Bathtime and Bugs.

When we first brought Autumn home we could only give her sponge baths because her umbilical cord had to fall off. This lasted about two weeks, and we didnt bathe her very often because she HATED it. Im assuming it was probably just because she was cold. But she screamed for her first bath in the hospital too.

Now that her stumpy has fallen off and shes getting bigger, she takes baths in her own bathtub. (and sometimes I even put her in the big bathtub with me which she LOVES) We started using bathtime as part of her night time routine. She loooooooves it. Shes definitely going to be a bath-taking girl like her mom!

I cant wait until she can sit up on her own and splash and play. I forsee LOTS of bathtub toys in our future.

After her bath she gets all snuggly in her towel and we do lotion, diaper, jammies, brush hair, nurse and *attempt* to go to sleep. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. Buts its my attempt to get her into some sort of routine that will eventually lead to a schedule. (Im using the word schedule EXTREMELY loosely right now because she is 6 weeks and well- there is nothing scheduled about our days so far.

Now that she has gotten a little older she is starting to get interested in new *stuff*. So before our bath the other night I remembered this really cool pelican scoop that Auntie Ryann had given us for the baby shower. So I pulled it out of hiding and showed it to a kicking squirming baby.

and she froze.

what is THAT?

It was rather humorous and she stared at it for about 5 minutes. I use it in her bath to pour warm water over her and she smiles at it the whole time.



Speaking of STUFF. Autumn has these bugs. There are three of them, a ladybug (her favorite), a butterfly, and a bee. They dangle so you can attach them to the carseat or mobile or wherever, and they also make jingle noises. They have those colors babies love and she will i swear stare at these things for a couple hours straight. I hung them from her swing mobile and now she recognizes them and smiles when I put her in her swing. Sometimes she "talks" to them and silent laughs. its too cute.

one last thing before I wrap this up. The dog puppet. Ill have to get a better video but daddy walked in right at the end so this is all I got. She was kicking her feet quite a bit and silent laughing before I grabbed the video. I wish I would have caught more of the smiling.

It does get slightly tiring trying to come up with entertainment ideas for her, because 5 minutes into an activity she looks at me like "what else?" and you can only do so much entertaining with a hand puppet and a dangle bug. Guess we will have to stock up on more toys to keep her busy!!

"When she steals my heart again and doesn't even know it..."

As the days go by Autumn is starting to show a little personality- I love it- and it makes me so excited for her to get bigger (although im sure ill regret saying that later when I want her to be small again!). It seems like she is learning new things overnight and changing so much every day! I cant BELIEVE how the time is flying by. I remember looking at her little smush face in the hospital and her face was naked. and now,

she has eyelashes.

what the heck... WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN??!

I look at her and just cant believe how grown up she is getting- eyelashes today, college tomorrow. sheesh.

My days are filled with a million little moments that make me smile. One of them is this:

Im nursing her and look down and catch her side-eyeing me. It makes me laugh. She doesnt do it every time- sometimes she closes her eyes or stares at my arm... but every now and then she does this and im wondering what she is thinking. Maybe the milk flow slows down and shes like HEY MOM TURN THE FAUCET BACK ON. I dont know- but its cute!

Shes getting her smile down pat pretty well. Most mornings she smiles and makes lots of noises on the changing table. Unless she wakes up sleepy and then she is fussy gussy like her mommy who also dislikes mornings. Shes trying hard to get a laugh out but it mostly just sounds like a choke. Like a silent laugh- but you can tell she wants to laugh so bad.

                                 smile:                                                
            slient laugh (haha, i love this)

im waiting for the day she actually gets the laugh out. I know its going to be hilarious. she seems pretty excited that she can silent laugh. When I was pregnant I never really thought about the milestones we would encounter once she was here. I didnt think about the first smile, a laugh, rolling over... crawling. oh Jesus. shes going to be crawling before I know it. Its going to be like the time I had a litter of baby bunnies and they all learned how to walk at once. and they were EVERYWHERE. and I kept saying GO BACK IN THE HUTCH GO BACK IM NOT READY. yes I just compared my baby to an animal- so?

ANYWAY now that the milestones are starting to occur im freaking out because each time she does something it makes me realize she is going to grow up really fast. slooooow down little one. Im entering a crisis state of OHMYGAWD IM GOING TO BE 25 SOON AND I HAVE A CHILD AND THE NEXT THING I KNOW IM GOING TO BE WRINKLY AND GREY HEADED AND MY BABY WILL HAVE A BABY. and its really really scary to think about.

Autumn has this thing about sucking. First she was sucking her bottom lip. Then she tried to suck her hands, so we put mits on them. Then she learned about boob sucking and was attached to me like a piranha for 16 hours a day. I got over that REALLY fast. So we decided to introduce the pacifier. I was scared she would eventually learn to call it some really awful name like NEE NEE (omg.) so I decided to name it myself and hope she catches on to it. So its not NEE NEE, or PACI, or BINKY (I seriously hate when people say "wheres your binky?") so its called a suck-ee. I dont really know how to spell suck-ee so whatever. Anyway, she wasnt too keen on it at first. I tried a few different ones and when we found one she kept in her mouth for all of five seconds that was the one. Im glad it was the one I had stocked up on (win!) so we have plenty of them. So she takes it sometimes... other times when I try to put it in her mouth she gags like im sticking a toothbrush down her throat- its ridiculous and she exaggerates and suddenly im having flashes of "NO MOMMY I DONT WANT TO WEAR THAT I WANT TO WEAR SPARKLE SHOES" tantrums. and im worried.

so this morning I open my eyes to this sweet little girl:

and im laying there watching her sleep and flutter suck her suck-eee and im thinking aw how cute she slept with it all night. and right then, she ejects it from her mouth.

 and i chuckle to myself wondering what made her spit it out right then.

clearly, its because she wanted to smile and it was IN THE WAY. im pretty sure she was dreaming about cupcakes and ponies and quite possibly her Granny-ma.
(however, if skyler was narrating this picture story he would probably say she was dreaming about OU football, hunting, and daddy.)
eh- ill go with my version. its so much more girlyish and suites the smile better dont you think?

regardless- I love these little moments and I just cant get enough.

Playing Catch-Up.

This is a new blog following my pregnancy one: http://www.apeainmypodd.blogspot.com/ , where my last post was Autumn's birth story. If you missed the birth story you can read it here. I have retired the pregnancy blog and you can read all about our new adventures here.

I wish I would have started this blog right after Autumn was born but honestly, I didnt have the time- or energy, to get it together. Now that I am officially 6 weeks post partum, I think this is when your life is supposed to return to normal- or what can be called normal now... Which, I must say, is nothing close to the normal that im used to. Im not complaining, by any means, well... ok, I might complain just a little here and there, but its only due to the sleep deprivation that having a brand new baby might bring.

I just cant get over the fact that my baby is already six weeks old. SIX! can YOU believe it? It seems like just yesterday I was doing this:

and looked like this:

(ugh-just looking at that belly makes me feel bloated.)



Anyway, yes, 6 weeks as of yesterday and im pleased to say that now I look like this:

 

(winner)

I am officially back to my pre-pregnancy weight- though I must say that things dont really fit- or look- the same. But im happy the weight melted off so easily, thanks to the breastfeeding, couch sitting, and eating-whatever-the-frick-I-feel-like diet.

The first couple of weeks were a little rough- my mom was a HUGE help, feeding me turkey sandwhiches and keeping me sane in the 5 times a night feedings. Breastfeeding SUCKED from the start, and it took a while to figure everything out. Skyler has been an awesome daddy and is just great with her. We are finally figuring each other out and Autumn is (SORT OF- knock on wood) getting on a schedule.

Now on to the important stuff- my babaaybaaay. She is an absolute doll. I cant stop staring at her. I stare at her the way Skyler and I stared at her the first night home- sitting on the edge of the bed while she peacefully slept in her bassinet. Rephrase- PERCHED on the edge of the bed with eagerness whispering "when she wakes up, ill get her", "no, ill get her", "ok we'll both get her."

She. Is. Precious. Every day it amazes me that SHE CAME OUT OF ME and that she came out so perfect-flawless, and shes mine all mine.  and now:

isnt she precious?

She is literally one of those baby's whos cheeks you just want to SQUEEZE. And trust me, I squeeze them all the time. I have to brag she is one stinkin cute baby- and looks a ton like my baby pictures. aww.

At six weeks old Autumn:

• is smiling with a purpose
• is trying hard to laugh
• Lets out an occasional coo, lots of snorts, and other miscellaneous noises.
• Wears size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes
• Weighs a whopping 10 lbs. 11.5 oz.
• Eats every 2-3 hours
• Sleeps in to a fairly decent hour, 8am-11am, it varies
• Loves to take a bath
• Is obsessed with her ladybug dangle toy
• Hates her car seat
• Can hold her head up for a good amount of time
• Prefers to sleep on her tummy
• Recognizes Mommy, Daddy, and Granny-ma Lamb.

I had to pack up her newborn clothes last week. I did it really fast so I wouldnt get sad. I left out a couple longsleeve onesies because "they are the stretchy ones" and "maybe she can wear them for another week or so" but selfishly just because I wasnt ready to let go of the fact that she is no longer a newborn.

see how tubby I am?? 

Breastfeeding is going well. Clearly. You see that tub-tub tummy? This kid knows how to eat, im not joking. So much so that she gained like 3 pounds in two weeks. nom-nom-nom. I never knew that breastfeeding is so unnatural. I thought it was supposed to be, well, NATURAL, but it is definitely something learned. After battling with nipple shields, bad latches, an overactive letdown and a case of thrush, we're finally getting it down enough where I can feed her in bed in the middle of the night without turning extra lights on. I dont REALLY mind the no-sleep thing anymore. It absolutely sucked at first but now my body is used to functioning on oh, I dont know, four or five hours of sleep? Im not going to lie, there are some nights when I groggily pick her up and latch her on to my boob with my eyes closed. Ok so im half asleep. Ok half asleep enough so that two minutes into the feeding I fall asleep sitting up and wake up to her passed out on my boob. But it works for us.

I have mastered changing a diaper on a very wiggly, crying, kicking baby. I have mastered the slippery baby bath. I have mastered the "ssshh"/back patting/putting paci in mouth while im half asleep. I can successfully do more one handed or with my FEET than I ever even imagined I would need to do... such as turning on a nightlight and pushing back covers WITH MY TOES while holding a sleeping baby, a blanket, my phone, and water, with her sucky backwards in my mouth. And last night I re-learned the 12 days of christmas song when I ran out of nursery rhymes to sing to a 6-week-growth-spurt-fussypants babe that didnt want to go to sleep.

So far, motherhood has come pretty easily to me, like I always thought it would. Im sure there are a lot of things I have to learn but for now its working for our little family.

I have to share some pictures of this little chippy girl.

my granny-ma gave me these!!

the first time she ever put a toy in her mouth! sloberrrr.

my seahorse face.

Smiling girl!!

I have to keep reminding myself she will never be as big as she is right now. One day she wont want to cuddle the way she is cuddling right now. So im trying to embrace every second, every smile, every little everything that this precious girl brings.

I will never feel these moments again. So I am taking them in with every part of myself.

They say that becoming a mom changes you, and now I know that it truly does. Everything is for her now- its not about me. Autumn gives life more purpose. And I am more than grateful.