3 Months and life is good!

Harper is 3 months old now and she is getting huge!  I'm sure everyone else thinks she is tiny, but she is growing everyday. 

Her 3 month picture with her favorite owl

Sitting up on her own

Falling...

And we're down.  It will take more practice.

Harper is finally out of her newborn stage.  We are sleeping through the night (yay!!!) and drinking 6 ounces 4 times a day (she might end up a fattie soon!).  She sucks her bottle down in like 3 minutes flat.  And then belches real big.  Such a cutie!  

Doing tummy time

She just recently mastered the art of rolling from back to front.  For awhile she could get halfway there and then her arm would get stuck.  She's a pro now though.  She also got big enough to sit in her highchair.  This definitely helps Cody and I to eat dinner at the same time again.  Funny how it's the little things that you miss, huh?

What a big girl

She is also learning a lot in terms of her hands and feet.  She loves to grab her toys hanging from her play mat.  And she has discovered that when she kicks, it plays a song, and when she hits her hand down, there is a rattling sound.  She is so smart!  And she is in love with the mobile in her crib.  She will stare at it and not move a muscle.  

We have finally started putting her to sleep without the swaddle.  For a few days in a row, she would wake up in weird places and positions with the swaddle busted open and around her neck.  So enough with the swaddle, she's a big girl now.  

This is definitely not how we put her to bed the night before.

Sleeping on her own for the first night.  And she gets to do it in cute, feety pajamas!

She still loves bathtime every night.  Her toys are an octopus and a rubber ducky.  When I hold them up in front of her, she starts kicking and splashing and smiling real big.  But her favorite toy is her washcloth.  She can't wait for me to give it to her so she can grab it and start sucking on it.  It's like she thinks water is a special treat.  

Harper in her ducky towel

The first two months were pretty difficult.  But we finally have her on a dairy free, soy free formula and she is a HAPPY baby!  She hardly cries anymore, unless it's bed time.  She smiles all the time and loves to talk.  She is just so cute all the time!  She loves her dad and me.  And we absolutely love her.  It's crazy how happy our little trio family is.  

Hanging with dad after work

Loves kisses - she is so ticklish all over!

It's a very fun time of year for us now that college football has started.  Sadly, we won't get to take a trip this year, but hopefully soon Harper will get to visit College Station.  No worries - she watches them on tv with us.  

Whoop!

 We are truly blessed and thankful for Harper.  She is such a sweet blessing in our lives.  We absolutely love every minute with her.  And it doesn't hurt that she is stinking adorable!

2 Months and Counting

Harper is now almost 2 1/2 months old...boy time has flown by fast!  This past month, Cody went back to work.  Harper and I were so sad!  We asked him to quit, but I wonder if he enjoys getting out of the house for a little while each day.  The first few weeks were hard learning to be a stay at home mom.  But we are definitely into a pretty good routine.  We wake up in the morning around 7am.  We eat, play, and nap.  Then when she wakes up, we go for a walk around the neighborhood with Mags.  Around 11, we eat, and nap again, but for a LONG time now.  It's crazy that I sometimes have 4 hours to myself each day.  I definitely clean and do chores, but I also take time for myself.  I definitely did not expect this to be happening already.  Then, around 4, we eat, play, nap again.  We take another evening walk, then it's time for bath and bed.  Kinda repetative but it's been fun so far.  

Harper in her jogging stroller after a walk

The other good news it that she is sleeping SO much better.  We spent a whole weekend about 3 weeks ago learning to self soothe.  Before that, I was rocking her to sleep for 45 minutes every single time she went to sleep (yes, even at 2am!).  Her crying was definitely harder than I thought, though.  The first three days, she cried at every nap time for almost 2 hours.  Then, thankfully, she was so tired at night, she just crashed.  But magically, on day 4, she seemed to understand what was going on.  So now we can rock for a few minutes while she gets sleepy and then she can go to sleep on her own.  What a difference it has made!  And...she has also started sleeping through the night!  The first night it happened, Cody woke me up at 2am, completely confused.  He asked, Where is the baby?  I looked at my arms, confused, because I didn't know where she was.  Then he asked, Did you feed her?  I looked around thinking, I have no idea.  Finally we figured out that she was still asleep.  What a blessing!

Harper after her bath with Grandpa Mark and KK

She is also getting so much bigger!  She is 23 1/2 inches long now and about 11 1/2 pounds.  I feel like she is going to be super tall one day.  She just seems so long and lean.  She smiles nonstop and is trying so hard to talk and laugh.  She will open her mouth real big and act like she's trying to say something, and then a random noise will come out.  It's so funny.  

Harper at 2 months

She has started to sit in her bouncy chair and in her boppy so that she can try to hold her head up.  We noticed at 6 weeks that her head was always turning left.  I guess her neck muscles are uneven, so we are doing some stretches to fix that at home.  Plus, we had a rash that was all over her head, including her face.  After awhile, we figured out that it is just eczema and will go away on it's own.  We also got off breastmilk because she was having issues with dairy.  We tried soy formula and that seemed to still give her problems.  So now we are on Nutramigen, which is non dairy and non soy.  It works and she is happy, but man, that stuff is the WORST smelling formula ever.  

Harper after her 2 month shots.  She was very unhappy and 

didn't even want to wake up to eat that night.  Poor buddy.

Harper is a lover.  She already wants to give kisses with an open mouth.  She likes to watch everything you do.  And she only likes to be held where she can see everyone.  She is in love with her bath toys, especially an octopus we named Ollie.  She starts splashing and kicking whenever she sees Ollie.  She also still loves her playmat.  She will stare at her animals and the mirror for sooo long.   

  

Harper didn't take her daytime nap the other day.  When we tried to bath 

her for bed, she fell asleep in minutes.  Guess she was tired...

Over Labor Day, the family came over.  My dad and Cody went bike riding while Harper slept and Kristi, Taylor, Carleigh, and Kristen came over.  And my sweet boy Grayson came and was so fun.  He loves to bang on doors, throw toys around, and just have a ball.  When Harper woke up, he had to sit with Krissy and see the baby.  They just love each other already!    

Cody's parents came to visit on their bikes on Labor Day too

She is getting so big, it's sad to see her grow so fast.  But she is going to be such a fun little girl.  She is already so happy and smiley all the time.  And I am so thankful to be home.  I absolutely love my little girl.  The other night, Cody and I were thinking of calling one of our parents to get a babysitter, and then we realized that we didn't even really want a night away from her.  Funny, huh?  I guess I am getting used to less sleep, less alone time, and being a mom.  Funny how everyone said it'd get better and it did.  :)