Izzy Turns Three Months Old

I have to be honest, this last month has been a total blur.  Izzy has changed so much in the last month, it's hard to keep track.  The most exciting part of the month was finally having Andrew home on Christmas Eve.  Granted, he returned home sick and tired.  After a week home, he seems to be in better health now and hopefully we can keep it that way for Izzy's sake.  I fought like crazy to stay healthy while he was gone so I wouldn't pass anything along to Izzy.  I told him he couldn't come home if he was just going to get us all sick (I was kidding of course). 

Izzy is now "talking" to us on a pretty regular basis.  By talking, I mean making noises other than crying.  She shrieks and coos and blows bubbles.  I never thought blowing bubbles would be so cute, but clearly as a parent you think everything your child does at this age is amazing and cute!  Andrew thinks we have a loud one on our hands.  I told him it might be a little early to start talking to her about using an inside voice.  I'm not sure she would grasp the concept.  She is just exploring her voice and loud is the best way to do it.

She loves to interact with her play mat.  When we first put her on it about a month ago, I'm not sure she knew what to think.  It's nice to be able to put her down for a few minutes while I eat dinner or fold some laundry and have her be able to entertain herself.  She is starting to reach out for toys and loves to look at herself in mirrors.  Her feet are on the go constantly.  Watching her feet makes me laugh.  I remember my grandma telling me when I was little I used to bang my feet against the highchair so hard, she wasn't sure how I didn't hurt my heels.  I see Izzy doing the same thing.  She loves to have her socks off so she can move her toes all over.  We have also discovered she isn't a huge fan of pants.  If she is fussy and nothing seems to work to calm her down, I take her pants off and she is a happy camper!  If that keeps up, we could be in for some fun when she is a toddler...

This month we got to celebrate Izzy's first Christmas.  If it's possible to spoil a three month old, she was spoiled!  I really don't think this child is in danger of being naked or going without toys.  She is still pretty firmly in 3 month clothes; at least in two piece outfits.  She is growing out of some of the 0-3 month things she has.  Mostly length is the issue for her.  She is about to the end of her days with the three month one piece outfits.  Too many hard kicks and she would probably pop through the bottoms of a few of them!  Luckily, we have some awesome family who loaded her up with six month sleep and play outfits for Christmas, so she should be set!  Those sleep and play outfits are a life saver when it comes to daycare.  It means no lost socks, and no pants, which makes Izzy happy!

We are finally making our way out of size one diapers.  I'm trying to use up the rest of what we have, but I feel like I'm racing the clock on that venture.  She is growing out of them quickly.  We found out last week that our daycare is going to start providing diapers and wipes after the first of the year, so that will cut back on the number of diapers we have to buy (total score).  Although, I do have to brag about the mega box of Huggies diapers I found on clearance at Target last week.  It was a $25 box of diapers for $8.  I kind of felt like I was stealing them.

This week I had to move Izzy out of the swaddle sacks we had been putting her in at night.  Again, the length thing.  She was kicking and popping open the snaps at the shoulders of the sleep sacks.  She has always fought to get her hands out, but I found her with her hands out of the sleep sacks and the fabric all over the place.  I decided it just wasn't safe any more.  The last few nights I have been putting her in a fleece sleep bag, like this one:

I still swaddle her arms with a blanket, so she doesn't startle herself awake.  It also helps her go to sleep faster at night when I corral her arms.  So far, that seems to be going well.  Once she starts to roll over on her own, which I'm guessing isn't too far out, we won't be able to swaddle her arms at night. She is still sleeping in the bassinet in our room for now.  I think we are probably going to have to look at transitioning her to her crib here before too long. She is pretty much end to end in the bassinet.

As the picture above says, Miss Izzy is working on her first tooth.  She has had a little white dot on her lower gum for a couple of weeks now.  She has been drooling up a storm and as you can tell from the photo, she loves to have her hands in her mouth.  We have started putting bibs on her so she doesn't soak her shirts with slobber.  We have tried giving her frozen teething toys a couple of times, but she isn't sure what to think about those yet. She does love to chew on her bottles though.  At this point, I just roll with whatever works for her.  She still isn't a huge fan of pacifiers.  Sometimes she will take them and sometimes she wants nothing to do with them.  This is all part of her developing personality! 

Some days, it doesn't feel like it's rainbows and sunshine over here.  But, on the days when it seems like the walls might fall down, there is laundry all over the place, dishes piled up in the sink and I haven't taken a shower in two or three days, this face makes it all worth it.  I have had my moments over the past few months where I questioned my own sanity when thinking I was cut out for parenthood; just being honest.  Of course, these moments typically happen at 2 AM when she doesn't want to go back to sleep after a feeding.  Sleep deprivation never did look good on me.  I joked with a friend of mine this past week after seeing a four week old baby in Buy Buy Baby that I missed Izzy being that little.  While I do, I also enjoy her being able to entertain herself for a few minutes!  I appreciate that she now typically only wakes up once in the night and within thirty minutes she is back to sleep.  I also appreciate that she is now able to soothe herself to sleep in some manner so I don't have to get her back into a deep sleep and then tip toe across the room with her to put her back in her bassinet all while holding my breath and hoping the action of putting her back down doesn't wake her up so we have to start the whole process over!  That being said, I do miss being pregnant with miss Izzy.  I didn't appreciate my pregnancy until it was over, and that is something I regret.  I get a twinge of jealousy when I see the pregnant ladies out and about these days.  But, this proud mama loves having my bundle on the outside too!

Christmas Preparations

How is it seriously the week of Christmas already?  Wasn't it just summer?  Getting in the Christmas spirit has been hard this year with Andrew being gone and minimal sleep, but I'm trying to feel a little more jolly this week.  Andrew will be home from his December tour of the country courtesy of UPS in a few short days, so that always lifts my mood.  You don't realize how much you rely on the extra set of hands until you don't have them around.  Luckily, both our parents live close and have been a HUGE help.  As in I would have lost my mind this month had it not been for them.

Had it not been for my parents, I'm pretty sure our Christmas tree would still be sitting in the middle of the living room in pieces and I would have no Christmas decorations up.  Granted, that would not be the end of the world.  They have also provided me with countless meals over the last several weeks and even months since Izzy was born.  Andrew's parents have watched Izzy while I ran to the grocery store and ran to the airport to pick Andrew up or drop him off to get a rental car.  With the weather getting colder, I try not to haul her out and about any more than I have to.   I appreciate the help more than I will ever be able to put into words.

Last weekend, Izzy, Buddy, Maya and I had a sleep over at my parents house.  I wasn't really up for sitting in our house alone all weekend.  Plus, I wanted to do some baking for Christmas and I knew that wasn't going to happen if I was trying to do it on my own at home.  Buddy got himself a new bed out of the deal; he is totally spoiled at grandma and grandpa's house too!

Maya enjoyed having new things to sniff, but she kept walking to the door expecting Andrew to walk in.  Unfortunately, these last couple of weeks, we have been dealing with a recurrence of Buddy's neck pain.  Last Saturday morning he was fine and when I came home later in the day, I could tell he was in pain.  I was able to get him in to see the vet the next day and get him started on meds.  He hasn't been as bad this time around as he was last time, so I think by catching it early we were able to keep his pain from getting too severe.  He has also been back to get a couple of acupuncture treatments.  Hopefully this will all be a distant memory again soon.  He had been doing so well for about six months.  Poor guy, I don't think the cold weather helped matters at all.

Izzy has been growing like crazy and changing daily.  She is starting to interact with toys now, which is fun to watch.  She smiles when you talk to her, and I love hearing the start of her laughter!  For the most part, she is a pretty happy girl.  We have been dealing with a little bit of a snotty nose that she got when she started daycare, but we have been able to keep if from turning into anything major.  Thank goodness for the Zarbees chest run and vitamins with immune support!

As you can see, she hasn't lost the crazy hair.  It's getting a little longer, so it will stay down with some effort.  Clearly it wasn't cooperating in this picture!

As I said in my last post, we had family photos back in November.  Since there were are first professional photos since our wedding photos five years ago, I have been busy working on getting a few of them printed out.  I'm amazed at how much she has changed over the last twelve weeks.  We were out at a restaurant this weekend and saw a tiny new baby.  I told my parents I don't remember Izzy being that small.  They assure me she was!  Here are a few more of my favorite photos from our November family session with Katie Lindgren.  

I can't get over how adorable this photo is!

 

 Those eyes.... that hair!  

Two Months Old

This past weekend, Izzy turned two months old.  She will actually be 10 weeks old this coming Tuesday.  Where is the time going?  In the moment, it feels like time is dragging on between rushing to get as much done as possible while she is napping, enjoying the time she is awake watching her discover so many new things, and trying to keep the house from looking like a tornado went through it.  When I realize she is only ten weeks old, the day she was born already seems like forever ago. 

These past few weeks have been pretty major for us.  We, of course, celebrated Izzy's first Thanksgiving. 

Andrew and I did a little black Friday shopping while Izzy stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.  I think we were in and out of all our stores within two hours.  In all honesty, we got everything on our list, we didn't have to wait in any long lines, and people were actually in pretty good spirits.  There was one item we wanted at Best Buy, but I wasn't about to stand in a line wrapping from the front to the back of the store.  So, I went online and bought it and then picked it up in the store during the day on Friday rather than Thursday night.  I was in and out in under ten minutes.  We did our traditional Target run on Thursday night and found a few good deals there as well.  Amazon was probably my go to this year; love me some Amazon Prime!  Needless to say, it's been like Christmas every day at our house this week with the boxes stacked on our front porch.  Another bonus to working from home is being able to get the boxes as soon as they come so they aren't sitting out there all day.   






The weekend prior to Thanksgiving, we got together with many of the ladies in my family for my baby shower.  We had such a good time and loved seeing everyone! Luckily, Izzy was cooperative that day and was enjoying all the snuggles and love she was getting.  When I was putting away all of the wonderful gifts she received, it was clear this child will not go naked.  I think she probably has more clothes than I do.  In fairness, she has about six different sizes in her closet at the moment. 

This past Monday was my first day back to work full time.  It was also the first day Izzy had to go to daycare. Yes, it was a sad day in our house; I cried a few times.  I didn't actually cry at daycare though; I kept it together until I was home.  We really are happy with our choice of daycare, which makes it a little easier to drop her off in the mornings.  She did great her first week, minus the two blowouts she has had!  Sadly, we finished off the first week of daycare with a cold.  Poor little girl has a snotty nose and a little bit of a cough from time to time.  Luckily, she actually smiles at me when I suction out her nose, which makes life a little easier.  Bring on the saline spray and extra snuggles!   

Here is Izzy after getting home from her first successful day at daycare.  

We had our big two month checkup this week as well.  Miss Isabelle is weighing in at 12 lbs 10 oz and is 24.5 inches long.  She is in the 86th percentile for her weight and 97th for her height.  Her next appointment will be at the end of January when she turns four months old.  I can't wait to see how she grows and changes between now and then!  

Little miss is quite busy these days.  She is smiling at us more and more.  She is discovering her voice and loves to talk to me while I'm getting her dressed in the morning and when we are getting ready for bed at night.  She is still in size 1 diapers, but not for long.  I think that's probably why we have had a few blowouts at daycare this week.  A few weeks ago, I thought we should probably start to transition her to size 2 diapers, and now it is clear size 1's aren't working any more.  However, I'm determined to finish up all the size 1's we have. 

She is still in 0-3 month and 3 month clothing, which is good because she has quite the wardrobe to pick from at the moment.  I have a harder time getting her dressed these days than I do myself.  She has way too many adorable options!  I have to enjoy it while I can because I know in the blink of an eye she will want me having nothing to do with her wardrobe choices.

Now that we have turned the calendar over to December, we are looking forward to Christmas.  We got the tree put up this week thanks to the help of my wonderful parents.  We have officially started peak season for Andrew at work, which means we wont see much of him this month. He will spend the next three weeks on the road, which will be hard for all of us.  We should have him home on Christmas Eve.  It's easy to feel down about him being gone, especially with Izzy being so little and the responsibilities of the house falling to me while he is away.  However, I try to frequently remind myself that there are people whose situations are much worse and who don't see their loved ones for months or even years on end.  For now, we will make the most of our situation and find things to keep us busy.  I hope to get a little baking in before the holiday, but we will see if little miss cooperates with that plan.  I know this month is going to fly by! 

Back in early November, we had family photos taken.  We got our photos back this week, and I love them all!  I have gone through them twenty times already trying to decide which ones we will use for Christmas cards this year.  I'm in the process of downloading them onto my computer, but I will share a few I pulled off on my phone.

Our photos were taken by Katie Lindgren, and she did a wonderful job!  I already told her to save some time next September to do Izzy's 1st birthday photos, but I can't even think about that at the moment.  We have nine and a half more months to enjoy first!