Wordless Wednesday

Taylor's room

I love Taylor's room!!! Chad did most of the "picking out" in here! He wanted something girly, yet not froofroo with an asian feel that was neutral yet girly. I think he picked a beautiful room, don't you? With the help of some things from my childhood and some paintings from Emily's mom, the nursery is now complete! :) What do you think?

14 and 15 weeks old

Somewhere along the line I missed a weekly update post or posted the pictures from one week onto another week. I can't imagine how that happened. :) On to the important stuff... Miss Taylor Grace! Oh my goodness!!! Smiley doesn't even begin to tell the whole story. She is such an easy going, cheerful, expressive kiddo (much like her brother). Taylor rarely ever cries (except for this week where she's been battling some kind of virus and has cried in pain and is so pitiful), and she's always smiling or laughing. She can giggle and cackle and laugh a good ole belly laugh these days! She's super ticklish on her collar bones, neck, and ribs. When she smiles, her whole face smiles! She's still not wild about smiling at people she doesn't know. She takes time to study people before offering up much more than a furrowed brow. Hee hee!
Taylor loves to be in the middle of things. She takes in everything around her and doesn't miss much. :) She likes to stand and can stand for almost a minute while just holding onto our fingers. Nathan could do this around 21 weeks... this girl's got some strong legs! She's trying to sit up from laying down and wants so badly to be able to. She's also working on rolling from her back to her tummy. Taylor Grace is a talker! She talks to people she knows well and this girl will carry on a serious conversation. She's spent close to 5 solid minutes engaged in conversation on numerous occasions. She coos and squeals happy squeals to get our attention (just like her brother) and once she starts talking, she keeps talking! :) It's absolutely precious and one of my favorite things about right now!

Taylor weighs 11 pounds and 11 ounces and is 22.75 inches long! She's grown almost 2 inches in the last month! That puts her in the 10th% for both according to her actual age and 50th% for height, 75% for weight according to her adjusted age. All that to say, she's growing and gaining just like she should be! She's wearing 0-3month clothes and a few smaller 3-6 one piece rompers. She still has teeny tiny feet. Her eyes are still blue but look like they might turn green!

She is reaching for things and able to grab things intentionally. She has her hands in her mouth almost constantly but doesn't seem to prefer a certain finger. She has also discovered that she has feet and hands. She brings her hands together often and loves to watch her feet and move them. She's grabbed a foot once but hasn't figured out how to do it intentionally.

Taylor eats every 4-5 hrs most of the day and every 3 hrs between 5pm and 11pm. She would go longer but since she goes so long during the day I want to make sure she's getting enough. We've started putting her to bed around 8:30 and dream feeding around 11pm or 12a when we go to bed. She sleeps soundly until 8 or 8:30am. When she wakes up she's happy to eat right away or can happily wait a bit. She's so patient!Taylor is a blessed little girl and is dearly loved by her big brother! She lights up whenever he's around and loves to spend time watching him. He loves to spend time with her too, especially in her crib. These two kiddos are such a joy! I love you guys!!

Wordless Wednesday

too many flashes

A Day in cloth diapers

One day, I photographed Taylor each time I changed her diaper. 14 times I photographed a fresh diaper. 13 of those were cute cloth diapers. 1 was a disposable diaper that I used just to give a comparison photo for those not in the world of cloth diapering-bottom row, 3rd pic. The “sposie” is a pampers sensitive, size newborn (yes, she can still wear a nb sized diaper). Taylor is a pooping and peeing queen and she doesn’t like to be wet or poopy so she gets changed... a lot. She also has a sensitivity/allergy to something in disposable diapers and if she wears one, even for 30-45 minutes, her butt turns bright red and it takes days to heal. Needless to say, I took the sposie off of her after I snapped the picture. Thankfully, we were familiar with cloth before we discovered this sensitivity! Anyway, back to the cuteness... Miss Taylor. There are several different brands pictured below, including:

• Soft bums Echo One size fits all
• Bum Genius All in One size small
• Rainshine Designs pocket diaper size small
• Swaddlebees All in One size small
• Happy Heiny pocket diaper size small
• Happy Heiny Mini pocket diaper
• Very Baby pocket diaper size small
• Nana’s Bottoms All in One size small
• Fuzzibunz pocket diaper size XS
• OBB Marathon pocket size small
• Bottombumpers AIO size small
• Totsbots Tiny fit AIO

I’m so thankful that we are using cloth, and saving so much money in the process! It’s also so much healthier for our little girls bum! Not to mention, it’s so much more fun than plain old white swaddlers!

Cloth diapering is addicting! If you cloth diaper, you know what I mean. If you don’t use cloth, you probably think I’m crazy! :) Well I’m certainly crazy, but man, these things are so cute! Taylor is such a little peanut and that has posed some unique diapering challenges! In her first few weeks, she was even too small for preemie diapers, but we made them work. Our stash then consisted of Nana’s Bottoms AIO preemie, Wonderworks XS, 2 kushies preemie, and a few tiny diapers I made.

These photos (above) were taken when she was about 10 days old. You can see how the tiny diaper is still a bit big on her, yet not too bulky. At this point, preemie pampers were also too big for her!

As she grew, we were able to find more diapers that fit her. We kept on using the Nana’s Bottoms in preemie and bought more in size newborn. We got a few more wonderworks xs diapers, about 10 Bum Genius XS diapers, 4 Fuzzibuns XS, a few Little Joeys, and some preemie prefolds and XS covers.

We have bought most of her diapers used! I know, it sounds a bit gross at first, but you are able to disinfect them with each wash and it’s a great way to save even more money. As she’s grown out of her diapers, I’ve listed them for sale at www.diaperswappers.com or on craigslist and have made money to but the next size up. Once she moved out of the “newborn diapers”, we moved her into our current stash of Bum Genius smalls, Fuzzibuns XS (they still fit), Fuzzibuns OS perfect size, Soft Bums OS, Nana’s Bottoms small, Swaddlebees small, Totsbots tiny fit, Tots Bots easy fit, Happy Heiny minis, xs, and small, Blueberry small, wonderworks small, OBB Marathon’s in small, very baby smalls, bugga bugga boutique, thirsties duo size 1, dreameze small, drybees small, grovia OS, and so many more. Our current stash is working perfectly for us! My favorites right now are Tots Bots tiny fit and easy fit, fuzzibuns, bumgenius smalls, and happy heiny minis. As you can see from the bottom left photo, cloth diapers don't have to be bulky! They are just about as thin as the Huggies Pure and Natural on the bottom of the pile! :)

He LOVES his sister!!!

Wordless Wednesday

what next?

Although I've not been posting tot school posts... there's certainly been some learning going on at our house! Nathan taught himself how to write all his lowercase letters over Christmas break and has learned to read as well. This is not something we have pushed, or really worked on... he just got it. He realized the letters had sounds and when put together they make words. With that we were off and running! He's writing words constantly and this one amazed me... One morning I came downstairs to find that he'd written rocketship spelled phonetically "rokitship" as well as "log" and "hog" which he informed me were rhyming words. Then he asked me how to spell boat so I wrote it. He insisted that it was "bot"... and when Nathan's mind is made up, there's no stopping him. :) Wonder how he will feel about the silent e?

Any guesses?

Any guesses as to what Taylor and I have been battling for almost 7 weeks?

Visit with Yaya and Papa

Wordless Wednesday

Angry Birds

Nathan LOVES angry birds and he's quite good at it. If you've never played this incredibly addicting game on an ipod or ipad, go by the apple store one day and give it a whirl. It's so much fun and although it's a little stretch, it's educational too! Using a sling shot, you shoot birds at pigs and their houses to knock them down. It teaches a bit about tragectory, aim, and cause and effect. It also builds hand and eye coordination! :) Well, whatever it does, Nathan LOVES it and Chad and I love to watch him play it! Thank you apple for this app!

Taylor - 13 weeks old

Oh how I love these two!!!! Their bond strengthens daily. Nathan is so quick to care for Taylor and he is amazingly gentle with her. She loves to watch him and knows his voice quite well. He can make her smile bigger than anyone! One of his favorite things to do is get in her crib with her when she’s just hanging out. He talks to her, sings to her, brings her cars and teaches her their names, he snuggles her and holds her, and just spends some quality time with her. It’s absolutely precious!

Taylor is wearing 0-3 month clothing, size small diapers (and some xs), smaller than a newborn sized shoe. She weighs 11 pounds 7 ounces! She continues to become more vocal and conversational! Still hanging on to the 11pm feeding, but no worries, I love that sweet time with her! She goes to bed around 8pm each night and while we do a "dream feed" at 11pm, she happily sleeps until 8am or later. When she wakes up, she talks in her crib, happy as a lark. She's super content and so affectionate already! She is a nuzzler and a snuggler. I love the way she nuzzles into her blankies when she's tired and how she loves to have a blankie over face when she sleeps. Happy 13 weeks baby girl!

Wordless Wednesday

 

2007                                                                                2010

MELT MY HEART!

so tender

so precious

so loving

so gentle

12 weeks old

12 weeks!!! We say this all the time, but Taylor is SUCH AN EASY BABY! When her tummy isn’t crampy and her diaper is dry, she’s good to go! There are days that pass by without so much as a cry from Taylor! Don’t get me wrong, she’s certainly vocal, both when happy and when tired or frustrated, she just doesn’t usually cry. She’s got the cutest little whine though and it works to tell us she’s tired. She is laughing much more this week and she’s started to giggle when tickled too. She’s super ticklish on her collar bones. She smiles readily at those she knows, yet intently studies strangers before offering up a smile. She LOVES to be talked to and she will talk back each time there is a “pause in the conversation”. She can mimic a few sounds and mouth shapes and will stick out her tongue when we do.

The battle with yeast continues for both Taylor and me. We continue to pass it back and forth and it’s not been nice to either of us. Here’s the warning... I’m gonna talk about boobs for a minute. I have yeast in my nipples and in my milk ducts. Oh my goodness, I thought it was just me and that I was just a wuss at breast feeding. I couldn’t imagine that breastfeeding could hurt so bad, when so many people do it. I felt like (and feel like) I have glass shards in my nipples! They ache and burn non stop. Forget wearing clothes at home, it’s just too painful. While Taylor’s yeast diaper rash comes and goes, she’s not had it in her mouth (thrush) at all. Where she does have it is in her gut. Poor baby girl! When her gut starts churning you can tell its so painful for her! We met with a lactation consultant this week and she has me starting a hard core regimin... taking yeast fighting supplements like “yeast defense”, pau de arco tea, garlic, 2 probiotics, grapefruit seed extract, 200mg of diflucan daily (I’ve been on 100mg daily for 5 weeks), gentian violet (great guesses girls!) and fenugreek just to make sure my milk supply isn’t affected too much by all this... oh and the toughest part? The yeast diet. Seriously people, this is a crazy diet, but I’m told it’s much like the Atkins diet. No carbs, dairy, or sugar. Candy is hard enough for me to give up, but cheese? milk? yogurt? fruit? bread? chips? cereal? juice? chocolate? for real? Yep. For real. I can eat vegetables, meat, and nuts. I might starve but if this works, my nipples sure will feel better and Taylor won’t be in so much pain! It’s so worth it!

This girl is getting more and more mobile! She rolls quite well from her tummy to her back in either direction. She can hold her head and upper body up for long periods of time and has no trouble hanging out on her belly for tummy time (unless she’s tired). She can almost roll from her back to her belly and has done it 2x, though they were probably flukes. Her main mode of “transportation” is when laying on her back, she scoots her feet and somehow can turn herself all the way around scooting those feet. Gone are the days of laying her on the couch, bed, or ottoman thinking she’ll stay put!

This kiddo is a sleeper! She’s starting to keep herself awake when there are things to see unless you “turn off” the world around her. When she gets tired, we give her a paci, swaddle her, put a soft lovey beside her face (or over part of it) and she turns her head into the blankie as far as she can and goes to sleep. If we’re holding her (as you would if you were nursing) she’ll turn her face into your body to block out the world around her. She can be laid down awake or asleep, and when she wakes up in the morning, she’s super happy. One night, I gave her a bath and then took her downstairs for some naked time in front of the fire. I was folding diaper laundry and she actually went to sleep in the middle of the floor! TV on, Nathan playing in the same room, all kinds of chaos! I snapped these pictures because I couldn’t believe it! She’s such a little snoozer! At night, by about 830, she’s ready to be in her bed (but will fall asleep wherever) and 5 out of 7 nights we do a “dream feed” where she stays asleep but eats and has a diaper change between 11-12. She’s usually still in bed at 8am and often sleeps till 830 or later. When she wakes up, she wants a dry diaper, but is super content to wait for breakfast. Amazing. I tell you what, she’s teaching all of us about patience! We love you sweet girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Little Sis