A Simple Make Over

When I had Cailin, my work sent me a little care package, which was very nice of them. A tote bag (which has come in handy. It's what I take to my SIL (who watches her while I work). It also had a romper, sleep and play outfit, bib, blanket and a teddy bear. It all had my work logo on it, however, which left me wondering what I'm going to do with all of this stuff.

So off to Hobby Lobby I went. I thought I'd make it simple and just buy some iron on patches. I came across this cute make-your-own-monster iron on. It comes with several different shapes, eyes, mouths, arms, etc etc. You put it together the way you like. And it's pink! Super cute.

So here is the before:

And here's the after! I think it turned out super cute.

 

Up next, home made baby legs!

Blurry Pics

This girl is a mover and a shaker these days. Getting her baby aerobics on. Problem is, I can't seem to get a picture that's not blurry. All of the pictures look like this...

Plagiocephaly?

Plagio... what? I don't even know how to pronounce that word! Remember in my 2 Month post when I mentioned Cai's misshapen head? Apparently it's Plagiocephaly (or flat head syndrome). To sum it up - Flat and misshapen head. It's caused by laying on one side as a preference. Or even in utero. I definitely think she was laying this way in utero as well. Girlfriend was really low the whole pregnancy, and head down for a long time (before my 3rd trimester even). Ever since she was born she preferred her right side.

We had an appointment with the head doctor/helmet people this morning last Friday ( I started writing this a week ago). It went pretty well. They started by taking pictures of her head. She was so good! She only cried (as you can see in the bottom left picture) when she was turned away from the lights, toys and Mommy.

Please excuse the crappy cell phone pictures

 You can really tell the best on this one. Yikes!

 Just for fun :)

After they took pictures, they took measurements of her head. Then the doctor came in and we talked. Cai's too little for a helmet at this point. She showed us some stretches for her neck. 3 different ones to do at every diaper change. Also to do lots of tummy time. She also mentioned limiting time in the swing, bouncy chair, and car seat. This is the hardest part. It's been hell this past week keeping her out of the swing. That's the only place she'll nap. She's already refusing sleep because she is SO interested in the world now, add not being able to nap in the swing =  baby insomnia. She's been so fussy. It's been hell for the both of us, until I finally give in and let her take a nap in the swing. Anyway, if her head is still looking like this in 4-6 weeks we go back to get fitted for the helmet.


So far we've been doing pretty good with the neck stretches, tummy time and all that. I think I'm starting to see a very slight improvement. Yay! So let's pray/cross our fingers that she doesn't need the stupid helmet. It's really super expensive. Although my insurance covers it 90%, they're considered out of network for some reason, so they reimburse us. Don't ask me where we're going to get the money if we need it. Ugh!

I just purchased this Boppy Noggin pillow thing. I can't do this no swing and bouncy thing. We need the swing/bouncy chair for all of us to stay sane. It just really breaks my heart that my 2.5month old baby is only sleeping 20 minutes the entire day! That's just not right. I know she's tired. As soon as give up and put her in the swing she's out for hours. You can insert this Noggin Pillow in all those things and it's really supposed to help with the flat head problem. The reviews are great and say they really helped with their babies flat heads. I will still limit her time in the swing/bouncy meaning I won't have her in there all day, but when we gotta give in, she's going in there. Saturday I sat around all day, and she would fall asleep 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there and then wake up. She was so fussy and crying all day because she was over tired.  So we'll see.

Wordless Wednesday - All Smiles!

 Pay no attention to the spit up...

2 Months!

Cailin is 2 months old as of yesterday!

Things have gotten much better this month! Starting around 6 weeks, things started getting better. She's no longer crying for hours on end. Actually she's not really crying that much anymore. Still fussy and whiny a little bit, but at least she's not screaming at the top of her lungs for hours on end anymore.Thank God. I thought I was going to have to give her back there for a minute. ;p

We had her 2 month doctor appointment yesterday, and it went well. She got all those shots, poor thing. I changed pediatrician, and I love love LOVE her new doctor! There wasn't anything necessary wrong with the other doctor, I just for one hated the location. It was in the same building of my OB, which is at the hospital and there is never any parking. That drives me insane. Also I felt like the office was kind of "ghetto" and this may be mean, but she had a really thick accent and I could barely understand what she was saying. The new doctor is super nice and even more informative! I've been thinking about doing a delayed vaccination schedule. She was very supportive of that and really whatever I decided to do, and gave me more information about how to do that. For now, I'm keeping her on a regular schedule, and  I'm just watching to see how she reacts to them. I may delay them later. We'll see. Really the shots weren't bad. I thought she was going to get poked 5 or 6 times. It was 4 needles, 2 in each leg, and one oral vaccine.

 I decided we needed to use a bigger stuffed animal. It's impossible to get the baby and the bear to sit up straight at the same time.

 "What up, homies."

 "Okay, Mom. Enough with the photoshoot, and get these boots off me, now!"

Stats:

* Weight: 11lbs 6oz  -  75 percentile, wow!
* Height: 21 3/4 in - 25 percentile. She only grew 1/4 inch since last month.
* Head: 15in - 40 percentile.
* Food: She's eating 4oz of formula every 3-4 hours
* Sleep: She's still up every 3 hours on the dot! We usually get one 4 hour stretch every night. We've had one night where she had a 5 hour stretch, then a 4 hour stretch. That was awesome. Then we had another night where she had a 6 hour stretch! I was so excited when I woke up at 6AM for the first time that night, that I couldn't go back to bed. But neither lasted and they were only a one night deal.
Oh! She's sleeping in her PNP (pack and play for you non moms out there) full time now! She's only in the bed for a couple hours in the morning when she wants to wake up, but Mommy's not ready. She'll dose off in my arms and then that way I can keep sticking the binky in her mouth. haha!
* She's in 3 month clothing and size 2 diapers!

What else... Oh her lopsided, flat head. So... she favors her right side. She ALWAYS has her head laying to the right. Well I noticed her head getting flat, so I asked the doctor and she said yep, it's pretty flat. Actually a little worse than even I thought. She said it's pushing her face forward on that side and everything. So... her orders are lots of tummy time, and to get her to turn her head to the left. It should correct it since she's still so little, but if not we might have to do the helmet. Dun dun dunnn! Oh god no! Not the HELMET! That's like one of my worst fears. Yeah, I'm shallow like that. Her head is for headbands, not helmets! And don't lie, when you see a baby with a helmet you're thinking "what the hell is wrong with that baby?" So yeah, she's doing pretty good since we left with keeping her head to the left. I thought she would fight me on it, since she is the most stubborn baby ever, but she really hasn't. It was hard getting her to sleep that way. I'd turn it to the left when I put her down, but every time when I woke up it was to the right again. Ugh. At least I'm keeping her head to the left most of the time. Not sure what to do about night time.

New Roof, New Paint.

Back in October we got a pretty bad hail storm. I mean, golf ball sized hail and bigger!

See? And, this was after it had melted in the yard a little.

Anyway, roofing companies and even car repair companies capitalized on that storm. At first we were like, "nah. It's fine. We don't need a new roof". Then by the 5th roofing company knocked on our door, Husband told him we probably didn't really get much damage, so we don't need a roof. That sales guy took him up on the roof and showed him that there was indeed quite a bit of damage. Plus we figured a new roof basically for free(we would have to pay our deductible, but that just comes out of the check they send us, so no money out of pocket) was a good idea.

We got the check and a new roof. Then we decided that it's definitely time to paint the exterior. We've been wanting to to this for some time. And since Husband can do anything himself, it was very inexpensive.

Here's a before picture of the exterior. Don't you just love that mauve paint?(Click on pictures to make larger for a better view)

And here it is now with a new roof and fresh coat of paint.

We decided to give the door a pop of color. Husband also added some trim to the door to make it look brand new! I wish I had taken a before picture. The middle piece was barely hanging on by a thread.

I'm so happy with the way it turned out.

ABC

So I just realized something. Our initials are ABC. Totally not intentional. Cute! Thinking about changing the blog name to something about ABC's, but I'm not creative enough. Any suggestions?

And I leave you with baby pics...

Her first sponge bath at home. Pay no attention to my fugly kitchen in the background. That's why you have never seen a picture of my kitchen. I HATE it. Anyway, little baby bath....

More recent. Look how much she's already grown. She's getting chunky!