1 Year Old!!

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 12 months and 6 days old (I wanted to wait to write this until we went to her 1 year peds appt)

Stats:

• Weight: I got on 8/22: 19lb 12oz (52nd %) Peds got on 8/28: 19lb 8oz (46th %)
• Length: I got on 8/22: 29″ (45th %) Peds got on 8/28: 29.7″ (67th %)
• Head: I got on 8/22: 17.75″ (59th %) (This is the same as her 11 month measurement!) Peds got on 8/28: 18″ (71st %)

Pediatrician highlights: Dr.A was pretty impressed with Delaney today! Her physical progression has been pretty fast, and she said it’s great how she tries to say words already. Absolutely no concerns on her part at all. Everything is looking great, and we go for her next checkup in 3 months. Poor kiddo got 3 vaccines today. And she lost her mind. She was over tired, I had had to wake her up to even go to the appointment this morning, so that didn’t help. It took me a long time to calm her down. When the nurse left, I tried to nurse her to calm her, and that actually made her worse! She became completely hysterical, so much so that she didn’t even want me to touch her. I put her down and she crumpled into a crying heap on the floor for a minute, then I picked her up again and she finally settled. I had to stop at the grocery store right by the peds afterwards, and I found a giant stuffed squid that’s bigger than her on clearance for $1.70, so I got it for her lol! We also ran into my friend H, with Cadence’s best friend L, so that made Delaney happy as well. She’s been cranky today, but hopefully she sleeps it off tonight!

Nicknames: We call her “Laney” most of the time. We do still call her “baby girl”, and I call her “Laneybug” a lot.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: She’s in a mix of 9 and 12 month clothes. I’ve purged a bunch of 9 month stuff, but there’s still a lot that still fits. She has an entire 9 month winter wardrobe that I don’t think she’s going to get a chance to wear though. It’s almost entirely hand-me-downs, whether it was new for Cadence, or whether it was already a hand-me-down for her. There’s only I think 1 outfit that’s new to her. So I know that some of it has shrunk over time. Definitely in all 12 month pjs…and some of those I’ve actually had to get rid of too! She has chunky feet, and some of them the feet have shrunk so much that the seams dug into her poor feet and left horrible marks. She did get a few new pjs for her birthday, so I don’t feel bad about pulling the old ones now! She’s still in size 3 diapers, but really only because I had just bought a case of them right before she had a growth spurt. I really need to move her up to size 4, but I want to get through most of these first! We can still squeeze her in them, they’re just a bit snug.

Food: I think we’re almost done with nursing. One day she just decided that she really couldn’t be bothered to take the time with it anymore. She’s loved food ever since she got her first taste of it, and that’s just really what she wants. She eats whatever we do, except anything really crunchy or chewy. She will eat pouches, but she throws a fit if I try to spoon feed her baby food. She’s very independent and just wants to be able to do everything herself. I do nurse her in the morning when she gets up (though I think she’s trying to ditch that session now too), before nap, and before bed. She doesn’t fall asleep nursing anymore, unless she’s super tired. I’m trying to push nursing just a little bit, simply because I’ve had Mastitis so many times, I don’t want to just stop suddenly and end up with it again. But we’ll see how long it lasts…

Sleep: We’re still not perfect in this area. Her napping sucks lately. Almost every day she will sleep for about a half hour, then wake up and cry. I leave her there, and she will usually cry herself back to sleep in about 5-10 minutes. Once in a great while she won’t go back to sleep at all. But typically she’ll sleep for another hour or so. It’s frustrating because I can tell she’s still tired, but she’s just having none of it. She does pretty well at night though. I had to somewhat sleep train her again a couple weeks ago. She was waking up one or two times a night, and it was just getting frustrating. Sometimes she just wanted to play, and I was just like no way girl! So we’ve been doing better. She’s slept completely through the night for 3 or 4 nights now. Hopefully it stays that way! And I hope things with her naps straighten out soon.

Teeth: She has all 8 incisors now. She had her first dental appointment 2 weeks ago, and they said that all 4 of her molars are working their way in. Poor kiddo. She’s had some tough teething days. Lots of drool, chewing, low grade fever, I can tell she’s in pain. I hope they come through soon. She really hates when I try to look in her mouth, so I have no idea if they’ve made any progress or not.

The other thing that the dentist told me is that her lip tie is reforming. My heart sank. I don’t want to put her through all that again. She said it’s not a problem right now, but she’ll keep a close eye on it.

She also told me that Delaney should be off of her pacis by the time she’s 18 months. I’m not sure how that’s going to go. She’s actually been using them less and less on her own, which is good. I’ve taken them off of the first floor of our house, so she doesn’t really have access to them during the day. She doesn’t want it in the car anymore, either. She still has 2 Wubbanubs in her bed, but she doesn’t really always use those, either. So I suppose that she’s weaning herself from them. BUT the dentist also mentioned that because Cadence sucks her thumb, that if the paci is taken away, Delaney might start sucking her thumb as well because she sees C doing it. I really hope that doesn’t happen, because trying to break C of that habit is the bane of my existence right now!

Likes:

• Talking and babbling, all day long! She now says “mama”, “dada” or “da”, “uh oh”, “aw dah” (all done), “booey” (we think she’s trying to say Bowie, our cat’s name, because she calls all the cats this), “yah”, “nah”. She babbles other stuff, but those are the actual words we recognize that she’s saying. She shakes her head now and pushes things away if she doesn’t want them. When we talk to her, she concentrates on what we say to her and then tries to say things we say. She absolutely wants to communicate with us!
• She can sign for “more” and “milk”.
• Smiling and laughing. She’s generally just so happy.
• She absolutely loves her sister.
• She loves water!
• Playing with toys, or things that she thinks would make good toys (like remotes, cell phones, cat toys, etc)
• The cats. She chases after them saying “Booey! Booey!” (One of our cat’s names is Bowie)
• Eating! She absolutely loves food.
• Dancing! She loves music, and often when she hears it she will start to bounce along with the beat. Sometimes she will even do it when we say “Dance, dance!”
• Swinging and sliding. She goes down slides all by herself now, and she looks so proud of herself every time.
• Running around and climbing everything she can reach.
• Looking into/under things to see if something is inside.
• Whenever we change her diaper, she wants to put the dirty one into the diaper bin herself. She looks so proud when she does it!

Dislikes:

• Being strapped into her car seat. Sometimes she’s fine, but about 3/4 of the time she fights it. Stiffening her body, screaming, pushing me away. It’s fun.
• Being tired. She will come look for me when she’s tired so she can go to bed.
• The wind, if it’s blowing on her face or head.
• Diaper changes and changing her clothes, because she doesn’t want to sit still for it.
• When we take something away from her.
• If we won’t share what we’re eating with her.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(12 month milestones)

• Cries when mom or dad leaves. (really mostly when I leave.)
• Has favorite objects and people. (She has toys she definitely prefers, and she wants me more than anyone else.)
• Shows fear in some situations (new)
• Repeats sounds and actions to get attention (new)
• Helps with dressing by putting out arms or legs (new)
• Plays games like Peekaboo and Patacake (new)
• Can respond to simple spoken requests (new)
• Uses simple gestures like shaking her head “no”, waving “hello” and “bye bye”
• Can make sounds with changes in tone
• Can say words like “mama” and “dada” (new)
• Tries to imitate our words (new)
• Points at objects with her finger (new)
• Explores objects in different ways, such as shaking, banging, throwing.
• Searches for items we hide.
• Can easily find hidden objects
• Can imitate gestures
• Understands how to use simple objects correctly (comb/brush for hair, utensils for eating)
• Manipulates objects to make sounds.
• Hand and finger skills are developing
• Can let go of an object without help.
• Can poke with an index finger (new)
• Can follow simple directions (new)
• Puts things into containers, takes things out of containers
• Retains previously learned skills (new)
• Crawling
• Gets into sitting position without help
• Stands up on her own
• Walks
• She claps her hands, and in correct situations such as being happy or proud of herself. This isn’t on the milestone list, but I feel like it’s an important one!
• Has learned to make a game of handing out objects (new, 18 month milestone)
• Has temper tantrums (new, 18 month milestone)
• Shows affection to favorite people (new, 18 month milestone)
• Getting more adventurous as long as we’re watching (new, 18 month milestone. And she’s adventurous without us watching lol!)
• Can eat with utensils (new, 18 month milestone)

Big events: Her birthday!! Obviously that was the biggest thing that has happened. Besides that, we were busy with lots of play dates. But her birthday was the biggest and most important thing that happened. On her actual birthday, we spent time opening her presents from us and having breakfast together. (B worked from home that day) We went out to dinner and then got ice cream as well. She seemed to enjoy herself.

On Sunday we had her birthday party. It was lots of fun! We had a BBQ, and a bunch of our friends came with their kids. Everyone really seemed to have a good time. I get our cakes from the grocery store near our house, and they really do an amazing job. (Pics below) The woman I talked to when I ordered it actually decorated her (free) smash cake to match her big cake, and I was so excited! When it was time for her to dig in, she was a little unsure at first. But after a couple minutes, she destroyed it!! There was cake and icing everywhere. The bottom layer of cake was pretty much untouched, but the top layer was more than half gone! Can you say sugar high! She really had a blast though. I was so happy that she enjoyed her celebration. ❤

Looking forward to:  We have a lot going on in the coming months. Tomorrow morning I’m taking the girls and driving up to visit my mom for 5 days! I’m so excited. B can’t go because he has to work.) We’re going to drive up on Saturday and visit my aunts as well, and go to my grandparents’ grave site. Beyond that, we’re just going to hang out.

Next week is C’s preschool orientation, and starting the following week she’ll be in school on Tuesday and Thursday from 9-12. That’ll give D and I some great one-on-one time! We really don’t get any of that at all, so it’ll be nice to be able to bond with her more. I really wanted to get her into a swim class, but there aren’t any at the rec center on those days. 😦 I’ll keep looking around and see what I can find.

In October we have C’s birthday and our anniversary, and we’re going to the beach for a week as well! She really enjoyed the beach last time, so hopefully the girls will have a good time. In November, we’re going to drive to Florida!! I’m super excited. I hope they do well in the car, because it’s 16 hours of drive time…not including breaks and bad traffic if we hit some. We’re going to be spending most of our time there at my sister’s house, and my mom is going to fly down to spend the holiday with everyone, too. We’re planning to drive to the west coast of Florida to see some friends and family while we’re there as well. I think we may stop in Charleston, SC on our way through and stay the night. It’s supposed to be a beautiful city, and lots to do there. I’d also love to stop at the aquarium in Atlanta, GA. We’ll see how much we can squeeze in!

That’s about it for now! I still can’t believe my baby is a year old already. I can’t wait to see where the next year takes us!

Pictures for your viewing pleasure 🙂

Playing with our new kitten, Truffle.

Kitten in a doll tent!

 

Sisterly zebra rides.

Trying to figure out what Cadence is doing.

Having fun at a play center.

Trampoline fun

Water fun at a birthday party.

New books for her birthday!

Her AMAZING birthday cake and smash cake!! Not only did it look awesome, but it was delicious as well!

11 months old!

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 11 months old

Stats:

• Weight: 18lb 10oz (41st%)
• Length: 29″ (63rd%) (This one was really hard to get! She really didn’t want to be still at all. My first measurement was 29.5″, but that put her in the 83rd% so I figured that was pretty wrong lol!)
• Head: 17.75″ (60th%)

Pediatrician highlights: No appointments this month. Nothing new medically to note.

Nicknames: We call her “Laney” most of the time. We do still call her “baby girl”, and I call her “Laneybug” a lot.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: She’s in 9 month clothes now, and 12 month sleepers. She got too long for most of her 9 month ones. There are a few that she still fits in, but most I’ve pulled out. There are a couple 9 month onesies that are already small on her, as they run small to begin with. Plus almost everything she has is second or even third hand clothes, so stuff has shrunk over time. That said, there are still some 6 month summer things that she fits in, so I guess she’s kinda all over the place! She’s still in size 3 diapers.

Food: I nurse every 2.5-4 hours during the day still. Once in a while she wants to eat just a little sooner, sometimes she’ll stretch out until 5 hours. But unless it’s before nap or bedtime, she doesn’t nurse for long. She really just wants food. If someone is eating something and doesn’t share with her, she’ll scream. I share everything I can with her, but obviously she can’t have everything yet. I usually give her a container of puree for lunch and dinner before giving her “regular” food. She usually will eat more than C even eats at dinner! A lot of times we’ll give her C’s leftovers from her plate lol. For loving food so much, she’s still a fairly small little girl!

Sleep: Still doing well in this area, for the most part. Teething messes her up sometimes. Most nights I give her Motrin before bed because otherwise she’ll wake up an hour or 2 later pulling at her teeth. Poor kiddo. She’s still typically asleep by about 8:40pm, and will usually wake up around 8am. For the past week or so she’s been waking up around either 11pm or 6am and wanting to eat again then, which is unusual for her. Not sure if it’s a growth spurt or her teeth, or both. Hoping things go back to normal again there soon. She only takes 1 nap now, and it’s typically around 2 1/2 hours.

Teeth: No break from teething this past month. She has 7 teeth now!! Well, the 7th just broke through a few days ago so there’s not much to see there yet, but it’s through. Her last incisor is working it’s way down as well. I’m guessing it’ll pop through in the next week or so. Then I REALLY hope she gets a break for a bit! She’s been chewing really hard in the back though, so I’m thinking her molars won’t be too far behind.

Likes:

• Talking, yelling, and shrieking. She says “mama”, “dada”, “baba”, “nana”, “gaga”, “bwa bwa”. Sometimes it sounds like she’s trying to say “hi”, and often when I ask if she’s all done she’ll say “ada”, so I think she’s trying!
• Smiling and laughing. She’s generally just so happy.
• She absolutely loves her sister. Even when C isn’t being very nice to her
• She loves water! She recently figured out that splashing is fun…at least on her end of it!
• Playing with toys, especially if it’s something C is already playing with. She’s found a great love for dolls, and she likes to chew on building blocks.
• The cats. She’s doing a lot better with “gentle”, but we can only expect so much progress with it at this point.
• Blowing raspberries and sticking her tongue out.
• Eating! She absolutely loves food.
• Dancing! She loves music, and often when she hears it she will start to bounce along with the beat. Sometimes she will even do it when I said “Dance, dance!”
• Swinging and sliding. She will go down small slides all on her own. I haven’t introduced her to big slides yet.
• Walking, and trying to run. She’s gotten really good at speed-walking.
• Looking into/under things to see if something is inside.

Dislikes:

• When we put her down and walk away, ESPECIALLY if I do it. It’s starting to get better.
• Being strapped into her car seat. Sometimes she’s fine, but about 3/4 of the time she fights it. Stiffening her body, screaming, pushing me away. It’s fun.
• Being tired. She will come look for me when she’s tired so she can go to bed.
• The wind, if it’s blowing on her face or head.
• Diaper changes and changing her clothes really annoys her, because she doesn’t want to sit still for it. And if she’s hungry but we want to change her first, she absolutely freaks out.
• When we take something away from her.
• If we won’t share what we’re eating with her.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(12 month milestones)

• Cries when mom or dad leaves. (really mostly when I leave.)
• Has favorite objects and people. (She has toys she definitely prefers, and she wants me more than anyone else.)
• Uses simple gestures like shaking her head “no”, waving “hello” and “bye bye” (new)
• Can make sounds with changes in tone (new)
• Explores objects in different ways, such as shaking, banging, throwing.
• Searches for items we hide. (new)
• Can easily find hidden objects (new)
• Can imitate gestures (new)
• Understands how to use simple objects correctly (comb/brush for hair, utensils for eating) (new)
• Manipulates objects to make sounds.
• Can let go of an object without help.
• Puts things into containers, takes things out of containers (new)
• Retains previously learned skills (new)
• Crawling
• Gets into sitting position without help
• Stands up on her own
• Walks
• She claps her hands, and in correct situations such as being happy or proud of herself. This isn’t on the milestone list, but I feel like it’s an important one!

Big events: She had her final first holiday! We celebrated the 4th of July/Independence Day recently. We didn’t really do anything big, but we went and saw two different fireworks shows. We weren’t sure how she would react, but she did great! She loved it. The first night we went, she was super tired and just sort of stared. A few nights later we went and saw another show, and we sat fairly close to where they set them off, and she had the best time. She got really excited, she even clapped and cheered. Obviously she didn’t understand what was going on, but she had fun.

Watching fireworks the first night. 

Nothing else has really been going on. We’ve had a few play dates, went to a story time, and checked out a new play place recently. It’s been SOOOOOOO HOT here, we haven’t been able to get outside for weeks. It’s been in the high 90s, and was even 100 over the weekend. Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot cooler, so hopefully we’ll get at least 1 day out at a park.

Looking forward to:  Not much in the next couple weeks, but the end of August is going to be busy! We have a few birthday parties on the calendar, I want to squeeze in a visit to my mom, D will have her first dentist appointment (she’s going with C, so that should be an interesting day!), and of course her BIRTHDAY!! I absolutely cannot believe that she’s going to be 1 already. I’ve been working on planning her party, and also trying to put it off because I’m in a bit of denial. I at least have a list made and made an event on Facebook to get some invites out, but I need to finish making the physical invitations so I can get those out! My baby almost isn’t a baby anymore! 😦

Here are a few pictures to enjoy 🙂

Having fun in the back yard on a hot day.

She’s learned how to get onto ride-on toys! She manages to push herself backwards, but not forward yet.

Going the wrong way up the slide.

She really gets into her food! This was mashed potatoes.

Looking out the window with our new kitten, Truffles.

Hugging Cadence’s favorite baby doll.

Climbing up a toddler “rock wall” at a play place. I was shocked at how well and how fast she got up there!

10 months old!!

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 10 months 2 days (it was a busy weekend!)

Stats:

• Weight: 17lb 13oz (35th%)
• Length: 28″ (44th%)
• Head: 17.5″ (no change, 57th%)

Pediatrician highlights: No appointments this month. One big thing to note is that we’re done with her Zantac!! I weaned her slow, because I was nervous that she would have problems. We went down to once a day for 2 weeks, then every other day for a week, and that was it. She will still spit up a little once in a while, especially if she’s recently eaten a lot. Overall she’s doing great! I think it helps that she’s walking, because she’s upright most of the time now. I’m just happy to be done with it!

Nicknames: We call her “Laney” most of the time. We do still call her “baby girl”, and I call her “Laneybug” a lot.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: She’s in all 9 month clothes now. A lot of her sleepers are getting short on her, so I need to pull the 12 month stuff out and get it ready to use. She’s definitely going through sizes faster than C did! She has a little more chub to her, so that’s probably why. I actually just looked…she’s the same height and head size that C was at 10 months, but she’s 1.5lbs heavier! No wonder my arms get tired carrying her around! She’s still in size 3 diapers.

Food: I nurse every 2.5-4 hours during the day. I’m so glad I’ve been able to push her feedings out more. She absolutely loves solids, and if she sees us eating something she wants it. If she doesn’t get it, she shrieks and sometimes throws a temper tantrum until she gets it. She absolutely has a feisty personality, especially about food!! We give her anything we have, as long as we can squish it in our fingers. She loves avocado, strawberries, and chicken. Hates peas, and not a huge fan of watermelon, but everything else she enjoys. This is my favorite part of babies I think, letting them explore new foods. Kind of a pain because it takes a while to prepare/cut up things, but seeing her reaction and watching her explore new tastes and textures is so much fun!!

Because she’s such a good eater, and because I’ve had multiple instances of Mastitis in the past few months, (and because it feels like I may be getting it again) I’m going to wean her probably right at 1 year old. I was going to let her go with nursing as long as she wanted, but I just really feel done with it. I want my body back as my own, and I’m just kinda over it all. I know that may sound horrible to some people, but it’s just how I feel. She honestly doesn’t seem to enjoy it anymore herself. She will usually only nurse for a couple minutes and then want to get down, I have to fight with her to stay on and eat most of the time. She usually falls asleep nursing for her long nap and for bed, but sometimes she’ll pull herself off and push me away. So I think it will really be a mutual thing, not just me being mean and selfish.

Sleep: We’re doing great here, finally!! She’s asleep by about 8:40 most nights, and wakes up anywhere between 7:30-8. She’ll nap for about a half hour around 10am, then for a couple hours at 1pm. Once in a while she’ll take another half hour nap around 5pm, but most days she doesn’t. She will still come seek me out when she’s tired, and sometimes will just lay down on the floor or on my lap.

Teeth: Her 2 central bottom incisors are fully in now. Her left lateral incisor popped through a couple days ago, and an upper incisor is popping through today. Her last bottom incisor is very close to the surface, and her other upper central incisor is close as well. I feel bad for her, cutting 4 teeth at once. She’s been miserable with it, too. I give her Motrin at night so she can sleep, because otherwise she’s up every couple hours crying in pain. Hopefully once these get in, she’ll have a break from teeth for a while.

Likes:

• Talking, yelling, and shrieking. She love practicing her consonants. She says “mama”, “dada”, “baba”, “nana”, “gaga”. We swear that once in a while she sounds like she says “hi”, but we aren’t 100% sure.
• She absolutely loves her sister. Even when C isn’t being very nice to her anymore
• She loves water! Once C starts preschool, I’m going to try to get her into swim lessons while I have some alone time with her.
• Playing with toys, especially if it’s something C is already playing with.
• The cats. She’s still learning how to be gentle. I’m trying to teach her not to touch their tails, too. She grabbed one of their tails last week, and he really freaked out.
• Blowing raspberries and sticking her tongue out.
• Eating! She absolutely loves food.
• Dancing! She loves music, and often when she hears it she will start to bounce along with the beat. Sometimes she will even do it when I said “Dance, dance!”
• Swinging, and sliding with help.
• Walking all over the place. She tried running yesterday, but it didn’t go well lol! She is pretty fast though, and pretty steady on her feet. She cracks me up though, because she walks with kind of an arch in her back for balance, so her belly sticks out in front and her butt sticks out in back!

Dislikes:

• When we put her down and walk away, ESPECIALLY if I do it. Major clingy phase right now.
• Being made to sit still, whether in the car seat, stroller, or on our laps. She just wants to roam free.
• Being tired. She will come look for me when she’s tired so she can go to bed.
• The wind, if it’s blowing on her face or head.
• Diaper changes and changing her clothes really annoys her, because she doesn’t want to sit still for it. And if she’s hungry but we want to change her first, she absolutely freaks out.
• When we take something away from her.
• If we won’t share what we’re eating with her.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(12 month milestones)

• Cries when mom or dad leaves. (really mostly when I leave. She’s hit a clingy phase again…she’s also cutting 4 teeth and going through a leap, so that’s not helping at all!)(new)
• Has favorite objects and people. (She has toys she definitely prefers, and she wants me more than anyone else.)(new)
• Explores objects in different ways, such as shaking, banging, throwing. (new)
• Manipulates objects to make sounds. (new)
• Can let go of an object without help (not really new, but I keep forgetting to mark this one off!)
• Crawling
• Gets into sitting position without help
• Stands up on her own
• Walks (She’s been taking steps here and there for a while, but now she’s full on walking! She still falls once in a while, but she walks all over the place now…and she’s getting fast!)
• She claps her hands, and in correct situations such as being happy or proud of herself. This isn’t on the milestone list, but I feel like it’s an important one!
• She will take things out of containers, but she doesn’t put them into containers yet, so I haven’t checked off that milestone.
• She is starting to wave bye-bye

Big events: We’ve had a busy month or so. My family came to visit, and the kids all had a lot of fun together. My sister, niece, and nephew were here for 11 days, and my mom was here for 4 1/2 of those days. We were on the go pretty much every day, so while we were having fun, it was also exhausting. But she loved every minute of spending time with family, and I’m glad she got to see everyone.

Nothing else really big happened. Her learning to walk, obviously, has been huge. But no other big events.

Looking forward to: 4th of July is next week, and I’m really looking forward to that. Hopefully she does well with the fireworks! She’s not really afraid of much, so I think she’ll be fine. I’m mostly concerned that she’ll be grumpy because it will be way past her bedtime.

I have absolutely nothing else on the calendar for the next month, and I’m completely fine with that!!

Here are a few pictures to enjoy 🙂

The girls playing with their puzzles in the morning.

Sitting on a mushroom stool at the botanical gardens.

Playing with my nephew at a winery.

Playing on the kiddie tractors at the farm.

She loves climbing up on this chair and sitting backwards like this. 

Wondering why these balls are in her swing!

9 months old

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 9 months old (and 5 days. I wanted to wait for her peds appointment to write this, then I got sick and didn’t have the energy to do it!)

Stats:

• Weight: 17lb 2oz (32%)
• Length: 27″ (26%) (The peds office measured her at 28″, which was something ridiculous like the 80%. I remeasured her when I got home, twice, and she’s definitely only 27″)
• Head: 17.5″ (67%)

Pediatrician highlights: Nothing big to report from her appointment, other than the peds was astonished at her physical capabilities. She’s WAY ahead of the curve as far as milestones…she’s already hit all of the AAP’s 12 month physical milestones. She’s an overachiever. Overall, she’s doing great though. They checked her iron levels, and they’re right on point. We’re going to start weaning her off of her Zantac for her reflux, so we’ll see how that goes. I cut out her night time dose yesterday. She had a rough night last night, but I feel like it was more because of her vaccines that she got and teething. If things go well for a week or so, I’ll cut her morning dose down to every other day and see how things go after that. If we can get her off of it some time soon, that would be great. Oh and speaking of vaccines…because so many people have their heads up their asses in this country, and Measles is making a comeback, I got her Measles vaccine early. She was only due 1 other vaccine, and I’d rather she have an extra shot than be at risk for contracting it.

Nicknames: We call her “Laney” most of the time. We do still call her “baby girl”, and I call her “Laneybug” a lot.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: She’s mostly in 9 month clothes right now. There are a couple 6 month outfits that still fit, but almost everything is 9 month. That said, she’s starting to outgrow her 9 month pjs. She definitely outgrows the length of things first, because she’s skinny like Cadence! She’s still in size 3 diapers.

Food: I nurse every 2-3 hours through the day, and I’m really trying to push it more to 3 hours. She’s definitely a food hound though, she just loves to eat! She doesn’t even care what it is, except peas. She gets a 4oz puree at lunch, and at dinner she gets another one plus some baby cereal made with breast milk. I think once this container of cereal is gone I won’t buy anymore, partly because I just don’t want to deal with the milk anymore. I’m going to start giving her more “real” food anyway. She’s already had cut up blueberries, strawberries, and avocado; and Puffs, Mum Mum crackers, Ritz crackers, animal crackers, Goldfish crackers (not by me, by Cadence), cheese, yogurt, and Cheerios. I’m going to start giving her softened veggies, and things like shredded chicken or beef without a lot of spices on them. She will honestly eat anything you give her, or anything she can sneakily get her hands on. If she sees us eating and she isn’t getting anything, she’ll yell at us! I think she’s going to be even easier than Cadence to wean!

Sleep: A bit all over the place lately. Teething has really thrown her for a loop. I’ve been giving her Motrin every night at bedtime, which I hate doing, but otherwise she wakes up clawing at her mouth and screaming. Most nights she sleeps just fine. Typically she falls asleep around 8:40, and wakes up anywhere between 7-8. Naps are shifting right now, so we don’t really have a “norm” right now. Most days she will sleep about a half hour in the morning, and a couple hours midday. Some days she’ll take another nap in the early evening, but some days she doesn’t. She will actually let me know if she’s tired though, which is nice! She’ll come and look for me if I’m not right next to her, and I can tell by her whine that she wants to go to bed. And usually when I take her up to bed, she just lays down and goes right to sleep. Thank goodness her sleep has gotten better!!

Teeth: She has 2 teeth now! They came in just a couple days apart from each other. She’s teething like mad again right now, but she won’t let me look in there enough to be able to tell what’s coming in next. The peds couldn’t get a good enough look either lol. All of her incisors are right there at the surface though. Maybe we’ll get lucky enough that they’ll all pop through together, and get it over will faster.

Her 2 little teeth!

Likes:

• Talking, yelling, and shrieking.
• She absolutely loves her sister. Even when C isn’t being very nice to her anymore
• Bath time is one of her favorite things. She’s going to be a water baby just like her sister!
• Playing with and chewing on toys. Exploring in the play room is one of her favorite things to do.
• Crawling around the house and pulling herself up on anything sturdy.
• Pushing her walker around the house and creeping along furniture.
• The cats. She’s pretty good with them, she’s doing a good job being gentle lately. When she gets excited and shrieks at them though, they freak out and run away!
• Blowing raspberries.
• Eating! Whether it’s nursing or eating food, she absolutely loves food.
• Dancing! She loves music, and often when she hears it she will start to bounce along with the beat. Sometimes she will even do it when I said “Dance, dance!”
• Swinging, and sliding with help.

Dislikes:

• When we put her down and walk away, ESPECIALLY if she’s hungry or tired.
• Being made to sit still, whether in the car seat, stroller, or on our laps. She just wants to roam free.
• Being tired. She will come look for me when she’s tired so she can go to bed.
• The wind.
• Diaper changes and changing her clothes really annoys her, because she doesn’t want to sit still for it.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(9 month milestones)

• Scared of strangers (new, mostly only if she’s tired)
• Clingy with familiar adults (new)
• Has favorite toys
• Can respond when called by name
• Understands “no” (new, but doesn’t always care lol)
• Makes a lot of different babbling sounds
• Can copy sounds and gestures of others (new)
• Can follow the path of a moving object
• Looks for something you hide (new)
• Plays back-and-forth games like peekaboo (new)
• Puts things in her mouth
• Can move an object smoothly from one hand to another
• Can hold objects between thumb and forefinger (new)
• Can get into a sitting position
• Can sit without support
• Can crawl
• Can stand while holding onto a surface
• Can pull up to a stand
• Can cruise along furniture (new, 12 month milestone)
• Can take a few steps (new, 12 month milestone)
• Can stand up on her own (new, 12 month milestone)

**The only 9 month milestones that she didn’t hit were pointing at things with her fingers, or looking at things I point at. I have’t really pointed at things with her, so she hasn’t picked up that gesture obviously.

Big events: She had her first beach trip! She did great. She understandably gets frustrated being in the car for so long (it took us about 9 hours to get down, 10 to get home). She slept great in a strange place, which I was grateful for. Cadence did not, so that made for a lot of lost sleep for the rest of us. But she loved the sand, she loved the water and the pools, and she loved seeing new things. I was really so happy with how well she adjusted to everything.

We also went to see Sesame Street Live the day before our trip. She seemed to really enjoy that as well. I actually enjoyed it myself! 😀

Looking forward to: My family is coming to visit in a couple weeks!!! It was a fabulous surprise to me when my sister texted me and said they wanted to come visit when school gets out…especially since she had just told me a month before that they wouldn’t be able to come visit this year because they don’t have any extra money. But her and the kids are going to drive up and stay for a little over a week. My mom has some extra vacation days to use up, so she decided to come while they’re here as well! I’m beyond excited. My sister hasn’t met D yet, and mom my hasn’t seen her since Christmas. We’re going to have so much fun, I can’t wait!!

Nothing else coming up that I know about in the next month. Nice weather and play dates, and watching her grow and change!

I’ll leave you with some pictures to enjoy!

Trying to figure out why her sister is under a laundry basket.

Playing with her train

Some days she really gets into her toys 😀

Looking out the window at the birds.

8 months old!

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 8 months old (and a day, because I’m late with this lol!)

Stats:

• Weight: 16lb (23rd%)
• Length: 26″ (13th%) This hasn’t changed since last month, but I’m trying not to let it bother me. That said, she was nearly impossible to measure because she just would NOT hold still, so it’s possible that this isn’t absolutely accurate. A lot of her pants are now too short for her, so she must have grown at least a little bit. We’ll see what happens with her next measurements!
• Head: 17″ (44th%) This also hasn’t changed from last month. She still has a fat head though, so we’re fine lol!!

Pediatrician highlights: No pediatrician this month!

Nicknames: We still call her “baby girl” a lot. I also call her “Laneybug”, and we call her Laney a lot. Cadence calls her mostly Naney (she can’t say her L’s yet) or Baby Sister still, once in a great while she calls her “Denaney”.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: She’s in a mix of 6 month and 9 month stuff. All her pj’s are 9 month, and she finally fits most of them now. Today I pulled most of her 6 month pants and a bunch of shirts out. I moved all of her 9 month stuff into her drawers as well.  For some reason most of the 6 month outfits still fit though…I can’t figure it out! She’s in the middle of a growth spurt right now, so I’m guessing by next month we’ll be completely in 9 month clothes! We’ve also moved up to size 3 diapers.

Food: Food is so much fun! With the exception of peas, she loves everything she eats. I nurse every 2-3 hours through the day, it’s spread out a bit more in the evening most days. She gets one 4oz puree at lunch time, and baby cereal at dinner time. She now sits in the high chair at the table with us, because she wasn’t content sitting on the floor alone anymore. She wanted to be up with the rest of us! I usually give her puffs while we’re eating to keep her content, then when I finish I make her cereal. Some days she wants more, so I’ll give her another 4oz puree. The other day I cut up some blueberries for her to have, and she loved that. Because of Cadence dropping food or leaving it places she shouldn’t, she’s also eaten some strawberries, grapes, and goldfish crackers. Thankfully she’s never choked on anything. She absolutely loves food though, and I usually can’t feed her fast enough. She also grabbed C’s straw cup the other day and started drinking like a pro! I honestly think it’s because she gets the Zantac every day. She’s been sucking it out of the dosing syringe for a few months now, so she understood how to suck from that. So now I give her a cup of water to drink throughout the day. She loves that, too!!

Sleep: Still doing well in this area! She will typically take a 30 minute nap in the morning, then 1 1/2-2 hours in the afternoon, and another half hour nap in the evening. Once in a while she’ll surprise me and take a long nap first thing in the morning, but it’s super hit and miss on that. At bedtime she’s usually asleep by 8:40, and the girls have both been waking up around 7:30am. I put her down awake for all her naps, and she goes to sleep on her own. Sometimes, especially for the evening nap, she fusses a bit first. But generally she just wanders her crib for a few minutes, then lays down and closes her eyes. I still nurse her to sleep at night. The last couple nights though she pushes away from me when she’s done eating and seems to want her own space to fall asleep, whereas she used to fall asleep attached to the boob and I’d pull her off and put her in bed. In a way it makes me a little sad, but if she’s that comfortable falling asleep on her own, that’s okay too. I really can’t complain, considering all the hell she’s put me through for sleep the first 6 months of her life!!

Teeth: She’s teething like mad, and her first tooth popped through a couple days ago! She chews on everything in sight, and she’s soaked with drool all the time. I’m pretty sure her second incisor is about to pop through, but she HATES when I try to look at her teeth! C used to be so good about letting me look in her mouth, but D fights me like I’m trying to murder her. She’s definitely going to be harder to track her teeth!

Likes:

• Babbling and shrieking. She talks all the time. Any time she’s really happy or upset, she shrieks and makes my ears ring.
• She absolutely loves her sister. Even when C isn’t being very nice to her anymore
• Bath time is one of her favorite things. She’s going to be a water baby just like her sister!
• Playing with and chewing on toys. She absolutely has some favorites, and she’ll go get different ones that she wants now.
• Crawling around the house and pulling herself up on anything sturdy.
• Pushing her walker around the house.
• The cats. She’s pretty good with them, she’s doing a good job being gentle lately. When she gets excited and shrieks at them though, they freak out and run away!
• Blowing raspberries.
• Eating! Whether it’s nursing or eating food, she absolutely loves food.
• Dancing! She loves music, and often when she hears it she will start to bounce along with the beat. Sometimes she will even do it when I said “Dance, dance!”
• Swinging.

Dislikes:

• When we put her down and walk away, ESPECIALLY if she’s hungry or tired.
• Being strapped into her car seat. She really just wants her freedom.
• She gets super grumpy now when she gets tired. She knows exactly when it’s 8pm, and no matter what is going on, she’s READY to go to bed.
• She tends to get upset when she has a poopy diaper.
• The wind.
• She hates when you try to make her do something she doesn’t want to do. Mostly anything that involves holding still, like changing a diaper or her clothes. She really just wants to be on the move, so she doesn’t want anyone to try to stop her.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(9 month milestones)

• Has favorite toys
• Afraid of strangers (new, and it’s not all strangers, just some)
• Can respond when called by name
• Makes a lot of different babbling sounds (new)
• Can follow the path of a moving object
• Puts things in her mouth
• Can move an object smoothly from one hand to another
• Can get into a sitting position
• Can sit without support
• Can crawl
• Can stand while holding onto a surface
• Can pull up to a stand

Big events: She had her first Easter! We aren’t a religious family, so we really just did Easter baskets for the girls. I wanted to take them to an egg hunt, but we just never had time to do it. We did go see the Easter bunny, and she did great with him! Nothing else big happened this past month though.

Looking forward to: Vacation!!! I’m so excited for next weekend to get here. Saturday we’re taking the girls to see Sesame Street Live. I’m not sure if Delaney will think much of it, but I know Cadence will have a great time. The on Sunday we’re heading to Myrtle Beach for a week!!! Hooray!! It’ll be D’s first trip to the beach. She played in C’s sandbox for the first time today, and she thought the sand was hilarious, so I think she’ll do well at the beach! I’m beyond happy to finally be getting a break, and so excited to see her reaction to everything new. I just hope she sleeps well while we’re there!

I’ll leave you with some pictures of this crazy kiddo!

Checking out what’s inside Cadence’s toy box in her room.

Hanging out at a play place near our house. Sorry it’s a bit blurry, I don’t have the best camera on my cell phone.

Digging into her Easter basket.

2 1/2 years old!

Name: Cadence

Age: 2 years 6 months

Nicknames: Bean/Beanie. We sometimes still call her Baby Girl.

Stats:

• Weight: 27lb 4oz
• Height: 36.5″
• Head circumference: 19.5″

Pediatrician highlights: We haven’t had to go since her 2 year appointment. Thankfully she’s a pretty healthy kid!!

Teeth: She has her bottom 2 year molars, but not the tops. They were rough, and they seriously took about 2 months to fully erupt. I’m not looking forward to the uppers coming in…but I also wish they would hurry up so we can just be done with teeth for a long time!! She has said a few times recently that her teeth hurt, so they may be working their way in. I don’t see anything yet, but we’ll see!!

Clothing/Diaper sizes: We’re pretty much all in 2T. I kept a few of her 18 month summer outfits, because she’s so thin still, she will probably fit into them. She has some 24 month outfits, but honestly they’re HUGE on her in the waist, so we don’t have many. Some 2T things that are secondhand (which really is most of it lol!) are small because they’ve already shrunk before we got them, but most stuff fits fine!

As far as diapers…we’re finally potty trained!! Hooray!! It was a hugely painful experience for everyone involved, but I’m beyond thankful that we got through it, and so proud of how well she’s doing. I seriously tried EVERYTHING that I could think of or that I read/was told to get her to go on the potty, but nothing worked. We tried back in January, and it was a disaster. I started trying again a few weeks ago, and kind of gave up right away again. But then I felt like I was just giving up on her, so I stuck with it. Then we found out we HAD to get her trained (more on that later) so I really buckled down with it. She went naked at home for a few weeks. We watched every potty training show and movie I could find. We made up potty songs and dances. We colored, read, sang, blew bubbles, put food coloring in the toilet water, used the potty, used the big toilet with a potty seat….she just couldn’t release her pee. Then one day, she was coloring while sitting on her little potty and watching some cartoon…and she just kinda went. She was as shocked as I was about it. It didn’t happen again that day, but the next day she did it again while coloring. She stood up and yelled “I did it! I did it! I got pee pee in the potty!” She was so proud of herself. Since then, we’ve been all potty, all the time! For a couple weeks we did pullups whenever we left the house, until she got more confident. This past weekend we went out without pullups. We talked about it a lot beforehand, and I asked her a million times if she had to go potty, and made her try a few times. She did actually go at a restaurant, but she never had an accident. She did have an accident when we were playing outside at home, but we went to a park today and she did great. We’re still using a pullup for nap time, and overnight diapers for right now at bedtime. When those are gone, we’ll switch to pullups at night as well. I really don’t care about sleep training right now, we can deal with that later. But I’m so incredibly proud of how well she’s doing with it, and I know she’s proud, too!!

Food: In general, she loves to eat. She’s been in a bit of a slump for a couple days, but again, she’s also been saying her teeth hurt, so it may be related. She likes pretty much everything though. There are a couple things she won’t eat, but overall we don’t have to worry about getting her to eat something. That said, she typically will only eat one big meal a day. Her other meals will be okay. She’ll eat something, but not a lot. She definitely has inherited my sweet tooth though! She asks for cake all the time. She’ll even say that it should be someone’s birthday, just so she can have cake. At least she understand how birthdays work!!

Sleep: She still does great in this department as well! We’ve graduated to a sort of toddler bed. Basically I just took the front rails off her crib, because it’s a convertible. I don’t have the toddler rail for it, but I got a regular toddler rail for a bed and it works just fine. It gives her freedom (that she rarely takes advantage of) but she’s still a little contained and doesn’t fall out. She won’t get out of bed on her own when she wakes up though, which was one of my biggest concerns. I was sure she would be all over the place, playing with everything in her room, and running all over the house. But she just stays in bed and waits for us to come get her. I’ve even tried a few times telling her through the baby monitor to get up and come to me, but she won’t. She does sleep with about 8 stuffed animals though, and 2 pillows, and 2 blankets!! There’s really not a ton of room for her in there lol!! She still takes a nap for about 3 hours. There are some days where she just won’t nap at all, usually if we’ve been busy and she goes down late. At night she’s usually asleep by 9-9:30, and wakes up most days between 7:30-8. I definitely can’t complain!

Likes:

• Music. Whether she’s listening to it, or singing something herself. She loves to sing “Old McDonald” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, or she’ll make up her own songs.
• Dancing, especially if she can see her reflection in a mirror or window!
• Bath time, and swimming. We don’t get to go swimming too often, but she will try to get dirty every day just so she can have a bath!
• Talking ALL THE TIME!!! She has an enormous vocabulary, and speaks in clear sentences. People are still always telling us they’re impressed by how well she talks. Some days I wish she’d just be quiet for a while lol!!! But I’m honestly thankful she can talk and communicate well. She has some friends who are in speech therapy and still really struggle. When she’s upset she does have a hard time getting out what she wants though, so we’re working on that.
• Reading, though she’s so busy lately she doesn’t like it as often as she used to. But she loves reading at nap time and bed time, and she definitely has some favorite books.
• Crafting and being creative. She loves to color, and she’s trying to color inside the lines in her coloring books. She loves to paint, but she usually tries to paint herself so we don’t do it often. I actually feel kinda guilty that I can’t help her with other kinds of crafts too much, because it’s too hard with the baby around. I do what I can though.
• Climbing anything she can get her hands on.
• Food. She loves to eat!
• Animals of all kinds, and especially going to the farm!
• Going to the playground, and playing with friends. She will often ask for both.
• Kids of all ages
• Baby dolls and playing in her kitchen are her favorite toys. She also really loves her cars, and building blocks.
• Car rides. She still asks to go in the car every single day. Now when we stop at a red light or stop sign, she says “Go! Go!”
• Picking out her clothes. She picks out her pajamas every night on her own, and if we’re not in a hurry to go anywhere I let her pick out her clothes as well. Sometimes I have to change something so she matches, but I usually will give her a choice. Sometimes she picks Delaney’s outfits out as well.
• Playing with her train table, which was a Christmas gift.

Dislikes:

• Being told “no”. She’s a girl who knows what she wants, and if she doesn’t get it she often gets upset.
• Going to the pediatrician. Funny thing is, she asks to go to the Dr often. But if we actually do go, which is usually for Delaney anyway, she gets pretty upset.
• Sharing with her sister. She was great at sharing, until Delaney learned how to crawl. Now everything is “Mine! No Delaney!” It’s pretty frustrating for me. Something we’re definitely working on.

Things she does:

• Repeats EVERYTHING that she hears. Everything. And she can usually pronounce them pretty well, too. We’ve now resorted to spelling things out that we don’t want her to know! Sometimes she even repeats things that we don’t realize she’s heard.
• She knows pretty much all body parts
• Dancing when there is music playing. If she’s in another room, and a song comes on TV, she’ll stop what she’s doing and run in to listen and dance!
• Climbing EVERYTHING! Still. She does amazing at playgrounds now. Sometimes it takes her a few minutes to figure out how to climb certain things, but once she does it one time, she’s usually good to go.
• She likes to sort things out and line things up. She inherited her mom’s OCD.

Big events: Since her last post, we went through the whole holiday season. She loved Christmas this year, because she actually understood what was going on. That said…it took 6 hours to unwrap presents! She wanted to play with everything as she opened it. It made for a long day! Beyond the holidays, the biggest other event has been her getting potty trained. It’s been pretty life changing!

Looking forward to: A lot actually! Easter is this weekend. We’re not a religious family, but I did make Easter baskets for the girls, so that should be fun. In a couple weeks we actually got tickets to go see Sesame Street Live! I’m beyond excited about this for her. We haven’t told her, and we won’t until we get there. My good friend H is going as well with her 2 little ones, which her 2yo is Cadence’s best friend. We have seats next to each other, so I know the girls will have the best time! We’re going to lunch afterwards with them because the next day is H’s husband’s birthday, and 2 days later is my birthday, so we’re going to celebrate! Then the day after that we’re heading to Myrtle Beach for a week! Hooray!! I’m in desperate need of a vacation. My job will be going with me, obviously, but a change in scenery will be amazing. C is dying to go to the beach, and D has never been, so it should be fun!!

In general, also just looking forward to the warmer weather and being able to get outside. My mom is tentatively coming in July, and in October we have another trip to the beach planned. Yay!!

The other big thing that we’re all looking forward to: We signed Cadence up to start preschool in September!! It’s a small preschool that is run out of the teacher’s/owner’s home. But it’s not a day care, it’s actual school, licensed and accredited with the state and everything. She will be going Tuesday & Thursday from 9-12, and the best thing is her best friend is in the same class!! We’re so happy that they’ll have each other to get started with. When we went and toured, C felt so at home right off the bat. She wasn’t shy with the teacher at all, which is a little unusual for her. She’s dying to go to school, and it’ll be great to have a bit of a break and get some alone time with Delaney. Technically the kids are supposed to be 3 to start, but because C has a fall birthday she misses a lot of cutoffs. The teacher said that she’ll be happy to start her early though, since her birthday will be a few weeks after school starts. Next school year she’ll go to Mon/Weds/Fri 9-12, and the year after she’ll to 5 days a week from 12:30-3:30. After that she’ll start Kindergarten, which is I think 6 hours/day. But anyway, we’re all super excited for this new step for her!

To round things off, here are some pics from the past 6 months. It’s amazing to see the changes that have happened with her and to realize just how much she’s grown in the past half a year!! I can’t wait to see what the next 6 months bring!

Wearing her floor tiles

Hanging out at gymnastics

Putting out cookies for Santa

Just some everyday craziness

This is why we don’t paint often!

First trip to the dentist! She was very excited about going, but a little unsure once we were there lol

I love her hair ❤

Climbing at the playground

Playing with Bowie

More playground fun

She’s not afraid of the sandbox anymore!

An artist at work.

Hanging out at the farm.

Hi goat!

Dancing to the beat of her own drum.

Those curls!! ❤

7 months old

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 7 months old

Stats:

• Weight: 15lb 10oz (27th%, this is with clothes on)
• Length: 26″ (30th%)
• Head: 17″ (60th%)

Pediatrician highlights: We did go to the peds office today, but she just got her flu booster shot. We just saw a nurse, no Dr, so no peds updates this month!

Nicknames: We still call her “baby girl” a lot. I also call her “Laneybug”, and we call her Laney a lot. Cadence calls her mostly Laney or Baby Sister still, once in a great while she calls her “Denaney”.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: Still in 6 months clothes, and still slowly outgrowing them. One piece outfits and long sleeve shirts are pretty much all pulled from her closet and drawers already, or need to be and I just haven’t gotten to it yet lol! And all 6 month pj’s are gone. Of course, most of her 9 month pj’s she just swims in, which makes it really hard for her to crawl in. I hate the clothing transition periods!! She’s in size 2 diapers.

Food: We’ve hit the fun stage!! She nurses about every 2-3 hours, or when she wakes up if it’s been longer than that. I’ve gotten into a routine of giving her baby food when C is eating her lunch, and a mix of rice and oatmeal cereals with a blob of peanut butter right after we finish dinner. She LOVES food. She wasn’t a fan of peas, but every other food we’ve tried she loves. As in, she eats the whole 2oz container and cries because she wants more! We only have sweet potatoes left in the stage 1 foods, then we can move to stage 2. Those are bigger containers, so she’ll be happy! I gave her a taste of vanilla ice cream one night as well, and she really enjoyed that. She’s really interested in our food any time we eat, so I hope that she’ll be as great of an eater as C is!!

Sleep: We finally, FINALLY have a decent sleeper!! As I mentioned, she eats cereal with or just after we have dinner. At 8 we do bedtime as a family in C’s room. Diaper changes and pj’s for the girls, brush C’s teeth, then read 3 bedtime stories, and into bed. By then it’s usually about 8:20, and we go right to D’s room. I still put her in a sleep sack right now for warmth, then read her 1 story, nurse again, and into bed. I realize a lot of people are against nursing to sleep, but it works for us, and I like the bonding time. She now sleeps 10-11 hours at night. Once in a while, she’ll wake up and cry for a couple minutes within a couple hours of going to bed, but she settles herself.

How we got here: I HATE cry-it-out. I tried so many different things to get this kid to sleep, and it finally just came to making her cry and figure it out on her own. Shortly after she turned 6 months, there was about 4 nights in a row where she just didn’t sleep. She was up every couple hours, and I was beyond exhausted. It was around 1am, and I had already been up with her 3 times, and I was just done. I knew she wasn’t hungry, and she didn’t have a dirty diaper, so I just turned the volume on the monitor down and tuned it out. When she realized I wasn’t going in, she threw a fit. B asked me if he should go, and I said absolutely not. After about 10 minutes she went to sleep. And she’s been sleeping through the night since then. I truly hope with every fiber of my being that it stays this way and we don’t hit any more sleep regressions!!

Naps, aren’t quite as great. We had a couple weeks where she did awesome. She slept about an hour in the morning, then about 2 hours in the afternoon, and another hour in the evening. It didn’t last long though. She got into this horrible habit of only napping 20-30 minutes at a time. So lately, when I put her down for her afternoon nap, I’ve just been putting her right in her swing. The kid needs sleep, and if that’s what I have to do to get a decent nap out of her right now, so be it. The other day she actually slept 4 hours in there!! (C slept 4 hours that day as well, not sure what was going on that day!) Typically I get about 2 out of her in there though, then another 30-40 minutes in the evening. So naps are a work in progress, but overnight is amazing right now.

Teeth: There’s nothing coming through yet, but she’s been so miserable lately. She’s been chewing so hard, and drooling a ton, which is making her spit up a lot again. Sometimes when she chews, or even a couple times when she’s been nursing, she just starts crying. I still see nothing that looks even close to coming through. Hopefully she gets some relief from this soon.

Likes:

• Talking, squealing, and shrieking.
• She absolutely loves her sister.
• Bath time is one of her favorite things.
• Playing with and chewing on toys.
• Crawling around the house and pulling herself up on anything sturdy. She will even crawl from the living room all the way into the play room now!
• She loves when the cats come near her. We’re starting to learn “gentle”, because she just grabs at them and pulls their fur out right now!
• Blowing raspberries.
• Eating! Whether it’s nursing or eating food, she absolutely loves food.

Dislikes:

• When we put her down and walk away, ESPECIALLY if she’s hungry or tired.
• Being strapped into her car seat sometimes upsets her again. Once we get going she’s usually ok though.
• She gets super grumpy now when she gets tired. She knows exactly when it’s 8pm now, and no matter what is going on, she’s READY to go to bed.
• Nap time.
• She tends to get upset when she has a poopy diaper.
• The wind.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(9 month milestones)

• Has favorite toys
• Can respond when called by name (new)
• Can follow the path of a moving object (new)
• Puts things in her mouth (I’m not sure why this one shows up for 9 months again, as it was a previous milestone)
• Can move an object smoothly from one hand to another (new)
• Can get into a sitting position
• Can sit without support
• Can crawl (new)
• Can stand while holding onto a surface (new)
• Can pull up to a stand (new)

Big events: Nothing big has been going on with us. Just the day to day grind.

Looking forward to: Nothing really big coming up soon either. We have Easter in a few weeks, but we’re not really religious people, so it’s more just a holiday to get the kids some little gifts. May will be a fun and busy month for us, but I’ll wait and talk about that in next month’s post!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

She can pick her own toys out now, thank you very much!

Just hanging out with her sister.

She has become obsessed with the basket of books, just like her sister always was 🙂

I’m not even sure what she was trying to do here lol

I got Cadence a trampoline. Delaney loves to use it to stand up, and spend time with her sister ❤

6 months old!

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 6 months old!! How is she a half of a year old already!?!?

Stats:

• Weight: 15lb 2oz (30th%)
• Length: 25.3″ (24th%)
• Head: 16.8″ (62nd%)

Pediatrician highlights: Nothing big to note, everything went well at her appointment. We’re going to keep her Zantac the same. She’s not having any pain from her reflux, but she still spits up a lot. Immediately following almost every single nursing session. Some days she does really well the rest of the time, but some days she spits up a few times more within an hour or so of eating. It’s frustrating, and I wish her little body would get it together already! Beyond that, the peds was impressed with how incredibly social she is. She said she’s extremely alert and inquisitive for her age.

Nicknames: We still call her “baby girl” a lot. I’ve been calling her “Laney-bug” a lot recently, or just Laney sometimes. Cadence calls her “Denaney” or “Waney”, because she still can’t get her L’s down. She calls her baby sister all the time as well.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: Still in 6 months clothes, and actually starting to outgrow some of them. Especially anything that’s 1 piece, or a hand-me-down from someone else. I have all her 9 month clothes clean and ready to go, I think we’ll need them soon! She’s in size 2 diapers.

Food: Still nursing every 2-3 hours, roughly. I’ve been able to push it off to 3 hours most of the time, and sometimes when we’re out and about it even goes to 4. I find a lot recently she doesn’t always ask to eat, but if it’s been a long time and I offer it to her, she acts like she’s upset that she didn’t get fed sooner. Still trying to figure things out, I guess!!

We’ve been doing a mix of rice cereal and oatmeal before bed for about a month. Friday night I tried pea puree with her, and you would have thought I burned her favorite toy in front of her! She gagged on it, and gave me the nastiest glare! I ended up mixing it with a little cereal, and she kinda tolerated it that way. Last night I made her normal rice/oatmeal mix and added a bunch of peas into it, and she actually liked it that way. I guess for now that’s the way we’ll do it! I have butternut squash for her next, maybe she’ll like that a bit better.

Sleep: We finally have some improvement in this area, though it’s far from perfect. Right after we finish C’s bedtime routine (roughly 8:20-8:30), we come downstairs and D gets her cereal/food. Then I take her back up to her room, read her a book, nurse her, and she goes to bed. I need to start trying to get her solid in before bedtime so we can go straight to bed after we’re done with Cadence, it’s just been hard lately with how busy we’ve been. I need to start to make it a priority though, because she’s ready for sleep before I can get her to bed lately.

As for naps, I’m working on nap training right now. There have been a few times where I’ve been able to actually put her down awake, and she’s just kinda played around for a few minutes then gone to sleep on her own. But the normal is that she plays around for a few minutes, then throws a fit for a while, then passes out exhausted. I guess I’m doing a modified Ferber method, as I’m not really timing how long before I go in to check on her. I just give it a few minutes, or until I get to a stopping point in whatever I’m doing, then go in. She usually gets happy to see me, then when she sees me leave again it makes her mad. Usually within 15 minutes or so she goes to sleep though. One day she fought it for over 40 minutes. By then I was so exhausted, I started crying, and just put her in her swing to sleep. I’m not really sure if it’s all harder on her, or me! I usually try to get her up to her room for a nap every 2 hours, or before if she acts tired sooner. The hard part is that we’re not just sitting home every day. I try to make sure she gets at least 3 hours of naps every day though, in whatever way I can. We’re definitely still working on things, but we seem to be falling into some sort of groove that’s getting us by.

Teeth: There’s nothing coming through yet, but she’s definitely teething. She chews on everything and drools, and some days she will even get the bright pink cheeks. She doesn’t let me look at her gums well the way C used to let me, but from what I can tell there’s nothing too close to the surface yet.

Likes:

• She loves being talked to, and will smile or laugh or talk back to you.
• Talking, squealing, and shrieking.
• She still adores Cadence. I don’t think this one will change any time soon!
• She loves bath time! I normally put her in the big tub with Cadence now. She sits on the floor with me until I’m done bathing C, then I put the infant tub insert into the tub to help hold her still so I can bathe her. She thinks it’s the best thing ever.
• Playing with and chewing on toys.
• Moving, in any way. She wants to be on the go ALL THE TIME. She’s almost figured out crawling, not quite, but she can maneuver herself around to wherever she wants to go.
• The cats! She loves when they come around, and she tries to crawl towards them. They’ve gotten close enough for her to touch recently, and she gets so excited. Time to start teaching her “gentle”!

Dislikes:

• Being alone, especially if she sees you walking away from her.
• Being in her car seat for long periods of time. (Like when running errands, shopping, etc.)
• She gets super grumpy now when she gets tired.
• When her cereal bowl becomes empty.
• Nap time.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(6 month milestones)

• Recognizes familiar faces vs strangers
• Likes to play with others
• Responds to people’s emotions (new)
• Enjoys looking in the mirror
• Shows affection
• Responds to sounds by making sounds
• Responds to her name
• Can string vowel sounds together
• Using sounds to show different moods
• Can make consonant sounds
• Looking at things nearby
• Explores thing by putting them in her mouth
• Curious about new objects and reaches for them
• Passes objects from one hand to the other
• Can sit up without support
• Can roll over in both directions
• Can support weight on legs when standing
• Can rock back and forth (new)
• Doesn’t seem stiff or floppy
• Has favorite toys (new, 9 month milestone)
• Can get into a sitting position (new, 9 month milestone)
• Can push herself forward, almost a crawl (new, 9 month milestone)
• She can somewhat pull herself to a stand. It’s a 9 month milestone, but I haven’t officially recorded it yet on my app. She can pull up when holding our hands, but she doesn’t seem to quite feel confident enough to pull up on objects yet. When we try to set her down though, she really just wants to stand! We have to kinda force her into a sitting position.

Big events: Nothing big happened this past month really. She’s had a lot of developmental milestones, but we haven’t had anything big as a family. A few play dates, some shopping trips, nothing too exciting. I’m really just enjoying seeing her learn and grow, and watching her and C together.

Looking forward to: Nothing really big coming up in the next month either. We have some birthday parties to go to, but that’s it. I’m just really, really looking forward to our beach trip in May.

Here are a few pics for you to enjoy.

Playing with Cadence

They love each other so much!

She loves to stand up now!

❤

5 months old!

Name: Delaney Jordon

Age: 5 months old

Stats:

• Weight: 14lb 8oz (34th%) (this is a rough estimate from weighing myself and then weighing her with me!)
• Length: 24.25″ (15th%)
• Head: 16.25″ (47th%)

Pediatrician highlights: No appointments since her 4 month checkup. Overall she’s been doing pretty well. Her reflux continues to be an issue. Some days she spits up a LOT, some days hardly at all. I’m not really sure what makes the difference or not. I have reintroduced dairy into my diet, and it hasn’t seemed to make a difference with her one way or another. We’ve been doing rice cereal daily like they told us to in order to try to improve her reflux, and for a while after she eats it she definitely doesn’t spit up. I had been giving it to her at bedtime, and just last week started giving some in the morning as well. But when I did, she started having dark green, really stinky poops. I did some research, and it’s from the Iron in the cereal. I didn’t give it to her last night, and today her poop was back to normal. So I guess her little belly can only handle so much in a day. It’s all a balancing act that we’re still trying to figure out. But really, aside from these things, everything has been going great!

Nicknames: We still call her “baby girl” a lot. Cadence calls her Laney (Waney) sometimes, but mostly she just calls her “baby sister”. I’m trying to start using her actual name more so she can learn it, and trying to encourage C to use her name as well. I have called her “Laneybug” a few times, maybe that one will stick.

Clothing/Diaper sizes: We’ve completely moved into 6 month clothes, and some of the outfits are a little snug on her already! She’s definitely got more chub on her than C ever did, so that makes a big difference! She’s in size 2 diapers.

Food: Still nursing every 2-3 hours, roughly. Sometimes it’s more often, but not usually. That said, today she’s seemed hungrier than normal, so maybe we’re hitting another growth spurt. I’ve been giving her rice cereal twice a day, as mentioned above, but I may back that off a bit until her belly can digest and process it a bit better. She loves it though, and as soon as she sees it she will grab for the bowl or spoon. I’m interested to see how she does when we really start food with her! When we’re eating around her she gets excited too, and seems to really want to try whatever we have. I’ll start with purees with her like I did with C at 6 months, but we may just move on to BLW fairly quickly.

Sleep: I was so excited when I wrote this post last month, because she had finally started sleeping through the night. Well, the DAY she turned 4 months, she started the horrible 4 month sleep regression. Cadence never had a sleep regression, so I had no idea what to do. We had some pretty horrible nights. She was generally up every 2-3 hours, and refused to go back to sleep without being nursed. There were a few nights that she was up every hour, or more. I was exhausted, physically and mentally. She napped okay, and at the beginning was still taking 4 hour naps while C was sleeping. But then for a little while even naps weren’t regular. I just started looking into sleep training and sleep consultants a couple weeks ago, because I felt like I was slowly losing my sanity, and I felt like I was at my breaking point. B was getting up and helping with her in the middle of the night too, but I still always woke up whenever I heard her. Then, miraculously, Friday night she slept 6.5 hours. Then Saturday night she slept 8.5 hours. So we’ve definitely turned a corner, and I’m beyond thankful! I’m working on getting her naps back on track, and trying to make sure she gets 3-4 hours of sleep during the day, which has definitely helped with her night sleep. The last 2 nights she slept for 5 hours, I nursed her when she woke up, then she slept for another 5-ish hours. I can deal with that! I just hope this stays in place, or improves even more, from here on out!

Teeth: There’s nothing coming through yet, but she’s definitely teething. She chews on everything and drools, and some days she will even get the bright pink cheeks. She doesn’t let me look at her gums well the way C used to let me, but from what I can tell there’s nothing too close to the surface yet.

Likes:

• She still loves snuggling, and even just sitting on someone’s lap.
• She loves being talked to, and will smile or laugh or talk back to you.
• Talking, squealing, and shrieking.
• She still adores Cadence. She’s obsessed with watching her and touching her. If C is on the floor near her, she’ll reach for her and hold on to her. She gives her big belly laughs that she won’t yet do for anyone else.
• She still loves nursing.
• She loves bath time now! I’m still (for some reason) giving her baths in the sink, but she really doesn’t fit anymore! I just find it easier than leaning over the bathtub to give her one.
• Playing with and chewing on toys. She even throws them sometimes now.
• Watching her mobile.
• She enjoys taking her Zantac, and Tylenol the few times I’ve given it to her.
• Sitting up, and standing in her exersaucer. She actually gets pretty mad now when she’s laying down. Now that she knows how to be upright, that’s all she wants to do!

Dislikes:

• Being alone. She now gets upset when she sees you walking away from her as well. Cue the separation anxiety phase!
• Her car seat, though she’s finally getting better about it!
• Having a dirty diaper.
• Being hungry! This kid gets HANGRY like you wouldn’t believe!!
• When her cereal bowl becomes empty.

Milestones: (taken from my baby tracker app)(6 month milestones)

• Recognizes familiar faces vs strangers
• Likes to play with others
• Enjoys looking in the mirror
• Shows affection (new)
• Responds to sounds by making sounds (new)
• Responds to her name (new)
• Can string vowel sounds together
• Using sounds to show different moods
• Can make consonant sounds
• Looking at things nearby
• Explores thing by putting them in her mouth
• Curious about new objects and reaches for them (new)
• Passes objects from one hand to the other (new)
• Can sit up without support (new)
• Can roll over in both directions (new, she just learned to roll from back to belly on her own tonight!)
• Can support weight on legs when standing (new)
• Doesn’t seem stiff or floppy (new)

Big events: Christmas! Of course she had no idea what was going on, but the rest of us had fun lol. My mom was here for 10 days, so she got to spend lots of time with her. She got some fun new toys, which was kind of important to me, because I don’t want her to have ALL hand-me-downs from her sister. Just because she’s the second girl, doesn’t mean she can’t have some things of her own. I know that doesn’t mean a lot to her now, but I know when she’s a little bigger it will, and I want to be able to tell her that I’ve always made sure she’s had her own things as well.

Looking forward to: Nothing really big coming up. We did just book our first beach trip with her for May, so I’m really looking forward to that!!

Her first Christmas outfit 🙂

Sitting up like a big girl!

And just like that, it’s over.

Now that B and I have our 2 daughters, we knew that our family was complete. When our second embryo transfer was successful, and I became pregnant with D, we still had 1 embryo left on ice. We opted to go ahead and pay the cryopreservation fee in January of 2018, even though I was pregnant with our second child, and we had agreed that we only wanted two. In the back of our minds, we were too nervous to do anything with it until the baby was born and everything was okay. Why risk the chance, right? We went through a lot to have that little life on hold, it would be horrible to choose to not have it there and then God forbid something happen to the baby that was already growing inside me. We just couldn’t even think of all the things that could go wrong, and how much regret we would have if we were left with nothing…so we held on.

Once baby D was born in August, we decided that we wouldn’t hold on to that little embie anymore. We decided that we wanted to donate to science. We considered donating to a couple that couldn’t create a viable embryo on their own…but the thought of having another child out there, that was 100% ours, happy and healthy, and not living with us, just really bothered us both. We didn’t want to just discard it, because again, we worked so hard for it. We wanted all that work to be able to do some sort of good in the world, even if it was just in the form of research.

With the craziness of adjusting to life with 2, then the craziness of the holidays, we sort of pushed it to the back of our minds. Then when I got an email at the end of December reminding me that the fees would automatically charge to our credit card in a few weeks, we knew we had to get on it.

I spent some time looking through the website to verify that we had only 4 options: pay the fee and keep the embryo on hold, donate to a couple, donate to science, or dispose of it. I looked through all of the donate to science options, and my heart sank when not a single research center is currently taking embryos!! I went through the list a few times…it was late at night and I was super tired, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t missing something. I then sent the links to B to have him double check. But nope. Nobody was currently accepting donations.

Ugh.

Then we were faced with another hard decision: put up the money ($600!) to keep that little one on ice until, hopefully, one of the studies would open up and begin taking donations again…or discard. We talked about it a lot. We’re pretty strapped for money lately, with me not working and with 2 kids, and we just couldn’t financially wrap our minds around paying that kind of money just to hold on to something we KNEW we wouldn’t use, just in HOPES that some time in the next year a study would open up that we could donate to. So it was with heavy hearts that we went through the forms to thaw and discard our final embryo.

B didn’t talk much about it, but I just don’t think men are affected in the same ways that we are about these things. But it truly broke my heart to fill out those forms, and to know that it was all going to be over.

Infertility consumed my life for years. All the appointments, tests, medications, stress, fear, frustration…it was all officially coming to an end.

We had to take the forms to my RE’s office and have one of the nurses sign as a witness. The day we went, my nurse was out, but we did get to see one of the other nurses that helped me often. She got to meet the girls, so she was happy about that. They did double check all the possible donation centers while we were there, but of course nothing had changed overnight. So we signed away our last embryo, and were on our way.

For some reason I thought it would take a while for it to actually happen. But the next day I got an email confirming it.

“Your request to thaw and discard your embryos has been completed. 

Your account has been closed and no further cryopreservation fees will be assessed. Thank you for using ‘company name’. “

I cried a little bit when I read it. I forwarded it to B just to let him know, and wrote a note on it saying that it was bittersweet, and I was sad. He tried to be practical about it, and said that we have 2 beautiful daughters, and we ultimately didn’t really have a lot of choice about it. I know he’s right….but I can’t truly put into words the sad finality it made me feel inside.

I never started this blog to be an infertility blog, but that’s what it kinda turned into. I always intended to keep it up after the girls were born. I did ok when it was just C, but I’ve had absolutely no time at all now that D is here. I have lists of things that I want to get done, that go for weeks before even being able to cross one or two things off! I write blogs constantly in my head, I just absolutely don’t have the time to get them down on the computer. I honestly don’t even use my computer hardly at all anymore…this is the first time in almost a month I’ve even turned it on!! I’d really love to get better about it, but in reality I’m not sure when I’ll be able to. And most of the “friends” I made along the way here don’t blog or read anymore, either. It just makes me feel sad and lonely sometimes.

Anyway…I’ll definitely keep doing D’s monthly updates until she’s 1, and probably 6 month updates for both girls thereafter. I’m hoping once life settles down some (i.e. Delaney learns to sleep!) I’ll find more time to write. But until then…this part of my life, is officially done.