3 Months Old

Dear Alivia,

Yesterday you were three months old! On the one hand, I can hardly believe you are already three months but on the other, I feel like I have been your mama forever.

You are starting to laugh and it is the most hilarious sound ever. Your daddy and I think it is the best thing we have ever heard. When you smile you smile with your whole face. You are finally taking better naps. You will normally take three 45 minutes to one hour naps per day. By the time 7 or 7:30 comes around you are exhausted and ready to go to sleep. You usually sleep for a stretch of five to six hours before waking up to eat. Then after that is when it goes downhill and you wake up several times until morning. I am learning to get by on little sleep!

You are starting to really like your toys and you love to grab on to them in the car. Speaking of the car, you have finally made peace with the car seat. Praise the Lord. Most of the time you normally talk a little, watch out the window and then fall asleep. You have a favorite little toy elephant that is light enough for you to grab and chew on.

You love to talk and talk and talk. Your poor daddy isn't going to get any peace and quiet ever again. One of my favorite things is when you are nursing and you look up at me and get the biggest smile on your face and then just chat away.

You have grown so much in the last few weeks that we had to up your acid reflux medicine. You HATE the taste. Then I tasted it and saw how disgusting it is. We have to blow on your face to startle you into swallowing or else you spit it all out. I feel so bad when I do that but I would rather do that than have you in pain. The problem with the medicine is that is seems to make you constipated so we are working on figuring that out.

You are a big girl! At your last check up you were in the 95th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. You are giving your mama some STRONG arms and a very sore back most days :)

We love you so much and can't wait to see you continue to grow and learn new things!

(It is so hard to get her to smile for the camera!)

Christmas Cards

I have always wanted to send out photo Christmas cards but I just never got around to it. This year though I knew I should do them with Alivia. I figure that people will always like to see a picture of a baby! Plus, I love getting cards and pictures in the mail so hopefully if I start sending them out to people maybe I will get some in return, right?

Shutterfly is offering 50 free cards to bloggers! You can sign up here.

These are some of my favorite Christmas cards:

We have the perfect picture of Alivia for this card. So cute.



I personally love it when things actually say "Merry Christmas" as opposed to "Happy Holidays".

I also like this one but that means I have to find more than one picture and who knows if we can get a decent family picture.

We never have a Christmas party but if we did there are some super cute invitations that I would love to use.

I can't wait to play around with it and find my favorite card!

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

Oh, how I love long weekends. I'm enjoying my last paid holiday before little miss arrives. Never again will I get to lounge at home while getting paid :) We do have a busy weekend planned. Tomorrow I have a bridal shower for my cousin and then on Sunday night we're camping with Eric's family. I'm a little nervous about having to go to the bathroom all night long but I guess we'll see how that goes ha!

I'm very excited to be able to bake a few desserts for the weekend. Eric has been on a strict diet while doing P90X and I've been really careful about what I eat in case I had gestational diabetes. Turns out I don't have it, I actually am hypoglycemic where my blood sugar levels drop too low. I'm not sure if it gets better after the baby is born, but he did tell me it puts me at increased risk for diabetes when I'm older. I'm just glad it doesn't affect the baby at all. So anyway, we are cheating a bit this weekend while camping. I am also taking fruit in case I want to be healthy :) In case anyone is interested here are the recipes I'm making:

Strawberry Cobbler from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures and Kit Kat Bars. Yummy! Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!

29 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 29 weeks 2 days

Size of baby: Squash
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'd rather not think about it :)

Maternity Clothes: Yes, but I keep finding a few summer clothes here and there that still fit me which is nice.
Gender: It's a girl!
Movement: Yes and lately it's been feeling like she wants to scrape my insides out :)
Food Cravings: Nothing really!

What I miss: I miss sleeping through the night and sleeping on my stomach.

Sleep: When I'm asleep I sleep great. However, I wake up about 3-4 times a night to go to the bathroom.

Symptoms: None really. Just getting tired by the end of the day again.

Best Moment this week: Baby was perfect at my doctor's appointment.

What I am looking forward to: Just having her here :)

Menu Plan

One thing I'm trying to get back on track with is menu planning. I always used to try to plan for a whole month and I think for us that's just too long. Too many things change and it doesn't work. So this is the rest of this week and next week.

Tonight:

Mexican rice, homemade refried beans, avocado, and chicken either for a taco salad or a burrito.

Saturday:

Creamy tuna cauliflower bake

Sunday:

Spinach enchiladas

Monday:

Bacon and cheese frittata I am substituting the sausage for bacon.

Tuesday:

Grilled chicken and oven fries

Wednesday:

Chicken ranch pizza

Thursday:

Sloppy joes and homemade hamburger buns

Friday:

Birthday party

Saturday:

PW chicken spaghetti

Sunday:

Go out to eat

I usually have an egg sandwich in the mornings and I try to make up big batches of breakfast burritos for Eric to grab before work. Lunches are easy because we usually both take leftovers or just have sandwiches.

14 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 14 weeks 1 day

Size of baby: Size of a lemon!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: According to the doctor, only 1 1/2 pounds, but according to my scale it is 4 1/2. I have to remember I had a vacation in there where I ate what I wanted!

Maternity Clothes: No, they are all still too big, but my pants are getting tight so I need to get some jeans soon.
Gender: ???
Movement: Not yet, but I constantly poke around on my stomach trying to make him move so I can feel!
Food Cravings: A lot of salad and soup. Meat isn't really my favorite right now, which is funny because I actually really love meat.

What I miss: I miss having energy! But it is getting better.

Sleep: Pretty good. Have some weird dreams sometimes!

Symptoms: Not really any morning sickness anymore so that's nice. Just tired!

Best Moment this week: Went to the doctor on Monday and heard the baby's heartbeat again! It was strong and healthy!

What I am looking forward to: Finding out if this baby is a boy or a girl!