Lillian's 23rd Week

Takin' it back to the 80's and rockin' my leg warmers.

Nursing: Lillian did great this week. She fed a normal amount of time. We did end up starting rice cereal again and it helped with her sleeping. there was only one night I forgot to give to to her and that was the only night she woke up every couple of hours. I only give her the rice cereal after her 7pm feeding and it is only on 1Tbsp to 2 oz of milk. A few times she would wake early from naps which was hard because she gets hungry earlier. I try to hold her off until 15 minutes before her normal scheduled time. She usually does great but when it hits that mark she is ready. 

Sleeping: She did great sleeping. I put her to bed around 7:30pm when she is finished eating. Most of the time she is quiet but we have caught her a few times talking to herself. She sleeps all night until about 5:15am. I usually go in there and put her paci back in or put her in her swing and she either wakes up at about 6:45 or I have to go wake her up after 7am. She sleeps longer in her swing. Her morning naps last longer (about 2-21/2 hrs.) her afternoon naps are about 2 hours and her evening naps are usually just 45min.-1hr.

Other Happenings: 

- We finally got a video monitor and I LOVE it! It is an IP camera we got from Amazon for just $80 and then downloaded a free app on our phones, computer, and iPad. It has audio too but we just use the video for now. She moves a lot when she sleeps.

We busted Lillian partying in her crib about 2 hours after we put her to bed.

- We still swaddle her legs to sleep in the crib. I tried to put her to sleep without it but she does not fall asleep and the one time she did she only slept 20 minutes before she woke herself up.

- TMI WARNING: I promised Kevin I would never post about spit up and poopy diapers on Facebook so I'll put my question here. Lillian is about 16lbs ( i weighed her on our home scale with me and subtracted my own weight) so she should be technically in size 2 diapers right? Well she has a poopy diaper about every other day and she is ever in her carseat she ALWAYS has a blow out. Do I need to move up a size or any tips on what to do when she is in her carseat to prevent this. We have had to throw away a couple outfits because they were lost causes. 

- Lillian loves to boogie. We dance together during the credits of movies or TV shows I watch.

- We are raising the next Beethoven see video proof here

- Lillian got to swing at the park for the first time and seemed to like it. She is not a fan of how bright the sun is though. 

Boutique Style without Boutique Price

Being a mom of a beautiful 5 month old now I have come to realize girls clothes are expensive. (Probably all children clothes) but I refuse to pay $35 for a dress that Lillian will only be able to wear for one season before she grows out of it. I hardly ever spend that much money on something for myself and I have clothes I still wear from back in high school (10yrs. ago). Not going to mention any brands but you other moms have seen those cute outfits and then gasp when you see the sale price is still $55!!!

Here lies the dilemma though. Those $35+ dresses, jumpers, and bubbles are sooo... cute. And a lot of those smocked dresses are timeless. I wore them was I was young. But I just can't justify it. So what do we do? We find the deals. Trust me they are out there.

Most of Lillian's clothes were bought by Nana or her Aunt Nina, they have good taste. Baby Gap is where a lot of her everyday clothes have come from, and the onesies are from department stores like TJMaxx or Kohls( we almost always have a 30% off coupon for Kohls). These stores have great deals. But what about those expensive cute dresses? The answer is consignment! You have to be careful though at these sales because they aren't always way cheaper ( the previous mom remembered how much she paid for that dress and wants to make the money back). But for the most part it's a deal! Here are two little outfits i got at a sale today.

This swimsuit is for next summer and was monogramed. I just unstitched the monogram and will either replace it with Lillian's monogram or an applique. It was only $5! Whoop Whoop! (I'm a sucker for seersucker)

This was a little bit more pricey,$25 for top and pants, but it's a size 2 so I figured she may be able to wear it a little longer than a month or two. Plus I can add a shirt underneath for cooler weather and add a little applique or monogram.

Other places I've seen are Facebook groups of moms doing resales of their kids clothes. Kind of like a yard sale but through Facebook. This is what I would do because you just take a picture and post with a price and anyone can view it. No worrying about attaching them to hangers with safety pins. Small businesses or boutiques also have Facebook pages and will generally have a daily or weekly deal! I recently got this cute little dress for Lillian through Hush Little Baby.

source

It was a daily deal for just $16 and while on the Facebook page I noticed another cute dress

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for $60 but they mentioned a coupon code to get 60% so I got that for a steal at $14.40!  Granted there is shipping cost always involved with these items but it keeps me from having to get  little one ready and out and about and saves gas money. Plus who doesn't love when you get a package in the mail! ***UPDATE DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM! I have yet to receive my order almost 3 months later and I emailed them twice and no response. E tracking number they emailed me only shows a label was created for this package but I that it has never shipped****

The last place I've been able to find a few good deals online are websites like Zulily. Zulily is a daily deals site featuring up to 90% of apparel and other items like toys, shoes, and housewares. I have found some cute dresses on here cheaper than I have at a consignment sale. Zulily is done through a membership but don't worry it's a free membership and if you refer friends you get store credit. ( if you don't already have an account tell them I sent you when you sign up) plus if you buy something in the morning and then realize later that the other toy was actually a good deal too so you want to buy it, no problem. You only pay for shipping once in a day. Here is something I bought recently from Jelly the Pug on Zulily for $19.99. I don't remember the original price but I believe it was around $40-$50.

(Bad phone picture)

Two more pieces of advice; 1. You can  to learn to sew the clothes yourself. I am not that talented. Or  maybe you can find a friend who would be willing to whip up a new outfit (they saw on Pinterest) for a small fee. Buy the fabric at hobby lobby and use a coupon to save money as well. 2. Buy stuff out of season. Before i even had lillian my mom and i went shopping at a department store. Went over to the clearance racks and racked up on some adorable outfits. Lillian's closet ranges with clothes from 3months- 3T. Eventually she will fit into the clothes and we try to guesstimate what size she will be wearing for each season.

Lillian's 22nd Week/5 Months

Happy 22 Weeks Old!

Lillian also turned 5 months old yesterday 8/19/13

Nursing/Sleeping: The two go hand in hand. We did well eating this last week. She was off of the rice cereal this week but she turned 5 months old yesterday and I felt like she didn't eat much at her last feeding so I gave her 1tsp with 1 oz of milk. That was the only night this last week she did not wake up. She slept from 7:30pm-5:30am then I put her in the swing since she was still sleepy and she slept until 7:15 when daddy went in to wake her up to eat. We will see tonight if it was a coincidence or not. She still goes down great for naps but wakes up early. Her awake time only lasts about 1hr. 15min.- 1hr. 30min. before her sleep cues kick in; yawning, rubbing eyes, and whiney. I know if I keep her awake longer then she may sleep closer to her next feeding but it's best for everyone if she goes down right when she gets tired. Also her morning nap and early evening nap are getting shorter and shorter but she is wide awake when I go in to soothe her. Her midday nap is at least 2 hours. Most of the time she is ready to wake up and we are welcomed by a HUGE toothless grin!

Other Happenings:

- She is starting to support herself sitting up more. Not a pro yet but we are getting there. 

- Lillian got a new toy to keep her upright more during her awake times and she loves it but only for 15 min or so, unless someone else sits with her and entertains her. She has started flinging herself back in the seat of the toy (she associates the seat with her doorway jumper and thinks this toy does the same thing) so I put a pillow or thick blanket behind her for support. 

- She has noticed when I walk out of the room and she starts to fuss, I just tell her what i'm doing and she goes back to playing. lol

- Lillian's hair is so red in pictures but looks dark in regular light

Her shirt says "Daddy's girl" and Daddy makes sure he gets some Lillian love whenever he is home. 

Lillian has more hair than Daddy!

Lillian's New Toy: Bright Starts Around We Go

After lots of research and trying to find a deal we finally bought Lillian an exersaucer. I bravely put it out there on Facebook to get some opinions on what we should buy. I appreciated all the opinions and did take the advice given out. I searched garage sales, Craigslist, Amazon, Babies r us, and Walmart to find the type I wanted. The walkers didn't have enough toys on them and the regular exersaucers were too stationary and big. We also passed on the jumperoo because we already have a doorway jumper,which she loves but the bouncing makes her spit up even more than she already does. The two we liked were these: 

Evenflo In The Garden Walk Around Exersaucer

Bright Starts Around We Go Activity Station

  The benefit we saw in this style is that it still moved like the walkers but was also stationary so we wouldn't have to worry about it falling over or down the stairs ( if we had any). The Evenflo Walk Around was not in stock anywhere. I liked it better because of its cuteness but Kevin liked the Bright Starts because it would "force" her to walk around to play with the different toys versus having the toys around her seat. We ended up buying the Bright Starts Around We Go. I hate that I couldn't find it on sale or used anywhere and the price was more than I wanted to pay ($89.99) but so far it was worth it. Lillian loves it and there is a great variety of toys. 

Details of this product:

• toys include frog popper, spinner ball, ratcheting bee stalk toy, piano and mirror station
• Removable snack tray is easy to clean
• Designed to grow with baby through the toddler years
• Rotates 360 degrees allowing baby to walk around play table
• Three play modes with two plush stalk 

As soon as I sat her in it she started playing. 

Happy for her new toy.

When Lillian is older and walking on her own we can remove the seat and just use the activity table

Lillian is not quite tall enough yet to reach the ground with both feet to walk (she has little legs and long torso). And the seat is so big we have to stuff a blanket behind her.

Overall I am very happy with our purchase. I would give it 4.5 stars, bright colors, lots of toys, easy to assemble. Not quite 5 because there isn't a way to adjust the height since she is too short. The price also seemed high to me but all of these types of activity stations are pretty high. It is great to have a place for her to play where she can sit up and I don't have to worry about her falling. The only other ways we had her sitting up were the doorway jumper and her Bumbo. She always leaned forward too much in the Bumbo and spit up all the time in both. After two days she has only spit up once in the exersaucer which is AMAZING if you know my spit happy baby.  

Lillian's 21st Week

I'm a happy 21 week old!

Nursing: Doing great. Haven't needed the fenugreek this week and I stopped giving Lillian the rice cereal. It quit giving it to her by accident because I forgot to take it with us to my parent's new house. She slept so great there I just decided to hold off on giving her more and she has been doing fine without it.

Sleep: No longer waking up at the 3:30am and 5am times and if she does happen to wake up in the middle of the night she'll soothe herself back to sleep. She has however started waking at 6:15ish and won't soothe herself so i'll bring her to my bed and sometimes she'll fall back asleep which means I can to. (Kevin is already gone to the gym by this time).

Other Happenings:

- If Lillian will let me lay her on her back this is the position she is generally in. She loves her feet. 

- Nana and Papa finally moved into their new house so we went to visit and help unpack last week for a few days while Daddy worked. Nana got Lillian a new toy. Maybe the next time we visit she'll be able to reach the floor and see the toy is even more fun.

and Lillian played with one of Mommy's baby dolls

- Lillian is very content playing by herself. I was in another room and I heard her laughing so I went to see and she had gotten to a toy I placed off to the side. It was like she was so proud of herself for getting to it.  

- While unpacking at Nana and Papa's I found a bracelet my mom had gotten Lillian so she wore it to church on Sunday. I thought she would try and pull it off but i'm not sure she even knew it was there. Thankfully she doesn't realize I put bows on her head either. (not a great picture but you can kind of see it) 

- I have had Mommy brain this week. I would forget to pack Lillian a burp cloth or a paci if we went out. One time I brought a bottle but forgot a nipple. I also lost my keys so I retraced my steps from that morning and this is where i found them. Luckily it was just an hour or so they were there. 

- Just yesterday I noticed Lillian was waking early from her nap and was very fussy whenever I laid her anywhere. She also started pulling at her ear so I'm thinking it's either teething or an ear ache. Hopefully it is just teething because I know I had horrible ears problems as a baby and hope she does not have to go through that. 

Lillian's 20th Week

20 Weeks old!

Nursing: Nothing really different this week. Still feeding about every 4 hours and giving rice cereal at the last feeding (7ish no longer doing 6pm and 9pm because she would be sound asleep by 8 and i hated waking her up). I'm still taking Fenugreek but just in the mornings and that has helped her get full feedings.

Sleep: The rice cereal is keeping her full through the night but she still wakes up for soothing around 3:30 and 5 still. If she wakes up anytime after 6 I just bring her into the bed with me since Kevin has already left to workout and she'll fall right back asleep until I wake her up no later than 7:15 am.

Other Happenings:
- Had another fun visit to Indiana to see family this last weekend.
- Lillian is trying so hard to sit up. She ends up doing what looks like a crunch so she'll probably have a nice 6 pack in a few more weeks. :)

- She is such a happy baby when she is on her schedule. We aren't strict about it with all the traveling we have been doing but we noticed on multiple occasions she is much more pleasant when she is on the schedule so that has helped us (and family members) realize the importance of good feedings and naps. 

- Lillian does much better with tummy time. she'll lay longer and usually roll over to her back when she is tired of being on her tummy.

- She hasn't rolled from her back to tummy yet but this weekend there were a couple of times i thought it would happen, she was so close and have her legs turned but would come back to her back.  

One Last Summer Road Trip

The theme of our summer was right out of Johnny Cash's song "I've Been Everywhere". We've been to Atlanta, Nashville, Myrtle Beach, Oklahoma City, Toledo, the Lake, and now Logansport. Lillian is quite the traveler already. At the beginning of the summer she would sleep most of the car ride no matter how far we traveled. She still does great in the car but her naps aren't her usual full nap and she fights falling asleep in her car seat. I can get her to fall asleep easily by patting her chest for a few minutes and if she is really upset we blast some classic rock on the radio and that distracts her enough to calm her down. We don't have to stop a lot but when we do I always try to get her out of the car seat even if for a minute because she gets so hot in it. The need to invent a car seat with better ventilation on the backside.

This last week we drove up to Logansport, Indiana to see Kevin's Gammy and Pappy and Uncle Alan and Aunt Robin. It was a relaxing weekend with good food and good family. Saturday morning we went out to the gun range. We went a couple years ago but i was too scared to shoot any of the big guns so this time i tried them all.

Kevin shooting the 357 Magnum

Me and the 357 Magnum.

Shooting the AR15. I actually shot really well with this one.

I don't remember what this is but it shot 45s and 38s

We shared targets so the only ones i know were mine were the big holes because I could see them appear from far away when I shot. The rest I couldn't see where they hit. I obviously don't have the best aim with hand guns.

Lillian snapping beans for the first time

Her way to snap beans via mouth

Taking a ride on the ranger

Lillian and cousin Alaina

Had to take a ride on the tractor too

Saturday afternoon we took Lillian on her first carousel ride. This was a special memory. Lillian was the 4th generation to ride this carousel, Pappy, Kevin's Mom (Nena), Kevin and now Lillian. 

Pappy, Daddy, and Lillian

Gammy and Lillian

Lillian and her great-grandparents who love her so much! We had such a great visit with family. We even got to bring back some fresh green beans and sweet corn. Had a wonderful last trip of the summer but glad to be home for awhile.