3 Months

Hailey is 3 months and she is beautiful and bright eyed and laughs and coos and stares and holds her head and I just love her so much! She sleeps a lot more now, which you would think she would be awake more, but I think she's going through a growth spurt like I had mentioned earlier. She's upped her milk intake, so we've moved her up to the bigger bottles! And it had to be right after I buy a new box of small drop-ins. Of course!

I went back to work this month and it really wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Since I have picked up the lovely crocheting again, it seriously keeps me busy/entertained/however-you-want-to-call-it the whole time. And then I have a day in-between each work day to recuperate. I am really actually enjoying it. It also wasn't that bad leaving Hailey with my mom because we have left her before. It's not like it was a shock or anything, on either end. And overshare, but my body is already used to pumping, so the pumping at work hasn't been bad at all either. In fact, my supervisors are very supportive of it and I even have my own little room to do it in! I am very grateful for that. 2 weeks back at work, almost 3, and we haven't had a problem with milk for Hailey yet. Very, very grateful.

I've started putting Hailey's hair into ponytails! I can tell it has really grown, and I love getting to play with it. She looks absolutely ADORABLE with her hair up.

Now that I'm back at work, I have been able to get more into a schedule, especially coordinating her bath nights. I really struggled deciding when I wanted to routinely bathe her before I went back to work because every night was different. And I tried mornings. And I tried basically everything, and I couldn't find a groove. Not to mention on top of that, Hailey was really hating bath time. She would cry and cry and cry. Turns out I was so afraid of burning her that I had the water a little too cool. So I upped the water temp, finally found the nights I could routinely bathe her, and I'm going to be honest, bath time is my favorite time of the day with her. I let her play in the water or stare at her little rubber ducky and wash her head-full of hair. She loves it. She smiles. Or at least stops crying once she's in the water. I'm thinking she may turn out like a fish, just like her daddy.

Speaking of, I have also been on a quest to find her a swimsuit that might fit....THIS year. I really want to take her swimming! I think she's old enough to handle it! The only problem is that she's still so small, I don't think anything is going to fit her yet. Never fear. If I have to stick her in a baggy swimsuit, I will. That means it will last for quite a while!

And...like I had mentioned before, she is holding her head up quite well. She LOVES sitting up. She loves sitting in our laps and just staring out at the world. She even actually enjoys getting put into her carseat because she knows she will be able to semi-sit and look out. I am still working on tummy time. She hates it, and I think it's because I haven't done it enough for her to get used to it. But we're working on it.

I love my life, I love my daughter. I am so grateful for my job allowing me to go back part-time so I can spend more time with my daughter and be a mommy. I can't wait until I can be a full-time stay-at-home Mommy.

Newborn to 3 Months

Hope you enjoyed!

This Post is to Remind Me...

...about the things that I need to post about.

#1 - Hailey's 3 month post

#2 - The Air Show last Saturday

#3 - Remember that "surprise" I was excited about last month? Well, I finally have pictures to show you!

#4 - Heather's Graduation

and #5 - I'm sure I could do a post about the diner opening or hop on the trend train and blog about what I'm going to do to stay healthy and lose weight this summer.

And yes, my arm IS literally dripping with Hailey's drool, Just thought I'd share that.

Good night! It's almost June!

Random Things

I like eating apples and carrots.

Hailey loves sitting up. She's still too small/young to sit up on her own, but she sure loves being propped up in the corner of the couch and just looking out. She doesn't really like laying down anymore now that she knows what more is out there. It's cute seeing her sitting up and bright-eyed.

One night after Scott had gotten into bed and I had just gotten out of the shower, I needed to run into the living room or something. Mind you, I was just in my underclothes. And what do I get as I come out of the hallway but a blast of cool air and the street at night looking right into our house. The front door was WIDE open! Ah! Apparently, Scott hadn't latched the door all the way and it worked its way open all by itself. Good thing I had to go out into the living room or we would have slept with the door open all night! Scott pulled on some clothes to close the door, then went back to bed, but not before I made him search the whole house, just in case some bad guy might have slipped in and hidden himself.

The diner has been open for over a week, and all good things so far! I'll write more about that later.

Scott and I had a LOT of fun at the Air Show up at Hill AFB on Saturday. More about that later, too.

And last of all, I'm pretty sure Hailey is going through a growth spurt. Sleeping A LOT more, but also eating  A LOT more. And a little fussy, especially at night. And she definitely looks bigger. I love watching her grow. I love being able to fit her into more clothes. Trust me, this is exciting. Most babies grow out of size newborn in maybe a month, so you get to have a lot more variety to their wardrobe. No. It's taken Hailey about 3 months to grow out of her newborn-size clothes. But not even completely. She still wears newborn pants and some newborn onesies, depending on the brand. I really can't wait to get her up into the bigger clothes. She's got some really cute clothes coming up!

Time to go to bed. G'night.

There's so many things that I need to write about in my blog, namely the DINER!!! So I promise, it will come. Just thought I'd let you know I was still here.

Fishing, Mother's Day, Birds' Nests and Work

We went fishing on Friday! It was very exciting, to say the least.

Scotty caught TWO fish within the first 10 minutes. He was so ecstatic - his first two fish ever. He has now caught more fish than me. Don't worry. I will catch up.

Hailey also went fishing!

Our other friend also caught a fish within the same amount of time. Seems like this was the place to fish. Or so we thought...

Apparently the fish gods require payment for their friends at Spanish Oaks. I will just say we are grateful to have come out of this one unscathed (for the most part - there were a couple casualties in the cell phone department) and everyone was still able to be in a good mood at our little bonfire afterward. I mutilated the fish I was attempting to gut, and the kids had fun pouring glow-in-the-dark bubbles on our friends' pet pygmy goat. It was lots of fun and so good to be with everybody again!

Scotty got me the most wonderful Mother's Day present ever. He bought BEAUTIFUL purple tulips (some of my favorite), got me such a touching card, and bought me a set of crochet hooks!!!! I know it's mostly just hormones (I swear, I'm more emotional now than I was while pregnant), but I really almost started crying because I was so touched at his gifts.

I am so happy to be a mother. My daughter brings us such joy. I feel the Spirit so strongly and am so awed whenever I look at her. I still can't believe she's mine. I guess it takes a while for this feeling of motherhood to kick in, because I still just can't believe it. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to be a mother, and I am grateful to be able to share this parenting experience with my best friend and help-meet, Scott.

Speaking of being extra emotional, I am also grateful to be able to understand now what other mothers feel. I watched the most touching video on the internet that I'm sure a lot of you have seen about a young mother who's son was born with no eyes and was ridiculed for not aborting him in utero. It was one of the most touching things I have ever seen, and of course, I bawled. I knew exactly how she felt about her son, because that is how I feel about Hailey. I just love her so much and am so glad she is in my life.

To watch that video, here is a link.

We went to visit both our parents on Sunday. My mom found a robin's nest in the tree in the backyard. Of course we had to go explore it WITHOUT touching it. We didn't want the mother to not come back. I was able to snag of picture of these tiny little brand new babies!

Afterward, my mom was so nervous it was almost funny. She kept watching out the back window for the mom to come back, calling herself a murderer for contaminating the babies' nest and having their mother abandon them! Poor mommy. The mommy-bird did eventually come back.

And last of all, I went back to work yesterday. It actually wasn't too bad. I surprised myself. I had everything ready to go the night before, so all I had to do in the morning was gather everything up and be out the door (on time!). I only forgot a few things (including my vital employee number to clock in - oops!), but as the day went on, it came back easily. No major catastrophes, and the day went by rather fast. All in all, it went very nicely. And afterward, we got free dinner at Nellie's so the servers and cooks could get some practicing in. Yumm!!

This and That

This post is an accumulation of random thoughts and things going on in the last week.

My kid sister, Heather, had her last home game ever on Tuesday. She will never play another game of softball for Mt. View High School on their home field again. They did a special senior thing. Hailey and I went and supported her. I love my sis so much!

The end of an era:  Most of these girls have been playing  ball competitively together since they were wee 10 yr-olds. Now they are all grown up and graduating high school. I love these girls! Heather, Alisha, Megan, Kaitlin, Paige, Alyssa!

I faced my fears yesterday and finally baked with yeast. I made a pizza braid and I think it actually turned out pretty good! Next time, remember to put in EXTRA filling and bake just a tad bit longer. The dough was still a little doughy. But seriously, I was so proud of myself for braving the yeast and now my dinner possibilities have greatly opened up!

Also, if you make homemade pizza sauce, you must use this recipe. It was so good. I couldn't stop dipping the cold pepperonis in it. Yumm!!

Yummy Pizza Sauce

1 8oz can tomato sauce

1 can tomato paste

2 tbsp pizza seasoning (I actually got a spice set so 

that is what it was called, but you can split it up and do oregano,

 basil, marjoram, and garlic powder)

(it's so good, yummy!)

I don't know what it is, but lately I have been into dressing Hailey in footsie PJ's and keeping her that way all day. It's just easy and you don't have to worry about a whole outfit or any loose pieces of clothing. And it keeps her arms covered and warm, except I guess I didn't really consider with the warmer weather that she might be too warm in that. But she hasn't seemed to complain yet. I know. I'm lazy. But the PJ's are just so much easier, not to mention pretty cute.

Speaking of Hailey, she is smiling!! On demand!! Oh, I just love it. It makes my heart melt every time. I feel that much closer to my daughter every time she smiles at me. It feels like we're actually connecting together! She is also crying!! We already established that, but I mean real tears this time. I try not to let her go too long where she actually gets to the point of tears, but I post this just to say that, yes, our two month old has gotten her tear ducts nice and working. Yay!

Smiling at Daddy

You see those tears?

I have also been very much into crocheting. I don't know what it is. I used to crochet ALL the time when I was a kid, but I always got bored of it because I guess I thought the ONLY thing you could crochet were blankets and I never had the patience to ever complete a whole blanket. Now that I have a child, however, the crochet possibilities have definitely opened themselves up. I've been making hats, booties, head bands, flowers, you name it! I am so in love. P.S. You are SO going to love her blessing outfit because it will all be homemade/crocheted, with special thanks to Grandma Benson.

Which reminds me...

Announcement:

Hailey's Baby Blessing will be

June 10 @11:00am

Springville Stake Stake Center

(I know it's taken us a long time to get this going,

but when we found out Scott's best friend was going

to be out from West VA that weekend and Hailey's 

great-grandmother was going to be out from

PA, we didn't mind making the wait.)

I don't know what it is, but there's something about the summertime that makes me just DIE waiting for the State Fair. I. LOVE. the State Fair and look forward to it every single year. I don't know why, because that's always in September and I surely don't want to waste my summer away by wishing for something that wasn't here yet. But yes. I love the State Fair and I am so excited to take my little Hailey with me this year!

And one last thing. No, two. I promise!

We finally got to go back to the temple last Friday after not having gone since our anniversary in February. It truly was such a peaceful experience, something I had been waiting so long to do. I literally started crying when the movie started, that's how happy I was to be back. I also got some much needed answers to a lot of prayers, and I was just so grateful to be able to get my Spirit boosted up and re-fueled until next time.

And we're going fishing tonight. I. Am. So. Excited. FISHING!!!

The End. Thanks for hanging around. Love you all!

Glasses Bummer and Fishes

I just have to say that I hate wearing glasses. They slide down my nose, they don't stay on very well when I am trying to be active, and they totally get in the way when I want to lay down on the couch to watch a movie or just read. Needless to say, these glasses are very annoying.

However, contacts are expensive and so I am grateful that at least I have glasses to fall back on, even though they were a pain in the rear to get (but that is a different story). So I will try my best not to complain about my glasses, but I will be sure grateful once I can get back into some contacts.

ALSO, weather has been beautiful, days have been longer, and...fishing licenses are about to expire? Yep, that's right. So let's get using them!!!!! I want to go fishing every day until they expire. I. love. fishing.

The end!

God's Blessings

Last night as I was laying in bed, I decided that I needed to recognize God's hand and blessings in my life more and to do that, I was going to write about it and share it with you here on our blog.

With me being off work for so long after having Hailey, along with all the medical bills to be paid off, money has become rather tight here in our household. However, it has been a good lesson to me to really make our food stretch, including re-using leftovers for other meals and actually using what we have in our food storage. I feel like I have done a pretty good job, and we've been able to cut back on our grocery budget a bit while still having good meals at home. I especially love being able to find a recipe now where I don't have to make any trips to the store at all for it.

On Sunday, my friend in the ward said she really wanted to make us dinner, so how about Monday night? She's so cute, because usually dinner-making time is right after the baby is born, not 2 months after they are born, haha. But I wasn't going to complain about a free meal.

Well, this meal ended up being more of a lifesaver than she will ever know. She brought us so much extra food, and also the right kind of extra food, that I was able to keep the leftovers and get FOUR EXTRA meals out of it without having to make any extra trips to the grocery store before Scotty got paid again.

This has been a HUGE blessing, and I know she probably doesn't realize how grateful I am that she listened to the prompting of the Spirit to make us dinner when she did, what she did, and how much she did. But I am sure glad she did.

She also got Hailey a Flamingo outfit. HOW CUTE!!!

2 Month Stats

Technically, Hailey is 9 weeks as of yesterday, but that doesn't really matter. She had her two-month baby check-up yesterday and I also (finally) had my postpartum check. It's kind of nice when you're seeing the same doc - kill two birds with one stone!

Hailey's Stats:

Age: 2 months

Weight: 8 lbs 9 oz (25%)

Height: 21" (10%)

Head Circumference: 38cm (50%)

As you can see, she's still teeny-tiny but she is on the right track growing rate, relatively! For those of you who are confused about the percentages, that is just the percentile that they use to basically say how big or small your kid is compared to all the rest of the kids out there. The higher the number, the bigger your kid, the lower the number, the smaller your kid. Her head is pretty average, but everything else is just small small! I'm OK with that, though. Makes for an easier time picking her up and carrying around that carseat!

She also got the first of her immunizations. She did pretty well for the most part. I'm not going to lie, I almost did cry when they poked her. Just the look on her face of, oh my, this hurts, when they stuck her was priceless and so sad at the same time. She was crying those silent cries where you don't hear anything but it's deep and her face was reeeeed. Oh, my poor baby! However, I gave her some baby Tylenol before the appointment so it actually kicked in pretty soon and she was out as we left the office. That was nice. I also had to give her one more dose before she went to bed because she was screaming again. Before she fully fell asleep, Scott shook her tummy (like, "wake up") and she looked SO stoned, it was hard not to laugh at her! I should have recorded it. Her eyes were like on slow-motion and they rolled all around. I know we shouldn't make fun of our children, especially when they are doped up on medicine, but it was just too funny.

And, well, you don't really care, but I had to get my annual pap smear for my portion of the appointment. Oh joy. Dr also gave me an RX for my acne. It's really flared up since I started breastfeeding and it hurts. :(

So, Hailey is two months old! Her first month, she was a good baby. Her second month, she is still a good baby, she has definitely figured out how to use her lungs, finally. She cries a lot more than she used to. She has also started salivating. Lots more drool comes out of her mouth than it used to. She also likes to suck on her hands now.

She still sleeps really well. I am grateful for that. She goes about 5-6 hours at a time, so I am definitely not complaining. We also got her a little portable swing for cheap and she loves napping in that.

She is sort of starting to smile. We will get that real smile here yet. I just can't quite get her to smile on cue yet. And she has a dimple!

We've been taking her out more, like to church and to the store. She seems to do just fine in big crowds, meaning noise and stuff. I mean, she's got my family to deal with, so she's pretty pro at it.

She is starting to get bigger in her carseat that we will probably have to move the straps up soon. Her torso is just so long. And her legs are tiny. We've just about graduated her up to the size 0-3m onesies only for her length, but she still can only fit into newborn size pants. Seems like it's going to be that way for a while - always having to wear pants size one size down from everything else.

We love taking walks, but I know I need to get us out and about more, especially now that the weather is really starting to warm up. I haven't been doing very good about exercising, haha, so these walks will be good to get me up and moving.

That is just about it. My daughter is just so cute and I wish you all could see her because she really is just darling. I'm biased, I know. :)