Melanie - 1 Month(March 20)

It always amazes me how fast and slow time can go. Here we are one month after having Melanie, life is getting better and we are slowly getting in more of a routine. Breastfeeding is going a little better, but still have to pump every time. There were a few days where she would refuse to even try and latch on and just cry and cry. So, after talking to my lactation consultant, I am just going to keep at it and not give up and try and nurse her before every feeding. Melanie is smart and knows that if she doesn't nurse, she gets the bottle, so I just keep offering and eventually she will realize that I am not giving up and she will eventually latch on. And I can say she is doing much better. We think she might have some acid reflux, and I think her breathing is just weird, trying to video it to take to show the doctor. She sleeps well when propped up, and last night we fed her and laid her down at 12:00, and she kind of woke up to eat around 3 and 6:00, but never really opened her eyes, just drank her milk and then went back to sleep. I maybe should have just waited a little bit to see if she would fall back asleep. And even though she was asleep right by my face, Rob says she had an explosion in her diaper around 4:00, and I didn't even hear it, and so her diaper in the morning was stuck to her bum from the poop. Sorry girl, blame it on your father who didn't tell me until morning!

-She is more alert, and awake more! Her eyes are just so penetrating whens she looks at you, sometimes they freak me out(is that bad). She almost looks as if she is going to talk or coo, but hasn't yet. 

 -She has the cross eyed look right now. 

 -Makes so much noise when she sleeps or right before she gets into a good sleep, and she kind of half sneezes when she wakes up

-She is a lot more fussy that Julie was, just moving and wriggling around like she is in pain, had a few days where she would spew her milk, like drank too much and a lot of milk comes shooting out. Blah, not cool! Only has happened a few times!
Kind of random when it happens, can be a while after she has eaten.
-These pictures are of Melanie on Julies bed, Julie always gets a little concerned when I lay Melanie on her bed.

-Whenever Melanie cries Julie will offer her Piglet, Grandma and Grandpa Taylor got Piglet for Melanie when they went to Disneyland and an Eeyore for Julie. Julie plays with piglet but always gives it to Melanie when she is crying.

-Just watching her sister.

-Julie will sometimes put her faces right up in front of Melanie's face, like she is giving her an Eskimo kiss but doesn't. She does this to us as well.

-Tummy time - we lay her down and she will usually just lay there and then fall asleep.  She loves laying on her tummy and so did Julie. At Julies 2 month checkup the doctor was not pleased with her head strength, not that we didn't give her tummy time, she would just rather lay there and relax than lift her head up. But, if we lay her on our stomach and lean back in a rocking chair she can lift her head up pretty well. We will have to do more of that to get her neck stronger rather than tummy time.

Melanie always seems to have her forehead  scrunched and her eyes open wide, kind of like in this picture.

Love those lips.

Sleeping on my arm she spends a lot of her time.

This picture reminds me so much of Julie. The first picture is of Melanie and the next one is of Julie. Similar, but very different.

My sweet babes!

Julie Update

 -She has been signing all the time, she loves to sign the colors. But, if she knows the sign, she will do it. She has a book about feelings and she will sign each of the feelings when we get to them. So fun to see her using the signs more while she is talking to us. She also loves to sign "Help Me".
-She let me put pig tails in her hair the day before Easter, I did have to bribe her with some swedish fish, but she did awesome and even left them in. Makes her looks more like a little girl.

-plops on the floor when mad or can't figure something out, ever since Melanie came home she has been more whinny(SUPER), and just cries over everything that happens.

-She loves dance and sing, when she sings the song from the Tigger Movie, the "Super duper lupty luper ally uper bounce", she has to bounce/run all around the room as she is saying it. She also loves the "lumpy dumpity dee, lumpy dumpity dee" from The Heffalump Movie. Although when she sings this one, her legs are straight, as she walks straight legged around the room.

-She still has trouble staying in bed, we have to threaten her with locking the door, and then she will usually stay in there. And sometimes I will lock it, but only for a couple minutes.

-So many different walks, sometimes she has a little sway to her walk, sometimes it is just straight legs, so funny!
-She has been going on walks with Grandma lately, and she loves it, until it gets a little warmer, I haven't taken Melanie for a walk, so it is nice to have my mom take Julie when she can.
-She was having fun with her glasses the other day putting them on like a headband.

-She loves to color and carry her crayons with her from room to room. And then dumping them all over, she did this when she first got crayons when she was little,  if I would move into another room, she would have to pick up all her crayons and move them to the next place that I was, usually having to make a few trips to get all of them.

Here is her pile of crayons while eating breakfast.

-This one shows her birthmark on her hand that is fading away, I am glad I got a good picture of it when she was little, because it is going away.

-Her dancing/running around the house.

-She also loves to wear her hat.

Running around mommy as mommy is trying to get a picture of her.

-Cuddling her baby, she has loved her babies more now that Melanie is here. She also loves to burp her babies.

-She loves fishies, especially the chocolate, blue fishies(vanilla cupcake), and the purple fishies(chocolate chip). The blue and purple are referring to the package color that they are in. She knows where they are and loves to get them herself and start chowing down. I usually put some in her snack cup, so she is not grabbing them from the bag herself.

-Wearing shorts for the first time this year and a short sleeve shirt. The pants need a belt but she just looks so summery. So fun! She learned that she can climb up and sit on the window and then jump back into her bed and so now her bed is moved away from the window.

She loves to read/look at her books, and I love that! Sometimes I will go look to see what she is doing and she will be on the chair looking at a book or on the chair in her room with a book.

-My sister let us borrow her file folder games that she made a long time ago and she has been loving them. She always is saying, "Help me, mommy", especially when she want a new one and I tell her she needs to put the peaces back into the bag first.

-Just had to add a cute one of Melanie here with Daddy.

Newborn and Family Photos

We got some newborn and family photos taken by my wonderful sister in law. I just love how they all turned out. Now to get some printed!
I was a little worried to do the naked baby pictures, I only got peed on twice! I just love how they turned out though!

I really love the ones where she is awake!

I think this one is one of my favorites!

Heather did an awesome job of getting Julie to smile, which can be pretty tricky to do. I just love this shot of her!

Trying to get her to smile!

Awhhh, a cute daddy/daughter shot!

Proud Papa!

These next are some of my favorites as well, I really wanted some bright pictures and luckily the sun came out for a bit for them!

And then little miss Melanie!

I just love her ears, I think she has a mixture of both Rob and I in them. The flap at the top looks like it was smooshed and then stuck like that. There just cute.

This is a blanket her grandma Taylor made for her, she loves the fluffy pink side, the only problem with holding her in this is that it is kind of slippery with the satin on the other side. We have to be really careful, mainly she just lays on it.

We just love all the pictures, thanks Heather!