my ipad and rigged it up to hand from the headrest in front of her car seat and i was going to turn the hotspot on my phone on so she could watch mickey mouse clubhouse (loves this show) while we were in the car. However, the hotspot signal wasn't the best and would turn off constantly and was a hassel so thankfully i had 2 of the hunger games movies downloaded on my ipad and so she watched that in between naps. Good thing she is too young to know what is actually going on in the movies! I need to invest in a portable dvd player and some mickey mouse dvds.

We left at 5am and she was obviously still asleep. She woke up around 7-7:30 to eat, we fed her in the carseat and she went back to sleep until i think like 9-9:30 when we stopped for breakfast. After that she went back to sleep and really slept almost the entire time. She would watch the ipad a little bit, talk and laugh some, fussed a couple of times (mostly when she was hungry or had to get back in her carseat after being out for a little while we stopped and ate), but i was so shocked at how well she did with the drive.

The resort we stayed at Ocean's Pointe was not too bad. There were a couple of issues here and there with the other room, but ours wasn't too bad. The only issue we had was the room we were in was not big at all! We had a double bed, a nightstand, dresser and we did have a bathroom connected to our room. There was not a lot of room to walk around in our room and so having to put up a play pin for her to sleep in was difficult because no matter how you did it, it would block something. Either the closet, or the bathroom, or the door, or the dresser. I was not about to rearrange and entire bedroom just to still figure out it would still block something. So the first night we blocked the bathroom door which was not a good idea and the second night we blocked the closet door, nightstand and my side of the bed and the last night we packed it up and just let her sleep in her little co-sleeper thing in the bed with us because she was ending up in bed with us the other two nights anyway. Which brings me to my next point of I WILL NEVER GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT HAVING AT LEAST A QUEEN SIZE BED. We have a king bed at home and Tyler puts off a crazy amount of body heat and is all over the bed and honestly i wish there was a bed that was double the side of a king. I usually bring Lakelyn in our bed in the early morning around 6-7 whenever she wakes up to eat and she also puts off alot of body heat like Tyler. So going from a king bed with Tyler (who is 6', 200 pounds) a baby that has to have her own space so she doesn't get suffocated, and me to a double bed that can barely fit Tyler just screams disaster/miserable sleep.

It was so hot at night i would wake up drinched in sweat even with the fan on. I got up and turned the a/c down to 69 the first night and the other two nights Tyler put it on 64 and it was still hot. There was NO room at all for me and him so when i had to put her in the bed with us because she wasn't sleeping well because she was in a strange place i literally had only enough room to lay on my side which got very uncomfortable after a little bit. So the last night since we were waking up at 5 anyway we decided to let her sleep in her co-sleeper in the bed with us and we turned sideways which was the only way we could fit us in that bed. that was horrible because Tyler was halfway off and in the middle of the night would turn long ways which got in my way so i would have to keep waking him up to move. Even my legs would hang off the bed which was uncomfortable. So you get my point. It freaking sucked and I will NEVER, EVER, EVER do it again!

The first day we drove to Key West and walked around and went shopping. We had her stroller and other than it getting kind of hot she did well. We would take her out for awhile and carry her, i did give her a little water to drink and she loved that and i think it helped her cool down some. She didn't nap very much so when we started the drive back to Key Largo (2 hour drive) she started to get fussy. We stopped at a few more stores on the way back and also stopped to eat dinner and it was late when we got home and way passed my child's bedtime so she got a bath, fed and was out.

The second day, we got up and went fishing on a charter boat with a guide. We were on a big boat and had the entire front of theboat to ourselves (the entire veronee clan) to fish and we had her stroller and she loves boats and fell asleep on the way out to our fishing spot. She woke up, but was content laying in the stroller for awhile while we all fished. She was in the shade and it was kind of cloudy and there was a breeze so it wasn't too hot. After a little she did get fussy and so Tyler's dad held her and then it started to down pour and storm. There was a covered aread where pretty much everyone on the boat ran to hide out until it passed. Some of us stayed out and fished and it really wasn't that bad. I was kind of chilly with the rain and wind and i didn't have a rain jacket, but since Tyler's dad was under the cover they gave me his to wear and once i put that on i was fine. The rain stopped and they came back out eventually and so did the sun. We only had a little bit more time to fish before heading back in so again, it wasn't too bad. She fell asleep on the ride back in and we got our fish we caught and headed back to the resort. They decided to go to a state park down the road that had a sunken ship or something to snorkle and the rest of us planned to just stay in the water or by the tent with Lakelyn. That "beach" was a joke. The water wasn't pretty like we thought, but it was still kind of clear i guess. The entire area was covered in rocks so it killed your feet trying to get into the water and the nasty grass stuff you had to walk through to get to the water was disgusting and hot and horrible. The water smelt like eggs and wasn't refreshing at all. It made me feel like i was contracting some kind of disease so we got right back out. The sand wasn't really sand it was like rocky sand. Not soft at all. We didn't stay there very long. We ended up leaving. Tyler and I rode around to find a float we could use to take in the water for lakelyn since we were supposed to be renting boat the next day and then went back to the room. We cooked dinner, again it was way past my childs bedtime by the time we ate and so i took her back to the room to go to bed while everyone else went to the tennis court and played tennis.

The third and last day we were there we were going to be renting a 27 foot bayliner deck boat for all of us to go out on and just swim and snorkle and hang out in the pretty blue water. Well we called that morning to let them know we would be there probably around 10-11 to get the boat instead of 9am and they had given our boat away and gave us a 24 foot deck boat. We headed out to Islamorada (where the boat place was) and it was HORRIBLE traffic. We were gone about an hour when it started raining and the wind was blowing too. We decided the boat is probably not a great of an idea. So we decided to go to this theatre thing that had different stuff to do like swim with the dolphins, swim with seaturtles, swim with sharks, different shows, snorkling and what not, but that place smelt horrible like cat pee and the reason why is because they have cats inside of the store. (There were SO MANY cats in key largo it was crazy) the swim with the dolphins was $195 a person so needless to say we did not do that. Everthing was basically booked so we left there and made an hour drive back to see about half of us going snorkling and the other half of us taking a glass bottom boat (basically snorkling without having to swim and get in the water which was perfect for Lakelyn) Well it was decided that everyone could just go on the snorkling boat and who ever wanted to snorkle could and those that didn't could stay on the boat. It was still raining and the capitain didn't even know if they were going to go out on the boat. So we had time to kill until 4:30 and I did not want to pay for me and lakelyn to go on this boat to sit. It was pointless and a waste of money to me and it wasn't even that nice of a day so Tyler and I decided to stay back and just go back to the resort because Lakelyn was sleeping. We went ahead and packed up most of our stuff and loaded it in the car. She woke up we fed her and hung out for a little there and then decided to go to the "beach" area at the resort. Again not an ideal beach, the water still smelt like eggs and it was grassy, but the sand was a little better. I hung out with lakelyn in the shollow area and let her play some in the water and Tyler went out and snorkled. He saw a lot of cool stuff better than what they saw on their snorkle trip. He saw two 4ft sand sharks, a manaray, blow fish, and some other stuff. After he go done we went back to the room at the same time everyone else did and Lakelyn got a bath, fed and went to bed AT HER BED TIME FINALLY! We played cards a little bit and then headed to bed.

We were up at 5am and headed back home!

Half of it was pretty stressful because lets face it, vacationing with a 4 month old is not actually a vacation, but some of it was also fun. This is another "i'll know better next time" moment!

Some things I would change:

-make sure your room is big enough to set up baby's are to sleep
-make sure your bed is big enough for you, your husband and baby
-plan out what you are going to do before you get there and have a good back up plan incase the weather is bad
-have better movies downloaded on your ipad for baby to watch/ or have a portable dvd player with movies
-do lots of pumping and storing so that you have plenty of bottles for the car ride, day trips and stuff so you dont have to pump as much while in a car
-having bottles ready to feed baby while in the car makes it easier to be able to switch out drivers so one doesn't have to drive the entire 12 hours!
-if the weather is warm or hot, bring a little fan to clip onto the stroller
-try to find a hotel or resort that serves continental breakfast so you dont have to make or buy breakfast and can save a little bit of money that way since lunch and dinner will most likely be eating out or cooking in your room (both really equal out to the same amount unless you go to a 5 star restaurant.)
-if your baby has a bedtime try to stick with it no matter what other people say or what is going on. Unless you have an aswesome baby that does not get fussy and cranky if she/he misses bedtime
-bring plenty of baby clothes with you and keep a few extra outfits in the car
-bring baby powder with you if you go to a real beach that has real sand, baby powder gets the sticky sand off of you and baby

 

4 month old doctor appointment and 2nd round of shots!

We had our appointment on July 16th with Dr. Benji Rogers which is the doctor that saw her first while we were in the hospital. I absolutely LOVED him and this time he didn't disappoint! He is such an awesome doctor!

She was 12 pounds 12 oz (in the 25th%)
She was 24 and 1/4 in long (30th%)
Head circumference of 15 (25th %)

He said she looked great and was growing perfectly. We talked about how she usually goes to bed between 8-9pm and then wakes usually around 3am and then back to sleep until 6-7am when she eats again and then will doze off for another hour or so and then she is up for the day. He said that is actually very good sleep habits so far and that breastfed babies tend to take a little longer to sleep through the night because they have that close bond with mom and might not necessarily be hungry, but rather just "miss mom" or "want to snuggle" He said that sometimes if you can get dad to go in there in the middle of the night and give her a paci and just hold and maybe rock her it might do the trick and eventually the 3am wake up should move to 3:30, then 4, then 4:30 etc.. However, Tyler does help a good bit when he gets home, but as for middle of the night stuff he just does NOT do. I am always the one to get up with her and I really can't complain because I've allowed it to be that way and even if he did get up I would probably have to wake him up because i hear her the second she cries and he can sleep through it and then i wouldn't be able to go back to sleep until she was back to sleep and really what is the point of both of us being awake?

I also had some concerns with some dry spots she had. One was on the side of her face like on her temple on the right side, a couple areas on her legs and i thought it might have been eczema. He said that he didn't think it was eczema and that babies tend to get these areas of dry spots during this time of the year because its so hot and sweating will cause it because their skin is so sensitive. He said any kind of eczema lotion or really any lotion should do the trick and to lather her after bath time before she is completely dry will work best because it will absorb the lotion (we do this every night anyway). I try to put lotion on her more than once a day and it does seem to be improving some.

I also was worried about the way she grabs and scratches her ears and sometimes the side of her face. I know its a common thing when babies get fussy to grab their ears, but i just wanted to be sure there was no infection or something bothering her with her ears. He said they looked great and since she has been doing it since she was born its just her way of throwing a fit and her ears are just an easy to grab target for her hands. He said if i ever noticed a fever and an increase of her messing with her ears then to bring her in because that could be an ear infection.

He said she has a great kick and is very active and laughed and thought she was too cute kicking and throwing her hands everywhere and laughing while he would talk to her.

She had the same shots as last time. She had a heartbreaking cry this time as she got the first shot in her leg. It was HORRIBLE. Last time she did cry, but it wasn't an "i'm in pain" cry, but this time it was AND there were HUGE tears! The 3 she got in her legs were quick and i gave her a bottle and she was perfectly fine within 30 seconds of the first shot.

After i had to get her undressed and lay her on the table she FINALLY was able to GRAB HER FEET! It was the first time she has actually gotten them. Usually Tyler and I have to place her feet in her hands for her and she will hold them for a couple of seconds and then let them go or they will slip out of her hands, but here she actually got them her self and was rolling from side to side! I was standing right there to make sure she didn't roll of of the table!

                                                   this is obviously not on the table

 

Once we were done i made her appointment, cranked up the car, put her in, got in myself and she was laughing and looking around, i sent tyler a text with her stats and went to back out of the parking spot and looked in the rear-view mirror of course and she was OUT!

 

She is growing so fast and i'm so in love with this silly girl!