Four Months Old!

So, I am typing this with Greer strapped to me in the Ergo from the Raleigh airport. Dedication. I am bouncing around in front of some nice businessmen because she will have none of me sitting down. So, what better time to list some things I love about her?!

- Stats... At her last appointment (which was almost three weeks ago) she weighed 16lbs 3oz and was 26 inches long. 90th percentile in weight and 99th in height. Big girl!! I need to do a little self weigh when we're home, though, because I think she's had a growth spurt since then.

- Nicknames... She doesn't know her name yet and that probably because I usually call her Goose. Or Gooseberry, sis, sweets or G. But usually Goose. She almost definitely thinks her name is Goose. I should probably remedy that.

- She is grabbing things with intention and putting them in her mouth. She'll put anything in her mouth EXCEPT for the correct end of her paci. She will, however, promptly pull the paci out of her mouth and then get mad about it. Haha.

- She has rolled from her belly to back three times! Once in Memphis, once in Little Rock and once at home. If she had just done it in Chapel Hill she would have covered all her bases. Speaking of these bases... In the last month we have traveled to Memphis, LR and made our first family of three flight to NC. She was great on the flight to NC. We are moments away from finding out how she will handle the flight home.

- We're still not on a schedule. That is my month four goal. And maybe... Just MAYBE it won't end up also being my month five goal. ;-) But right now she is sleeping through the night (about 9-10 hours) with an occasional paci replacement during the night. We're going to cry it out a little when we get home to eliminate the paci trips for mommy and daddy. Naps... She is pretty regular with her big morning nap. Other than that... We try to stay on an eat, play sleep cycle but every day is different. I want to be on a schedule with two big naps a day by our beach trip at the beginning of May. I am purposefully giving myself lots of time for that one. She's a happy girl so most schedule changes are for my long term benefit.

- She is smiling a lot. Giggling when we really earn it. She LOVES her daddy. She will just stare and stare at Will. She likes me, too, but I know that a lot of that has to do with being the food source. That's okay, though. It's nice to feel needed. ;-) She also loves her Aunt SueSue and her cousins!! They are all very entertaining!

We love you so much, baby girl!! I can't remember life without you and it has only been four months. I've hoped and prayed for you for a very long time and you are the fulfillment of so many dreams. I am so grateful that God lent you to us for our time on Earth. I will love you every day of it.

Three Months!

I'm behind! This will be my first "update" to be posted late... The first many, I'm sure. But so much has happened in the past month! I cannot believe that we were still in Little Rock when Greer turned two months. And now my little baby is three months old! So crazy.

But in the last month we have finally gotten into somewhat of a routine. Each day is still a little different but I do feel comfortable with her eating schedule and nighttime sleep schedule - which is amazing. Naps on the other hand...

So here is an update on our girl!!

- At three months I'm pretty sure she weighed between 15 & 16 lbs. I broke down and bought a scale for our house but it's not digital and I weighed not holding her and then holding her, so it's a rough estimate. (We have her next pediatrician appt on Valentine's Day)

- She is sleeping through the night like such an angel! We give her a bottle of breast milk sometime between 8:30 & 9:30 and rock her to sleep immediately. Then my sweet child sleeps until 7:00! Now, sometimes she's up at 6:30 but today it was 7:30. She has hovered around that 7:00 hour for over a week. Praise God for so much sleep for mommy!

- She is so much more playful! She is the smiliest (it's a word) baby and if you work really hard for it she'll laugh at you. She's also sitting up really well and even stands with your hands holding her hips. She doesn't seem to be close to rolling over yet but I'm not as good about making her do tummy time so that's probably my fault.

- Naps... Yeah, right now she's still briefly napping between each feeding. She'll sleep anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. I rarely get her to sleep for more than an hour more than once a day but she does nap several times. And I'm honestly not sure how to switch to a morning nap and long afternoon nap. I've let Greer dictate her schedule (other than making a concerted effort to move her bedtime up a few weeks ago). So I'm totally gun shy about forcing a nap schedule on her and messing with my happy baby! Maybe in my four month post I'll say "Greer put herself on a nap schedule." Haha. We'll see.

- Speaking of her schedule here is her feeding schedule right now (these are pretty much all give-or-take half an hour and this is really so that I can look back at this one day):
7:00 wake up and eat
9:00 eat again in order to get on a 9:00 schedule (this allows me to have her on a regular schedule without having to "stretch" her in the morning - instead she has two meals fairly close together)
12:00 meal
3:00 meal
6:00 meal
9:00 meal (this one is pretty flexible because if she's grumpy and hungry she may eat as early as 8:00 but if we have something to do that night we may adjust the schedule enough for her to eat as late at 9:30)

- Other random things I want to remember:
1.  She has just started to grab things and bring them to her mouth.
2. She loves sticking out her tongue at you. And she loves when you stick your tongue out at her, too.
3. She loves to Face Time. She will look right at the phone screen and smile at whomever we're chatting with. I especially love doing this with our families far away since she is reaching the age where she recognizes faces.
4. She likes her play mat for 15-20 minutes and her exersaucer for 5-10 minutes. I expect those two things to switch in the next month or so.
5. Since I started putting her in her crib at night she has started to rub the hair off the back of her head. But it's not nearly as bad as it could be. And her hair is definitely getting thicker on top!
6. Her eyes are still dark blue. I know in pictures they are so dark that they look brown but there's not a fleck of brown in them. I keep thinking they'll turn green but they haven't yet.
7. She cries BIG tears. And she cries them the second she tunes up. I won't feel like she's crying that hard and I'll look down to see tears streaming down her face. Breaks. My. Heart.

So.. That's the update on our girl! This next month brings travels to Memphis, Little Rock and North Carolina! We are so excited! I will be very good at packing for baby by the end of it!

Two Months Old!

One day I will start posting for reasons other than age milestones. One day. But TODAY my baby girl is two months old! And that deserves an update!

- She continues to become more and more alert. She will sometimes smile at you when you talk to her, which is the best feeling ever! She has also found her tongue, which is really cute.

- She is sleeping well at night. We are definitely not on a regular schedule yet but she will usually give me a 5-7 hour stretch from 11:00 - 4:00, 5:00 or 6:00. I kiss all over her on the 6:00 days. ;-) When we get back to Nashville we are going to start a bedtime routine at about 9:00. I know I'm going to be TERRIBLE at letting her cry so we'll see how that goes. Stay tuned...

- She has learned to love being held. We have been in Little Rock for the past three weeks and the girl has hardly ever been put down. I am in big trouble when we get home. Again, I'm not good at the crying it out thing. Eek. I'm going to get very good at doing everything one-handed.

- Carolyn and I unofficially weighed her yesterday (I weighed myself and then reweighed while holding Greer) and she was 13.5 lbs!! I know other moms understand... Weight gain is so reassuring.

- There is still a great debate about who she looks like. I think the take away is that she is a good mixture and really looks like me sometimes and Will sometimes. She has one expression where she furrows her eyebrows and IS Will Peeples.

The first two months of Greer's life have been a whirlwind. We had such great help from our moms for the first month in Nashville, we had Will's family to our house for Thanksgiving, Will had finals, we've been in Little Rock for three weeks, Christmas was spent bouncing around AR visiting family, we spent two nights without power in Hot Springs, and now we have started a new year! We are headed home to Nashville on Thursday and I am really looking forward to starting our new normal.

Greer, you have already brought us so much joy. You are the greatest blessing we could ever imagine and I cannot wait to get to know you better each day. Your parents love you to the moon and back.
Love, Mommy

Six Weeks Old

I can't believe we have been parents for six weeks! But I honestly can't decide if that seems long or short compared to how I feel. I can't believe she's six weeks old already but I also don't remember sleeping through the night. ;-) She is doing so great and I continue to love her more every day. I still look at her little face and cannot fathom how blessed we are. She is happy and healthy... And she's ours!

Here are some updates:

- She weighed 11 lbs. 12 oz. at her appointment today. She is growing, which makes me happy and relieved! I knew she was bigger but having the weight confirmation was encouraging since I'm solely breast feeding. Feeding has been going well but every time she eats I will wonder if she's gotten too much or not enough... So it's just so great to know that's she's a growing girl!

- She has started smiling and cooing! I love hearing her little voice and when she looks at me and smiles... I absolutely melt. Funnily enough she smiles the most when I'm changing her diaper. That usually means that changes are prolonged so that I can talk and smile with her. And also that I get peed on a lot. Worth it.

- She's still eating every three hours during the day. Then in the evening she is usually hungry closer to every two hours or even less. But "power feeding" before bed does help us get a longer stretch at night. The other night she ate at 11:00 and then didn't wake up until 6:30!!! I almost fell out of bed when I looked at the clock. Now, that was a fluke. But I can consistently get a 4-6 hour stretch from her at night.

- Will took his last exam for this semester yesterday! He has been really good about spending some time each day with her but I am really looking forward to him having more free time. And I'm excited for Greer to be a little more interactive... I want lots of Daddy daughter bonding time for them!

- She has had some tummy aches in the last few days. We've started giving her mylecon (sp?) drops and I think that has helped. She is such a sweet girl that she fusses only in the moments when it hurts but she spent a few days awake way more than she should have been because she was uncomfortable. I'm hoping we're moving on from the tummy aches.

- She got her vaccinations today. It was hard to watch her scream when she felt the first one. Ugh. But the other two were finished so quickly and she had seriously quit crying before I could even get her paci in her mouth. Such a tough girl.

- Weeks 1 through 6 have been great! Now we will spend weeks 7 through 9 in the great state of Arkansas. It will be great for family and friends to get to see/meet her. And it will be a crash course in traveling and running around with a baby for her mommy and daddy! I'm nervous and excited! Any and all prayers are much appreciated.

Here are some previously unposted pictures of our precious girl!

One Month!

I can't believe our little girl is one month old! She continues to be the greatest blessing I could ever imagine. Here are some notes about her first month of life:

- She is a growing girl! 8 lbs 7 oz, 20 inches at birth. 9 lbs 6 oz, 22 inches at her three week appointment. And I think she MIGHT weigh over 10 lbs now... I feel like she's grown a ton in the last week.

- She continues to have a super laid back disposition. As she's awake more and more during the day I get nervous that she'll fuss and cry more. But in actuality she is just as content as she can be. We're continuing to keep our fingers crossed, hold our breath and say our prayers about it!

- In most pictures her eyes look brown but they are actually dark blue. They could obviously still change to brown or green but right now they're blue!

- She is starting to focus on things. I can tell when she's looking right at me and I love it. She's also starting to lay on her play mat and watch the mobile.

- She's still eating well and is down to six minutes on each side. Efficiency makes mommy happy because feedings are pretty quick!

- She is SUCH a good nighttime sleeper. Last night she fell asleep at midnight and I woke her up at 5:00 to eat. I know I am crazy to wake a baby but when you breast feed and it has been seven plus hours (she had gotten an 11:00 bottle so I could sleep) then we'll talk.

- We are getting out of the house together more and more. Yesterday I even fed her in the mommy room at Nordstrom. She was great for our entire day of lunch and mall shopping. I, however, was totally worn out by the time we left.

- She's been spitting up lately. Spitting up is my least favorite thing. I know that babies spit up - it comes with the territory. But every time I think it's because I've done something wrong. But there are fifteen different things that can make her spit up and some of them just can't be helped. And she never cries when it happens so I THINK she still loves me. ;-)

- She has grown out of most newborn things other than sleep sack/dresses. Mostly she's in 0-3 month clothes now.

- Each day her life is documented on Instagram and Facebook by her overly proud mother. Sue me. I do wonder how many people have removed me from their timelines, though. I know they're out there. Ha.

Here are some of my favorite pictures that I haven't posted on Facebook. You'd think I wouldn't have any left... But you would be oh-so wrong!

So Thankful

It is not hard to guess what I am thankful for this year. Growing up I never babysat and never wanted to hold babies. I loved my cousins but even they made me a little uncomfortable when they were really little. Then I got married and something inside me shifted. I was baby crazy. I knew that we would benefit from being married for a few years pre-kids but the dynamic with Will and me has always been me negotiating to start our family earlier than later. I say all of that just to point out that this girl is the answer to prayers that I've been praying for a long time. And I am beyond grateful for her precious life.

These first three weeks with her have both flown and creeped by... I feel like she just got here and has been here forever. It has been a major adjustment to have another human depend on you for everything. There is no copping out of parent duties because you're tired or not in the mood. Particularly when you are the food source. But Will and I have amazingly supportive and selfless families. My mom stayed for a week and Will's mom has been here for the past week. It is so much easier for me to tend to Greer when I have a sweet mamma here tending to me. My water cup has not been empty since she was born, my house is as clean as it's ever been, I have slept well and often, I haven't done a load of laundry myself since I was pregnant, life is good.

So, true to form here is a list of the specific things I am thankful for today:

- Greer is a happy girl. She has such a laid back disposition. She's only awake for several hours a day but during those hours she is just as content as she can be. If she's crying then she is hungry, cold or you are messing with her too much. If she is full and clothed, she is happy.

- She is a growing girl. Breast feeding is going well. But it is an art... not a science. So I am so thrilled that she weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz. at her appointment yesterday! She has gained almost a pound since birth. Which makes mommy happy and much more relaxed that she is getting what she needs.

- I feel great. I was so worried about post-partum issues before she was born. But my body and mind are both holding up great! Being her mom comes with a lot of pressure and unsure moments but I am thankful that I feel nothing but love and joy. I know that's not the case for everyone and I'm grateful it is for me. Also, I have my follow up appointment with my doctor next week and I'm hopeful that I'll get the go ahead to start taking Greer on walks and get back to normal physical activities. I feel great so hopefully the doc will give the green light!

- I am thankful for a God who has poured out so many blessings on us through this child. I told Will this week that I am trying to accept these gifts for what they are and just be grateful... instead of guilty. I have to admit that I have moments where I just feel bad for how well everything is going. I keep thinking, "This is supposed to be a lot harder!" But I am doing better every day. I have an angel baby - and I'll keep her!

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day and that you are also able to count your blessings today. Here are some pictures of our happy girl!