The Newly Mormon Idalifornian

Thursday, May 9, 2013

4 months!

This post is close to a week overdue. But baby Brynleigh is 4 months! Time flies. Here's what's going on with her:

-Still wearing 0-3 month clothes, but we're gradually transitioning to 3-6 month.
-Started solids the past couple of weeks. She's doing good! We've had oatmeal, rice cereal, prunes (doctor told us to...we had some pooping problems!), peas, and corn. She likes it all, especially corn or oats mixed with prunes!
-Fully formula-feeding now. I was so sad and reluctant to give up breastfeeding, but it just wasn't working for us. She started completely refusing the boob (even at night, which was what she gave up last) while we were in California.
-Rolls over now! She started this right before we left for California. She can roll from tummy to back and back to tummy. Everytime you put her down on her back now, she just automatically rolls over! She even tries while she's in her swaddle in her crib at night, but she gets stuck on her side. So now she usually ends up sleeping on her side with her head back, little weirdo :)
-Chews on everything! If you bring anything near her face, she tries to put it in her mouth.
-Talks a ton. She loves a good conversation!
-Laughs pretty good. Sometimes she just gets going and it's the cutest thing! I'll add a video of her laughing at Sterling below.
-Such a social baby! She seems to like everyone. She smiles at anyone who talks to her and so far lets anyone hold her. Even the teen girls in Sterling's mom's Young Women's class!

Here are some pictures from recently!

Did not like green beans!

Soakin up some sun in the yard

Not sure ho a rattle works...silly girl.

Playin with the remote

Getting so big!

Brynleigh laughing video

California!

We went to California to visit my family at the beginning of April. We flew there for a change, and Brynleigh was great on the plane! She hated TSA, though, ha. She screamed and screamed both times while we were waiting in line and going through security. It was probably because she was too hot in her carrier. But other than that, she was great!

We were only there for the weekend, so it was a short trip. We took her all around Placerville to meet family! She met both sets of her great-grandparents on my side, as well as my aunt and cousin and my cousin's kids.

Sterling and I also had our first date without the baby while in California. We left her with my parents while we went down to Folsom for some delicious sushi. Besides family and friends, I think sushi is definitely what I miss most about California.

Here are a few pictures!

Us with my grandma. Baby was so tired from all the excitement!

Great-grandma with all the great grandkids.

With my parents in Tahoe.

Tahoe! Momma needs a tan.

Brynleigh's Blessing

WHEW, do I have a million things to blog about or what? We'll start with Brynleigh's blessing. We blessed her the weekend after Easter in our ward here in Grace. Sterling's sister, Mandy, and her family came for the weekend so Brynleigh got to meet some cousins!

On that Saturday, we all went over to the pool in Lava Hot Springs and swam. We even got Brynleigh in the water! Dad and Grandma Suz were both swim teachers in Lava, so this little girl has got to be a swimmer. She wasn't sure of the water at first, then she seemed pretty content in it and liked watching what everyone was doing.

Her blessing went great. She didn't cry or anything. She started being pretty squirmy I guess, but nothing bad so Sterling was still able to give her a beautiful blessing. So sweet :)

Here are some pictures from that weekend!

Love this picture.


Checkin out Cousin Lizzie

She loved eating her blessing dress.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

One year ago...

I have to give a talk in church this Sunday. As usual, I'm super nervous. And again, as usual, I'm procrastinating writing my talk. Instead of getting started on it, I'm going to blog. I meant to write this post yesterday, so pretend today is the 24th, alright?

One year ago today, Sterling and I found out that our lives were about to change forever. That's right, April 24th, 2012 was the day we found out I was pregnant. I don't think I've ever told the story of how we found out I was expecting, so here we go!

We weren't planning on trying for a baby for another year, once I graduated. BUT, my birth control was making me sick all the time (I have problems with all hormonal BC), so we decided that I'd go off of it and instead try tracking my cycle, and figured if I did end up getting pregnant, it would be fine since Sterling was about to graduate and already had a good job lined up, so we could handle it. Well,good thing, because that cycle-tracking didn't work so well. Just a mere few days after going off the pill, I was pregnant. I ovulated way earlier than expected (based on an average cycle), and I knew it when I did, so I told Sterling I just ovulated and so we probably made a baby earlier. That whole last part was probably TMI :)

For a couple of weeks after that, I had a bunch of little weird symptoms and was googling everything, and they were all possible symptoms of early pregnancy. I knew I was pregnant, but Sterling thought I was just being over-dramatic. He didn't believe me. HA, showed him.

One night I had this really weird dream where I kept taking pregnancy tests and they all were negative. I woke up feeling sad and disappointed, which was weird because I didn't think I wanted to be pregnant yet. So anyway, when I woke up, I knew I just had to take a pregnancy test....so I told Sterling I was running to Walmart and I'd be right back. It wasn't even 6am yet.

Came home from Walmart, took the test, and it was positive immediately. I called Sterling in and showed him, and he was surprisingly calm (I wasn't expecting that, since we weren't planning on a baby for another year!). I raced back to Walmart to get another test to be sure. I also picked up some cereal and things for breakfast. Got home, realized I didn't even have my bags. Yep, I walked out of Walmart empty-handed after paying for my groceries. I was THAT hyped up. So back to Walmart I went, and as I walked back to the cashier to ask if she had my bags, she just held them up once she saw me coming. ANYway, got back home, 3 tests later and I was still pregnant!

That's about it for the story. We're just so thankful we have this sweet little girl. A little while back, Sterling told me he was glad we didn't end up waiting another year or so to have her. He is so very right. I can't imagine life without her and I think she came exactly when she was meant to!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

3 months!

I'm actually doing this update a day early because, well, I have time to. Who knows if I'll get a chance tomorrow! Anyway, my baby is 3 months old! Gosh. Quit growing, little girl.

Let's see, where to start with updates. Well, we moved into our house! We've been here for about 3 weeks now. We love being homeowners! It's a lot of work though, too. The first week+ that we lived here, Suzy (Sterling's momma) and I spent tearing down wallpaper in our kitchen, dining room, and hallway (P.S. I DESPISE wallpaper now.) that was held on by pounds of glue and took forever to get off. Then we primed and painted. Then I refinished my countertops in the kitchen, which I am SO proud of, by the way. I'm not exactly a great DIY-er, but the counters look pretty dang good...especially compared to the fact that they were olive green before.

SO our kitchen and dining room are done now, with the exception of some finishing touches in the decor area. We bought new carpet, but it's taking forever and a day to get here, so it's not scheduled to be installed until the 15th. Ugh. But I'm beyond excited for it, seeing as our current carpet is red/orange/green/yellow shag. Delicious. Suzy and I have more projects to take on, still. We need to paint the master bedroom, family room, and guest bathroom. The guest bathroom is wallpapered, so that will be another nightmare. But I'll be happy when it no longer screams 'Pepto Bismol puke'. Heh :) So anyway, all is good in the house area!

We are flying to California this weekend for a quick trip to see my family. I'm being really optimistic about how Brynleigh is going to handle the airplane, so please pray all goes well there and I'm not in for a serious disappointment. Any tips for flying with a baby are greatly appreciated. My plan is to have a bottle in her mouth the entire flight and hoping she'll love to eat as much as she usually does.

And now for the Brynleigh 3 month update! We took her to be weighed yesterday, she's 10.23 lbs. That's only in the 10th percentile, which worries me, but the nurse seemed to think it was fine. She looks a lot chunkier lately though! She's a genius baby, too. She talks constantly and is such a happy baby. If you just leave her to play by herself, she'll sit there chatting away with her toys (Simba, the lion on her bouncer, is her favorite). She's getting really good at grasping, sometimes she can even put her binky back in her own mouth if it falls out. She also loves getting a tight grip on a handful of Mom's hair. She smiles a ton if you talk to her. She can roll to her side from her back, but just can't get over that arm yet to roll all the way over. She's still not a huge fan of tummy time, though she tolerates it a little longer if she does it on her Bobby. She's really good at holding her head up, if you carry her around in your arms, she's turning her head around looking at everything.

She wears 0-3 month still and probably will for awhile longer. She loves sitting up, if you hold her lying in your arms, she's always trying to lean forward so she's upright. She loves her hands and is chewing on them constantly, sometimes both at the same time. She's pretty much mainly formula fed now, much to my dismay. I just don't have enough milk for her, so she gets really frustrated and won't stay latched on. So I try to nurse throughout the day, but the only time she really stays on anymore is when she wakes up in the early morning and I'll bring her in bed with me and she'll nurse until she falls back asleep. Speaking of sleeping, she now sleeps in her port-a-crib. She falls asleep for good between 9-10:30, and she'll sleep until about 4-5am, which is when I bring her in bed with me and she stays there until we wake up around 7am when Sterling goes to work. She still has acid reflux, and we just switched her to better medicine for that. Other than that, she's been a super healthy baby. She's never even had diaper rash!

That's about all I can think of. Here are some pictures, first of the before and after of our kitchen/dining room, then a bunch of my cute girl! Actually, they aren't in order. Whoops!