Whitney and Jeff: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Bread Saga

So Jeff has been baking bread like a mad man...

Apparently he wants to become a sourdough guru.

Here are his latest products.

Aren't they beautiful?
They're delicious too - just in case you were wondering.

And he loves making sandwiches with the yummy bread...

Jeff is pretty proud of his newfound baking abilities.
And here is his secret...

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Two months older and wiser too...

At two months Evie Mae weighed 11 lbs 15.7 oz (75th percentile), was 23.5 inches (85th percentile), was 40 cm in head size (77th percentile). She's still pretty symmetrical :)

She didn't want to get her picture taken though...

During the second month Evangeline...

- started really smiling! It happened right when we got home from Modesto and the smiles just kept getting bigger and bigger!
- would calm down a lot faster when upset
- would stay in the bouncer while Mommy showered in the mornings (sometimes she'd even fall asleep) and loved gazing at a big black and white picture in our bathroom. We got on a lot more normal schedule, which Mommy really liked!
- LOVED following Mommy and Daddy with her eyes and just watching us... (my mom and dad Skyped with us and and the whole time she'd never look at the computer - just me! So cute...)
- decided she wouldn't take bottles or a pacifier, which was awesome for us :( Unfortunately the Nuk nipples didn't even work...
- spent her days playing and talking with Mommy
- would still get the hiccups often
- kept her horrible gag reflex (she'd gag on all pacifiers)
- liked to suck on her fist to soothe herself or on Mommy's upper neck/chest
- loved to be rocked to sleep anytime EXCEPT bedtime
- had her peak of fussiness during 4-6 weeks. During the peak she'd start screaming on the dot at 11:30pm and scream until 1am unless we held her in the football hold (on her stomach) and let her suck on our finger or did what Dr . Karp calls the "milkshake" and let her suck on our finger while we jiggled her doing that hold. Let me just tell you...it was so exhausting doing that for and hour and a half but way better than listening to her screaming. And after six weeks we really didn't have to do it anymore...
- liked to stretch when she woke up and was un-swaddled - so cute!
- kept kissing Mommy and Daddy
- LOVED playing a game with Mommy where I'd sing "I love you a bushel and a peck" and when I'd say peck I'd kiss her on her cheek and she'd kiss me at the same time on my cheek! It was precious...
- loves having long coo-ing coversations with Mom
- had her first round of shots and screamed bloody murder. It was so horrible. She moaned and cried for the next couple of days...
- would make a coo after you asked her a question (most of the time)
- she become very alert and people would always comment on that in the grocery stores
- decided she liked hikes in forests beside our home
- started peaking out of her Moby wrap
- went Crabbing with Mommy and Daddy and didn't watch but heard a lot of 49er games dressed in her 49ers outfit Grammy gave her for Christmas.
- started going more places like grocery shopping just she and Mommy but it usually wasn't a good car ride experience since she still was not enjoying the car
- moved up to the next level in her car seat!
- LOVED listening to classical music and dancing with Mommy
- had several different favorite songs like "This is My Father's World" and "I am a Child of God" and still "I Love to See the Temple."
- still decided that she'd make a lot of dirty diapers for Mommy and Daddy (4-6 poopy ones a day). We were disappointed that the pediatricians prediction of a poop once a week didn't happen.
- became very efficient at nursing and begin doing 5 mins a side and sometimes only one breast.
- started cooing and talking to us once we got home from Modesto
- could imitate us when we'd make "Oh" sounds and "Ah" sounds (it would usually take a day before she could mimic it though)
- LOVED looking out our windows at all the trees that surround our building (especially when she'd wake up in the morning)
- LOVED reading "Goodnight Moon" with Daddy at bedtime

Tummy time has been a success! After we'd change her diaper, she'd be happy and give us a couple minutes of happy tummy time. We'd have to do it a lot throughout the day but it made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable for both of us. And during her second month she was able to lift her head straight up and look us in the eyes. We never could get a good picture of it. This is what it looked like when she was a little more tired.

After week six we had an awesome change!
Evangeline decided her bedtime was going to be between 9:30 and 10:30pm.
All we had to do was get her ready for bed like normal - swaddle her, turn down the lights (we'd leave a lamp on for a little bit b/c she'd get a little scared of the dark if it happened right away), stop talking to her, lay her down on our bed, and nurse her.
If she didn't fall asleep nursing, I could just close my eyes and snuggle her and she'd closed her eyes and fall asleep too!
The crazy part is it worked even if she'd just napped.
Daddy was one happy dude since he doesn't handle little sleep very well.
She still would wake up to eat a couple times in the night, but she could sleep for 4.5-5 hours before she'd need to eat.
And she decided to wake up daily between 7 and 8am

How I love my pretty baby...
And the snuggles are the best!

Daddy loves Evie Mae

One of Daddy's favorite things is making Evie Mae look like a "big" and sitting her up in chairs, couches, and in our bed...

This is one of our favorites...

"Hmmm...let me think about this guys..." Evie Mae

P.S. - This is one of her first church outfits. Grammy crocheted it for her :) A lot of time and love went into it...

One month older and wiser too...

Evie Mae has grown so fast. When we got home from Modesto, Evangeline turned a month old.

At her one month appointment, she measured 10 lb 11.4 oz (80th percentile), 22 inches (73rd percentile), and 39 cm in head size (83rd percentile). The doctor said she was growing very symmetrically, which is always nice to hear :)

During her first month, Evangeline...

- slept very well during the day but decided her bedtime was between 11:30 and 1 am.
- enjoyed lazy mornings and waking up more/ being more alert around 10 or 11 am.
- spent lots of time sleeping in her Snuggle Nest (co-sleeper) in Mommy and Daddy's bed, on Mommy and Daddy's chest, snuggling with Grammy or Papa Chris, or sleeping in her fun swing (until she realized someone wasn't holding her).
- didn't have any stomach issues until Mommy ate raw broccoli in the broccoli salad at Christmas dinner (that was a huge mistake since she just screamed for several hours starting around 1am) or eggs cooked with runny yolks (I'd thought it was chocolate from Christmas fudge but figured out it was the non-scrambled eggs I'd started eating since I wasn't pregnant anymore).
- was pretty excited to do tummy her first week (she did a full 180 rotation on her stomach ha ha - my mom saw it and was freaking out!) but after that realized it was not fun and was a lot of work.
- the day after we got home from the hospital and had a home visit from the nurse, the nurse said she was "a mover and a shaker" and that the Gerber baby better move on over because that baby didn't even compare to Evangeline :)
- LOVED stretching and Mommy loved watching her stretch. Evangeline would wake up, we'd hold her on her sides, she'd keep her legs crossed, and she could arch her back until her head was almost touching her little bottom!
- had her first smiles in her sleep during her first week and would even laugh in her sleep but by about week three she could copy our smiles when she was awake but wasn't actually smiling on her own yet.
- became more efficient at nursing by week 2-3 and began nursing 8-10 minutes a side instead of 15 like in the first week - she's a quick learner apparently :)
- during week two let Mommy and Daddy know that she didn't like her vitamins the doctor gave us (a vitamin D supplement that had A and C in it too). We knew something was wrong when her behavior become more colicky (meaning screaming in pain), her poop turned brown and was almost all water, and she'd projectile spit up almost immediately after we'd give her the vitamins. We had to give her an entire dropper full of vitamins, which she hated, and she'd just choke on the vitamins no matter how we gave her the vitamins. Thankfully, we took her back to the doctor and our pediatrician suggest we just buy vitamin D drops at a health food store that only requires one tiny drop a day! And it is clear instead of icky brown and it tastes like berry instead of bitter cough syrup - poor Evangeline had to endure taking the icky ones for several days until we figured it out :(
- HATED riding in the car especially if she woke up while we were still driving because she'd want to eat RIGHT THEN
- would break Mommy and Daddy's hearts when she'd get so upset and scream until she was bright red, her voice would quiver, and then she'd get to where she was almost not breathing. It was heartbreaking.
- had a lot of tummy aches from gulping tons of air when she'd nurse. She'd eat so fast that she'd just gulp no matter what position we'd try (although the clutch hold worked the best for a while).
- had several favorite songs: "I Love to See the Temple," "I Love You So Much," and "Ma Belle Evangeline" (Mommy sang these to her while we nursed and got to know each other better and these were definitely the winners).
- ALWAYS got the hiccups (just like when she was in Mommy's tummy) and HATED when she'd get them. Mommy would have to nurse her just to help calm her down and get rid of them.
- loved her Moby wrap and the newborn hold and Mommy loved it because she got to still feel close to Evangeline and she got to keep her baby warm in the cold SF December.
- learned to love taking a real bath instead of a sponge bath (which she hated)
- LOVED watching Mommy while nursing
- LOVED watching Daddy all the time :)
- started "kissing us" during week four right before we went home to Modesto

This was when she woke up and realized she wasn't being held anymore. She was not happy with Mommy...

Mommy loved, loved, LOVED all her snuggles and held her every chance she got :)

Goodbye 2011

We were in Modesto for New Years and had a blast bringing in the new year with Grammy and Papa Chris.

Here is Evie Mae's little santa suit. It was so adorable...

Evie was not happy about being kept up to bring in the new year...

Once she calmed down, she showed us how tired she was from staying up late...

Evangeline loves looking at Daddy...

Until she remembers that she is supposed to be sleeping...

But Daddy does a good job calming her down again.

She was excellent at imitating us even though she was still so small. She was already copying our smiles at this point too!

Before we said goodbye to 2011, we did enjoy a very Merry Christmas.

Evie enjoying loves from Travis and Hannah while in her Christmas pjs.

Papa Chris multi-tasking...He was in charge of watching Evie Mae while the rest of us followed his clues for the Youngberg scavenger hunt. However, he had to talk to Michael at the same time and answer all of our questions about the clues since it had gotten a little confusing.

Evie was so happy to have Christmas presents.

And decided to let everyone know that these presents were hers.
She slept through the actual opening of the presents though.

The best was seeing her first thing in Christmas morning :)