Santa Baby

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas!

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Christmas Baby Bokeh

I've been playing around with my camera lately trying to get a really good picture of miss Emma Claire with the Christmas tree in the background. I LOVE the bokeh effect with the blurry lights in the background! The only problem is that she's still so tiny and can only sit up for .5 seconds ;-) I finally got one tonight that I really like. She was sleepy but I think that's what makes it so sweet. She's in her jammies all warm and ready for sleep. There's also just something special about babies at Christmastime. I know I'll look back at this picture when she's biggger and miss that sweet sleepy baby face.

Holiday Stress?

Life is SO hard when you're seven weeks old....

Pitiful baby...

Mean Mommy tried to get cute pictures when she was hungry AND tired. Dangerous combo ;-) Needless to say we'll be trying again later after we run errands!

A Day in the Life

So I've wanted to do a "Day in the Life" post for a while now...but our days have been SO CRAZY that I just haven't yet. Plus most days we haven't gotten out of bed until 10ish so by the time I get to my computer the day is half over it seems like! However last night (drum roll please) we got EIGHT HOURS of sleep!!! That is the longest Emma Claire has ever slept! I'm going to go ahead and say that it's her first time to truly sleep through the night. Before this she had slept "through the night" meaning about 12am-5am, but last night we went to bed at a normal time and got up not too early and we didn't have to go back to sleep after her feeding! I was SO SO SO excited when I did the math and realized that she had slept from 11pm-7am! So here it goes...a day in the life with a seven week old!

Sleep: Last night Emma Claire went to bed around 10:30am and Mommy went to sleep at 11:00pm. We woke up at 7am after getting a GLORIOUS EIGHT hours of sleep! I'm wondering if cutting out dairy has something to do with this? hmm....

7am

Wake up and morning feed. Then play in bed for a little while. Someone was very happy after getting lots of sleep.

She was still waking up, I love her sleepy morning face.

8:30am

We make our way downstairs. I take the dogs out and then Emma Claire and I get settled on the couch to watch The Today Show. We watch it every day together :-) She eats a little more and then dozes off. I put her in her swing and five minutes later she is OUT!

I just love how she sleeps. And seriously I cannot get over the giraffes on her feet. I am a major sucker for any PJ's that have animals on the feet. At Target yesterday I got some with little bunnies on the feet. Love.

8:45am
Breakfast time for Mommy, since I'm not eating dairy anymore I've had to revamp my breakfast. I had a banana, oatmeal, and orange juice.

9:15am

After finishing up breakfast and catching up on facebook and blog reading I go upstairs to clean up our bedroom and sort laundry. I usually do laundry every day so it doesn't pile up, but the past few days I've been slacking. So I have a few loads to do.

9:30am

Since Emma Claire is still asleep I get to work deep cleaning our bathroom. I cleaned the shower, bathtub, sinks, counters, mirrors, toiled and even scrubbed the floors. After I finish all of that she is STILL asleep so I vacuum our bedroom and dust our nightstands. Then I cleaned the ceiling fan. I'm always so grossed out at how much dust those things can gather! I love that our bedroom and bathroom are all clean.

10:45

I am SHOCKED she is still asleep, so I unload the dishwasher and wait for her to wake up. While waiting I talk to my mom for a bit. I also take a picture of the furbabies...they haven't been on the blog lately ;-)

11:00am

Little miss finally wakes up from her LONG morning nap and is all smiles! I change her and feed her "lunch" :-)

11:30am

We have play time. Emma Claire tries out her SuperSeat that Aunt Linda got her and she loved it!

Just for the record, this is how most of our little "photo shoots" start...

HA! I think someone misses being the center of attention ;-)

12:00pm

Lunchtime for Mommy! My lunches lately have been pretty healthy. I didn't realize how badly I was eating until I had to cut out dairy and really take a look at my diet. I was mainly eating "convenience" foods and not very many fruits and veggies. Now my lunches are comprised of grilled chicken and veggies. Today I had a salad of mixed greens and spinach with grilled chicken, carrots, tomato, almonds, green beans and Italian dressing. YUM!

1:00pm

Emma Claire falls asleep on my shoulder and then I put her down for her afternoon nap. 

 She fell asleep right as I went to let the dogs in...well I didn't know it had rained a bit so of course they were all muddy. I had to carry dixie up the stairs she was so dirty! Into the sink she went for feet washing.

She looks so pitiful...oh and don't worry...I'm neurotic about cleaning our sink so all doggy germs are out before dishes go in!

1:30pm

Since cutting out all dairy I've REEEALLY missed my chocolate. I have lots of Christmas candy out right now that I can't eat :-( So I was ECSTATIC to find that the brownie mix I use doesn't have any dairy! Just cocoa powder! I LOVE eating the batter....However, I only like cooked brownies with milk or ice cream...so the Hubs will get an entire batch of brownies to himself ;-)

2:00pm

Emma Claire wakes up from her nap for a bit, I hold her and rock her back to sleep. Then while she sleeps I relax and watch Grey's Anatomy, I love that it comes on Lifetime everyday.

3:00pm

Emma Claire wakes up again with some gas pain so I pat her back and rock her until she falls back asleep. I move laundry and make our bed. I cleaned our comforter yesterday and washed sheets and pillowcases today.

4:30pm

Since she's STILL asleep I rush to take a shower...probably the fastest shower I've ever taken. LIttle did I know she would CONTINUE sleeping haha isn't that how it always goes?

5:00pm

I start getting dinner ready thinking she'll wake any minute with all the noise I'm making. WRONG. Little chickie slept until SIX! That's a five hour nap...I'm thinking someone is growing. And I'm praying someone will sleep tonight ;-) Needless to say I had plenty of time to cook and finish dinner!

I made fettuccine with chicken, onion, red bell pepper, tomato and fresh spinach. I used olive oil, lemon juice, and chicken broth to make the sauce.

6:15pm

Daddy's HOME! Emma Claire is just finishing up her dinner when Mommy and Daddy start dinner. Then we hang out together and Emma Claire gets some fun daddy cuddle time.

He's just the best (and cutest) Daddy ever!

8:00pm

BATH TIME!

We LOVE our tongue...I think she just discovered it and loves sticking it out!

Is this not THE cutest towel wrap you've ever seen?! Auntie Bre made it for Emma Claire...it even has her monogram!

I am SO impressed by her..she never ceases to amaze me!

I love this :-) she was just talking away! So sweet.

So sweet :-) Such a Daddy's girl, although seconds later that cute moment turned into this...

HA! I just love this picture! I think it's sweet that he's holding her hand :-)

9:00pm

Emma Claire starts fussing (see picture above) so I assume she's hungry. I try to nurse her and she has NO interest. So I decide she's crying her new "I'm TIRED!" cry and swaddle her, pop her passy in her mouth, and rock her. She is asleep within a minute. No joke. I put her in the swing and go clean the kitchen, pick up, and finish up laundry.

9:45pm

Well as I wrap up this post I'm so glad I wrote it as the day went on. There's no way I would've remembered all that I did by now! Blame Mommy brain ;-) I'm going to try and do these posts regularly so I can look back and remember how life was when she was little bitty. I also feel the need to add that this is the first day EVER that she has napped this regularly or for those lengths of time! I'm hoping this is a trend that continues! If not I'll be able to look back and remember "that one really good nap day"! ha!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Today is short and sweet...I'm loving that Emma Claire officially SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT last night! I know I've said she "slept through the night" before...but we've usually had to go back to sleep because it's been something like 12am-5am, and while it isn't "night" when she wakes we're still tired. Last night however, she slept from 10:30pm-7am! Mommy slept from 11pm-7am...EIGHT HOURS!!! I am so excited! I'm wondering if cutting out diary has something to do with this!

I posted a similar picture to this yesterday but here's another one of her from a few days ago :-) I think we're going to have another little Christmas photo shoot today! Fresh pictures coming soon!

{Linking up with Jamie at This Kind of Love!}

Thankful Tuesday

First of all, thank you all so much for the great advice and sweet comments!!! After talking with my pediatrician we decided it was best for me to not bring her in for her to check on Emma Claire. There's a lot of sickness going around right now and it's not worth it to bring her in. We also discussed bringing a diaper up for her to look at but she feels that it really is a dairy sensitivity. She said she would tell me to go dairy free, but I'm already doing that so she said to keep doing what I'm doing! If I don't see a change in a week then she wants me to call back. It's only been three days off dairy and could take weeks for her to be better :-( Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later!

So today I am so thankful for my sweet husband. He works so hard and by the time he gets home each night he is just exhausted. And when I say he "works hard" I don't mean he works hard all day long crunching numbers or working in an office (not that those people don't work really hard!). He physically works hard all. day. long. He spends his day training, working out, shooting, and practice fighting (yes...fighting, you should see some of his bruises!) While I can't tell you what he's training for...I can tell you that I am SO impressed by what he does all day long! Anyways, this morning before he left he wrote me some sweet notes! I used to get up with him when I was pregnant and would always make sure that his lunch was packed with a note from me, and this was the first time he wrote me little notes. I was so excited!

Sad but true...I always do dishes before bed. Last night however it took little bit forever to fall asleep so I just went straight to bed. This was a nice surprise to wake up to :-)

So cute :-) Made my day!

I am also thankful for this sweetie...

During morning playtime she loves to be propped up and "talks" to the little cat that hangs off the top of her play mat. It's the cutest noise!

I cannot tell you how THANKFUL I am that she likes her swing!!!

I know I've mentioned it a million times...but it really does help her sleep better and longer! At night I let her fall asleep in the swing before moving her to the bassinet and it has worked like a charm every time! Although this brand of swing I am not thrilled with. It's a Graco and it literally stops swinging CONSTANTLY. I'm always having to reset it...not even kidding. If we had the receipt we would TOTALLY take it back. And I can't figure out how to get it to swing consistently. Sometimes it will swing for an hour and sometimes it will swing for 30 seconds. FRUSTRATING!

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday!