I'm Thankful For - Day 7

I'm thankful for my church! After a great evening with Dan Seaborn speaking last night at the Marriage Rendezvous and the great service this morning I'm counting my blessings to be apart of such a great faith community. Last night we were reminded that we are married For Life! I hope you'll join us in this commitment.

The Nursery

I realized I never posted photos of the nursery. Maybe because she was sleeping in our room the first 4 months or... who knows. Anyway, here it is:

 We bought the mobile and clock at IKEA. I took the clock apart and decorated it since it was just black and white. I was originally thinking of doing a Dr. Seuss theme and the fish mobile would have added a great "One Fish, Two Fish" piece to it. The changing table and pad were a $10 garage sale find this past spring. The one basket has disposable diapers for night time and going away and the other basket has her cloth diapers. I'll have to update more on that sometime.

 Derek's chair from college: when we moved to this house it was determined that it would stay in the garage... somehow it "matched" and found it's way up here. :)

 I found this bedding set at a Mom 2 Mom sale this past spring and loved it with all its colors! The crib was a gift from Abigail's Grandma and Grandpa. I made the letters of her name based on an idea from here.

The animals on the wall were painted to match the animals in the bedding set with acrylic paint. I did that last winter. The walls were originally this light blue. The glider is from Babies R Us.

She likes it!

I'm Thankful For - Day 6

 Crafts! Creativity!

I'm Thankful For - Day 5

I'm thankful for my husband, Derek! He is my best friend. We have so much fun together. He's there for me in the hard times and the good times. He makes me laugh and cry and scream and smile. Just a text on my phone or a sticky note stuck in a random place when I get up can make my day.  Love you so much, Babe!

Five Months Old

At Five Months Old Abigail...

...sleeps for 6-7 hours at night.  She has her bath at 8:00, then nurses, and is usually asleep by 8:45/9:00. She typically takes an hour nap in the late morning and then 1-2 hours in the afternoon. She moved up to her crib this past month; she's gotten too long for her bassinet by our bed and the transition went great. We had a hard time this week getting her to settle down to get to bed. Nothing would get her to relax; she just wanted to play and be held and jump and kick. One night she finally fell asleep on Daddy's chest at 11:30 when we wanted to go to bed. The next night I decided to just put her in her carseat and we drove a lap around the neighborhood. She was sleeping by the first turn (our neighbor Carol must have thought we were crazy because she saw me pull out of the garage and turn the "wrong way" and then park back in our garage after that one lap. Ha ha!)! The following night she was out by 9:30 and last night she slept from 8:45 to 7:00 (10+ hours!) and I had to wake her at 8:15 so I could get to work! She took a 3 hour nap at daycare today and has been sleeping now for 2 hours. Crazy girl, my unofficial opinion is that she is teething because she had a few fussy nights with those last two teeth and then seemed to sleep all the time when they finally broke through. It's like all the work of getting teeth just tuckers her out!
...eats Mama's Milk. She'll eat 4-6 times a day and has two teeth. Other people like to suggest that she needs solid foods but her pediatrician said we'll KNOW when she is ready and she doesn't seem overly hungry after I feed her. She is starting to take interest in our food and watch us eat. She is also learning to sit and can turn her head if she wants to (to refuse things). I've even given her breast milk on a spoon and her tongue does an "ok" job at not pushing it all out. So we'll just wait until she shows she's still hungry after a feeding to start cereal. God has beautifully designed her body to do what it needs to when it needs to.

...plays with everything she can reach! It feels like this was a big month for milestones so here's a look at what she can do now: ALL items go in her mouth. Her exersaucer and Bumbo are popular things because it keeps her upright. She doesn't like to just lay down anymore. If she's in her carseat she wants to play with a toy and she can move it around to put a different part in her mouth or pass it between her hands and even throw it down. She is such a happy girl. She smiles and laughs all the time. She looks from one person to another when talking and reaches for everything. She wiggles all the time and it gets hard to change her diaper or clothes. She scoots on her back with her feet until her head is stuck up against an object or wall and will roll back and forth to get something (can roll both ways now). She reaches for people too. She will put her arms out when she wants to be held or picked up. Abigail jumps and jumps when on your lap or in her exersaucer or Johnny Jump-Up. She kisses Daddy and I with open mouth kisses/licks on our lips. She is starting to learn how to sit up. She can do it for a couple minutes if we spread her legs out enough and keep a toy centered on her lap. After a few minutes she will fall to the side and then she shifts to her belly. She would rather be upright though. No more playing under her activity gym... She'd rather sit up next to it and play with it that way. Her favorite toy is Sophie the giraffe.

...wears [some 3-6 and] 6-9 months clothes, size 1 shoes, and size 3 diapers. We still wear cloth diapers during the daytime when we're at home. I would love to try EC with her since I'm home with her most of the time. I've been trying to do the prompts with her at least. It's not a big deal if she doesn't get it but it's a fun challenge for me to be observant enough with her. I guess I'm kind of a hippy at heart.
...weighs 16 pounds, 15 ounces. (No wonder that car seat feels heavy!).

Here is her four month post.

I'm Thankful For - Day 4

It might sound silly, but I'm thankful for warm soft fuzzy things! Ha ha. God is such a wonderful creator... I mean even just "texture" is so amazing. Everything has it's own feel to it and it's a sense that you take for granted until you go numb and can't feel warm or soft or cold or smooth. On these cold mornings, I love warm soft cuddly things! 

I'm not the only one either. This girl loves her Bundle Me bunting. She falls asleep as soon as we pull out of the driveway!

I'm Thankful For - Day 3

I'm thankful for Sunshine! I know why dogs always lay on the floor in the sun. My dog used to nap and move as the sunshine moved along the floor. I will seriously miss it when  January hits. It is just so warm and cozy and on a crisp day it feels even better.