Movie Monday: Annabeth Laughing with her TEETH!

We are still not sleeping much with Big Baby but she is a JOY!

Movie Monday-Abigail Sitting Up By Herself showing off Her Teeth!

Abigail is already sitting up by herself some and has 1 tooth and the other one is about to be through. She went to the doctor the other week and the doctor said that it is early for her teeth to already be coming through and that was what was wrong with her, not her ears, praise the Lord! She seems to be a couple months early in doing everything. She is even trying to get up on all fours to start crawling. Jackson was textbook on when everything happened for him. I think he got his first tooth at 7 months old which is right when they are suppose to come through. I think girls just mature faster. Of course I am not ready for her to be doing all she is doing, and I was dying for Jackson to get a tooth, sit up by himself, crawl, etc.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Movie Monday: Jackson and Abigail Speaking Their Own Language to Each Other

I really had no idea how Jackson was going to react to having a baby sister. At first, it was hard for him to get adjusted to not going to many places during the morning, but now we are out more now that I have the minivan. Really the hardest part of having two babies is that what is good for Jackson schedule wise, is not good for Abigail. Abigail needs to take a morning nap, and Jackson wants to go somewhere and always is bringing me the keys to the car and saying "go, go, go." So I comprise and Abigail gets a full hour and a half morning nap every day except Monday Wednesday, and Sunday mornings (she still gets two 45 minute naps in the morning on these days).

Jackson loves Abigail to death. He hugs and kisses her a lot. Jackson laughs at her, and they make each other laugh all the time. He is very gentle with her. They now seem to have their own language that they speak to each other and it is crazy but they seem to understand each other. Abigail really loves to squeal now she has become quite the character.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Update on Abigail: Five Months Old

Abigail is still funny as ever. Her laugh is hilarious. I really wish I could catch it on video. She has such a fun sweet disposition, a lot like my grandmother. However, Abigail has been fussier recently. Mother's Day really wore her out and she went to sleep (actually a coma) early with only have about 25 ozs. That night she woke up every 2 hours and we would flip her back on her stomach and she would go right back to sleep. So then she got constipated and now it seems every other night she is waking us up every 2 hours. She wakes up on her back and I know she wants to be back on her stomach. Today she has eaten a ton of pears and drank a lot of formula. However, overall she is more fussy during the day. It is just hard to get adjusted to because most days and weeks she would never fuss, not even a little. I am pretty sure she is already struggle stomach issues, mainly constipation. Her bottom two teeth also look like they are about to come through. Do yall have any advice on how to alleviate her waking up upset on her back?

Doesn't she look beautiful in her church outfit? She finally has enough hair where the bow will really stay in. Yay!

Added later: Her schedule:
7:45 am 6 ozs bottle (sometimes 8 ozs) Pears
9:30 or 10 am Nap till 11:30 am
11:30 am 6 oz bottle Pears
1:30 pm Nap till 3:30 pm BOTH BABIES SLEEP WHICH IS GLORIOUS
3:30 6 oz bottle Most days takes a 45 minutes nap after she has been awake for 1 and half (which Baby Wise recommends)
6:30 6 oz bottle Pears
9 pm 6 oz bottle
10 pm Bed

She eats 5 times a day. I am not nearly as strict about her schedule as I was with Jackson. Mondays and Wednesday she does not get much of a morning nap because we go to the gym. We are working towards just 2 naps by 6 months of age and her taking her night bottle at 8 pm and going to bed by 9 pm. I have discovered on the nights she goes to bed early though she ends up waking up every 2 hours and the nights she goes to bed late, like 10:30 pm. she has no problems. That is a mystery to me.

My Best Mother's Day So Far!

Today was definitely my best mother's day I have had in the few short years I have been a mother. My beautiful baby girl was dedicated today at church and all my immediate family was there. Even Aunt Sandra!

Jackson makes me thankful for every little thing that we take for granted.

Abigail makes me enjoy being a mother. I love having a baby and some days I just never want her to grow up!

Abigail looked so beautiful in the dress I wore when I was dedicated and the necklace I wore. She also had the ring on that Charlie's sister had when she was a baby. She did great and even smiled up there! Dr. Estep preached a wonderful sermon. Probably one of the best mother's day sermons I have heard.

Charlie wrote the most beautiful mother's day poem to me I could ever imagine. I am almost too embarrassed to link it because I wish I could be half the women the Proverbs 31 women is. Words really mean more to me than any gift could. Charlie is such a great writer all I really ever want for him for gifts is homemade cards that he writes.

I am so blessed. I have always wanted to be a mother. I think I was ready at 20 years old. I have always dreamed of having babies and being able to stay at home to raise them. I know this sounds crazy but for me there is not a day I wake up staying at home that I dread. There were many days going to school that I just dreaded the entire day and wanted the week to be over. Every since I married Charlie and had our babies I have felt complete. Motherhood is such a high calling, and a life that is lived for eternity.

Abigail's 4 Month Stats

Weight: 15 pounds 1 oz (60%)
Height: 26 inches (89%)
Head: 42 1/2 cm (79%)

We had to wait to have her 4 month check up till the day she turned 5 months old because the church changed their insurance. Everything looks great with her. She is so much stronger on her core than Jackson because she has been sleeping on stomach since like 3 months old. She actually tries to crawl some days. Jackson also weighed 15 pounds at his 4 month check up as well. I am sure she will not be in this high of a percentile next month when she has her 6 month shots. The doctor did say that her bottom gum were swollen and that she is teething.

I might be trying cloth diapers on Abigail. I will hopefully have a post soon about it. It is just crazy having two in diapers. I will of course have regular diapers for when she is in nursery situations.

Jackson's 4 month doctor visit/Advice on Starting Solids

The 4 month check up went well. He was 15 pounds and 11oz and in the 50 percent in weight and over the 50 in height. His head is in the 25 percent though but it is growing---haha. The doctor said that as far as food goes I can wait till he is 6 months or so. The key is that they need to learn to eat by 1 year because baby/real food is their main source of nutrition by 1 year when they go to whole milk. He did run a temp. after the shots. I do not handle it well when he is sick because he is so helpless. Right now naps are the hardest thing for us and he still is getting bored and wants me to play with him all the time. I am not going to try to be real strict with the whole food thing till 6 months (mainly because Katherine always told me 5 months was the easiest when they eat 4 times a day and if you do not start food). Also, some doctors say their stomachs are not ready until 6 months. When I do offer cereal I mix it with 2-4 tablespoons of formula and 1 tablespoon of cereal (that way he does not get choked)

Eventually Baby Wise II says:

Breakfast (8am): cereal and fruits----Lunch (12pm) Vegetables and fruits----- Dinner (4pm) cereal, vegetables and fruits-----then one last bottle at 8pm. That would be my perfect schedule in a perfect world----haha!

Before you start fruits or vegetables offer you baby Rice Cereal or Oatmeal Cereal (if they struggle with constipation) for 2 weeks three times a day. Baby Wise recommends this but the doctor says you do not have to do it. It takes a while for them to figure out how to swallow. At first, they will only take half of the fruit or vegetable (make sure you buy 1st food not 2nd or 3rd).

I do know that for the first year of their existence they need at least 24 oz of formula a day and no more than 32. Jackson usually likes 27 (to get him through the night) but recently he has been eating 32 every day. I think he is going through a growth spurt. Right now we offer 7 ozs to him at 8:15, 11:15, 2:30, and then 6 ozs at 5:15-:5:30 and then again anywhere from 8:15-8:45. So we are still feeding him 5 times a day but I think he would take 8 ozs 4 times a day. I am just lazy and my platex drop in bottle only holds 7 oz. Recently he has been going to bed at 9:30-10:15 and sleeping till 8 or at the latest 8:30. He still will only sleep 10 hours a night (my doctor said that was wonderful) so we put him to bed later so he will sleep later and I can get a shower!

I have tried cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner but it is so time consuming---it took like 45 minutes! He still wants to spit it out. He has major constipation problems recently so the doctor said to do oatmeal rice cereal and go ahead and try pears and apple sauce. She said that it did not matter if we started vegetables or fruits that they are all gross and have no good taste. She said to try a new food (it just needs to be a first food---it does not matter if it a fruit or veggie) for 3 or 5 days in a row to make sure he does not have any food allergies. We tried pears today and he gave this terrible face like this taste terrible and spit most of it out. I usually try the food after about 4 or 5 ozs of formula so that way he is not starving but not completely full. That has worked best for me but as you know every baby is different.

As far as naps I know at 6 months it is ideal for them to have just two big naps a day from 1 1/2 to 2 hours---one in the morning and one in the afternoon. So little Sophie is doing great! Before that they say 3 naps (at at least 1 1/2 hours) once they hit like 12 weeks I think The one in the afternoon does not need to be too close to bed time, Our naps are hard right now. He will only sleep for 45 min for the morning nap (probably because he sleep so late) and then he has one at 1 that he usually sleeps for 1 1/2 hour and then another nap at 4 ish for another 45 minutes. After he has been up for like 2 hours or so he gets so tired. We are trying to get read of the last mini nap at 7-7:45 but it is hard because he is so fussy. The first nap of the day he will go into the crib and fall asleep but the rest of the naps I swaddle him and put him in the middle of the bed and he goes to sleep fine.

He is a big grabber now and I am glad I read that Baby Wise II book because I am not letting him play with our phones and stuff because I will not let him play with other people's phone when we go to their house. The book said it is fine to let them play with the remote, your phone, etc but not to punish them when they do that at other people's house because they do not understand. He also plays and rolls around in the pack and play every day because that is a safe place for him. Once he does start crawling I am not going to let him have rule of the entire house he will be limited to certain room----I guess I will get some baby gates. They say that that is just too much freedom to let them crawl around the entire house. He is rolling over on his stomach and yesterday he rolled back over to him back to get to something he wanted but that is the only time he has rolled back over.

Approaching 5 Months

Next Monday Jackson will be 5 months old! He was born on September 12, 2006. Hopefully this weekend I will have a post on his recent 4 month doctor visit, introducing solids, etc. I have read Baby Wise II (5-15 months) and it has helped me with introducing solids, and with learning about the new fun challenges we are about to embark on. I will be blogging about what Baby Wise II has to say soon. But for now enjoy this pictures. As you can see we have a lot of fun right now, and from what everyone tells us 5 months is a wonderful easy time with your baby.