Busy days

We have been very busy lately. I can barely believe spring is here and our little girl is almost 5 months old! The time goes by so fast. We have been busy going for walks around the block. Molly went on her first big girl walk, facing forward in the carriage! At first she wasn't quite sure about it but once we started moving she was fine. We also went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New Haven. Doesn't she make a great Red Sox fan?

We have also been busy going to Gymboree and a variety of events with others moms I've met on meetup.com. It's a lot of fun, and finally feel like I'm meeting more people around here with babies around Molly's age.

Oh, we also got a new dryer. It works so well! I can actually get all the laundry done in one day! And I am getting over an upper respiratory infection, yuck. But this is really the first time I have been sick all winter. Molly just looks at me all confused when I cough.

Just about time to watch Grey's Anatomy, hoping Molly will stay sleeping.....

Dryer almost caught on fire!

I know they always say to never run your washer, dryer, dish washer, etc. when you aren't home....well make sure you don't!!! I usually don't, but there are always those times when you're running from place to place and trying to get laundry done at the same time. Fortunately I was home today. I was just finishing feeding Molly when all of a sudden I felt like I smelled smoke. So I poked my head down stairs and didn't see any flames but defintely more smoke. I go down and stop the dryer, and apparently a few bibs, washclothes, and burp clothes got stuck in the back. A few are completely charred. There was no actual fire it doesn't seem, but who knows how much longer until one started. Very scary. Thank goodness I did most of the laundry over the weekend. Looks like we are finally going to get that new dryer we need!

What a week

This was the beginning of the week.....

And this was the end.....

The snow was beautiful, Molly had some fun for a few minutes. At least we got to use her snowsuit for a little while. Winter isn't over yet though, I'd say there is at least one good storm left.

Meanwhile, we are preparing for our beach trip to Hilton Head. Molly is just about ready to go!

We had her 4 month checkup on Friday. She grew so much! She is now 12 lb 9 oz, which is a 3 lb gain since the 2 month appointment. She also grew 2 more inches, so she's 23 3/4". She's getting so big! She had a whole bunch of shots again, but wasn't nearly as fussy as last time. She took a nice nap in the afternoon but didn't miss any feedings. She was still a little fussy on Saturday, she wasn't her normal happy self. But she was better again by Sunday and finally learned how to jump in her jumperoo.

Well, it seems like she is awake from her nap.

Molly is quite the talker

Ok, I don't have a lot of time so here is a video of Molly "talking."

She woke up and is hungry now, and we might go out to play in the snow!

SHE SLEPT IN HER CRIB!!!!

SHE SLEPT IN HER CRIB!!!! Yes, that's right. For the first time ever, Molly slept in her crib the entire night!!! We are so excited that she finally did it. She has been getting closer, sleeping in her crib for most of her naps during the day and taking some pretty long ones. Last week she took a 1.5 hour nap and a 2.5 hour nap! And after our weekend in New Hampshire co-sleeping and this past weekend she fell asleep in the big bed down at Grandma's house and then slept with us during the night.

Last night we decided to try something different since falling asleep on me and then going into the crib wasn't working. I put her in her swing and let her fall asleep there. After about 30 minutes I transferred her to the crib. She did wake up, and was awake for a few minutes but I knew she was ready for bed and sleepy so left her there with the mobile and wave machine going. After a little while she started to cry a little more so I went back to put in her pacifier which put her out immediately. We had to "re-bink" her 3 times throughout the night, but she went right back to sleep as soon as she had it in again.

So that is our exciting news :). Hopefully we are going to have a little bit more normal schedule this week. We missed Gymboree all last week because we went to visit my dad on Tuesday and then it snowed/iced on Wednesday. So we're back at it today, and then going to see if we can find a cottage to rent for the summer.

Thanks to Aunt Dawn for the pictures of Molly. They came out great!

My 2 Babies

It only took 3 months, but I think Tigger has finally accepted that Molly is here to stay. One of Tigger's favorite things is to sit on my lap or John's lap when we are using the computer. Now that Molly is here, a lot of the time my lap is taken already. Today, Tigger didn't seem to care and joined right in. The funny thing is that I can't really tell if Molly really even notices he is there. His tail was in her face and rubbing her head, but there really wasn't much reaction. Her hand touched him a few times, but it was more him rubbing her than the other way around. I think for now she thinks he is a moving stuffed animal, she's more entertained by her singing teddy bear. Soon enough she'll figure it out!

We've been busy around here. Gramma came up today to babysit (we have 3 Grandma's. Gramma=my mom, Grammy=John's mom, Grandma Jo=Joann.) So we don't get confused :). Thank goodness for Gramma's, my poor mother flew in from LA last night and was able to come this morning to watch Molly so I could go to the hospital to see my dad (Grandpa.) He is doing well, he didn't end up going in for surgery until about 5 am this morning, he went to the hospital at 10:30 am yesterday. So it was a long day, he was getting a little annoyed by the end but it seems like he was doing well. I am pretty pleased with the doctors so far, we'll see how things progress. We are hoping he can come home Sunday afternoon or Monday.

I also worked from home today, it felt good to do something other than check my message boards :).

Welcome Back from New Hampshire

We had a lovely long weekend in New Hampshire. This is me skiing at Wildcat, it was a beautiful day for skiing! Yes, it was cold. But once it gets to a certain amount of cold, does it really feel colder? I'm not sure. All I know is that when we pulled into the Balsams at 2 pm on Monday it was -4 degrees, not counting the windchill (it wasn't that cold when we were skiing, it was in the teens on Sunday.) Thank goodness for Molly's Bundleme! We put it over her and rushed her right into the lobby so she barely even noticed she was outside. She was a great baby traveling. She slept most of the way, and ate fine in the car when we took breaks. She really enjoyed sleeping with mommy and daddy, and seems to think that is going to be the norm. I think she really liked the fact that I would feed her if she made the slightest peep because I didn't want her to cry at night in the hotel. Last night everything was back to normal once she finally fell asleep.

Now that we are home, we've got some craziness ahead of us. My dad is going in for surgery on his foot, another bone infection :(. Hopefully everything is ok. He is scheduled for surgery tonight, I am heading up there this afternoon. Molly is going to get her first taste of formula it seems. I pumped a little, but not nearly enough. So hopefully that goes ok. I feel bad leaving John to deal with it, but there isn't much choice.

The other big news is that the office called and it looks like they need some help. Session is crazy, so we are going to try to work something out with me working on some stuff from home and going into the office to help Vicki on occasion since she hurt her wrist.

Well, Molly seems to have woken up from her nap, in her crib so that's it for now.

3 months!

Wow, I can't believe Molly turned 3 months old yesterday. It really seems like she was just born, and in other ways I can't imagine what life was like before her. It seems like she has always been a part of our lives. She is doing great. She is enjoying tummy time more and more, as you can see from her picture. I give Gymboree a little bit of credit for that. Maybe because it forces us to do it at least twice a week, she got more comfortable doing it. She can even roll over to her back on occasion, all depends on if her arms are in the right position. So I wouldn't say she's rolling over quite yet, but she is getting there.

We also had Molly's baptism last weekend which was a lot of fun. Melissa and Dan are the Godparents, aren't they lucky :)? Here is a great picture of Molly with all of her cousins, 9 of them in total. It was nice to have them all together. After the baptism Molly had her first party at The Playwright, the food was tasty and it was a great spot to have any kind of party. They finished the banquet room a year or two ago and it is a really nice room. Well decorated, not so banquet hallish and not too big that we felt like we were a little group in a big room. I am so happy we decided to have it there, and eliminate the stress of cleaning and cooking!

And the good news, while uploading the photos I was able to get Molly to nap in her crib. She seems to fall asleep if I am in her room doing stuff. I am also able to keep reseting the mobile. I never even thought about having an electric vs. crank. Live and learn! At least it is cute and matches her room.

Molly says "I Love You" ?

Ok, so maybe she is still as little too young for her first words, let alone her first phrase. But she is definitely responding to us, and when we say, "tell daddy I love you", we get a very distinct gurgle/coo. It is very cute, and she's done it more than once. She is growing more each day and learning so much. As you can see she is starting to hold her head up, she actually does even better than that but not for the camera, of course. We took some video yesterday and I am going to try to get a litte more today and then will post it.

That's about it from here. We had a good weekend, went over to the Hannan's for dinner on Saturday. We all have our fingers crossed that Molly has a new friend to play with soon!

The Blog Slacker is Back

Have I really not posted since the 5th? My goodness. I guess time just flies when you are having so much fun! I really am having fun most days. Molly has been such a good baby, and even her fussiness hasn't been getting to me too much lately. I think I've just learned that it's ok to put her in her swing if that's what she needs to be happy. And I should say that it's not like she is fussy often, mostly just in the late afternoons. But I think I'm also learning when I can soothe her and when I need the swing or bouncer chairs help.

It has been a little difficult getting good pictures of her lately. She either is focusing so intently on the red light on the camera that she won't smile, or she has her fingers in her mouth. But John caught the smile in the second photo the other day.

She is growing so fast. She is smiling like crazy, starting to giggle a little bit and cooing more and more. She is very cute. Wherever I go in the room, her eyes follow and when she sees John her eyes just light up. The cutest thing she did just yesterday was this eyebrow thing that John always does. For those of you who know him, he does this thing where he raises his eyebrows up and down. Well Molly started doing it yesterday and she did it again today, just like him. It's so funny! Anyway...enough about that :).

What else is going on? Still going to Gymboree although we had to skip it today because our furnace needed to be serviced, it didn't want to turn on this morning for some reason. At least I noticed it when I did. It only got down to about 65 degrees in here, but for me that's freezing. I pulled out the space heater and had it blowing full speed in the living room with us. Molly slept snug as a bug wrapped up in a couple of blankets though. Last Friday I went to the Milford Mall for a New Haven Mom's meet up. It was pretty good, hopefully I'll be able to go to another one soon.

Well that's about it from here for now. We've all been feeling pretty good, knock on lots of wood. Molly is getting nice and fat, I should take a picture of her legs now and compare them to when she was first born. She's on to her third fat roll. So cute!

Happy New Year...a few days late!

I have taken a few more pictures but haven't had time to upload them so sorry, nothing new today but I figured I would update on how things are going and what we have been up to.

Molly celebrated her 2 month birthday on New Year's Eve at the Kelly's house with a bunch of other babies! What fun :). She was really good and it was so much fun to see everyone. And it made it so much more comfortable knowing there were other babies and kids there so if she cried, it was no big deal...they all were crying at some point! But she only fussed during her second bottle, which she just doesn't do well. One bottle a day is fine, but if you try to do a second she says, "What the heck is this?" So off to the tv room I went to breastfeed. If that Steve Kelly would have just stopped interrupting it would have been fine...just kidding. Thanks to him I now know all the words to Dick in a Box. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbZxlEZFZCQ if you haven't seen it yet. Absolutely hysterical. Some of Justin's finest work.

Now that the holidays are over we aren't quite as busy although there is still quite a bit of clean up to do. Rather than playing on the internet I should be sorting through gifts but oh well. We also started going to Gymboree, which should be fun. We went to one class already and Molly really enjoyed it. It was right when she should have been napping and was a little fussy when we got there but once she saw all the other babies and all the other things to look at she was so alert and delayed the fussing for about 20 minutes, which is pretty amazing. By then it was just about baby massage time and the lights turned down so she was able to take a nap and relax. Hopefully I'll also meet some new people.

2 month doctor visit

Sorry no pictures today, didn't get a chance to take any and post them. But wanted to update on Molly's visit to the peditrician. She will be 2 months on Sunday so we went to the doctor yesterday. She had her first round of shots, yucky. 2 in each leg and another she took orally. Lots of stuff for a little one. The shots themselves weren't so bad, she cried a little bit when the doctor gave her the third one but when it was all done I fed her so things were good.

Then we went to Lisa's house for lunch and saw Erika, Brady and Teigue who were visiting from San Diego. I haven't seen Erika since Chicago about 6 years ago. Time goes by so fast. So that was fun having two little ones with us for lunch. After lunch, Molly got a little on the fussy side. She didn't want to eat much and just screamed her little head off. Hopefully it didn't scare Lisa from having babies! So we headed out and Molly slept most of the way home. Once we got here, she started screaming again but still had no interest in eating, which is totally not like her. So I figured it was vaccine related and put her in her swing so she would be comfy and it calmed her down immediately. She slept there for a few hours and then on my lap and John's lap until about 10 pm when she went back to the swing. She finally woke at 5:30 am and was ready to eat and has been back to normal today.

Other than the visit was good, she is up to 9 pounds 11 ounces and is still on the 25 percentile track so the doctor was happy. I thought she might be over 10 pounds but not quite yet. She is longer too, she's now 21 and 3/4 inches.

Ok, time to feed the little one, it's been 2 hours!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We did. It was Molly's first, and even though she didn't really know what was going on she is enjoying her new toys and loves looking at all the stuff. She was a little cranky Saturday night at Uncl e Gerry's and then again Christmas Eve at Aunt Cathy and Uncle Jim's house because it was past her bedtime. We brought along a travel swing which worked a little bit but not quite as good as her regular swing. I think if it were quiet it might work, but with all the activity it was difficult for her to stay asleep. But we had a great time and everyone loved seeing little Miss Molly. She certainly is a cutey!

Now on to going through everything to figure out what we got. I need to do a serious inventory of Molly's clothing situation to figure out what we have and what we need. She's starting to grow out of some of her 0-3 stuff but isn't quiet ready for 6 months yet, so I have to find some 3-6 month clothing, which isn't easy but I think Kohl's has some.

Just when things were going well...

I woke up Tuesday morning with mastitis, which is an infection of a milk duct. Not fun at all. I woke up at about 5 am with severe pain and by 7:30 am I had a fever of 100.1, and it kept going up from there. The highest was 102.9, that didn't feel so good. The doctor put me on antibiotics which I started Tuesday at dinner time, but the fever kept up until this morning. It is finally back down to 97.9. Yeah! I am feeling so much better but I know I still need to take it easy. I just feel like I have so much to do, so many presents to wrap. But we still have a few more days, at least all the shopping was done already and my last package just arrived from UPS so no worries that things won't be here.

The excellent news of the day though is that Molly actually took a nap in her crib! Yeah!!! I was able to take a picture of her sleeping and I even videotaped it. It was a short one, about 20-25 minutes but that is fairly typical in the morning if we haven't gone out. She takes much longer naps if we take off in the car or at the mall in her carriage. So I think we are making progress. One day she won't be a swinging baby anymore.

And congratulations to Vicky on the news that she is having a little boy! Such fun!

A family photo

Well that was an adventure :). We'll try again tonight maybe, but this one came out pretty good! Molly isn't having much fun in her bouncer chair right now so this looks like its going to be a short post.

Christmas is coming quick!

Yikes I can't believe it's less than 2 weeks away and Molly is 6 weeks old! It has kept Molly and I extremely busy which is why there haven't been many posts, but check out the sweet smile I was able to capture this morning. She's such a cutie.

Last week we spent a few days shopping, Molly loves the mall. Tuesday we got her pictures taken at JC Penney. Of course she screamed as soon as it was her time for pictures, so we went for a walk around the mall and came back. I fed her, changed her, and finally she fell asleep and we got some sleeping photos. At least they aren't of her screaming, like the one I took here.

Thursday was a rough day. We went to Westfarms and visited Becky, which wasn't the tough part. Molly was a little more cranky than she normally is when she's in her carriage but I think its because it was so loud there. Much busier than Meriden. I don't think I ever noticed that before. So we got some shopping done there, and then came home. Molly ate and got dressed up so I could go to my 6 week postpartum doctor visit. I can't believe its already been that long! The doctor visit was long. We waited over 90 minutes to see the doctor. Poor Molly was hungry, I had to feed her in the room while we were waiting, which was tough since I was in one of those paper gowns. And I could tell she had a dirty diaper but with the gown on it would have been impossible to change her, and I didn't want to change it and have the doctor walk in right in the middle. Anyway, we finally saw the doctor and everything is fine. Someone remind me not to take the 3:30 appointment if I have to bring the baby with me.

We had a good weekend, fairly relaxing. Grandpa came down for a visit for his birthday and we got our Christmas tree. Hopefully we will put it up tonight, but John might go shopping at Westfarms so we'll see. I suppose its better to go shopping tonight than to wait even longer, although I'm sure any nights will be crazy up there at this point.

Not sure of our plan today, although I may attempt to return the boots I bought because they are too big. I am having serious shoe issues. My feet grew and haven't shrunk, so I have no shoes or boots to wear. I found one pair of brown shoes that fit well, but haven't found any black so I can't wear anything black. Very difficult to get dressed in the morning.

Happy 1 Month Birthday Molly!

It's kind of weird that Molly's birthday is on the 31st because some months she won't have a birthday! I guess that only matters in the first year :). I can't believe she is already a month old. At times it seems like yesterday and at times it seems like she has been with us forever (in a good way.)

Monday and Tuesday she pretty much screamed whenever she was awake, which is not typical. I could still get her to sleep but I felt so bad that all of her awake time was so miserable. We went to the lactation consultant/aprn at the pediatricians office yesterday to make sure everything was ok and it was. She now weighs 8 lb 8oz so they are happy and said we are doing great. Those days are so hard on us though more than her I think. I feel bad because John tries to soothe her and right now she prefers me to sing and sway her back and forth, which gets tiring. I can tell John feels frustrated he can't get her to stop, but its ok. Soon enough she will want nothing to do with me and I'll be the one feeling bad.

On the good side, she slept from 10 pm to 5:30 am last night. Woohoo! Sure she is still in the swing but the doctor's don't seem to mind so why should we?

I also included a picture of the coyote John saw the other morning crossing the bridge behind our house. I told Molly she can't go out to play on her own, Tigger doesn't seem to care about my warnings. Hopefully he knows to stay close and we just have to listen for him when he wants to come in so he isn't crying too much.

First Thanksgiving

Molly celebrated her first Thanksgiving! She was such a good baby, she let all the aunts hold her until dinner and then hung out un her carrier during dinner and barely made a peep. By the time we were almost done she was getting hungry again and she had her second bottle ever, it was like she's been taking them forever! Of course being the bad photgrapher that I am I didn't even get a picture with the turkey outfit on so hopefully someone else can send us one. I am a dope, maybe I should just dress her up again :). Then it was on to Grammie and Poppy's house where she slept the entire time so everyone came over the next day to see her. Cousin Nicholas is now about 8 months and looks like a giant in comparison.

Here are a few pictures. One with Aunt Mary and cousin Elizabeth, and another with cousin Katherine.

Our big excitement of the weekend was Molly had her first babysitter! It was Jenn H.'s birthday Saturday so we all went out to dinner and Molly stayed with John's parent, it was fun but I have to admit it was hard to relax. Not that I was worried about her, I knew she would be fine but I knew once we got home we probably had an hour or two minimum before sleep, and that's because she is so good. I couldn't imagine if she didn't sleep well. Anyway, it was nice to get out and I am sure I will get used to it.

Our Little Fatty

First, I am sorry I haven't been keeping up with the posts. Molly and I are still getting used to things and I know it only takes a few minutes so I will try to be better about it.

Ok, so where are we. Miss Molly is 17 days old!! Amazing, isn't it? The time is going by so fast. For Molly's first two weeks home, John stayed home with us and oh boy did that fly by. Fortunately I am feeling really good and Molly has continued sleeping really well (knocking on wood) so I was ready for him to go back. Today we are ending our first solo week and I can't believe it is over already.

This week we went for Molly's 2 week checkup and she gained 8 oz! She is up to 7 lb 2 oz, which is 4oz over her birth weight. The goal is to be back at the birth weight by 2 weeks and she passed it! She has also grown 1 1/2 inches and is now 20.5 inches.

Molly continues to be a good baby, although she has her moments. Most afternoons she prefers sleeping on me rather than the bassinet these days, and isn't such a big fan of swaddling anymore. If she is swaddled at all it has to be with one arm out so she has access to at least one hand. Yesterday we went to the mall for about 45 minutes, that was fun but she got cranky so we left. I wasn't finding any good christmas outfits for her anyway. I think I may try to go out for a bit tomorrow to see if I can find one. I am afraid if I wait much longer they will all be gone.

Ok, I think we are going to walk around the block!

6 days old!!!

Can you believe Molly is already 6 days old? The past 6 days have flown by. I could barely believe last night was Sunday and we are already into another week. Things are going very well so far. Also amazing :). We have been quite busy, we have had some visitors and everyone just loves Molly, she is so cute! And we have been very well fed by our parents and family..so much for losing that baby weight! I figure I can indulge for a little while, although not being used to all these carbs I find myself very full very fast. Still enjoying my desserts for a change though! Oh and that garlic bread was tasty!

Molly is eating well, we go to the pediatrician tomorrow so we'll find out how she is doing officially then but I can't imagine she isn't gaining weight already. She eats and eats. And she sleeps and sleeps! And would you believe she actually sleeps at night? Two nights in a row with only one feeding and she sleeps the rest of the time. I can handle this so far :)! I keep my fingers crossed though and hope everything stays the same.