Christmas

Our ward had a breakfast with Santa that Adilyn really enjoyed. She was even a good sport about staying out past her first nap, up until we got in the car. Then she started crying because she was ready to be asleep.

You can tell in this picture that she is sleepy. Those sweet little eyes just did not want to be open anymore.

Lucky for us she is usually really well behaved around people. What a sweet lady we have.

On Christmas morning she had no idea what was going on. But Christmas Eve night she gave me the best present ever. She slept until 5 am, nursed, and promptly fell back asleep until 7:30 am. That was the first and so far the last time she has done that. A Christmas miracle if you ask me.  Once we handed her the present we got for her all she wanted was the tissue paper.

Is this for me?

Are you sure?

Well if you say so.

You got me paper? This is the best!!!

You got me more than just paper? I sure do love you guys! We bought her a platypus doll that was a little more her size. Orion's mom bought her one when she was born, but it is too big for her to hold at the moment.

Looking up at her favorite man in the world.

Her usual stare every time she realizes her picture is being taken.

Showing off her Christmas jammies. My mom bought them for her. They say "Babies first Christmas". She wore them for about five minutes before she spit up on them. Oh the joys of having a baby.

Things No One Told Me

I thought that being a mom would come naturally to me. After all I was a nanny for over a year. I have babysat countless children in high school and college, yet I kind of had no idea what I was doing when Adilyn came into my life. What babies don't just fall asleep on their own? They have to learn how to sleep on their own? Nap time does not always come easy? They wake up in the middle of the night? Honestly no one gave me enough warning about what life would be like with a baby. I still have so much to learn, but I feel like I am getting the hang of things.

• Keeping babies up a little longer is usually a bad idea. They sleep less even though they are more tired. I would have loved to know this one months ago. All those battles with naps I had with Adilyn ended (for the most part) once I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. Babies under six usually can't stay awake for longer than 2-3 hours. Well they can stay awake, but they are going to be overtired. Honestly why did everyone I know fail to mention this to me?
• Here is something that I find so odd, but true. The earlier you put your baby down the longer they tend to sleep. Say what? I read in a book that babies should stay up 2.5 hours in between their first and second nap. So I followed that advice even though Adilyn showed signs of being tired long before the 2.5 hours were up. Thus a battle went down when I tried to put her to sleep. So I say go with what your baby is showing you no matter how long it has been. Adilyn sleeps the longest for naps (2 hours or so) when she has been awake for 1.5-2 hours. 
• If your baby misses a nap or takes a short one it is not the end of the world. As a first time mom I would freak out when this happened. To be honest I still get upset when her naps are messed up because I like schedules. In reality so does Adilyn. She is so much happier when things go according to plan. 
• If something works for one mom does not mean it will work for you. On that note don't feel bad if your baby does not do what other babies do. Adilyn still does not sleep through the night. She wakes up once a night to nurse. I have heard from so many moms that their babies started sleeping through the night when they were 1-3 months old. This made me feel horrible because there must be something wrong with my baby. Then I heard from moms who said their babies did not sleep through the night until 6+ months old. Every baby is different and you should not compare them. 
• Life is so much better when you realize that as long as your baby is happy that is all that matters. 
• Be sure to take time for yourself. Or else you will have a melt down and have nothing to give to your sweet baby. This is so hard for first time moms. You feel like you have to do everything for your baby and you want to make sure all of their needs are met. But if you are too busy meeting their needs to notice your own needs life gets really hard really fast. Figure out what you can do each day to give yourself a break

Chops

Orion decided to grow some chops recently. Seeing as he is part werewolf it did not take him long to get thick chops.

Adilyn sure does love to hang out with her dad and chew on her fingers.

 People at work called him Wolverine. Then someone decided to complain about him having so much facial hair. It was the guy that got called in about having an unkempt beard. He decided that if he was going to get called on his facial hair so should Orion. So he had to shave it off. I have to say I was not said to see his chops go. Adilyn on the other hand was very sad. It took her an entire day to stop crying every time Orion picked her up. She was unsure that he was still her daddy. Lucky for him she decided he was the same guy.

Poop-ilyn

Sometimes we call Adilyn Poop-ilyn because she poops a lot. It is really not my favorite thing that she does, but it is natural and she can't clean herself up yet. It is a good thing I love that little lady so much. The other day she decided to poop A LOT! It got everywhere....

Yep she got it all the way up her back.

She had to check it out herself. As you can tell by the picture Orion is disgusted. That girl has a gift at getting her poop everywhere.

Adilyn's thoughts of Santa

Eh he is ok....

Look at this funny face I can make.

I am way more interesting than this Santa guy.

Have you seen my spoon? I want to chew on it some more.

Ah here it is. That is what I am talking about. I don't care about Santa. All I want for Christmas is stuff to chew on.

That is right dad just give me spoons. Don't worry I won't let mom know that you try to feed me from your plate. Your secret is safe with me. But if you take my spoon away all bets are off.

One Year

About two weeks from now marks one year since I graduated college. I can't believe it has already been a year. Thinking back on the past year I have made some big accomplishments.

• I grew a child!
• I birthed said child
• I did not get a fancy high paying job that utilizes my degree. I did however get the best job in the world, MOM
• My diploma is still sitting in the envelope it came in on my desk. I just have not gotten around to buying a frame for it. Those things cost ten bucks or more. I know I graduated I don't see why I have to pay even more money to show people I graduated. 
• I started paying my student loans back. YUCK! I so wish I could have graduated without having to take out student loans. 
• Orion got a raise at work. Our insurance got more expensive thanks to adding our little lady to it. So we did not get to see his raise at all.
• I am amazed everyday by my sweet lady.
• In the four short months that Adilyn has been in my life I have spent more time praying, reading, wondering, worrying, losing sleep, etc over her then my entire college (or any schooling for that matter) experience.
• It is amazing how much you learn from having a child.
• I wish I had taken a class on how to teach you baby to fall asleep on their own without tears (on theirs or mine). I took plenty of classes on families and parenting, but never once did I learn about how hard sleeping can be for babies. They simply don't know how to sleep on their own. It is a gradual learning process. Seriously who forgot to mention this in the many family and parenting book I read for my degree. I think it is an important aspect of parenting. 
• I have fallen even more in love with Orion over the past year. He tries so hard to make sure Adilyn and I are always happy. Even if that means losing sleep or working double shifts. He is the best.

Naps

Nap time comes three times a day, sometimes four. Every time nap time rolls around lately a battle ensues. Adilyn is tired (I am tired because she is just getting back into sleeping for a long stretch at night due to having a cold) and I am ready to put down for a nap. Will she fall asleep on her own? No. Why would she fall asleep easy when she is tired? Life would be too easy. So I try to help her fall asleep. I rock her, I pat her back, and I even make a shhhhhh sound to help her relax. Sometimes this works quickly and sometimes she just cries because she is tired and wants to sleep. Honestly the logic of a four month old baby does not make much sense. When she does fall asleep I try to hold her for awhile because if I put her down too soon she starts crying again because she wants to be held. Lately this has been sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo frustrating because I don't want to sit and hold her for half an hour while she decides to fall asleep or scream in my ear.

Let me tell you about her bed time. She goes to sleep easy peasy. She passes out while I feed her or while I sing to her. If she wakes up when I put her down she cries for a minute or two and then goes right back to sleep. Honestly why is nap time so different? Maybe because she is so exhausted by the end of the day going to bed is easy. Or maybe because I have a routine for bed time that she is use to. I try to do something similar for nap time, but I guess it needs to be more obvious to her. I just don't know. If this keeps up I am going to have to sleep train her for naps. I don't really want to because I don't want to hear her cry for a long period of time.

Usually I want to take a nap when she is napping so I do whatever it takes to get her to sleep, but it is not really working anymore. It is times like these that I wonder how the Duggar family got so big so quickly. How did that mom have time to do anything? She must have a science about getting babies to nap because it seems to take me forever to get Adilyn to sleep some times. I just want her to figure out that going to sleep at night is just like going to sleep during the day.

When Orion is in charge

The other day I asked Orion to change Adilyn while I got ready to go on our walk. I came out of our room to find this....

I told him her onesies (I have no idea how to spell that word) goes on the inside of her pants. He told me that he thought it looked better this way, almost like she was wearing a leotard.

Honestly that man is so weird sometimes. I wonder what Adilyn will look like the first time I leave him alone with her for a long period of time. On a side note her beanie is a duck, you can't really tell in the picture but there is a duck face on top of her head. I think it is so cute!

Things that I miss

• Sleeping in
• Sleeping through the night
• Going to bed at the same time as Orion
• Having the desire to stay up past ten ( I am sensing a theme of sleep here)
• Being able to do things on a whim
• Going to the movies
• Being able to stay out past 7

There are lots of things that I miss since becoming a mom, but those things don't matter as much as Adilyn. My life seems so much more important now that I have a sweet little lady to take care of. Yeah I would love to get more sleep, but that time will come. I don't know if I will ever go back to staying up past ten because Adilyn loves to wake up around 7 and wants to eat right then and there. Life is constantly changing and it can be challenging at time, but I am enjoying being a mom. I love having Adilyn. Sometimes when I am falling asleep at night I think about all the things I can't do now and sometimes I get sad. I then remind myself that I have so much more in my life now than I did before. 

There is something about a baby that makes everything cute. You dress them up for Halloween and no matter what they are dressed up as they are cute. You put a hat on them and they are so cute. I can't think of anything that you put on a baby that does not instantly become cute.

Regular little cardigan becomes super cute when placed on a baby.

Little flower pants are so cute when you put them on a baby.

A hooded towel is the cutest thing ever when placed on a baby. I have a better picture of her in the towel but she is crying because she is cold.

Nothing she is wearing matches, yet you can't help but describe her as cute.

I might be biased but I think Adilyn makes everything cute.

Awkwardly Pregnant

When we went to the beach on our quick little trip to the coast two weeks ago I looked awkwardly pregnant most of the time. Thanks to my Moby Wrap. (honestly I think all moms should have one for their little babies. It is so amazing. It folds right up and fits in a diaper bag and is really comfortable). I just put Adilyn in that bad boy and we walked around for as long as we wanted. She stayed awake and looked around, then we she got tired she took a nap. SO amazing.

It was cold while we were visiting to so I needed to wear a jacket. Lucky for me I have been losing weight (16 pounds lighter than before I got pregnant) my jacket was nice and roomy. I just zipped it up over Adilyn to keep her nice and warm.

I have a baby under that jacket. She was happy as can be in there.

 There she is sleeping away. The only times she will actually take a pacifier is when she is in a baby carrier and sometimes in the car. Other wise she just cries when I try to give it to her.

You can't even tell there is a baby under that jacket. (If only we did not look so tired in this picture...)

Oh look I found Adilyn. When we got back to the car I unzipped my jacket and heard a strange noise. It was a lady in the car next to us letting out a gasp once she saw there was a baby on me. She said she was wondering if I was pregnant. I am happy to report that I was not such a funny shape when I was actually pregnant. I hope I never look so strange for future pregnancies.

Halloween

For Adilyn's first Halloween she was a skeleton. The skeleton glows in the dark. After we were down trick or treating I just threw her sleeper on the floor after I changed her. Apparently that thing was still glowing at three in the morning when Orion randomly woke up. We were staying at our brother and sister-in-laws place and Orion was sleeping on the floor. I got the twin bed and Adilyn was asleep in her bassinet.

I dressed up as Cleopatra (sort of) and Orion was a boy scout leader. We did not take a picture of him though. My sister-in-law thought it would be cute to draw a heart on Adilyn's face. She did not like her face being drawn on at all.

Here she is holding her trick or treat bag all by herself! She would hold it open at the door while I said trick or treat. (I had to help her keep it open of course but she pretty much held the bag all on her own) You would not believe how much candy people would give a little baby. Obviously she is too little to eat it. My little lady is getting so big!

A Dad's Love

Orion is so loving towards Adilyn. He carries her around proudly when we go to church or the store. (That is when she is not being fussy because he hands her to me when that happens.)  He just loves our little lady so very much. My mom got Adilyn a little outfit that is oh so true.

She has a little bit of a smile here because she knows it is true!

It looks like Adilyn has inherited Orion's lack of picture taking ability. They both are making weird faces. She does not really like having her picture taken. I think it is the flash that bothers her.

He finally decided to smile, but of course Adilyn did not want to work with us. She does what she wants.

In the mornings before Adilyn goes down for her first nap Orion likes to snuggle with her. That is if he has woken up yet. He normally sleeps in after I get up with Adilyn because he goes to bed much later than we do. Perks of his job.

I can usually find them on the couch like this after I come out of the bathroom or finish putting a load of laundry in the washer etc.

She sure does love her dad and blankets. Mornings are definitely her favorite because she gets the best of both worlds. I am so grateful that I have a lovely husband who loves being a dad. I can't imagine raising Adilyn on my own. I don't know how those single parents do it.

Swaddle

My little lady loves to be swaddled. She falls asleep rather quickly when she is wrapped up nice and tight. I thought maybe she would have grown out of that by now, but no she has not. Instead she has started to love holding her blanket when she is not wrapped in it. Sometimes after a nap we just bring her out into the living room still wrapped up and she is happy as can be.

She just loves being a baby burrito.

Orion says she is on lock down when she is swaddled.

If she is getting a little upset we sit her in her chair and hand her a blanket. She instantly (most of the time anyway) becomes much happier. She pulls the blanket close to her and acts like she is giving it a hug. Then she tries to eat it.

I wonder if she is going to be one of those kids that carries a blanket around with her. I watched a little boy who was like that. As long as he had his blankets with him (he had two small blankets he loved) we could do anything.

Daddy Daughter

Orion likes to tell me that Adilyn loves him the best. We all know that is simply not true. Hello who feeds her in the middle of the night and changes her diaper? Who plays with her in the morning while someone (Orion) is still sleeping? Who can get her to stop crying? Oh right that is me her mommy. I am sure someday soon Orion will actually become her favorite because he is the less strict one. But until then I am loving being her favorite.

Back to daddy daughter time. Orion likes to have little conversations with Adilyn. He sits her up next to him on the couch and they chit chat.

Sometimes she is not really interested in what he has to say.

What can I say she likes to look at me more than daddy.

Here Orion is trying to convince her that he is more interesting than me. Clearly it was not working.

Sometimes Adilyn likes to watch Orion eat breakfast.

She did not want to be left out so she started sucking on her fist. It is her favorite past time. Instead of suck on her thumb she sucks on pointer finger or a combination of her other fingers.

It is days like today that are the hardest on me. Orion went into work early to do a double shift. He woke up at 6 to get ready and in the process woke up Adilyn. She normally wakes up around 7:30 or 8. We have a schedule that works well for us and when she gets thrown off schedule her entire day is really hard. So today was extra hard because she was so tired she could barely sleep and I had to deal with a fussy baby all day long by myself. I like to remind myself that not every day is like this. Some days are great! Like last Sunday when Adilyn was super cute.

Look at her cute little dress. I just love it. Too bad she is basically too big for it now. Dang her growing so fast!

She has a hard time on every Sunday because church messes up her morning nap and usually her afternoon one. (She basically takes four naps a day that are 1-2 hours long) I would just love it if she would take 2 long naps but we have not reached that point yet. Someday.  But last Sunday was not so bad.

She is just so cute! Whenever I get the camera out she looks right at, but never smiles. I can have her smiling and laughing, but as soon as the camera comes out she gets straight faced. What a little booger.