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!!!!

Digital slideshow personalized with Smilebox

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!!!

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~

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!!!**

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!!

She's TWO!!!!!

I am literally in shock as I type this... My little lady, our first princess, is now TWO!!! When did this happen?!? The time is flying by so fast, I keep finding myself grabbing her in the middle of her playing and loving on her as much as I can... pretty soon she won't let me do it anymore! :(

McKenley has been super busy lately learning all about her surroundings, and pretty much becoming the smartest 2 year old out there (sorry other moms, its true!! haha). She knows most of her colors, all of the basic shapes, she can count to 12, and is working on her letters (mostly the ones in her name)!!

Here are some of McKenley's favorites:
Color: Green ~ if she doesn't know the color, she's gonna call it green
Song: Wheels on the Bus
TV Show: we do a rotation of Yo Gabba Gabba, Sesame Street, and Mickey Mouse
Movie: Finding Nemo
Food: Mac and Cheese & pizza
Toy: All of her baby dolls ~ she loves being their "mommy," she spends most of the day cooking for them, pushing them in her stroller, putting them to bed, and rocking them... maybe she'll start appreciating how exhausted I am at the end of each day!! haha :)
Phrase: "Oh so pretty" "Whats dis" "Tank to momma"

Accomplishments:
~  The little lady is TALKING OUR EARS OFF!!! To think, at one point we were worried about her being speech delayed! haha, guess she wanted to just talk on her schedule, not our, surprise! surprise! haha. It is so cute when she strings a whole sentence of words together or uses a phrase that she has heard mommy or daddy says (yes, we have to be VERY CAREFUL!!)
~ Being the BEST big sister ever!! We are amazed every day by how loving and caring she has been with Parker!!

~ Colors, numbers, letters... McKenley is such a little sponge for new information! She is constantly learning about things around her. She loves naming the colors of her toys, counting them, and naming the letters in her name!! Here she is showing off some of her mad skills:

Struggles:
~ Ugh! With the 2 year old birthday, comes the 2 year old attitude!!! When the girl wants her way, she wants HER WAY NOW!! We are working through it as patiently as possible and trying to get her to use her "Big Girl words" instead of crying, but MAN does she know how to push those boundaries!! :) The joys of parenting!! haha
~ MOLARS!! We're hoping this struggle has a lot to do with struggle #1!
~ The Binky... I keep saying we're ditching this thing, but keep putting it off... hoping that with my next update this will be moved to the accomplishment section!!! Fingers crossed please :)

Stats:
Length: 34 1/2 inches (75%)
Weight: 24.8 lbs (little peanut is still only in the 40%)
Head:
Diapers: Still in size 5... can't wait til I don't have to update this anymore... potty training coming soon!!
Clothes: Since she's a little string bean, she needs 2T in the length, but then things fall off her tiny waist! So.... somewhere between an 18mo and 2T, but she can still squeeze into some 12mo pants if I don't mind them fitting like capris :)

Here's a little something to send you off with until my next post... can you see why these last 2 years have been such a joy!?!?!

Parker Pearl ~ One month BIG!!

Can you believe it! It has already been a MONTH!! I am blown away by how fast time has gone by with our littlest lady. Things have been a little crazy around here to say the least, juggling two under the age of 2 can take it out of ya!! But I wouldn't trade the exhaustion for the world!!

First official sticker pics!!!

Here's a little bit about how things are going so far with our Parker (PS...it took me three tries of sitting down and typing this to actually finish this post!! haha)

Now that we are home and have successfully made it through our first weight check and her jaundice is completely gone, we've moved on to more pressing matters... like SLEEP!! :) Our days pretty much center around keeping McKenley entertained and getting Parker to take naps, oh the life of a stay at home mommy.

Accomplishments:
~ She has made it a few times at night about 5 or 6 hours which is AWESOME, its just not completely consistent, but I feel so lucky to even have gotten those few nights of more sleep!!

~ We have had 5 consecutive days of Parker sleeping in her big girl crib for one of her naps!! She takes most of her naps in her swing and sleeps at night in her bassinet, so I wanted to introduce her to her bed for nap time so that when we move her in there at night, its not a super traumatizing experience. So far, she has taken GREAT naps in her room & I'm praying the trend continues!! (fingers crossed)

~ The little lady is SOO strong!! She is already lifting her head and showing lots of neck strength

~ We've gotten lots of smiles and even some little baby coos!! I love that she is already talking to us & McKenley thinks its the funniest thing ever!!

~ Parker attended her first holiday party this month! She was so excited to attend our mommy group's Valentines Party. We had to have a photo shoot before we went...

Look how high she is holding her head up!!!

 ~ It is DEFINITELY an accomplishment/success in my eyes the relationship these two already have!! McKenley is completely obsessed with Parker. She is always so concerned with what Parker is doing, making sure Parker has everything she needs, and talking and singing and looking after her every movement. Aren't they just precious together!!!

Speedbumps:
~ So sad, the little lady has a clogged tear duct! :( Her right eye is constantly goopy and sometimes gets so bad that she can't open her eye after sleeping! It's supposed to clear up over time and I sure hope it does, because it looks so uncomfortable!!

~ Everything else that could be considered a "speedbump" is really just her being a newborn. She LOVES sleeping on mom or dad, and while we love the snuggle time, it is rather hard when you have a 2-year old ransacking your house!! haha

Stats:
Length -  22 inches

Weight - 9 1/2 lbs

Head -

Food -  She has been GREAT at nursing!! It's been such a more positive experience this time around and I am soooo thankful. She is eating every 3-4 hours and is definitely a growing girl!

Diapers - We blew through the Newborn diapers within a couple of weeks and have been in Size 1 ever since!! In comparison, McKenley was in Newborn diapers for almost 2 months!!

Clothes - Parker is still wearing Newborn sized clothing, but this won't last long, she is growing fast!!

Sleep - Making some great progress with sleep! As long as we stick to her routine of eat, "play", sleep, she seems to be pretty content! She's taking five naps a day, that are about 1 1/2 or 2 hours, and then goes to sleep for about 5 hours... yes, LOTS of sleeping!! We're really hoping she falls in line with the Boyd way of life... we LOVE our sleep around here!!

All in all, things are going a better than I ever thought they would, things just seem to be working themselves out. It get a little hectic around meal time for McKenley, because she likes ALL of moms attention, but overall, we are rockin and rollin with our two little princesses!! Now on to celebrating McKenley's 2nd birthday this weekend!!! 

McKenley's Green Thumb!!

Back in December I posted about McKenley and Mimi's adventures in our front flower beds... take a look here!!  Well... said flowers were NOT supposed to bloom until April, but thanks to good ole warm Texas weather, we have tulips in February!! ERGH!! Thankfully, McKenley didn't know the difference and was so excited to see them with blooms, we HAD to take some pictures!!

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

The first few weeks...

Well... we are almost three weeks in to life as a family of four and all I can say is... WHEW!!! It's definitely exhausting, but we are surviving!!! It's weird that I've already almost forgotten what it was like to just have one kiddo, it's like Parker has always been here!! So here's how the last couple weeks have gone...

For starters, we were SOOOO excited to get to actually leave the hospital this time with our baby girl!! We could not wait to get home and finally get life started as a family of four!!

 McKenley has fallen right in line as the BEST big sister EVER!! She takes such good care of little Parker and gets soooo worried when Parker cries. From minute one, she was so gentle and loving. I can't wait to see how close they get as the months and years go by!!

The little lady is treating us pretty well when it comes to the sleep department. Sometimes at night she has 4-5 hour stretches of sleep!!! We're working hard to get her on a more regular schedule so that we can get those stretches more consistently. She is eating pretty routinely ever 3-4 hours... until the evening that is, when she wants to eat every 2 hours!! EESH!! She is napping okay, she just LOVES to nap on Casey or my chest... which makes it very hard to get things accomplished or play with McKenley. 

We had a doctors appointment last Wednesday to check on the progress of Parker's jaundice. She never had it severe enough to put her under lights, but she has had a low amount since birth. The doctor said it had not gone away completely as of last week, so we are off to see them again on Wednesday. Hopefully it has gone away enough by then that no further treatment is necessary.  Good news is, she is almost back up to birth weight!! She was 8 lbs 6 oz as of last Wednesday, which puts her in the 75%!!! She is 21 3/4" long -- 98%!!! Needless to say, she will probably have my height. Looks like poor McKenley may only be "big sis" in name after a while! haha.

 Here are a few phone snap shots that I have been able to capture over the last few weeks to show what the Boyd family has been up to... as you can see, lots of sleeping and attempting to keep McKenley occupied as much as we can!

Thats it for now! Hopefully I'll squeeze in time for another post soon!!

How it all went down...

Well... our newest addition is here... and true to Boyd form, it was an eventful entrance to the world!!!

***WARNING*** 

I'm about to go into detail about my labor and delivery... read with caution :) haha

The day started bright and early... well not bright, because it was so early it was still dark outside!! We had to be at the hospital by 5:30am. We got all checked in and settled into our room. I was hooked up to machines and had pitocin by 7am. There was really no change in my labor for a while, until the doctor came in to break my water. From here, things start to become a blur!!! They seemed to happen so fast for me and yet, I didn't have Parker until 7:40pm!! 

My contractions started getting faster and more intense almost immediately after Dr. Robert broke my water. So of course, the epidural was soon to follow!! :) I don't mess around with pain!! Just like with McKenley though, the epidural was AWFUL!!! Come to find out I have a bit of pregnancy caused scoliosis, so she was having trouble getting the GIANT needle straight into my back and after several tries, had to use a different spot in my back... NOT FUN!!!! But finally, the needle was in and relief from the pain was immediate. 

Because my contractions were already so close together, they had me start to push... and push.... and push... and push.... and, well you get the picture. This was very different for me, because with McKenley I only pushed 3 times and she was out! WHAT was the deal!?!?! Turns out, Miss Parker was turned face up, which is not how they are supposed to come out!! They tried to have me lay on my side to see if gravity would help her turn... nope... flip to the other side... nope... sit straight up... nope.... the little lady was STUCK!! I continued this pattern of pushing and laying for almost FOUR HOURS!!! until it was finally determined she was basically wedged in that position and wasn't moving naturally. On top of that, she was starting to get a bit distressed, elevated heart rate, lower blood pressure, etc. So the hard decision was made.... off to the OR for a C-Section. 

Needless to say, I was FREAKING OUT!! This was not in my plans, I didn't know anything about a c-section, what did this involve? was Parker okay? was I okay? Ugh!!! So many thoughts!!! Thank God for Dr. Robert, she was so informative and walked us through everything. Casey was the MOST supportive husband in all of this craziness and held my hand through it all. Once we were in the OR, Miss Parker was out in no time! Finally, at 7:40pm, our little angel was here!!

8 lbs 9.4 oz

20 inches

7:40pm

Casey looked so cute holding her with his scrubs on!

I unfortunately, had to wait quite a while until I got to hold the little lady!! But finally, after stitching me up and wheeling me back into our room, I got my hands on our princess!!!

 Special shout out to our amazing doctor!!! Could not have made it through all this without her!!

And then it was all worth it once my whole family was reunited!!! (this was at almost 9:45pm... LONG DAY!!)

MAN!! What a day it was, but TOTALLY worth it! These three are everything to me and I can't imagine my life without them!!