4 Months

Happy 4 Month Birthday Daphne!

Today is my sweet baby girl's 4 month birthday. She is spending her day celebrating with her Grandma Jasmer and Uncle Gabe. I sure do miss her when I am at work but glad she has such wonderful family to spend such a special day with:)

Tomorrow is her four month check-up. Dan and I are both excited to see how much she has grown...she sure seems to be sprouting like a weed lately! She is still petite, but has grown more the last few weeks than ever before. We both guessed that she weighs about 13 lbs. We shall see:) ***UPDATE: She weighs 13 lbs 1 oz! We did a pretty good job guessing! She is in about the 30th percentile for her weight. She is 24.3 inches long, which is about the 60th percentile.***

This past month of her life has been my favorite thus far. It is so much fun to have a baby that interacts more and more each day. She loves to talk, squeal, and giggle at herself every waking moment. My dad says that many of the noises she makes sound like a dolphin. She is quite the noisy little bugger. She is such an independent girl. She usually plays by herself in her crib for a a good half hour before she realizes that no one has come to get her. She will just talk, giggle, and and roll every which way. This morning she played by herself from 5:30 am until about 6:45 am while I got ready for work before she realized that she was hungry and wanted out!

This past  Sunday she was squealing throughout all of church. Dan and I were trying so hard not to laugh at our noisy baby. We kept on saying “Daphne…shhh! Be reverent!” haha. Then in Sunday School she was rolling 360’s all across the floor in the front of the classroom while Dan was teaching. I am sure she wasn’t a distraction for him at all. 

Some other fun tidbits from this past month:

- She smiles at everyone she sees. 

-She rolled in laughter for daddy the other day but has yet to do it for me. She prefers to giggle to herself.

-  We took her swimming for the first time and she seemed to really enjoy it. She was overly tired when we put her in the pool, so she was pretty still and quiet. We did get a few smiles out of her and there wasn't any fussing so we considered it a success. We look forward to taking her again!

- Daphne also got to ride a pony for the first time…well not really, we more let her sit on the pony at “This is the Place” and let her pet it while we took lots of pictures. She was quite memorized by such a strange creature.

-Has officially grown out of all her newborn tops and pj's. She can still fit into the bottoms though, but pretty much wears 0-3 month clothes now.

-Wears size 1 diapers.

-Still loves to suck on everything.

-Found her toes! She loves holding onto them, especially while we change her diaper...I am sure it is only a very short matter of time before she begins sucking on them as well.

-Is officially sportin' cloth diapers when we are at home. It was a little bit of an adjustment but we are getting more used to using them and enjoy the money we are able to save!

-She was blessed in the LDS church on June 3rd, 2012.

-Loves playing in her jumperoo...she loves being able to stand up in it and take in the world. She is so observant and can be entertained for hours just taking in her surroundings while sucking on something.

- She is also quite fond of grabbing and holding onto anything she can find. She loves any toy you give her and especially loves things that make crinkly noises like water bottles, the spinach bag, etc.

-Loves talking to herself in the mirror.

-Watched the fountains at the Farmington Station Park.

- Still eats about 5 ounces each meal...when she chooses to do so. She eats about half of her bottle until she is is no longer starving then has to take a break to play. Most often, within the half hour, she will totally freak out and act like we have been starving her to death, realizing she never got to finish her bottle.  We love our crazy girl:) 

-Likes to help hold her bottle during feedings but needs someone there to help keep in in place while she wiggles every which way.

I can't believe she has only been here for a mere 4 months. Love ya bugaboo.

Happy Father's Day

I just wanted to wish the most deserving daddy in the world a happy first Father's Day. This little girl LOVES her daddy so much and gets excited every time she sees him. She definitely has him wrapped around her little finger already. Dan has been more than amazing as a father thus far. From day one he has loved every second he gets to spend with her. He is so kind, patient, and loving. When she was first born he would always help out with taking one of the middle of the night feedings. Often this meant that he would only get 4 hours or less of sleep since he had to be up for work by 3 am (He would then work 10-12 hour shifts, go to school, and work on homework before repeating it all over again the next day). He never once complained, instead he would boast about how awesome it was to get to spend time with his baby girl before starting his long days.

Daddy enjoying his baby girl after a long day at work

 Since going back to work it has been hard for me to leave Daphne, but the greatest bonus of doing so has been the quality time she has gotten with her daddy. Dan and I are working opposite shifts as much as possible this summer so that we can minimize the amount of help we need from others to watch her. The two of them have had such fun together! On Dan's second day of staying home with Daphne he sent me fun pictures of them enjoying their day. I LOVED receiving the pictures so much, especially since between working both my jobs that day I didn't get home until after she had gone to bed.

Dan, I hope that your first Father's Day is amazing, you deserve it. Love you.

3 Months!

***I have had this post done since a few days before Daphne turned 3 months but never got the picture uploaded until today. I figured I better hurry and post it before she turns 4 months!***


Daphne turned 3 months old on Sunday, May 27th. What a (insert any emotion you can think of...) months it has been! We love having this crazy little girl in our family. She makes us very happy and keeps us laughing all the time. We are pretty sure we will have our hands full once she starts crawling! I will be the most fit mom of a toddler while chasing after her, that is for sure!

The biggest change Daphne has experienced in the past month is learning to roll over as I mentioned in a previous post. Not only has she now figured out how to roll from her tummy to back, but she rolls from her back to tummy as well. She isn't too fond of the latter. Lately she has been rolling onto her tummy in her sleep and waking up mad that she is that way instead of just using her new learned skill to get back off of it:)

Other fun tidbits and firsts for Daphne and us in the past month:

- Finished her first vacation
- Said "See ya later" to her Uncle Jordan for two years as he left on his LDS mission
-Survived the stomach flu
-Survived mommy going back to work (mommy is tolerating having to survive it as well)
-Went to church for the first time
-"Talks" constantly and even is starting to squawk:) She loves to talk and talk and talk whenever she thinks no one is listening. Her favorite though is to tell her daddy all about her day when he first gets home each night.
- Is loving to hold and grab EVERYTHING including mommy's hair. Her favorite thing to hold is her black and white toy with links attached to it. Whenever we are out and about you can guarantee it will be in her hands, whether she is asleep or awake.
- Holds her bottle with her right hand every time she eats and sometimes the left hand joins.
- Favorite activity: Standing up! Her version of cuddling is standing on you while you hold her hands. She loves showing off her strong legs. She refuses to be held in a cuddling position unless she is really sleepy.
-Has a love/hate relationship with being swaddled...and so does mommy!
-Smiles constantly and is quite close to laughing.
-Lives on a diet of Enfamil A/R mixed with rice cereal and prune juice...YUM!
-Eats about 5 ounces each meal.
-Loves to suck on her fists, toys, and slobbers EVERYWHERE.
-Only likes her binky when she is extremely tired or hungry now, basically her fist has replaced the binky during content periods of the day.
-Is beginning to fit into some of her 0-3 month clothes.

Admitting I need help....

I have been back to my job at Weber State for almost 4 weeks now. I have a part-time job I do at night as well and boy am I feeling spread thin. I keep on telling myself that it will get easier. I feel like I don't have enough hours left in the in the day after I am done at WSU to accomplish all the tasks I need to at my part-time job, as a mommy, and as a wife. This past week was the hardest. I was a walking zombie. I felt like everything took me twice as long as it should because I just didn't have the energy to do it. I ended up spending almost the full day Saturday in bed because I was too tired to do anything else.

I have to admit, I have always had horrible sleeping habits. I don't remember the last time I slept through the night. I have the most perfect little girl in the world that has slept through the night since 6 weeks old, but yet her mommy does not. Pregnancy and having a newborn only made my sleeping patterns worse...but now that I have no excuse to not sleep well. I am beginning to get really frustrated. I know my stressful days are not helping the situation either. I am one that will worry myself awake. I have done it since I was little and it drives me nuts. I will lay awake for hours and hours thinking and worrying about anything and everything it seems, even things that I didn't know I was worried about in the first place. I often struggle falling asleep as well and I never feel rested in the morning.

I guess my point to all this is that I know that I don't have much control over my current daytime situation nor can I control the future, no matter how much I would like to. BUT, I can start to have some control over my nights. I know if I could just teach myself how to sleep through the night it would make me such a happier person, better wife, and better mommy. I would be much more apt to handle any situation that comes my way. I know it is possible to teach myself this as well. I mean heck, you have to help teach a newborn how to sleep through the night, right? So there has to be solutions to helping adults do it too. So....here goes nothing. What advice do you have for me? What have you found in your life that has helped you improve your sleep habits? I desperately need to make a change.