Our Little 2 Month Old

This Saturday, Brynlee will be 2 1/2 months.  Someone pinch me.  Has it been 2 1/2 months already?!?  Can't believe my little beauty is already 2 1/2 months.  Seems like yesterday she was in my tummy.

At Brynlee's 2 month checkup, she weighed 11 lbs. and has stretched out to 23 inches long.  The pediatrician says she had a big growth spurt since her 6 week checkup.  Our little girl also got her 2 month shots, which just about broke my heart.  So cliche, but it TRULY just ripped me to pieces.  We were cooing and just loving each other, then I had just put the paci in her mouth because she started to get antsy, waiting on the nurse to come by to give her shots.  The nurse finally had come in and told me to lie her down on the table.  I did, just watching those innocent, beautiful blues just stare at me and then up towards the ceiling.  My heart completely sank.  She had no idea what was about to  hit her.  Then it happened, that first prick of the needle, and she just about lost it.  She SCREAMED a scream I have NEVER heard since she's been born, and the paci just slowly fell out of her mouth as my helpless, little baby just lied there bawling her eyes out.  Talk about a dagger straight through Mommy's heart. There were two more shots put to her thighs and she continued this mix of screaming and crying.  I choked up big time and tried my best to not cry.  I successfully managed not to, but it was hard.  Once the nurse left, I picked up my baby and cuddled her so, SO tightly trying to calm her down. I felt horrible, and it's making me sad right now just typing this up.

 For the first few hours after the shot, she napped GREAT.  This was awesome for me since she's a sucky day time napper.  After that, she woke up to being a HUGE fusser bears.  Nothing could console her.  Finally gave her some infant Tylenol, and I got my happy baby back.  It was a miracle drug.

Brynlee is developing great.  Doctor says she's a smart girl.  It's quite AMAZING to watch her grow, develop, and change.  She's doing so many thing right now that are blowing me away!  She now does this thing where she'll do a little vocalized fuss if I'm not in her line of sight, trying to get my attention.  Watch!!!  Watch her face when I do finally approach her.  Little stinkers...




She did this in the doctor's office, and once I talked to her, she quieted down.  The doctor said that she's smart and knows what she's doing.  She does this to get my attention.  Anyways, it's honestly TOTALLY cute, and I LOVE that she knows I'm her mommy and she wants my company.  When I finally approach her, she'll stop, sometimes give me a smile like, "AH HA!  IT WORKED!!!" or coo at me.  I can't resist kissing those chipmunk cheeks right then and there.  Lately, though, she seems to be going through a "needy for Mommy's attention" stage.  I either have to be playing, talking, singing, or holding her.  If I'm not, she'll let me know!  Stinkers...  It's crazy to me how smart she's getting.  I can't believe babies can do what they do this early in the game!

Our little girl is also SO STRONG.  She's always had a great, strong neck since the day she was born.  She LOVES doing this little trick where I pull her up by her hands and she'll plant her feet into a standing postion.  Originally, I started doing it to pull her onto her bottom while giving her neck some exercise.  Her neck stays stable, but she won't sit.  She'd rather STAND!  She literally PLANTS her feet and it brings her to stand.  Her face lights up when we do this little trick.  It's like, "Hello world!!"

Oh!  And Brynlee is just like her daddy.  She just LOVES to watch T.V.  Uh. Oh.  I'm going to chalk it up to the fact she very stimulated by all of the bright colors and movement on the big T.V.

 It has gotten to the point that if she's lying down, she'll now do this sit up thing, like she's doing stomach crunches, to indicate that she wants me to grab her hands and sit or stand her up.  If I don't, she'll fuss at me.  Already a little sassy frass!  Watch her do her little crunches! :)

I finally introduced Brynlee to my students for the first time yesterday.  They all had been so anxious to finally meet the baby that was in their teacher's tummy.  Brynlee loved looking at all the faces and listening to the chaos of the students.  I wondered if she recognized this "sound" that she had heard in my tummy.  My students were so excited to see me and so excited to meet Brynlee.  I have missed them so much and it truly saddens me that I won't be there to finish out the year with them.  I wanted to give them all a big, huge hug.  I tried to get as many as I could with a baby in hand. :)  I sure did miss them....FOR REALZ!!!!

Anyways, that's just about it for now!  It's so fun to watch Brynlee grow, and I can't wait to watch Brynlee grow and change some more.  This is all so, very exciting to see her reach milestones and do some silly things.  I can't wait to see her little personality emerge.  We love this little girl to death!!!  Can't imagine life without her!  She's our little beauty....our little chipmunk...

Busy, Busy!

The title of this post pretty much sums up why I haven't updated in a while.

Lately, it has been pretty busy here at the Sutton Household.  Tyson is busy finishing up his degree.  He's making it a goal to graduate this August, so he's been furiously working hard.  When Tyson's not in school, he's working, working, working!  Again, I feel so grateful that Tyson helps as much as he does being so busy and all.  LOVE my hubs!

While Tyson has been busy with school and work, Brynlee and I have been busy going on little adventures and visiting family.  My mom came down for Mother's Day weekend.  I had a good first Mother's Day.  I just spent the whole weekend with my mom and I treated her to lunch and she treated me to dinner for Mother's Day.

While she was down here, we went to visit my grandparents.  Brynlee got to meet her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa!  My grandmother couldn't believe her little grand baby had a baby of her own!

This past Monday, Brynlee and I went with family to the Houston Zoo.  Brynlee's first zoo trip!  She had so much fun spending time with her cousin, Braxton!  Too bad she won't remember her first visit, but I have a picture to prove it!

Braxton wanted to sit in Brynlee's stroller, so they traded for a little while...  hahaha!!!!  Let's just say Braxton's legs were crunched into his chest, he couldn't fit in the carseat locked into the stroller.

Brynlee and I have been spending a lot of time over at her Gram's and Pi Pi's house, swimming and working on our tans.

Well....Mommy has been working on her tan.  Brynlee has been chillin' in the shade by the pool taking cat naps.  Gotta protect that sensitive, baby skin!

Brynlee is now 8 weeks old and will "officially" be 2 months on Thursday.  People are right.  It FLIES BY!!!!

I would just like to say what a JOY our little girl is!  Tyson and I are falling more and more in love with her every day.  She's such a talkative, sweet, happy little girl!  It's already getting better for me and it's already becoming more fun.  I keep hearing that it just continues to get better from here, and if so, I'm SO super excited because I'm already having so much fun with her NOW.

All I can say is that things continue to change so much.  She's slowly working out of that newborn stage as we continue to work out the kinks.  I've noticed her fussing and crying has gotten a lot better.  I can now set her in her swing while I shower, brush my teeth, put on make-up, etc. and she'll either go right to sleep or be perfectly content just rocking in her floor swing while she watches mommy take a shower and listens to the sound of the water.  Sometimes she seems to be in awe of what I'm doing.  It's so sweet to watch her watch me put on my makeup.  A little princess in the making, watching her mama put on makeup.

I can also put her in her swing if I need to eat or do something, and she'll just coo and talk to herself.  It has honestly been very refreshing to have a baby that now can be left alone for a good period of time, not too long, but longer than one minute.  It was just absolutely horrible at the beginning.  Of course, she'll fuss when I haven't been in her sight for a long time.  All I have to do is walk over to her and talk to her and she'll quiet down.  I LOVE that I can do this.  She seems to be recognizing me and my voice.  Sometimes, she'll start talking to me and smiling at me once I come over to her.  It's like she just needed some company.  She's the CUTEST.  THING.  EVER!  I love playing with her and talking to her, and I love giving her a big good morning cuddle.  After she's had her breakfast, I'll just hold her tight and snuggle her and, of course, kiss her to death.  I just can't help it!

So, we're moving a little further away from the constant crying and fussing...

To a happy, smiley baby...

It's not absolutely 100%, yet, but I can seem some gains we're making!

This little girl talks, and talks, and talks, and talks.  She coo's and oo's and gurgles at me like crazy.  She even makes little faces at me.  I just love when she oo's.  She'll round her lips to a tight, little "o" shape, raise her eyebrows, moves her head, and at the same time, smiles at me.  She just loves Mommy and Daddy's company. I have a couple of videos with her smiling and talking, but until I can figure out how to post them to this blog, those videos will have to wait.  :(  When she talks, she moves her mouth and tongue furiously like she's trying to get the words out, and she kicks her legs like crazy.  It's SO MUCH FUN to watch her try and communicate with Tyson and me.

As far as her other developments, Brynlee has one heck of a strong neck.  She's raising her head during tummy time and when I lift her from a lying position from her arms, she can keep her head aligned with her body and then keep it steady and straight up when I bring her up to her feet.  Yeah....I said feet because she refuses to sit and pushes up with her legs.  This little girl ALSO has strong legs!  She absolutely LOVES it when I do this little trick with her.  She loves to stand and look at the world.  Her face just lights up and she gets excited.  As excited as an 8 week old gets.  She has also discovered her hands.  She's been tightening them up into fists and putting them in front of her face.  She'll also talk to her hands.  I think she's starting to bat at objects, as well.  I have little toys dangling from her playmat thing, and she'll be punching at those objects at times.

Tyson and I have been very lucky with Brynlee's sleeping, lately.  She's being "sleeping through the night."  I'll usually get her down between 9:30-10:00 and she will sleep straight through until between 6-8 until her first "middle of the night" feeding.  She has actually been doing this for quite a few weeks now.  We're feeling very blessed and very lucky to have such a great night sleeper, so far!  It definitely makes for a happier and more refreshed Mommy and Daddy.  I personally think this double swaddling technique I've discovered has helps immensely.  I started doing it last week, and I think it's given us an extra hour to two hours of sleep.  I'm not getting too excited about her sleep habits, though, and I haven't been going around "bragging" about it.  I've been keeping it hush hush because I'm still in disbelief that she's doing this.  I keep waiting for the earlier middle of the night wake up times.

Overall, I'm enjoying my time off with my little girl and being able to watch her grow.  I can now see where it's going to be hard to go back to work in August.  Our daughter is, like I said, just an absolute JOY!  She's SO beautiful and has the most BEAUTIFUL crystal, blue eyes.  I just love staring into them.  I stare at her in complete awe and can't believe I grew and carried her.  I enjoy staring into those beautiful blues and talking to her.  I think she loves her mommy....  :)

Until then, folks!  Hopefully, I will have a post up next week and it won't be as long as this last time!  Sheesh!  I'm being bad at this.

Adjusting to the Life of a Family of Three!

 Our daughter is now 5 1/2 weeks old.  Basically, she's already almost a month and a half!

FIST BUMP!

That was a FAST month, but time seemed to stand still when I was sitting there holding and bopping my constant fussy baby 24-7, while running on only a few hours of sleep at a time.  That would make anyone get on their knees and beg for mercy.  It's exhausting!!!  The first 3 weeks were HARRRRD, as you could tell from my last post.  I don't regret writing that post, and NO I am NOT depressed or resent my child.  It was my way of saying, "Hey!  Parenting a newborn is tough stuff!!!"  Plus, there is such a thing as baby blues (WHICH IS NORMAL!!!) from a sudden drop in hormones that DO go away after a couple of weeks.  I no longer lose it and cry over anything and everything.  I hope to show my "Confessions of a First Time Mom" post to my daughter one day to scare her enough to WAIT.  If she's anything like mommy, just showing her that you don't shower for a couple of days and it's tough to find time to put on your makeup and do your hair just might scare her a little.  Tee hee hee....

I loved all the great, personal messages I was getting on Facebook from those that LOVED and related to the post.  It felt good to hear that other mommies didn't like the newborn stage, as well.  They wrote to me telling me how they remembered this stage when their children were newborns and related to it SO WELL and.that I was RIGHT?!  No one just comes out and tells it like it is.  I'm blunt, honest, and I'm not going to lie and say I was born to be a mommy that just loves that fresh, couple week old newborn stage.  More power to the women who love it.  I'm just not one of them.  

Already, Brynlee has changed so much as far as growth, development, feeding, and fussiness.  Don't get me wrong.  It's still no walk in the park.  It's still hard.  BUT!!!  We're all adjusting now that we've gotten past that few weeks of newborn life stage.  I'm already starting to get excited about all her new developments.  She's even now SMILING!!!!!  I got my first 3 BIG ones last week.  Tyson put her in our bed after she woke up.  I had just come out of the bathroom, started talking to Tyson, and she turned her head to look at me because she recognized my voice.  I hovered over her, and in a baby voice I said, "Do you recognize Mommy's voice?"  That's when she gave me 3 big cooing/gurgling smiles in a row.

I'm learning her cries, what she needs, and how to calm the fussiness a little better.  I've learned most her fussiness is due to being overtired, and I'm not getting her to wind down fast enough.  She seems to already have a built in routine....sort of.  Once she's overstimulated, it's fuss city.  She sleeps VERY well at night, but sucks at it during the day time.  She just gets WAY too overstimulated.  She's a MUCH happier baby, though, when she's gotten at least a couple of good naps in the day time PLUS she's easier to put down at night when she's gotten a few good afternoon naps.  And, yes, even with naps during the day, she sleeps nice, long stretches at night.  Sleep DEFINITELY seems to beget sleep for her.

 We've introduced the pacifier to start calming her down more.  I wanted to wait until we got breastfeeding well established.  I am not a big advocate of using it as a sleep aid/prop. It just doesn't work for me.  Yes, during afternoon naps she starts to doze with it once in a while, but she's usually drowsy and it'll fall out and then she'll either wake up or start to snooze into a deeper sleep.  I just don't want her to fall into a deep sleep with it in her mouth for reasons that will take me too long to explain in this post.  I use it to get her to calm down and satisfy that natural suck reflex that babies have at this age.  Basically just to soothe her when we're in fuss city.  It has definitely helped!  For as far as going to bed at night, I do what is called the 3 B's.  Bath, boob, and bed.  I give her a bath, feed her, then rock her till she falls into a deep sleep.  That routine seems to work for us and for me as a mommy that needs to stay sane.

Her feeding has gotten MUCH better.  No longer does she snooze on the boob.  She'll close her eyes once in a while, but she still suckles.  She's MUCH more efficient.  Now, I'm no longer spending an hour feeding her.  It takes her 20-30 minutes TOPS!  Thank. The. Lord.  She's stretching to 3 hour feeding periods once in a while throughout the day with some 2 hour.  Fine with me!  I'm not a prisoner of my own home anymore.  Now that's she's more efficient and taking longer stretches to eat, I'm able to get out and get a few things accomplished out in the open world.  I no longer have anxiety about leaving the house and her blowing a gasket because she needs to eat.  Oh...And just in case you wanted to know, my nipples are doing much better.

I've learned how to shower and put on makeup with her.  At first, I didn't like how I had to do it.  I just wasn't used to it and was used to have some free hands and just my "me" time.  I have to do it a little differently now, but YOU ADJUST!  It starts becoming a routine.  I have that type of personality that HATES change and HATES changing the way I have to do things, but I adapt, and I've adapted.  Now, it's getting easier for me to come to grips that I can just let her lie in her swing in front of the shower while I shower and let her be in the Baby Bjorn while I put on makeup.  If she fusses, shes fusses.  Mommy has got to do what she has got to do.  She'll eventually wind down.  But!  I think she's also maturing a little more with each passing week.  I don't think in week 1 or 2 I would have been able to do this with her without her full blown wailing.

So, we've started creating little bits of routine here and there.  Brynlee has been sleeping great at night with on average one 7 hour stretch of sleep.  Unfortunately, it's not uninterrupted sleep for me because I have to get up to pump on a missed feeding because I'm so engorged and in so much pain and leaking like a faucet.  I'm actually producing an overabundance of milk and am having to get that under control.  Today is the first day I feel like it's starting to even out a little more....FINALLY!!!!  My boobs went a whole 9 1/2 hours last night with me not waking up in pain and leaking, needing to pump.  Needless to say, I got a whole 6 straight hours of sleep last night, and I feel GREAT today!  Brynlee slept about 9 hours straight last night, which allowed me this 6 hour stretch.  I WISH my body could unwind and I could go to bed when she does.  I would have gotten 9 hours!

Overall, I'm falling more in love with our daughter every day.  I love talking to her, and when she coos back at me, it's super special and REALLY cute!  I ESPECIALLY love her really cute smile.  I can't wait to see how much more she changes with each passing week.  It's really fun to watch her grow and change!

MY BEAUTY...