Happy 1/2 Birthday MG!

My sweet Molly Grace, you are 6 months old today! I know I say this every time you gain a week or a month, but I just can't believe how fast time has flown by! It's so hard to fathom that an entire 6 months have passed since you made your dramatic entrance into this world! You've continued to be the dramatic, spunky, happy girl you were from day 1! I pray you'll always have just enough of that spunkiness to stand up for yourself so no one walks all over you. I hope you'll always have just enough of a dramatic side to never be boring. And I hope you are always this happy and pleasant to bring smiles to everyone you meet! You have changed our world so much in such a short time. Your smile melts my heart and your cuddles melt me all over! I love you more than I ever imagined! My prayer for you each night is that throughout your life - in the good moments and the not-so-good - you will always know how wanted you were, how loved you are and what a miracle you are in our lives! I pray you always know how beautiful and wonderful you are, inside and out and that you never let anyone convince you otherwise. I pray that you will find a strong, supportive, loving husband just like your Daddy!




Enough of the sappiness! I just had to throw a little of that in here! ha!

Here's what you're up to a 6 months:

You weigh: 16.8 lbs and are in the 60th percentile for your actual age

You are this long: 25" - 25th percentile

Your head had a major growth spurt since 4 months! It's 17" which is the 70th percentile! I thought your poor little head would never grow!

You did great with your shots today. You cried your eyes out for about 5 minutes. Once I got to pick you back up you were cuddly and fine! We took you to Target to get some new foods to try in celebration!

You are eating 30-35 oz of Enfamil Gentlease formula each day. You take 5 bottles every 3-4 hours.

You have tried oatmeal, pears, and prunes. You loved the pears and prunes! For your birthday treat we're going to try sweet potatoes - almost as good as a bday cake!

You've been eating 1 meal of baby food a day. We're going to start trying 2 meals a day now!

You can roll over both ways like a pro. We can't keep you in one spot anymore!

You get up on your hands and knees to crawl, but so far you only go backward! I hear your Daddy did the same thing! 2 peas in a pod, I tell ya!

You are a really good problem solver already. You will figure out a way to get to something you want whether it's rolling, turning your body or going backward!

You are almost able to sit up by yourself. You can last a couple seconds before losing balance. But you catch yourself usually!

You love to stand up holding on to things. And you still love your jumper. You've really figured out the jumping. I swear I thought you would pop right out of there yesterday!

You 'talk' constantly! Your favorites are "gooo" "gaaa" "oooo" and you mimick "hi" and "yeah". You've started growling and grunting a lot! You have definitely learned to get your feelings across using your tone! It's so cute!

Your favorite toys right now are (of course) your jumper, a soft ball, the Fisher Price learning table (that I got for $5!!!!), 2 nursery rhyme animals, and a light up FP toy Granny had. You can really entertain yourself for longer periods of time now. For such a young age, you have a great attention span.

You still love being outside. It's your favorite thing. If you're fussy, all we have to do is walk outside and you smile! We've been taking early morning walks and the 3 of us always sit outside in the swing and play with Sophie each evening.

You love the water now. You even love the bathtub. You play and splash and smile. It's super cute!

We finally have a good bedtime routine and it has made such a difference. You take a bottle around 4 or 5, eat your baby food whenever we eat dinner, then nap. You take a bath around 7:00, take your last bottle around 7:30 or 8:00, play on your pallet for 15-20 minutes, we read 2 stories, then rock you to sleep. You go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00 each night and sleep 10-12 hours!

You're still sleeping in your pack-n-play in our room. You sleep so well, I hate to mess it up! Plus we really like you so close! Now your crib has been recalled so you would have to sleep in there anyway!

Your newest habit is waking up at 6am laughing and smiling, I put you in bed with us (me) and you talk for a few minutes then fall right back to sleep with me until 8:00 am! I love our naps and cuddle time!

You amaze me everyday with how much you're growing, changing and learning. I love seeing the world through your eyes! You're the best thing that ever happened to us!

Waterbug

Our child is definitely a waterbug! She loves to swim! She was a little fussy today - we'd been running around all day and it's still a little hot in our house - so I took her outside. Jamey had the sprinkler going so we walked through it a couple times. She really liked it so we got out her pool. She laughed and splashed and played for the longest time. Then the redneck in me came out and I stripped her down right there in the driveway and gave her a bath! One thing I've learned as a mom is that you take advantage of moments like that! ha!

Here's our little waterbug!

Toys and Bargains

I'll just start by saying I LOVE a bargain!!! There is nothing more satisfying than finding a good deal! Jamey doesn't share in my excitement most of the time, but it just makes me giddy to find a steal!

Our poor Molly Grace has no toys! She's never really been into toys other than her jumper so we haven't bought any. She's just now getting to where she'll sit up and play with things so we decided she was getting toys this weekend. Her Granny and Pap even wrote her a check to get herself some toys! ha! I guess they felt sorry for her! We went to Target and got some good stuff. Then we headed to a place here in town that is like a flea market. There are a couple vendors that sell nothing but baby stuff. We drove by and from the road I spotted the activity table we'd just looked at at Target for $45. I made Jamey pull in so I could see how much it was - you'll never guess!!! It was $5.00!!! Then I got her another little toy for $2.00. They are in perfect condition, look brand-new and just need a quick wipe-down (to satisfy the OCD germ-a-phobe in me!). I was beside myself with excitement. Jamey just didn't share in my joy so I had to call my mom because I knew she would understand! And she did! ha! I'm still excited!

Here we go again

About 3 weeks ago we transitioned Molly Grace from breastmilk to formula. Our ped suggested we use soy because he thought it would be easier for her to digest. She did great for the first week, then she got really constipated and nothing helped. Then she started spitting up after every single feeding - sometimes 3 or 4 times. We decided it was time to start a new formula. Our pediatrician recommended Enfamil Gentlease so we headed to Target to get some today. It may just be coincidence, but she took her bottle at 4:00 with 4 oz new formula and 2 oz old and didn't spit up a single drop! That sounds like nothing, but to this momma it's amazing! I'm crossing my fingers this does the trick!

Bunkin' Party

It's 100 degrees here and our air went out...for the 2nd time this summer! Ahhhh! Normally we would have just turned on some fans and stuck it out here, but life changes when you have a child! We couldn't let her stay in our 80 degree house all night. So we packed up last night and headed to my parents' house. We are so blessed to have family so close by who are willing to help us out anytime we need it! Molly Grace was so sleepy when we got ready to head over, but when we got there she was wired! Her 2 cousins were there having a bunkin' party, too, so she did not want to go to bed! She finally went to sleep around 9:30! She flipped and flopped and talked to herself for a good hour in her crib! Crazy girl!

Thanks, Granny and Pap for putting up with us for the night! We love you!

25 weeks and TGIF

Molly Grace is 25 weeks old today!!

Thank goodness it's Friday! Molly Grace and I love Fridays because we always go eat lunch with Jamey at work! We also love it because it means the weekend's here and her Daddy is all ours for 2 whole days! Molly Grace loves her Daddy!! And I'm pretty fond of him, too! ha!

She tried her 3rd food today - she's had pears (likes them OK), cereal with juice (not such a fan) and today she had...PRUNES!! And the crazy thing is she liked them! She ate them up - they were all over her face, hands, arms, legs and seat and me! ha! But, they did the trick that I was needing them to do for her! Hopefully we won't have to resort to Milk of Magnesia or suppositories now that she's a fan of prunes!



She's going to crawl any day now, I just know it! It's so funny to watch her try! She gets her but way up in the air and does a bear crawl, but she will not pick her head up or get her fingers out of her mouth! Sometimes she just scoots her head around on the carpet. She'll turn full circles!

She also has a new love - the phone! She loves to talk on it and will try her best to grab it when you're on it! She even knows what to do when you put it up to her! Sometimes she just wants to eat it, though! ha!





Molly Grace is definitely a girl after her momma's heart - she loves books! We read her 2 books every night before bed and she actually cuddles up and listens! We read several here and there throughout the day, too. She will lay on her belly and look at books all day long!



It's official, my little girl is a mess! She's a growler, a yeller, a drama queen, she fights her sleep, she laughs when I say 'no'...and she's perfect!! I love her!

Swimming

While we were visiting Molly Grace's Mamaw and Papaw this weekend, she got to go swimming in the big pool for the very first time! She absolutely loves her baby pool and absolutely hates the bathtub, so we weren't sure how she'd feel about the pool, but she loved it! She had the best time kicking and splashing. Her Mamaw even blew up a cool taxi float that she could sit in! It was about 100 degrees and the sun was blaring so we only stayed out a few minutes and she was ticked when we made her get out! But she fell right asleep!

First Father's Day

Today was Jamey's first Father's Day. Last year on Father's Day I was 6 weeks pregnant! It seems to unreal that a year has passed already and we now have a 6 month old who rules our world and our hearts! I could not ask for a better Daddy for my little girl. She is so lucky because her Daddy loves her with all that he is! He is such a sweet, caring, hands-on kind of Dad and I love that. It's all I could ever hope for for my sweet Molly Grace! He feeds her, he changes her, he gets in the floor and plays with her, he rocks her to sleep, he reads to her and he never lets her go to bed for the night without kissing her and whispering "goodnight, beautiful. I love you". He's an amazing man, a wonderful husband and the very best Daddy! I love to see both of their faces light up when they see eachother!

Jamey wanted some kind of manly bracelet with Molly Grace's name on it. I had a heck of a time finding one, but I finally did! So that's what we got him. Molly Grace also made him a butterfly. I emphasize the 'butt' part because the wings of the butterfly are her butt cheeks! Ha! So cute!





We spent this Father's Day weekend making the rounds! We drove up to Calico Rock Saturday to spend some time with Jamey's family. His cousin came up from Mississippi to visit and got to meet MG for the first time! We cooked out and visited over at his brother's house then spent the night at his mom and dads. Molly Grace was such a sweetie all weekend. No fits, no crying when anyone else tried to hold her. She laughed and played and was happy as could be! And we finally got a picture with all the cousins!



Today we spent some time at home together. We even all took a nap! Then we headed to my parents' house for bbq and homemade ice cream (my favorite!!). Molly Grace loved visiting with her Granny and playing with her Pap!

How it all began

Today's topic over at Kelly's Korner is proposals. The sole purpose of my blog is to keep up with Molly Grace so one day I can put it all together for her in a book. I figure the day her Daddy proposed to her Mommy is a pretty good story for her! Afterall, it is how it all began!

Jamey and I had been dating for 7 months. I knew I wanted to marry him before our very first date, though! I looked at him one day in church and said to my mom "I'm going to marry him"! Little did I know!

I need to backtrack a little...

My family has always taken our summer vacations in Gatlinburg, TN. It's the most beautiful, relaxing place on Earth (if you haven't been, please go!). We have also always stayed in the same small, family owned cottage that sits right on the creek. Over that creek there is an old, red, wooden covered bridge. It's so picturesque. Way before Jamey ever came along I decided I wanted to get engaged on that bridge. I just had to find the right guy to play along!

Fast forward several years to summer 2002. Once again, our family is heading to the Smokey Mountains for a week of Heaven. Jamey gets the privilege of coming along! ha! For weeks before we left I kept (very subtely) reminding him that I really wanted to be propsed to on that bridge! If you know me at all, you can probably imagine just how subtle I was! ha! On the way there (it's a 9 hour drive, so we had plenty more time to talk about our forth-coming engagement! lol) he finally looked at me and said "it's not going to happen, I want it to be a surprise, I'm not going to propose to you when you expect it". He looked me in the eye and promised that he did not have a ring with him and it was not happening. He said he wanted to ask my dad's permission first and he hadn't had a chance. I actually believed him!

So we'd been there for several days and it was one of our last nights there. In Gatlinburg they always have a midnight 4th of July parade. It's the first 4th of July parade in the country. We walked up to the parade and watched for awhile. It was almost over when Jamey decided we should hurry and get back before the rest of the crowd started walking back. We had to cross the red bridge to get back! It was 2:00 am, I was tired and a little mad that he wanted to leave before the parade was over. I was walking back to the cottage and as I was crossing the bridge I heard him say "Beth, stop a minute". I didn't even turn around, I just kept walking and said "NO! It's late and I'm tired!". He just kept insisting, though. Finally, I spun around and said "WHAT?". Guess what...

He was on one knee (on my special red bridge) holding up a ring. I couldn't even move! He said something that I'm sure was really sweet! ha! I don't remember anything except "Will you marry me?". I literally tackled him, and we both fell down on that red bridge! People were starting to make their way across the bridge and we got several smiles, awww's, wierd looks and congratulations!

It was 2 am and we were alone so I have no pictures! But I do have the memory!

It was the most perfect night! I've always loved him for listening to what I wanted and making my dream come true!

He's an amazing man, husband and daddy.

Let the teething begin

Oh, teething, how I hate you so! I will never understand why it has to hurt my poor little girl so much just to get some teeth! Surely it could have been a less painful thing! Yesterday was a rough day for poor Molly Grace (and her mommy and daddy!) - worse than any colicky nights, worse than shots, worse even than watching them insert her feeding tube! Yes, it was bad!

She's been super fussy, mouthing everything, and drooling like a running faucet so I knew it was coming. Yesterday afternoon she cried (or screamed her heart out), with real tears and real breathtaking sobs for 45 minutes. The worst part was that I couldn't do anything to help her. Nothing soothed her. She finally passed out from exhaustion. Then last night, same thing. She ate at 8:00 pm and fell asleep. 10 minutes later she woke up screaming. I knew she hurt because it was a cry like I've never heard before. Not a fussy, I'm mad cry. A hurtful cry that left her breathless and sobbing - and left me crying right along with her! We held her, we walked her, we danced with her, we rocked her, we layed down with her, we woke her up, we let her play - nothing helped her. We tried gas drops, tylenol, a cold rag, nothing. She cried like that for 1 1/2 hours straight, no break. She cried so hard she started gagging. We were ready to take her to the ER!

Thank goodness for Babycenter. The ladies on my birthboard all confirmed that their precious 5-6 month olds were doing the same thing and it was teething. What did we ever do without internet to calm our fears? ha!

She finally crashed at 9:45 and slept through the night and woke up a happy girl this morning. We are on a mission today - as soon as she wakes up from her nap (so far it's been a 3.5 hour nap!) we are headed to Walgreens to pick up teething tablets, Orajel and Motrin! We WILL be better prepared for tonight!

MG Tries Babyfood!

We've been debating when to start solids. Jamey was home sick with us today and she sucked down her bottle and was in a great mood so we thought we'd give it a go. We put her in her bouncy seat and got out the pears. I think she liked the taste OK, but she's so not ready to eat from a spoon! Her tongue thrust is still too strong. I tried feeding her with my finger and that worked a little better, but not much! She was super cute, though! And the pears definitely helped get things moving for her! lol

Fun Friday

I love being back at home with Molly Grace! We had a great Friday. We took a nap together this morning. I never sleep better than when we nap together! We got ready and drove over to Jamey's work. Molly Grace has never been up there before and he was dying to show her off! After 5 months of not seeing her, his co-workers were starting to think he lied about having a baby! We went over there and showed her off and let her daddy love on her a little bit! We stayed and at lunch with him in his office.





Then MG and I headed to the walmart in the town where he works. She was in desperate need of some new toys and I'm a sucker for a Walmart!

I was super excited to find these connecting toys like I had when I was little! I didn't even know they made them anymore!



MG really likes them. I think she likes the noise they make when they hit eachother!

It's a new record

Molly Grace has never been a very good eater. In fact, that's what kept us in NICU as long as we were! We always get excited when she moves up an ounce at a feeding or breaks her record for her daily intake! I guess when you're a parent life really does change! ha!

Today Molly Grace set a new record!! She ate 7 oz at 4 of her feedings and 6 oz at her bedtime feeding! That's 34 oz for the day! Wow! That seems so crazy to me especially since just 23 weeks ago we were fighting her to take 55cc (less than 2 oz) at a feeding! I'm so proud of her! Today is the first day EVER that she's finished all her bottles! I didn't have to dump out a single drop of milk! That makes me smile!



She's starting to watch us eat and smack her lips when she does. We were planning on waiting until she was 6 months to introduce solids, but we're thinking we may cheat a little! It's only 2 1/2 weeks away so we're not that early. I bought some oatmeal and a jar of pears today so we'd have them when we're ready. We didn't have a disc for our video camera or we probably would've given her some tonight!




I took this picture because she just now went down for bed! This is the latest she's ever been up! I rocked her for the longest time with her just staring at me, smiling and talking! I cherish those moments!

23 weeks and rolling

My sweet little baby is 23 weeks old today! And it's just as crazy to me as it was when she turned 22 weeks last week! ha!

Molly Grace has been rolling from belly to back for awhile now, but hasn't shown the slightest interest or sign of rolling from back to belly. The last couple nights she has gone from her back to her side so we knew she must be getting close. Sure enough, she did it today! And of course I didn't see it! I put her on her blanket in the floor - on her back - and went to change out the laundry. When I came back she was on her belly! She's done it twice today since then, though, and I did see it! I can't believe how fast she's growing!

We went to a puppet show at the mall today. She had the best time! I was worried she'd be super cranky because she hadn't had a nap, but she did great! She slept for the first few minutes, but woke up when all the kiddos started laughing and cheering. That freaked her out for a minute, then she was fine! She laughed and smiled and played with her toy! She's such a sweetie!

Summertime!

Schools out for the summer!!! I couldn't be more excited to have the whole summer off with my little princess! We have no big plans - just enjoying being lazy together! Molly Grace is off to a great start with that laziness, she took a 3 hour nap today! I finally had to convince her to wake up to eat!

We kicked summer off last weekend by going to Molly Grace's very first birthday party! Her cousin, Eli, turned 1 so we headed their way for the party. She had a great time swinging in his swing, jumping in his jumper, napping in his bed and getting her very first goody bag!



I can't believe in just a little over 6 months we'll be planning Molly Grace's 1st Birthday...ahhh! That can't be!