I feel like I am so behind on blogging. Life has just seemed to kick into high gear for us and like my old mission companion used to say “we are busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest!” Ha ha. But we do like being busy and have really been doing some fun things as a family. Tonight Adam has Young Mens and ward basketball though so I’m taking the night to attempt to get caught up! Be prepared for picture and blog overload! đ
Adalynn is now 2 months old and is seriously SO MUCH FUN! I find that we are all just happier when Adalynn is around and we are all constantly fighting over who gets to hold her, feed her, sit by her, etc. She brings so much joy to our family. Its been so fun too to have another girl in the house and to get to dress up Adalynn in all the darling outfits everyone gave me at showers or that the boys and I bought for her before she was born.
Adalynn just this last week finally started smiling on a more regular basis which has just melted all our hearts. The kids get so excited when she smiles or coo’s at them and make such a big deal out of all her little milestones. Its so cute! Below are some pictures of Adalynn over the past month!
I Love, Love, LOVE Adalynn in this dress I picked up at Burlington Coat Factory.
It is definitely one of my favs.
Look how beautiful this dress is! My wonderful friend Lori MADE this for Adalynn.
Isn’t she amazing? I really have incredible friends! Thank you Lori!
Right now we are working with Adalynn on a few things to help her sleep through the night. Both Dawson and Harrison had sleeping 8 hours at night down by 4 weeks old (but they were also both 2 pounds heavier than her at birth) so her now being 9 weeks old and still not there yet has been HARD for me as I had it in my mind that she would sleep through the night around the same time. I really shouldn’t complain though because for the most part she is only up once a night to eat and then every once in awhile up again – but will go back to sleep with the binky. I think part of it too is that I am pumping my breast milk for her (She and I have struggled with nursing and we think why is because she curls her tongue ALL the time and latches on wrong – even to her bottle) and she’s eating less often than my boys did because she’s eating SO MUCH MORE! Seriously this girl is now up to 4-5 ounces every feeding (the doc says normal babies are at 1-3 oz).
I’m still trying to nurse though and hoping that one day we will figure it out but for the time being pumping and bottle feeding seem to be working really well for us. I bond much better with my babies when I’m not huddled over in complete pain and agony caused by incorrect latching! đ
We’ve also been working on letting Adalynn cry it out during naps and at bedtime so she learns to self sooth and not rely on the binky or us rocking her to fall asleep (or other sleep props). This is always one of the HARDEST things for me to do as a new mother, but I also know that it is ESSENTIAL for helping my babies learn to sleep through the night and that we are all better off in the long run. Its so awesome to be able to just go and lay my babies in bed and have them just go right off to sleep without needing to do anything – and so nice for the people that watch my kids too! Nice too when they can put themselves back to bed when they wake up in the middle of the night.
The first night Adalynn cried for 40 minutes before putting herself to sleep and when I say she was crying I mean she REALLY cried. It broke my heart! I had to wait for a night Adam was gone to Young Mens to let her do it too – because he and I usually cave in and talk each other into going in to rescue her when she gets into her hard cry. But she did it, and now after a week of crying it out she can usually put herself to sleep without crying at all or with 5-10 minutes of LIGHT crying.
Anyway, we sure do love our little girl and the joy she brings into our family. What a blessing it is to have these little ones. Sure am a lucky Mamma!