A million and one

LUpdates that is. So let's begin, shall we?

Mila:

Had her two month check up a couple weeks ago. She was more like 10.5 weeks old when we had it. 

Weight: 9lbs 3oz

Height: 22 inches

She is the size of a real newborn now. :) 

Mila is smiling more and more and starting to coo and 'talk' to you. She is tolerating tummy time a little better but still isn't a huge fan of it. If I lay her flat on her belly she will just scream. She prefers to be on her tummy on the boppy in my lap, up over my shoulder so she can look around, or somehow propped up slightly on her belly. She does better if someone gets at eye level with her and talks to her. But she still will only last about 3-5 mins, which the doc said was normal. And yeah, I asked. And yes, this is my fourth child. She also has a homangeoma on her head. Doc said its nothing to worry about and should go away by age 5. 

So let's talk about the fourth child, shall we? Let me tell you, you're just as neurotic with the fourth as you are with the first. Why? Probably because I feel like I am so busy that I am scared I will miss something, or not pick up on it fast enough. I'm sure the doc thought I was a complete whack job at Mila's appt when I'm asking her all these 'is this normal' questions. 

But anyways, back to the cute baby. She still sleeps amazing! She was averaging twice per night feedings (1am & 4am) but has recently moved to about once per night. Some nights it's still twice, but mostly just once. 

She is wearing all 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. Confession: I invested in a nice newborn stash of cloth diapers and we barely used them. So I sold most of them. Fourth child syndrome. I still have our one size diapers and prefolds/covers, but extra laundry at this point just isn't in the cards right now. Oh well. 

Bennett:

Bennett turned 5 at beginning of November! Five people! Now if only he acted 5 and not two. Oh Bennett, you will forever be a challenge, but you are so full of life and say the funniest things sometimes. Usually right after he tells you he is going to kick you in the knee. You know, totally heartwarming.  Somehow it works on the girls at the playground. Every.single.time. I tell ya, those playground girls will fall for anything these days.  Can't wait for him to start kindergarten next year. 

As for the rest of us:

I'll be starting back to work at the beginning of the year about 2-3 days per week. I think I may work one day per week starting inDecember just to transition. I'd love to stay home full time, but kids are expensive. Especially once they are in school and I swear every week I'm shelling out money for various things: sports, market day, classroom parties, donations, etc etc. Let's not talk about the mouth apparatus Peytonn just got to help him avoid braces later. Yeah......$$$$$$

I've also been having some back problems which has required seeing a chiropractor 2-3 times a week. Then he recommended Pilates to help with my back. $$$$ 

So, back to work it is. 

We've also decided that four is enough. I have zero, I mean zero desire to be pregnant again. Or go through horrendous back labor again. Or another $50,000 NICU stay. Yeah,we're done in the baby making department. For reals. I feel very content with my two boys and my two girls.  So, there ya go, the answer the million dollar question. That I swear every person asks me. Even strangers. At the store, while I'm trying to corral the circus animals. And you want to chit chat about our baby making. Yeeeeaahhh.

Anyways, we also had Mila baptized this month. I tried to get the priest to dunk Bennett in the holy water again, but he wouldn't go for it. Too bad. 

Avonlea:

Well, she's two. Need I say more? She's a handful right now. Outings are torturous for all involved. But she's sweet and cute when she wants to be. 

She's talking more and more each day. I'd like to say that the biting has gotten less frequent, but when you have two older brothers that push your buttons, sometimes that's your only means of defense. But she still gets in trouble for it. 

Her hair is getting so long and I still don't have the heart to cut it. 

So that's about it. Exciting huh? We will be hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas here again this year. That should be exciting! 

Family pics and such

We had family pics taken back in September and I finally got around to ordering them a couple of weeks ago. I also went ahead and ordered birth announcements and Christmas cards while I was at it. They all came in the mail last week and they turned out great. 

We chose this as our family photo for above the fire place:

We got some with the kids as well:

This one is my favorite of the older three kids. It really showcases their personalities!

We seriously did family pics in 45 mins from start to finish. It was perfect! 

I've already started handing out the Christmas cards. Is that bad?! :)

Eight week update

Little miss is right weeks old today. She is really started to fill out and change and I'm loving it!

Mila is starting to get a double chin and has some rolls in her diaper area. She gave us her first smile at 6 weeks old and is starting to coo. She can track an object with her eyes and head, turn towards a sound, and make eye contact. 

She's right about 10 lbs now and was 20 inches last week when I measured her. She is outgrowing most of her newborn clothes and starting to fit into the 0-3 month clothes. 

She is a great nurser now and is eating every 2-4 hours during the day. Nighttime has still been great. Mila wakes only 1-2 times per night on average. She usually gives me a good stretch the first part of the night, and then wakes again about 3-4 hours after that feeding. Her typical wake times are 1-2am and 4/5am.  She hasn't had many bottles lately, but she did eat 4oz of pumped milk for daddy on Wednesday night while I was at Zumba. She still cluster feeds during the evenings and has been quite fussy from about 7-738/8pm when she finally passed out for the night. 

Overall, Mila is the chillest baby I've ever had! She is very easy going most of the time and just goes with the flow of things.  She can sit awake with us for an hour and not fuss once. She has really been a great addition to the family!

Just hanging out, watching football with daddy. 

Have you seen enough pictures yet? :)

Random things

1. What do sun drops (m&m's) and a two year old have in common? 

 

Potty training 101! We are in day two and making some good progress. Of course there have been accidents, but it's part of the process. She is in undies full time except naps and nighttime. 

2. I love all things Fall. And with Fall comes lots of good recipes. One of our favorites is creamy oatmeal. Super easy to make and a quick breakfast. I use 1 cup of GF oats (not quick cooking, you want old fashioned) and add at least 1 cup of milk. I usually add another cup of water. Or you can use two cups of milk. Whole is best, but 2% would work just fine too. I even used chocolate milk this morning and it worked great! Our favorite add in is creamy natural peanut butter. But you can add anything you like: bananas, raisins, brown sugar, pumpkin, etc. The kids love it and oats help your milk supply too if you are nursing. 

3. Another Fall recipe I've made is pumpkin donuts. They are baked and I made them GF using Pamela's amazing bread mix. It's basically an all purpose baking flour mix that is GF. They turned out great!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/09/07/pumpkin-doughnuts-baked-to-perfection/

4. Mila is slowly getting bigger. It's so hard to tell when you see them everyday. But I can tell a difference in her clothing and such. I am really loving the Green Line diaper cover that we have. It's a one size cover but it is totally adjustable and I can actually get it to fit both her waist and her skinny legs. 

 

We are still using disposable at night and while out. This is simply because she is soaking her diapers in about 1.5 hours. Add in skinny legs. She needs the absorbency of bigger diapers but even newborn cloth diapers are still too big around her legs. This is what happens with preemies. Regular newborns would outgrow the newborn diapers about the time they would outgrow the absorbency of them as well. Not with preemies. She pees the same amount as a regular one month old would, but is still the size of a small newborn. So, cloth at home it is for a while. 

4. I'd like to never return to work, but still receive a paycheck. Now, how do I make that happen?! 😎

Four weeks old

Mila is four weeks old now and I am enjoying more and more each day of not being pregnant anymore. 

Her unofficial stats for one month are:

Height: 19 1/4 inches

Weight: 6lbs 

I weighed her on our home scale, so give or take a few ounces. 

She is still sleeping well at night, averaging two feeds per night. This is a vast improvement from the older three when they were this age. She is almost like clockwork for her nightly feeds: 12 or 1am and 4am. Works for me kiddo! 

This is a newborn sized outfit and it fits her quite nicely. Not overly huge on her, but still plenty of room to grow. Now if only all newborn clothes fit her like this. 

She continues to nurse well and is having lots if very wet diapers every 2-3 hours. Which helps me feel more relaxed that she is eating enough. Still nursing every 2-3 hours during the day and cluster feeding during the evening. 

We had her newborn pictures and family pictures done a few weeks ago. They turned out really well and the photographer was amazing!! We had family pics done in 45 minutes! Which was a lifesaver with four kids who have attention spans of about 3 mins each. 

Mila continues to be a laid back baby and just kind of goes with the flow of our family. I hope she stays this easy! The kids are really enjoying having her as a baby sister!

Favorites and 3 weeks old

We'll start with the baby because I'm sure that's what everyone really cares about. :) I can't believe she is three weeks already. Where does the time go?! 

We are still learning about each other but I think we are getting the hang of things. She is nursing so much better and we aren't using the nipple shield anymore. We've been working on a routine of sorts. It pretty much looks like this:

-nurse every 2-2.5 hours during the daytime

-cluster feed every 1-1.5 hours in the evening

-sleep from 8-9pm until 1-3am. Feed and change and go back to sleep. 

Now this is where it starts to get harry. Either she's up for two hours or she sleeps and wakes up around 4-5am and then by the time I get her fed and back to bed, the other kiddos are up.  So, we are still working on it but at least I am getting a good 4-6 hour stretch of sleep each night. Which helps me feels somewhat more human during the day. 

I've also been fighting some severe allergies. And I can't take anything because it can cause your milk supply to decrease or dry up. It's been miserable but I'm finally starting to feel better and I'm able to breathe again. Thank heavens for the neti pot! 

Since all children were up at 6am this morning, we decided to go to 8am mass. The girls wore their matching dresses and they both fit them really well. 

I might make more because literally, Mila's wardrobe is severely limited. We have newborn stuff, but it's still huge on her. At least a dress she can wear now and as a shirt still as she grows. 

Speaking of shirts, I got a bunch of stuff from Old Navy with the old navy cash that I had. And from that order I have some new favorite items!

One is this boyfriend cardigan. Love, love it! Soft and comfy! I got the gray and white. I loved it so much I ordered the camel colored one as well. 

I also got some tanks called tamis. They are soft and long and great for layering! I ordered the green and white and loved them so much I ordered the blue and the pink. 

Old Navy is having 30% off today with code 'thankyou'. Can't beat that!

Two week appt

Mila had her two week appt today. Her stats were:

Weight: 5lbs 5oz

Height: 18.5 inches

She is nursing much better these days. She's been cluster feeding in the evenings before bed and then usually gives me a longer stretch of sleep. Last night she gave me a 6 hour stretch, but usually it's 4-5 hours. My allergies have really spiked in the past two days and I can't take anything because it can dry up your milk. I've been miserable so that extra sleep really felt good. 

We've been using the sling a lot while out and she loves it. She gets all snuggled and sleeps the entire time. It's great for picking the kids up from schoolbecause then she isn't in the carseat the entire time. I also use this time to get her a little vitamin D from the sun since breastmilk is deficient in that. 

I've been enjoying my time at home. We've been on walks/bike rides and she really enjoyed the stroller. It rides so smooth. 

Her cord finally fell off yesterday. Most of the newborn cloth diapers are still too big around the legs for her. We have one cover that actually fits her and that's the Bummis super bright. 

It's on over an Orange Diaper co newborn flat in the kite fold. 

Her preemie prefolds fit but with only one cover, it's hard to cloth diaper full time. So we are mostly using sposies still. Even the newborn diapers go up past her belly button. 

Overall, things have been decent. Mila has been a great tempered baby so far. I hope she stays this mellow.