Everly Grace: 25 Weeks

Likes: trying out some more food (carrots, guac, cantaloupe), being outside, spending time in the activity center, celebrating grandpa's birthday, hanging out with Ally

Dislikes: being put down (baby girl was a bit fussy and wanted to be held all week long)

Little Things

Ready to catch up on all of the little things that have been going on in our life?  These are some of my favorite posts to write and look back on.

After Christmas, we got right to work on our puzzles.  I could see an immediate improvement in Emma's dexterity and decrease in frustration level with every piece that she got right!

The day after Christmas, my parents watched the girls so that Wes and I could go on a date to celebrate my birthday :).  My first birthday in three years that I was finally able to have a drink!

Of course, we finished dinner with our favorite dessert- churros and ice cream.

My friend Kelli got Everly this fox jacket for Christmas- I just think she is too adorable in it!  As a side note: I sign to her: "what did the fox say" every time that she wears it :).

I took this next picture after Emma's biggest meltdown to date.  She was throwing herself on the floor in the middle of the Game Stop at the mall since we told her she could not ride on the mall carousel.  After letting her melt down for close to three minutes- I picked her up, put her in the baby carrier and she fell right to sleep.  My almost two year old is as dramatic as they come some days.

Everly was my date to a baby shower.  Sweetest little date even though she didn't nap a minute while we were there.

We have been doing a lot of coloring on our dedicated table since Christmas :).  This sight just makes me so happy!

If propped at the right angle- Everly can hold her own bottle!  She has come a long way since my early days back at work where she used to cry at the sight of a bottle :).

After a particularly trying night with both girls not sleeping, Wes sent me this picture the next day.  It is so true and such a good reminder.  The girls are not going to be this little for long.

So instead of getting frustrated that Everly wont go down, I have been doing a lot more cuddling and holding because right now my girl needs this, she needs her mommy to hold her.

Have I mentioned before that Emma loves soup.  Well she loves loves loves it!  She even decided to eat it straight out the the crock pot one night :).  She is a red meat loving girl and so this is one of the only ways that we can get her to eat chicken.

Wes had a dentist appointment one afternoon, so I took the afternoon off work and picked Emma up from school.  She wanted to stay and play on the playground so I obliged.  I learned that Emma likes to slide down on her belly now. When did my girl get so big and brave?

Everly enjoyed it too :).  I would have put socks on her if I knew that we were going to stay and play!

These two (plus their daddy) have my whole heart.

We recently celebrated my father-in-law's 75th birthday!  It was a great afternoon hanging out with family.  The cake had picture of him playing the drums throughout the decades :).

Emma had fun riding the "roller coaster" often saying "weee" when she would come down!

Emma's cream Tom's finally bit the dust (too many washes since I bought the color cream).  I ordered her a new pair from Nordstrom.  They came and she wants nothing to do with them.  Absolutely nothing.  I am so puzzled by this.

When I was picking out her outfit for school on Tuesday, I told Wes to try to get her wear her Toms.  I even hid all of her other shoe option (there are only two!), in the laundry room.  I even told Wes to bribe her with chocolate (this is how we got her to wear her jacket for the first time!).  Before school, I received a text that said something along the lines of "Emma just kept saying moccs moccs over and over- not even chocolate did the trick!)".  Little stinker.  

One day a bird flew into our house.  Emma was so excited about it that once I came home she kept saying "bird, bird, biiiiiirrrrrrddddddd" and point up to the window where it was.  My girl loves birds and bugs :).

We are making over our fifth bedroom into a playroom for the girls- I am super pumped to have a dedicated place to store their toys!

I picked the lightest of pinks for Wes to put up on the walls.  He was able to get the first coat on last weekend and I am loving the direction this is headed already :).

In one of Everly's weekly posts, I think I mentioned that we gave sleep training a go?  Well I prematurely texted my mom this picture that read something like "Guess who is sleeping in her own crib tonight?".  Well obviously this bit be in the rear- Everly was awake 20 minutes later and we attempted sleep training for an hour and we both ended up in tears.  The next time I text my mom a picture like this, I will wait until she has made it in her crib for the whole night or at least a solid two hours :).

We purchased this heart garland at Target and I am in LOVE with it. I definitely want to get garland for every holiday now.  Looking at this picture, I also need to dedicate some time and money resources to styling our fireplace mantle this year!

Not even Bailey is immune to the bow wearing that goes on at our house.  Emma thinks it's hilarious- poor Bailey!

Everly loves her activity center.  We have used this thing daily for the past two months- definitely one of our best second hand purchases.  We move it from room to room and even outside on occasion.

We have been spending dedicated tummy time with Everly this week and guess who rolled over for daddy?!?! That is right, sweet Ev's.  Still not doing it on a consistent basis, but that is ok with me :).

And lastly, we had our first scare with Everly eating food- Wes said she enjoyed the cantaloupe until she bit of a bigger pieces than she could handle!

That is what has been going on in the Mitchell household :).

First Foods

Spoiler Alert- I ended up giving Everly her first taste of food before 6 months.  I wasn't even that torn up about it (probably since she is still nursing so well!).  The timing was perfect.  Her first food would be the same as Emma's first taste of food- and of course that makes me giddy inside.  I went to the Cheesecake factory for lunch one day and brought home a loaf of their sourdough bread.  This may be a weird choice for first food, but it was Emma's first taste when we were in San Francisco and I couldn't didn't want to miss this opportunity for comparison moments.

I just love love love this milestone.

Everything is so new to them.

Everly would make this awful face and then go back for more.  It was quite hilarious.

Here is a video that truly captures the first moment she tasted food.  Please ignore my math skills (I promise I am a CPA).  It was January 9th and I said Everly was 15 days shy of 6 months; obviously, she was 20 days shy of 6 months.

And a second video after she had time to gnaw on the bread for a little while!

And before we move on completely from the sourdough bread, I realized that I never posted any pictures of Emma trying it for the first time.

I don't know why, but what I take away from these pictures the most is how blue her eyes were/are :).

And that she had no hair compared to Everly.

We have given her a bit of food since this- most notably avocados (no pictures!), bananas and carrots.  So far we have done a mix of baby food plus real people food.  We will probably stick to more of the baby led weaning approach like we did with Emma (with the exception of vegetables!).  And yes, still no rice cereal for my baby girls- I am appalled by that stuff!

This is my most favorite banana face sequence!

I think at the end she was saying, "See, I really do like these mom; can I have some more please".  And a video of the bananas.

And lastly, the carrots.  Why are baby carrots so messy?

You should have seen Emma's face when we let her try them.  Safe to say we might not have to say "share" as much with regards to Everly's food.

Such a fun milestone to embark on :).

Pumping is not for the faint of heart

Don’t you feel like it is time for an update on how breastfeeding is going?  Ok, I thought so too J.

Despite the title, breastfeeding is going splendidly well.  In fact, I couldn’t be happier this go around.  You may have read about my breastfeeding woes with Emma.  Here is the short story.  When I went back to work, my supply tanked.  In addition, Emma no longer wanted to nurse at night (she preferred a bottle).  That combination led me to have to give her formula when she was 7.5 months.  This was devastating to me as a new mom.  There were so many tears.  Of course, we all lived and are probably stronger from the experience. 

Well, I was determined not to let that happen this go around with Everly (even though in the back my mind, I knew each child is different in their needs and wants). 

I was not going to let myself fail.  I was not going to let myself fall shy of a year breastfeeding Everly.

This go around I had a plan of attack.  I fed Everly on demand during maternity leave (which sometimes meant every 30 – 45 minutes).  I pumped all of the time when I was on maternity leave to build up a freezer stash.  I started drinking mother’s milk tea as soon as I started work- I drink four bags of that stuff a day to keep my supply up.  Almost six months in, I can still pump 20 – 25 ounces a day.  We have not had to go into our freezer stash (probably much to my parent’s dismay since all of the milk is in their extra freezer!). 

I really think I owe my success to drinking Mother’s Milk tea plus dedicated pumping.  I pump three times a day while at work.  And let me tell you, pumping is not for the faint of heart.  Pumping is incredibly hard work.  It takes me half an hour three times a day (out of my work schedule).  Just like with Emma, I have already come to despise my pump.  But I do it.  I do it because I know it’s what’s best for Everly.  I do it because it makes me blissfully happy.  I do it because the sigh of relief on her face when she latches on is priceless. I do it because I love to see the milk drunk look in her eyes after a good nursing session.  I do it because it helped me lose the baby weight (#honesty).  I do it because it allows me to bond with my baby even while I am at work.  I do it because the benefits of breastfeeding far outweigh the 1.5 hours a day it takes me to pump.  I do it because it's how she falls asleep at night.  I do it because I love Everly to the  moon and back. 

I can’t wait to see what the next six months of breastfeeding has in store for us!

One on One Time

I am a big believer in one-on-one time for each child.  My mom and dad did this with us growing up and we loved it.  I still remember all of the special trips that my dad and I took to watch spring training baseball.  Before Everly was born, all of Emma's time was one-on-one so there was no need to put an emphasis on this.  I knew that once Everly arrived, I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with Emma; however, this was more difficult than I anticipated due to Everly not taking a bottle like a champ.  However, the stars aligned (Emma and I were invited to a birthday party), so we got a whole day of one-on-one time.

The birthday was at a trampoline park and fit right in with Emma's new love for everything balls and jumping :).

I don't know that she actually realized that Everly wasn't there (but I do think she realized that she had me all to herself), but she was just so happy the whole time!

This trampoline park was pretty cool- they also had a lot of inflatables which included a big inflatable slide.  Emma climbed the stairs all by herself (it scared me to death since there were kids much bigger than her), and then slid down the slide.  She seriously had so much fun!

After that, it was time to tear her away from the slides and jumping for pizza and cake.

This girl inhaled a slice and a half of pizza :) and hardly any of the cake :).

So happy that we got to spend some one-on-one time together!

Going to make a concerted effort to do this more often in the future :).