5 months old!

I feel like this month, especially, little Hannah has grown up!

I look at her pictures from 1 and 2 months old, and I just can't get over how tiny she was! She has really chunked up this month, and come out with all sorts of personality. In many ways she gets easier every month, and in other ways, harder. But either way, she is tons of fun to have around, and when I go to bed at night, I'm excited for the next day with her! 

We started off this month with a trip down to my parent's in California with my sister, Alyssa, and her kids. I was a nervous wreck about driving down there. Every other time we've gone, I've driven late at night so she slept the entire way. This time we were driving in the day. We rarely make it 5 minutes to the grocery store without a meltdown. I truly felt sick thinking about 3.5 hours in the car with her. But we all survived! And she did better than I thought she would :) 

While we were there, Hannah went swimming for the first time, and loved it!

She also went to Sea World, whether she knows it or not. She slept almost the entire time we were there! My 30 minute napper, randomly conked out for almost 4 hours! And yes, I held her, in cradle position, the ENTIRE time! whew! 

Hanging out with cousin Quincee

This month she has mastered grabbing and sucking on her toes, grabbing at everything in front of her, laughing 

                                     

eating rice cereal

Easter was actually this month!

hanging out at an Easter Egg hunt

Sleep- Well, for the last month Hannah has woken up 5-15 times a night... :( And most of the time it is more than 10, for real. I don't know how we are surviving. Poor thing is just wide awake at random points in the night. So often we are up for an hour or more together.. Not only is she up constantly, she also has decided that 5am is morning. I really don't know what else to do except be patient and hopefully it will pass. It has gotten a little better the last week, but we are no where near where we used to be.  BUT the great news is, she successfully can fall asleep on her own now! :) And her naps are finally extending past 30 minutes!! Her naps are now 45 minutes or 1.5 hours. I'll take it!

Getting so chubby and cute!

 Shy faces

Always a treat to have Dad home

4 months old!

4 months in a nutshell since my post got deleted before I ever got to post it :(

- 12 lbs 4 oz, 25 percentile. 25 inches, 75 percentile

- First ponytail

promise I didn't try to make her look like a rabbit :)

- First Easter 

St. Patty's Day

- Grandma O'Bryant and Great-Grandma Davis came to visit

- obsessed with... 

blowing bubbles (haha!)

scratching (ouch!)

Baby Einstein

 Playing with toys

bathtime

 the bumbo

- Found her voice one night while we were at In-n-out. Hasn't forgotten about it

- Got pretty good at rolling off pillows, doesn't even attempt to roll on flat ground though..

 -Loved having dad off school for a week!

3 months old!

Time. Is. Flying.

Where is the pause life button?!

I'm just loving every moment lately

this is super long, but it's everything I want to remember! enjoy :)

stats- she was weighed and measured last week, coming in at a whopping 10 lbs 6 oz, and 23 1/4 inches long. 10% for weight, 50% for height. Not even close to fitting into her 3-6 months clothes

eye doctor- Hannah visited the Opthalmologist this month, where she did amazing! She had a complete eye exam and had her eyes dilated. Good news, she's not cross eyed! happy parents, right here

tortecollis- The definition of this word sounds way scarier than Hannah's condition seems. Basically, she favors turning her head to the right, and therefore, is developing a slightly miss-shaped head. She probably had her head to the right while in the womb, and this is the reason. I feel like she has improved over the last month, but when she is straining during tummy time, she will only crank her neck to the right, and won't move it. So her Pediatrician wants her to do physical therapy. Oh joy, I'm sure she will love that!...... I'm glad her Ped is so thoroughly watching out for her though.  

it takes serious concentration to hold your head up! 

she doesn't crank her neck when she's up on a pillow

doesn't hate it

nursing- Nursing is going SO much better!! She has finally stopped crying during it, and will eat a full meal in 10-20 minutes!!!! Used to take 45! She is also no longer taking reflux meds, and still eats every 3 hours.

sleep- Hannah has back tracked, major, with sleep at night... She has slept great from day 1, but now, not so much.. She goes to bed between 7 & 8:30 and sleeps until 6 or 7. She eats 2-3 times at night now, and I usually have to give her her paci a couple of times in between. She often has a grunty/gassy time of night too. Thank goodness for gripe water, gets her calmed and right back to sleep! 

naps- She still loves her 30 minute cat-naps, and can't stay awake for more than 1 hour usually. I've discovered this past week that if I hold her for her afternoon nap, she will sleep longer. If I'm holding her past that 30 minute mark, she may even sleep 2-3 hours!! Woohoo! I've even been able to take a nap! 

california- As my parents were passing through Las Vegas one day, I made a last minute decision to have them drop off my Mom, and have her drive to their house in California with me. That way I could tend to Hannah if/when she cried. We then decided if we drove after she fell asleep for the night, she may not wake up at all! So at 9:30pm we started our drive. Hannah didn't wake up! I stayed a few days, while Scott studied his brains out back in Las Vegas. I drove back home with just Hannah, and tried out our driving late into the night trick again. Worked great! 

Grandma O'Bryant

the cat loved her

favorite things- hasn't tried grabbing toys yet, but loves to watch them as we dance them around her! She loves to watch the TV, occasional Baby Einstein movies, and Skype. Loves going on walks. Loves to talk back and forth with us, and to her mobile. Loves looking at and sucking on her fist. Loves to have on nothing but a diaper. Loves when we sing/play pat-a-cake, or any song that involves moving her arms and legs. Loves to look at books. Still loves her bath, swing, paci, being swaddled, diaper changes, and changing pad. 

oh hey fist

our happy, talkative, crazy haired baby

Two cuties ready for church!

 hanging out in primary with me!

loves bathtime 

loves watching Baby Einstein

 being cute

 hanging out while Dad studies

 out for a walk in the park

first Valentine's Day- The biggest treat of Valentine's Day, was having Scott home at dinner time! This semester, Scott is at school 14-16 hours a day, and several hours on Saturday- so grateful for him! So he picked up some chinese take out on his way home, and some pretty flowers, and the three of us had such a relaxed night just being home, and not doing anything school related! 

Two Months!

This is a week late, but I better document before it's too late!

Hannah is...

 and I cannot believe how fast it has gone!!

I love watching her grow and change and learn, 

but man alive, 

I already miss my little newborn

Before I had Hannah, 

I wrote in my journal what my expectations were of motherhood. 

I knew I would look back and laugh at some of it,

and hoped I'd be right about the majority.

The biggest surprises for me have been:

- For the first few weeks, I felt like I had a different child every week.

Just when I thought I had figured it out, 

something new would present itself that I had to figure out. 

It's a never ending cycle!

- Newborns don't show their true personality for about two weeks.

When she was born, I kept telling Scott 

how lucky we were to have such a mellow baby!

I was convinced we had the easiest baby in the world.

Don't get me wrong, we are still veeeryyy lucky to have Hannah,

but she's not as mellow and easy as I originally thought :)

Once they "wake up" they definitely come with a personality!

- Being a mom is an emotional roller coaster!

I'd like to think I'm pretty emotionally stable. 

But holy cow,

the baby's cry, smile, frown, tears, etc. really pulls at my heart 

even more than I knew was possible

-Babies need sleep!

I knew this, but I didn't know how important this is.

I thought if she was tired, she would sleep during the day. 

Hannah took very long naps for many weeks. 

She would take a 4 hour nap, then be up for 4 hours, and then conk out again.

She has been so much happier when I encourage 

her to only be awake for an hour at a time. 

I let her sleep for however long she needs to.

This has made such a difference!

- Being a mom is BUSY.

I knew moms don't just sit around, obviously.

But I had no idea how busy I would be!

feed, entertain, put to sleep, help wake up, diaper, entertain, sleep, 

wake, diaper, feed, bathe, sleep, feed, diaper, sleep, feed, diaper, sleep, feed....... 

I just get nothing else done around here!

I try real hard to get one big thing done each day, and make dinner. 

The rest of the day is for Hannah

Like I said, I don't feel like I have a newborn anymore! 

even though she is still teeny tiny

She is awake, smiling, talking, and wants to be a part of the party!

 She is now 9 lb 4 oz, and 23 inches tall!

Long and Lean!

She is still wearing newborn size diapers, 

except I just ran out again, so I moved her up to size 1. 

At 7 weeks she was officially out of her newborn clothes and into 0-3month. 

A lot of the 0-3m clothes are still way too big.

getting ready for her first date with mom and dad

We had a few particularly hard weeks starting at about 3 weeks old 

(yeah, right when she "woke up" to life)

Every week it seemed to be something new that was making her cry-

throwing up major, then gas, then worse gas, then wanted to be held constantly,

 then decided she hated nursing, then who knows what the problem was...

I was exhausted.

Emotionally and physically.

I had given up chocolate, milk, lots of vegetables, soda/caffeine.. We tried gripe water, gas drops, reflux meds, bouncing, walking, the swing, the carrier, the pacifier, the swaddle...

And while most things helped, 

I was starting to fear that we just had a very screamy baby.

Luckily, she seems to finally be done with the inconsolable crying!

Can't tell you how happy I am about this!

Love me a happy baby!!!

Now she only cries if she's bored, tired, hungry, or nursing.

Nursing... 

I used to like you. 

That's not true, I still do like nursing.

Which is why I'm still exclusively nursing.

But Hannah gets pretty frustrated by it. 

She cries quite a bit during it, but not every time!

I have no idea what the problem is. 

But she is growing and gaining weight, 

so we are keeping at it!

And I hope we can keep it up for a long time!

getting ready for her first day at church

 This little blanket is Hannah's "silky". It's behind her head always. She has 3 of them. We don't want her to rub off her hair :)

Some of Hannah's favorite things are her swing (although she didn't really like it until 7 weeks old), her pacifier, being swaddled, kicking her legs as fast and high as she can (she has awesome abs), her bouncer chair, her reflux medicine (smells like cream soda), bath time, music, diaper changes, and laying on her changing table (see below). She will lay there and chill or kick her legs for a full hour sometimes! 

Hannah still sleeps like a champ!

She goes to bed between 9 and 10, eats once during the night, 

and then wakes up at 7am.

She still sleeps in her pack n play in our room, 

but never wakes me up except to eat, once.

Her naps during the day are getting shorter and shorter. 

In fact, suddenly her naps are only 15-30 minutes long! 

And this is why I get nothing done! :)

just relaxing after quite the blow through her clothes. Cute nakey baby 

first trip to the mall. Loved just kicking back and looking around

I just love her curious little hands that always find their way out of her swaddle

So fun that she really looks at us and interacts with us now. She definitely knows us. In fact, just in the last couple of weeks, if I hand her off to a stranger, she will cry! She seems way too young for that!?

And last, but not least, a video for your enjoyment!