This month has been a chaotic one with vacation and house guest and Greg having surgery and gracyn crawling, etc. Its rare when I get to pause and really notice how much my little girl is growing up and changing before my eyes. She really is such a fun and sweet little girl. My friend took this of her and I just love that it captures a quiet moment in this busy summer.
8 months old and finally crawling! Still no teeth yet though. Here is a video and some good old fashioned snap shots...
how do you entertain her for 5 minutes? let her rip up my pottery barn catelog... 
her favorite game of peek-a-boo with a book... 
sporting her baby legs, her onesie got lunch on it... 
how daddy spent a good portion of his birthday- he is still layed up from back surgery
Second day of crawling... the babylegs keep her knees from getting too red and sore.
Gracyn got to enjoy her new little baby pool today. We have been taking her swimming in our hot tub (turned down to about 85 degrees) but I wanted something I can put her in where I dont have to get in too, she loved it! She doesnt have much fear of water, she wanted to crawl through the water on her belly to get her toys, it was so cute! Here is a really quick video. The other girl talking is Gracyn's favorite friend Brittnee who is her nanny. Im not sure what the white lines across the video are. Sorry for the really poor quality! Here are also a few really quick snaps...
A lot is happening around here and I have fallen so far behind! Gracyn is now almost 8 months, she will be 8 months on Marley's 5th birthday. I cant believe he is 5! He is doing really well with Gracyn, esp now that she is more mobile. Today she sat there and continually yanked on his tail and though you could tell he didnt love it, he just sat there through it. He is such a good boy. I really need to take pictures of the two of them together, he just never wants to participate.
Anyway Gracyn is blabbering all the time now, she also tries to "sing" with me by drawing out her "ahhhhhssss and baaaaas" in a musical way when I am singing to her. She talks a lot in response to others talking to her, its so cute to watch her try to communicate. She is also on the verge of crawling. She sits and launches herself forward, but sometimes has trouble getting one foot out from underneath her. She often ends up face planting and in tears, but she is determined! Its amazing how fast things change where one day she cant do something and the next she has figured it out. She is starting some table foods, although she still doesnt have any teeth! I have felt like they were coming for months, with all the drool and crankiness and EVERYTHING in the mouth, but none yet!
Gracyn just took her first plane ride to Colorado. She was so good and slept almost the entire way! I have a ton of vacation pictures that I need to get around to posting, I will make it a goal for the week. Anyway here is a really quick video of Gracyn playing peekaboo with Greg. She loves to play and will use anything she can to cover her face. Here she is using one of her favorite books from Aunt Amanda....Greg admits he sounds like a moron in this, anything to make her laugh! Sorry also that its sideways, I took it with our point and shoot and I always forget it doesnt auto rotate! More to come I promise!
Well she is almost 7 now, but this picture was taken at almost 6 months when we were visiting Indy. I love the light in my dad's studio! We had fun playing with Gracyn since she had just mastered sitting! I'll add more when I get a chance to proof them.
Funny how a photographer can so despise actually being in front of the camera, but I loathe it. I just look at pictures and dont see me. But that is a whole other blog entry... This is a picture my dad took of me and Gracyn last month and though I'm never happy enough with pictures of me, I know that in the years to come I will treasure this photo as will she when she is older. One of my all time favorite photos is of me with my mom around the same age as Gracyn. I need to make more of an effort to spend some time in front of the camera, so that Gracyn has lots of tangible memories of me.
ps. this was the day after I cut 12 inches off my hair and it was a mess, I still have no clue how to actually style it. thank goodness Gracyn doesn't have hair yet, I need to learn some beauty skills before she grows it :)
This is so late, but things have been crazy! Little Ava James was born on May 21st weighing a whopping 5lbs and measuring in at 18.25inches! She is a little peanut but is fiesty and strong! She came home from the hospital last week and is really thriving at home. I am so proud of how well she has done and we are so excited to have her in our lives as Gracyn's little friend! I havent gotten to do her official photoshoot yet, so here is a quick picture Stacia sent out of mom and dad and baby. I cant wait to get my hands on this tiny little girl for our photoshoot!
Welcome little Ava!
Playing with a new blanket....
My little baby wears big girl clothes! She looked so old in this outfit :(
I love taking Gracyn to see new things and explore new places. I feel like I get to relive my childhood through her. I cant wait till she is older and can really get excited about everything. I cant wait to experience all her firsts like bike riding and swimming and hopscotch and fireworks and trick or treating and Christmas and the list just goes on and on! We have gone to the zoo twice now, I probably have not been to the zoo since I was in Junior High, and it is so fun as an adult to really be able to appreciate how amazing the animals are. Anyway we went with our new friends Parker and Jen and Kelly. Jen is my good friend/roomate Katie's cousin and she just so happens to live down the street so that has been really nice! Anyway here are just a few snaps from the day, obviously all the excitement wore them out :)
Excuse the super close snapshot with a flash, we were playing on the floor practicing our push-ups... look at this head of peach fuzz finally growing in! I think it just might be a bit red like her grandpa!
I really thought this would not be something we would have to deal with until she was older, but in the last week Gracyn has developed a really bad case of seperation anxiety. She panics if I leave the room or her eye sight for even a minute. We are talking huge sobs and crocodile tears. Greg keeps telling me to let her cry, but I just feel like she doesnt have that concept of permanency yet and she must feel abandoned. Im not sure. But I know I need some help! I cant get anything done unless she is in a sling with me or in the room. Not only that, but since our trip out of town (where I let her sleep with me in bed), she has reverted back to waking every 2 hours or so at night until I break down and bring her to bed with me, where she sleeps solid. She had been sleeping 8-10 hours at night in her crib since about 6 weeks. I know I need to rebreak that habit, Im just not sure how. Come monday we are going to have to rework on a schedule. Anway I never post snaps, I always post posed pics, so here are some snaps of her throwing a fit... mean mommy taking pics of that (but I know Stacia loves to see them, lol).
ok and one of her happy, just so you know she is usually not upset like that... she really is normally a very happy baby...
Im sorry you cant see her, I just grabbed our little point and shoot camera and set it on the table so I could jump around and play peek-a-boo (hence the annoying "boo" you keep hearing :) ). Next time I will use the video camera... I just didnt want to miss you hearing her giggle.
is a whole lot different than before. Before when I was sick I would lay in bed all day and sleep it off, or pull my comforter down to the couch and watch girly movies while Greg was at work, etc... but life isn't about me anymore. Its all about her and its wonderful. Its really tiring being sick and trying to take care of her, trying to protect her from my germs by only kissing her toes and the back of her head and covering myself in alcohol gel as frequently as possible without the skin on my hands falling off, but when she smiles at you or stops crying because you walk into a room its really easy to forget you even felt lousy to start with. anyway I didnt take a picture today, and Im out of town the rest of the week, so this was a bad week to try to post everyday (excuses I know)... but here is a picture my friend Lidia took of her the other day...
Well I failed at posting a pic everyday, but I have a really good excuse, Im super sick and knocked back on nyquil since we have no dayquil in the house... Im on my laptop so I dont know if there are any good pics on here, but lets see what I can find for the day... oh this was taken by my friend Shannon the other day at a photographers playdate
Not sure I can do it, but I will try to update every day this coming week with a new picture...
This is my current favorite image of her. I just adore her expression. She really is such a happy baby and has such an easy going personality. This is her sitting in the rocking chair in her room. We had a photographers play date and she was modeling for one of the other girls but I had to snap one.
We are so blessed to have a close group of friends surrounding us, with little friends for Gracyn to grow up with. Yesterday Julia was born at 10:21 am to Jim and Chrissy and big brother Jake. She weighed 7lbs exactly and was 20.5 in (yes 2 pounds smaller and almost 2 inches shorter than our moose). We are so excited to know that she will be such an important part of our lives for a long time to come!
I have no clue where the last 4 months have gone, but I can tell you that they have been the best 4 months of my life. My daughter is amazing. The feelings I have for her are overwhelming. I have no clue how to describe them. Im sorry I have been lost in our little bubble and I have not updated this blog for months. Im not sure how to catch up on everything so I am going to try to give a very brief synopsis of the last 4 months. A lot of these pictures were taken by my very talented sister, check out her website!
Month 1-
Eat and Sleep and Eat and Sleep
Month 2-
Smiling constantly
Sleeps through the night
Starts cooing
Month 3-
Found her hands, they are never far from her mouth now
Laughed aloud for the first time (melts my heart)
Tries to sit up all the time
Month 4-
Giggling more
Sits with very little support
Loves books and mommy's horrible singing
Is obsessed with her toes and constantly tries to grab them
Finally realized Marley exists
First Cereal
Time for some really cheesy pictures... It's amazing how as a mom you do the things you swore you would never do, like put your daughter in fancy dresses that dont fit her and ride up her shoulders. But she looked really cute and we needed to dress up for Greg's company's Christmas Brunch. So here are a couple of bad pictures we took in front of the decorations in the ballroom.
We are doing great except for sleeping which seems to be a little problem. We had her 1 mos check up this week which she was not thrilled about considering the shot. I have never seen a baby scream like that and I have given a LOT of shots!!! Anyway she is 11 lbs 4 oz and 23.5inches!! 95th percentile for both weight and height. No wonder she can fill out 3-6 mos clothes!
Well next week we head to Indy to meet a whole bunch of new people so hopefully I will have lots more pictures when we get back. I just wanted to post now to say Merry Christmas since I might not get another chance before then!
Love you all!!
Well I had good intentions of updating you on everything going on in our life, but little Gracyn has other ideas and does not want to be put down. So for now I will try to type with her in my lap. She loves the lights on the screen and the Dave Matthew's playing on iTunes (good taste in music already!!).
We have had an amazing 3 1/2 weeks! I cant believe that on Sunday, Gracyn will be 1 month old! Where has the time gone! She has changed so much! She is really filling out and getting some chunk on her thighs. Im guessing she is about 10 lbs now. We are on all formula feedings now and she is a happy girl. She still eats every 3 hrs or so during the day but last night she gave us 6 hrs of sleep! I of course was up every half hour waiting to see if she would wake up. I think she might have slept longer but I finally woke her up.
Today we ventured out to the mall to get out of the house. She does pretty well as long as the stroller is moving. She fell asleep at one point and then must have woken up and realized she didnt know where she was because she startled with arms wide and had the most terrified look on her face before she hyperventilated and let out one piercing scream! She calmed right down when she saw me, that is such an amazing feeling, to know that she recognizes me and knows she is safe. Maybe Im reading too much into it but thats how it felt :)
She also has started smiling at people intentionally, or so it seems. She really focuses on faces now and will smile at her parents goofy faces. Its amazing the things adults are reduced to doing to make a baby smile.
Lets see what else has happened. We have had lots of visitors. Grandma and Grandpa Abelard came to visit for Thanksgiving and helped us decorate the house for Christmas so Gracyn can have a tree her first Christmas. I will take pictures of it later to share. Aunt Manda and Uncle Ryan came up for the day to see her after Thanksgiving and we had a little photo shoot with Gracyn. Imagine us 3 Abelard photographers with cameras and my mom with hers taking pictures of the 3 of us, it was a pretty funny site. Poor baby has no idea what she is in for with the pictures.
Amanda came back to stay for a few days last week. Not nearly long enough! She spoiled us rotten while she was here and Gracyn is begging for her to come back. We had a great time hanging out and trying to get yet more pictures of Grace. She didnt really want to cooperate but we were able to get a few that I will post below for you. She is so beautiful, she really looks like her daddy with my lips. This really has been the most amazing experience of my life! I cant wait to share all the things she does with you!
The last picture of Gracyn on the paisley bedspread was taken by my friend Lidia- www.lidiaguerraphotography.com
Im trying to find time to update the blog and get some pictures done of Grace but hours seem to pass me by! So here is the story. Gracyn is an awesome babe, she is so layed back and easy to care for. Unfortunatly my milk is refusing to come in so feeding is a big issue for us. I really never thought I would care so much about breast feeding, I always said "if it works it works" or "I'll be happy if I make it 2 weeks" but now that she is here, I so badly want to do this for her and for myself. I love so much about how close I feel with her when I do it and Im really upset about all of the issues we are having. I had a lactation consultant come out to my house yesterday and she confirmed that while my milk is "in" there is no supply there. After nursing for about 20 minutes she only got 4cc, which is less than 1 tsp of milk. When I give Grace a bottle she takes 3-4oz so obviously she wouldnt be able to thrive off breastfeeding alone. So she had me upgrade to a hospital grade pump which I use every 2 hours and Gracyn has started tube feedings. So basically she latches on to breastfeed and I put a tube in the corner of her mouth like a straw. The other end of the tube is in her bottle, so as she sucks like she is breastfeeding she sucks the milk out of the bottle. Yes the NICU nurse in me sees the irony and humor in all of this. I so so would have made fun of anyone doing this before, but Im willing to try for at least another week. If this doesnt increase my supply then I guess I can at least say that I did everything possible.
On top of all of that, I have developed PUPPS which is a pregnancy induced rash. I think I may have had it on the lower half of my stomach before pregnancy b/c I itched like crazy, but I thought it was just my stretchmarks that itched. So I woke up sunday morning with this rash covering my stomach, chest, arms, legs, and back. It is super irritating!!! The doctor has put me on a 6 day coarse of steroids and said it should hopefully go away in a week or so, but from what I have seen online some women have this for several months after pregnancy. Im so praying that isnt me!!!
So that is the long version of the story.... good for you if you read all of that :) Lucky for me Greg has been home and is just going back to work tomorrow, he is so supportive of all of this madness. Anyway Im sorry if it seems like I am ignoring anyone's emails and phone calls! Im hoping things settle down this week and then I would love to have visitors!
Thanks for all the well wishes! Gracyn cant wait to meet everyone!
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