2 Months Old

Miss Mia is now 2 months old! Wow, she's really growing up so fast. I hear people say all the time, "They grow up so fast. Enjoy this time now!" You never truly know what they mean until you're there. It really does FLY by!

She is doing so well. She has been sleeping through the night for the most part. Some nights she will do 5-hour stretches and other nights she will do 7-hour stretches. I'm not picky. I like the 7-hour stretches the best but enjoy the 5-hour ones, too! She is such a big girl and can put herself to sleep. Her neck is getting so much stronger as are her legs. I swear she would get up and walk off if she could when we are holding her and she stretches those legs out and "stands".

This was my last week of maternity leave. I have been trying to savor every single moment. It went by so fast. We are going to Hilton Head this weekend. It will be a nice ending to my maternity leave and hopefully help keep my mind off the fact that I will be returning to work in a few days. It will be Mia's first time out of town, sleeping away from home and first visit to the ocean. I'm looking forward to it.

Mia has also discovered the television. She is quite intrigued with it right now. I really want to get some of the Baby Einstein DVDs now. I guess HGTV and the Food Network could sort of be considered "educational". :)

First Boat Ride

Mia went on her very first boat ride yesterday afternoon on Papa's boat. With the exception of this one photo with her eyes open, she slept through the entire ride. Although, we suspect she was just "playing possum". :)



She was perfect and seemed to be enjoying it. We bought a special infant life jacket just for the occasion. She sorta looks like a little turtle in it. The life jacket is almost as big as she is but she'll grow into it and get plenty of use out of it, I'm sure!

Weekend Update

I think Mia is really getting into a pattern of sleeping through the night. Friday night I put her down around 10:45 and she didn't wake up again until 3:45 a.m. I put her back in the crib around 4:30 a.m. and she slept until 9:15 Saturday morning. Last night I put her down about 11:30 and she slept until 6:45 this morning!!! Again, I woke up before she did because my boobs were engorged. My little baby girl is growing up!

8 Weeks Old

Yes, our little angel is 8 weeks old now. It really does feel like just yesterday that we were coming home from the hospital. Thank goodness we are not, though. I don't want her growing up so fast but I really do not want to do those first 2 weeks over. We have all come such a long way since then.

Mia really is growing fast. When she is lying in her crib or laying across me nursing it is so obvious how long she is getting. I think they will probably measure her length at her 2 month appointment on October 2.

Mia is doing great. Her left eye is so much better so that tear duct must have opened up. We are still have to clean out the gook in the right eye every day but it is getting much better slowly but surely. She slept for a 5 hour stretch last night from about 10:45 to 3:45. We just might be on our way to sleeping through the night pretty soon. Woohoo!



She had a pretty busy week for a baby. We took her on Wednesday to get her picture taken at the Picture People. We had a coupon for a free portrait. We weren't going to buy anything but I had a moment of weakness and bought a small package. If I can get one of the pictures scanned in I'll post it. I don't really think I need to even say that she was a perfect model and looks absolutely adorable in the pictures but she was. We have another coupon from Olan Mills for a free picture package that will be using on October 8th. Yay, free stuff! She also had a visit from her Aunt Elissa and her Grandpa and Grandma Janice this week.

As for me, I have lost another 2 1/2 pounds for a total of 35 1/2 now. I really wasn't expecting any loss this week when I jumped on the scale, especially after tailgating last weekend and the cheesecake I made this week, so that was a nice surprise to start my weekend. We have been taking advantage of the beautiful fall weather and walking this week. I'm so glad I started doing that with her. It's so relaxing.

Clay and I are going to the football game tomorrow and Miss Mia will be staying with her GranE. I know they are both looking forward to it. :) I am also getting my hair done tomorrow and I cannot wait! I haven't had it cut since right before Mia was born and it is in dire need of some coloring help as well! I'm excited to say the least!

Have a great weekend and enjoy this picture. Clay took this picture the other night. If she looks a little scared it's because she was tired of that flash in her face. LOL!

Mia Fairy

This is Mia Fairy.



She hangs on the shelf on the wall over Mia's changing dresser. Mia LOVES this fairy. Whenever she is there for a diaper changing they have many conversations, laughs, and smiles. It is so cute to see Mia laughing at her fairy. My sister-in-law, Toni, made this for Mia before she was even born. I just fell in love with it and as it turns out so has Mia. You can check out Toni's other fairies at her website Sugar Cookies. She's very talented. I actually get excited about changing a diaper just to see Mia smiling and laughing and talking to her fairy. :)

Here is actual video of it. Enjoy!

Edit video online at onetruemedia.com

Sweet dreams

I didn't sleep very well Friday night. When I got up the first time in the middle of the night to nurse Mia, I looked down at her and it just hit me all of a sudden that there is NO WAY I can leave my baby and go back to work. It was a horribly sad feeling. I didn't sleep well the rest of the night. By the end of Saturday night, I was just exhausted. Clay and I had gone to a USC game and I had fun but by halftime I was ready to hit the hay. I guess little Mia could tell that mommy was so tired because she slept from midnight until 6 am Sunday morning! I woke up before she did and the only reason I did was because I rolled over and realized my boobs felt "weird". They were completely engorged because I had not nursed the baby in over 6 hours. I can't even begin to explain how good it felt to sleep for 6 straight hours. I hadn't slept like that since before I was pregnant! I'm not sure if we are on our way to sleeping through the night yet or not. She did not repeat it last night. The 6-hour sleeping stretch could have been a result of a growth spurt. No matter...it was a nice surprise!

It seems that her tear ducts are slowly starting to open up. Her left eye seems completely "cured" because it is no longer draining. The right eye is getting much better and is less gooky in the mornings. Yay! She has the prettiest eyes, too. They are so bright and deep blue and her eye lashes are SO long. She's my little sweetie-pie!

7 Weeks Old

This picture is out of focus but isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen? :)

Not much to report this week. Mia is growing and developing so fast. She is a little morning person and is such a delight with all of her little smiles and laughs first thing in the morning. We started our walking again this week. I am still at the same weight so I hope the walking gets that moving in the right direction again.



We had ANOTHER failed doctor's appointment with the orthopedist earlier this week so we will not be returning to that office again. Our pediatrician referred us to a different practice and that appointment is October 3rd. Which happens to be the day after her 2-month appointment with the pediatrician. The 2-month appointment involves shots and I am not looking forward to that!

6 Weeks Old

One look at this picture and it's very obvious why Clay sometimes calls Mia "Cindy Jr." I took this picture this morning to mark her 6 week birthday. She is growing up so fast. I was holding her this morning and she became a little squirmy. I had just nursed her, burped her and changed her diaper so I knew she wasn't hungry, gassy or in need of a clean diaper. I put her down in her crib so she could "talk" to her buddies on the bumper pads and her Cocky mobile. She was quite content there for about 40 minutes. I realized as I was making myself a cup of coffee that one day I am going to miss holding her tiny body and gazing into her beautiful eyes. One day she will be way too independent to allow me to just hold her. I will miss that.

I took her to the doctor on Wednesday regarding the drainage in her eyes. Turns out her tear ducts are indeed blocked but they are not infected. The doctor just instructed me to continue to massage the inside corners of her eyes and they should clear up on their own. I was happy to hear that eye drops were not necessary. I was dreading the possibility of having to administer those every day. He also looked at the mark on her arm. She has a birthmark called a hemangiomas which is also known as a strawberry mark. It was not present at birth but appeared a couple of weeks afterwards. He said it would probably get a little bigger over the next 4 to 6 months and could even become raised but would then begin to fade and will eventually disappear altogether. Again, something that will clear up on its own and nothing for us to worry about. Mia is now up to 11 pounds and 8 ounces! We were pretty sure she was in the 10 pound range but I don't think either one of us expected her to be 11 1/2 pounds!



I think I am finally getting more at ease with being a mother. I took Mia to the doctor all by myself and we both did just fine. We took her out with us last night to get Mexican and I didn't get stressed one single time. During out walk this morning she started to cry halfway home and was not comforted by my voice alone. I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way while pushing the stroller. I was completely calm. It was the first time she cried during one of our walks. Usually, she is either sleeping or looking around. I think her crying always stressed me out because I was always so afraid I would not be able to make her feel better. I think that is a big fear of mine, not being able to make it all better for her. I don't like the thought of my baby being upset. It hurts my heart.

We have also discovered over the past week that she is much happier with the car rides when we swaddle her and then strap her in the car seat. She seems to be just as content as can be. We wondered if we were breaking any laws by doing so but we figured she's just as snug and secure as she would be without the blanket so that's what we're doing! The car rides have been much more peaceful. I lost another pound this week for a grand total of 33 so far. I am definitely satisfied with a one to two pound loss every week. I think that's a nice steady loss. As long as it's coming off...that's all I care about!

I will leave you with a picture that Clay took last week while some friends were over for dinner and Gamecock football with their 3-month old son, Jake. Have a great weekend!

Five weeks old

This picture is a few weeks old, but I just love it and wanted to share. :)

This past week has been busy with doctor's appointments, dinner with family, dinner with friends, a rehearsal dinner tonight and wedding tomorrow. Mia and I were only able to get out for one 20-minute walk this week so I'm still at the 32 pounds weight loss mark. It's been rainy too so that kept us inside as well.

Mia had an appointment on Wednesday with a pediatric orthopedist. It takes a while to get ready to go anywhere and some careful planning on my part. I'm still getting the hang of going out with her. Our appointment was at 3:10 and we were there 15 minutes early as they requested only to find that the doctor was in surgery. The receptionist said he was expected to be in around 3:30 and there were a lot of patients before us so we rescheduled for September 11th. Don't even get me started on how I feel they could have picked up the phone any time during the day and called to let us know that before we drove all the way downtown for NOTHING! I guess it wasn't all for nothing. GranE happens to work in the same building so we just went to visit her.

Mia is starting to smile more, when she's not sleeping, and interacting. I was standing in the bathroom yesterday warming a wash cloth to clean her eyes. I wasn't looking at her but I was talking to her the entire time and when I looked back down at her she was just smiling so big and had her mouth open wide like she wanted to laugh and nothing was coming out. It absolutely made my day and I got all teary eyed. She is such a precious child and I couldn't be more thankful!

She is still not liking the car rides. She screams practically the entire time we are in the car. I really think it has a lot to do with nursing and when she does the screaming it is usually right around the time she needs to be nursed and we just can't seem to get home fast enough for her. Breastfeeding poses all sorts of challenges but it truly is worth it.

I would like to take a moment to offer up some advice for anyone who has not had children yet. I HIGHLY recommend reading The Happiest Baby on the Block. I suggest reading it BEFORE you give birth so that you will already have one of the most valuable pieces of knowledge that I have found so far. I am only halfway through the book so I can only comment on what I've read so far.

The book focuses on colicky babies and getting your baby to sleep through the night. Mia is not colicky but I bought the book for advice on getting her to sleep through the night. I am so looking forward to that! The first part of the book discusses theories on colic and why the author feels each theory cannot be supported. Anyway, he explains his method on triggering an infant's calming reflex. When I started reading the book, I seriously never thought I would need to use that for Mia because all I needed to do was pick her up and hold her to calm her and quiet her crying.

Well, the other night she was testing us to be sure we were on our toes! The child was inconsolible. She cried for over an hour and nothing was working. She didn't want the breast, she didn't want her daddy or her mommy, she didn't want a pacifer, or to be rocked or swayed, nothing! She just got more upset and angrier by the minute. I finally picked up that book to refer to the first of the 5 steps to trigger this so called calming reflex.

The first step is swaddling. Now, Clay and I learned in the hospital that Mia didn't care for being swaddled. It appeared to us that she did not like being confined even though she seemed quite contend when the nurses from the nursery swaddled her. We incorrectly assumed that she didn't like being swaddled when in fact we were just doing it ALL WRONG. I followed the instructions in this book on swaddling and within a minute of swaddling her and swaying and bouncing her (another step in his method) she was calm enough for me to sit down in the glider. Within 10 minutes of that, she was ready to nurse.

I had to use the swaddling again last night when nothing else seemed to be working and it worked again. I even used the swaddling to get her down for a nap yesterday after she woke up several times in a row when I tried to put her down. There really is something to it and is well worth the read. It will be the BEST $14 your EVER spent and it could prove to be your bestest friend. :) I also recommend using a thermal receiving blanket because it's stretchy and is easier to maneuver than a regular cotton receiving blanket.