Mall outing number 2

your shocked aren't you? here just two weeks ago I swore I wouldn't go to the mall until Jada was old enough to ask to go and what did I do... you got it, I went back out to the mall, I had to concur the fear, and well my mom came along too which made me feel more confident.( thanks mom)

we had a BLAST!! Jada was such a good girl, she slept the WHOLE time I mean the entire time!! todays shopping trip was supposed to be all about "me" you know I need come clothes now that I am not working and not prego, because that made up most of my wardrobe before. I got some super cute sweaters, I seemed to have been drawn to them all day long. but when we got home and I unpacked my bags, I noticed that little miss Jada got 4 outfits from the gap, 4 from Macy's and a cute sweater from Target, oh and we can't forget her precious little easter dress!!! it was a fun day I must say and I am so tickled with her easter dress!


while at the mall I just kept thinking I can't wait to go home and shock all my readers that yes, we did it we have a successful trip to the mall !!!

transition continued...

Today marks one week exactly from when we started the sleeping transition for our little girl, and I am pleased to announce that she is transitioned!! we are so excited, we didn't slip once during the whole time, but I have to admit she made it pretty easy on us. She has spent every nap and every night sleeping on her own in her pack and play, and even some naps in her swing. We are so proud of her. With her transition I have been able to pay closer attention to her cues now and after keeping track of her feedings and nap times I have noticed a trend... I usually BF her at around 7:30 then give her a bottle ( dream feed) at 8:30, I then BF her for just a quick feeding at 9:00 and then she is in her bed by 9:15 and she's asleep till 2 or 3:00, however last night she was down till 3:45! we couldn't believe it. the transition went a lot smoother than I ever dreamed, honestly the first night was the only bad night, and don't get me wrong that first night was really rough, but she is a quick learner I guess, because that very next morning she was napping in her play pin, and swing.

this transition has been very nice for our family, although I miss the "all the time access" to kissing my little girls sweet head and breathing in her yummy baby smell, its nice to cuddle with the hubby again, and nice to be able to fix all my meals at home with both hands now instead of one :)

were so proud of you buggy!

Hip Hop with a GangstA Wave

last night daddy started dancing around with Jada and it was just too cute not to grab the camera.. I have no idea what song is playing in the background, i just put our TV on the "todays hits" and this is what we got, I love her little "gangsta" wave at the end, so here I present to you Jada's first dance video....

Transition time

this past Saturday Nick and I decided it was time to have Jada start sleeping on her own, not off in her own room just yet, but in her pack N play. she will be 6 wks old tomorrow, and so far every night she starts out sleeping on my chest or her daddies. the first few weeks it was nice because we could cuddle her and it was easy to make sure she was always ok, and well because I am breast feeding it made it so nice to just roll over and bam she was fed. well now that she has gotten older and is able to sleep longer when we put her in bed with us, she would sleep from 11 to 4, now those are some solid hours that both nick and I should be enjoying along with Jada, but well lets be honest when you have the most precious being to ever enter your life laying on your chest, you don't sleep all that well as you are very cautious of not blocking her air ways, and making sure that she is comfortable. So after a few conversations, we knew it was time to get her used to sleeping on her own, because eventually she will be moving into her own room with her crib.

now we are actually doing two transitions at once, we are 1)having her sleep in her own bed, 2) we are wanting her to go in her bed with out being asleep yet. that way she doesn't wake up like what the heck, where am I , when did I get in here... and so as she gets bigger she will be able to be used to going down for naps too.


so the good news, because I am writing this you know that I survived :) but let me take you back to our journey that began saturday at 10:50PM

here is what her schedule looked like that night.

fed her at 8:20 ( then I went to bed and she stayed up with daddy for a little longer)
fed again at 10:50 ( after she ate, I burped her of course and then placed her in her bed)

she fussed on and off till her next feeding, we let her cry for no longer than 15 minutes in a row then either daddy or I got up to rock her pat her back and tell her she was ok, she was so calm as soon as we picked her up, then as soon as we placed her down she was fussy again...

ate again at 1:15AM

fussed, slept for 20 minutes till next feeding

again at 3:07AM

fussy

again 5:55AM
she SLEPT HERE!!
and 9:20 AM

by this time I thougth what had we done, when she was sleeping on us she would eat anywhere from 8 to 9 and be out till 4 am and I would feed her and then place her in her bed and she would sleep till 7 or 8 and wake to eat again...

but Nick and I promised that no matter if it took 2 days or 2 weeks we wouldn't back down and we would stay strong for one another and take turns getting up with her..


so now its Sunday and we said that we would place her in her bed for naps also, yes this child has been very cuddled her whole existance so far, for all of her naps she would be sleeping on me or asleep on me in her moby wrap, so as you can see this would be yet another transition for her...

and well the naps went about like her bed time the night before... although she did have 2 successful 40 minute ones...


so here we are sunday night...


night number two of the transition

I said a quiet prayer before I headed into bed that she get rest and have a good nights sleep... and I whispered in Jada's ear that mommy doesn't want anything for her birthday but a good nights sleep :)

so last night I fed her at 8 and then went into bed as she stayed up a little longer with daddy

nick brought her in at 10 and I fed her and then placed her in her bed, this time telling her good night Jada, its time to go night night.

she fussed, but NOTHING I mean NOTHING like the night before, this time her cry was not a OMG get me the heck out of here... this night it was just man im frigin tired, I wish I knew how to just close my eyes and fall asleep... now although she didn't fuss loud she did continue to fuss till her next feeding,

but It hit me like a tun of bricks while i was laying there and she was doing what I call " fake crying" it was that cute waa waa stuff I thought try to play the nature sounds for her, you see, her pack n play has a speaker on it and it will play music or nature sounds or even an ipod its pretty awesome... and it even has a cool blue circle thing it displays on the ceiling... so i reached around and turned it on and she was in awe... I peaked at her and she was wide eyed staring at the blue dot with a smile on her face... YAY!!!!! I found something that works ( seriously that is the best feeling ever as a mom)

so I got her up to feed her at 12:20

and placed her down in her bed and she SLEPT SOLID, til 5!!

she ate again at 5 and then went back to sleep in her bed

till she woke up at 9:10 to eat again

she stayed up for a little while to dance in the living room with her mommy to celebrate a successful night of sleep and my birthday...


then she went down fo a 45 minute nap in her bed :) and I took a shower...
and now


SHE IS NAPPING IN HER SWING while I am blogging....



thats right... in her swing... this is amazing... for the last 6 weeks I am not kidding when I say she ALWAYs sleeps on us... the only other place she has ever fallen asleep was in her car seat... so this has been a wonderful transition thus far, I am sure we will have more sleepless nights... and we are prepared for that...


JADA BUG YOU ARE THE GREATEST DAUGHTER IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!


Love your momma !

momentary doubt

today Jada and I had plans with two of my other girlfriends and their babies to have lunch in the food court and then walk the mall. I must admit my mind began to envision this trip starting yesterday afternoon, questions began popping in my head, would I have enough time to take a shower and get myself ready and get her ready, what is her feeding schedule going to be tomorrow, what if she sleeps in, what if what if what if.... you see, Jada has been out with me before on short little trips in and out of places, and she has been wonderful she actually has been in a very deep sleep during these outings, but for some reason, this trip had me questioning weather we were ready or not...

now because we would be mall walking, this meant this would be the first time we would be using the stroller, so what does a mommy who is obsessed with planning and wanting things to go smoothly do? thats right, I went down in the basement and brought the stroller up, making sure that I knew how to open and collapse that sucker like a Pro, you know, I didn't want any embarrassing moments in the slushy filled parking lot. next step, making sure I could snap the car seat in the locked position, once I had that down I decided it would be a good idea to place baby in the seat and then push her around the stroller in the house so she was someone familiar with this new movement.... she had smiles on her face,and looked super content.

I must have pictured a million times over and over, ok I will park my car, pop the truck, pull the stroller out, pop it open, grab the diaper bag and throw that over my shoulder, then grab baby and lock her seat in the stroller and make our way towards the door.

after the stroller run through I made sure I had everything I would be needing in her diaper bag, diapers check, spit up rag check, blanket, passy, nose sucker thingy, change of clothes, hooter hider ( mommies breast feeding shield from the public )but paste, check, check, check, check, check, I had it all. we were ready.

before bed i placed the stroller by back door so I could put in the trunk in the AM.

this Am when I woke up for Jada's first morning feeding my mind quickly began to analyze the rest of her days feeding... ok so if I am feeding her now at 8 am, that means she will eat again at 11 great, this will be right before we go to the mall, so she should be fine, well then 10 rolled around and she was ready to eat again, oh no I thought... now this looks like she is wanting to eat every 2 hrs again today ( must be going through a growth spurt) this means by noon she will be hungry again...

so the rest of my morning until the noon hour was spent wondering how she would be... I was comforted when at 11:30 she had fallen asleep in her swing. 11:50 i got her placed in her car seat, and she looked like she was ready for our little adventure.

the car ride was quiet, I kept looking back in her mirror and she was super content and just looking around and then I came upon grape road...

WAAAAAHAHAHAHAH

wowzers, I mean the girl was going to town, I must admit my palms started sweating, should I send a txt to my girlfriends now and tell them we cant make it, even though I was in teh parking lot??!?!?! yes the thought crossed my mind...


but we didn't, I figured once i got her out of the car and in the stroller, she would be better, ya know a little change of scenery...

so i did the routine that I ran through my head just the day before, got the stroller out first, got the diaper bag then baby and we were headed into the mall...

she was quiet walking up to the mall, but once inside she let it all out once again,
poor sweetie, I'll get you out of the seat...

my heart was going out to her, and thats when my mind was kicking me in the rear end CHELSSIE ELIZABETH you should have stayed home... what in the world are you doing having your little Jada out here at the mall... she's just 5wks old!!!

now we al hear about those over cautious mothers... well thats me, I will go ahead and label myself that right now, germs freak me out to be honest, add that up with me being a new mom and I am a mess... I believe as she gets bigger I will get better at this but for now, she's just so little and counts on me for everything, therefore I feel if I can prevent something from happening at all then by all means I will...


so any how back to the story. I met my girlfriends and had gotten Jada out of her seat, she seemed to like that better as she quieted down, and then after trying to give her her passy I realized it was 12:30 and those tears were probably because she was hungry, and if she was going to be on her 2 hr schedule like she was yesterday, this meant I would be right.

here it was, time to feed her for the first time in public. the food court bathrooms didnt seem to be the right place for this, so we made our way down to the nearest department store ( sears) I placed jada in her seat and headed that way, not even 1/2 way there she was not enjoying this... so I decided i would get her out and hold her the rest of the way there...

trying to steer a stroller and hold a baby who needs neck support still was a bit of a struggle... I could feel the eyes of other people burning on me, I am sure they were thinknig awe what a cute baby but all I could feel they were thinknig was OMG, that mother has no idea what she is doing, and why is that baby out here , she looks so small, way to young to be out at the mall, how selfish that mother must be...bringing such a young baby to the mall.... what a horible mother....


just get to the bathroom just get to the bathroom ( is what my mind kept repeating)

we made it

she ate, and I sat there about ready to cry, thought I would call the hubby I knew he would tell me I was a good mommy and everything was going to be ok... DUN DUN DUN no phone signal in the bathroom. so there I was, sitting in and old hard back chair from 1930's in a public restroom wishing I could click my heals together and be back home in my pj's with my happy baby girl...

I decided after the feeding it would be best for jada and I to head home, my mind began to then run through play by play how I was going to have to get her strapped back in her car seat walk back through the food court out the doors into the cold and put baby, diaper bag and stroller back in the car.

luckily my girlfriends understood and encouraged me that I was brave for trying.

so Jada and I made it back to the car and she fell asleep for our car ride home, I was able to talk to the hubby who did encourage me that I was a great momma and that had she not been fussy during this trip I would not have ever questioned my ability as a mother. he was right... now that I have been home for a few hours I must admit I am feeling much better, as I am in my warm flannel Pj's and baby girl is napping on my chest.... however... we will be steering clear of any mall outings again until she is old enough to ask to go :)


I kid I kid.

I love you Jada bug.

Big girl

I can't believe it but it looks like our little girl is getting sooooo big. she is
now 23 and 1/2 inches at 5 weeks, weighing in some where in the 11 lb range! Daddy measured her while she was laying on the changing table and we looked at the measuring tape in shock, how is that possible... just 3 weeks ago she was 21 1/4. she is a growing girl, now who knows if we took the measurements exactly like the do at the pediatricians office, but either way this girl is super long, you can tell just by looking at her how she has grown, we even had to bump up a snap on her gro baby diapers!!! I wondered why she never stretched her legs out much but as soon as you take her diaper off her legs go a dancing... so yesterday while changing her into her Pj's I thought hmm let me just try to bump up a snap and she if the diaper still fits and wow it does, and she was kicking her legs out as straight as they could get, I felt so bad, but instantly felt so good knowing that we fixed it!!


she has even improved her sleep/eating schedule, her typical eating schedule is now consistently every 3 hours. this past week her night feedings have started at 9 pn, she stays awake with daddy out in the living room while mommy goes to sleep till around 11 or 11:30 then she goes to sleep, she sleeps till 4 am waking to eat and then goes back down until 7am something to eat again and then goes back down again until 10am. Last night was her first night sleeping in her play pin the whole night, ( she usually starts out with us in our bed on either my chest or daddies.)



we are so proud of you Jada Bug! you are a growing baby girl.

One Month

Jada, Mommy & Daddy can't believe that today you are ONE month old! You have been an excellent baby, and we have loved getting to know you. Mommy will admit that when we first brought you home, I had feelings of how am I supposed to know what she is trying to tell me with her cries, but we figured it out after a while. Having you in our lives has been incredible. Daddy and I love to just look at you, and pretend we know what you are thinking about by judging your facial expressions. here are some of what you have been up to during your fist month of life.

You Love to eat, sometimes mommy calls you her little chunky monkey, but I just say it out of pure cuteness, and daddy and I joke because he was a really good eater too when he was a baby, and truth be told he still is. This is just yet another quality that you share with your Dad, I joke with our extended family that you are purely Daddies baby, my job was just to house you. seriously, he even claims you have his belly button.

We just learned about a week ago that you LOVE the Moby wrap. I wrap you up in it about three times a day, just yesterday you were kind of fussy and couldn't find a comfortable position in my arms so I pulled out the wrap and Whaa Laa you were instantly comforted and passed out for a nap, in the mean time I was able to vacuum, do laundry and make our bed, all while you were asleep in the wrap on my chest.

You have been waring your Gro Baby cloth diapers since you were 1 week old, and you seem to love them, I know we do, you haven't had any explosive accidents, and you look so darn cute in them.

You started out wearing the NB clothing and still are able to fit a few of the NB outfits we have for you but mostly you are wearing 0-3 months.

you love to take baths, and you splash around like a little Pro swimmer.

We are not sure of your weight at this exact time because we haven't been back to the pediatrician since your two week follow up, but Boy did you show some improvement while there. When you were born you weighed 8.15 by your first week appointment you weighed 8.9, by your second week appointment you weigh 9.7! now that you are a month Daddy and I think you are around 11 lbs.

you still seem to have all your hair you had at birth, which really surprised mommy, I didn't expect you to have hair because I was bald till I was two, but you did and it was brown! again - DADDies girl, however as each day passes it does seem to be lighting up.

We had your newborn photo shoot well a little after you were a true newborn, we waited till this past sunday, so just before you turned 4 weeks, and let me just tell you, you hated it. I am not sure if you were tired, hungry, or just weren't loving the camera, because we tried everything, daddy walked around with you as you fell asleep but then you would quickly wake yourself up as soon as we tried to position you for a cute picture, so mommy fed you and that didn't seem to fix it, you just spit up.. So we have yet to see those pictures yet, but however they turn out it will be a memory, you even peed on daddy that day during a picture where we had your diaper off!

You seem to eat about every 3 hours, sometimes a little sooner and sometimes a little later, night times being the later times. I have been keeping track on my blackberry of every time you eat and go down for naps that way I can see what your natural patterns are and see if we are getting on a schedule.


your first bottle was the day you turned 3 wks, daddy gave it to you and you did great!! at least once a day mommy give you a bottle with added probiotics to build you a nice strong immune system!
about a week ago you developed your little baby acne, but don;t worry it's not a crazy case, you have some on your ears, scalp, cheeks, chin and forehead, we have stopped putting lotion on your face and are waiting for it to clear up.

sleeping.... well sleeping you are now doing very well at during the night. however naps, I am not sure why, but you like to nap while I hold you, I have tried every time you fall asleep on my to take you into your crib and about 1 minute later your crying, and then when you are picked up you are out again. your silly... I have enjoyed the extra snuggle time with you, but would also love for you to be able to take naps in your crib. I don't know how you know the difference between a nap and bedtime because at bedtime you will sleep in their.... well that is after the first few hours. you usually start out on mine or daddies chest till you get into a nice deep sleep and then after first feeding in the night we put you in your play pin that is also in our room and you sleep the rest of the night ( only waking for feedings)

you and daddy stay up together in the living room during your fussy time which is between 9 and midnight but more recently you have fallen asleep around 11:30, mommy goes to bed during this time so I can get some rest since I wake with you for feedings and diaper changes.


you first started smiling with your eyes closed, so obviously it wasn't at us, unless you were smiling because you heard our voice or were dreaming of us, but now you are starting to smile with your eyes open which is so fun for us. you still do your blank stare A lot which always makes us laugh but the smile is so cute!!

you have been holding your head up since birth I kid you not, you have such a strong neck, now obviously you weren't really holding it up since birth but you have been popping your head off our shoulders since birth and trying to hold your head up, now you have it mastered, you are always lifting your head off our shoulders you have a very strong neck and back ( again daddies girl)

you are truly an amazing baby. this first month has been so fun I can only imagine what is in store for us. we look forward to watching you grow, but remember don't grow too fast!

Love - Mommy

my lil chuncka mungsters

Daddies Birthday

My husband will be turning 26 on Saturday!! woo hoo I love birthdays! I am so excited for him, it's his first birthday as a daddy.... which means I think that he should get an extra cute little gift from his daughter... so I need some ideas, what do you think would be cute to give daddy from his little one month old?!

I have thought about purchasing something that goes along with what I have already purchased him, which I can't post just incase he decides to check out my blog ( highly doubt he will be visiting, but I just need to be careful I don't blow the big gift) but then I thought it might be cute to get something different... so please help :)

this is a Big weekend in our house, Jada will be ONE month on Friday, Nick turns 26 on Saturday and then it's Valentines day on Sunday!! Lots of celebration for us...

thanks in advance for the ideas...

Buh Bye Dairy

So here it is, Lately I have been finding myself more and more saying "she's not normally like this, and I have been wanting to pull my hair out trying to figure out how I can comfort my baby girl, because at times it's as if there is no right answer and she's all Leave me the Heck alone Ma....

Jada is four weeks old today and this past week she has been fussier than normal, wanting to eat off of her schedule so much so that I forgot what her schedule was and stopped keeping track of the times I would feed her and just gave it too her when I saw her rooting for it... When we first brought her home her fussy time was from 10 to 2 AM, then it changed from 9 to midnight, and we are still at the 9 to midnight time for the most part but this past week its seems to be starting around 630, or 7:00.

So I decided it was time for me to pay better attention because I needed to come up with some sort of conclusion, try something new, then if it doesn't work well we will toss it out the window. ( not my baby girl, the Idea)

the symptoms I have been seeing frequently this past week has been a slow down in the poopy diaper depO.... only one poopy diaper a day, now when she makes it is a pretty explosive one but its as if she works all day at getting that one poopy to come out. she was having any where from 3 to 5 good poopy diapers. Now during the day she will grunt and make animal noises and I can see her face getting red, and she will fuss and has gas that accompanies this, but no poop... then typically really early in the morning around 6 am it will make its way out. also there are times during the day and evening when nothing seems to calm her down, and she has started to get some baby bumps on her face, just a little ( which I know is normal) but she hasn't had any till recently.

also new, this past week she has been spitting up, the fist three weeks she never did this, I know babies spit up, but this is new for her, yesterday specifically she spit up after just about every feeding. so after putting things together, I figure maybe it is what I am eating, and well looking at my food journal .....FRIGIN CHEESE is the number one culprit. every morning before my hubby goes to work he makes us a breakfast smoothie with a bunch of yummy good stuff like fruit flax meal, wheat germ and well Yogurt, then for lunch I typically have fresh cold veggies maybe and apple and a Cheese and avocado sandwich or cheese and olive sandwich, or if I don't have a sandwich sometimes I have almonds fruit, veggies, and a CHESE STICK... So you see, some how cheese is always making its was on my plate... I don't drink cow's milk, we drink SILK soy-milk,

So my idea, well I am going to eliminate Dairy from my diet and see if we have some change.

It can take anywhere from 2 - 3 weeks for milk protein to leave your body ( says some internet website) so I am will be giving this a whirl for the next 35 days. thats 5 weeks, an hopefully we see some improvement, because seriously there is nothing worse than hearing your baby scream crying and you are holding her in your arms singing to her and rocking her, and patting her on her back and nothing seems to work, it's like sticking a knife in a mommas chest and saying you have no idea what you are doing.

so this is where I am going to start. if any of you mommies have other suggestions please feel free to mention them.

3 wks

this video should have been uploaded on Tuesday February 2, because this was the day she turned three weeks but ya know life happens when your busy being a mom. anyhow, I can't believe all of her changes she's made in just these three weeks.
One of my favorites has been her focus, when she is laying down and I go to pick her up she really stares me over, looking right into my eyes, its the greatest feeling because I know she knows I am her mommy.

another new that has happened now that Jada is three weeks, she has been introduced to the bottle and throws it back like a champ, she also has been enjoying the MaM passys, but she's still not too much of a fan, I think she feels tricked when we give it to her but it soothes her for a little while.

as for her physical changes, I just lover her bright big blue eyes and now accompanying them are her ultra super long lashes. I knew she had them, they were just hiding between her eye lids but boy have they popped!

so there you have it. our little girl, three weeks old.

I got Peed on.....

twice.....

Last night was bath night, and I was in Jada's room getting her all undressed and she was so happy and alert so I called in daddy to snap some quick photos, when we quickly realized we have no naked booty pictures of out little Buggy so we decided to snap one... I kid you not about 3 seconds after this photo our little one let of a little coo and then the greater lower half of my shirt was suddenly soaked...

I hadn't a clue what to do... so I just put my hand in cup form below my shirt hoping to catch anything that wanted to go onto the carpet ( my brain couldn't tell me "hey chels, walk to the bathroom its like 2 seconds away and hold her over the sink..")

Nick and I laughed about it and head into the kitchen for bath time, as nick was getting her water ready I was holding her and talking to her when all of a sudden my arm,shirt,pants, all that was feeling trickles and then I heard it hit the hard wood floor and Im all " OMG she is peeing again" and yet my brain still didn't say CHELS HOLD HER OVER THE SINK.... instead I sat there holding her, laughing, getting Peed on.....

Oh well it was a great family moment, Nick and I got a good kick out of it and miss Jada was ever so content.


Lesson learned, do not remove diaper until moments before entering child in tub :)