4 Months and Sleep Deprived

It has been 4 months since our little Libby was born. Where does the time go? It seems every time I turn around another month has passed. And like always I like to post a few things that our little one has learned or loves doing.

First off her 4 month stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 2 oz (70th %)

Height: 25 3/4" (93rd %)

We have an extremely tall girl. The doctor always comments on how tall she is when we go in to see him. He predicts at every appointment that she'll be at least 5'8" when she grows up...which means she'll be taller than me. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens!

Some things about our princess:

*Libby loves to grab anything and everything in front of her. She has started grabbing toys and holding on to them, it is so fun to see her discover new things. Not interested in playing with the toys just yet, but loves to grab them. And this also means she loves to grab anything I am holding or using or trying to do something with.

*You usually see Libs lately with her fingers in her mouth....trying to get all of them from both hands in. She is starting to put things in her mouth and play with her tongue more and more. She puts her toys in her mouth but doesn't know what to do just yet when it is in there, I'm sure she'll pick that up pretty soon.

*Libby is the happiest baby when she wakes up. She is usually ALL smiles but not just when she wakes up. She is a happy, content, easy-going baby all the time. How did I get so lucky?

*Libby laughs and giggles all the time. Her laugh is very infectious. But what babies isn't? She is pretty ticklish on her collar bone and the top of her thighs. Sometimes you can get her to laugh under her arms, but that is a rare occasion. We get Libby into her pajamas every night at 7:15 and she thinks this is hilarious. Every time I try to take her clothes off the thinks I am tickling her and she just giggles. It is so funny, Jedd and I laugh for about 10 minutes about it.

*Libby is already a girly-girl. You can find her a lot of the time with her arm up next to her ear and her fingers just going through her hair. It is quite hilarious. Her hair is getting so long and she is getting more and more of it. It is still extremely dark and the top is starting to finally fill in a little bit, although it does have a mind of it's own, it still sticks up no matter what I do. She also loves it when I let her play with my hair. When I get brave, I let my hair down in front of her and just let her run her fingers through it. She loves this and usually has a giggle when she gets to play with mommy's hair. She also LOVES to get her hair brushed through after her bath.

*Libby has recently been OBSESSED with water bottles. I usually am drinking a bottle of water through the day (trying to get my daily supply of water!) and Libby can spot it from across the room. I usually have a bottle sitting on our coffee table in our living room and if we are sitting on the couch with her, she will not let it go until we let her play with it. Don't know what she finds so enthralling about a plastic water bottle, but hey, she loves it so who am I to judge?

*Along with Lib's hair growing so fast, her fingernails grow 10 times as fast. I swear I am clipping and filing her nails at least twice a week and if I was more diligent, I would do it every day I was home from work. She loves to grab Jedd's and my fingers and arms when we hold her, but man her nails are so sharp sometimes. It is hard to clip and file them, I can only do it when she is asleep and sometimes I don't have the heart to do it when she is out for a nap.

*Libby has become somewhat of a mommy's girl, especially when we are places she doesn't know or with people she doesn't know. As much as Libs loves her grandma's, she is definitely a home body and likes to be home with her mommy. The last week or so Libby has been crying when she realizes that I am at work and she is at grandma's house. It is so sad to hear that she is so upset, it sure makes my day seem so much longer. I didn't think I would have to deal with this so soon, but I guess she knows her mom and dad. It is kind of fun that sometimes she only wants me, it is definitely a good feeling knowing that I am Libby's comfort.

*Libby has the prettiest big slate-blue eyes. And I can proudly say that this is one thing that she got from me. Libs sure looks like her daddy, but her eyes, I can take full credit for... size and color.

*Libby loves to be sitting up and looking at everything. She has started to try and pull herself up when she is laying down. We think she is going to have amazing abs in the next while due to her doing so many crunches.

*And last Libby LOVES the mirror. She loves looking at us in the mirror and she loves laughing and smiling at her self.

Ok that seems to sum up everything this month. Now you're probably thinking why was "sleep deprived" part of my post title? Well that is something that has come up the last 2 weeks. Last week Libby started not sleeping through the night, which she had been doing for the past month. I was a little frustrated hoping this wasn't a new habit but thought nothing about why it was happening. Luckily we went in for her 4 month checkup and found out she had a really bad ear infection. So we started her antibiotics on Wednesday night. But the one who is sleep deprived is me. Libby is usually awake 3-4 times a night sometimes not going back to sleep for hours. The last couple nights she has been awake at 2 or 3 am and hasn't really gone back to sleep. I really feel like this is worse than a newborn. I am just so tired lately that I have been falling asleep right after Libby does at 8pm. My poor sweetie I'm sure is in pain from her ear, I wish there was something I could do for her to help her sleep, hopefully the medication will kick in SOON!

What I need to hear is encouragement from you out there. I am so worried that Libby will never sleep through the night again and this habit will last for ever! Ok I know that is a little extreme, but at the moment it's so hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Will things EVER get back to normal? Will Libby start to sleep through the night again? I feel so bad for her because I know she has been in so much pain, but I just don't know how much longer I can handle waking up at 2 am every morning and never going back to sleep because I'm so worried about her. Have you been through this? How long did it take for your baby to start sleeping through the night again? Is this going to be a new habit she's forming?

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?

I thought this was great.....since I am in the industry of education. It sure put a smile on my face!

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's right.

Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school.

That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30?

So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!!

I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE....That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 anhour.

That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days= $277.77/per day/30students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Remember.....this is a national average. Utah makes way less. Kind of sad when you really calculate it all out. Thank goodness I love teaching math!

Our Libby Valentine

I realized that I have slacked off the last little while with taking pictures. I always used to have the camera handy and when Libby did anything I always tried to snag a picture and it seemed that was what I was always focused on. SO I decided to put the camera down and start to just enjoy Libby and not worry about getting things on camera. But I did this last week take quite a few pictures of her being so cute. Be prepared...there are a lot of pictures. They are all so cute, I just couldn't pick one of them to post so I pretty much posted everything!

First are just a few pictures of a new outfit she has worn. I was playing around and got her to stay still for a few shots.

Jedd and I decided to celebrate Valentine's on Saturday and because I had just worked the day before, we decided to take Libby with us instead of having grandma babysit. These are just a few pictures I snagged of her in her cute outfit.

And then daddy came into the room and that's when the fun pictures started. :) Libs sure does love her daddy.

And of course we had to get one with mommy and daddy.

If you can't tell the picture with daddy is their "tough guy" faces since neither one of them wanted to smile for the camera.

And then this was Sunday right before church. My mom made all of her grand-daughters the same skirt for Christmas and I finally was able to put Libby in hers. So I decided to snag a few pictures of her in it for a few people who I know would want to see it (aka...Grandma and Hailey!!)

(Look at that face! Isn't she so stinking cute? Ok I know I am biased. Jedd and I are in for it when she looks at us like this when she is in trouble years down the road!)

And if you can't tell, I am totally excited we finally got pictures with Libby smiling. She's not looking at the camera directly, but I'll take it. Again, I owe all the perfect smiles to Jedd...she sure loves him, you can see it in her eyes.

Pictures, PIctures

So it has been a few weeks since I have posted so I apologize for those of you waiting for more pictures. I decided to upload quite a few since our little Libby is now 3 months old. Wow! Here are a few things that she has learned or likes to do:

*Right now Libby's new thing is her tongue. She loves it! She is usually found with it out or sucking on it or moving it around. It is fun to see her discover new things.

*She started a few weeks ago sucking on her hands and it's a love-hate relationship. She loves licking them but hates the taste. Her faces are priceless.

*She has recently found her hands and she loves to watch them. So lately she has been having both hands in fists above her head and she just watches them move. She kind of gets upset if she can't see them anymore and gets (we think) a little bugged that they move close to her face and her eyes go cross-eyed. It's hilarious to watch.

*She is doing great sleeping on her own. She now sleeps 9 hours, even though she literally thrashes through the night and throws her head around side to side, she still is sleeping. And recently this last weekend she has started sleeping in her own crib in her own room. I wanted to keep Libs in our room until she was sleeping through the night and now that she is sleeping through, she's in her own room. She is doing extremely well and Jedd and I seem to be loving it. Libby is a very loud sleeper including funny grunts and noises along with tossing and turning so we are getting more sleep too. She usually takes a bottle between 8 and 8:30 and then is in bed soon after. Then she doesn't wake up until 5:30 or so to eat. I have had to get her on this schedule due to me working so she can eat before she leaves to go to grandma's house at 6:00.

*Along with sleeping through the night Libby is taking great naps, even at the grandma's houses. She will usually take about a 3 hour nap usually around 10 or 11 and. Then a few 45 minute naps morning and afternoon, she does very well. Such a great sleeper.

*She likes going to the grandma's houses when I am at work during the week. However, she is like me and we think she likes and enjoys being home. She is definitely a home body, especially when she is tired and doesn't get her naps. She is starting to be a mommy's girl a little bit too which I kind of like.

*She does not like strangers holding her and usually doesn't do well in places that she doesn't know. If she is somewhere strange or with strange people, she usually just wants me to hold her. If not, she screams.

*Libby has started laughing/giggling this last week and it has been so much fun! She is ticklish on her collar bones, her rib cage and her thighs. I can usually get her to laugh for just enough time to grab the video camera and then she's done. Hopefully we can catch it one of these times because it is too cute and funny.

*She still loves to talk and be talked too. She gets excited and kicks her legs and flails her arms constantly. We call her our "squirmen wormen". She never sits still, yes even during her naps she tosses and turns.

*Libby absolutely LOVES polka dots. Her car seat cover has polka dots on the inside and if I'm not watching, I can usually catch her talking to the polka dots. It makes me laugh every time. And she has a lion toy that has polka dots on it too and both Jedd and I have caught her talking to her lion on different occasions. The other day I wore my blue and white polka dot shirt and she couldn't stop looking at it for about a half hour straight. She loves polka dots! It's a good thing her crib bumper pads are polka dots!

*She has started grabbing at things and toys and holding on to them. She usually snags a piece of my hair from time to time so that is always fun to pry it out of her fingers. But she has started liking her toys a little bit more and looking at them. Thank goodness Santa and grandma and grandpa were smart and gave her toys for Christmas!

*She still fake coughs and laughs a little to get our attention. In fact right now she is sitting in a bouncy chair and doing that exact thing as I am typing this. Then when we look over, she just smiles and kicks because she gets excited.

*Libby has had bad eczema lately and so we are trying to get it all figured out and taken care of. It's taken us a few weeks of solid eucerin cream and no soap to get rid of the dry skin. We are currently trying to see if she's allergic to milk and so she has been on soy formula. I don't think she's allergic to milk because nothing has changed from her skin for being on the formula for 2 weeks. So I guess we just wait for the weather to change and hopefully her skin will get better with the weather.

*Her eyelashes are coming in so long and beautiful. She gets this from her daddy, and I think she is going to love this when she gets older. If only her hair was that thick, she would be in heaven. Her her is still dark and getting so long, but it is so very very thin and fine.

*And last she has started rubbing her eyes when she gets tired. So not only can we tell she's tired because around her eyes gets red (like her momma) but she also starts rubbing them. It's too cute to see her do this.

AND NOW FOR PICTURES: sorry there are a lot of them. Couldn't choose just a few to pick so I posted a lot of them.

This is Libs licking her fingers. Her faces are hilarious.

We have tried and tried and tried to capture Libby's smile on camera. This night we were more successful than we ever have been. Every single time I get out the camera to take a picture I get this stone face and the smile goes immediately away. Talk about frustrating! But here are a few of mostly smiles.

Going to church in our new outfit. Sadly Libby was too skinny to wear this for the longest time and when she finally fit into it, she was way too long. She only was able to wear it twice and then we had to put it away. But we got some fun picture anyway.

Last week we decided to let Libby just lay on our bed until she got tired and so two nights in a row this is how Jedd found both of us. I had fallen asleep and Libby was wide awake. I promise that when I finally closed my eyes, I "THOUGHT" Libby was asleep. I guess I was wrong both times.

New pajamas Great Grandma Downs gave Libby. (Again smiling except for when I brought the camera out to take a picture. Such a stinker!)

Libby's crazy hair one morning when she woke up. We call her our mad scientist, I just think it is hilarious!

And this was Sunday. I'll consider this her 3 month old picture. This was the first thing I bought when we found out we were having a girl and I have been dying to have her wear it. She finally was able to and it looked so dang cute on her! And if you can tell, I caught "almost" smiles in some pictures.

We just love our Libby Lynn. She brings so much joy and smiles to our lives that we wonder what we ever did without her. I just wish time would slow down a little bit, it seems to be going way way too fast.

Updates

2 months Old

Libby turned 2 months right before Christmas. Where has the time gone? I swear just the other day she was born and now look at her. We went in for her check-up and sadly had to get shots. We've decided that we aren't going to get shots anymore. (Ok just kidding, it was just really really hard to watch her scream like that, and I couldn't do anything about it. Poor girl. That night she was just crying like she never has before so I knew she was really sore.) But other than that, she seems to be doing really well. Here are her stats for those of you who want to know:

Height: 24 inches - 90 percentile (she was 20.5 when born)

Weight: 10 lbs 9 oz - 50 percentile (she was 7 lbs 14 oz when born)

(this smile melts my heart!)

Just some fun things about Libby:

*She sleeps 7-8 hours at night at a time. This makes it nice but it is a little hard since she wants to fall asleep at 7 or 8. That makes the 8 hours end at around 2 or 3 am. But up once a night, I can handle that!

*We have found that Libby has to have her naps or she is not a happy baby. Over the holidays her schedule was crazy and it made for many freak outs at family parties because she was so tired and her schedule was messed up. Mommy was the only one to be able to calm her down, and even then it took a long time.

*Libby is all smiles (when she gets her naps) and loves to be talked too. Her daddy can get her to smile the biggest and they always have talks at night. It is so cute to see her smile at Jedd, it melts my heart.

*Libby is so strong and can hold her head up 99% of the time. She has even started to try and pull herself up so she is sitting up and not laying down. She loves to be upright and doesn't really care to be laying down on anything. She wants to be up and seeing all the action and what is going on.

*Her hair seems to literally have a mind of it's own and even after getting it wet and combing it down, it still stands on end. But no way am I complaining. I think it's the cutest thing in the world!

*Libby has all of a sudden decided that she doesn't like her binky as much and loves to lick her hands. Even though she doesn't like the taste, she continues to lick her hand. It is so cute!

Christmas

This Christmas was probably one of the most fun Jedd and I have had so far...thanks to our Libby. We know she was too young for the real Christmas stuff but that didn't make it any less fun for us. Miss Libby seems to make everything better for us. This is a picture of our Libby on Christmas morning. Everybody says she looks like a present with this bow...she truly was our best Christmas present this year.

At my family Christmas party my mom gave Libs this sleeper and it was perfect to wear on her first Christmas.

And of course had to get pictures with mom and dad in front of the tree.

Blessing Day

The day after Christmas, Libby was blessed by her daddy. It made for the perfect holiday weekend (even though it was crazy nuts) and most of our families were able to make it for Libby's special day. Here are just a few pictures of the day. My wonderful talented mother made her dress and it couldn't have been more perfect. It was exactly what I wanted.

(The Cherry family)

(Libby with her mommy)

(Grandma and Grandpa Downs)

(Grandma and Grandpa Cherry)

All in all, it has been a crazy couple weeks but it has been fun. I am just so glad the holidays are over and we can get back to a normal schedule. I have found that the holidays are not my most favorite with kids because schedules get all messed up with parties. Next year I'll try and plan better around sleeping time and not let Libs miss her naps.

Now the tears begin because starting Tuesday January 4th, I go back to work and the grandmas babysit Libby 2 or 3 times a week. What am I going to do without my baby? I have already started tearing up just thinking about not being with her 24 hours a day. Wish me luck because I'm going to need all the help I can get to make it through these first couple days without my baby.

Life As A Mom

Life as a mom is so great. I mean look at this face? She is seriously the cutest thing I think I have ever seen. (Don't judge me for being prideful, every mom feels this way about their own child!)

Life as a mom has it moments though. Some things I have learned are the following:

#1: I have wanted to get my hair cut for quite a while now and finally was able to go last night. However, a half hour after I left, my husband calls me with a "screaming at the top of her lungs" baby. Lesson learned?? Never leave my sweet angel at bed time. Or else you will have two very frazzled people to calm down when you get home. My husband was so great with Libby but I guess she just wanted her mommy for na-night time.

#2: Finding time to workout is almost impossible unless I want a screaming baby. Ok that probably wouldn't happen, but I feel guilty for making her stay in her rocking chair as long as she does. Libby has to stay in that thing when I do anything and working out would just add to the time spent in that darn chair. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I feel guilty. My husband works over 50 hours a week; he is gone from 6:00 a.m to 6:30 pm. Finding time to work out is hard. After Libby falls asleep between 7:00-8:00 pm, and I finally get some time with my hubby after he gets off work, I am completely exhausted and the last thing I want to do is go down in the basement and workout on the elliptical for any amount of time. Lesson learned?? Maybe I should have been waking up early before the hubby leaves to work out because I am so ready to get rid of these extra baby pounds I put on while pregnant. Fitting into pre-pregnancy jeans is my enemy right now!

#3: Thinking about leaving my baby for any amount of time is not so fun. I have to go back to work in 3 weeks and the thought of me not taking care of my baby 24 hours a day is kind of hard to swallow. I hold her all the time, and so I admit she is spoiled rotten. Lesson learned?? Next baby probably shouldn't be held quite as much and should be taught at a younger age to fall asleep by herself instead of me always rocking her to sleep. WHATEVER! WHO AM I KIDDING? I don't care that my baby is spoiled and loves me to rock her to sleep. I'll be honest, I probably will do the same thing with our next one.......WAY WAY WAY down the road.

#4: I love the clothes and fun things I bought for Libs. But trying them on in a short amount of time makes for one onry baby. Lesson learned?? Playing dress up is not so fun when you have a baby who hates getting her clothes taken off or having them put on. But look at this cute outfit. Who am I kidding, look at this cute baby!!

#5: My husband is so great with our little one. The other day she was so tired and this is what I found on the couch when I came back from doing a few things around the house. Lesson learned?? I don't always have to be with Libby 24 hours a day. Sometimes "daddy time" is needed.

Yes, life as a mom is so great! And learning along the way is part of the parenting process. I guess I am a lucky girl to be able to experience it with such a great husband and such a great baby. I couldn't ask for anything more!