We have teeth!!!

Just a quick post to note that Peyton got her first tooth (her lower middle left) on Tuesday October 26th, and her 2nd one (her lower middle right) just popped through this morning (at 5 1/2 months old). Yay for toofers!!

Peyton turns 5 months old!

Yay for 5 months!!! We have definitely hit the really fun stage with Peyton. She is so joyous these days, full of smiles, laughs, babbling, rolling all over, etc. It is so great to be going through these fun times with Peyton, especially after the first couple of months, which were hard in comparison.

Sleeping:
Well, we have hit some good milestones this month with sleep. She has officially slept through the night a handful of times now (i.e. sleeping from 8:00pm-6:30am without waking up once!). Though she is not doing it every night, we take what we get and find comfort knowing that she can do it. The nights that she doesn't sleep all the way through, she wakes up between 1-2 times, usually around 11:30-midnight, and then again around 4:00am-5:00am, and then is up for the day around 7:30 or so. She still goes to bed every night at 8:00pm. The unswaddling was a huge success, and we had no issues with it at all! Its funny some of those things you really stress about, and then they turn out to be no big deal. She sleeps on her tummy 100% of the time now, so thank goodness for the Angelcare monitor. Peyton naps twice a day on most days, and sometimes she takes a 3rd nap. They are lasting between 60min-almost 3 hours on some days. She is still sleeping in a sleep sac for both naps and nighttime sleeping.

Eating:
Peyton is taking 6oz bottles about every 3 hours during the day. We have also introduced baby oatmeal, which of course she loves. We are feeding the oatmeal every couple of days about an hour before bedtime. She is still receiving only breast milk (and mom is excited that we have almost made our initial goal of 6 months with this!!). We hope to continue the breast milk until she is 1 year old, at which point she will have whole cow's milk. We have experimented with letting Peyton take "licks" of some foods to see her reaction. She has licked dill pickle (with a very funny face to follow!), pumpkin, and apple. In just a few short weeks, we will get to introduce solids, which we are thoroughly looking forward to. When she awakes in the middle of the night, she is still taking a full bottle, and once she is done with her bottle, she goes immediately back to sleep.

Family Adventures:
We took Peyton on a day trip down to wine country in Oregon a couple of weeks ago. We were a bit hesitant on how she would do being in the car for that long, but to our surprise she did wonderful!! She slept some, played with her toys quite a bit, and really liked when mommy rode in the backseat with her. The trip was about 4 hours each way, which meant we were in the car almost 8 hours that day. On the way home, she started falling asleep about 30 min before we got home, and we put her to bed right when we got home, and that was the first time she slept through the night! All that time in the car must have been exhausting.

Clothing:
Peyton is currently wearing 6-9 month clothing.

Milestones:

• Rolling over both ways (lots!!)
• Babbling a ton, saying both "ma-ma," and "da-da."
• we are working on her sitting up on her own, which she doesn't quite have down yet, but its getting close
• Peyton got her first tooth on Tuesday, October 26th!! Bring on the drooling! It is the lower middle left tooth that popped through.
• Grabbing toys, and other items easily

Other items to note:

Peyton LOVES our kitty Domino right now. She thinks he is so funny, and makes high pitched squeaks, and laughs hysterically when she sees him. She also pets his fur (and sometimes grabs a fist full of it)!

We bought Peyton a Johnny jump up (though it is called a Jenny jump up since its the girl version), and she really enjoy's it. She is not strong enough yet to actually jump in it, however she spins and walks around on the hardwood floors in it. So much fun!

At this stage, we are using all of her toys to help keep her entertained. She enjoys her playmat, her swing, her walker, her Jenny Jump up, her bumbo, and simply rolling around on the floor on a blanket. Thank goodness for all of these things!!

Peyton spent another night with Nana and Papa so we could go to my high school reunion. She did great! She will spend her 1st night with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend, and we are very excited for her to spend time with them!!

Peyton turns 4 months!!!

The last 4 months have flown by! Peyton has had a HUGE month. Read on to find out about her adventures and milestones.

1st trip & 1st airplane ride:
We took Peyton to Hawaii for a big Minzel/Sumi family trip in August. Peyton did great on the plane, and even had wonderful sleep while we were there! She swam in the ocean for the 1st time, took naps on the beach, and swam in the pool at the Mokihana. We had a great trip, and its one we will never forget.

Sleeping:
Although she had a pretty tough week of sleep after we got home from Hawaii, she has been sleeping great since then. She wakes up anywhere between 1-2 times per night. Since Tiffany is back at work now, John and Tiffany take turns with who gets up with her. 1 night Daddy gets up with her, and the next its Mommy. She goes to bed promptly at 8:00 every night and does great going down. She is currently napping 3x's per day, each nap lasting 45minutes-2 hours. She has been swaddled for sleep every night (although not for naps). However, we just learned today from her doctor at her 4 month check-up that because she is rolling onto and sleeping on her tummy, she should no longer be swaddled. Tonight will be our first night to try this. Wish us luck!!

Eating:
Peyton is still getting 100% breast milk. A few weeks ago, we started her on rice cereal 1 time per day about an hour before she goes to bed. She does great with it, and its primarily teaching her how to eat from a spoon. We learned today at her check-up that she can start on other types of solid food anytime now. We are excited to try this, but may wait another month to do so. Peyton is taking her bottle about every 2.5-3 hours and is getting 4.5oz at a time, except her bedtime bottle, which is 5oz.

Daycare:
Peyton started going to Daycare a few weeks ago at Debbie Nelson's house. We are truly blessed to have Debbie watching her. Its a great environment for her to be in, and she apparently loves watching all the other kids. We hope for her to continue there as long as she can! Although it is hard leaving her for work, I feel so grateful that I have Wednesday's off to spend with her. I look forward to that day the minute I leave for work on Monday morning. Peyton is one lucky girl, as she gets picked up at Daycare by Grandpa Kirkpatrick. She spends a little bit of time with Grandma and Grandpa each day until Daddy gets there around 5:15.

1st overnight with Nana!!:
This past Friday night John and I decided it was time for us to have a date night, while Peyton stay overnight. Nana offered to take her for the night while we went out to dinner and had a good night's sleep. She did great!! We are so thankful to Nana for letting us have our date!

Pediatrician Change:
Because John's insurance changed with his job move to Old Republic, we were forced to change Peyton's pediatrician. Today was the first time we met with her and we really liked her. Her name is Dr. Melissa Walsh with Richmond Beach Pediatrics. Here are Peyton's stats from today:
-Weight: 16lbs (90th%)
-Height: 26 inches (95th%)
-Head measurement: 90th%
She also received another round of immunizations today, and while she let out a blood-curdling cry when the happened, we fed her immediately and she calmed right down. She was such a trooper!!

Milestones:
-Rolling over from back to front: 3.5months old
-Grabbing onto toys: between 3-4 months old
-Eating rice cereal: between 3-4 months old
-Babbling (lots!!)

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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