We're Back!!

I haven't blogged in almost in almost 10 months!! I feel so guilty about not blogging when I started to read back on my past posts. It was so much fun to read back on Aubrey's growth and development that I decided I must start back!

So here goes!!

First off, a quick summary on Aubrey's milestones and moments in the past 10 months.

She started walking at almost 13 months, her first words were dada/mama/bubble/ball at around 14 months. We have blown her ENT doctor's mind with her language development. Growing up he kept saying her language would be delayed and to expect surgery at age 2. (Posterior tongue tie.. which is still a controversal "problem"). He is shocked and I can shove it in his face that her language is developmentally normal. All of those months of worrying worth nothing! Goes to show you can't ALWAYS trust doctors! We did end up getting tubes put in right before her 1st birthday. She was getting a lot of ear infections and failed her hearing test. 

She has never been a big napper. She has always slept about 11 hours at night and 1.5 during the day. IF that! She lost some weight when we switched her to whole milk and strictly table food at 12 months. She gained it back now and has remained around the 60th percentile for height and weight.

Anyway… Aubrey now.

20 months

Aubrey has a BIG personality. She is very shy at first but once she warms up she is a social butterfly and loves being the center of attention. She expects routine. If you do something different she will let you know. The tantrum phase started months ago and she does not give up!

She is a little late getting teeth- she is just now getting her molars. She is starting to form two word sentences… which is mostly things like "My ball", "My milk" or "No Buster" (our dog!) 

Aubs is on a minimal diary diet. She suffered a runny nose for MONTHS. I mean it literally would run and run and run. Finally I took her off whole milk (She drinks Almond) and started giving her soy or coconut yogurt. She eats cheese maybe once a week when its mac and cheese or a cheese stick. Two weeks after I eliminated dairy her runny nose stopped! I swear diary was the root to all of her problems, even though her allergy test was clean. To this day I think dairy is evil.

Something neat that I started for her….

I created a gmail account for her to have. We will give her the e-mail username/password to her when she is older so she will have personal messages to read back on from each of us, and an e-mail account with a username that is not taken!

…Till next time!

Aubrey is 10.5 Months!

I have been so bad about keeping up with this blog and I really feel bad! I really started this blog for Aubrey. I wanted something for her to look back on so she can learn about how she was when she was growing up, incase she is ever interested. I REALLY need to do better at updating this monthly.... sorry Aubrey!

Aubrey is just about 11 months now. She is always showing her diva personality and loves to explore. In new situations she is a little shy at first and doesn't like people to crowd her. She needs a couple minutes to be comfortable before coming out of her shell. Once she is comfortable though, she is so friendly and outgoing and loves to be the center of attention!

Food: She loves to eat! She still drinks quite a bit of formula.. about 30oz a day and eats baby food for breakfast, lunch (x2 jars), snack, and dinner. She also eats "people food"! She is actually starting to refuse her baby food because she would rather have the real thing. At home and at her school we give her almost anything. Some of her favorites are sausage, bananas, bagels, pancakes and vanilla wafers! Kesar and I told each other that we HAVE to eat more healthy because she is now eating everything we are.

Sleep: At school she only naps once a day for about an hour and a half. There is just so much going on there she doesn't want to nap. She makes up on the weekends and naps 2x a day for about 4 hours total. Her lack of napping at her school drives me nuts but she is really learning SO much there is makes up for it. She goes to bed around 7:30 (sometimes 6:30 on the weekends) and wakes up at 6:00, regardless of what time she goes to sleep.

Milestones: Aubrey loves standing. She really loves cruising between and around furniture. We got her a walker/push toy thing and she LOVES walking while pushing it around the house. She looks so proud as she does it! Sometimes she even looks at your and waves, "baba". She loves climbing up the stairs and our built in bookshelves. I even caught her trying to hang on her jumperoo the other day! She waves "goodbye" and "hello" and has started to say "baba" (byebye) when waving goodbye. She also repeats EVERYTHING you say. She calls Kesar "Dada" but we still don't know is she actually knows what she is saying. She recently has started doing hi fives! If you hold your hand up she hits your hand and then starts laughing hysterically! She is starting to have her own words for objects. She consistently calls the ball "ba"and the dog "da".  And I swear sometimes when you say "Hi" it sounds like she says "Hiii" right back!

We had her at the beach and pool and she loves both. She is defiantly a water baby! I finally got rid of her bathtub seat and she just flops like a fish all around the bathtub. She loves to lay on her stomach and kick her feet, she's always all over the place. People always comment on how "busy" she is.

This week my parents are moving down here. I am so excited for Aubrey to build a relationship with them. It's hard having a child and being so far away from family. Sometimes I feel bad because she won't have that "big family" experience. But then I remember the reasons why we moved down here and one of them is that we are able to give Aubrey everything and more. 

Happy 8 Months!

Happy 8 Months Aubrey!

I have been so behind in posting these blogs. Which is too bad because so much as happened in the past TWO months. She isn't quite 8 months yet but she's just a few days away so I decided to update anyway :) She went to the doc last week to check her ears (she's been sick forever and now has a nasty cough) and weighed 18 lb 9 oz.

This past month I went back to work. It was so hard to leave her the first couple of days but she goes to the same place I work so I am able to see her on my lunches. The whole SAHM thing wasn't working for me anymore and I am glad to be out of the house and busy. She has adjusted so great there. I think she is happy to be able to play with other babies and she has already learned SO much. 

Milestones: She started clapping over a month ago... and she does the army crawl all over the place. She is so fast and seems so content that I'm wondering if she will ever start actually crawling or skip straight to walking. She is able to push herself to a sitting position and can pull herself halfway up. Also, she has started babbling. She says, "Da, da, ra, ra, ba, ba" and every once and awhile I hear a "Ma, ma". This past weekend she cut her first tooth. It's one of her bottom ones. With it she got a terrible diaper rash and a fever. I swear its from the teeth, though people say it's never related. 

Food: She has been so hungry we started feeding her snacks along with her 3 meals a day. She usually eats some fruit but we have started introducing the puffs. After some tries, she finally is used to the texture and will put it (and keep it!) in her mouth. Since she is more than likely allergic to milk we probably will start feeding her soy yogurt soon. She gets an allergy test at 12 months, which I am so excited for. It will provide such a relief and end this guessing game we've been playing. (She seems to be sensitive to EVERYTHING!) 

Sleep: Even with sleeping a little less through the day because all of the commotion in child care, she still sleeps through the night, 7:30-6:30. I am so blessed to have such a good sleeper who can put herself to sleep! 

Happy 6 Months!

Happy 6 Months Aubrey!

WOW! Half a year old. I know I've said this probably every single post but TIME FLIES!  Aubrey is still doing great. She is fitting in size 9 shirts/onesies but wears size 12 pants! My little girl has thick thighs! I don't know how much she weights, I'm thinking 17/18 lbs but I find out for sure in 2 weeks. Diaper wise she is still in size 3 (could be size 4) but I found that if I put her in size 4 diapers at night they don't leak. I love Pampers during the day and Huggies for nights. I used to be an all Huggies Mom but as she grows the Pampers just fit better and I think stretch better as she moves.

Sleep wise she is doing so much better. She has dropped her evening nap and now goes down for bed at 6:30 and wakes at 6:30. She no longer wakes for a feeding at night so she sleeps straight through! She will wake up through out the night, but does a good job at putting herself back to sleep. Her naps are starting to fall into a pattern; she usually naps at 8:30, 11:30 and 2. They last 30 minutes to an hour but sometimes she will take a two hour nap at 2. 

This past week she has begun the steps to crawling! She pushes off the floor with her feet and pulls herself with her arms to get around. I'm excited to see if she'll be an army crawler or will eventually learn the traditional crawling method! She now sits very well unsupported.

Aubrey drinks about 24 oz a day since she's consistently been eating solids. She hardly drinks anything in the morning (which is weird since she goes all night without eating) but eats more in the afternoon/evening. She has been consistently eating an entire jar of stage 1 food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I am just starting to give her stage 2 food. She will take anywhere from 3-6 oz at a time. It's pretty all over the place but I'm not worried about it. 

This month we went to the Zoo with some friends and their baby. She is still too young to notice or care about the animals but she loved people watching and observing everything around her. She did notice the giraffe. Here at the Jacksonville Zoo they get really close because they feed them grass so she saw it and got SUPER excited.

Happy 5 Months!

Happy 5 Months Aubrey!

We had our 4 month check up late and know that almost 2 weeks ago she weighed 15 lbs 6 oz. Which was a little off than what I guessed! She is 25 1/4 long. Both are in the 70th something percentile. The doctor told us to go ahead and start introducing solids. So she tried some oatmeal this month and has been introduced to carrots, sweet potatoes, peas and applesauce. Her favorite is the sweet potato. She says "Mmmmm" when she eats it. I just tried peas today... she is not a fan!

This past month we accomplished a major milestone (as I like to call it). She now naps all by herself in her crib!!! Many of you know that this is a HUGE deal to me because up until a couple weeks ago she would only nap when being held. Every single time we put her down, she would wake up and cry and then the whole rocking/patting process of getting her to sleep would have to happen again. This was soooo incredibly annoying, especially in the middle of the night when we spent almost an hour sometimes getting her back to sleep. It became an even bigger issue when she started to roll over at night and would wake herself up. We had to rock her multiple times during the night to put her back to sleep, and hope she wouldn't wake up when we put her down. UGH!

Surprisingly, this was fairly easy to fix. It's almost as though one day it just "clicked" for her. One morning for a nap I decided to put her in her crib awake and see if she would fall asleep by herself. I knew that learning to sooth herself to sleep was the key to all the night time wakenings. She fussed for maybe 10 minutes and then she was out! OMG! I was so shocked. So all day I did that and after a week she pretty much got the hang of it. Sometimes for naps she needs to be patted on the back to fall asleep but she is becoming better every day at soothing herself to sleep. I seriously drove myself nuts with reading all of these books written by "experts" to help teach your baby to sleep better. They stressed me out more than anything else. I realized that all it takes is common sense and knowing YOUR child. The only good advice I got was this:

Rolling over, crawling, walking, etc. does not just happen over night. Babies practice these skills every day until they are mastered. Learning how to sooth oneself to sleep is also a skill that must be learned. How do you expect a baby to learn if they are always being rocked/held to sleep? Give your baby the chance to practice and learn!

Here is a silly little video of her in her jumperoo (you can ignore my over the top mommy voice :) --

 

Happy 4 Months Aubrey!

Happy 4 Month Birthday Aubrey!

Aubrey is now 4 months old! Actually, she was 4 months old 2 weeks ago but I just didn't get around to writing this post. We traveled to Virginia for the holidays and were there for almost 2 weeks. Aubrey got to meet more of her family! :) I was nervous because it would be the first time she would really be taken to a lot of places. For the most part she stays home most of the day, with only short trips every now and then. But to my surprise she did great being out and about almost all day. I am lucky that she is so adaptable. She also did great in the car. The trip was about 12 hours and she did amazing. Coming home we traveled during the day so she was up quite a bit but loved playing in her carseat.

She hasn't had her 4 month check up yet (we go next week) but I'm guessing she's about 16 lbs. She now fits perfectly into her 6 month clothes and we are starting to use size 3 diapers. We wouldn't have to switch to size 3 just yet but her thunder thighs make the size 2 just a tad bit small!

Her sleep schedule has gone haywire since the holidays. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that this past month she has learned to roll over (back to front... for some reason she hasn't figured out front to back yet) and will often roll over in the night and wake herself up. So every 2-3 hours she's up, on her belly, either fussing or playing around. I'm hoping this ends soon! I am also thinking that she went through another growth spurt (even though *they* say it happens at 3 months and then 6 months) since she has been eating like crazy and actually wanting to eat through out the night. Initially I was going to start sleep training her now but I think I am going to hold off for a little longer. I'm probably going to try a modified CIO method and want her to be more mature. 

She has also began to sit all by herself! If sitting unsupported on my bed she can last awhile before toppling over, on the floor she is still very wobbly and will last only a few minutes. 

This past week we introduced rice cereal. She's a natural. She swallows almost everything and takes the spoon very well. For now I am just giving it to her in the evenings since that is when she is the most hungry. I really have my eyes open for any allergies since we have been battling eczema and she is already on Soy. PS- Which by the way, Aveeno Baby lotion for eczema is AMAZING!

I hope everyone had a great Holiday and Happy New Year!

'Till next time!

<3

Happy 3 Months Aubrey!

Happy 3 Months Aubrey!

Aubrey is now 3 months old! She is growing and getting so big! I was just looking back on her newborn photos the other day and she has changed so much!

She loves to talk! Her new thing is screaming with excitement. She's discovered her feet so she's always playing with them. She has also mastered grabbing toys and loves to put them in her mouth (also her hands!) We are still working on her rolling over, Her personality is really starting to show. We've learned that she is a very adaptable baby that craves a schedule. She enjoys people and new surroundings but can be very sensitive.

Aubrey has been such a trooper with seeing doctors since she's been born. Early on we discovered she has moderate laryngomalacia and has been seeing a specialist for that. Laryngomalacia is a fairly common condition in infants where the cartilage surrounding the larynx is floppy, which results in noisy breathing. We noticed it in the hospital but the nurses attributed it to her still having amniotic fluid in her lungs from the birth. But when we got home it got worse and she started having a hard time eating. She often choked and made loud "seal like" sounds. Turns out she was having a hard time coordinating breathing and swallowing. She should grow out of it by the time she is one, we just need to monitor her closely when she eats. Now we have been seeing the pediatrician 'cause poor baby girl developed pretty bad reflux. Since she's been on the meds though she's eating again and back to her normal, happy self!

She now weighs 13lbs 12oz. We just started using size 2 diapers (I love Huggies!) and she can fit in most of her 6 month clothes.

Naps are still a mess. I can get her to nap occasionally in her bassinet but she will only nap 20 minutes. In my arms she will nap 1-2 hours. At night she is still a good sleeper, her first stretch is usually 8:00-5:00 or 6:00. After the holidays I plan on sleep training her and moving her to her own room and crib. No more sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's room! It is going to be a huge transition for all of us. My goal is to finally get her to sleep in her crib for ALL naps and maybe even fall asleep all by herself!

Hanging out in her bassinet after waking up.

She LOVES reading books. She gets so excited, yelling with excitement and hitting the book!

Happy 2 Months Aubrey!

Happy 2 Months Aubrey!

Aubrey is doing great! At her two month check up she weighed 11.7 lbs and is 22 1/2 inches long. Both are are around the 50-60th percentile. Developmentally she is on target and the Doctor commented that she acts like a 4 month old. (Mostly because she is so alert and active) She smiles, coos, laughs (though her *real* laugh we hear mostly while she sleeps), follows objects at a greater distance, pushes with her legs/feet, and has even begun reaching for objects! This month we should start seeing her roll from her tummy to back. She got her two month shots (three in the leg and one oral) and she was not a happy camper that night! It took her a couple of days to be back to her normal self.

Angry Aubrey! 

Aubrey is now sleeping longer at night. Her first stretch of sleep is usually 9:00-4:00ish and then she'll go back to sleep untill 7:30. Of course we have our nights where she wants to be up at 2ish, but I'm still at the point where I am totally okay with that! She is still wanting to be held for naps during the day, and I'm hoping she starts to grow out of this soon. (suggestions welcome!) A total life saver has been a last minute purchase I made late in my pregnancy: the Baby K'Tan. At first she hated it but after a few attempts she loves it. I put her in it and clean a little bit around the house as she falls asleep. I now have some sanity back as I'm not always stuck on the sofa as she sleeps on my chest. Hooray!

I noticed I have two pictures of her in her Bouncer but she really loves it!

Sleepy Aubrey- she has always hated being swaddled but I HAVE to swaddle her legs otherwise she kicks so much she wakes her self up. She moves a lot during sleep. I always find she has wriggled her way to the bottom the of bassinet. 

She had her first two big outings this past week. Saturday we went to a friends BBQ and Sunday she got to go shopping with Mommy and Daddy. She was amazing!  We were at the furniture store for quite a bit and she loved looking around at all of the people and lights. I was very nervous about having her out for so long (what first time Mom isn't the first time?!) but I'm glad I overcame my fears!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we will be having a lot of Kesar's family come down and meet Aubrey for the first time. We are SO excited! Then the following month we are making the 12 hour trip by car up north for Christmas. I am already very nervous about the drive with a four month old! She falls asleep in the car seat pretty easily but I can't imagine her being in there for 12 hours! :(

<3 Till next time!

Happy 1 Month!

Happy 1 Month Aubrey! 

I cannot believe one month has passed already! Aubrey is doing great and is growing wonderfully. At her doctors appointment this month she weighed 9 lb 6 oz (84th percentile) and 21.5 inches (91st percentile). I do not know where she gets her length from! She is continuing to lift her head and look around and loves to face the world to explore.

She has begun "coo" and will smile when spoken and smiled to. I don't know if I mentioned this in the two month post but she is a major wiggle worm and always moving! She defiantly isn't the typical newborn that falls asleep randomly and is mellow. She never stops and is always on the go (as much as she can be of course!) This month she had her first bath and loved it! She just hung out in the bathtub while she was washed. I am so happy we don't have to rush through bath time!

She sleeps well at night, at least I think so for a newborn! Her first stretch of sleep usually lasts 8:30-1:30 and then she sleeps in two-three hour intervals. My body has gotten used to the new sleep schedule so I feel pretty good! During the day she enjoys 30-45 minute cat naps with one or two "big naps" of 2 hours.  She also enjoys snacking through out the day- enjoying 2-3 oz every 1-2 hours. I'm hoping this month we can get her to enjoy bigger meals less often :)

Till next time! <3

2 weeks old

Aubrey is 2 weeks old (as of 2 days ago)! It's amazing how fast time goes. My parents and brother left so for the first time since her birth Kesar and I are alone as Mommy and Daddy. It was great having the extra help! Tomorrow Kesar goes back to work so I'll officially experience the SAHM thing tomorrow.

Aubrey is such a good baby. She is already very alert and loves to look around. She would rather explore her surroundings then sleep sometimes. :) Her head control is pretty amazing, she is already lifting it up and moving it side to side while on her tummy. She is a wriggle worm! This doesn't surprise me because she was a wiggle worm inside my belly too. Her first doctor appt was great. She was born 8lb 6oz but was down to 7lb 12 oz when we left the hospital. She eats nonstop (I'm nursing) and it only took her 2 days to get back up to her birth weight! She goes again next week and I'm so anxious to see how much she weighs now. Newborn clothes are too snug so she is in 3 month clothes and just about size 1 diapers.

She obviously looks a lot like Kesar, though I think she has my chin, hands, feet and so far... skin. Her eyes were really dark when she was first born but are beginning to become a lighter brown, as well as her hair. I don't think any of it has fallen out so far, as a lot of times it does, so I'm excited to see her hair continue to grow!

Aubrey and Grammy, she loves being on her tummy!

So far she loves the bouncer! She loves the vibration and looking at the hanging bugs. She turns her head side to side as she watches them bounce around. This is also the only way we can get to her sleep during the day. She loves being held so we are working on getting her to STAY asleep when we put her down. Practice and persistence!!

'Till next time! <3