The McCradys

molly by the week (16)

2012-01-26T08:30:00.001-06:00

Molly is 16 weeks old today!

Stats: I should've weighed her this week, but I kept forgetting. I'm guessing she's around 14-15 pounds, but we'll see at her Feb 6 appointment (4 months)!! (Update: Just weighed her, and she's 13.5 pounds. We keep expecting her to be HUGE! But she's right in the middle for her age.)

Milestones/Firsts: She's getting really good about holding her head up during tummy time. Not sure if rolling over is going to happen soon, but we're so proud of her! She used to just lay face-flat and scream. So this is a major improvement!

She went on her first grocery store trip with me in the Baby Bjorn. I had a big trip to make, so I couldn't just take her in her stroller or put the car seat in the big part of the cart. She did so well, and we got some fun looks from people! She's at that perfect age where she was so completely enamored with everything around her.

Feeding: 5 ounces every 3 hours, and a 6-oz nighttime bottle with formula and one scoop of rice cereal. For some reason, no matter when she last ate, she is NOT hungry in the mornings. It's so strange. She's been eating at 4 am, and then isn't hungry at all until almost 10am at daycare! And even then, that has been her only bottle that she doesn't finish. Tracy and I are both stumped. It's not a big issue but it's just weird and funny!

Behavior: So happy. She loves eating her hands and blankets and toys :) She's really loving toys in general lately (especially her ring-o-links), which is fun to watch.

She's liking her jumper more and more every day, and once she's bigger, I think it'll be hours of entertainment! She is SUCH a ham in front of the camera!

She is still a major daddy's girl, but she's giving her momma some pretty awesome smiles and cuddles lately! No obvious laughs yet, but we can't wait!

Sleep: The nighttime bottle with some rice cereal is working GREAT so far! Monday night she slept 6+3, Tuesday night (despite a crazy loud thunderstorm) she slept 7+2, and last night she slept 5+4. Not bad! Hopefully things are looking up since she hadn't slept 7 hours since she was 2 months old (she's almost 4 months). She's so sweet right after her bottle and before I put her to sleep :)

Doesn't it look like she's using her cheeks to store up for later!!?!

I haven't done this lately, but I want to keep a good record on her NAPS. She is a really good napper. She takes 3 naps at daycare every day, and they range from 1 hour to 2 hours at a time. When she gets home with me, she takes a little cat-nap (30-45 minutes) at 5:30ish while I clean the house, cook dinner and/or watch a little tv. I wish this nap was a little longer because I'd love more time to get stuff done, and it's exhausting to play with her and keep her awake/happy until her bath at 8:30!

Clothes: Still in size 2 diapers. Outgrowing her 3 month clothes, and fitting perfectly into 3-6 month stuff. She has SO many 6 month clothes, so I'm trying to get as much wear out of the 3 month and 3-6 month stuff as I can! We even had a little photo shoot just for fun on Saturday in this cute outfit :)

Favorite Moments: Mornings when I wake her up, and the first thing she does is smile really BIG at me :) Getting her dressed in the mornings while she's dancing on the changing table. Picking her up from daycare and kissing all over her.

And cuddling with her after bath time.

Most Challenging: Ryan is sick. Like, really sick with a fever and nasty cough. Soooo I'm trying to keep her away from him which is so sad, because they love each other so much... But we know it's NOT worth it for her to get sick. So for the last few days, I've been reminding Ryan that I love him so much but he needs to STAY AWAY from Molly and me until he is 100% better.

Looking Forward To: I just want to hear a real, OBVIOUS laugh. It'll make my day :)

one year ago

2012-01-24T11:36:00.000-06:00

One year ago today, we found out that I was pregnant! Read the story here. Since then, we went on our babymoon to St. Thomas (here, here & here), I updated everyone with all of my monthly pregnancy pics & updates, finally welcomed our precious baby girl, and spent 3 wonderful months at home with her. Oh what a ride it has been.

I can't imagine life without our Molly girl in it. She is such a joy, and we love her so much. Amazing what can happen in a year!

weekend wrap-up

2012-01-23T16:06:00.000-06:00

Friday:
We stayed in and just watched tv and vegged out. We did a lot of that this weekend :) I can't even remember what we ate...leftovers? I think...Ryan had Molly duty that night, which leads me to....

Saturday:
I got to sleep for 10.5 hours!!!!!!! Ryan is the BEST husband for letting me sleep. It was wonderful. Oh my. I'm jealous of myself just thinking about it now. We spent the day at home together, and I don't even think we left the house once.

I drank lots of cups of coffee in my pajamas, and Mom came over to "give Molly a hug". She actually brought us some McAllisters for lunch, and we ended up visiting for a while, which was a nice surprise. Always great to see Mom. She rocked Molly to sleep before her nap, which I think both of them loved :)

That afternoon, I tried a recipe I found on pinterest, and it was delicious! It was only good while hot though. I tried a bite later in the afternoon, and BLECH.

That night, Molly didn't sleep well, which meant I didn't sleep well...(she's still totally unpredictable when it comes to sleep)...But we were determined to go to church the next day!!!!

Sunday:
We went to church despite the bad night before, and it was great to see our class as well as feel like grown ups dropping our child off in the nursery :) She looked so sweet in her new outfit.

After church, we met up with Ashley & Ellory (who were in town for the weekend) for lunch at Whiskey Cake! It was so great to visit with them for a little while before they headed back to Austin.

That afternoon, Molly took a good nap, and Ryan & I watched Moneyball on OnDemand. I think I would have liked it if I didn't sleep through 20-30 minutes of it while snuggled on the couch :) That evening, I played with Molly while Ryan cooked dinner, and then we watched the Giants vs. 49ers game (yawn..wish I liked football as much as my husband).

I sneaked off to watch Once Upon a Time for a while before bathing Molly and calling it a night! Great weekend!

i love...

2012-01-23T12:46:00.000-06:00

I'm taking time today to think about the good things that make me happy...

I love...

that i can call on ryan when i'm taking pictures of molly and say, "hey! come get her to smile" and it works about 99.9% of the time. she's a daddy's girl.
my wall of molly pictures in my cube. it helps me get motivated to work hard for her.
the moments that ryan & i get when molly's napping or down to sleep at night.
watching modern family on netflix with ryan. i laugh until i cry.
weekends with lots of coffee and pajamas
molly's gummy smiles in the morning
that mom asked to come over on saturday "to give molly a hug"
that my jeans are getting loose and i can walk up the 86 stairs at work without dying at the top
that ryan loves me no matter how many stretch marks and flabby-ness i still have from pregnancy
diet dr. pepper

That's all for today...hope you're finding the good in every day!

sometimes...

2012-01-22T16:34:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I think my child is so cute, that it makes me want to cry. I don't actually cry in these moments, but my heart just leaps, and I am overwhelmed with thankfulness that the Lord blessed us with this adorable little girl. Really? Why us? We don't deserve it, but we are SO thankful.

hodgepodge

2012-01-20T08:47:00.000-06:00

i am so.glad. it's friday. ever since i went back to work, all i've wanted to do on the weekends is hole up with ryan and molly (and the pets of course) in our home and do nothing but relax with lots of coffee and tv. lame? probably. maybe someday i'll want to venture out of our little foxhole, but right now that's ALL i want to do.
we gave up on the rice cereal for molly (for now). quick right? we tried it for 3 days, and we ultimately felt she wasn't ready for it yet. glad we tried, but i think we'll wait until she's a little older. i swear, parenting is about 100% trial & error.
last night, she slept without waking up/crying for SIX hours. 9:30pm-3:30am. and then after eating until 4, she slept until 7. yay!!!!! of course, i was worried every time i'd wake up and see she was still asleep. is she breathing? yes? okay.
ryan's parents made an unexpected stop at our house last night to pick up a couple things, and they arrived right at bath time! so they got to witness how cute molly is in the bath and how sweet she is when she's taking her bottle and falling asleep in her room. so sweet to have them there for that :)
molly is all about grabbing my hair and NOT letting go. it's pretty painful. but i keep telling myself, "I will not get a mom haircut". (p.s. seriously iphone 4s? WHY are your pictures so grainy sometimes! i don't understand. you're the NEWEST version. get it together.)
ever since returning to work (3 weeks), i've lost 7 pounds. i've been eating better AND taking the stairs every day... 4 flights twice or 3x a day. that's ALL i've been doing as far as "dieting". i'm pretty happy with that! since giving birth, i've lost 47 pounds total. i still have a little ways to go, but i'm making good on my #1 new years resolution :) yes i gained a FREAKISH amount of weight, but 30 pounds was just straight water and totally out of my control, ok?
i read an amazing article about motherhood, and the writer just nailed it on the head. if you're a mom, you should totally read it!

molly by the week (15)

2012-01-19T08:11:00.002-06:00

Molly is 15 weeks old today!

Stats: Don't know her weight until her 4-month appt. on the 6th, but she is getting chunkier by the day! Tracy (daycare) says she feels heavier!

What's going on?

No seriously. Why are you singing like a crazy person and shaking that rattle?

Mommy, stop singing! It's terrible!

Yo, yo! What's up!!!

Blech. That cereal you made me try is DISGUSTING.

Milestones/Firsts: She's not rolling over yet (I don't think she's even close), but I swear she's going to be sitting up on her own very soon. Last night in the bath, she kept trying to sit up like she was doing crunches. And she did the same thing when we were feeding her last night. She did NOT want to lay down to eat; she wanted to SIT! So funny. We thought maybe her stomach was hurting but she didn't seem upset or anything. Weird.

This was her first week (starting on Friday night) to sleep in her own room in her crib! So far, she's been doing great, and while it's a little sad without her next to me, it is kind of nice to not have to be quiet all the time in our room (especially while getting ready in the mornings)! We had a fun Saturday morning together on her first time to wake up in her room.

She has started "blowing raspberries" literally just last night, and she couldn't stop once she started. It was really cute :)

She went to her first Office-watching party at Bryan's apt. She looked cute but was FUS-SY most of the night!

Check out my awesome iPhone camera's skills at catching spit up mid-air...

She also had her first rice cereal... more on that below!

Feeding: She's up to 5 ounces of formula every 3 hours. Starting on Tuesday night, we actually started her on rice cereal after her pediatrician gave us the "okay" to try! She's only 3.5 months, which is considered a little young to try "solids" but we asked if we could do it since she was always extremely hungry in the middle of the night and waking up every 3 hours. It went really well! (More on the sleep below.)

She wasn't quite a fan at first, but she liked it later :)

Sleep: WELL. She was waking up every 3 hours for almost 3 weeks, and we were just exhausted. But a couple nights ago, we started letting her cry because we KNEW she wasn't hungry since we'd always give her a lot more ounces before bed; she was just waking out of habit from when she had been sick. And she put herself back to sleep! Awesome! Last night, after her cereal, she slept from 10-3, cried for 10 minutes and put herself back to sleep, then woke up at 5 when we gave her a little "snack" 2 oz bottle to tide her over until she woke up again at 6:45! Sooooo she was able to not eat from 9:30-5 which is a massive improvement! Hopefully the rice cereal helps even more, along with the cry-it-out method. (We only let her cry for a max of 10 minutes, and she's always calmed herself down and passed out before that time.)

Behavior: Happy happy happy. She still loves being unswaddled in the morning and stretching really big for a few minutes. She's still cooing and smiling, and we've had a few "almost" laughs.

Don't you love how her arms and legs get blurrier the happier she is? ha!

Clothes: Pretty much wearing 3-6 month stuff now. A couple of her 3 month clothes are too small! She's in a size 2 diaper now, too. I have GOT to start shopping at baby consignment stores, because I'm spending way too much money on cute, new clothes that she's going to wear a couple times then outgrow!!!!! It's just so much fun shopping for girls clothes!

purple day at daycare :)

Favorite Moments: Getting to give her a big hug after daycare... Getting to sleep a full night's sleep every other night (thanks to Ryan for taking turns on "baby duty").... Watching her discover things... Her touching my face and cooing when I see her for the first time after work/daycare... and when she looks straight in my eyes and gives me a HUGE smile. Night time has become really sweet too. I feed her her bottle and then let her doze off on me for a little while before I swaddle and put her to sleep. She always smiles right before she passes out :)

Most Challenging: I don't know if I've written about this before, but Molly has a clogged tear duct in her left eye. She's had it since she was born, and it has just made that eye really teary for the most part. Well, the last couple weeks, it's gotten really gunky, and there have been a few instances where her eye was sealed shut! So sad! (That's the original reason we went to the doctor on Tuesday.) So that's been challenging to deal with since she's been born, because we have to constantly wipe her eye, get gunk off of her eyelashes and massage her tear duct (which is SUPER easy with a squirmy 3.5 month old). :)

On our way to the doctor...Don't you just love her?

Looking Forward To: Her laughs! Sleeping!

weekend wrap-up

2012-01-16T16:06:00.000-06:00

Friday: After work, Ryan, Molly and I went over to Mom & Steve's house for fajitas with my brother Jon, Steve's daughters Jamie and Julie as well as Jamie's husband Jason and their baby Jaxon (lots of J's in our family now). Molly was pretty fussy right after she ate, so we just swaddled her and put her in the swing..she napped for 2 hours! We had to wake her up! She's definitely going through a growth spurt (more on that later). It was nice to eat dinner and have some adult conversation without any interruptions, though :) That night, everyone convinced us that Molly is probably ready to sleep in her own room. Soooo we tried it that night, and it didn't phase her one bit! I'll give a full account of that on her weekly update, but I think it was pretty successful.

P.S. Still LOOOOOVING our monitor! My new favorite feature is the "talk" feature that allows you to talk into the monitor (like a walkie talkie), and the baby can hear it in her nursery like a PA system! So cool. This morning, I was feeding her in her room, and all of a sudden I heard Ryan's voice from the bedroom saying, "I can see you....." Ha!

Saturday: Molly and I were up early, and we just played and talked all morning while we let Daddy sleep in a little bit. Then, Ryan dropped Molly off at his parents' house so we could get stuff done. I took down all of our Christmas decorations, cleaned the house and did about 6 loads of laundry. P.S. Now that Molly's in her room, we've found a great use for the Pack 'n Play in our bedroom... Yay for a place to dump clean laundry that needs to be sorted! ;)

We took some time to relax too! I took almost a 2-hour nap and Ryan played his games in peace :) It was a nice day. That evening, we went over to the McCradys' house for pizza and brownies. Molly was being such a ham and smiling, cooing and talking! So fun!

Sunday: We attempted to go to church, but it had been a really rough night.. Molly was up every hour after 3:30, so it was just NOT going to happen. We stayed home and finished laundry, and I went to the grocery store for a MASSIVE trip. Judging by the cart, I definitely spent a lot of money. Yikes.

But YAY because I'm trying new meals this week, and I'm excited so far! On Sunday I made slow-cooked BBQ chicken sandwiches, and they were a hit! Recipe is here. They were on toasted hamburger buns, and they will definitely be added to our dinner rotation. Yay!

Tonight we're eating yummy pot roast from the crock pot, and I'm so excited to come home to smell the house! Today's lunch, however, was NOT so tasty. Yummy turkey cubes on a bland salad. Can I just go ahead and lose those 30 pounds already?

hodgepodge

2012-01-13T09:10:00.000-06:00

i signed molly up for baby dedication at our church. i feel like an adult... cue dress shopping! :)
just found out a friend from college is expecting sextuplets! SIX babies! i can't even imagine... wonder if she'll get her own reality show.
so happy it's friday. looking forward to sleeping a little more (notice i didn't say "sleep in" because molly doesn't do that).
i'm getting into the swing of my new job, which feels good. it's nice to not feel like i have no idea what i'm doing!
since i've been back to work, i haven't cooked once! i'm just so tired after work. i don't know how people do it. i don't even know when i have time to go to the grocery store!
i don't know why, but i have this urge to make valentines day really special this year. ryan and i never really go all out because our anniversary is the next month. BUT, i'm thinking we could use a really nice night out!
i've been terrible about drinking water lately. since i've been so tired, i'm basically back to being a caffeine addict. coffee in the morning, soda in the afternoon and with dinner. ugh! i know i'd feel better if i'd just drink water like i'm supposed to, but whenever i have a choice, i always "need" the caffeine! hopefully just the phase of life i'm in right now.
lastly, here's just a really cute picture of molly because i can't stop taking pictures...
have a good weekend!

molly by the week (14)

2012-01-12T07:00:00.021-06:00

Molly is 14 weeks old today!

Stats: After weighing her with me on the scale, she's about 13 pounds! (Our scale kept giving me a different number, but 13 pounds was the average...)

Milestones: Still eating her hands a lot, she brings things up to her mouth--especially toys and the blanket in the car seat. She had her first day in the nursery at church and did SO well! She looked so cute in her little church outfit, and she did great at lunch after church, too. Yay for church as a family!

Feeding: Still 4 ounces every 3 hours. We graduated up to size 2 nipples for her bottles so I think that's helping her eat a little quicker (it was taking forever before). She's so sweet and just stares at me when I'm feeding her. Such a special bonding moment.

Behavior: She's sooooo happy, and we just love it. We didn't realize how "off" she was when she was sick until she got better and back to her SUPER happy self! She loves it when I take her out of the swaddle in the morning and just dances around on the changer. She smiles SO big at her daddy, and she still loves bath time. Almost all the pictures you see of her REALLY smiling is because her daddy is prompting her :) I love it.

Also, she's been liking her jumperoo. Not loving it yet, but I think she will in a couple weeks. She can definitely stay entertained in it for up to 20 minutes before fussing, so that's good! We just have to turn it away from the TV because she will just stare at it if we let her.

A couple notes about this video: 1: I'm not even ashamed that we still have our Christmas decorations up. They make me happy. 2: I can't tell if she didn't like the jumperoo or if she didn't like that she involuntarily jumped every time she had a hiccup.

Yes, our house has completely gone to Baby Land.

Sleep: Ugh, it has not been a good week for sleep. We thought after she got over her cold that she'd be a better sleeper. Well, the last 3 nights, she's woken up every 3 hours. UGH. If it keeps happening, I may take her to the doctor to get checked out for an ear infection since those are common after being sick. It hasn't been fun to not get much sleep these past few nights and then go into work exhausted. I just keep saying, "It's only a small season of life. She won't always be sleeping in 3-hour increments."

Also, since she naps in a crib at daycare, we decided to start trying naps in her crib at home (we'd been using the swing for naps pretty exclusively). So far, she's only taking 45-minute naps at home in her crib, but I'm having fun using the monitor for the first time! :)

Clothes: Wearing 3 month, 3-6 month sleepers, and a few shirts from target that are 9-month and 12-month (we have to roll the sleeves up, but they fit her everywhere else). Random! I basically just have to hold things up and eye-ball it to see if it would fit her. Still in size 1 diapers. She loved her little Juicy tracksuit that Grammy got her for Christmas!

Favorite Moments: We've had some really sweet moments lately. Monday night after her bath, I had fed her and swaddled her, and then we just sat and stared at each other and smiled back and forth :) I got all teary-eyed because I just love her so much, and I can't believe that Ryan and I (along with God of course) CREATED her, and she's perfect and healthy and smiling back at us with all the love in the world. It's just such an amazing feeling. You just really can't beat the feeling of having your child smile at you and see the love in their eyes. Makes all those hard moments totally worth it!

Another sweet moment: After I picked her up from daycare and brought her home, I laid her on the bed and just stood over her while I talked and kissed her. She smiled so much and reached up to touch my face while she coo'ed and gurgled. It was the sweetest! It was like she was saying, "hi mommy! so good to see you!"

Most Challenging: I miss her so much while I'm at work. I just look at her pictures on my phone, watch little videos of her and stare at my "Molly" picture wall. At the end of the day, I literally can't wait to scoop her up and kiss all over her. So, it's challenging right now. Also, the sleep is challenging.

Looking Forward To: Those 8-12 hour sleep stretches I've heard about with older babies. :) And, still waiting for her to really laugh. We've had some "I think that was a laugh" moments, but I think we'll really KNOW when it happens.

These pictures (and this paragraph) have nothing to do with anything, but they're just cute. She's loving that rattle bunny. Ryan (of course) has named him Rumble Bunny. He creates names for ALL of her toys. Her birds on her bouncer & swing are named Blue Boy, Pinky and Lighting Bolt. Her bunny that's sort of a blanket is called Mr. Bun. So funny. She also liked to watch her letters on her wall next to the changing table. In particular, she liked the letter "O", but sadly Ryan didn't come up with a special name for that. He just says, "Wanna see O?" Could have been Mrs. O or Mr. O but I guess not :)

Happy 14 weeks, baby girl!

a comparison...

2012-01-11T16:25:00.001-06:00

These 2 videos are shocking to me! (Click on the 4 arrows or black part to make them bigger on your screen.)

Molly in the morning at 1 week, 2 days old:

Molly in the morning at 13 weeks, 2 days old:

Isn't it crazy how much can happen in such a short period of time? God is so good. Can't even believe she was that small only 3 months ago!!! We love her. She gets more and more fun every day :)

things i've found on pinterest

2012-01-10T13:05:00.000-06:00

Pinterest sure is addicting....Here are some fun things I've found lately that I love!

so fun for a nursery!

Source: poshtots.com via Amy on Pinterest

snowman shots! too cute!

Source: blogs.babble.com via Janet on Pinterest

this makes me feel better. i am always a hot (literally) mess after i work out.

Source: Uploaded by user via Sarah on Pinterest

making my mouth water just thinking of these! must try!

Source: fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

cute gender reveal idea.. maybe for the next one!

Source: sookiesaysblog.blogspot.com via Bethany on Pinterest

if we did this with ryan's ties, we'd have a very blue wreath
(in every shade). haha.

Source: blog.sustainablog.org via kaleigh on Pinterest

i've seen this on a lot of blogs, and i think it's so cute & easy!

Source: thestewartestate.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

i've always had trouble with this!

Source: Uploaded by user via Kimmi on Pinterest

great idea...

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Cindy on Pinterest

unique way to label christmas gifts!

Source: michellehudson.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

ohhhh if only i cooked more than 1x a week...

Source: clairsfairytale.blogspot.com via Keri on Pinterest

again, i might have to do this for the next one! how stinkin cute!

Source: uwdecals.com via Stacy on Pinterest

fun idea (and paint swatches are free!)

Source: ohcrafts.net via Naomi on Pinterest

weekend wrap-up in bullets

2012-01-09T10:44:00.002-06:00

i'm really tired. it's a dark, rainy, cold monday... i forgot how hard mondays are :) i'm really missing the ability to curl back up in bed and let ~~molly~~ mommy sleep for a couple more hours before we leisurely wake up around 11 :) ah, the life of a working mom!

WHY are my iPhone pictures grainy sometimes?!?
the weekend was so nice. willis & brandi came to town on thursday, and we met up with them at blue goose for some yummy queso & mexican food. they had plans for the rest of the weekend, so we chilled out on friday night and got to share breakfast at home with them on saturday before they left to go back to kansas. it was a nice, but short visit!
we literally chilled all day long on saturday. so nice. i drank a bunch of coffee and watched dvr'ed shows while ryan napped (he had had the night shift on friday night, and it was rough!)
saturday night we met up with dad, dawn & jon at outback. i ate way too much. it was fun though.
sunday, we FINALLY made it to church as a family! we got molly set up in the nursery and lucked out by having the mother of one of the girls i grew up with show us where to go and get us all registered. the newborn nursery was dim and had a circle of rocking chairs with sweet grandma-looking women taking care of the babies. i felt totally comfortable leaving molly there. they gave us a pager just in case, but they didn't have to use it! when we picked molly up, she was just chilling in a swing, happy as can be! yay!

after church, we went to lunch at whiskey cake, and i had the most amazing pancakes of my life.
then we came home and got in our pj's and hung out all day. molly took a 2.5-hour nap (!) which gave us a lot of relaxation time... perfect sunday!
sunday night, we met up with our friends at benihana to celebrate steph & kristin's 28th birthdays! as always, we had a blast. (pics to come)
after this weekend, i've come to 2 conclusions: weekends are definitely sweeter now that i'm back at work AND i need to eat better :)

molly by the week (13)

2012-01-05T08:28:00.000-06:00

Molly is 13 weeks old today!

Tomorrow she will be officially 3 months old! Ah, I have a 3-month-old baby! Growing too fast!

Milestones: She has really good head/neck control, and she's continuing to put pressure on her legs when I hold her in a "standing" position on my lap. I ordered one of those jumperoos, and it'll be delivered tomorrow! I can't wait to see her jumping away in it...I think she'll LOVE it! She's starting to drool a bit more and continues to eat her hand a lot, so we're thinking teething is right around the corner. She's also grabbing things more intentionally, so there's another reason the jumperoo is going to be fun for her.

Feeding: She's now eating 4 ounces every 3 hours. She's not eating much in her middle-of-the-night feeding, so I'm hoping this means she may be getting close to sleeping through the night without needing a feeding!!! Crossing my fingers!

Behavior: She's finally over the stupid cold she had, so she's back to her happy self! She's starting to understand the meaning of "attention", so if Ryan and I aren't looking at her while she's playing, she'll make little noises or little fake cries until we start playing with her again. Oh gosh, it's starting :) Also, she's turning into quite the "daddy's girl". He has about a 99% success rate of getting a smile or coo.

She still loves bath time, and we're getting close to introducing toys in the bath!

Sleep: She started back at daycare on Monday, but this time she is full-time (7:20am-5:20pm). She is pretty worn out at the end of the day, so she's sleeping better! I think with me going back to work and having the same routine every day, she's going to get on even more of a schedule which is a good thing :) She sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hours in her first big stretch starting at 10pm, and then sleeps for another 1-3 hours after that and gets up at 7pm when I wake her up. She's still sleeping in the pack 'n play next to our bed, so now that I'm back at work, Ryan and I take turns sleeping next to her and feeding her in the middle of the night. So, at least we get a good night's sleep every other night. It's working well so far.

Clothes: She's wearing 3-month clothes pretty consistently, and she's filling out her 3-6 month stuff, too. Ryan and I got a few new long-sleeved shirts for her at Target the other day, and we were shocked that even the 12-month tops looked like they'd fit her!

A lot of the 3-month and 6-month tops looked too small for her "buddha belly" :) We bought a few to just test them out. Baby sizing is so weird.

Favorite Moments: I've been playing a little game with her where I just kiss all over her face, and she just laughs (we think it's a laugh) and opens her mouth really wide. Even if she's crying, she still opens her mouth when I come in for the kiss. It is the CUTEST thing ever, and she's done that ever since she was born. Also, I love the moments in the mornings after I've gotten ready and it's time to wake her up. I open up her swaddle and watch as she just stretches and makes funny noises for a while. Then I pick her up and she snuggles all over me while I take her to her room to get changed. Then on the changing table, she's still groggy and stretchy, but super smiley. It's so precious.

Most Challenging: Obviously, going back to work this week and trying to get used to our new "normal". It just makes the weekends that much sweeter!

Looking Forward To: Same as last week---getting her to laugh and sleep more!

too much?

2012-01-04T15:02:00.000-06:00

I don't think it's a secret at work that I've had a baby recently... Just a guess.

Also, here are some beautiful flowers that my friend Annabella brought for my first day back yesterday. Isn't that thoughtful?

2012 hodgepodge

2012-01-03T10:59:00.001-06:00

i'm back at work today after 3 months of maternity leave! it's very strange. it feels like i've been gone for FOREVER and then at the same time it feels like i never left. it's really good to see all my friends. it's also a totally fresh start because i'm starting a WHOLE new position! now to just get my brain wrapped around everything...
everyone is asking me if i'm doing okay (i think they thought i'd be crying all day, but since molly has been going to part-time daycare for a few weeks, i'm really fine!) it's more of the anxiety of starting a whole new job rather than being gone from molly right now. i know she's in great hands, and i have some cute pictures of her to look at in my cube :)
new years eve was spent very low-key at home. we stayed in, ate pizza, i drank wine, ryan had a couple drinks, and we played with molly. we celebrated the new year with NYC at 11pm because we're old! we got a good new years kiss though :)
ryan's friend willis & his wife brandi are coming to stay with us this weekend (thurs-sun), and we're so excited to see them! it'll be interesting having house guests, a baby and all the animals to take care of. haha
so, my computer never got shut off after i left on 10/5, so it was really funny to see all my work IMs and the windows that i had up right before i left for that dr. appt. where i ended up getting induced!!! oh, how life has changed since then!
um that's really it for right now. just wanted to do a little update!!! hope everyone has had a great start to 2012!!!

2012 resolutions

2011-12-31T10:08:00.000-06:00

I don't think I've ever done this on the blog (and I'm too lazy to go check now), but I want to list a few New Years Resolutions, as cliche as they may be, because I need some goals to work toward...

1. Obviously, I want to get back to my pre-baby weight. This means, I need to lose 36 pounds. In addition to the tons of water weight that I lost within about a week after Molly was born, I've lost about 10 pounds on my own after watching what I eat and working out a little. I think losing 36 pounds in a year is VERY doable. If I'm being extra ambitious, I'd love to get back to my pre-wedding weight (an additional 20 pounds), but I had been trying to do that for about 3 years, so we'll just take it one step at a time :)

2. I want to get better about cooking and add a few more recipes to my rotation. I've been told about the Crockin' Girls website, and Pinterest has already given me some good ideas, so the key now is to actually TRY them. I'd really like to make dinner at least 2-3 times a week. This doesn't sound like much to most people, but if you knew how much Ryan and I just get food to-go, you'd understand.

3. This may sound stupid to most of you, but I want to be less rigid on keeping the house perfect. I have a little OCD when it comes to things being out of place, and I turn into kind of a crazy person if I feel the house is "out of control": aka lots of things not in their place. I think (and I'm not a psychologist, so I could be wrong) that I'm a control freak, and the house is one of the few things in my life that I can control, which is why I clean when I'm stressed out or feeling out of control. This tendency results in Ryan not feeling like he can really relax and be comfortable in our home because I'm constantly nagging him to pick up this, or pick up that, or put that away, etc. HELLO...this is our HOME. It SHOULD be a place of comfort and a place to let yourself go and relax, and this nit-picky, clean freak has GOT to get over that, especially since we'll have a little toddler messing everything up soon :)

Okay, I know that's only 3 resolutions, but they're kind of big.... And if I listed 10, it would be way too overwhelming for me! :)

Wish me luck, and have a very Happy New Year! Here's to 2012!

brown-eyed girl

2011-12-30T16:01:00.000-06:00

I just love her :)

my, how she's grown!

2011-12-29T22:29:00.000-06:00

Click to make bigger :)

Christmas decor & family pics!

2011-12-29T14:50:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures of our house this year :)

And here are some family pictures that Ryan's dad took of us this year... Molly's first Christmas!

Friend Christmas Party!

2011-12-29T14:44:00.000-06:00

This year, Cathryn hosted the annual Christmas party with all of our friends at her new house! She made some of the cutest things like the "melted snowman" cookies and snowman pretzels. We had a gingerbread man decorating contest, and Molly & I were the judges :) As always, it was a wonderful time with good friends.

Christmas recap

2011-12-29T14:28:00.001-06:00

Christmas Eve:

Mom and I did our annual baking day! I left Molly with Ryan and spent the whole day at Mom's house with Jon and Papa while we made treats. It was so much fun! We made little Santas out of Nutter Butters, Chocolate Turtles, White Trash and Fudge! Papa was a great taste tester, too :)

That night, Ryan and I met up with the family for our annual Christmas Eve dinner at Kobe Steaks! As always, the food was delicious, and it is still my favorite tradition!

After Kobe's, we went to Ryan's family's house to hang out and Skype with his brother Peter and wife Mikaela since they couldn't be there this year. We got home at midnight and passed out :)

Christmas Day:

We went to breakfast at Mom's house in our pajamas because we were exhausted. We looked pretty terrible but Molly looked adorable! Haha classic new parents... We had a great time eating pancakes in fun shapes as well as waffles and other yummy food. We had a great time opening presents with Mom, Steve, Papa and Jon while Molly slept in the swing.

After Mom's, we came home for a couple hours and got presentable :) We also opened our gifts to each other! Ryan got me THE diaper bag I'd been wanting since way before Molly got here. It had gone out of stock so many times, so I just bit the bullet and bought another one. But it came back and was the last one in the store so Ryan got it for me! So sweet! I got Ryan a couple shirts, a NorthFace fleece and a Fossil watch. It was a great year!

We went to Dad's house for the annual crab leg & prime rib lunch! It was so fun to see everyone and eat yummy food. We also got to meet Dad & Dawn's new mastiff puppy, Daisy! She was born on Molly's birthday, but I'm pretty sure she's going to grow a little faster than Molly :)

We were planning to go to Ryan's aunt & uncle's house in Sherman for dinner, but Molly wasn't feeling well, and Ryan's mom wasn't feeling well, so we decided not to make the 45 minute drive. We stayed home and had a "chill" night together. It was so nice.

Day after Christmas:

We had our annual "Couch Day", and watched lots of Modern Family while Molly slept a lot. We were all worn out. That night, we had Ryan's parents over for dinner to do our Christmas. They brought Rudy's, and I busted out our wedding China for the first time to make it a little fancy :) Molly also wore her new Christmas PJ's from Ryan's mom, and she looked SO cute!

All in all, a wonderful first Christmas as a family of 3! Next year will be SUPER fun when Molly is 15 months! :)

molly by the week (12)

2011-12-29T11:29:00.001-06:00

Today Molly is 12 weeks old! Randomly, that doesn't mean 3 months old... She'll be 3 months old next Friday the 6th which is 13 weeks. But still... 12 weeks is so big!!!

Stats: Probably about 12 pounds... She's becoming a real CHUNK! Look at these legs!

Milestones: She's getting some awesome hair on her head. I feel like it's all of a sudden grown so much in the last week! She's able to put pressure on her legs when I hold her up on my lap, and she's starting to be able to intentionally grab things. Here's a video of her "playing" with a toy I dangled from her bouncer.

Last but not least, she had her first Christmas! Pics are coming soon, but here are a few cute iPhone pics and a cute video of her on the way home from Dad's house at lunch.

Feeding: Still 3 ounces every 2.5 hours. 4 ounces after her bath and after her long stretch of sleep. Not spitting up quite as much, which is nice... But when she DOES spit up, I'm always surprised at how many things I find it on! My legs, arms, hair, her clothes, etc.. Haha.

Behavior: Well we thought we were out of the woods when it came to Molly's little cold, but we were WRONG! After she got better, she got worse, and it was so hard on her. She just wasn't happy. I finally took her to the doctor on day 10 of her being sick, and of course the doctor said she looked great and that it looked like she was on the mend. Hopefully SOON! We've been using saline spray, a humidifier, bulb aspirator and lots of love :)

Sleep: Not the worst, but not the best either. We haven't seen any of those 6+ hour stretches, but she's sleeping 4-4.5 hours in her first nighttime stretch, then she eats and sleeps 1-3 more hours. I'm ready for her to feel better!!!! She's napping well though.

Clothes: Fits perfectly into 3 month clothes (which makes sense), and she's almost ready to start wearing 3-6 month stuff. I'm pretty sure she's almost done with the 0-3 month clothes, and there's a big box full of newborn and 0-3 month clothes that we've packed away! Baby's getting big! Also, I think I'm just going to dress her in pink from now on, because she got mistaken for a boy at brunch the other day while wearing this outfit...

I guess she does look like a boy a little bit... When you're bald and wearing navy/yellow, I can see how that would be the assumption. But seriously--don't assume a baby is a he/she unless you're positive!

Speaking of boy, she is so excited her uncle Jon has graduated and is home from Detroit! Yay birthday twins!

Favorite Moments: When she just breaks out into a random smile for no reason... She was SUPER fussy right before I started taking this video, and then she just perked up! So funny.

Also, I think I got a first laugh out of her on Tuesday!

Most Challenging: Having a sick kid... and getting mentally prepared to go back to work on January 3rd.

Looking Forward To: Getting her to laugh and sleep more!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T13:49:00.000-06:00

We have a lot of fun Christmas posts coming up, including our house decorations, Secret Santa lunch with my girlfriends, Molly's first Christmas, our family pictures and the annual Christmas party with my lifelong friends!

So stay tuned... :)

molly by the week (11)

2011-12-22T09:42:00.014-06:00

Today Molly is 11 weeks old!

Stats: According to our scale, she's about 11.5 pounds!

Milestones: 2 good and 1 bad:
She met Santa (see those posts here and here)...

She went to her first girls brunch...

But she also had her first cold (boo). On Saturday night, she started getting really snotty, and she stayed sick through Wednesday. She basically slept (when she could breathe) and then ate, and then fussed until we put her to sleep again. So sad. I've gotten really good practice with the bulb nasal aspirator, my new NoseFrida and our new humidifier. Thankfully she's on the upswing now, but poor thing was just obviously not feeling well. Here she is cuddling with her daddy this weekend while we watched the first 2 discs of Modern Family.

P.S. It's really hard to laugh quietly when a baby is on your chest :)

Feeding: 3 ounces every 2.5 hours. 4 ounces after her bath and after her long stretch of sleep. Pretty consistent! She still spits up quite a bit, and apparently spit up a big glob of mucous at daycare (ick). Also, on the way to daycare, I heard her sneeze so I looked in the rearview mirror and saw a HUGE glob hanging out of her nose. She had a big smile on her face, and it just cracked me up. (I love how now that I'm a mom, I talk about snot like it's no big deal. Sorry, folks.)

Sleep: When she was sick, she couldn't breathe, so she woke up quite a bit...Her longest stretch was 3 hours... Ugh! But the last 3 nights, she's slept 6ish hours and then another 2ish, which is wonderful! Her new pattern seems to be sleeping from 11:30-5:30 and then 6-7:30. She must be feeling better!

Here she is doing her morning stretch after being released from the swaddle... I do the EXACT same thing and make the same kind of faces when I stretch. So funny how genetics work :)

(click the arrows or the black part to make the video larger)

Behavior: Obviously nobody likes to be sick, so she was a little fussy for a few days, but she's getting happier every day that she feels better.

Christmas shopping (before)

Christmas shopping 3 hours in... Girl needs more stamina :)

She still HATES tummy time, and we have been practicing a little at nights. Hopefully she learns to like it at least a little more :)

Clothes: Fully wearing 3 month clothes, and steadily outgrowing 0-3 month stuff. She's wearing some 3-6 month sleepers. She's still in size 1 diapers. Check out these jeggings! So cute!

Favorite Moments: She cracks me up sometimes. She'll just randomly start cooing and smiling for no reason, and I just wish I could figure out what's going on in her head...

Bath time is also a favorite... No matter what her mood has been all day, she always perks up in the bath, and it's so cute. Watch this video, and there's a little treat for those of you who make it to the end :)

(click the arrows or the black part to make the video larger)

Also, I love our feeding time in the middle of the night. She's so sleepy and just wants to cuddle after she finishes her bottle. Last night I let her rest on my chest for a little while, and I just kissed her all over and prayed a little prayer of thankfulness. I just love her. Finally, I have been loving our "dress up" times. Now that she tolerates things going over her head, she's much more fun to dress up and try on different outfits. She's a live doll :)

Most Challenging: Having a sick kid is not fun, but I'm glad we've made it through on the other side! It was NOT fun to suck the snot out of her little nostrils, and she absolutely hated it.

Looking Forward To: Her first Christmas!

Molly & Santa 2011

2011-12-18T19:44:00.000-06:00

The first of many! (Well, at least until she stops thinking it's cool to sit on Santa's lap!)

Molly meets Santa

2011-12-17T22:07:00.000-06:00

Tonight we met up with the Abbotts at the mall so our kiddos could meet Santa! I had so much fun picking out her outfit... The dress is a gift from Ryan's mom, and then I spent days searching for the perfect ruffly socks, bow and shoes! I thought she looked ADORABLE!

I had been hesitant to let Molly do the whole Santa thing since she's so young, but then I got all sentimental and wanted to document her first Christmas EVER. We made sure to sanitize her really well afterward :) We got there RIGHT as Santa and the "elves" aka teenaged girls who managed the line were taking their 1-hour break. So, we were FIRST in line and waited for an hour. That's a little tricky with two little babies!

Thankfully the kids did great, and we got some great pictures with Santa (will try to share soon once I can get the scanner out). After Santa, we went to eat at Cheesecake Factory and had a blast eating some YUMMMMMY appetizers and dinner (cheesecake to-go because we were stuffed)!

I'll end this post with the very first picture EVER of the McCradys & the Abbotts with our children! So blessed to have such wonderful friends to do life with!

our Christmas card

2011-12-17T14:57:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas from the McCradys!

Due to the fact that we can't send Christmas cards out to everyone that reads the blog, consider this our Christmas greeting to you! Since Molly was born in October (and I didn't want to lick a thousand stamps), we combined our birth announcement with our Christmas card, and I love the way it turned out! :) Wishing you ALL a wonderful holiday and happy new year!

molly's daycare christmas party

2011-12-16T20:28:00.000-06:00

Molly's wonderful daycare had a super fun Christmas party. This is the only party of the year that parents are invited, so I was really excited to go with her and meet all of the parents. Sadly, Ryan had a big evaluation at work so he couldn't join, but my mom and Gail came along!

Molly looked super cute in her festive outfit.

The first few minutes of the party were spent chatting with other parents and eating fun snacks. Then, the real show began: Mrs. Claus visited the daycare and did an adorable sing along and puppet show. The kids loved it.

Molly was a little too young to care this year... Next year will be much more fun for her :)

Tracy gave us a really cute ornament with Molly's picture on it, and she also gave Molly a cute stuffed snowman. Also, she gave all the parents a "coupon" for free childcare on the Saturday before Valentines Day so all the parents could have a date! So nice! Love this daycare.

After the party, we got a couple shots of Molly with her Grandma and her new stocking! Yay!

Babies make the holidays so much more fun :)

Q&A with the new daddy

2011-12-15T21:49:00.003-06:00

Here it is! I've compiled a bunch of questions (similar to the ones I asked him when I was pregnant) to get Ryan's perspective on this new thing we call parenthood. :)

How did you feel when Jen told you she would be induced that afternoon? Ummm I was shocked. I really thought that everything was on hold until Monday (the planned induction date), so the fact that she called to tell me it was "time"... I don't know if there's a word, but "shockingly happy" is probably right. I was so pumped but just surprised we weren't waiting until Monday.

How were you feeling in the hospital with Jen while she was in labor? I wanted to make it as comfortable and as easy for Jen as I could. I had little to no control on what was going on so I felt bad and guilty that I couldn't help in any other way other than saying things like "You're doing great" and "This will only last for a little while, and then we'll have our baby girl."

What was the hardest part about the labor process? Seeing Jen in pain, and there was nothing I could do about it to help her.

What was the best part of the labor process? Besides seeing our daughter and Jen being out of pain, I loved that Jen asked "Does she have 10 fingers and 10 toes?" after Molly was born. It was probably the most adorable thing ever.

How did you feel as Jen was pushing? The best way to sum up Jen and the whole "going into labor thing" is.... Jen OWNED labor. I was so proud that she was able to do it, and she made it seem so easy. I don't know what labor is like, but if Jen could do that, she's Superwoman.

Was there anything surprising about labor that you weren't prepared for? I thought that the epidural was going to make Jen not feel a darn thing. I was wrong. I was very surprised that Jen was in the amount of pain that she was in after the epidural.

What did you feel as soon as you saw Molly born? Holy Crap. This is the culmination of 9 months, and she is absolutely beautiful.

How was the hospital stay in your opinion? I'm not going to lie--it was kind of rough. All of a sudden, you have this baby in your life, and you don't have a clue what to do. I was so glad to have the nurses, but I can count on one hand the amount of sleep we got while we were there. And with all the family and friends coming to visit, and all the nurses, I never felt like we had a moment to rest.

In those first few nights home from the hospital, what was the best and worst part? Worst part was not having any help from the nurses or someone to answer any questions that we had. The best part was having quality time as a family in our own home.

What's your favorite picture of her? This one:

What is your favorite thing of Molly's? The blanket that Mrs. Dreher made for her. I just think it was so cool that someone actually made something for her that's so soft and beautiful. I think it's something we'll treasure for a long time.

What's your favorite nickname of hers? I call her a million different ones... MollyOlly, Molly Lolly, MollyPop, Molls, Mollet, Nugget, Molly Monster, MollyGirl, MollyBear, Mol.

What have you enjoyed most about parenthood? Coming home and seeing my daughter smile just for me.

What's been the hardest thing about parenthood? Learning Molly's quirks, learning her mannerisms, and not getting sleep.

What's the most surprising thing about parenthood? How quickly they change. And, how close it brings parents together. I would say that Jen and I worked well as a team before, but now it's on a totally different level.

What have been your favorite memories so far? Doesn't get much better than sleeping in with my wife and my baby in the same bed.

What has been some of the funniest moments so far? There are a few... When Jen was putting Molly in the swaddle (that looks like a straight jacket), Molly was crying, and I said in my Molly voice, "Don't do it Momma! I promise I'll be better!" We laughed for a long time, but Jen laughed until she cried. Another one: Jen was trying to feed Molly a full bottle, and when she tilted the bottle down, it accidentally squirted formula all over Molly's face. She didn't cry or anything, so we both cracked up.

What's your favorite thing about Molly? Her smiling. I love it when I talk to her and get her to smile and coo at me. I love that we can have little random conversations. They're great.

What are you looking forward to? Real conversations. Seeing what she likes to do, what she doesn't like to do.

What's one piece of advice you'd give to other new dads? Relax, and take it all in because so much happens so fast. Also, be an encouragement to your wife and choose to make life easier by working as a TEAM. That's the most important thing.

molly by the week (10)

2011-12-15T14:13:00.000-06:00

Today Molly is 10 weeks old! TEN weeks. Double digits...girl is getting old! :)

Milestones: Nothing new developmentally, but she did meet Machen's 2 daughters, Elizabeth and Cecliy! Elizabeth LOVED playing with her, and Machen & I enjoyed catching up while watching our kids play (we are officially old).

Feeding: Still eating 3 ounces every 2.5 hours. At night, she has 4 ounces before bed, and then she has 4 ounces after her long stretch of sleep. It's working pretty well!

Sleep: On Tuesday night, she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! Halleluyah! She slept from 11:15 to 6:45!!!! That's 7.5 hours!!!! Last night, she slept 5.5 hours and then 3 hours, so we're definitely not "there" yet, but we're really happy with her progress. With the exception of Tuesday night, she's been waking up only once a night for a feeding and then goes right back to sleep. She's sleeping in the pack 'n play in the Nap Nanny next to me, and that's working really well (and I'm able to sleep on my belly again since she's not sleeping ON me anymore)! I'm thinking we'll wait until she's sleeping 7+ hours pretty consistently before we try putting her in her crib. It's just so much more convenient to roll over and pick her up to feed her in the middle of the night. She's still loving the swaddle, and it's been working wonders for her nap times and sleeping so well at night.

napping in her swing

bedtime conversations with daddy

precious little angel

(click the arrows or black part to view the video larger)

Behavior: SO HAPPY! She's happiest right after she eats (who isn't?), so that's when I can get all my good "photo shoots" in :) I think playing with other kids at daycare is going to be so good for her, too.

Clothes: She's outgrowing her 0-3 month clothes, and she is pretty consistently fitting into 3 month clothes. I went through her closet and got rid of A TON of newborn and 0-3 month clothes. It was so funny to get her to try on some of her smaller onesies because they were WAY too small for her growing belly! So cute! I made an impulse purchase the other day and bought her the most DARLING coat from Baby Gap. Is $47 worth it when she can only wear it for a few months? We'll see....

Also, funny story: When I picked her up from part-time daycare on Tuesday, Tracy had changed Molly's outfit because she spit up on the original one, so she was wearing one of the "back-up" outfits that I had provided a few weeks ago. Let's just say... She has WAY outgrown it :) It was pretty funny. Here's a before and after of when her outfit FIT and on Tuesday when it DIDN'T fit :) Check out those pants and that belly!!! Love it.

Favorite Moments: Seeing her grow and change every day. Getting her to smile and coo. So fun.

(click the arrows or black part to view the video larger)

Most Challenging: Thinking about going back to work... I'm so thankful for my job, and it'll be great to see my friends again, but I'm sad about these days coming to an end. It's been the best time of my life.

Looking Forward To: Getting Molly's pictures with Santa this weekend! The holidays with a baby make me feel like even more of a parent! I used to see those parents with babies in line to see Santa, and now that's going to be us! :) It's a small but special thing :)

can't handle the cuteness

2011-12-13T22:01:00.001-06:00

For what you're about to witness, I will not apologize....

Yes, this is basically 15 versions of the same photo, but I'm posting unapologetically because:

1. This hat was made by our awesome baby photographer, Katie Engelbert.

Um yeah, she not only takes amazing photographs, but she KNITS hats and GIVES them to her clients just to say thanks! Love.

2. It finally fits.

3. My kid is just so dang cute.

4. It's my blog, so I can do what I want. In this case, that includes posting basically 15 versions of the same photo.

And now a video of basically nothing... But the hat just automatically makes her cuter :)

(click the black part or the 4 arrows to view the video larger)

you know you're a new mom when...

2011-12-12T16:22:00.004-06:00

You know you're a new mom when....

You see those baby birth shows on tv, and you think, "definitely not ready for that again"...and then you cry tears of joy when the baby's born.

You want to chat with every mom you encounter because you feel like you automatically have a common bond.

You go to the mall, and your first stop is to look for baby clothes instead of clothes for you.

You could spend a whole afternoon in your baby's room organizing their clothes, and you get really sad when you realize they've outgrown your favorite outfits (even though you know it's a good thing that they're growing).

You count it a "good night" when your baby sleeps 4.5 hours followed by 2 more hours.

You could sing every song to your baby's activity center by heart....and those songs are constantly stuck in your head.

Even if you're on the other side of the house and nobody else can hear, your Super Sonic Mom Ears can detect your baby's cry.

You've learned it's not worth it to do your hair unless you're going to be in pictures. Otherwise, it's in a pony tail to block the spit up and hair pulling.

You know that one burp cloth is never enough.

You have your camera/phone permanently attached to you so you can always be ready to capture those precious moments (and take about a thousand pictures of basically the same thing).

You've learned the art of crawling into your creaky bed without making any noise, so as not to wake up your light-sleeper of a baby snoozing next to you in the pack 'n play.

Even when your baby isn't in the bouncer, you find yourself compulsively bouncing your foot back and forth.

When you hear other babies cry, you feel the need to "shhhh" them because that's what calms your baby, and/or you have instant compassion for the parent.

You only change clothes if the spit up is soaking through your shirt/pants, and it's uncomfortable.

You have "stations" all over the house just in case the baby goes crazy and needs something, and you don't have time to make it to the other room.

You're pretty sure your baby's first words will be "Insert Animal's Name Here, NO!"

Your diaper bag is packed to the gills, and only you know exactly how it's organized. Also, you could find anything you need in it without even looking.

You always get the "joy" of changing the massive blow-out diapers, when your husband conveniently lucks out with just wet ones.

Speaking of blow-out diapers, you've mastered the art of making the dirty diaper do ALL the clean up work for you so you only need 1 or 2 wipes no matter how terrible the load is.

TMI? Not anymore :)

Have any more to add? Feel free to comment :)

showing the pets some blog love...

2011-12-12T13:52:00.000-06:00

For those of you who read this blog before Molly was born, you'll know that I used to post a TON of pictures of the pets. We were quite obsessed with them before our actual human child came into the mix. Thus, the blog has become a little Molly-heavy, as it should be. But, to show that we still love our animals, I thought I'd share some pictures of what they've been up to since Molly was born. I think you'll agree that their activities can be summed up in one word: Sleep. Oh the life of a pet.

Here are the adventures of Scout, Queso and Tuxie A.M. (After Molly).

Scout & Queso LOVE the fire. Thought this was so funny that they were laying in the same direction.

Queso's favorite spot is under the Christmas tree. It's close enough to the fireplace that he can stay warm :)

My view from feeding Molly in the armchair. S&Q were enjoying the festive house...

Queso's been super lovey. This was him after jumping in lap and getting white hair all over my black dress :)

Tuxie enjoying the sunshine (arms hanging down). haha

Such a hard life.

Doesn't he look comfy?

Scout snoring on the couch with his chew bone.

Buddies sunbathing.

I let him take a nap here because he'd been such a good dog that day. He loves the Nap Nanny.

Sunbathing again.

A rare moment with Queso & Tuxie actually liking eachother :)

Queso's favorite spot.

I heard Scout's claws hitting something in the kitchen for about 10 minutes. Finally, I went to check on him, and found him on the window sill. No idea how he got his rotund body up on that little window sill but it cracked me up. Queso doesn't seem to be impressed.

Obviously starved for attention, Queso used my cereal eating time as his cue for some rubbing :)

proud to be a Baylor Bear!!!!

2011-12-11T10:03:00.001-06:00

Last night, Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy and made every Baylor Bear SO PROUD!!!

Ryan and I were on a very rare date night, and we kept checking our phones as we awaited the news, but just as we were leaving Carabbas, we found out he won!!! We did a big SIC 'EM in the restaurant, and then went to see the Muppets movie :)

But before we left for our date, we took a few (okay a TON) of pictures of Molly all decked out in her Baylor gear just in case RG3 won. She looked adorable, and the pictures are even more fun now that he has won!

We were planning to use this picture if RG3 lost, and we could caption it saying "He was robbed!", but it worked out anyway... "He won?!?!?!?!"

So happy he won!!!

And now, just a few more from my actual camera, because A. You can't have too many pictures in a Baylor tutu and B. We're a little excited around here :)

Sic 'em Bears!!!!

(And let's all say a collective prayer that Molly can get a great SCHOLARSHIP if she wants to go to Baylor in 18 years! Ha!)

coming soon: Q & A with the new daddy

2011-12-09T16:50:00.001-06:00

Have any questions for Ryan? I'm going to do another Q&A like we did while I was pregnant with Molly. Except this time, it'll be all about labor from his perspective and what it's like to be a dad so far. So if you have any questions you're curious about, feel free to ask in the comments! I think it'll be fun to get the guy's perspective on parenthood.

Have a good weekend!

molly by the week (9)

2011-12-08T15:03:00.001-06:00

Today Molly is 9 weeks old! Can't believe it!

Stats: At her 2-month dr. appt. on Tuesday, she weighed 10 pounds 13 ounces. We were TOTALLY thinking she weighed something like 12 pounds, but we were completely wrong! She is in the 50th percentile for weight which is perfectly perfect. Her head is 15.3" (50-75th percentile), and she is 22.5" long (50-75th percentile). She is developing excellently, and we're so proud! At the appointment, there was a medical student shadowing the pediatrician, and Molly was putting on quite the show... She was smiling at him, trying to force both hands into her mouth, and she had the cutest hiccups ever.

Milestones: We have a completely new baby! Only a couple days at her daycare, and she was whipped into shape (in the most loving way possible) by Tracy. She now loves to nap in her swing (which she never cared for before), and she's on a great eat-wake-sleep schedule!!! Here she is at Tracy's house on "wear red" day :) She's soooo cute. Tracy updates her daycare's facebook page with pictures and videos throughout the week, and it's so nice to see little updates! It'll be really nice when I'm back at work and can check up on my girl throughout the day.

The following picture has nothing to do with anything, but it was a cute shot of her with her Nana and Grumps at dinner the other night. She was so happy and wide awake because she was in the "wake" period of her schedule. Have I mentioned that I love that she's on a schedule??!?!

Feeding: She eats 3 ounces every 2-3 hours. We feed her now when she wakes up from her naps, so she knows what to expect, which is really great. So, we don't have to carry as many bottles with us everywhere we go, because we can predict when she'll be hungry! Yay! She does spit up after almost every feeding though, but her doctor says that's perfectly normal as long as she's happy and gaining weight appropriately, which she is. We'll just need to carry more burp cloths around when we're burping her :)

Sleep: Once we figured out the eat-wake-sleep schedule as well as the nighttime bath-bottle-swaddle routine, she has been sleeping very well for the most part. On Friday night, she slept for 7 hours for Ryan, and we thought we'd officially had a breakthrough...Alas, on Saturday night, her longest stretch was only 3 hours (bummer). Sunday and Monday nights (the first 2 nights we've all slept in the same room as a family), she's only woken up once in the middle of the night, so I think that's really good for her! Especially since she's only weighing almost 11 pounds.

this was her last night after her bath & bottle... she obviously wasn't ready to sleep yet :)

(look! it's Scoutie on her pj's!)

Behavior: She's so happy. I love it. Her mornings are still her happiest times, but she definitely likes her baths too. I think she wishes she could stay in the nice warm bath all night long because she does NOT like getting out :)

I think she is responding so well to having a schedule and routine...She's her mother's daughter. Also, she still LOVES her activity center. I pretty much have all of those songs stuck in my head at all times, but it's worth it for her to be stimulated and happy.

Clothes: Wearing 0-3 month clothes pretty consistently, and she can wear a few 3 month outfits. On her way to the doctor, she wore a 3-6 month hoodie and pants only because it was the warmest outfit we had, and it was FREEZING outside! Isn't she the cutest thing in the world?

Favorite Moments: This weekend was pretty awesome. We stayed in the whole time with the Christmas lights on and the fireplace warming us up. We watched movies and cuddled with our girl. It was so nice and relaxing.

Most Challenging: Watching her scream in pain while getting those shots at the doctor. Thankfully she got over it pretty fast and was smiling and cooing within a few minutes. Although, she pretty much slept/fussed all day after that.

Looking Forward To: I can't really think of anything at the moment. Life is pretty sweet right now :)

this weekend so far...

2011-12-03T16:10:00.001-06:00

Last night, we went to our Sunday School class' Christmas party at Paul & Robin's house. It was a "tacky Christmas" theme, so we had fun going all out and wearing our fun attire. Molly (of course) couldn't be tacky because we had too many cute Christmas things for her to wear :)

the only people who got the "tacky" memo :)

Case, Courtney, Ryan, me & Molly

our family

Molly's boyfriend Case giving me a nice little head pat :)

Last night (as I wrote in the post below), Molly slept for 7 hours and then another 2 with Ryan! Woohoo! I got to get about 9 hours in the guest room! Since Molly is sleeping pretty well now, we've agreed that Ryan and I can sleep together again. We'd been sleeping separately so Ryan could get sleep for work, and I could get sleep on the weekends. But now, we're ready to get back to normal! :)

Today has been spent relaxing at home. It's been raining all day, and I've had 3 cups of coffee. Delish. Also, our Christmas lights are on, and Molly has been taking really good naps and following her eat-play-sleep schedule really well. (More on that in her 9-week update.) Ryan and I have watched 2 Harry Potter movies today, and we're now watching the Baylor vs. UT game. Oh please, let us win!!! Tonight we're going over to Ryan's parents' house to help them get their Christmas tree down from the attic (it's massive) and eat dinner with them.

Tomorrow we're bringing Molly to church with us for the first time! It's been 3 months since we've gone!!!! I got sick about 3 weeks before Molly's birth, and then we've been waiting until she's older and a little more predictable with her behavior before we bring her to class with us. I think we're ready!!

In other news, I go back to work a month from today. Sadness. I guess I should be thankful that I still have a whole month left. I mean, that's still longer than any other vacation I had taken before. :) I will be soaking up this time for sure!!! These are the good days!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

happy

2011-12-03T13:54:00.001-06:00

Three things to share:
1. Molly slept for 7 hours with Ryan last night (ohmygosh)
2. Ryan and I will finally be sleeping in the same bed starting on Sunday night! Yay marriage!
3. Molly was really cute and cooing this morning. Thought I'd share.

(click the black part of the video to view it larger)

Fourth thing (oops, I lied about the three things):

Molly gets her 2-month shots on Tuesday, and I'm really nervous about her being fussy/not sleeping/feverish for a long time after that. Moms: how long were your babies not themselves after their 2-month shots?

molly by the week (8)

2011-12-01T07:00:00.001-06:00

Molly is 8 weeks old today!!!

Milestones: LOTS this week!

She had her first roadtrip! We went to Ryan's brother Peter's wedding in San Antonio last weekend, and she did great in her carseat for 6 hours!

don't worry. we were stopping for gas so I unhooked her so she could stretch out a little. promise she was always safely in her carseat harness. ;)

our car set up with the mirror so we could see her

Therefore, she went to her FIRST wedding! She was the wedding's honorary flower girl :)

our family at the wedding :)

She saw her FIRST Christmas tree and fire in the fireplace while we watched Elf and decorated!

She has started grabbing things intentionally on her activity mat. Also, she can sit up fully in her Bumbo seat which is really fun.

sweet girl

this face cracks us up

big couch, little girl :)

Most importantly, she slept for 6.5 hours straight! (More on this below.)

Feeding: She's still eating 2 ounces at a time unless she wakes up from a big nap, in which case she eats 4 ounces. I'm trying to feed every 3 hours, but obviously if she's screaming because she's hungry, I feed her :) Here she is being fed by Auntie Ashley in Austin on our way back from SA last weekend...

Sleep: WELL. Up until Tuesday night, she was still only sleeping on our chest. Ryan and I have always known this isn't ideal because it can create attachment issues, it's not safe for her because she could suffocate or we could roll over, etc. But, Ryan's cousin Mandy who is a pediatrician, along with Tracy (Molly's daycare lady--she started part-time this week because her slot opened up early), really encouraged us to break that habit as soon as possible. So, we bit the bullet last night. We'd heard from a couple friends that their babies responded well to a "bath, bottle, bed" routine at night, so we started with that. And then, Tracy encouraged us to try one of those special swaddling blankets so we tried that (I was skeptical because Molly hasn't ever really liked being swaddled). So we bathed, fed, and swaddled Molly, and... SHE SLEPT FOR 6.5 HOURS STRAIGHT! Her longest EVER stretch before that night was 5 hours, but that only happened once. Her average sleep stretches were about 3 hours, so for her to sleep 6.5 hours is UNHEARD OF! I'm so excited! I really hope this routine continues to work. Maybe within a week or so, we can try to get her to sleep in her crib for that amount of time so Ryan and I can finally sleep in the same bed! Ha :)

the baby straight jacket :)

Sweet pic of her and her daddy in our hotel room this weekend... So precious.

Behavior: Happy as a clam :) Unless she's gassy, in which case we give her Little Tummy's gas drops.

(click video to make it bigger)

Clothes: Definitely in 0-3 months, and she even wore a couple 3 month outfits this weekend! Getting so big!

Favorite Moments: Her coo-ing and big smiles. Also, it was pretty cool to see our house all decorated for Christmas, just with a baby included :) We are blessed.

Most Challenging: I'm really nervous about her 2-month shots next week. I've heard they're harder on the parents than the baby because it's pretty traumatic. I just remember her scream from her 1-month shot, and I'm REALLY not looking forward to seeing what she does with THREE shots. Yikes.

Looking Forward To: Getting the sleeping figured out. Hopefully we've had a breakthrough!

thoughts on maternity leave

2011-11-30T16:19:00.000-06:00

In the words of Pam Beesley:

"What was maternity leave like? Oh, how do I explain it...

It rocked. It rocked my [face] off."

I didn't know what to expect with maternity leave. Don't get me wrong--I was excited to have a break from work for 3 months and to be home during the holidays. But, everyone warned me that it wouldn't be a vacation; it would be my "other" full-time job.

For the most part, "they" were right. The first month especially, was kind of a blur. I'm so thankful for facebook mobile uploads because I can go back and remember what I actually did on those days. I pretty much just tried to survive in pajamas on very limited amounts of sleep, lots of caffeine, lots of diapers and a few tears (both mine and Molly's). On the upside, we barely spent any money on food because our Sunday School class brought dinners for 2 weeks, and our parents helped us out a ton. And since I barely left the house, our bank account really loved us that first month.

Month 2 was spent coming out of my proverbial "maternity cave", buying some actual jeans that didn't have spandex attached to the top, going out and seeing friends, actually letting our parents watch Molly while we (gasp) left them alone with her so we could go on dates. It was also spent getting into a pretty nice groove during the weekdays. I'd wake up with Molly, make coffee, do our little morning routine of cleaning bottles and watching DVR'ed shows while she bounced in her bouncer and took naps on my chest all afternoon. Bliss.

Month 3 starts tomorrow, and I'm a little nervous. Molly starts part-time daycare because her slot opened up early, and we didn't want to lose it. Besides the obvious sadness of her being away from me for a few hours a day, 3 days a week, it makes me sad because I'm realizing this once-in-a-lifetime experience is coming to a close. I know I'm going to look back on these 3 months and have such a sense of gratitude. Other than the weekends and my 3 weeks of vacation a year, I won't ever get this kind of bonding time again. It's so special, and I haven't taken a second of it for granted. During my remaining 34 days at home, I plan to soak everything up. I'm planning on lots of cuddles with my girl, cherishing the holidays with family and enjoying the quiet, laid-back days at the house in our pajamas.

Today, there were plenty of things I could have gone out and done (um Christmas shopping? yikes!), but I decided to stay in bed with my girl and camp out with coffee and the laptop. It's been a glorious day. I never want to forget these times. Thank God for maternity leave.

molly by the week (7)

2011-11-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Today Molly is 7 weeks old!

Milestones: Nothing major has happened in the last week. It's been pretty quiet. She celebrated her first Baylor victory when we beat OU on Saturday. Ryan was SO excited, but he had to stay silent so she'd stay asleep. It was really cute to see him silently freaking out while she was passed out.

Feeding: Still doing on-demand feeding. I'm so confused (based off of all the different opinions and experts out there) about when I should start trying to schedule her feedings. Until I figure it out, I'm feeding her when she cries and after I've exhausted all other possible reasons for crying.

Sleep: I made the terrible mistake of changing her formula last week which resulted in her being VERY gassy, very unhappy and only sleeping 1.5 hours (max) at a time. It was rough. We are back to the original formula, and she's sleeping better, but we still haven't seen any of those 4-hour stretches from a few weeks ago. I really hope we can get back on track with her sleeping. Also, she's still falling asleep on our chest, and then we put her in the pack 'n play or just fall asleep with her. We'll have to wean her off of that soon.

Behavior: Like I said above, that formula really did a number on her, but since we've gone back to the original, she is very happy again.

Clothes: She has graduated to size 1 diapers, and she's fully in her 0-3 month clothes. The newborn footie pajamas are getting too short for her long legs. She finally fit into one of my favorite of her 0-3 month outfits (below). Isn't she cute?!

Favorite Moments: Still the mornings when she's super happy and smiley.

(click to make video bigger)

Most Challenging: Figuring out how to get on a schedule. I'm reading Baby Wise, but I'm not sure if I agree with some of it, so I'm really confused about what to do. Everyone has an opinion, and so many people are super judgy!

Looking Forward To: Sleeping again... Sigh :)

my, how she's grown!

2011-11-22T18:33:00.000-06:00

(click to make bigger)

Can't believe she'll be 7 weeks on Thursday!

hodgepodge

2011-11-21T21:56:00.000-06:00

on saturday, i dropped molly off at dad & dawn's house while steph, cat & i went to go see breaking dawn part 1 at studio movie grill. sooooo good! (i don't know why this picture turned out so grainy)

after the movie, we went shopping, and i bought molly some really cute christmas outfits! can't wait to see them on her... it was SO much fun to be out with the girls!

scout is just as attention-hungry as ever. today, my friend julie came to visit molly, and scout wouldn't leave her alone! oh well... hopefully he'll get better soon.

ryan's brother is getting married this weekend! it'll be a great weekend with family, and hopefully molly cooperates through the ceremony :)
i'm really excited for thanksgiving this year! i can't believe it is already that time of year. i seriously feel like i slept my way through all of october!
i never thought i could love ryan more than i already did, but my heart just swells every time i see him with molly. our marriage has grown so much since she arrived, and we make the best team. i'm so thankful for him.

molly by the week (5 & 6)

2011-11-17T16:19:00.000-06:00

Molly is 6 weeks old today! That means my maternity leave is half-way over! Cue the hyperventilation! Ha, just kidding (kind of). Here's her 5- and 6-week picture....

Milestones: OH, she's changed SO much lately!!!! She has finally been able to focus on things in front of her, and she is full-on SMILING! Major milestone! It is soooooo much fun to watch her, especially in the mornings, because she's just so happy! She also coo's now which is suuuuuper cute.

(click the video to make it bigger)

Another milestone was her first real date with Case. I'm serious when I tell you my heart was about to burst while I was watching them interact. We have talked with Courtney and Chris for MONTHS about how we can't wait for Molly and Case to play together, so to actually see it in front of us was such a special moment. We love our friends! (Forgive the poor quality of the video. I accidentally took it upside down so I had to rotate it which messed up the HD quality.)

(click the video to make it bigger)

Feeding: We're doing on-demand feeding for right now. Her pediatrician says we can start to shape her into more of a schedule, but I pretty much just feed her when she won't calm down with any other method (pacifier, diaper change, burping, etc.) She's still eating 2-oz. at a time, but sometimes goes back-to-back if she's starving.

Sleep: Still takes her longest naps at night which is great because she has her days and nights figured out. I can't wait for her to really SLEEP through the night! She's still in our room and mostly sleeping on one of our chests. We're trying to get her to sleep a little in the pack-n-play which has been pretty successful. She sleeps during the day in her bouncer. The only downside to that is that you have to bounce it with your feet the whole time, and as soon as you stop, she wakes up... She startles really quickly---Girl got her light sleeping characteristic from her dad :)

Behavior: Like I said above, she is really smiling a lot now! She knows who we are, and she loves it when we kiss her and make funny noises. She also LOVES the little birds on her bouncer. As soon as you put her in it, she just looks at both of them and smiles like they're her best friends. So cute.

Clothes: She's definitely fitting into her 0-3 month clothes a little better. She hates anything that goes over her head (onesies/dresses) so to minimize the screaming, we keep her in zip-up or snap-up things, which works since it's getting colder outside anyway. Although, it's so funny when Ryan takes her at night because he's too tired to snap her up all the way... See below:

Favorite Moments: Definitely the mornings when she's super happy and smiley.

(click the video to make it bigger)

Most Challenging: Sunday night through all-day Monday, she only slept for 30 minutes at a time and CRIED basically the whole time she was awake. It was really challenging to do that by myself! But since, then she's been great, so I'm sure it was just a little fussy spurt. I'm so thankful for my mother-in-law and my mom who offered to help. I ended up dropping her off at my mom's house for a few hours so I could take a nap because that "crazy sleep-deprived monster" I was afraid of was starting to emerge.

Looking Forward To: I'm excited for her personality to emerge. And, also sleep through the night :)

falling behind

2011-11-15T12:56:00.000-06:00

AH! For someone who's obsessed with documenting every second of everything, you'd think I'd be better at blogging about our first baby! Granted, if you're friends with me on facebook, I'm sure you're 100% annoyed with my incessant updates!

I keep saying that it's crazy how fast the days go by when we're not even really doing anything! My day with Molly consists of: waking up late in bed, walking around with her in the baby bjorn while I wash bottles and do a little house stuff, feeding, changing, burping, bouncing her in her new favorite bouncer, watching DVR'ed shows and taking care of the animals. That's really not a very full day, but it just SPEEDS by. Before I know it, it's 5:30 and getting dark outside! I used to secretly scoff at the stay-at-home-moms (SAHMs) that would post on facebook about how "productive" their days were because they went to the post office, grocery store, did laundry, etc. I used to say, "Um so? I can do that on my lunch break!" But WOW, I am eating my words now. It is such a big production to get all of her stuff together, load the car, make it out of the house and get that kind of stuff done!

Anyway, this is really just a blog post about not blogging enough--lame I know. Stay tuned for her 5-week (yes I missed blogging that last week) and her 6-week (this Thursday!) updates. Also, I have a GAZILLION pictures of what we've been up to!

Until then, here's a public link to my mobile uploads album for all of you who aren't friends with me on facebook, so you can see a glimpse of our life lately :)

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Tuesday!!!

hodgepodge

2011-11-07T13:28:00.000-06:00

I ordered, addressed and stamped our baby announcements/Christmas cards already! I'm so proud of myself. They are in a stack just waiting to be mailed right before Thanksgiving. I think October is the best month for having babies (biased, I know), because you can just combine your baby announcement with your Christmas card! Saves money, stamps, etc. So nice. I'll wait until I've mailed them out before I show it on the blog, but I'll show you one of the pictures we used... Very Christmas-y!

Animal update: Scout has been a Stage 5 Clinger lately (sorry if you don't get the movie reference). AKA: He will not leave my side. He follows me into every room, and even if I can't give him attention, he is happy to just sleep at my feet. Tuxie has this fun new habit of BOLTING out the front door if you don't pay attention. It's SUPER fun to chase after him and dive into the bushes to fetch him out. Queso is sweet as can be. Although he's been bullying Tuxie a little bit... Maybe that's why Tuxie's trying to escape?

I bought dry shampoo for the first time, and I'm really interested to see how it works on my hair. Because I have a little munchkin attached to me 24/7, I'm only able to wash my hair 2x a week lately (gross, I know), so I'm really hoping dry shampoo makes me a little more hygienic.

Today I went a little crazy at the grocery store. I got 8 bags of candy cane kisses. They are my FAVORITE, and they went out of stock really early last year, so I am making sure to have enough to last us (me) through the holidays! Although, I am restricting myself to 1 after lunch and 3 after dinner. I could literally eat an entire bag in one sitting if I"m not careful.

I broke down and bought some "transitional" jeans yesterday. My pre-pregnancy jeans didn't fit, and I'd even outgrown my maternity jeans!! Granted, I got those maternity jeans when I was only 4 months pregnant, so a lot changed. But still... shopping for my new (for right now) size was not the most fun experience. Thankfully I have a couple of jeans that can get me through these awkward months as I try to lose my baby weight.
Speaking of weight, I lost 30 pounds in the first 10 days after Molly was born!!! 10ish of those pounds were from birth, and the other 20 was straight up WATER. I was that swollen. I still have about 35 pounds to lose (yes I gained a total of 65 pounds--whatever--at least half of that was out of my control!), so these next few months will be FUN. I'm going to do Weight Watchers as well as go back to the gym as soon as possible. Wish me luck!
I'm a little embarrassed about how excited I am for Breaking Dawn to come out in theaters!!!! I started reading all the books again, and it's getting me even more pumped. I will definitely have to leave Molly with Ryan or a babysitter on that night! Can't wait for a girls' movie night!

I've watched quite a few movies and tv shows this past month. I saw Footloose and 50/50 by myself in the theater (so nice to get out of the house for a couple hours)! My favorite new TV shows are: Revenge, Once Upon a Time, Pan Am and New Girl. It's great to have so many good shows to watch in the middle of the night.

Our new favorite song to sing to Molly when she's fussy is the "MollyPop" song... to the tune of "Lollipop, Lollipop". It's surprisingly fun to sing over and over :)
This year for Halloween, we were totally lame and put a sign on our door telling people not to bother us. Here's the sign:

I have my ankles back! It's soooo nice to see them again! I even got a pedicure yesterday to celebrate their return.
Ryan's brother is getting married during the weekend of Thanksgiving! Can't wait to bring Molly and dress her up in a frilly dress for the occasion! We're so excited for her Uncle Peter and soon-to-be Aunt Mikaela! :)

molly by the week: 4

2011-11-06T19:36:00.003-06:00

On Thursday, Molly turned 4 weeks old! Today she turned 1 month old! Just look at our sweet little bear...

Stats: She's 9 pounds, 3 ounces (50th percentile). She is 20.9 inches long (50th-75th percentile) and her head is 14.5" (50th percentile). Perfectly healthy and growing so well!!! She's definitely getting some fabulous little fat rolls and a luscious double chin :)

Milestones: She went to her first Office-watching party at Cathryn's on Thursday! She's also starting to follow things with her eyes, which is fun.

Feeding: Her eating has gotten more regular. She went through a growth spurt last week, but that seems to have evened itself out for now. She eats about 4 ounces after her big naps (mainly at night), but most of the time, she'll down a 2-oz. bottle pretty quickly. She's really cute and grabs on to one of my fingers as I'm feeding her. Love it.

Sleep: The only way she REALLY sleeps for a long stretch of time is if she's on one of our chests. This is super cute and sweet, and I'm soaking it all in, because I know this can't last forever. I'm pretty sure we'll start trying to get her on some sort of a schedule (and sleeping in her crib) around month 2. She slept for 5 hours straight the other night! Amazing! Sadly, she didn't repeat that, but we're hopeful that it'll happen again soon. She's still taking her longest naps at night which is a good sign.

Behavior: She had a couple nights where she was really fussy for about 2 hours, but again, I think that was part of a growth spurt or something. She seemed really gassy. In other news, she's smiling a LOT more lately!! I need to post ALL my iPhone pictures I've taken lately... Ugh, I just don't have the time anymore!

Clothes: There are already some clothes that she's outgrown before she got a chance to wear them.. Sad! She's fitting better into the 0-3 month clothes, and she's on the verge of outgrowing her newborn stuff. We absolutely LOVE gowns at night because they're so easy to just pull up and change her diaper. On the weekends when Ryan has the night shift, if she's in anything that snaps up, he just leaves it undone because he's so tired :)

Favorite Moments: We have a little routine in the mornings that I love. We get out of bed, I put on a cup of my cinnamon roll coffee, and I put Molly in the Baby Bjorn while I get a few things done around the house. Then I lay down in the recliner with her asleep on my chest, sip my coffee and read a book (I'm reading through the Twilight books again because I'm SO excited for the new movie coming out soon!!!) Those morning moments are so sweet, and I'm going to miss them so much when I go back to work.

Most Challenging: Sometimes she cries for no reason, so that's difficult for us because there's nothing we can do. Also, she has her first diaper rash right now, and I may have cried when she was screaming as I was putting on the ointment because I totally felt like it was my fault. (I know 99% of babies get diaper rash, but it was my first of many "mommy guilt" moments.) I just have to keep reminding myself that she won't remember any of this!

Looking Forward To: We're still excited for the day she starts interacting with us and really smiling/laughing at us. We are also excited for her to sleep through the night. Ryan said he can't wait until she can tell us what's wrong. Ummm I'm pretty sure that's going to be a while :)

Like I said, I need to devote an entire post to all our favorite iPhone pictures we've taken of her (we've taken almost 500 already), but I'll leave y'all with one of our new favorites...

happy halloween!

2011-10-31T13:48:00.000-05:00

molly by the week: 3

2011-10-27T14:20:00.001-05:00

Molly is 3 weeks today! I seriously can't believe it's already been 3 weeks.

Stats: We'll know more at her 1-month appointment next week, but I know she has gotten longer. She has outgrown the outfit she came home from the hospital in (tear!). Also, her cheeks are of epic proportions. I want to eat them every day. They get a lot of kisses. I mean just look at them. And her fat rolls that are popping up. Amazing.

Milestones: I think I got my first real smile yesterday...But, I'm still not positive. She got to meet her Uncle Jon last weekend, and had a fabulous time.

She had her first (of many) girls' lunch this week too! We met Kristin and Steph at Mi Cocina and had a lovely time on the patio! We also took our first walk around the neighborhood on Sunday, and she absolutely loved it. She was awake and happy the whole time.

Feeding: I've been tracking everything she does since Monday, so I know that she's going through an average of 13-15 bottles a day. Sooo yeah. I think she's going through a growth spurt.

Sleep: She's still taking a couple good naps at night, and a few shorter naps during the day. Although last night, she took a 3-hour nap before bed and then a 4.5 hour nap at bed time!!! THEN, she slept another 2.5 hours! We got some good sleep! Hopefully it continues.

Behavior: She's had a fussy couple of days. She was really clingy for 2ish days and pretty much cried all night on Tuesday, but she seems back to normal now.

Clothes: She's still in newborn clothes. She got a few new outfits from Ryan's aunt Julie, so we now rotate between about 5-6 outfits! :) Can't wait for her to fit in all of her 0-3 month clothes because they are all sooooo cute.

Favorite Moments: All of her happy awake moments are wonderful. She's so sweet.

Most Challenging: It's hard to plan ahead for anything because she's not on a schedule. So any time I get out of the house with her, it's a total gamble. She could sleep the whole time (which she mostly does), or she could decide she's hungry and will start to fuss. I know it'll get easier when we have more of a routine.

Looking Forward To: Her interacting with us and smiling/laughing. I am also really excited for her first holiday (Halloween) coming up this weekend. She has a really cute outfit :)

happy sunday!

2011-10-23T14:24:00.000-05:00

molly's first 2 weeks

2011-10-21T15:02:00.000-05:00

We brought Molly home on Saturday October 8th. Ryan drove really slow on the way home from the hospital, and Molly looked precious in her car seat for the first time.

That afternoon, we just hung out at home and tried to take a nap (which was unsuccessful)...

That night, we had all of the grandparents come over for a big celebratory dinner. They brought Rudy's bar-b-cue and Sprinkles cupcakes, and we all sat around holding Molly. The first couple days home from the hospital (the first night in particular) were REALLY hard. In addition to the incredible sleep deprivation and failed breastfeeding, it was just really hard to be on our own without the help of the wonderful nurses. Thankfully, once we got Molly on formula and she started sleeping more, things fell into place.

Ryan went back to work on Tuesday the 11th, and my mom spent the rest of the week with Molly and me. It was SO nice to have her help. She did our laundry, let me take naps, vacuumed our house, changed/fed Molly and was just a wonderful support. I was really sad on her last day!

This week, my mother-in-law Gail has been over every afternoon so I can nap and/or take a shower, which has been amazing. It's been so nice to spend so much time with family during these first couple weeks with Molly. It'll be interesting next week when I'm officially on my own (even though I can technically call Gail any time since she's at home).

Meeting her brothers (aka the animals): As soon as we brought her home from the hospital, Scout immediately ran to her car seat and sniffed for a good long while. Then, he just wanted us to play with him. The cats sniffed but then immediately stopped caring. They pretty much haven't cared since. Scout, on the other hand, has been a little PILL! He has had some major attention issues. I think it's been really difficult for him to understand that this baby is now the priority. Thankfully, we've had enough visitors that are kind enough to play with him :) Overall though, he's been really gentle with Molly and just wants to lick her and be around her.

Her first bath: Mom and I bathed Molly for the first time on October 12, and she pretty much HATED it. We could only sponge bathe her since her umbillical cord was still attached, and we did it in the kitchen which was pretty drafty, so she was cold and ANGRY. She cried sooooo hard and pretty much had to recover for about 10 minutes on my chest afterward.

Thankfully, Ryan and I bathed her again after her cord fell off, and it was a MUCH better experience. She didn't cry once because we got the guest bathroom all steamy, and we were able to fully submerge her in warm water.

The many faces of Molly: aka the cutest pictures from my phone so far...

molly by the week: 1 & 2

2011-10-21T13:52:00.003-05:00

Wow, I can't believe Molly is already 2 weeks old! These last couple weeks have been a blur, but they've been completely amazing. I am SO in love with her, it's kind of ridiculous. I could smell her all day long, and I regularly contemplate eating her cheeks.

Here are pictures from her 1 week and 2 week birthdays!

Stats: At her 2-week appointment, we found out that she is up to 7 pounds 11 ounces! She was born at 7 pounds 1 ounce, left the hospital at 6 pounds 7 ounces, and had gotten up to 6 pounds 9 ounces at her 1 week appointment. So, I'm really happy she's gained more than a pound in a week! Her head and weight are in the 50th percentile, and her height is in the 75th percentile.

Milestones: She can obviously recognize Ryan and me. I kiss her all over her face, and she loves it. She opens her mouth and wants me to kiss her on the lips. So sweet. When she's resting on my chest, she nuzzles in my neck, and I could just die it's so cute. Also, she can lift her head really well. Her neck is so strong already!

Feeding: It's kind of a long story, but I'm not breastfeeding. I'm debating writing an entire post on this, but let's just keep it simple by saying I'm really disappointed that it didn't work out, and there were lots and lots of tears shed (still shedding sometimes) but everyone in the house is happy, and Molly is gaining weight really well. So that's the most important thing. She eats a 2-oz bottle every 2-3 hours, and sometimes she goes back to back if she's really hungry. Especially at night time, she cluster feeds and ends up going through 6-7 bottles.

Sleep: Ummm she sleeps pretty much about 2-3 hours at a time. Her most regular naps are in the afternoons at about 1pm-4pm, and at 11pm-2/3am. Everything else is pretty much up in the air and depending on how hungry she is :) She is currently sleeping in her Nap Nanny ALL the time (as you'll see in pretty much all of her pictures). She loves it, and it's the only thing she really loves sleeping in (except our arms). During the week, she sleeps in the Nap Nanny in bed with me, and Ryan sleeps in the guest room so he can get sleep for work. I pretty much just hole up in our bedroom and make her bottles in the bathroom and change her on the pack 'n play changing station. It's a pretty sweet set up :) And during the weekends, Ryan and I switch places and I get up to EIGHT hours of sleep on Friday and Saturday nights...BLISS! I'm excited for the day that Ryan and I can sleep in the same room again, though :) Soon enough.

Behavior: She's just as sweet as can be. As long as she's fed, dry and burped, she's a really happy baby.

Clothes: She's currently only in newborn clothes. All of her 0-3 month clothes are WAY too big on her. We pretty much rotate between about 4 outfits and 5 gowns for nighttime. It's useless to go buy some newborn clothes when she's just going to outgrow them in a couple weeks anyway. The only thing she HATES (besides cold wipes on her tush) is changing clothes. So...those photo shoots I was planning with every single one of her outfits? Probably won't happen.

Favorite Moments: When her eyes are open and she's just looking around taking in the world... When she opens her mouth as I kiss all over her face... When she sleeps for longer than 2 hours :)

Most Challenging: Getting out of the house with her is a massive undertaking right now... I still don't have it figured out quite yet. I have to plan about an hour in advance, and that doesn't even include a shower for me. Packing her diaper bag and getting her fed, changed and dressed in time to leave is pretty hectic. Speaking of showers for me, I am in full-on "Frumpy Mom Mode". Despite the fact that there are a very limited amount of non-maternity, cool-weather clothes that fit me, it's pretty challenging for me to take a shower and stay clean for longer than an hour. I usually end up with spit up on something. Oh well, it's just a season of life I'm in :)

Looking Forward To: Her smiling on purpose! I have some great "smiles" on camera, but I'm pretty sure they're just gas. I can't wait for her to really interact with Ryan and me and smile. I'm also looking forward to having her on more of a schedule. Right now, it's pretty much on-demand feeding so it's pretty unpredictable and hard to plan around. I'm also excited for getting her out of the house more often and doing more than just running to the baby store or the doctor. It'll be so fun to grab lunch with the girls or take her on a girls day out and go shopping at the mall...

That's all for now. I promise to update with all of her pictures from her first 2 weeks soon!

someday...

2011-10-17T17:14:00.002-05:00

Someday, I'll get back to blogging...
It's just that...

Right now, my life pretty much consists of holding a little nugget, feeding her, changing her and watching DVR'd shows in my spare time because I can use one hand on the remote and one hand for the aforementioned activities. Blogging takes 2 hands. That's the trouble :)

Until I can get back in the blogging world, check out the newborn portraits that the very talented Katie Engelbert took of our sweet Molly girl last Thursday. We absolutely love them, and we will treasure them forever.

I promise to blog all about Molly's first week at home, her first doctor's appointment, the amazing help from my mother, the wonderful friends & family who visited us and all of the special moments we've had together thus far. Hope all of my blogging buddies are having a great week!