Breaking News

Let it be known that last night Lainey had her best night of sleep in the past 5 months. Which means, so did I! She went to bed at 6:40pm. I know, that is early. That is probably why she wakes up for the day in the 5's. But I just couldn't keep her up any later - she was a tired mess. I am not sure how to break that early bed / early wake cycle. Anyway, She went down at 6:40pm and then woke up hungry around 9pm. Since her last feed was at 5:30pm I fed her again. She went back to bed until...wait for it...4:14am! Hallelujah! She did wake up sometime around 5:30/5:45 I think but thankfully Greg watched her while he got ready for work and I slept in til a little past 6. I woke up several times during the night and would look at the clock and think - why hasn't Lainey woken up? Then I would look at her monitor to make sure she was still breathing then go back to sleep. On Lainey's best ever night of sleep Cambry decided to wake up in the middle of the night but thankfully Greg handled that. Why did she wake up? Oh she just wanted to know where mommy was. In bed. GreatThanksForChecking. Add that to Honest Toddler's list of valid reasons why toddlers get out of bed.

I feel I also should add that last night Lainey was in her crib for the first time. Well not first time ever, but we have been sleeping her in the swing for months due to her reflux. But I elevated one end of her crib mattress and decided to try it out last night. I guess she liked it.

Now, we may not have another night this great in a long long time, but just wanted to report that I am thankful for last night and getting some sleep!!

Lainey 5 Months

Size: You weigh 13 lbs. 14 oz. (24%) and you are 25 in tall (46%). You wear 3-6 month clothes mostly, although you can still fit in some 0-3 month clothes, and size 2 diaper.

Likes: You like to look all around when we hold you facing out. You love chewing on your feet. You really love TV. Not that we let you watch it, but if you see it you just want to stare at it. You still love kicking your legs like crazy. You are happy in the Bjorn running errands. You still like the paci. You like when we sing you nursery rhymes and act silly. You love when Cambry talks to you up close, you just watch her and smile. During bath time you just sit quietly and relax.

Dislikes: You still don't like it when I put you in the car seat but are fine once you are in. You don't like tummy time. I try to work on it with you but you only tolerate it for short periods of time.You don't like outfit changes much.

Working on: You try so hard to roll over but you aren't quite there yet. You sometimes try to put your paci back in by yourself but can't quite get it. 

Sleeping: Oh goodness every day is completely different. You wake up between 5:30 and 6:30 usually. You take about 4 naps a day. Your first 2 naps are very short, your afternoon nap is usually long - maybe a couple hours, and then you have a short cat nap before bed. You usually go to sleep somewhere around 7:30pm. Sometimes you wake up several times in the first few hours after putting you down. You wake up to eat twice a night, and sometimes wake other times. You still sleep swaddled in your swing. Hopefully your sleeping will get better soon!

Eating: You nurse about every 2-3 hours. If you take a bottle you drink about 5 oz. Sometimes feedings are a struggle and other times they are fine. You still struggle with reflux and sometimes cry after nursing.

Sweet baby bear it has been a hard month. I feel so bad for you when you have your tummy/gas pains. We took you to a GI doctor who basically just confirmed you have milk protein allergy. I bought formula and I think we are going to try it in hopes that things get better. I have been cutting out dairy and soy but it is stressful. I had a nightmare that I ate a piece of cheese, and I freaked out this weekend when I accidentally took a sip of Cambry's smoothie (containing milk) when I was trying to fix her straw without thinking. Anyway, we'll see how things go. Like last month, I think we are ending again on an "up". I hope it continues. When you are feeling good you are just the sweetest little baby. We love you so so much!

My Little Shoppers

I am thankful that both of my girls are good little shoppers. Cambry loves to ride in the car grocery cart and Lainey is content to be in the Bjorn. Now, lest you think all of our grocery trips are smooth sailing, let me say that we do have the occasional hiccup. I have had a stranger come to my aid when wrestling my 30+lb toddler into the child seat of a cart who has suddenly decided to go all stiff leg and uncooperative on me while wearing an infant strapped to my chest. Also have been helped by a stranger after sacker decided to put my groceries in a new cart instead of the one Cambry was riding in, then when I tried to transfer her and let her walk I realized she had taken off her shoes so as she sat completely motionless on the extrememly clean floor, I had to bend over and attempt to put on her shoes, again while wearing a crying infant as I held up cart traffic.

But anyway, MOST of the time the girls are great. Although you gotta watch Cambry. She is sneaky. There have been numerous times she has grabbed something without me noticing. It is quite funny.

And here is my sweet Lainey bear, who loves to look around and kick her legs. 

Cleaner Eating

Since I have been cutting out dairy and soy from my diet (for Lainey), it has been forcing me to eat healthier foods. And for that, I am thankful. It seems like most packaged or processed food contain dairy and/or soy. So I pretty much have to stick to basic ingredients, with some exceptions of course.

Also, Greg and I have really been trying to reduce our sugar intake. Not completely cut it out, but have less sugary snacks and less desserts. This has been hard for me. Greg is of course the most disciplined person ever so it seems like this stuff is easy for him. But I love love love sugar and it has been pretty miserable for me, ha! So I have been cheating some. BUT it does help that since I can't have dairy and soy (which basically eliminates baked goods) I can only cheat with a few things.

Ok let's start with breakfast. I LOVE milk and cereal. Love. Although I had gotten out of the habit of eating sugary cereal for breakfast when I was pregnant with Lainey and started having issues with blood sugar and feeling faint. There are some cereals that I still eat - Cheerios and a Honey Bunches of Oats type cereal, but I have them with almond milk and that is for "dessert". For breakfast I usually have oatmeal and an egg, and sometimes turkey bacon. Ok ok and sometimes pancakes on Saturdays but they are whole wheat and I try to use very little syrup so sue me.

Now onto lunch. Greg has been awesome and has been often grilling chicken or something else on Sundays for us to eat throughout the week. We'll eat it with sweet potatoes and vegetables a lot.

Snacks are hard. I used to eat a chocolate chip granola bar everyday (among other things). Now I eat a lot of almonds and cashews, fruit, banana peanut butter smoothies, and fruit strips (that are really supposed to be for Cambry) since they have no added sugar and I eat them for "dessert".

Dinners haven't changed too much. Although many of my favorite recipes contain cheese or other dairy products so I have been searching Pinterest for new recipes. It has been nice trying out new things lately.

A couple weeks ago at Divine Design we had a lesson on cooking vegetables. That was so helpful to me because I am pretty clueless at cooking vegetables. We mostly eat the same things over and over and a lot of times I just buy them frozen. I want to branch out but I don't know how to cook many vegetables. Since our lesson I have cooked cabbage (for the first time) and liked it. I also cooked fresh okra for the first time which was great too. And then last night I made zucchini fritters which were really good and Cambry even ate them. I still want to try out cooking greens (maybe kale or collard greens) although I don't like cooked spinach, only raw, so we'll see how that goes.

I still crave desserts all the time so thankfully I have found some dairy free soy free chocolate chips as well as dairy free soy free ice cream. Everything in moderation, right?

It's My Birthyear and I'll Cry If I Want To

Things have been tough around here. Mostly due to this cutey patootie.

My last update on her was her 4 month post where I said we were ending on an "up". Well right after that things went down hill. Way down hill. Poor little Lainey has had a lot of tummy and reflux troubles and there has been a lot of crying around here.

I had been cutting out dairy for a while, but then had a little bit one day and WOW things got bad. For about a week and a half she was not a happy camper at all. So much crying and SO MANY dirty diapers. It was out of control. We went to the doctor and had a little test done. So now I have to cut out all soy as well all dairy.

Things are still not back to normal, although they are improving I think. And with her I am not even sure what "normal" is because every week is so different. There has been a lot of crying and she wakes up a lot at night. Best case scenario for her is 2 wakings per night - around 11pm and 3am for feedings. But she often wakes up more than that - especially in the first few hours after putting her to bed. Her feedings are sometimes very challenging. She will pull off and on and cry and then cry when she is done eating.

If things don't get better we may have to try formula but I REALLY want to keep breastfeeding. Although sticking to this diet is really hard. But it is making me eat healthier. It seems like most all processed/packaged foods contain dairy and/or soy. So cutting those out has resulted in much cleaner eating. Actually I will save that for another post because we are trying to make some changes to our eating habits. 

So anyway, I am not trying to complain but just want to document the hard times as well as the good times. I have felt so stressed and anxious lately about her eating, her weight gain, her reflux, her dirty diapers, her development, etc. I really need to trust God and pray for wisdom on how to best care for her. I am so thankful for Lainey and I love her so much. She is little and sweet and I love her long eyelashes and her baby sounds and her little toes and her crazy kicking legs and all her baby-ness. I am thankful for her big sister who is so very sweet and patient with her. I am thankful for Greg who is such a good Daddy and gets up with her at night too. Children are a gift from The Lord and even though it is hard sometimes I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Cambry Lately

Since I am no longer doing monthly posts for Cambry, I will give a little update on her. She has the cutest sweetest personality and she makes us laugh all the time.

The girl loves to sing. And she knows so many songs. This may or may not be due to the fact that she loves watching nursery rhyme videos on YouTube. She sings itsy bitsy spider, Mary had a little lamb, old macdonalds farm, here we go round the mulberry bush, and a bunch more. Although she does NOT like it when I sing. I will just be casually singing something without noticing and she will say "no like mommy's singing". I am like WHAT? Is it the song or my voice you don't like? "Voice". For the record she does not like Greg's singing either.

She really loves going to childcare at church. She goes on Sunday morning, Tuesday mornings for Divine Design, and Wednesday and Friday mornings for my workout class. She loves all of her teachers and has so much fun. She heads straight into the room without even saying bye when I drop her off and she gets so silly and starts dancing all around when I pick her up. Her Wednesday/Friday teacher commented on how "jolly" she always is and how she has never seen her cry. On Fridays her class even does a little Zumba lesson which sounds so cute. The other day when I picked her up she sat down to put on her shoes next to another little girl in the class (who I didn't know) and said "Hi Maddie". I was impressed she knew her name and called her by it. She sounded so grown up having her own friends. I am so thankful she likes going to childcare so I can have little breaks throughout the week and for her teachers who are all so sweet.

Although she can sometimes be shy around strangers she has started really hamming it up in front of people lately. If a friend or neighbor comes over to the house she will be so funny and silly.

Also, I think her baby doll finally has a name. She has started calling her Holly recently. It took me a couple days to figure it out. At first I thought she was talking about her cousin Hollyn, but I am pretty sure she is calling her baby doll that name.

She likes reading books, but usually only before bed. Although sometimes you can hardly even read the story to her because she talks non stop just pointing out everything that is going on in the pictures. We can't even really read the Jesus Storybook Bible to her anymore because she just wants to look at the pictures and talk about them. She loves looking at the picture of John the Baptist eating honey. She is very adamant about NOT reading the story where Jesus calms the storm because she "no want to see the people get scared".

She has been so sweet and so good and especially so patient lately with all of Lainey's crying (more on that later). She cracks us up with all the funny things she says and I am daily blown away by all the things she knows. This is such a fun age where she can really communicate with us and we have such fun conversations. 

6 Years

Greg and I celebrated our six year anniversary this past weekend. I can't believe it has been 6 years. I feel like we just got married a couple years ago. Although at the same time it seems like ages ago that we were living in an apartment with no kids. We were doing things like fishing in the galleria lake (that is now under construction), having game nights with friends any time we wanted to, and eating our dinners while watching episodes of 24. Things have changed a lot since then but they keep getting better!

We didn't do any big celebration, but we did go to Tiny Boxwood as a family for breakfast. It is such a cute place. We had never been before but really enjoyed it. You sit in this enclosed garden type area and it is so nice outside. And the food was great.

I am so thankful to have found the very best husband and father in the world! I couldn't have picked a better match. I thank God for bringing me Greg.