Pumpkin Patch

We went to Sunwest Farms on Saturday morning. It was a lot cooler than we thought it was going to be so we only spent about 10 minutes there. We headed into the building with the pumpkins and took a couple of pics and left without even buying any. The pics we got turned out great though so it wasn't a wasted trip. We actually have proof now that she smiles! lol...

Yesterday we went to Campbell's, a large nursery/garden center in town. I thought we could take her picture there, too, since they decorate really neat for the seasons and buy some pumpkins. We quickly realized that mid-October is not the time to be buying pumpkins or looking for fall photo backgrounds because according to them, it's Christmas already! The entire inside was decked out in red, green, silver, and gold. Trees were up and decorated. Not a pumpkin display to be found. We headed back outside and there were literally only about 20 pumpkins left! We picked out 3 and headed home. Note to self: buy pumpkins at the beginning of October next year. Or, just get them at Hy-Vee because they had a TON left when we went there for a few groceries afterwards.

Brianna is 3 1/2 months old now (15 weeks) now and it's amazing how much she is growing...not so much in size, she's still tiny ...but on Saturday she laughed out loud for the first time and she found her voice over the weekend, too. And boy does she like to hear herself! It sounds like she's saying "hi" over and over and over and over....! We imitate her and she smiles. Usually I have to start arousing her from sleep at 6:20 during the week but this morning I heard her in her room doing her "hi hi hi hi" thing so I went in and she was just laying there talking to the polka-dots on the crib bumper and smiling. Such a happy baby!

She's been able to roll over from her tummy to her back for about 3 weeks now and is really close to going from her back to her tummy. She gets half way over to her side but hasn't figured out how to go completely over. She's content just laying there on her side watching TV but I think she'll get it in the next couple of weeks.

I think we really lucked out because she's such a good baby. Yes, the first 4 weeks were rough and there were more than a few times where we both thought, "what the heck have we gotten ourselves into?" but the last couple of months have been so much better. Unless she's hungry she doesn't really cry. Bedtime is easy...after her last bottle of the day, Bill lays her down in her bed still somewhat awake and she goes to sleep on her own. She's been sleeping through the night since she was 8 weeks old. She's a good napper, too. When she starts getting tired and fussy we can lay her down with her paci and she falls asleep. Every now and then she needs "replugged" if it falls out before she's asleep, but not all of the time. Now that I'm back to work and don't see her during the day, I usually let her nap in my arms in the evening if she's tired. We both miss the cuddles. =)

While she likes to cuddle, she also does very well on her own and is quite independent. Given that we can't always entertain her as housework, etc. still needs to get done, this is such a good thing! We can lay her on her activity mat and she'll play by herself just fine. There have been times where I was in the kitchen washing bottles and she's fallen asleep without making a peep.

I lurk on the message boards of babycenter.com and as I read numerous entries about "my baby won't sleep," or "she cries unless I'm holding her," I'm even more thankful. Granted, things could change down the road but for now we really can't complain.

This and That...and Weekend Plans

Brianna is getting over her cold which is good. She's still pretty plugged up in the morning but once I get her nose suctioned out she's good to go till night time.

She's been wanting to sit up or stand up instead of just lying on the ground as much so I decided to put together her bouncer/entertainer thing last night. Forty-five minutes later I put her in the seat...only to discover she's too little for it. I had the platform underneath it raised as high as it would go and her feet were still at least an inch from touching. Her poor little arms are too short to reach any of the fun toys, too. I even put a blanket in with her to scooch her up some but it wasn't enough. I could tell she liked it though because I pushed the buttons that light up and play music and she was smiling and trying to reach them. The box said "4m+" so we'll try it in another month and see if she's any closer to fitting.

Tomorrow we plan to go tailgating before the Husker game. Our neighbors have a spot across downtown and we have an open invitation to join them whenever we can make it. It's supposed to be in the 50s tomorrow so we're going to head down there. Brianna has a Husker cheerleading outfit but since we'll be outside and I don't want her legs to get chilly, I'll dress her in a white long sleeve onesie with her black and red short sleeve Husker onesie on top of that with a pair of black pants. She also has a Husker blanket so we'll take that, too.

I also want to go pick out pumpkins this weekend, probably on Sunday. Since it'll be nice again I'd like to go to an actual pumpkin patch instead of just to a grocery store. I was talking to a coworker and she suggested Sunwest Farms, which is a nursery/garden center in town that has a pumpkin patch. She said they have neat displays which are perfect for pictures and they have pumpkins for sale around the building so you don't have to go out into the actual field to pick them, which would be better given Brianna's age. Plus, they don't charge anything (other than the price of the pumpkin, of course) unlike the other two area pumpkin patches. One place charges $12.25 per person; the other is $7 per person (children under age two are free at each place) and that's just to get in! You still have to pay for your pumpkins on top of that! Is that outrageous or what?! Granted, they're bigger and probably have more things to do...but given she's only 3 months old it wouldn't be worth it. Sunwest Farms will be perfectly fine for several more years.

I'll post pics from the patch later, but for now here are some pics from earlier this week....

Her First Cold

Brianna came down with her first cold last weekend at 14 weeks. She isn't running a fever but her nose is really stuffed up. I've been putting Little Noses saline drops in it a few times a day to loosen up the mucus so I can suction it out to give her some relief. She hates the drops and the aspirator bulb (who wouldn't?) and screams and moves all over as I'm trying to stick it in her nose. I know it'll make her feel better, but I hate that it makes her so mad. Plus, I'm afraid I'm going to poke her eye out with the end of it since she won't lie still. After a while she gives up and lets me get it all out. She also has a little bit of a cough because of the drainage, but it's not too bad. We bought a cool mist humidifier for her room so we've ran it all night the past two nights.

I was able to stay home with her yesterday because I had the day off (holiday) but she went to daycare today. I know I can't call in every time she has a runny nose but I felt bad leaving her there hardly able to breathe. I told C to suction her nose a few times today so hopefully she did. I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing her.

Here's a picture I took a couple of weeks ago. She has a tendency to put her hands up as soon as I start to take the picture...here's a classic example of that!

3 months old...

Our little girl turned 3 months old yesterday so we had her pictures taken at Portrait Innovations over the weekend. While the pictures turned out good, we probably won't have them taken there again...at least not on a Saturday. They were really busy and there was lots of waiting around due to the way they do their shoots. We weren't just in one room; they use two with different backgrounds available in each so we had to wait about 15 minutes for the second room to open up. Then we had to wait until a computer was available to view them. Our original appointment time was 2:10 and we didn't get done until 4:00 by the time we had to keep waiting. Then the pictures were supposed to be ready in 30 minutes, but the printer ran out of paper and they got backed up so they weren't. We didn't have time to wait any longer because we had to get my husband to church because he was singing in the praise team and I needed to pump. So we didn't actually pick them up till yesterday, which was fine really.

They took a total of 46 pictures....and she didn't smile for a single one! lol... I wasn't too surprised though. In the morning when she first wakes up she's full of smiles but for the most part she's a pretty serious baby. She studies the world around her and takes it all in.

Here are two poses we ended up ordering:

We took a dress that we wanted her pics taken in, too, but they don't wait for outfit changes. In other words, they would've done another group's pictures and we would've had to wait AGAIN for a room to open up. We didn't have time and she was getting tired of having bright lights in her face anyway. Her baptism is this weekend and she's wearing that dress so I'll just be sure to have our friend get some nice pictures then.

When it's time to have her 6 month pictures taken in January we'll go to Sears instead. I know there that your appointment is done all at once, in one room, and they allow for outfit changes without squeezing in other groups at the same time. Their prices are about the same; the only difference is we'll have to wait for the pictures and not have them the same day....which isn't that big of a deal. Hopefully she's more smiley by then, too! =)

12 Weeks Later and Back to Work

Hello again! It's been forever since I posted but I've been a bit busy! Now that I'm back to work I plan to blog more. I have more down time here than at home! lol...

Brianna turned 12 weeks this past Saturday and will officially be 3 months old this coming Sunday. It's hard to believe she's that old already. She's changed so much! There are times when I go in to get her up from a nap and she seriously looks older than she did when I put her down.

She is getting bigger and gaining weight at a steady pace. We were having some problems initially but she is gaining about 6 ounces a week which is really good. She's still "dainty and petite" as her pediatrician says. At her 8 week appointment she was in the 50th percentile for weight and only the 25th percentile for height. I'm not sure how long she is now but as of last Friday she's up to 11 lbs 7 oz (she was born at 7 lbs 9 oz) so she's doing well.

I gave nursing a shot but it didn't go so well. My milk came in really fast and I was engorged by the end of the first night at home. The next morning I started seeing a lactation consultant. Since my breasts were so swollen, she couldn't latch on to eat so we pumped milk out for her, which was fed to her via a syringe for the first several days (she wouldn't take a bottle at first). Once the swelling was down, we tried nursing again and discovered that while she latched very well, she was very sleepy at the breast. In order to keep her awake, I had to switch her from side to side every 5 minutes to keep her somewhat awake and also stroke her cheek and move her arms, etc., which was frustrating and tiring. And again, since she wasn't getting much milk out....I was still having to pump and feed her the expressed milk via a bottle. That routine lasted for a couple of weeks.

When she was about 4 weeks old I thought she was staying awake a little better so I stopped pumping and let her nurse exclusively for one week. She only gained a few ounces that week and my nipples were cracked and blistered because instead of sucking the milk out, she was squeezing it out by compressing my nipple. I decided that was the last of her nursing days and that I would begin pumping.

So here we are at 12 weeks and she's only had breast milk....not a single drop of formula. For that I pat myself on the back. It's not easy to exclusively pump and takes a lot of time. In order to increase my supply, I initially started out pumping 7-8 times a day for 20 minutes each time and now I'm down to 5 pumps for 15-30 minutes depending on the time of day. I'm averaging 38 ounces a day and she eats 25-27 ounces so I'm able to freeze 10 ounces every day. My initial goal was to make it to 3 months and since I made it, I'm going to go for 6 months.

For the most part she's a really good baby now and doesn't give us much trouble. The first four weeks (at least) were really rough though. In addition to the feeding issues and two weeks of non-stop crying from 7 pm - 11 pm, my hormones were all out of whack and I seriously think I cried more those first 4 - 5 weeks than I had in my previous 35 years of life! I was *this* close to getting medication but the fog lifted.

She started sleeping through the night (7-8 hours) around week 8. She generally goes to bed around 10 pm and sleeps till 6 am. During the day she eats every 3-4 hours depending on how many ounces she eats from her bottle.

Last week she rolled over for the first time, from her tummy to her back in both directions. We were so excited and proud of her. =)

Today was her first day of daycare. My husband went with me to drop her off and I'm glad he was there. I didn't want to let her go and leave and I started to cry. He gave us a hug and the daycare lady did, too. I cried a bit on the way to work but not too much. And I waited till after lunch to call and check on her. (She was doing fine...napping.)

Here are some pics....

4 weeks...

6 weeks....

8 weeks...

10 weeks....

12 weeks...

12 weeks...

I will hopefully update this more often, or at least to post some pictures. We are having her 3-month pictures taken this weekend and her baptism is October 11, so I'll have pictures to post from that.

Photo Shoot

Just a few pics from our photo shoot last weekend when she was 7 days old....the photographer will have the rest ready next week. We can't wait to see the full gallery!

Pictures ... Finally....

I've finally been able to create a web album with some pics of Brianna. I'm really missing my computer at work! lol...

Click on "slideshow" to view the pics a bit larger. Enjoy...

http://picasaweb.google.com/Luhmans/Brianna02?authkey=Gv1sRgCMfY45TEx7eUEQ&feat=directlink