Pepper is 12+ weeks

Can you believe it has been 12 weeks since I had a little monster, err I mean baby girl? We are actually both sick right now, stuffy, congested, runny noses, it sucks. She is acting fine except around 4 am in the morning when she can't breath ;o( hopefully it doesn't last too much longer, I think we are already on day 3 or 4.

Things she is doing: starting to grab her toys from her hanging mat. Every time I lay her on it and check on her she has a toy or two in her little hand. She is also starting to sit up so much better. She is eating less often, yay, not every 2 hours now, sometimes 3! She is very alert and smiley, mostly in the mornings - she seems to be super happy when we wake up for some reason. She sleeps about 4-5 hours at night, waking to quickly down her bottle and right back to sleep. She doesn't even need a pacifier to fall asleep (yay). I was thinking she would be in her co-sleeper until she was 6 months, hopefully she doesn't outgrow it before then (lengthwise). I will get her measurements in a few days, on the 3th, when she will officially be 3 months. Until then, here are some pictures I took of her today.




What do you think of the black and white? I generally prefer color but I put her on a green blanket and it just didn't look right. Of course the purple sheet would have looked much better had it had a few less wrinkles! I am never satisfied but at least she is cute!

Silly Summer

You probably think it is really easy to get a picture like that (above) because she is my daughter after all and she is use to taking pictures right? Well little did you know the time involved to make her look so cute. I spend hours upon hours photo shopping her into something that looks more like a little girl and less like a crazy silly monster she really is (photos below). I mean, look at the magic I can create with a little photo editing, I am pretty awesome am I not?

One of my favorites

I like entering photos in the I Heart Faces weekly challenges. This week the theme is "by the book" and one of my favorite photos of Summer was taken when she was 18 months old while she was reading a book and looking really cute in her red leotard and tutu. We loved this photo so much we blew it up and hung it on the wall. I can't wait for Pepper to get bigger so we can try to recreate this photo.

If you can believe it, I took this photo at night in my upstairs bathroom using a white sheet for the background. The lighting was horrible and the sheet had a ton of wrinkles, but thanks to photo editing it turned out very cute. I also thought it was neat that the page she was reading was also red. Thanks I Heart Faces for the challenge this week!

Addicted

Hello, my name is Jessica and I have an addiction to taking photos of my children, mostly my youngest as my older daughter can tell me no.

I also have a small addiction to big colorful hair bows ... and wow her eyes sure are blue, I didn't really notice, I wonder if they are going to change and if so, when.


I snapped this, looked into the camera and said out loud WOW HOLY COW those thighs are chunky - and it looks a bit like elephant trunks. Is that nice to say about your daughter?

Then we did a swimming picture, or at least that's what I think of with the pink bottoms and head piece, a swimmer. On a rug, of course you can't really tell its a rug can you?

I call this "in the city" picture. She is wearing a onsie under the outfit so she appears to be a bit bigger than she really is. She looks tough huh.

Ah I just love that little face, she looks so girly when I put the silly head things on her, and better yet she lets me - for now anyway.

Play Mat

Oh how you love your play mat ... if only you would love it a little less and roll over. Is that too much to ask?








or what about laughing at all those silly toys instead of just talking to them? I know, be patient, you are already growing up too fast.

I love your little ...

I love your little ...

Pacifier sucking mouth, you make the sweetest noises with it.

Ankles, they are so wrinkly and fun to play with.

Your cheeks, I love kissing those two things!

Your fist, you make one all the time!

Head of hair, what is left of it, it seems to be coming off, at least in the front :o)

Gums, the toothless ones, at least toothless for now!

Ears, poor little dry ears, yet still so small and sweet!

Nose, I love that little nose, even when it gets stuffed up.

Bottom of the foot, how soft and ticklish you are!

Tummy Time

"The current recommendation for time on the tummy is approximately 30 minutes a day, either all at once or broken up into short segments ranging from a few minutes to longer." per the experts on the internet. I don't know that we are doing quite that much tummy time but we really do try. For the most part Pepper doesn't mind tummy time, at least when she is in the mood. Today she was apparently tired because she immediately found her hand and started to suck and fall asleep.



It was kinda cute and I let her take a little nap on her tummy, while I watched over her.

Here is a video to go with the photos, enjoy!

Two Weeks Later

Two weeks later and I feel normal. I went to my last doctor appointment today YAY. Here is what the cut looks like today, two weeks later.


And here are some pictures of my sweet little girl, well the bigger one, Summer :o) being all cute before dance class.

She truly is an awesome little girl. It amazes me how well behaved she is, how well she listens (most of the time, unless I want her to pick something up), and how easy it was to bring a new baby into the house. You would think as much attention as little Pepper needs that Summer would get jealous but so far she never has. She somehow understands that Pepper needs a lot of help with everything and that I don't have as much energy anymore - haha ok maybe that is because I am so OLD! Anyway I am just so happy with how everything turned out, I can't wait to see whats coming up in the future!

Tummy Time

First let me just update on my *boob* situation, it is healing nicely, I barely have to pack it, I won't need stitches because it will heal on its own, oh and it doesn't hurt.

2 Months: Pepper had her two month appointment, she weighed in at 11.7 pounds, is 23 inches long, and is doing great. She got her shots :o( and her face turned SUPER RED and she CRIED but it didn't last long. More importantly I didn't cry, but almost.

Here are some pictures of Pepper doing tummy time this afternoon. Isn't she precious!




She is really getting up there. I also took a few of her just hanging out, of course!


I love this little chubbabub!

Pretty in Purple

Should babies be so easy? For the past two nights Pepper has slept 6+ hours, then I give her a bottle and she goes another 4, waking around 7 am. I guess the only complaint I have is that I have to sleep right next to her, which I really love, but I don't want to make it a habit. Plus I am getting a lot of sleep myself, we usually lay down around 8, and since we are only waking up once, well I might be getting 9-10 hours a night. I do love my sleep I guess :o)

During the day my baby is just as easy, eating and smiling and almost laughing and napping. She really loves her swing, she loves watching herself in the mirror or watch the spinning colorful alligators spin around. She is just such a happy easy going baby, it almost scares me. My only concern is her weight, she can drink 6 oz and be hungry 2 hours later. Hopefully this evens out soon. We see the doctor on Monday so I will check.

This past week we had a fun purple photo shoot and here are the photos:

Graphic to say the least!

I hate to say that I have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to breast feeding, but come on, do you really blame me? I mean for me everything about it was hard! I was in horrible pain for at least 3 weeks, I had bleeding cracked nipples, then when things started to get better I got a clogged milk duct, that turned into mastitis, that lead to 2 rounds of 7-day antibiotics, only to end up with surgery. And that wasn't the worst of it, here I am after surgery with a huge open wound that I have to pack with gauze twice a day. Are you serious? I can't even do it, luckily my wonderful husband has a strong stomach. Sure I am not on any pain meds because for the rest of the day I am not in any pain but when I have to pull the gauze from the hole in my breast it stings and burns. Then when my husband has to pack more gauze in it and it hurts some. I have to do this at least through Monday when I see the doctor again and beg to not do it anymore. Hopefully it is healing well and I can have it sewn up soon because this is no way to live.

In a perfect world I would still be breastfeeding, I wouldn't have to worry about washing bottles, contaminated formula, tummy gas, burping, which size nipple I need, etc, but my world isn't exactly perfect - almost but not quite. Instead I am left with a distant memory of what it was like to nurse, the wonderful bond I didn't actually have because I was in so much pain but I could almost imagine what it would have been like, I can dream of how it might have been, how maybe my daughter would have nursed and would have gotten full and not cried all day ... so for all those women out there that choose not to even attempt to breastfeed you will get nothing but support from me, because if someone would have told me the "what if's" even if it was the worse possible, I got the worse possible what if! And for those of you who have successfully managed to breast feed you should take a moment to be thankful because it is not easy for many women. I know my daughter wasn't latching correctly and even knowing it I couldn't figure out how to correct it. I learned SO much about breast feeding, enough that I feel I could confidently mentor someone who wanted to try it, but I would never do it again, and not because how hard it was, and not because of all the pain, but because of the fear I have now of having this happen (warning - the second picture is VERY graphic):

This is the day before the surgery.

This is the day after the surgery. Go ahead, you can cry for me.

Luckily, in time all this will be behind me. I can't helping wishing we were somewhere two weeks ahead. To think that in 11 hours I have to go into the bathroom, remove the bandage, take the end of the gauze with my fingers and pull the remaining gauze from inside my breast out while it stings, then have my husband reinsert more gauze, makes me sick to my stomach. But I have to do it, I have to try to be strong for myself, for my baby, for my husband, for the doctor. By far this is the worse thing I have ever had to do in my life so far, and hopefully for the rest of my life.