Hadley Weekly!

Hadley is 6 weeks old today! I'll brag on my girl since she gave me a 6 hour stretch of sleep last night! Aaahhhhhh........ I'm so grateful she's sleeping longer at night! Brad gives her a bottle around 10:30-11 and she usually sleeps until 3:30 or 4, and then wakes up around 7-7:30 for the day! Waking up one time in the middle of the night is totally doable!

She is still having her "time" at night and honestly, it's just more and more consistent. It is like a switch--it turns on about 8:30 and usually shuts off around 11. She hangs out with us as we try to console her as best we can to get her through the uncomfortable, squirmy time. It is so specific to this time because she is GREAT throughout the day and even throughout the middle of the night. She's taking 3 2-hour naps throughout the day and about another shorter one around dinner time. She's also starting to stay awake a little longer after she eats... She's focusing her eyes on things longer and she's started hitting the toys on her playmat with her hands.

My friend Laura came through town this weekend and got to meet Hadley! It was so great to visit with an old friend...

Tucker continues to be really sweet with Hadley and he's even posing for more pictures for Mama! :)

Beautiful February Day!

It mine as well have been June... with Tucker in shorts and bare feet, he was knee deep in the sand, content to play with his "diggers" and feed the geese some bread. There's an awesome lake front area near us that has a "beach". We spent a few hours there yesterday afternoon since the weather was a crazy 75 degrees even though it's February! Hadley loved the fresh air and was wide eyed for most of our time there. We're having fun venturing out as the "four" of us!

Hadley Weekly!

Hadley is 5 weeks old! Putting off this blog post has a little to do with how hard our week has been, I'm sad to say. Our sweet Hadley is doing GREAT for about 21 hours of the day, but the other 3 are well...enough to make you lose perspective! We have been suspicious of Hadley having colic these last few weeks and we feel sure now that this is what is going on. They say colic comes in "3's"--that is happens sometime between 3 weeks and 3 months, 3 hours a day, for at least 3 days of the week. And this is pretty much what's happening! Most days, between the hours of 8 and 12 pm, Hadley has about a 3 hour period when she is crying, uncomfortable, and squirmy... and nothing seems to help. So, we just get through it and as you can imagine, doing this night after night is slowly wearing on us! We went to the dr. yesterday and have a little bit of a plan... We're going to start Hadley on some probiotic drops today (there is a particular probiotic that has been shown in studies to help with colic) and we will hope to see a difference in a week. If this doesn't seem to help much, she suggested me eliminating dairy from my diet for a few weeks to see if that seems to be part of the problem. The dairy arena (or lack thereof) totally overwhelms me but I'm going to try not to worry about that until next week :) For now, I'm just trying to remind myself that this is all just a "season" and that this newborn stage really does go by fast... Feel free to remind me of this as well :)

When we went to the dr. for Hadley's 1 month checkup, we also got her stats! Our little girl is thriving...weighing in at a big 10 lbs, 12 oz (90th percentile!) and measuring at 21 1/2 inches (75th percentile)! This is enough to calm an anxious Mama down!

She's eating great (obviously) and really sleeping well too! She naps fairly well during the day and she's sleeping better at night too--giving me a 5 hour stretch at least once a night! We have put her in her crib a few nights and some during the day but are still using the pack and play in our room a lot. She loves to sleep on her belly (Shhhhh....), but she's turning her head from side to side a TON so that's making me feel better and better about this. She's take it or leave it with the paci and seems to love to be held :) She's still taking a bottle every night with daddy and that's going great!

She's staying awake longer these days and has started enjoying her playmat...or as Tucker calls it, her "placemat" :) Tucker is very sweet to Hadley and seems to be really proud of her--always telling people about her when we go places. He's being a big helper and still doesn't ever seem to be frustrated when I have to feed her or pay attention to her in general. SO THANKFUL!

big brother likes it too :)

These Two...

Are my favorites!

1 month old!

Hadley is 1 month old! How cute is she? :)

I won't compare every month but thought I'd let you see Tucker's 1 month picture...I'm so excited to use the same bear/set up so we can see how similar or different they look.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIGI!

We LOVE YOU Gigi!

Thank you for being the best mom and GiGi we could ever ask for!

...and we love skype!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It was a sweet Valentine's Day around here...

Tucker helped Daddy pick out some flowers and candy for mommy, Tucker made me a heart craft while he was playing with some friends this morning, we gave Tucker "Harold the Helicopter" as a little gift, Brad cooked dinner and cleaned up :), and we spent the first Valentine's with our little girl!

Hadley Weekly!

Hadley is 4 weeks old today! And week 3 was challenging... Hadley had a few hours each night that she seemed really uncomfortable and there was lots of screaming :) She was never doing this during the day and it usually occurred after 8ish or 11ish. We were curious if she was colicky and the verdict is still out, but the consistency at night was leading us to think it was this as opposed to something I was eating, etc. There were some long nights and some even longer days since I was running low on sleep. Thankfully the last 2 nights have been a little better, so I'm holding out hope that week 3 will not repeat itself :)

We spent our first days alone this week! After having SO MUCH GREAT HELP, we started trying out life just as the 4 of us! Besides me being really tired, it has actually gone really well! Tucker seems to be adjusting great to Hadley and is sweet in his interactions with her. Since she sleeps so much during the day, she isn't interrupting his life too much at his point :)

Routine seems to be forming around here which I love! Hadley's still not predictable at night but we're trying to start her day around 7:30 and she eats every 3 hours. She takes pretty good 2 hours naps between feedings and we've started to work on her soothing herself to sleep. She has started going 4 hour stretches at night and even 5 sometimes--this makes such a big difference!

Hadley seems to be filling out and not looking so tiny anymore! I could absolutely eat her cheeks :) We are loving our sweet girl!

ALL b.o.y.

Boys seem so easily entertained... whether it's watching the construction across the street every day or kicking the same soccer ball up and down the hallways for a straight 30 minutes... It's the simple things that seem to keep Tucker occupied and we're so thankful for that!

Celebrating Liam...

On January 24th, Liam, "Prince Liam the Brave", that is, lost his battle with cancer. He was the inspiration behind Cookies for Kids Cancer and will no doubt continue to inspire many more people to raise more funds and awareness for pediatric cancer! I never had the privilege of knowing Liam, yet like so many, my life is greatly impacted by his. I'm grateful that a crisis can be turned into something beautiful....I'm grateful that Liam's parents, Larry and Gretchen, chose to do something purposeful in the midst of their suffering...I'm grateful that I can be a small part of the movement to help more kids fighting the same way Liam did...

Tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, there is a memorial service for Liam in New York City. People all over the city, including NYC firemen, will come together to celebrate his life. All over the country, people will be celebrating his life as well! In the Charlotte area, several Ben and Jerry's are donating part of the profits to Cookies for Kids Cancer. In the Raleigh Durham area, 2 restaurants--Poole's Diner and FullStream Brewery, are donating ALL of the profits from their Valentine's Day to Cookies! If you'd like to do something in honor of Liam's life, host a bake sale in your area or donate to Cookies here!

Read more about Liam's story here.

Rest in peace sweet Liam.

Tucker Monthly!

Tucker is 28 months old today! This month has been full of SO much change since he became a big brother! He has taken on the role really well so far too... One of my favorite things that Tucker says about Hadley is, "hers awake!" He's so excited whenever she opens her eyes...since she doesn't do that much of course :) Yesterday when we were leaving to make a Target run, Tucker said "hold on tight" and held onto Hadley's car seat (which was beside his) as we drove away. I love to watch him get to know her and figure out what it means to have her in our house... it will be so much fun to watch their relationship grow!

Tucker sharing his farm animals with Hadley :)

If I could think of one word for Tucker, it would be "fixated"! Our boy has a one track mind and once he sets his mind on something, he is interested in nothing else! It seems to change every few days and over the past several weeks it has at times been his backhoe, tennis, golf, soccer, diggers (the ones that work outside of our house), and guitar.

His "thing" most of the time right now though are tractors and all things construction. Last weekend, Brad took Tucker on an outing to a seed supply store and a John Deere store...he was in heaven looking at the tractors and he brought a new one home (in top picture). His vocabulary of vehicles has expanded from "tractor" and "digger" to "excavator", "bulldozer", "John Deere", "baler", "crane", and so on and so on! A few weeks ago they started building a house a few lots in front of ours and Tucker's excited every morning to wake up and see if the "worker guys" are out there on the diggers :) Such easy entertainment, right outside our window!

Tucker has had such a fun month since my mom has been here for most of it we had Grandma and Grandpa here for a week as well! He has been completely spoiled on always having someone to play with him but he has loved it! I think he likes having other people "living upstairs" with him and I don't think he's minded having other people besides mommy and daddy doing all the routine things with him!

He is such a sponge! He copies almost everything we say (yikes!) and he's very interested in new things and new words. He's counting often, going from 1-10 on his own! He talks about "letters" and although he doesn't recognize many yet, he says a "T" is "Tennessee" (yes, we have a proud Daddy over here)! He loves to read and is enjoying longer books these days--his attention span for readying is great!

He's enjoyed Discovery Place Kids a few times and we are very excited about our membership since this will be such a great activity during these cold months! He's at the perfect age for exploring everything there, from playing "vet" to the animals to the water table that makes a fun mess!

He LOVES Curious George! He doesn't want to watch anything but George and he loves some of the new George books we've gotten too!

Tucker is no small boy! When he went for a sick appt the week Hadley was born, he weighed (drumroll.....) 38 lbs!!!! My child is 2 and officially too big for me to carry! He is wearing a size 10 wide shoe and size 3 clothes.

We are loving this age... Tucker is full of life and energy, making us laugh often! Here's hoping this 28th month that he adjusts more and more to being a big brother and a big helper to mommy!

Hadley Weekly!

Yesterday, Hadley was 3 weeks old! If you've ever been a parent of a newborn, you know that the 3 week mark usually means that that the exhaustion has kicked in, the baby has "woken up", and the adrenaline has worn off :) So, we're pretty tired over here but still lovin our little Hadley of course!

Hadley is still sleeping well during the day... she does great laying down in the pack and play between each feeding, usually sleeping a good 2 hours! She seems to "wake up" around 7:00 pm each night and she struggles to sleep between feedings 1 or 2 times throughout the night. She will go for at least one 4 hour stretch at night but she is just having a hard time going back to sleep. She likes to be swaddled but with her arms out (different than her big brother!) and we're trying out the passy, which she seems to like at times.

She's focusing more on things with her eyes, especially the ceiling fan and whoever is holding her. She does great in the car seat...in the car and while out and about! She is starting to fill out her newborn clothes more which is definitely a result of her being such a good eater!

Big news this week is that Hadley has had her first 2 bottles! The last 2 nights, Brad has given her a bottle for her late night feeding and she has taken it great! He started doing this with Tucker every night around 3 weeks old as well and this is such a nice break for me, so I'm thankful!

We have been SO blessed to have my mom back here this week...It will be a huge adjustment for us when she leaves in a few days but we're also getting excited to see what our "new normal" will be with the 4 of us! Tucker really does seem to enjoy Hadley so hopefully that will not diminish when Mama is the only help around!

Finally...

A picture of the two of them...

Grandpa and Grandma!

Tucker has been in the land of grandparents and he is LOVING it! Constant playmates, attention everywhere he turned, and lots of distraction while new baby sister came on the scene.

Tennis Time!

Tucker is really into tennis right now (maybe because mommy watched A LOT of the Australian Open) and he is getting really good at making contact with the ball! He spent hours, literally, playing tennis this week... almost every time he woke up in the morning and after nap, he would come down the stairs saying, "tennis time" and insist on Grandpa or Grandma playing with him! Thanks for having A LOT of patience for tennis guys!

Tucker and Grandma played lots of play dough! Tucker seems to have such a long attention span for things...he sat for an hour or two, never getting bored with his play dough toys!

Proud Grandma!

Silly Grandpa...

With beautiful weather over the weekend, Tucker got a lot of practice on his new bike! He even rode all the way to the playground one afternoon! He loves to ride to the park where Grey likes to "play with her friends", as Tucker says :)

Tucker also visited Discovery Place for the first time! He had a blast and we can't wait to spend more time there during these winter months!