Motherhood Side Effect?

Seriously, I do not have a green thumb.  I usually manage to kill whatever plants and flowers we have.  As you can imagine, I was a little nervous when Todd's sister Ashley sent us an Amaryllis bulb for Christmas.  I was very happy to get it, but so worried about not being able to make it grow.  It's not like I could even kill it because there wasn't really a flower to kill.  I had to grow it from scratch!  The gift arrived with only the red ceramic box with a pot of soil.  The package included directions and a picture tempting me of what I could have if I could make this flower grow.  I followed the directions and voila... 2 months later and I have a beautiful flower!  Well really, 4 flowers!  Amazing.  Could this be a side effect of motherhood?  The flower is beautiful and really makes me happy.  Thanks Ashley for having the confidence that we would be able to do this! 

Happy 4 Month Birthday, Ali!

She's growing up so fast!  Ali turned 4 months old on February 20th, and we went to her 4 month checkup today.  Here are her 4 month stats:
Weight: 14 lbs, 12.5 oz. (75th percentile)
Height: 23.75 cm (25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 42.5cm (90th percentile)

Ali's teacher Miss Kyndal has many nicknames for Ali including Itty Bitty, Tiny Tot and Little Bit.  Well, Todd told Miss Kyndal today that Ali is in fact short and fat!  I guess Daddy hasn't learned that girls don't really like to be called fat.  Then I overheard Todd telling Ali that she just weighs more because she has a lot of muscle.  It's interesting to me how the percentages seem to flip flop.  At Ali's 2 Week Appointment she was in the 25% for weight and 75% for height.  Then at her 2 Month Checkup, she evened out and was in the 50% for weight and 45% for height.  Now she is the opposite ratio of her 2 Week Appointment and is in the 75% for weight and 25% for height.  Regardless, Ali is doing really well and progressing right on track.  She had a good appointment and received another round of shots.  This time, you could tell she felt the pain much quicker than she did at her 2 month appointment.  We took her to school after the appointment, and I was expecting her to be fussy because of the shots, but Miss Kyndal said that she was even happier than normal.  What a Dream Baby!  We are so Blessed!

Presidents' Day Weekend

I absolutely LOVE and miss my college girlfriends.  Although we all went to college in San Antonio together, we have managed to end up in different cities all around the country including Denver, Minneapolis and Chicago.  We also have friends in Tennessee, Alabama and Maryland.  This past weekend, a big group of girls came into town for Ann's baby shower!  I was so excited to have Katie, Jen, Stacey and Amy stay with me.  Todd was such a good sport for putting up with a house full of estrogen.  It was the first time the girls met Ali, and she was a perfect angel all weekend.  She was happy to be passed around and let anyone hold her.  She actually got really spoiled from being held all weekend because her teachers said that she was unusually fussy on Monday unless she was being held.

We had a great weekend eating a lot of Mexican food, hanging out at my house, playing games, and enjoying margaritas on the patio at Chuy's!  I wasn't great at taking pictures, but we did manage to get a few from the weekend.

The main event of the weekend was Ann's Baby Shower on Sunday.  Emily hosted a wonderful shower with a tasty brunch and mimosas.  There were many babies at the party, and it was so good to meet some babies for the first time.  For those who don't have kids yet, I think it was a good dose of birth control.  Although all the kids were well-behaved, it was a little crazy to have 7 babies under one roof!  As usual, Ali was a dream baby.  She fell asleep for about 30 minutes on Miss Jay.  It was so sweet.  We tried to take a picture of all the mommies and babies in age order (middle picture in the top row), but we're missing Katie and her her three girls since she made the trip to Texas without babies.  With Ann's baby, we will be welcoming the 9th baby girl in our group of friends.  I seriously cannot believe we have ALL had girls.  Who's going to be the one to have the first boy?

I miss my girlfriends already, and I can't wait for our next reunion!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We wish you a very happy Love Day!  Yes, it's a Hallmark holiday, but we'll take this excuse to tell you that you are very special to us!  I didn't get around to getting Ali an official Valentine's Day outfit, but we were able to put this outfit together from our wonderful hand-me-downs!

Sleeping Beauty

For those of you who were worried (Mom)... Ali is sleeping in her crib!

WARNING: This is a LONG post and may be somewhat of a controversial post, so if you're going to judge me please stop reading now.  I'm a firm believer that every parent has to do what is right for them and for their kids.  I don't believe that there is one right way to do anything, and I believe that what works for one family may not work for another.  Moreover, what works for one baby may not necessarily work for another baby.  Sleep is a tough issue for most parents and babies.  Some parents believe in Sleep Training and Cry It Out (CIO) methods.  Some parents believe in having a family bed and sleeping with their babies.  Some of my friends have been fortunate and their babies have been able to sleep in the their cribs from the start and learned to sleep through the night themselves with ease.  I'm very jealous of those people.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen with us.  I'm not here to judge anyone; I'm just telling you what we did.

For our convenience and sanity, Ali slept in our room for the first part of her life because we didn't want to go up and down the stairs every time we needed to get her.  We started her in the newborn napper in her pack and play, but she quickly decided that she didn't want to sleep without being rocked to sleep.  We moved her to the bouncer for naps and the swing for night time sleep.  We knew that at some point, we wanted to move Ali to her crib, stop rocking her to sleep, and stop giving her a pacifier.  We chose to do that this weekend and use the CIO Extinction Method to teach Ali to self soothe.  I'm not going to lie... Friday night was ROUGH!  If it weren't for the support of my good friend Katie and knowing that others have done this before us with great success, I'm not sure we would have made it.  The basic theory behind the Extinction Method is that you put your baby down drowsy but awake at bedtime and do not go back into the room until it is time for baby to wake up, even if your baby continues to cry.  Ali pretty much cried on and off all night Friday as we watched her on the monitor to make sure she was okay.  Todd and I really didn't get much sleep.  It was excrutiating and broke our hearts to watch her cry but we knew that we were doing this for Ali's benefit so she would be able to sleep well in the future... short-term pain for long-term gain!  Around 5am, I noticed that Ali put her hand in her mouth and started sucking on it.  She was learning to suck on her hand to fall asleep!  What was truly amazing is that she was her happy usual self on Saturday even though she had such a rough night.  When I picked her up on Saturday morning, I was afraid she would be upset at me, but she greeted me with a huge smile.  As my friend Katie said, it was as if it didn't even occur to her that we could have come in at any point during the night to pick her up. 

During her naps on Saturday, she would cry but eventually get her hand in her mouth and fall asleep.  She's a fast learner because by Saturday night, she had it down.  After her bath, bedtime stories, and feeding, I put her in her crib at 6:55pm.  She fussed a little but put her hand in her mouth and was asleep by 7pm.  She woke up around 4:30am and put herself right back to sleep until 6am when we got up for the day.  Her naps today have been great, and she hasn't even fussed when I put her in her crib.  When we put her down for the night, she barely fussed and fell asleep within 5-10 minutes.  I am thrilled to say Ali is happily sleeping in her crib without a pacifier!  Ahhh... it feels so good to have crossed another parenting milestone!

Sophie Meets Baby Ali

I'm a little late with this post... our friends Nancy and Steve were in Dallas last weekend, and they brought their daughter Sophie (she's almost 2, maybe 20 months?) to meet Baby Ali.  I have to admit, I've been obsessed with Sophie since before Ali was born because Nancy is Asian and Steve is white and I thought their child would be an example for what our child could look like.  I'm crazy, I know.  We had fun hanging out with our friends, and it was so cute to watch Sophie interact with Ali.  She was so good with Ali which is a good sign because Sophie is soon going to be a big sister to two babies - Nancy is having twins!

Ali Fights Sleep...

We're having ANOTHER snow day today!  Ali's school is closed again, so I'm staying home with her this morning and Todd will take the afternoon shift.  I can't believe this is how I'm starting the first two weeks of my new job, but thankfully they seem to be very understanding.

Our little girl does not like taking naps, never has.  I wish I could trade places with her.  I wish I could tell her that one day, she will likely appreciate being able to take a nap.  She's already trying to bribe us with her looks.  Sometimes she smiles and giggles at us trying to look cute so we'll pick her up.  Other times, she sticks her bottom lip out to pout.  I do think it's terribly cute, and it takes everything I have not to pick her up.

 

It's so nice once she finally falls asleep.  I love our little sleeping angel.  And yes, she's still sleeping in the bouncer, but we plan to move her to her crib this weekend.