Anna's Blessing Day

      We decided to go to Moses Lake for her blessing so that the majority of family wouldn't have to travel.  Easter weekend gave us a great opportunity to have a bunch of family there and for them to meet our darling little love.  She was definitely a favorite and was loved by all.  She got passed around a little too much for my taste when I wasn't around, but she came out unscathed and never ended up getting sick so I can't complain too much. Her cousins LOVED her and couldn't wait to hold her.  Our nephew, Jacob, was really interested with her.  He has a younger sister now who is almost a year and I think he's is interested in these little being that are actually smaller than he is.  Here's a video of him trying to hold her.  He's so gentle and cute.



      Funny story about Jacob:  When I had gone into the other room to pump, I was of course covered, and he was in the room playing.  So, when I turned on the pump, he looked over at me and asked, "What is that?".  I told him it was a machine that helped me make milk for the baby.  Well, that got him all kind of interested and he wanted to see how this worked.  I lifted the cover just enough for him to see the milk dropping into the bottle and he LOVED it.  He would lay his head down on the couch so he could just hang out and watch it drip.  When his mom came in the room he ran over to her, pointed to me, and said, "Mommy, she's making choclat milk for da baby!".  Haha!

      We actually managed to get to the church a little early and I noticed the bishop wasn't there and wondered if the counselors were aware of the blessing.  I figured they would at least be able to figure it out since there we were with a brand new baby in a white blessing dress.  We waited  and realized they didn't know.  During Sacrament, my mom wrote on the back of a small flyer letting them in on our plan and it was sent up.  He gave my dad a nod and we thought were good to go.  Then, towards the end of the Sacrament Ty took Anna out to be changed since there was a stinky surprise in her diaper and that wasn't something we wanted to leak out onto her dress.  Both of our moms asked me where he was going since they would be doing the blessing soon.  I didn't think it would take long, but apparently he had to change her onsie (the dress was fine, thank goodness) and that was task in and of itself.  When one of the counselors got up to announce the rest of the meeting he mentioned the note, but only talked about the Relief Society activity the flyer was for.  Nothing about the blessing.  Oh dear.  We were resigned to think that if we couldn't get the message across, we would just end up doing it at my parents house.  Eventually, my dad was able to get the attention of the counselor and Anna was able to be blessed at the end of the meeting before the closing hymn.  Everyone thought that it ended up being a great way to end Sacrament Meeting.  Including Anna.  At the end of her blessing, when Ty lifted her up for all to see, she stretched out her arms triumphantly.  We all got a kick out of it.

       The cap didn't end up being used during the blessing, but when I put it on later for pictures it completed the outfit perfectly.  SO CUTE!  I was sad I didn't do it earlier.  It also helped cover up her cradle cap.

      Ty gave her a wonderful blessing, especially the part that talked about us knowing how special she is.  She really is a blessing and a light in our lives.  We enjoyed being in Moses Lake, being with family, and having everyone meet out little one. 

Anna is 2 Months

      We love our little baby girl.  She is definitely the apple of our eyes.  It's amazing how she continues to grow and progress.  Every day she gets cuter and more beautiful.  Of course that's just my completely unbiased opinion, but she's pretty much the cutest baby that ever lived.  I'm in love with everything about her.  How could you not love this face?

      Being that she's my first one, I'm still kind of struggling to figure "it" out.  "It" being life with a baby.  How does anyone ever get anything done?  I almost feel like I'm doing double duty because even though my milk supply is up, I'm about four ounces behind what she's eating so I pump and then feed her.  Timing is everything with that.  So far, I've been working with a single pump, but I just bought a double so hopefully this tedious process can speed up a bit once that gets here.  Oh I hope.  Right now, I'm working on borrowed time to get things done while she is napping, wiggling on the floor, or with her daddy.  Thank goodness he works from home.  I don't know how I'd do it without him.  We make a pretty good team.  I love my partner.

      My freezer meals are gone and I'm struggling to remember to prep something.  Our nutrition is definitely lacking of late.  Hopefully, I can get my mind running again so we can have a decent meal at a decent time.  Wouldn't that be nice.   Anna however, is not suffering and is eating like a champ.  We finally figured out the right amount for her and she's eating every 2 1/2 hours, which makes for a nice little chubby cheek baby.  I love it.  Though it's still funny to me that her three cousins (one of which who was born on the same day) are all in 6-9 month close and she's barely reaching the limit of the 0-3 month outfits. 

      Some things we are loving about Anna right now:

- Still sleeping 6-7 hours.  There have been a couple of occasions where she got woke up randomly in the night, but then slept for a good while after.  I decided to stop pumping in the middle of the night and just wait until an hour or two before she wakes up and I feel much better because of it. 

- Her smiles and almost laughs are so enchanting!  Getting her to smile is my favorite game.  In the morning when she wakes up, just before getting her out of the co-sleeper, I lean over her and say, "Good Morning" and get the biggest smile in return.  Mornings become so much better because of that.  Another favorite is when she's on her blanket on the floor by herself and she thinks I've abandoned her and gets fussy, I come back and let her know I'm still close and she gives me a smile to show she's so pleased.  LOVE!  Ty loves her little indignant cough and when she flashes smiles in her sleep.  

- She still coos, but they are starting to turn into different sounds.  She's also using her tongue more to make sounds.  I can't wait for her to improve her communication.  Baby talk is adorable.

- When she gets really excited she pumps her foot.  It's like a Jersey Shore fist pump, but with her foot.  We have nick-named her Thumper because of it. 

- She sleeps best when she's on mommy's chest.  If she's in a deep enough sleep, I can transfer her to daddy or a warm blanket, but otherwise moving off of me is non-negotiable.  I can't say I hate the cuddling.  :)

- When she stares at me while eating from her bottle or in her daddy's lap.  I like to pretend I'm her favorite person.  ;)

      Some things we don't love so much:

- Her baby acne is gone, but it was replaced with the worst cradle cap anyone had ever seen.  It was really bad.  We couldn't do anything but put coconut oil on it and wait for it to go away.  Okay, confession, I picked at it some, but for the most part there really was nothing we could do.  We couldn't scrub it or  use the baby brushes because that irritated her skin terribly and put her in a lot of pain.  It's finally gone now, though there is a little bit of dryness going on and we still use the coconut oil for it (seriously LOVE that stuff).

- I almost always have to be holding her or having her in the bouncer for her to be content.  Getting anything done is just about impossible.  Unless I can hand her off to Ty it can't happen.  I'm hoping that she is finally getting better about being on the ground or in her swing for long enough for me to do things.

- She doesn't mind being on her back on the floor and wiggling, but tummy time is almost non-existent.  I'm a little concerned I coddle her too much and I'm not allowing her to get enough of that time in because she absolutely hates it.  Suggestions please!  I let her be on my chest so she can lift her head and she does a pretty good job of holding her head up, but obviously has room to grow.

- Nails.  Ugh.  I trim them one day and two days later there long enough again for her to scratch her face.  I could definitely do without that.

- In line with that, the scratching and roughing up her face.  She goes kind of nuts and doesn't understand that if she takes her binky or goes to sleep she'll feel a lot better.

- Peeing outside of her diaper....like while in the middle of being changed.  It's been happening a lot less, but from time to time we still have to change an entire outfit because of it.  

      All-in-all, Anna is a really great baby and we are so lucky.  She's my little buddy and I'm so happy to have a great bond with her already.

My daughter, the model.

Typical Myspace self-portrait picture.