Pack n Play

Bria slept in her Pack n Play for the first time and did pretty well. Brian was volunteering (UPS does this neighbor to neighbor thing and they helped make an elderly couples house more handicap accessible) on Saturday up in P-town so we decided to drive up Friday night and stay with Heather. I was nervous and anxious because she had been sleeping so well at night and we were getting a good little routine down that I hated to mess with it. But it would be a good little test to see how she does so up to P-town we went. Heather and Amy luckily like to watch Ghost Whisperer on Friday nights (that is what we do every Friday) so we kept our evening routine the same. They were so sweet and bought us pizza which is also another treat we like to do on Fridays. Bria went to bed about 8:45 pm and woke up 5 hours later so I fed her. Then again at 5:15 am she woke up so I placed her on my chest and slept like that until 7:15 am when we were up for the day. Not bad. I think having us in the same room might have kept her a wake because the bed would squeak when we'd roll over, plus Brian snores :) Having her in the same room actually kept me up more because she is such a noisy little sleeper, makes me grateful she went to her crib so well!

We kept our morning the same which is feed, burp, play, read, bath, nap. She is up for about 2 hours in the morning and then goes down for her nap. I never know how long this nap is going to be, sometimes it's 2 1/2, sometimes it's 45 minutes. If it's 45 minutes I usually rock her back to sleep because I know she's still tired. Sometimes I lay her on my chest while I relax. That may not be a good habit to get into but I don't feel the least bit guilty, want to know why? She is only a little baby for so long and I absolutely love her laying on my chest. So I don't feel bad rocking her to sleep for her naps and bedtime, or letting her sleep on my chest for a nap. I need to soak her all up.

Anyway, she did pretty well up in P-Town and I am so glad. We were able to visit my cousin Lanie too which was so fun. I felt bad though because little Bria was tired and hungry when we got there so Lanie didn't get to enjoy Bria's chunky cheeks and legs, but there will be plenty more time for that.

Brian did homework all day Sunday (he is now grounded for procrastinating) so Bria and I went to Costco, Subway, and Dutch Bros. (sorry Jenny, but there's no Coffee Culture in our town!). We also went for a walk and of course took some naps. It was a nice Sunday, just wish Brian could have enjoyed it with us. Darn homework.

Alright, I'm going to finish getting ready for the day and eat before Bria wakes up from her nap. I leave you with a video of Bria being adorable :)

Healthy baby: check

Bria's 2 month check up went great. Here are her stats:

Weight: 11 lbs 4 oz, 50th percentile

Height: 22.5 inches, 50th percentile

Head: 15.25 inches, 50th percentile

So she is pretty much right smack dab in the middle :) The doctor said she looks great and is doing well.

Then it was time for the dreaded shots, dun dun DUN. I really wish they could find a painless way to immunize our babies. Brian and I almost cried right along with her when they gave her the shots, luckily the nurse was fast and did the 3 shots in about 5 seconds. But oh my, we've never heard Bria cry the way she did when she got those shots, it was horrible. I really have to keep telling myself that she won't remember it and it's better to prevent horrible diseases that could land her in the hospital with lots of painful treatment. Shots suck though, plain and simple.

Here are her Tweety Bird bandaids (and the cutest legs in the world):

I love the rolls on her thighs, yummy!

Alright, I debated sharing this video because I know my daughter will kill me when she is 16 and I show this to her boyfriend, but it's too funny not to. About 20 seconds in Bria fills up her diaper pretty good and you can hear it (and see it on her face), it's hilarious. I of course have to laugh, which scares the crap out of her. I should've kept filming but I cut it off right as you see her startled face. Too funny. Love this little girl.

2 Months Old

Our neighbors went to California and brought back Thumper (from Bambi) for Bria, wasn't that so thoughtful?

Bria is 2 months old today! Each week is getting more fun and I love having her personality show through. Here are some milestones:

Mimics-Around 6 weeks she started watching us stick out our tongue and she would do it too.
Found her hands-She found her hands around 7 weeks and loves to stick them in her mouth, especially her right hand. She searches for her thumb and has been successful a few times.
Squeals-She squeals with delight at her mobile, play mat, or if you talk to her and I just love it.

It is amazing how my anxiety level has gone down now that I feel I can tell the difference between her cries. I think that was one of the reasons the first few weeks were so hard, I had no idea what she was telling me when she cried so I felt I couldn't soothe her or fix the problem. Now I know the difference between her tired cry and hungry cry and her pick me up cry. She is smiling a lot more which is fun, she does this huge eye-wrinkle smile and it just melts my heart.
One of my favorite moments between Bria and Brian happened yesterday. I had fed and burped her and she spit up all over me, so I handed her to Brian so I could clean up a bit. He sat in her rocking chair with her and started reading to her. She got so calm and relaxed that she fell asleep after 1/2 hour, it was just adorable. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture but he assured me there would be many more times.

My favorite thing is after she is fed and burped, you can lay her on a blanket and just talk to her. She'll smile and smile and try to talk back which is such a treat. I haven't captured a perfect video of this but the following will do for now:



My work thing went awesome, better than I could have imagined. My boss said she wasn't surprised and she was wondering if I wouldn't decide to stay home. She was so sweet and said she was so happy for me that I could stay home. She said she was really sad but completely understood, as do my co-workers. She even helped me work out my official quit day so I could keep the insurance as long as possible. I am really going to miss her and some of my co-workers, they made it a fun place to work. But I am so excited to be staying home with Bria.

The weather is beautiful today and is suppose to reach 80! We've already gone for a walk and shot some hoops, and I think I'm going to lay out back for a bit while Bria is taking a nap. I love the sun.

Big stuff

Well, tomorrow it will be official, I will be a stay at home mom. Brian and I are taking Bria in to my work and then I'm going to tell my boss that I won't be coming back. I'm nervous of course, how do I start that conversation? What do I say? Let's hope I figure it out before tomorrow. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

But officially I am really excited! I feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with Bria, it would be excruciating to turn her over to someone else each day.

Easter weekend was very eventful for little Bria, just lots going on. She did pretty well, except on Saturday night she did not want to go to sleep, she wanted to stay up and party. Needless to say I was pretty exhausted on Sunday.

Saturday was my niece, Jaidyn's, baptism which was so much fun. Afterwards we had a big family dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Sunday we went to church with Brian's mom and sister, Heather. I think it's safe to say that Bria was a hit and Marna enjoyed showing off her granddaughter. Bria did so well through church and just slept (probably because she stayed up so late) while Grandma held her.

I must admit I had a lot of fun dressing Bria in her cute dress, pink bow, and little bracelet. Her dress was pink and brown polka dots, I used our pink and brown diaper bag, pink and brown burp cloths, pink and brown blankets, her pink and brown elephant toy, do you think I have a slight problem? I couldn't help it, we have so much cute pink and brown stuff with polka dots that I had a blast coordinating everything. Even Brian and I were wearing brown.

Bria has an appointment next Wednesday and I can't wait to see how much she weighs and how tall she is, last time she went in she was 2 weeks old and was in the 50th percentile for everything so we'll see how much she has grown.

And now for loads of pictures:

"It's exhausting being so cute."

Jaidyn in her baptism dress:

My mom holding her. Isn't her bow and bracelet adorable?

Uncle Lance didn't want to hold her for fear he would break her, but we forced him too. The funny thing is she spit up on his tie, lol.

Bria holding her Easter egg

Attempting a family picture:

Mommy being sympathetic

Proud Aunt Heather helping Grandma show her off:

"It's tough being so adored."

Chillin' in her Bumbo, "

This was cracking me up, I took about 10 pictures of her and in all of them her eyes were like this:

Apparently the flash was tripping her out. Can you believe how light her hair is getting?

Jaime gave us these adorable bunny ears so I will take some photos of Bria in those. A little late but better than never. Plus she can wear them next year.

I leave you with a video. I'm sure most of you won't think it's very exciting, but I could watch her talk and play all day. Plus, I'm just excited that I finally figured out how to do video on my camera. Our video camera isn't digital so I have to do it with our picture taking camera. Anyway, she keep us entertained :)

Jinx

I knew it, I knew as soon as I blogged about our awesome routine and her awesome sleep schedule that it was all going out the window and sure enough it did. Ugh. So I don't think I'll be blogging about that anymore, it's just not worth it.
She went back to waking up every 3 hours (which I realize is still good) at night and her naps are all random. I wish I could just go with the flow and be all flexible, but I CRAVE schedules and routines so I am having a hard time adjusting to it. But I am trying.
The good news is we have gone for a walk every day this week except for yesterday (it was raining) which makes me very happy. It feels wonderful to get out.
One of the cool things that Bria has done this last week is mimic me. I was doubting myself when she first started doing it, but I know for sure she is copying me. I will click my tongue or stick it out and she loves that, she will get this great big smile on her face and it is so precious. Then she'll start playing with her tongue and watching me intently. It is one of the funnest games ever, I just love seeing her smile and learn.

This Easter will be her first Easter, how exciting. Brian and I got her a little pink bucket with flowers on it, 6 pairs of socks, and a little Rabbit book. She only has a couple books so I am looking to build that collection. Anyway, obviously she has no concept of Holidays or gifts, but it's fun for Brian and I.

Brian is really busy this term with his 2 classes and it sucks. He comes home from work and does homework until he goes to bed. I'm so proud of him, but I cannot wait until he's done. This school stuff is exhausting for both of us! That reminds me, did I mention what a blessing his new shift is? It is a huge blessing and answer to our prayers and we are both so grateful. It allows him to be home more which is wonderful. We are just so thankful.

Hanging out with mommy in her adorable outfit with matching butterfly shoes and headband:

I love the little sandals!

This picture is blurry but I caught another smile, I wish I could catch her really big ones!

"It wasn't me, I swear."

She loves looking up at the mobile in her swing

Bria is 7 weeks old today! She'll be 2 months on the 20th, wahoo! I know soon it will start flying by, but right now it feels like it's been about 5 months. I can't remember not doing this, lol. Her hair is definitely getting lighter, especially on top. Both Brian and I had blond hair as babies so she might as well, we'll see. Her eyes are still blue and I think they'll stay blue. We still think she looks a lot like me, but that can all change as she starts growing up. We love her to the moon and back that is for sure.

Very Thankful

Things are going well here at the Holcomb house, and hopefully I'm not jinxing us by blogging about it.

Two big things for us:
1. For the last 5 nights Bria has gone to bed around 9 pm, woken up at 2:30 am and 6:30 am for a feeding, and then wakes up for the day around 9 am. It is great and I feel like a new woman.
2. The last 2 nights she has slept in her crib! We've been putting her in there for naps and thought it was time to move her in there at night as well, so we tried it Saturday night and it went great. I was so scared that her sleep schedule would change but so far so good. I pray she continues to do well, I am so grateful.
The first night she was in there I was a little sad since I couldn't just peak in the bassinet to check on her, but it went so well and again, I am very thankful for that.

I've heard 6 weeks is the magic age where things start to get a little easier and that is definitely true for us. I think part of it is that I have gotten to know Bria so well and I have an easier time knowing what she wants when she cries. But the other part are the smiles, man I love seeing her smile and hearing her talk, I can't wait for her to talk more.
I love our routine that we have going and I hope it continues. I feed her when she wakes up around 9 am and then we play for a little bit, sometimes she goes back to sleep for awhile, other times she is up for good. After that I bath her which is so fun (today she was giving me lots of big smiles during her bath and I was in heaven), then we go up to her room to get her dressed for the day. At first she doesn't mind this but once we start putting her onesie on she gets a little grumpy. Once that is all done we play some more and then she'll eat and go down for her afternoon nap. Her afternoon nap is pretty long, some days she'll go 3 or 4 hours, others she'll go for 2 hours.
In the evening she'll take 2 or 3 little cat naps (around an hour long) and then go down for the night around 9 pm. I might try putting her down a little earlier, but right now it's going so well that I hate to mess with it.

I have to say one of the cutest faces that Bria makes is her pouty lip face. Usually just a small cry follows this little face which makes it even cuter:
Whenever she makes this pouty face I tell her what my Grandma Armstrong always told us: "A little bridie is going to come poop on that lip!" I think she worded it better than I did, she has a way with words.

Also, here is the Moby wrap in all it's glory:

I love this thing!

Lots of people have said that Bria looks long and I am anxious to go to her next appointment (April 22nd) and see how long she is. At her last appointment (when she was 2 weeks old) she was in the 50 percentile for height, weight, and head size.
She has outgrown her newborn clothes and is now in 0-3 months. I am so grateful that we got hand me downs because those newborn clothes didn't seem to last long, she is just growing so fast!

This last weekend was pretty eventful. Heather came down to watch her little niece while Brian and I went ran some errands. It was so nice to spend time with just my hubby, and I think it's safe to say that Heather was in heaven watching Bria-so it was a win-win situation.
After that we went out to dinner with Heather and Brian's mom, Bria's first restaurant. It was at McGrath's and Bria did pretty well. She slept for the first part and then woke up a little so we took turns holding her until it was time to go.

Sunday we had an impromptu BBQ at our house since it was so gorgeous outside. Both sets of my parents came along with Jaime and Schuyler. It was nice having so many arms to hold Bria, I didn't see her for most the BBQ ;)

So it's safe to say our weekend was a success and we're sad it's over. But the good news is that it's still beautiful outside and as soon as Bria wakes up we are going for a walk.