Monday, July 15, 2013

Parker Pearl's Newborn pics!!

I CANNOT believe I never posted all of these!! Such a slacker mommy! Poor second child :(

The AMAZING Britney with Tucker Images took these beautiful pictures of my little ladies! She does such beautiful work for weddings, maternity sessions, engagement sessions, the list goes on and on, go check her out!!

Now... on to the pictures... ENJOY!!!!

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Five Months Big!!!

AHHH!! My baby girl is already 5 months old!! If I thought time with McKenley went fast, I swear if I even blink, I miss something with Parker!! She is hitting milestones left and right and amazing us every day with all that she is accomplishing.

This month Parker has gone swimming for the first time, attended her first Farmers Market and community festival, and attended lots of playdates with her new friends. We have switched Parker to all formula and she is not shy about asking for more! haha. We are quickly learning that anything and everything that was true with McKenley, Parker is going to do JUST the opposite!! We counted every ounce of formula that McKenley would drink and we never felt like she was taking enough, Parker on the other hand gulps it down so fast and is soooooooo angry when the bottle is gone!! McKenley loved the swing and the car... needless to say, Parker does not! The list goes on and on, we have to remind ourselves daily that our babies are completely different little ladies and instead of constantly comparing the two, being excited for what is to come with their fun little personalities!! I can already tell Parker is going to be our outgoing, little spitfire though!! She is already DYING to go chasing after her big sister! The bond those two already have is probably the best thing about having 2 babies so close in age, they are PRECIOUS together!! The giggles that are exchanged between them will NEVER get old!!

Ok, now on to what Parker has accomplished this month...
~ On the 27th we OFFICIALLY ditched the swaddle completely!! This is definitely an accomplishment because I am sooooo tired of fighting the battle of swaddle vs Parker's arms!! Her arms are winning every time and therefore no one has been sleeping!!
~ Parker has continued on with her amazing sleeping at night!! We are up to 11-12 hours consistently!! This is making a world of difference with my energy levels :)
~ On June 1st, Parker showed us that she can roll tummy to back and then back to her tummy all the way across the carpet. It is a bit alarming the first time you walk back over to the carpet where you laid her and she is no where near where she started!! haha
~ On June 17th, I started working with Parker on sitting up, needless to say, my little "go-getter" loved the new perspective!! She sat with the Boppy behind her for quite a long time! After just a couple of days she is already able to sit with no support for about 10 seconds!! And she is already reaching for toys while she's sitting up!
~ Her level of tolerance for the car has drastically improved! I moved her to the middle of the seat, instead of by the window, so that she can see her big sister as we go. I don't know if its that or just her getting older and growing out of the stage, but whatever the reason, only a small portion of our car rides are filled with a screaming baby!!! YAY!!!
~ I figured since she has had such amazing head control since day 1, it was time to bust out the trusty Exersaucer!! She LOVES it!! It has been nice to be able to sit her in it while I cook or attempt to eat to keep her entertained for 20 minutes or so :)
~ Her first dip in the pool happened this month and she LOVED IT!! She has already started splashing her hands and thinks its soo funny. I love that I have 2 little water babies <3

Speedbumps:
~ The naps, oooohhh the battle with naps! We are still only getting about 30-45 minute naps at a time (45 minutes is considered an amazing nap in her case). It has been really difficult to get her on a good schedule like McKenley was on, because we are always out and about keeping McKenley occupied. I've just been choosing the lesser of 2 evils, stay at home where McKenley goes stir crazy, or go out and Parker's nap schedule is all thrown off. *sigh* I just don't know which is the best to choose, I guess Parker is just going to be a very flexible, go with the flow type! It's been forced upon her! haha. At this point I would kill for an hour of just quiet during our crazy days!
~ Teething!! I feel like its too early for this problem!!!! But nonetheless, here we are! Poor baby's bottom gums are sooo swollen, I expect those teeth to pop through at any moment. This problem has led to our next struggle...
~ Baby girl had her first sick visit to the doctors this month :( All the teething, coupled with allergies, has caused her to have severe runny nose and congestion in her chest. Luckily, nothing drained into her ears, and with saline spray, plus the blue bulb (every baby's favorite thing!!), plus lots of Vicks... hopefully we can knock the drainage out ASAP!!!
~ Don't know whether to put this as a speedbump or an accomplishment... Parker has started to roll onto her tummy at night to sleep, this caused some problems in the beginning I think it was startling her, but now that she realizes its okay to sleep on her belly she is settling right in :) This does NOT eliminate my mommy-worry that she is somehow going to get facedown and not be able to push herself up, but hopefully I'll get over my issues! haha

Stats:
Diapers: We are now in size 2 diapers!!

Clothes: Mostly 3-6mo, but I have gone ahead and even put a few 9mo outfits on her!! WOW!!

Food: We officially switched to completely formula this month. I am so excited we were able to make it 4months breastfeeding. It was such a struggle with McKenley and although it still wasn't completely my cup-of-tea, I am so happy I was able to give my baby the most important nutrients she needed for those 4 months :) She is sucking down five 6-8oz bottles of formula a day!

Sleep: 12 hours at night -- YAY!! .... Four mini catnaps during the day -- BOO! haha

Weight: 15 lbs 10oz -- yes, our little chunker put on on a pound and a half in a month!!

I WILL have her 5 month pics up by the end of the weekend!!! Also on the horizon... solid foods, army crawling, and more adventures with her sissy!!!

Saturday, May 25, 2013

4 Month Pics!!

I mean common... there are no words that could describe what this little face makes me feel!!! I could not be more lucky!!




Happy 1/3 of a year!!!

Ok, so I'm a total slacker when it comes to these monthly posts. Poor baby has only been with us for 4 months and I've already missed a month of posting!!! Ugh! Two kids makes being productive REALLY hard!! So please excuse me if this post is a bit longer (yes, longer than my usual long-winded self) as I try and update 2 months of her amazing accomplishments, the little lady has been busy!!!

APRIL:
In Parker Pearl's third month of life, she was very busy tagging along with older sister!! We celebrated Easter, visited the zoo, and had so much fun playing! Parker accomplished rolling from tummy to back (although she will never perform this on video for me!!), started playing more actively with her toys, started reaching out to try and grab toys, can track objects back and forth, and wants to move and chase her sister SOOOO bad!!
 I probably neglected to post in April because I was in a constant state of exhaustion!! We officially moved Parker into her room full time this month. I was hoping it would lead to her sleeping for longer periods of time... but I was wrong! haha. April was filled with 2 and 3 hours of sleep at a time and little to NO napping! I was laying her down for bed around 7:30pm and was then feeding her at 11, 2, 5, and finally 8am!! Whew, its exhausting to type! Part of the problem was that she WOULD NOT stay swaddled! I have tried every swaddle available (SummerInfant, Halo Sleep Sack, and the Miracle Blanket) and my little hulk baby always busts out! But, cannot figure out how to sleep without being swaddled!
Photo evidence...

 MAY:
OK, so on to May!! We continued on with no sleep this month, yay, haha. We started to move back towards 4-5 hours, but still nothing substantial and nothing regular. Parker continued to have tons of fun with sister, we went to lunch with Pops, celebrated Mother's day, went to her first Kentucky Derby party, explored new toys, and took our first trip to the pool!! Yes, we like to stay busy!!!

Accomplishments in May:
~ On May 24th, Parker rolled over from back to front (see proof here!!!)
~ After months of little to no sleep, we have had 5 nights of Parker sleeping 7-8 hour stretches!! Don't want to talk about it much so I don't jinx it!!! 
~ On May 22nd, Parker finally was able to get her feet into her mouth!! She has been trying so hard and could just never stretch far enough, haha
~Still going strong with breastfeeding!! This is a huge deal for us :) 

Speedbumps:
~ I'm hoping to not have to put sleep in this category for much longer!! But, naps are still a daily struggle. She is taking a pretty good morning nap, normally 1-1 1/2 hours, but other than that, its little 30 minute cat naps, the girl just doesn't want to miss anything!
~ Still trying to figure out what to do about the swaddle situation. I would love to just ditch it and never look back, but she has trouble sleeping without it, those darn arms always wake her up! So I've been trying to wrap her with one arm out for a while and then we'll try 2 arms and go from there. Fingers crossed!! 

Stats:
Diapers: Still in size 1!!

Clothes: Parker is solidly in 3 or 3-6month clothes, I was so sad to pack away newborn clothes, shes soo big!! I'm sure we will be fast approaching 6 month clothes soon!

Food: I am proud to say we are still going strong with breastfeeding. As many know, it was such a struggle with McKenley and we had stopped by 2 months.  I nurse Parker probably 70% of the time and she takes a bottle of formula the other times. We give her 6 oz of formula before bed to try and fill her little tummy up as much as possible!!

Sleep: Currently, and hopefully it stays like this, Parker is sleeping from 7:30 - 3am and then after being fed 3am - 8am. Sometimes Casey will do that 3am feed and I get an ENTIRE NIGHTS SLEEP!!! It's kind of amazing! Naps are still a struggle, but she is sleeping about an hour to an hour and a half in the mornings and then her other naps are about 30-45 minutes. Hopefully this too will improve. Part of the problem is that we are always on the go with sister, so its hard for her to be on such a set schedule like McKenley was.

Not headed to the doctor til next week and I will update these stats!
Weight: 14 lbs. 3 oz (75%)
Length: 25 1/2 inches (95%)
Head: 16 1/4 inches (75%)

Since this post is getting super long, I'll post her four month pics in a different post :)

Til next time~

Friday, May 24, 2013

Parker Pearl's newest trick!!

Well, as of yesterday, our littlest lady is now 4 months big!!! And what better way to celebrate than with a new trick!! She started rolling from her back to her tummy this morning at our  playdate, which is great because there were lots of witnesses!! She's been rolling from tummy to back for about a month now, but never lets me capture it on video, but she was so proud of her new accomplishment!!






**Stay tuned for her complete 4 month blog update tomorrow!!!**

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Happy Easter!!

We had so much fun this Easter!! Now that McKenley is a bit older, she is starting to understand all the festivities and it was Parker's first Easter!! McKenley got to hunt Easter eggs with friends, her cousin Blake, and at school, the Easter bunny visited our house and left her some fun gifts, and both girls got to dress up in pretty dress and go to church on Sunday morning!! It was a SUPER busy weekend, but we had a BLAST with our family!! Here are some pictures highlighting our fun
Ready for the Easter egg hunt at school!!



Parker's first visit to the Easter bunny!!

Parker ~ gettin into the Easter spirit!
So blessed that the WHOLE family was together!! I love these people!
So lucky that these girls have such amazing aunts!!
My precious family!!

  
 And the egg hunting fun!!!







Love spending time with these ladies and our family!

Happy 2 Months... a little late

Its been 2 of the craziest, busiest months of our lives... and I don't see things slowing down any time soon!!! Our littlest princess has been with us for about 10 weeks now and we are having a blast with her!! (and yes, a bit exhausted as well, haha)

Here are a few of my faves from our 2 month photo sesh...
I'm in LOVE with those big brown eyes!!!

~ Parker is starting to enjoy her toys more and will sit and watch the lights and listen to the music for longer stretches of time... which is GREAT for mommy when she is trying to be productive :)
~ Parker's neck muscles are getting stronger and stronger!! She is able to sit and hold her head up on my lap and will tolerate tummy time for a longer period of time (still only about 5 minutes though, before she makes it clear she is DONE!!)
~ We hear ALL the time that she is "SOOO ALERT"!! Which is super cute, until you want her to be... not so alert, haha
~ Parker is DEFINITELY setting herself apart from her older sister. McKenley was always a pretty quiet baby... Lets just say, Parker's vocal chords are strong!!! 

Schedule:
We have been working hard on getting Parker on a schedule and SOME days, we are pretty successful!! During the day she eats pretty regularly, every 3 hours.  We let her "play" a bit afterwards and then, fingers crossed, she takes a nap.  She used to nap pretty well in her swing, but we haven't been as successful lately, and naps in her crib only last about 30 minutes... so basically, the little lady does not sleep much during the day :/ BUT, when I am at my break point of crying and exhausted baby, I try to remind myself that she is a pretty consistent sleeper at night!! I feed her and put her down at 8pm and she usually stays asleep!! I get her at 1130 and feed her again while she is basically still asleep and she stays asleep until about 5am!!! Its great to get a larger block of sleep makes all the difference :)

On the 25th, we went to the doctor to see how Parker was growing, here are her stats:
Weight ~ 11 lbs 3.5 oz (55%)
Length ~ 23 1/2 inches (95%)
Head ~ 15 1/4 inches (55%)
Diapers ~ Size 1
Clothes ~ mostly 0-3 months


Can't wait to see how our little lady grows and changes this next month!!