Another 1st for Julie!

Julie slept for a total of 7 1/2 hours straight last night. We put her down at 11:00p.m. and I woke up at 6:30a.m. and realized that she had not woken up yet, so I hurried in quietly just to check on her. I was shocked, she slept through the night. It was so nice. She woke up a little after I checked on her and so I fed her and put her back down, and then she slept until 8:30 when the sun came popping through the blinds, and so did Rob and I. It was Heaven!
After our visit with the doctor, there were two things he told us to do. The first was to stretch her feedings out and the second was that if she woke up during the night, to let her cry for a half an hour before I went in to feed her. Well, we are now on a 2 1/2 - 3 hour schedule of feedings and she seems to be good with that. And, the past two nights she has slept very well. The night before last she slept for a total of about 6 hours straight. I didn't think she would sleep the first night after getting her shots, but she was great and the shots didn't seem to faze her at all. It was like she heard the doctor and decided she would cooperate with him and us.
It is so nice not to be feeding her so often

A 1st for me!

I am so excited, I put Julie down for a nap! I guess that doesn't sound super exciting, but for me it is. Usually I just lay her between my legs after I feed her and rock her and then she will fall asleep and I just leave her there. Well, it is hard getting anything done like that. Or I would put her in her crib once she has fallen asleep. But, today I fed her, and then changed her diaper, and then played with her on the floor. She started to get fussy so I just took her into her crib and laid her down, gave her a kiss and shut the door. She cried for about 10 minutes and then fell asleep.

Happy Day! This is just so exciting for me, and I have already gotten so much done. Started the dishwasher, finally washed our bed sheets, washed the counter and it has only been a half an hour. Yeah! I am so proud of myself! And to top that off, she slept for a little more than 5 and a 1/2 hours last night, doesn't that feel good! Whoa!And I got my hair cut the other day. I did get a hair cut in December, but that was just to get rid of damaged hair. And so, after a year of growing my hair out, I got it cut, but I decided I was going to still try to let it grow out and to just get the bottom trimmed and shaped again. So, now it is shoulder length and a little layered. She also gave me bangs on my left side which I didn't really want, but they will grow. My hair didn't grow as much as I thought it would over the course of the year, I think it was because it was damaged and I had a lot of split ends. So, now I will try to grow it out again, the healthy way. Meaning frequent hair cuts!

2 months!

My babe is two months old! She is such a joy! She had her two month check up today and we figured she would be high on the charts.
Her stats:
Weight: 12lb. 9oz. (92%)
Height: 24 1/4 inches (97%)
Head: 15 3/4 inches (80%)
She is going to be one tall girl. She also got her 3 shots and an oral vaccine. She cried, but just for a minute. She was awesome and the nurses were really great.
The doctor gave us some suggestions to get Julie to sleep through the night and help with nursing to get her to go longer between feedings. I have been feeding her every 1 1/2 - 2 hours, and the doctor said I should try for at least 2 1/2 hours.
She also has cradle cap, so he told us to use Head and Shoulders on her hair and leave it for a few minutes and then rinse it off and that should take care of it.
Julie favors her right side, she can't turn her head to the left very well, so we have to stretch her neck to the left. So, I laid her on her stomach with her head looking to the left. She did great, she did eventually get her head turned to the other side.
Her neck isn't as strong as the doctor would have liked, so we are doing more tummy time to get that neck of her stronger. So, we have a few things we need to work on. He did say her eye focus was really good for her age. Yeah! We love our little gal and are so grateful she is with us.

Here is my little sweety with her poked legs. She is getting some chunk to her legs now, really filling out. She doesn't look that chunky to me, could be because she is so long, the weight has more room to distribute throughout her body.

I attempted to take a full body picture and she was done smiling so I got this sober face.

I tried this hat on when she was younger and it didn't quite fit, I tried it on yesterday and it is getting a little snug now. I thought it was cute.

I love this picture because she just looks so cute asleep on the floor. She loves to sleep with her hands up by her head. Must get that from Rob. I don't find that comfy at all.

Julie loves to be held so she can see everything around her. If she is being fussy, we just turn her facing out and she usually calms down. Here is cute Daddy with Julie.

Julies Blessing Day!

We blessed Julie today the 21st day of March. It was absolutely perfect weather. Everything went really well and we had a lot of family come. Rob gave Julie a beautiful blessing. We were going to wait until April to bless her, but with Conference our fast Sunday wouldn't be until after conference and we needed to get her blessed before she grew out of her blessing dress.

My mom made her beautiful blessing dress, she had been working on it while I was pregnant and I quite fond of it while she was working on it, but when she showed it to me finished, I LOVED it. It turned out just so beautiful. Thank you so much mom for doing that. And it fit her just perfectly.
The purple aphgan in these pictures is one of the aphgans Robs grandma made that we were able to get. It is very special to Rob and I.

My sister in law was so kind to take some pictures of us and of Julie in her blessing dress. Thanks again for doing that! We love them!
And another sister in law made this cute bracelet for Julie for her special day! Thanks!

I decided to take a few inside as well!

For the meal afterwords, we decided to have Pulled Pork sandwiches, and so Rob and I dropped Julie off at my parents, and we headed off to Sams to buy a pork loin. I have never cooked with anything other than chicken and ground beef, so this was something new.

But, it was super easy to make. We bought a pork loin, and my sister Kerri came over the next day to look for a recipe online and to watch Julie for us also. We found a recipe.
That night around 10:00p.m. I cut the pork loin in sections and stuck half in one crock pot and the other half in another. I actually broke out a crock pot that we got from our wedding. Then I filled it halfway with water and put about 1/2 an onion cut up into rings so you can take them out later if you want. I also put 2 Tbsp. of Worcestershire sauce in each. Then you plug it in and cook on low for 12 hours. When I woke up to feed Julie the smell was so strong and smelled so good.
Sunday around 10:45 I took the onions off and put the pork on a plate, and took the fat off and pulled the pork and then put back into the crock pot and then dumped a full bottle of barbecue sauce in and let it cook for another hour while we were at church. I thought it turned out really good and it was so simple. We also had a lot of yummy salads that family brought. And good desserts. In all the day was fabulous for Julies special day. Thanks to everyone for coming and supporting us!

Church

Sunday was our wards fast Sunday, and we decided we were going to bring Julie to all of church. We got through sacrament meeting just fine and now I needed to feed Julie and I am not comfortable nursing her in the mothers room, so I was just going to feed her some formula. Then, we saw our pediatrician and he told us half joking that we should take her home. With RSV going around we decided to do just that. So, we took her home and Rob went back so he could go to Priesthood. My beehive girls were looking forward to seeing Julie so I felt bad that I went home, they came by afterwords and gave me a cute blanket for Julie. So, going to all of church didn't go quite as planned, but nothing really ever goes as planned with a little one anyways.

This next picture just looks so comfy, just relaxing in a comfy blanket in her swing. Heavenly!

And then just two pictures of her chillin on her blanket, she was talking and wiggling around and so happy! She is in her 3-6 month size clothes right now, she is growing out of her clothes length-wise.

She is going a little bit longer sleeping at night, we put her down usually around 10:30-11:00 and she doesn't wake up until 4:30a.m.
And if she eats too much, she has a good throw up session a little after her morning feeding. Not the funnest, but it doesn't bother her.

Julie's 1st Walk!

We went on our first walk of the year and my face and hands got a little chilly, but it was so nice to get out. It was kind of tough pushing the stroller up the hill. The last time I went for a walk was the first part of December. So it has been a while. We got this stroller at a garage sale and are planning on getting a jogging stroller soon. It will be easier to push and I will be able to push it off road as well, when cars come by I can just move off the road and still be able to push it along.
And Julie did fabulous on her first stroller ride, I think she was nice and toasty warm. She slept the whole time. It still feels a little weird pushing a stroller around, not used to it yet.

Tummy Time

Whenever I lay Julie on her stomach, she usually just lays there and falls asleep. I think it is so cute because her cute cheek gets all squished. And her bum stick up into the air. Her neck is getting stronger but not strong enough to pick herself up off the ground. We need to practice more.

I just love this one, she is half asleep and she usually smiles when she is halfway asleep like this.

1st Time to Church!

We had Stake Conference today, and decided we would take Julie with us. We got there right at 1:00p.m. and had to sit on the hard seats. Julie did awesome, we kept her in her car seat the whole time and she basically just slept. We used to the binki also to keep her calm. She was past due to eat and still did good. Julie's pediatrician was sitting right in front of us and we talked with him for awhile.

I didn't think I would be able to find a dress that would fit Julie right now, this one is a 3 month size and is already getting small. My neighbor gave us a dress that is 3-6 month and that already fits. Crazy! She looked so cute, now I just need to get or make some shoes for her.

Waking up to the Sunrise and 1st trip out!

I love waking up to the sun shining through the window. On Saturdays when Rob is at home, instead of staying up once Julie wakes up around 6-6:30, I go back to bed for a couple more hours and boy does it feel good. The sun starts coming through the window a little after 8:00a.m. and I just love it. Nothing better than a few extra hours of shut eye in the morning!

We took Julie to Kohl's on Thursday night after Rob got home from work. Rob wanted to find a jacket and they were having a sale, so we headed out. We met my mom and sister there, she could get 30% off and so we got Robs jacket for a great deal. And Julie, did awesome and slept basically the whole time.

Random Pictures!

It seems like most of my days are spent on the couch with Julie asleep on my shoulder. I really don't spend my whole day like this. But, she is fun to snuggle with.

Once we put Julie in her car seat she falls asleep pretty fast. This picture also shows how big my baby is getting. I am going to have to move the shoulder straps up one notch soon.

Here is a picture of Julie on the verge of a smile, took the picture too soon. While I change her diaper is the best time to get her to coo and smile. It is so much fun.

This picture just shows how big she is getting, I haven't put her in her swing for a little while and I put her in yesterday and she looked so huge in there. Kind of makes me sad how fast she is growing.

When Julie is drinking from a bottle, she is pretty messy and drools down the side of her mouth and so this is usually how she looks before we start feeding her. Kitchen towels are way more absorbent.

And just the other day she has started blowing bubbles. It just amazes me how fast she changes every day. I have got to savor every minute of her cuteness!
I am so excited for Spring and being able to go on walks outside again.
Yeah for Spring!

Weight

On Saturday my sisters gave me a baby shower. It turned out great and we got lots of cute stuff. Even better was the good food. They had a veggie tray, fruit with dip, chicken sandwiches, little cupcakes. Everything was just so good.
Thanks sisters!
While at my moms we decided to weigh Julie on my moms Kitchen scale. Not super accurate, but oh well. She weighs around 11.5 lb, wow, my baby is getting chubby.

She is now really starting to smile and talk to us, it is so much fun to hear all her cute little sounds! She loves to talk to me while I am changing her diaper and I got the biggest grin out of her today! I just love it!