17 Months & 20 Weeks!!!

that's right! yesterday my 2 babies turned 17 months and 20 weeks on the same day! they are both getting so big!.....

a little bit about Piper...

*the words she says are...mommy, daddy, ball, baby, bath, book, puppy, duckie, piper, diaper, pretty, bubble, cheese, apple, nannie, pa,papa, "t", night night, peepee, poopoo, stinkie, bible, cookie, uh-oh, please, up, yellow, blue, purple and a lot of "words" we are not sure about yet ;)

*she still signs for...water, hungry, bird, more, all done & cracker

*foods she loves...cheese, apples, veggie burgers, PB sandwiches, ice cream, eggs, green beans, goldfish crackers, any dried fruit, bagels & cream cheese...she has really gotten into wanting to "dip" her food, like pieces of bagel into cream cheese, or french fries into ketchup ;)

*she weaned, basically on her own, at 15 months, when i was 12 weeks pregnant...all i did was a lot of distraction, we stayed really busy, and if she would ask to nurse i would offer a snack or an activity, and eventually she just stopped asking for it!

*she is a champ at going to sleep in her own bed now....staying asleep in her own bed is a different story. we honestly at 8pm (after bedtime routine of bath, book, prayer and a minute or two of rocking) can just lay her down awake in her crib and she doesn't make a peep and goes right to sleep....but she is up by 1am and we just bring her to our bed then...not sure how that is going to work when #2 comes??

*she has her first "chore", that she started all herself, when we leave the house it is her job to "put the puppy in her room"....she have even got doing the latch down...and when we come home she goes straight to annabelles cage to let her out...she gets pretty frustrated if we forget to let her do it ;)

*the girl loves her sesame street and praise baby video.

*our favorite activities are, the 2 library programs we go to, our playgroup, the science museum, and the play area at quail springs mall!

*after about a month, a lot of crying, a lot of comforting from the teachers, and probably a lot of crackers, she FINALLY loves going to church nursery!!!

of course i could go on forever about all the little quirks of Miss. Piper, but I'll stop there :)

a little bit about #2...


*our first belly photo!! everyone keeps telling me that i don't even look pregnant...well that's because its winter people and i wear a lot of sweats and jackets...so here is the belly....see i told you it was there!!!

*i have only gained 2lbs...but that is on top of the 2lbs that i lost at the beginning...so i am back right where i was when i first found out...although i already feel SO much bigger then i felt with pipe...but i think that's typical for your 2nd.

*I made it to 20 weeks without one moment of sickness!!!!!!! but a lot of back pain.

*we had our ultrasound last week and everything looks perfect and healthy! he/she is 10oz and moves all the time! he/she is so cute and looks like piper did at her ultrasound :)

*EVERYONE thinks the baby is a boy, i guess because my 2 pregnancies have been night and day different.

*starting to remember the pain of labor and birth...trying to focus on the beauty of labor and birth.

*I have been craving tomato based foods....pizza, spaghetti, and salsa.

I absolutely can not WAIT to meet this little one and learn his or her quirks and get to know him or her like we know Piper!!!!
I love you my little ones!!!!!!

my snuggle bug...

when jake and i were trying to soak up as much information as possible about how we wanted to handle sleep...

this artical

was one that i found was the most helpful...just thought i would share :)

my friends and their thoughs....

i admit it...im not much of a writer...i have so many views, thoughts, feelings that i just am not good at getting them to "paper"....but i have very talented friends that are great writers... so when i read something that i really connect to...i just steal from them... :)

my awesome friend Katie wrote this....

"Judgment~
I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile and have been trying to decide which angle to address it from because let's face it...as soon as I throw out a belief I have or a parenting choice I've made, people reading this have an opinion of me and they will judge me based on that opinion. It's really hard not to, and I get it because I do it too. Usually I don't mind when I feel judged by others because I'm pretty confident in my choices...but still. Mothers judge other mothers. Maybe not out loud, but they do in their head every day. And how can you not? Obviously the choices you make for your family are the ones you feel are right, so if someone else does it differently, it seems wrong.

For the most part I truly believe that you have to do whatever works for you and your family (different strokes for different folks right?) and I try not to give unsolicited advice or opinions UNLESS someone asks me and then I will be more than happy to ramble on. I am blessed to know many moms and babies and we don't all do things the same. In fact, by getting to know them, I have come to respect many of the differences that we have and the choices we have made. I've also learned that you can find solid research to back up whatever choice you want to support, you just have to decide which side to listen to!

I am truly blessed to know people who......
had planned pregnancies, unplanned pregnancies
had natural births, medicated births, c-sections, home births
circumcise their boys, didn't circumcise, vaccinate, don't vaccinate
co-sleep, use a crib, use a floor bed
breastfeed infants, breastfeed toddlers, use formula,
use doctors, use chiropractors, use acupuncturists
cloth diaper, use disposables, use elimination communication (you're googling aren't you)
are working moms, are stay at home moms, etc.

Becoming a mother has made me feel more judged by others and also made me more judgmental. At the same time though being a mom has helped me see that there aren't always black and white decisions...some things are gray...and some things that I think are black and white, I'm learning to shrug and say "agree to disagree"! Some days I can celebrate the differences, but some days I do find myself thinking that I know best.

I don't know if I have a point to this post other than rambling my thoughts (and hey it's something deeper than a cute pic of my kid with a fun title), but I guess I'm wondering do all moms feel this way? What do you do when you start to feel judgmental towards others? What do you do when people say judgmental things to you? Inquiring minds want to know!"

monkeys jumping on the bed....

we bought a new bed!! its temper-pedic...king sized....and amazing!!!!!

sick :(

Piper pretty much woke up hating the world yesterday morning....cranky from the start, i just thought it was going to be another one of those "marathon nursing" days. So we sit on on the couch and start nursing...she almost immediately falls asleep after only being awake maybe 30 minutes! she takes a small nap on my lap, but when she woke up...she was hot, crying, and miserable! I took her temp..it was 101.8! then she threw up!! being completely unprepared for this inevitable day, i start crying my eyes out and call jake. While i pulled myself together, jake called our doctors office to make an appointment. i didnt want to go through this all by myself for the first time...so praise Jesus that jake has a job that cares and he was able to take us to the doctors...by the time we got there she looked so sickly...it was horrible...she could not open her eyes and was continuously crying and would not nurse! they listened to her breathing, which was really raspy, they put her on a breathing machine (which she HATED!), tested her for RSV and the Flu and sent us to the hospital to get a chest x-ray to check for phenomena...our doctor told us that she looked so sickly that she was honestly trying to decided if she should admit her to the hospital!!!! flash backs to the NICU came back and jake and i were full of emotions holding our little girl :( after spending a few hours in and out of the doctors office and the hospital, all the tests came back negative!!!! Whooo-hoooo!! And after a few hours on children's Tylenol and finally a good feeding...she was like a different baby...talking, smiling and trying to crawl off the examining table while Dr.Grim was checking her breathing:) It made us feel so good!! Dr.Grim said that it must be some sort of bronchial virus, she said just too keep up with the Tylenol every 5 to 6 hours, keep a humidifier around, and nurse her as much as possible!! We came home and took a LONG nap together :) she is still pretty cranky, wants to be held or nursing pretty much constantly, but i can already tell she is feeling a bit better. ohhhh the trials of parenthood...yesterday was one of the most emotional mornings of my life...and i know this is just the beginning!!!

*jake took this photo at the doctors office with his iphone

benifits of co-sleeping....

you get to wake up to to this...

ok, im totally just kidding ;)

soooo, the first two nights with Piper in her crib went smooth, slept from 8pm-2am, then up again at 5:30am, then back to sleep (then in our room) until 7:30ish...it was practically clock work...then the third night...not good...she never even slept in her crib, because she was fighting it so much...the crib was NOT her friend. Then the fourth night, started out nice and smooth...asleep in the crib at 8pm...then...who is the problem...not piper...not the crib...the problem was mommy! I realized how much I missed her :( I kept wanting to go get her and bring her to bed with us...I hardly got any sleep, because our room felt so weird without her...I was up watching the clock until she woke up for her feeding around 2am...she has been back in our room ever since :)
We are in NO rush to "get her out of our room", and the fact that she was not sleeping any differently in her room vs. our room, and the fact that I still need her close and much as she need me close...means...she is back in our room ;)

last night...

we decided to put Piper in her crib last night. I originally thought maybe after the first of the year we would try it...but really kinda hoped to keep her in our room for a year or so....well....the past 3 weeks she had started this new thing of wanting to wake up like 6 or 7 times a night!!! really just to cuddle, because every time I would wake up and start to nurse her, she would fall right back to sleep...only to wake up about an hour later! Yesterday was her 4 month appointment, and I mention it to my pediatrician, she said she had the same issue with her little girl, and she suggested moving her to her room, because the fact that Piper can smell me and hear me makes her want to wake up more....it makes total since (i had even thought about that before she mentioned it) but I just wasn't ready for her to leave my side yet....but I was ready for some sleep! So last night I rocked and nursed her then laid her in her crib at 8pm, she was awake again by 9pm, I nursed her again while thinking this was going to be a LONG night, laid her back down and I didn't hear a peep until 2am!! then she slept again until 5:30am! At that point jake just brought her into bed with us and she slept for another couple of hours! Of course we will try again tonight :) before I laid her down last night I prayed for her safety, being in a new bed away from me just worried me a little bit, I prayed for her security, I didn't want her to feel alone being away from us, I wanted her to still feel warm and secure, and of course I prayed for sleep for all of us :)

3 months!! (a little late :)

-I took my first trip out of state, to Missouri to see family
-your days of going to the dollar movie with us are over...we have had to walk out of two movies! so Grandma came to stay with you while mommy and daddy went on their first date without you.
-I am laughing up a storm! It sounds like a high pitched squeal :)
-I had my first sinuses...but Dr.Tamatha help me with that.
-I Love my play gym mat thing. I will lay their for 20 minutes just talking and laughing with the monkey that hangs from it.
-I love sitting in my bumbo while mommy or daddy is cooking and sitting at the table with them in it during meals.
-I still sleep in mommy and daddy's room in my co-sleeper.
-I still like to wake up once during the night to nurse. but I'm up and ready to start my day around 7am.
-Between Church and MOM's group, I have started to spend some time in the church nursery...I don't love it, and mommy had been paged a few times, but I am starting to get used to it.
-I have started noticing the TV. And will actually turn my head and stare at it for a few minutes.
-Mommy things I weigh around 11 pounds.
-I take my day time naps in my swing.
-I have started rolling over a lot....mostly from my belly to back.
-I have really strong legs, and love standing (with help of course)
-I am still pretty mommy-needy (which of course mommy loves)...but I am starting to let other people hold me for longer periods of time.
-I LOVE kicking, smiling and staring at mommy and daddy's faces :)