Carson at SIX months!

WE love our baby girl!!!



My baby girl is HALF a year old! IT is crazy-the time is flying so fast! I really think the older they get, the faster time goes. Starting on Monday, she will be moving up into a new class at daycare-"The Waddler Room" :) At her 6 month checkup she weighed in at 17 lbs and 5 oz and 26.5 inches long(75th percentile for both) and she did great with the shots again!



What's new for Carson at 6 Months:
-Carson LOVES to sit up all by herself-for extended periods. It is so funny to me how great her posture is.
-She sleeps ALL night long-going to bed around 7, give or take, and sleeps until we wake her around 6:30-6:45am.
-She LOVES all of the foods she has tried-peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, prunes, bananas, avocados-I'm still enoying making her baby food-although I'm not brave enought to try green beans or peas on my own-i hear the skins/strings are tricky!


-Still not a great napper at daycare :( We average about 2-3, 30-35min naps. And then she naps on the way home too.
-Giggles so much more! We LOVE it-it is the cutest sound!

-Still loves bath time and playing at the pool!
-She is wearing 6-9 month clothes-9 month things still seem a little big and 6 bmonth stuff is a little snug-so we are loving dresses right now!
-Carson LOVES being outside! She could sit and stare at trees for so long when the wind is blowing!
-Eats 2 "snacks" of real food every day and 5 bottles 5-6 ounces each.
-Size 2 diapers.
-Still doesn't like rice cereal!




As for things that are going on in our house-we have lots of trips coming up and are going to be super busy for the next few months! We have lots o ffun times planned with friends too-weddings, showers and visits with friends from San Fran-Linds and Trey :) We also have lots of fun beach weekends and can't wait for Carson to play in the ocean!



As always, we love Carson so much and cannot believe how much our lies have been enriched since having her. She brings us so much laughter, joy and excitement! So much fun times are in teh future I am sure!

Shhhhh...

Carson is sleeping.... ALL night long!!! YAY! Carson has always been a good sleeper only waking once a night for a few months now, but for the past 2 weeks she has slept ALL night every night-and it is amazing! And I do love hearing her wake up in the morning with all of her babbling! Her most common sounds are "mamamamamama" and "babababababab" and "dddddddadadadddddd".

Also, we have a sitter! Carson has started sitting all by herself! Of course, when she sees a toy she wants or her toes she goes diving for it/them and topples over. I know I have said it before but, she really is growing too quickly! Jason and I were sitting together one night and holding her and just amazed at how much she has grown. She is so long and starting to look less like a baby. What am I going to do when she turns into a toddler???

As for things we are working on---still working on solids-I am not sure she has much interest-but she does open her mouth for sweet potatoes much easier than rice or oatmeal! :) Soon to try appleasauce and avocados!

Hope everyone had a wonder Fourth of July-we sure enjoyed spending the weekend in Charlotte with friends!

Carson at FIVE Months!

WOW-Carson is almost 6 months old! Time is flying and moving a bit too fast! Carson seems to do something new everyday and she has the best personality! I honestly can't get enough of her!!! I rush to get out of work everyday so I can see her BIG grin when I walk in at daycare-it's the best feeling to see her face light up when she sees me! :)


As for what's new-we started some solids-tried rice cereal a few times and she does NOT like it at all, no matter the texture. So, we also tried some oatmeal and she's not a big fan of that either. This week we are planning are starting sweet potatoes and bananas soon! I am so excited to start making her real food :)



Her sleep schedule is still going great-she usually wakes once a night around 4 AM for a quick feeding and then right back to bed. And, there are some nights off and on where she sleeps the whole way through! We love those nights! As for her napping-at daycare-not so much, but on the weekends she plays catch up and seems to nap much better. When at daycare she takes about 3, 45 minute naps and then she is practically ready to crash for bed around 6. We are trying to tweak this so she can stay up until around 7. Hopefully when she moves up to the next class at 6 mos she will nap better since they have scheduled naptimes!(fingers crossed!)


Things she LOVES at 5 months:
-Still loves her lamb swing!
-Loves all things that crinkle-and especially loves to put them in her mouth!
-Absolutely LOVES bath time and the swimming pool-she no longer like to take baths "laying" down-so she sit up in her bathtub with some support and just splashes water everywhere! It is very fun! ANd she splashes just as much in the pool!
-Carson's face always lights up when Jason is around-definitely gonna be a daddy's girl and I love that! :)
-Tummy time is just about the only way you will find her-she doesn't really enjoy laying on her back anymore unless she is sucking/chewing her feet! (which is really funny to watch)
-She also really likes to try and sit up on her own-until she sees a toy she wants and dives for it-literally! haha
-she is also surprisingly intrigued by the vacuum cleaner-it's the funniest thing to watch.
-and we can't forget her TOES! Much less anything goes straight to her mouth, but always her feet-even in the bathtub-I will certainly have to get a picture of it because it is hilarious.



Things she doesn't love so much:
-Rice cereal and oatmeal :( And to think I was so excited about trying foods with her.
-being held like a baby-I miss that part of her being a baby already!
....yet again I find the things she doesn't like hard! :)

As you will see in the picture below-a bow actually goes in her hair now and STAYS! :)


Carson is such a joy in our lives, she brings so much happiness to our lives each and every day. We love her SO much!!!

Carson at FOUR Months!

Carson is now four months(+ a few days) and she brings more and more joy and love to our lives everyday! She has grown so much in this past month. She has been doing so well at daycare and they continue to tell us that she is a great baby! This definitely makes it easier to drop her off everyday.




We took her for her four month check-up earlier this week and the doctor says she is doing great- and we are so thankful for that. She weighed 15 pounds and 2 ounces(around the 85%) and was 24 and 1/4 inches long(around the 93%)!!! Growing is sure not a problem-we know this because she is quickly outgrowing lots of her clothes. She now wears mostly 6 month clothes!


As for her sleeping, she does GREAT in my book. On MOST nights of the week she will sleep from 7:30ish until around 6:30 or we wake her at 7-and this has really been happening for almost a month. I really don't think we can ask for any better! But she still has the occasional night where she wakes for a feeding too :) And for naps she will usually take a 1-2 hr nap somehwere in her day and then about 2 other 30min-1 hr naps and then her evening power nap of 30 mins too!-great for mom and dad to have time for dinner :) As for eating, she is now down to 5 "meals" a day. And as I said, an added one comes every once in a while in the middle of the night.


What she loves at 4 months...
-still enjoys her lamb swing for an early evening nap, and sometimes a longer daytime nap on the weekends :)
-LOVES her first 2 fingers of her Left hand. She sucks them all the time!
-bathtime! She now giggles at her rubber ducky and really enjoys splashing water with her legs everywhere! We always feel bad not letting her stay in the water longer.
-snuggling with mom and dad after eating :)
-having her picture taken-she is all smiles for the camera.
-going for walks in the Baby Bjorn facing out! She loves to take in all of her surroundings.
-story time before bed :) (on nights that she isn't too sleepy for it!)
-playing with her feet-and trying to eat her socks!
-still really enjoys tummy time, and now that she can roll tummy to back and vice versa(she enjoyed keeping this a secret from us and only doing this at daycare for a week or two!)-we tend to find her on her tummy more and more!!
-Still loves to put anything and everything straight into her mouth-don't anticipate this changing anytime soon!


What she doesn't love...
-her paci, she never really liked the paci much before, but in the past month she has really come to dislike it-when she is fussy or fighting sleep and you try to give her the paci she gets even more upset. Just makes for one less thing to make sure you leave the house with-she always has her fingers!
-this may be TMI, but, she doesn't really love breastfeeding anymore-I think she loves the instant gratification with bottles! But we aren't giving up yet :)
-naps in the crip on the weekend--about 50% of her naps go well there, otherwise we are usually out running errands or in the lamb swing :) We hope once naps are a little more scheduled the crib will be easier.

We cannot wait to take her for another trip to the beach! Hopefully she will have time to enjoy the pool this summer too :) As I have said before, we are absolutely loving being parents and fall more and more in love with Carson everyday! We don't want her to grow up toooo fast, but we know the future holds lots of fun and learning too!

Carson at 3 Months! ---A little, scratch that, LOT late :)

So, as the title says, I am ALOT late on Carson's 3 month update! But, we have had a lot of things going on at the start of this month. One major thing, I am now back to work full time! Needless to say, when I am at home all I want to do is play and cuddle with our sweet little girl! Second, Easter has come and gone and we took a nice long trip to the beach- Carson did great!



At three months Carson....

LOVES-
-playtime on her mat! She scoots around in circles and loves to roll from side to side!
-HER HANDS!!! It is truly hard to find her without her fingers in her mouth---she sometimes gags herself by shoving her fingers so far back!
-She is always full of smiles and daycare brags that she is the happiest baby! : )Daycare also brags to us on how laidback she is!
-She still naps well and is sleeping GREAT! Naps range from 30 mins to 3 hours!!! This is at daycare and in her crib at daycare! But total to be around 4-5 hours per day.
-She also LOVES to roll over from her tummy to her back!
-At night we range from 6-10 hour stretches which seems awesome to me! She now has a bedtime routine of bathtime(most nights), books and then night night! Her bedtime is between 7:30-8:30 depending on her afternoon/evening nap. Most recently- she sleeps from 8-5 pretty consistently and then goes back down until we wake her at 7am. I certainly can't complain!!!
-She still loves her toy -"Mr. Cow" we call it-and smiles all the time at him. There is also a clock hung in our living room and Carson smiles at it EVERYDAY when we get home!!! It is so funny.
-She also LOVES bathtime! She has really started splashing and kicking around!



What she DOESN't LOVE-
-Getting in her carseat if hse is in the middle of playing or kicking around! WE don;t like it either because then for about 10 mins in the car she is NO fun and makes me feel bad :(
-hmmmmm...sounds kinda funny, but I can't really think of much else she doesn't like....

Overall, she continues to be a great baby! We love her more and more everyday!!! We have also recently been getting really cute giggles out of her and I can't wait for them to be more frequent!!



As for the beach trip---we had an amazing time with family- and Carson showed off her new skill at rolling over front to back! She is a pro at this now! We can't wait for many more back trip in the future!!! The weather was great over Easter and we really had fun taking Carson onto the sand and by the ocean. I can envision the future with her crawling around and getting sand ALL over her-it's going to be sooo much fun!

Carson at TWO months!

My baby is getting so big! We had her 2 month doctor's appointment earlier this week and got her first set of shots :( She was such a trooper! She didn't seem phased one bit by the first shot, but by the time the nurse finished the third one-yes third-she was beet red! Poor thing, but she was all smiles after Daddy and I picked her up and cuddled with her :)



Her stats at 2 months: 13 lbs 4 ozs and 23 inches long!!



At TWO months Carson....

-still LOVES her morning nap in the lamb swing-she sleeps for 2 hours in the swing! This is the best time of day for me to get things done around the house!
-continues to eat every 3 hours(give or take) during the day.
-has become a pro at taking a bottle from daddy!
-had her first night with Grandma and Papaw! Mommy and daddy went for a nice dinner out just the two of us and then to a party with friends-it was wonderful and Carson was a perfect baby :)
-smiles all the time for mommy and daddy and loves to follow our voices around the room. She sometimes follows my voice all the way into the kitchen and continues to look around for me- too cute! I love it!
-Starting to somewhat like the paci, otherwise she LOVES to suck on her pointer finger on either hand! I think this is sooo cute-but not during the middle of the night through the monitor. haha
-has become a pro at tracking her toys from side to side and up and down!
-And...we cannot get enough of her "baby talk" I love pretending to have a conversation with her.
-she is most active and playful after her 2 hour morning nap-this is when we play on her mat, read books, and play with toys. She still LOVES the changing table for play time too!



What we are working on...
-still working with nighttime routines-she nurses for the last time anywhere from 8-10 and then goes down in her crib and will USUALLY sleep for about 4 and a half to 6 hours, then she nurses again and then goes right back to sleep for another 4 hour stretch. I can totally handle this schedule! We will see how things adjust once I go back to work next week :(

Update since I began this post---my little girl decided to be a big girl and sleep 10 hours straight last night, needless to say mommy and dadddy checked on her a gazillion times haha! I am sure it was a fluke, but we will see tonight and in the weeks to come!

Getting BIG!

So, as I posted last blog update, Carson is doing great with the whole gaining weight thing- which makes me a happy mommy, BUT she has now officially outgrown all of her newborn clothes!!! And she has moved up to size 1 diapers-after staining lots of outfits I might add! So, my little girl is growing up. I am very interested to see how much she weighs at her 2 month check up!

Carson is almost 6 weeks old! Time is flying by! Some of you may know, I have been worried that she sleeps too much, I know a funny thing to worry about. Most friends that I have that are already moms have responded to my concerns with responses like-"Take advantage of it" "Enjoy it while it lasts" and "You're so lucky she is such a great sleeper". I've been going back and forth about whether to let her sleep when she wants to sleep or to wake her up to eat and play etc. And of course, as I am learning new stuff all the time, and as you know newborns change from day to day-and so of course when I think I have worried enough and I decide to stop worrying- it was like a light switch-she just woke up!!- haha- the past few days she has been so much more alert and playful- smiling more and really enjoying her playmat! She also loves to stare at lights and ceiling fans-Jason says she can't see the fans but I swear she is staring at them! :)



As for schedules, we are still working on a schedule- I am now trying to start her Day around 7 or 7:30 with a feeding and then some playtime and then naptime and repeating this every 3 hours or so. She still naps well-best naps are also still in the morning. The afternoon and evening naps are much shorter.

And still, our biggest battle is the bottle! I am hoping the more I call it a battle, the better she will get with it! So far I think it's working. Ever since I started saying we were struggling with it, she seems to be doing better! So far, 3 nights in a row! We did also switch from Avent bottles to Playtex drop-ins. I am now contemplating switching back to Avent soon since we have so many of those and we only have one Playtex?!? Oh the joys of motherhood!

And incase I haven't mentioned this before- I must say that my husband, Jason, is the best daddy ever! He truly has stepped up to the plate and Carson has him wrapped around her little finger already :) And I LOVE it! I can just imagine what it is going to be like as she gets older! There is something truly special about a daddy and his little girl!!!