Scarlett's Monthly Update:18 Months

My girl is now closer to two than she is one. I do not know how but somehow in the last few months, she has transformed into a big girl. Her hair has gotten longer, she is talking more, she is walking around holding our hands when we go places rather than being carried.

Weight: 24lbs 5oz (+15lbs 10oz) (Miller was 24 lbs)

Height: 31.5in (+9.5in) (Miller was 32in)

Head: 19in (+6.25in) (Miller was 20"in)

Sleep: She sleeps through the night just fine. She puts her self to sleep at night and at naptimes now. I will admit, I miss her falling asleep on me and getting to look at that cute, squished up face, but I am so proud of her for being such a good sleeper. The only times we have had issues is when we are out of town and sharing a room. She must hear me move when she is a little bit awake and then wants in bed with me. It is rare though.

Eating:  She is a toddler so some days she eats great, and the next she refuses all foods. All in all, she is a pretty good eater though and a lot less picky than Miller.

She was not nursing too much and then we went on vacation and she has pretty much stopped since we got home. It is alright because I know with the new baby, things would change but I was hoping that she would nurse longer. The funny thing is that this is the exact same place in my last pregnancy that Miller stopped nursing. I would say that my milk must change then but I think both times had more to do with traveling than anything.

Best Moment:  In the last month, she has started talking a lot. I was really trying to work with her so she would have a few more words in her arsenal for her 18 month appointment, then something just clicked. She says so many words and pretty much understands everything. We have to mark her first words as "Thank you" and "shoes". Those sum up my girl to a tee!

Milestones: This is hard to pinpoint a real milestone but talking is a pretty good one. Also that she will be a big sister soon.

Monthly Wisdom: She has been really clingy to me and an all around pain and it was really stressing me out. Then Ben reminded me that Miller was the same way at this exact age.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: Now that we are back from vacation and I am feeling better after a rough 1st trimester, I am working on setting up a good routine with the kids to be in when the baby comes. So far so good. The house is running smoother and they seem to be responding well.

Things Scarlett is doing

- She is getting into EVERYTHING. She figured out how to climb into our barstools so now my safe space in there is no longer safe.
-She is so sweet and affectionate.When I get her out of bed, she wraps her arms around my neck and squeezes. There are so many spontaneous hugs, kisses and snuggles.
- Her bowleggedness has gotten better but she still turns in at the knees. We talked about it with our pediatrician and he said that it should straighten out in the next 6 months to a year.
- She is such a dancer. At my cousins wedding she never left the dance floor. She dances to TV shows and commercials and even the timer for Miller when he is in timeout.
- There are a few songs that she starts and mumbles a little bit and claps like she actually sang the song.
- She is so stinking funny. I can not even tell you all the things she does to make us, and herself laugh.
- Her and Miller are starting to play together all the time. It makes me so happy!!! When we came back from a trip to Michigan, Miller stayed in TN with my mom for a few days and Scarlett was lost without him. Anytime we would facetime with them, she would start squealing.
-Some of her commonly used words- thank you, please, welcome, byes, nigh nigh, kiss, love you shoes, teeth, bites, drink, mama, dada, ninny, ally, miller (sort of), Scarlett, sister, all gone, go, Tennessee (not kidding, she can say it), Rocky Top (so proud of this).

I love being able to do her hair. 

My little snuggle bunny. 

I love this one of her!

This is, "Miller leave me alone. I do not care what mommy says, I do not want to hold your hand". 

She is a happy girl most of the time, she just has her sassy moments. Those are the exact things we have said since the day she was born. 

Scarlett's Monthly Update: Month Twelve

(This is really late. With all of the chaos in December, her appointment got pushed back a month so I was waiting for her accurate measurements)

It is so hard to believe how fast this year has gone by. I feel like she is still my baby but at this age with Miller, I felt like he was a little boy already. I miss my squishy newborn and all the newness that comes with that stage but I am not really sad. I feel like with Miller, I was always sad and sentimental but as the second child, I see where we are heading more clearly since I have Miller as an example. I am enjoying every stage but I look forward to her being more verbal and interacting with Miller. I look forward to seeing her little personality coming out. And this is silly, but I look forward to her growing more hair for me to play with.

Weight: 22lbs 12oz (+14lbs 1oz) (Miller was 21 lbs 5oz)
*(We weighed her a couple weeks ago at the hospital and she weighed 21lbs. I think something was off with the doctors measurement because I swear she said 21lbs 12oz but wrote down 22. Also, she was wearing a full cloth diaper which probably adds a few ounces. )

Height: 30in (+9.5in) (Miller was 30in)

Head: 19in (+6.25in) (Miller was 19.5"in)

Sleep: She is still sleeping through the night. Every other couple of nights she wakes up and fusses for a moment but she goes back to sleep. Everyday she naps for about two hours. As for going to sleep, that has been more complicated. She wiggles around and tries to play while I rock her so I eventually give up, just lay her down and walk away. She gets ticked off but eventually falls asleep within a minute or two. I like our rocking and snuggle time but it might be coming to an end.

Eating:  I have no idea what to feed her for breakfast or lunch but dinner she eats like a champ. She is nursing less, especially with the disrupted rocking time before sleeping  and sleeping through the night. At this age with Miller he was eating more frequently but spending less time actually nursing. Scarlett is eating less but spends more time actually nursing. She is at a good age too where if I am not around or we are busy, she skips a normal nursing session. 

Best Moment:  She is becoming more verbal. It is mostly silly babbling but it is adorable.

Milestones: She got a few more teeth but I think our biggest milestone is our girl turning one.

Monthly Wisdom: The fun has just begun.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: We are at the stage where I no longer have monthly goals since her phases are becoming less frequent and we are evening out. With that being said, I really do not have any goals. I just plan to keep going in the direction that we are.

Things Scarlett is doing

- She mimics lots of things but the funniest is that she chooses to mimic the most polite phrases. "Thank you". "Excuse me". "Bless you".
- She tries to sing all the time. She sings along to a few toys that play  the ABC song and my mom had her singing to Happy Birthday and another song she sings to the kids.
- I am not sure if I have mentioned how bow legged she walks. It is cute but part of me is getting a little nervous about it!
- She loves to dance whenever she hears music.
- She cheers when we say "Go Vols" or sing "Rocky Top".
- She shakes her head no when she gets caught doing something she knows she is not supposed to be doing.
- She loves to make us laugh. She does something and gives us this look (which looks just like Miller at that age) while she waits to see us crack up and of course the face is what makes us laugh more than anything. 

This is what Scarlett thinks about taking our last monthly picture. If you can not tell, I am a hyper-documentarian and I am so happy that I can capture these pictures with my kids but it is such a pain to keep up with. I am so glad to be done with them. And imagine that I took a weekly picture of Miller and a daily picture when I was pregnant with him.

Day to day, when I see my kids next to each other, they look so similar. People are all the time telling us that they look identical. Someone even asked us the other day if they are twins. The funny thing is that when we start comparing features, and they are so different but it makes me so happy that they look alike. I think they are both super duper cute!

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Ten

We hit double digit months. 

Weight: 21lbs 11oz (+13lbs) (Miller was 21 lbs 4oz)

Height: 27.5in (+6in) (Miller was 29in)

Head: 18.25in (+4.5in) (Miller was 19.5"in)

Sleep: Pretty much the same as the last month. She sleeps for 4-7 hours, wakes up to eat and then back to sleep. Sometimes she wakes up another time but most nights she does not. At Disney World she slept great in the pack n play and then in bed with us. The other night she actually slept a whole 10 hours, which was awesome, but the next night she would not lay down and go to sleep until almost midnight. I would like more of sleeping through the night. As for naps, she takes a 2-3 hour nap and maybe another cat nap depending on when we wake up. Miller keeps waking us up early since he is now in a toddler bed so her and I might have a catnap on the couch mid morning.

Eating:  I have been trying to get her more food and meals when we eat which she seems to enjoy. We have been giving her a sippy cup for months and she just chewed on it and did not understand that she needed to suck on it. Finally, in the last week or so, with one of Miller's cups she got the hang of it.

Best Moment: Her and Miller are finally at the point where they can play together some. I love watching them interact. Miller is constantly pulling out her paci and leaning in so she will give him a kiss, and she almost always obliges. 

Milestones: The girl is walking. She took her first steps when we were at Disney World. With Miller, as soon as he figured it out, he was running. She is a little slower but once we got home, she started getting braver and taking more steps. As my mom said, that is 3 generations of walkers at 9 months (her, me, Miller and Scarlett). It is adorable watching her wobbly steps.

Monthly Wisdom: I remember having so much fun with Miller at this point (and it still has not stop), but this time around it is a blast sharing Scarlett being so fun with Miller.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: I am trying to slowly transition her out of the swaddle so I am continuing with that. Once that happens, I hope to get her in her bed the whole night. We stopped with Miller when he was 9 months old but right now she is not bothering me. I just know that it is something on the horizon when her sleep regulates a bit more after the swaddle.

Things Scarlett is doing

- Climbing the stairs. Uh oh!
- Waving and clapping like a champ.
- The girl can dance. I was just singing a song the other day and I looked down and she was on the floor dancing.
- When I ask her if she wants milk, she pulls out her paci and throws it.
- She says "mama" and "ma", even in the proper context. If Miller annoys her, she shrieks, says,"ma", and looks at me to see what I do.  

Look at Miller's shaggy hair. I have no idea why we waited another two months to get his first haircut. Her hair is growing but not nearly as fast as Miller's was. It was actually laying down in this picture and not fuzzing up.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Nine

Three quarters of the year has gone by. My girl has officially spent the same amount of time out in our world as she did inside of mommy. I look back at her newborn pictures and miss the snuggles but she is so much fun now. I remember at this point falling head over heels in love with Miller since he interacted with me. Her and Miller actually play together sometimes and they make my heart soar with happiness. I wish time would slow time but I look forward to all the fun ahead.

 

Weight: 21lbs 10oz (+12lbs 15oz) (Miller was 20lbs 8oz)

Height: 28.5in (+8in) (Miller was 28.5in)

Head: 18.25in (+4.5in) (Miller was 19.25"in)

Sleep: So, knock on wood, we have been doing pretty good lately. Not sleeping through the night but better than she was doing two months ago. She sleeps anywhere from 5-7 hours, nurses and is back to sleep until morning. She might wake up one more time but she is normally in bed with us by that point and it is because Ben woke her up by getting ready for work. She has been napping for 2-3.5 hours everyday. I have worried that me rocking her to sleep is going to kick me in the butt but lately she is so squirmy while I am nursing and rocking her so I just have to lay her in her bed and hope for the best. Everytime, she puts herself to sleep. I am hoping we have turned a corner with her. 

Eating:  She has stopped nursing as much but still 5-6 times a day, maybe 4 on some days. She has been eating more solid foods and she is so good at it. Her motor skills always impress me and she knows how to get what she wants to her mouth and toss aside what she does not.

Best Moment: She does the cutest little giggle. When she gets excited she wrinkles her nose and huffs and snorts. Miller did something similar at this age too. 

Milestones: No real milestone, she is wanting to walk but just has not gotten brave enough yet. She is great at cruising on things though. She is also really good at walking behind her push toys. Most kids I know had trouble controlling the toy and it would run away from them. She has such good balance and control with  them. 

Monthly Wisdom: I do not have anything. There have been a lot of transitions with Miller lately so lots of me telling myself that this is all just a phase. 

Goals for the Upcoming Month: Same as the last month, the swaddle. There have been some changes to Miller's sleeping arrangements and so I am clinging to Scarletts swaddle as my security blanket. As soon as I think she does not need it, she will not go back to sleep during a feeding until I reswaddle her. Most nights she gets out of it but it just helps get her to sleep. I have no idea what to do or when to do it.

Things Scarlett is doing

-She can kind of wave but mostly just looks at us and giggles when we ask her to. Same for clapping.
- She mimics making sounds all the  time. One day we were all 3 singing to "Frozen" and she joined in on a long note.

-She gives the typical open mouth baby kiss. It is so slobbery but so sweet!

This is the chunkiest Miller got because soon after he started walking and he never stopped moving. I had outtake pictures from his shoot of him crying and making faces and they have so many of  the same expressions. She might actually be catching up on the hair. It has grown a lot over the last two month but it is just so fuzzy and sticks up all over the place.



Here is an additional comparison shot that is from both of their 9 month picture shoots. I see so many similarities but they still look so different.



These two pictures were too funny not to share. 

 

Ben and I think it looks like she is going to eat whatever she is staring at.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Eight

  

Weight: 20lbs 13oz (+12lbs 2oz) (Miller was 20lbs 10oz)

Height: 28.5in (+8in) (Miller was 29in)

Head: 18in (+4.25in) (Miller was 19"in)

Sleep: Well the good news here is that she seems to be improving. She has been getting better about waking up and putting herself back to sleep so that we are now getting longer stretches of sleep from her. Definitely not sleeping through the night but at least she is not screaming her head off every hour because she wants to be held. I am hesitant to say that these are permanent changes because she is not consistent day to day, but overall she has been much better. She even did good stretches of sleep in the PacknPlay at the beach, which I could not get her to sleep in last time we went to Tennessee. Even with naps she has been sleeping 1.5-2 hours, however that is only once a day. 

I am only nervous that since she has discovered crawling and pulling up, she might wake up and start playing in her bed. I am hoping that we skip over  that possible phase. Ben did find her standing in her crib greeting him when he went to get her one morning so we had to lower her crib some.

Eating:  Nursing is going the same. As for solids, lots of different people gave her lots of different foods at the beach so she is getting used to new things. However, at home I just give her what we have and sometimes that does not offer her a lot of variety. Oh well, you can tell the girl is not starving.

Best Moment:  I love watching her play by herself. She is so happy to discover and figure out new things. It is even cuter when her and Miller play. It does not last very long before one of them annoys the other one but it is sweet while it lasts. 

Milestones: I officially have a crawler and a stander. She crawls all around the house, and pulls up to everything. Part of me wants  to hate it because that means my baby is getting bigger but I just can not help but love it. I was the same way with Miller. They just look so content to be able to get themselves around. You can just see this "Eureka" moment happen for them, like, "so this is how the big people do it". She can also stand independently for a bit. This girl has always had good balance.

Monthly Wisdom: I am suddenly seeing how far we have already come with her. We have a long way to go in terms of raising her but I am noticing how different her first year has been so far compared to Millers. It has been much more even keeled adjusting to having two kids than adjusting to the first one.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: She has been sleeping decently so I am hoping that is a permanent change and in a few weeks we will transition her out of the swaddle. I know we could have done it a while ago but it is for my security. It has always been a part of our night time routine and signal to her to go to sleep but most nights she gets out of it after being in bed for a while and sleeps fine. I am just afraid we will do without it and she will have trouble getting to sleep.

Things Scarlett is doing

-She has gotten better at getting food to her mouth. 

-Crawling, pulling up and standing like a champ.

- She dances when she hears a song come on that she likes.

-She has started to sit in the cart when we go to stores and she LOVES it. She went with me to the craft store and flirted and smiled with everyone and when they looked at her to give her attention, she would flap her little arms and bounce up and down with the biggest smile.

- She plays and just babbles to herself. It is so stinking cute!

They are looking less and less similar as time goes on but I feel like they still look like siblings. They just have completely different face shapes

Here is them next to each other now. So different but some similarities. 

 Here are a few extra shots of her. 

She wanted to show off her new skills for this months photo shoot. 

He was being so sweet and wanted a picture with her. He kisses on her all the time. 

This is not a great picture but it accurately captures her hair and the red that is coming out in it.   

Happy girl.

  

This is from last week. She crawled over to the window, and just stared outside and babbled. She was a happy girl.

 

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Seven

I know I am late on this but I kept forgetting to get her measurements.  She officially passed up Miller this month in size but if she is like Miller, as soon as she gets mobile she will slim down (not that I am saying she needs to).

Weight: 20lbs 1oz (+11lbs 6oz) (Miller was 19lbs 8oz)

Height: 28.5in (+8in) (Miller was 28in)

Head: 18in (+4.25in) (Miller was 18.5in)

Sleep: This is no better than last month. I have the most inconsistent little sleeper and she is driving me bonkers. Some nights she will sleep for an hour or two in her bed before waking up again. Some nights it is 5-7 hours. Sometimes she can be soothed by rocking, or nursing and some nights she is inconsolable until she lays down in bed with me. I do not mind cosleeping halfway through the night but not my entire night. A few nights ago we started making a push to soothe her and leave her in her crib. Two nights in a row it worked and then the next night we tried for 2 hours while she just stared at us and intermittently cried. We had some mild success the next few nights and she eventually put herself to sleep.

Naptimes stink too. Almost everyday, she will take one long nap in the middle of the day. She starts in her bed and normally she will sleep for an hour and a half there. When she wakes up, I move her to her swing. Then this week she would only sleep a half an hour in her bed. However, for the last week she has only been sleeping for 30 minutes and then maybe taking another 30 minute nap in the early evening.

One of the greatest lesson I learned as a parent was that nothing was permanent and it is always a phase that will be over soon enough. Not with this chick and her sleeping. I am convinced that she will never get better and I will be dealing with this for the rest of my life.  Okay I know that is overdramatic but I am tired and not able to  think clearly.

Eating:  She is still nursing like normal. We started solids and so far she has had avocado, carrots, sweet potato, watermelon, broccoli, cantaloupe and apple. Oh and a rice cake she stole from Miller one day. She really liked that one.

Best Moment: I love her smile. Her whole face lights up and can just make anyone's day brighter. She is so sweet and friendly to everyone she meets.

Milestones: She is starting to scoot on her booty. It is so funny to see how she starts somewhere and in just a matter of moments, she is a completely different spot. She can also go from laying down to sitting so that helps her to be independent so she can maneuver herself some. She can pull up to some things.

Monthly Wisdom: I keep telling myself that it will get better eventually. I just need to keep my head down and this phase will be over eventually (please God let it be soon!!!!).

Goals for the Upcoming Month: We are really trying to work with her on sleeping better. We are not really militant with the kids sleep when they are born. We just kind of go with what works for them and us while trying to establish good habits. I remember Miller getting to a point where he just decided that he did not want to do what we have been doing all along. Well that is where we are with Scarlett. She is just getting more demanding and only wants to sleep on or with us. Not cool little lady! I hate it but it looks like we are trying to let her learn to self soothe herself and that involves crying some. There is just no way that I can only have her sleeping on us, at least no way where I maintain my sanity. I love her and I hate to hear her crying but her (lack of) sleeping is really interfering with everything in our lives and I feel like it can not be healthy for her either.

Things Scarlett is doing
- Pulling up to a stand on some things. If she can not get a great grip, she at least pulls up to her knees.
- She has really good fine motor skills for this age. She is good at gripping things and manipulating them. 
- Trying to bring food to her mouth.

Why is it that a boy can have hair grow super fast but a little girl's hair is stubborn and slow growing? She is cute as can be with her hair as it is but I wish it would grow in faster. After 20 years of trying, I finally figured out a fish tail braid and I need my daughter to get hair that I can play with.These two kids definitely look like siblings and especially in person now but they look so different in these pictures. She is chunkier and Miller has a bigger head, but there are looks that she gives me that are so Miller.  

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Six

 

  
I am in shock, complete and utter shock, that this little girl is 6 months old. I will admit that I was a little sad and I have no idea where the time went. Ben finally told me that I am sad because I pretty much lost 2 two months to moving and a few weeks to the holidays. He is right! I mean, I try to cherish every moment with my kids, even the bad ones, but we have had some pretty hectic times over these 6 months. I know that we have loads of fun ahead of us but I want to scream at time to slow down. If not, I will just have to keep having babies to satisfy my baby obsession (as Ben calls it).


Weight: 18lbs 9oz (+9lbs 14oz) (Miller was 19lbs)

Height: 27in (+6.5in) (Miller was 27.5in)

Head: 17.5in (+3.75in) (Miller was 18.5in)

Sleep:UGH!!! She is such a happy baby and mostly so predictable during the day but at night, she is so inconsistent. Miller would at least form a pattern for a few nights before it would change. Every night with this girl is different. Some nights she is down for 30 minutes and wakes up, some nights it is 5 hours. For a few nights last week, she would wake up and just want to chat. Well I found out this weekend that her first tooth popped through so that might have been the problem because the two nights after that, she slept 9 hours straight. Or it could be that I started swaddling her differently because my little Houdini can always get out of them. Naps have been the same way. She should be taking 2-3 naps a day and most days she only takes one 1 hour nap. I have been so frustrated lately. 

Eating:  Here is where she is predictable, and still eating every 2-3 hours, sometimes 4 depending on what we are doing. We started her with solids and gave her carrots this past weekend. She was not too thrilled with the taste. She has liked avocados and loved watermelon. We are going to start super slow with solids and just give her food if we have something baby appropriate.

Best Moment: I love that she can sit up and interact with us. I wish Miller did not find this as an invitation to push her over or pull her down but I think she likes being able to see everything around her.

Milestones: Like I mentioned above, she got her first tooth last weekend. Also, when she does get on her belly, she can get up on her hands and knees but there is no forward movement. Miller started crawling a few weeks from now so we will see what this girl does. She has also gotten really good at sitting up. If she falls, it is when she falls forward trying to get something.  And she finally officially rolled over from back to belly. She has pretty much been able to do it but just could not get over her arm.

Monthly Wisdom: I reread some of my wisdom from Miller's old posts and it still rings true. I feel like we have been in survival mode for most of the past 3 years and I am so tired of it. I do not want to be bored but I want to feel settled. I have been trying really hard the last month to get in a routine and I am successful to a degree, but no matter what I do, chaos still ensues. In my old post I said that I just there will always be chaos but I just need to try to enjoy it.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: I am going to keep working with her on the floor. Starting solids slowly. I am trying to maintain the routine we started and I am hoping that we can get in a better situation with her nap and make that plural.

So at this point Miller's hair was growing in and hers is being super slow. It has grown a little bit and we can already tell it is a totally different shade than Miller's. I do not want to jinx myself but it is definitely slightly red. The picture does not show it because it is the old brown hair she was born with but the undergrowth is lighter and redder. 

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Five

I remember Miller's 5 month being so emotional for me. It was one month before he was a half of a year old and I could not believe how fast time was going. Well I feel the same this time around but with less tears. I know there is so many more fun things coming up but how the heck did we already get to this point. I still feel like I am struggling to get into a routine like I have a newborn yet she has been here for all of this year. We all love her so much and can not imagine what our family was like without her.

Weight: 17lbs 5oz (+8lbs 10oz) (Miller was 17lbs 12oz)

Height: 26.5in (+6in) (Miller was 27in)

Head: 16.75in (+3in) (Miller was 18.5in)

Sleep: She was doing so good and then we went out of town. Even there she did alright. She would only take 4-5 catnaps a day because we would be out doing stuff but she kept her normal routine at night. We came home and the first night she slept 9 hours before she woke up for her first feeding. It was so weird to go get her when the sun was out. The next night it started. She would wake up within an hour of going down and cry inconsolably. It would normally be an hour or two ordeal and once we finally got her to sleep, it would not be long before she was up again. There were 4 possibly causes. 1) Our AC upstairs was messed up so it could have been from the heat and lack of swaddling because we figured she was too hot. 2) Adjusting from being back home. 3) I started eating a bit differently but I find it hard to believe that she would not show signs of discomfort during the day. 4) It was just a phase.

Eating:  She is so normal and predictable with this one. If she goes through growth spurts, she never shows it in nursing more frequently.

Best Moment: There have been some really sweet moments where Miller is talking to her and being sweet and she just smiles at him. I love to see them interact and hope they can grow up and be best friends.

Milestones: She can roll from her belly to back but she does not get enough floor time to practice. She can sit up pretty well except she keeps leaning forward and can not sit herself back up.

Monthly Wisdom: I am so overwhelmed with trying to unpack this house while dealing with day to day tasks with the kids, on top of seeing all the things around here that I know we want to do eventually. I feel like I should be able to do this and it is my responsibility to make this house a home so I need to step on it, but I am just struggling so much. I keep getting reminders that I need to just focus on my kids and work on the house when I have time. The babies come first and foremost. They will only get older and I do not want to miss this time with them.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: My mom is coming next week so I am going to try to get a few major unpacking tasks taken care of then so that I am not as stressed. I am also going to try her napping in her crib. If it does not work out, no biggie, but I am going to try.

Here is the baby comparison. Everyone says that she is so much chunkier than Miller but here they look pretty similar at least to me. Looking back at Miller's old monthly pictures and seeing Scarlett's make me want to have a hundred more of these cute faces.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Four

I am so behind on getting this out. I have had it started for two weeks and then I took Scarlett's picture right before we moved and just now got to editing it. Better late than never!

 

Weight: 15lbs 10oz (+6lbs 15oz) (Miller was 16lbs 4oz)

Height: 25.5in (+5in) (Miller was 25.75in)

Head: 16.75in (+3in) (Miller was 18in)

Sleep: I decided a few weeks ago that when Scarlett would fall asleep on me at night and I would transfer her to her swing (only later to transfer her to her Rock n Play) that I would just transfer her to her crib. She slept 3.5 hours that night and every night it just increased. A lot of nights I put her in their drowsy and she puts herself to sleep too. We had a few nights last week where she would only sleep 2 to 4 hours but most nights it is between 5-7 hours. Naps are the same, 2-3 catnaps and one long nap a day, unless we are busy running around and then she normally takes a bunch of catnaps.

Eating:  Still eating every 2-3 hours.

Best Moment: She is a super happy baby unless she isn't. With Miller, he would often fuss for no reason. With Scarlett, I almost always know what is wrong and how to remedy it. I always asked God to give me an easy going baby because I could not take another handful like Miller. Well she is not easy going but she is predictable and relatively happy.

Milestones: She finally found her feet this week. She also started playing with toys. Just the other afternoon, she saw Miller's firetruck next to her and she started grabbing at it. She has almost rolled over but she does not get much floor time because we have to keep her protected from Miller. Once she rolled over from her back to belly but got stuck on her arm, and a couple of times she rolled from belly to back but I think she was on an elevated surface so none of those actually count.

Monthly Wisdom: I always figured that  the second child would be more independent than the first because I would have to put her down more to take care of the older one. Ha! I actually have to hold her more to protect her from the big one. If she is in the right mood, she is quite content to lay on her activity mat or sit in the Bumbo, but then Miller comes in and attacks her.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: I really want to get her more time on the floor so she can practice rolling over and gross motor skills.

Here are my kiddos at this age. She is definitely has more chunk and look at that head on Miller.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Three

Weight: 13lbs 13oz (+5lbs 2oz) (Miller was 14lbs 13oz)

Height: 24in (+3.5in) (Miller was the exact same)

Head: 16.5in (+2.75in) (Miller was 17in)

Sleep: We are not where we wanted to be but nothing is bad. She goes to sleep a little bit after Miller, and sleeps a 5-7 hour stretch. Then she gets in bed with me while I feed her and stays there all night. She might wake up another time or two to eat. I really wanted her sleeping in her own bed by now but we have a few things going on that made that difficult. I am hoping within the next month or two, we can transition her to at least starting in her bed. She is still taking 2-3 cat naps a day and one good long nap. 

Eating: She still eats every 2-3 hours. We were in Knoxville last week and her whole routine was off. Her normal cycle (sleep, eat, happy, grumpy, repeat) is 3-4 hours at home but there it was down to 1.5-2 hours which was super stressful for me. Hopefully she will ease back into her normal routine again.

Best Moment: She is apparently quite the mommy's girl. While in Knoxville she cried when anyone but me held her. Within a few days she eased out of that but still had some moments of stranger danger. While I really do not care for a clingy baby, it is sweet that she loves me that much because I sure as heck love her that much.

Milestones: No real milestones really, unless getting cuter by the day counts.

Monthly Wisdom: I honestly have nothing this month. I am just trying to survive day to day so I can not even have any wise thoughts. 

Goals for the Upcoming Month: I still really want to try her in her own bed soon. It might not necessarily be this month but it will be soon.


 Here are my two babies at 3 months old. They really look similar but I do not think these pictures show it.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Two

Weight: 11lbs 14oz (+3lbs 3oz) (Miller was 12lbs 12oz)


Height: 23.25in (+1.75in) (Miller was the exact same)

Head: 15.5in (+1.75in) (Miller was 17in so basically the weight was in his head)

Sleep: 60 percent of  the time, she goes to bed within an hour of Miller and then sleeps 7-9 hours. Then she wakes up, I feed her and she goes back to sleep for another 4-5 hours. 40 percent of time she is up every 4 hours, does not get settled between feedings so she ends up in bed with me. It might be segmented sleep but most nights we get a full nights sleep. During the day, she naps in the morning about an hour after she wakes up. She might take another cat nap but then she takes her long nap in the afternoon when Miller does (heaven!!!), and one, occasionally two, cat naps in the evenings.

Eating: She eats every 2-3 hours during the day. Sometimes she goes 4 hours when she takes a long nap. With Miller I worried about him snacking in between feedings and I was trying to get him on a routine. With this girl, she is not much of a snacker but I still just feed her when she wants. Sometimes in the evening it is every hour and a half or two hours but if she just took a long nap, or is getting ready to sleep 7-9 hours, I figure she is just making up those feedings.

Best Moment: I apparently said the same thing with Miller looking back, but she is so smiley. I love just sitting with her and she coos and smiles at me. We were facetiming with my mom, and as soon as she heard moms voice she lit up.

Milestones: I have been horrible about doing tummy time with her but she already has great neck control.

Monthly Wisdom: There are so many things that at this point with Miller I was worried and stressed about and this time around, I am just not concerned. I mean, sure I wish she was doing certain things already but one lesson that Miller taught me is that I can do all I want in trying to teach him something but as long as I gently encourage it, he will do it in his own time.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: She has been sleeping in the Rock and Play in our room at night which I am fine with but I would like to start trying her in her bed. The problem is, with Miller we would put him in his bed and if he woke up, we would let him fuss some before we went to comfort him and start all over again. With Scarlett, I just do not have time for that. At naps I do not have the time to go up and down the stairs to deal with her while Miller is up running around downstairs and at night, I do not want her waking Miller up. She is a little more predictable at night time so I think we are going to start her in her bed then.

And because I am obsessed with these two little people and how fascinating their similarities and differences are, here is a side by side comparison of my babies.  They definitely look alike in some ways but not identical.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month One

Our baby girl is already a month old. I am always amazed how fast this month goes by. On the one hand it is hectic and crazy since we are just trying to get some sort of normality back, yet we are always so sad that it is over. This time around I know that we really do have so much more to look forward to so I am not as nostalgic and sad.

Weight: 10lbs 0oz (+1lbs 5oz)

Height: 22" (+1 1/2")

Head: 15.25" (+1.5")

Sleep: She is a good sleeper (not that Miller was not). She would normally go to sleep around Miller's bedtime and then wake up when we would go to bed around midnight, eat and go back to sleep. Then she would wake up at 5:30 (consistently everyday), eat, go back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours, then get up for the day.

This week, she started waking up when we would go to bed, eat and then stay awake. One night she kept me up until 3:30AM. We started trying to be more calm when we would get her up for that pre-bed feeding and Friday night she slept 7 hours and then Saturday she slept 8 hours. I am not going to celebrate too soon because I am sure it will not happen every night but that is still a better start than we had with Miller.

As for during the day, she snoozes off and on a lot but is generally happy when she is awake. Sometimes she fusses because she needs help going back to 

Eating: She eats pretty much every 2 to 3 hours. When Miller was nursing, he would latch on and stay. She pops off and on and gets frustrated for some odd reason. She is still falling asleep mid feeding sometime so that is when we take the opportunity to change her diaper and wake her up.

Best Moment: We have had so many big things since this was her first month with us. I love seeing her and Miller together. He is such a good big brother. The other day I came into the living room and he was sitting in front of her talking to her and she smiled at him. It was adorable!

Milestones: Hmmmm, lots of little things. Sleeping through the night one night. First trip out of town to TN. She is pretty good at holding her head up.

Monthly Wisdom: I think being a 2nd time mom makes me know how fast this goes by so I am trying to slow down and enjoy this time. Rather than worry about doing stuff around the house, I am taking some lazy time to just cuddle with my kids.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: We are just going to keep working at establishing a routine with her, especially at nighttime. We really need to get in the swing of things like waking up at a certain time and getting a pattern to the day.

I took a one month postpartum picture and I wanted to include Scarlett. I could not get the poor girl comfortable so she kept sliding down.