Another Year Wiser.....

I think I have learned the most this past year, mostly in part to having a baby. This has been the best birthday year simply because Andi is in my life.

We had some nice couple of days so Andi got to go without socks. I took her to Wal-Mart for the first time and by myself. She did really well and was an attention getter as well. She also tried out her stroller for the first time as well too...she really likes it! She didn't know what to think about the wind hitting her face or the sunshine. That is the bad thing about having a winter baby, you keep them all bundled up and indoors.

 Matt's aunt and uncle, Ron and Charlie came to see Andi for the first time. He was a pro at holding and feeding her:-)

These past couple of weeks have been EXTREMELY exhausting for me. I have been working 40+ hours a week and dealing with INSANE customers. Clinique's gift brings out the monster in people. Here are some examples of what I have been dealing with: customers getting into arguments over who was first in line, the end of the line customer demanding to be waited on first, customers bringing product back and demanding a gift for having to bring it back, etc. So by the end of the night, I am frazzled then I come home to a teething baby.  This is how she has been this past week:

The poor girl will be smiling and crying at the same time. She hasn't been sleeping well at night either. She has been waking up at 2am and squirming around until 4:30 which means no sleep for me. She will start sucking on her hands so hard that she will be squeaking. She will refuse her pacifier and just run her fingers along her bottom gums. She doesn't like teething rings so my coworker suggested frozen mini bagels. I will have to give that a try. We have been putting ora-gel on her gums but it only helps for a little while. Tylenol works the best but I DO NOT want to become dependent on it. Besides her fingers she likes to gum the bottle nipple so I tend to hold her and a bottle for a couple hours.
I am soooo glad that gift will be over next Thursday and I can get some rest and resume my normal work schedule. I am not a coffee drinker but that is the only thing keeping me going. Matt says that his wife has been gone for two weeks. I guess you can say I have been mean to him but it is very tiring working and taking care of a baby.

Andi is still a good baby...I just wish she didn't have to go through the teething process or at least it didn't hurt so bad.

She is always doing things with her fingers. When I am changing her she will grab hold of my hand and when she drinks her bottle she will have her fingers on it, with her pinkies sticking out. When she sleeps, she has her fingers doing random things like this: 

 

I would like to think that she really is signing "I Love You"

She has found a new friend, her bunny! She likes to gnaw on its face or hug it!

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I had mentioned before that I was missing out on her firsts. I missed out on her first food, bananas. I found out about a week later that Matt's mom had fed her. Then he shows me the video 2 weeks later. I can't seem to get it uploaded. In a couple of weeks she will be starting her cereal with a spoon. She is growing so fast, I tend to get teary eyed a lot these days thinking of what she is going to be like as she gets older.

We tried out the baby Einstein jumper and she was really going to town in it. She was trying to jump even though her feet aren't touching and she was changing the music by hitting the shapes. She likes it but it can be a little over stimulating to her after awhile.

One last thing, Andi wishes everyone a Happy Easter!

Andi Faye, You're 3 Months!

I can't believe it has already been 3 months! Where is the time going? Soon she will be half a year which brings a tear to my eye. Everyone told me that babies aren't babies very long and I now understand. This past week I packed away her 0-3 months clothes. Now she is wearing 3 month and some 3-6 months. Her hair is growing and she has two bottom teeth buds.

She grows out of her onezies the quickest. She is still petite but getting long legs. She is wearing a size 1 diaper in Pampers and a size 2 in Huggies. I am still not a fan of Huggies but we still have up to a size 3 to get through.

Her thighs and cheeks are the only thing that is chubby on her. She is nothing like how Ior Matt was as a baby. We were A LOT chunkier and bigger.

She is getting stronger but still will fall over when sitting for awhile. We still have awhile before she is suppose to be able to sit by herself. I just wish she liked tummy time more. She still gets mad. If she lasts 5 minutes, that is a good day!

She gets that mischievous smile from her father. I can see that she is probably going to use it a lot to get her way.

She is sleeping so well at night. She has been going to sleep earlier on her own. I don't put her down, I let her decide when she wants to go to sleep, and it has worked well. She started out at 10p, then went down to 9p, now she has falls asleep between 8-8:30 and sleeps until 5am. I have had to stop using her as an alarm because after her 5am feeding she is sleeping 4 hours now. Thankfully Matt called me the other morning or I would have been late to work!

She very rarely throws a nightly tantrum like she used to around 1 month. This past week she went through a growth spurt, so she has been a little fussy and needy. Last week I had a mild case of the stomach flu which I ended up giving Matt and then his sister got it. Thankfully, Andi has not gotten sick!!! It is crazy how Matt and I have not been sick since high school and as soon as we have a baby we get sick. I guess this is how it's going to be now.

At work we have been preselling for gift which has made me exhausted! Our last gift I was 7 months pregnant and I don't remember being this tired. I think it is because I don't get into a deep sleep anymore. I wake up tired because I hear every peep she makes.

During her playtime she has been batting at the toys that hang on her gym and she has started bringing things to her mouth, like her hands and blanket. She had stopped sucking on her fingers after she was a month and now she will suck on the back of her hands. I try to keep a paci in her mouth to avoid that!

It seems like everything I had planned to do with her has changed since she has been born. My first plan was to breastfeed for a year but that did not happen, not by my choosing though. Then I had said that when she reached 3 months she would be moved into her room and into her crib. Well that has changed as well. I am thinking at 6 months she will make the move.

I still swaddle her at night but she has gotten too big and strong for so in the mornings she is all sprawled out of it. I started using a sleep sack that has a wrap. She still wiggles her way out of it but as long as she sleeps, I am fine with that. I know once she starts rolling over, the swaddling days will be over. Once we are done with gift at work and I am rested, I am going to experiment with not swaddling her for a night and see how it goes.

Yesterday we found out that Matt will be working close to Kansas City in a month which means he will be gone for 4 days at a time. I am not looking forward to that but at least I have the family to help me out!

In July my mom and I are planning on going to Texas to visit my family. My grandparents and aunt haven't met her yet. We are debating between driving or flying. I am scared of both...lol! I don't know about driving 10-12 hours with a 7 month old and then I don't know about flying with a 7 month old. I guess time will help me make a decision!