Rice Cereal!!

Well yesterday, I broke down and called P's pediatrician in regards to starting her on rice cereal. Everything I had heard was that you needed to wait until baby is 4 months old before starting it, but because her sleep has been wack for about a week, and John and I were both exhausted, and we had heard that rice cereal sometimes can make baby sleep better, I decided it didn't hurt to ask her doc. I thought because she was in the 95th% for weight, they may say it was ok to start a couple weeks earlier. Turns out that it was worth asking, because we got the green light. It was so fun to watch her try something other than milk for the first time, and off a spoon at that. The nurse instructed us to start with 1 Tablespoon only at first, and we mixed that with some breast milk. She seemed to have really liked it. Here's the proof!

See the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpYcTOYqVec

Peyton turns 3 months old!!

• Yes, its official. Peyton is a quarter of a year old! She had quite the month in her 3rd month. Lots of milestones, and lots of adventures for Peyton. Here is an overview of what happened in the past month:

Eating:

Peyton is eating 4.5 ounces about every 2 hours during the day. She eats 5oz right before bedtime. She is still getting 100% breast milk pumped by mommy.

Sleeping:

Sleeping has been quite the hot topic this month. She has been all over the board as far as her night sleep goes. At the beginning of the month, she was still doing 4-5 hours her first stretch, 3 hours her second stretch, and about 2 hours her third stretch. A couple of days before we left for Hawaii she had a 7 hour first stretch sleep, which was very nice for mommy and daddy. While in Hawaii, she had 3 nights in a row where she did between 7-8 hours of sleep. It all fell apart when we got home from Hawaii. The past few nights have been pretty rough, no sort of schedule, sometimes only sleeping an hour at a time. I have been reading the book "No Cry Sleep Solution," by Elizabeth Pantley to try and help us get her on a better sleeping schedule. We are currently working on establishing 3 distinct naps during the day, and working towards cutting out a night feeding. Hopefully I will have a better report on sleep next month!

Doctor visits:

Although Peyton wasn't due for a check-up this month, we did have our first non-routine doctor's visit. Turned out that Peyton had a clogged tear duct. Her continued to get really goopy, especially after a longer sleep. The only thing to be done for that is to massage the area so that the duct un-clogs. This only lasted a couple of weeks and seems to be gone now.

We did learn while at her doctor's visit that she now weights 13lbs, 13oz!! We also had to change pediatrician's since John's insurance changed with his new job. We will be attending Richmond Beach Pediatrics for her 4 month check-up.

Clothes:

Peyton is currently wearing some 0-3 month clothing, and some 3-6 month clothing.

Milestones:

1. Learned to grab her monkey down off her play mat
2. Establishing a belly laugh (love this!)
3. Rolled over from back to tummy while sleeping several times
4. Sitting in walker
5. Rolling over onto her side

Trips/Activities:

Peyton had a couple of "trips" this month. While Mommy and Daddy went to Las Vegas for Daddy's 30th birthday, Peyton got to spend 2 nights with Auntie Jill and family and 1 night with Kim, Brandon, and Parker. This was her first overnight away from Mommy and Daddy, and although she did great, it was hard for Mommy.

Peyton also traveled to Kauai, HI with the family, which meant she took her first airplane ride. She did great on the plane there and back. While in Hawaii, she swam in the ocean for the first time, and did lots of pool swimming as well.

Peyton took a day road trip with Mommy and Nana to go and see her great grandmother, Bea DeMaris. She enjoyed the car ride for the most part, and had a great time meeting her great grandmother.

Peyton got to spend a few hours with her great Auntie Trudy and Trudy's girls while Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner for their 2nd wedding anniversary. She did great!

Peyton's hair is definitely starting to turn a lot more blond. The top of it is almost all the way blond, but the back still had dark left in it.

Its been a great last month, and I feel like as parents we are continuing to learn so much about taking care of a newborn. I only have 1 week left of maternity leave, and then Peyton will be starting daycare at Debbie's. I am looking forward to having Wednesday's off to spend with her.

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Peyton turns 2 months old!

Our baby girl is already 2 months old!! We are absolutely loving being parents (more and more each day). Peyton is turning out to be so much fun to be around (most of the time...), and such a joy in our lives. We absolutely love her to pieces. Here is what she has been up to in the last month.

Eating:

Peyton is still taking breast milk through a bottle and it is still working wonderfully. She eats 4oz every 2 hours during the day and eats 4.5oz for night feedings. She is a fantastic eater and rarely does she not want her bottle. During the day, she is like clock-work wanting to eat on the dot at 2 hours (and sometimes even a bit before). She gets a dropper full of Vitamin D in one of her bottles each day (instructed by Dr. Stevens) since adults in Seattle lack Vitamin D (because of the lack of sun here).

Sleeping:

We feel pretty blessed to have a good sleeper. Peyton goes down in the evening between 9-10pm and sleeps anywhere between 4-7 hours her first stretch of sleep. She then wakes up (usually around 3-4am), eats 4.5oz, and goes right back to bed for another 3 hours. She then wakes up once again (usually around 6-7am), eats another bottle, and goes back down for 1-2 hours, waking up for the final time around 8:30am. She is now napping in her cosleeper, which is a great milestone for us. Every so often, she will still nap in her car seat, lascal, or the moby wrap depending on what our day holds. She sleeps in a swaddle blanket with white noise on the Ipod. She doesn't have a set nap schedule during the day yet, but she does usually take 2 naps sometime throughout the day (and even sneaks one in sometimes in the early evening).

Doctor:

Peyton had her 2 month check up with Dr. Steven's on July 16th. She weighs 12lbs14oz, is 23 inches long, and is in the 93rd percentile for height and weight. Dr. Stevens again has commented that Peyton is a beautiful, thriving, healthy baby. She commented today also that Peyton has beautiful skin and seems like a happy baby. My mom went with me to the check-up since John had to work. We asked Dr. Steven's about Peyton's fussiness since Peyton goes from 0-10 in a snap of a finger. By this I mean she can be completely happy and smiling one second and the next second be screaming and crying. There was a little worry about colic, however Dr. Steven's set our minds to ease about that. She stated that going from 0-10 simply is Peyton's temperament, and that its actually a good thing because it means that Peyton knows what she wants. She stated that colic is the rule of 3's meaning that a colicy baby is between 1-3 months old, crying for 3 straight hours a day for 3 days straight. Peyton has never even come close to doing this. She also stated that it could not be reflux because if it was Peyton would be unhappy after each feeding, which is definitely not the case with her. Peyton received 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine today. She received Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib), Polio, Pneumococcal Conjugate, Hepatitus B, and Rotovirus vaccine's. After receiving the shots she definitely has a blood curdling cry, but as soon as I held her close to me for a few moments, she settled right down and fell right asleep. She actually liked the taste of the oral vaccine, so that one wasn't bad at all.

Babysitting:

Peyton has now spent time being babysat with my mom, John's mom, auntie Katie and auntie Jill. She has had great experiences with all of them. She spent a full day with my mom last weekend when both John and I had weddings. I brought over her bed and bouncy seat to my moms house and she did great (even napping in her bed a couple of times). We are so lucky to have so many great people close by to watch her when we need a babysitter.

Miscellaneous:

• Peyton is really starting to look at her toys, especially enjoying her bouncy seat, playmat, and bumbo chair.
  



• She is a master now at the social smile, and we receive many of these from her throughout the day




• She coo's, and even has a high pitched laugh sound that we adore




• Peyton enjoyed not only her very first 4th of July, but she got to do so at the cabin at Vashon where John and I got married. It was also her 1st time spending the night away from home (John and I were with her of course), but she did great. We just brought her cosleeper and set that up in our room upstairs, and she slept well.
  



• The roots of Peyton's hair are now starting to grow in blond.
  



• Peyton enjoyed her 1st swim in Nana and Papa's pool and loved it. She was a little unsure about it at 1st, but then she really enjoyed it.




• Just as she always has, Peyton still loves her bath's. We do bath time as a family and its always a fun event. She kicks her little legs and arms around, and really enjoys it.

Peyton turns 1 month old!

Happy birthday to my beautiful daughter Peyton! We have had quite the adventure over the past month. It has been challenging, trying on the patience, and exhausting, but also such a wonderful learning experience and so much fun all at the same time.


The first couple of weeks home were really tough. As new parents, John and I were clueless when it came to dealing with a sleep schedule (or lack there of) for a newborn. In fact, there was one night really early on where we all 3 were crying trying to figure out what to do at 3:00am (the same night we figured out Peyton loves to be bounced on the exercise ball). Peyton was crying non-stop and we could not figure out why. Turns out she was very hungry as my milk had not yet come in. We finally decided to call John's mom at 5:00am when Peyton had made herself hoarse from crying so hard. Molly advised us to feed her some water out of a bottle just to help her dry mouth and throat. She drank that right down and was fast asleep. Since that night, we have learned a TON and are still of course learning new things every day. Here is our take on events that have occurred in Peyton's 1st month of life:



Sleep:
Peyton has turned out to be a great sleeper for a 4 week old baby (at least for now. We don't want to jinx ourselves too soon). Currently, she sleeps anywhere between 5 and 7 hours for her first stretch of sleep at night. She wakes up and eats, then returns to sleep for another 2-3 hours, eats again, and usually goes down for a 3rd stretch of sleep lasting another 2-3 hours. It took us about 3 weeks to get her to this point. The first 3 weeks were pretty much a blur as far as sleep goes. We now have established a bedtime routine for her, which we are hoping sticks and helps her to continue to sleep well. Her routine consists of a diaper change, pajama's on, swaddle blanket on, and a bottle. This happens around 10:00pm. Most of the time after her bottle, she goes down into her cosleeper, which is now in her own room right away. Sometimes it takes some bouncing on the exercise ball to help her go down. We initially thought we would start her off right away in her big crib...yeah right!! She was NOT having that. We quickly went out and bought a bassinet-type bed for her called an Arms Reach Cosleeper. For about the first week or 2, we had the cosleeper in our bedroom right next to our bed. It has since been moved into her nursery where she has been sleeping in ever since. Thanks to and idea from Molly's friend Donna, we elevated her mattress just a bit so its on a little of an incline and she has slept in it ever since we did that. Thanks Donna! Before we were able to figure that out, Peyton would only sleep on our chest's or stomach's. As you can imagine, we weren't exactly getting that great of sleep this way, so we were desperate for a solution. As far as napping during the day goes, she does NOT nap usually in her cosleeper. Instead she naps either in her front carrier (Lascal), or in her car seat in the car. From my understanding, this is typical of newborns.



Clothes:

Peyton was certainly no small baby as you already know. Thankfully, however she still fits into all of her 0-3 month clothes and is still wearing those. Most of her newborn-sized clothes even fit her, although they are getting too small now that she is 4 weeks old.



Eating:

Peyton started off nursing, however after a week she lost interest in latching on. We decided that is worked best for us for me to pump breast milk and feed it to her in a bottle. That proved to be a wonderful decision, and she has been eating great since. She is up to eating 4oz at each feeding.

Doctor:
Peyton has been in the 90th percentile for height and weight since she was born and remains there today. At her 7 day check-up (which is the last check-up she will have had until her 2 month), she weighed just over her birth weight and her height was 21 inches. Dr. Steven's (her pediatrician) says that she is a beautiful, thriving, healthy baby.

Some additional birth photo's