I'm late posting this, but I'm sure that's no surprise. Finding time to sit down in front of a computer these days is not an easy task. I've said this with every child, but how in the world has it been a month since my sweet baby girl was born?! I literally feel like I was just pregnant yesterday. Her birth is so fresh in my mind and I still cry when my mind goes back to that day. Such beautiful memories.
Speaking of tears, Keelie is becoming less of a newborn every day and emotions are running high with this mama. Keelie is our last baby, our perfect caboose. While I treasure each one of her "firsts" in life, those firsts are also my "lasts" as a mom (insert hormonal tears here).
She is growing up way too fast, as all children magically seem to do. When we weighed her on the scale at one month plus 3 days, she was 11.4 pounds. She's definitely getting what she needs from me as far as milk and for that I am thankful. She is in 3 month clothes and I'm trying to make sure she gets into all those cute outfits before she outgrows them. She is quite the little fashionista ;)
She is a good eater, eating every 2.5-3 hours during the day and longer stretches at night. I was waking her up to eat in the middle of the night for the first four weeks and then decided to let her sleep one night and see what happened. I put her to bed at 10 pm, pumped at 12:30, and woke up to my "if she's not awake by now, I need to wake her" alarm at 4:00 am! She had slept 6 hours! That has basically been our routine since then. I try to get her down by 9:30 pm and she tends to wake up anywhere between 3 am and 4:30 am to eat. Our routine from there is meals at 8 am, 10:30/11 am, 1/1:30 pm, 3:30/4 pm, 6 pm, and 9pm. Basically, compared to her brother Brody, she's an angel as far as sleep goes :) He was sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at this point, which she has been doing since birth! I actually had to wake her up to eat in the beginning... and sometimes I still do.
As far as naps go, Keelie still kinda catnaps on me, in her bouncy seat, in her car seat (when we are on the go), or in her swing throughout the day. We don't have set places for naps at this point except for the afternoon nap. The boys go down in the afternoons, so Keelie goes in her crib for that nap. The first couple days were a big fail, but since then she's been napping in her crib anywhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours! She's awesome. And when all three kids are napping at the same time I swear I hear angels singing.
I had been struggling with the thought of moving Keelie to her crib at night because I knew it was the last time I would wake up with a baby by my side. When my mom was here it was so nice. In true babymoon fashion, I would wake up and the boys would already be downstairs eating breakfast. I would roll over and see my sweet girl and then wake her and feed her right there in the bed. And then my mom left and it was "back to life, back to reality." Brody wakes up between 6 and 7 am every morning and comes into our room. I either let him lay in bed with me (depending on how early it is) or take him into our bathroom with me while I shower and get ready. Either way it was increasingly tough to keep him quiet enough to not disrupt his sister when she was right beside the bed in her bassinet. One day I had a bit of a sore throat and I decided we should go ahead and move Keelie to her crib because I didn't want her breathing my potentially sick air that night. I wasn't ready, but I knew I never would be. She was just over four weeks old and she slept like a champ that night. I definitely took it harder than she did.
Baby Be Blessed is the company that makes the scripture lambs we bought for both of the boys before they were born. They are an awesome keepsake and we also used them to show their growth as babies. Unfortunately, the company took a break from making the dolls before Keelie was born, so I wasn't able to order one for her until after her birth. Until it comes (it's a pink kitty and I'm pretty pumped about it), we are using Tanner's lamb to show her growth. Here she is next to the lamb and then a comparison shot of her and Tanner at one month. She is his mini me with just the right amount of "girl" sprinkled in!
My mom left on a Monday and the next day was my first full day alone with all three kiddos. It happened to be the boys' fall break at school, so we were at the house all day with no plans. Here's how we all felt about that...
I am happy to say I survived that day, but I can honestly say that three kids is no joke. Lately Tanner and Brody are playing together AND fighting together extra hard. Keeping peace between them while caring for Keelie is a constant struggle. Some moments I think "I got this" and others I want to pull out every strand of my hair one by one... and then go hide in a dark room :) The boys have had way more screen time (iPad and tv) than I care to admit and I've learned to just be okay with that. At least I make sure it's somewhat educational ;)
This shirt seemed appropriate for my first day having to get the boys to school. School drop off is at 9 am, so the struggle is real. I find that doing as much as I can the night before is key. Making lunches, sitting outfits out - anything I can do to make the mornings go smoother undoubtedly helps my sanity levels and helps us get out the door on time. Keelie has to go with the flow a bit as far as naps and feedings on those days, but so far she's been awesome.
Tyler only took part of a week off of work when Keelie was born so he could take another day the week my mom left. We decided to have some family fun the day he was off and head to the pumpkin patch about an hour north of our house. It is a very well known place and is always packed on the weekends, so we figured we could avoid the crowds by going on a Friday - and we were right! The boys loved all the pumpkins and I loved watching them run and play among them.
We hadn't ridden the hayride at the farm since before we had kids because the line is always a mile and a half long, but another perk to going during the week - no line! I rode with the boys while Tyler hung out with Keelie. It was nice to have a little quality time with my boys.
From the pumpkin patch we headed right down the street to Amicalaola Falls for a picnic lunch and short hike to see the waterfall. It was a gorgeous day. Fall in Georgia is my absolute favorite time and I love that we live so close to so many fun fall traditions!
We always assumed Keelie looked like Tyler until my mom sent me one of my baby pictures. She DOES look like me after all. Exactly like me!
I forgot to post about her first bath in my last post, so I'll do it here. We waited over a week to give Keelie her first bath (I swear she still smelled amazing) and when we finally did, she loved it! Until she got out, that is...
There is nothing like seeing this guy with his baby girl.
Keelie just recently got to the point where she is okay with being set down in her bouncy seat or on her play mat for short periods of time. She will stay happy for a few minutes and sometimes longer if she has someone to talk to her or her crazy brothers to watch. We started doing tummy time with Keelie after she eats and, just like her brothers, she doesn't love it. But I love watching her work on that cervical curve!
Sweet baby girl is losing all her gorgeous dark hair that she was born with. Tanner lost his hair as a baby too, but Brody didn't, so we were hoping Keelie would keep hers! I joke that with her baby acne and balding head she's half hormonal teenager and half old man, but we wouldn't change her for the world! This MAY be about the saddest picture you will ever see though... her poor head - ha ha!
Just before we celebrated one month of Keelie, Tyler and I celebrated 8 years of marriage on October 4th! We've been to San Diego, Las Vegas, and Mexico for our anniversary in the past (before kids). We've enjoyed a night away at a cabin in the mountains and another at a fancy hotel in Atlanta (since having kids). But THIS is how we celebrated our anniversary this year! Welcome to life with 4 kids :)
Keelie Marie, thank you for a wonderful first month! We love you to pieces and can't imagine life without you!