3 Months Old...Already??

Our sweet baby girl is 3 months old today! Here are some things that we've noted about her this month:

~She weighs 13 lbs 14.5 oz...that's 1.5 lbs heavier than her sister at the same age!
~She eats 5 to 6 times a day
~She is sleeping so much better than last month! She has made leaps and bounds this month. She is napping much better (last month she was waking about 1 hour into EVERY nap and I was having to settle her down). Her nighttime sleep has stretched to 7-8 hours! Sometimes she'll wake earlier but I started noticing that she wasn't really eating when she woke so we started going in to settle her by putting the paci in her mouth and then she'll sleep for another 1-2 hours! What a champ!
~She's a Morning Person!!! This is SO clear to us! Not only is she happy and smiling in the mornings and afternoons, but in the evenings she's grumpy and rarely smiles. She even scowls!!HA! I'm interested to see how this plays out as she gets older...
~ She's not moving around much yet when she's awake. No rolling over and no scooting around on the floor. She'll twist her head around to watch Claire play and that's about it. However, while she's sleeping she moves ALL over the bed...turning in circles and scooting to the other end of the crib.
~She's a drooler! So much so that I've even checked for teeth a couple of times. I know, it's very rare to have a child pop out a tooth this early, but it's not unheard of! And I'm telling you, this child drools A LOT!
~Poor thing has her first cold. It was bound to happen at a young age since she was born right in the middle of the flu season. I'm just thankful that it happened AFTER she had her first round of shots. This cold has definitely disturbed her in her sleep, but we're praying that she'll be over it quickly and that it won't develop into an ear infection.

Lauren, words cannot express how deeply your dad and I love you. You are such an added blessing to our family and we are so thankful for you. We pray for you every day and are committed to bringing you up in the ways of the Lord. Love you punkin'.


Our big girl! Literally! These are 6 month clothes. :)


I can rarely capture her beautiful smile on camera. As soon as I hold up the camera she stares it down.




Even though she's making a funny face, I just had to include this picture. Notice the roll of fat around her midsection?!? I love it!

The Snot Sucker

I just purchased The Snot Sucker based on the recommendation from a friend. I've always used a traditional nasal aspirator and had to literally hold down Claire while I was using it. It is a dreadful part of mommy-hood. Since both of my girls (22 months and almost 3 months) have nasal congestion right now, we decided to bite the bullet and spend the whopping $12 (*insert sarcasm here*) to purchase one. Now that I've used it...I would've spent DOUBLE the amount. Seriously. This morning I used a traditional nasal aspirator on Claire and she literally screamed, cried and got red-faced. Then we piled the girls in the car, drove 20 mins to a specific drug store that carries them and purchased one. When I got home, I tried it out and we sat in the floor and she LAUGHED when I used it. Yep! Laughed. Check it out mommy friends! It's worth it!

A Wilkie's World

Our lives lately:

Claire has been putting her dolls and her stuffed animals in all of Lauren's "baby" gear. Here is a doll in the headrest to Lauren's swing. The headrest is a makeshift Boppy. :)

Claire likes to put her Leapfrog Pet Pal in Lauren's car seat.

When I took the blanket off, I noticed that she'd fastened the buckle.

Bear is in the baby swing.

Bear is in the Boppy!

My little helper loaded the dryer for me today. I put all of the wet clothes in the basket and she took them out of the basket and put them in the dryer. She loves to say that she is "helping".

My little helper.


More "tot school". Here she is putting different shaped blocks into the appropriate holes in the bucket.

She loves to color. She decided this morning that she wanted to sit on her "beep-beep" (aka car) and color. I have also learned to not give her but one crayon at a time. Otherwise, she likes to just play with the crayons instead of color with them. :)

I could just eat this one up. She is such a sweet, sweet girl. She is so snuggly. She gives her Mama smiles all day long. She is eager to watch her sister play. I love this precious baby so, so much!

We finally got out in the double jogger all at the same time. It was great! Although, it was a little cold for the girls. I was only able to stay outside about 20 minutes with them. Hopefully the weather will continue to get warmer and by this Spring, we'll be out every morning!

Can I get a smile, puleeze?

Thinking that the girls looked so cute in their Valentine's outfits this morning, AND we had a few minutes to spare before leaving for church, I told Bradley I wanted to get a few pictures. That, of course, is always dependant on if 2 little girls are in the mood to have their pictures taken. This morning...they were not in the mood. :) No matter how much mom and dad made silly faces, goo'd, said, "CHEESE" and acted goofy...we could not get these girls to smile. Oh well, they're beautiful anyway. :)

The closest thing to a smile I got during this experience.

"Can we go to church, please?"

"Mom, when are you going to stop?"

Lauren's looking intensely at Dad while Claire is interested in Lauren.

Fun time is over. Sorry, pumpkin!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Wilkie's!!!

Tot School

The past several months I have been trying to "teach" Claire some basic learning concepts: counting, colors, animals and animal sounds. But our teachable moments have been random and inconsistent. Plus, I don't feel as though I am a "teacher" at heart, so I'm just going over things over and over again, and I feel as though she gets bored at times. I almost feel a little silly writing this post because I know so many of you out there are already doing things like this with your tots. But, there may be someone out there (like me) who was unaware of things they can do with a child under the age of two...so I'm going to swallow my pride and write this post! Well, in the last week I have come across Confessions of a Homeschooler and 1+1+1=1 (thanks to my friend Heather for doing a similar post on her blog!) that have very detailed plans on teaching small children. Specifically, 1+1+1=1 has a "Tot School" link where she shares her ideas on what she's done to teach her tots. One thing that I got from these blogs is that I don't have to spend "formal" training time each day with Claire to teach her basic learning concepts. Just working on fine motor skills are helping her to learn. And while we "play" I can integrate colors and numbers and counting. So, today, I put practice into play. I went into her room with her and found toys that I could use as a learning tool and Claire LOVED having me "play" with her in her room. Here are some things that we did:




These little stackable cups were a gift from my mom last summer. She got them at Dollar General for just a few bucks! They are great because they are different colors so I can teach her about her colors. They also only fit into each other one specific way. Claire loved dumping them and stacking them and dumping them and stacking them.








I have put all of Claire's Little People into a gallon sized ziploc bag. We have been using Little People for a looooong time as a learning tool (we go over different animals, animal sounds, boys, girls, she has an angel, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus etc). But, today, we practiced taking them out of the bag and putting them back in the bag along with who they are and if they make a sound.

We have a TON of baby rings. You know the ones. They are small, plastic, and colored. You attach baby toys to them and dangle them over an infant for them to look at. Well, Claire uses them as "bracelets" and we have a ton of them. I have this tupperware container that I keep them in. She practices opening the tupperware and closing it (which takes a lot of practice), she puts the bracelets in the container and pours them out. Loving every second of it.

So, I have learned to just take it easy. No, I didn't get a degree in teaching like so many of my mom friends did. But, I can still teach my little girl basic concepts of learning other than what I'm doing now (primarily reading). Things that will give her a foundation to the schooling that she will start in just a few years. I hope to try some new things with her very soon. Things like stringing beads on a wooden stick, picking up beads and putting them in little ice cube trays, puzzles, etc. I plan on devouring the above links to find out more age appropriate examples of things to do with her. And I plan on loving every minute I have with this little toddler.

Comparisons

A lot of people have asked me lately if I think that Lauren looks like Claire. I really, really think that my girls resemble each other. Although, it's difficult to tell because they DO have some differences. Lauren is MUCH bigger than Claire was at the same age and the amount and color of their hair is different (Claire's was strawberry and Lauren's is brown with some strawberry tones). Those two things alone can make it seem as though they look different. Today, I pulled out some pictures for comparisons:


Lauren's first day at church. Claire's first day at church.

*BOTH girls were just over 2 months old when they went to church for the first time. For the life of us, we could NOT get Lauren to smile. And, if I remember correctly, this picture of Claire was the first time that we got a smile on camera.


Lauren at 11 weeks. Claire at 23 weeks, wearing the SAME onesie.

*That's right! Lauren is just 2 1/2 months old and I'm already pulling out the 6 month clothes. The picture of Claire was when we took her camping for the first time. She was about 5 1/2 months old.

Our Beautiful Girls

Here are some photos of our lives lately:


One day this week, I went to get Claire up from her nap and this is what I found...sitting up, feet under the bed rail, socks off and hair in disarray. Love this girl!


Apparently my 25 pound 22 month old can sit in the Bumbo. She is so crazy!

So excited about our 'new to us' double jogger. Before I even got pregnant with Lauren, Bradley's parents spotted this at a yard sale for $20 and I told them to get it! (I just KNEW we were gonna have another kiddo someday). We finally have a reason to use it. Claire and I took it out for a test drive earlier this week.

Her hair is getting so long now and it's just gorgeous! I couldn't help taking this snapshot of her beautiful hair.

Lauren had lunch one day with Claire and I (she just sat in her Bumbo on the table while we ate), although she doesn't look too happy about it. She was ready for a nap!

Claire loves to go 'see the horses' with Granddaddy! If you walk through the woods behind our house there is a horse farm not too far from us. There is a huge pond and horses that they love to walk to if the weather permits.

Claire wants to hold Lauren as much as possible now. She will even walk up to us when I'm feeding Lauren and put her hands on her and say, "I hold you?". Sweet girl.

Several weeks ago, a sweet family from church gave us a bundle of hand-me-downs. In it was this cute little headband. Claire calls it her 'necklace' and wears it around her neck all the time. The night this photo was taken, her Daddy put it on her like this and called her Jane Fonda. We laughed and laughed and she had a great time.

My girls L.O.V.E their Daddy! And he just ADORES them. I love this picture of the 3 loves of my life.

Little Chatterbox

This morning I was feeding Lauren when Bradley went to get Claire out of bed. I heard about 10 minutes of random comments to him from her. I couldn't help but laugh at all of her randomness. She gets so excited when she wakes up from her nap that she just starts talking to talk. Hmmm...I wonder who she takes after? Uh, certainly not my "chooses his words wisely" husband. :) Here are some things that I overheard this morning:

*"Daddy!"...with excitement that he came and woke her
*"I sit"...sometimes she sits up in bed when we come and get her
*"A nap"...she thinks that when she wakes up in the morning she's just woken from a nap
*"Book!"...she must've seen a book
*"Dora Seat"...she has a little couch in her room that has Dora the Explorer on it
*"Bear"...she was playing with a little bear last night before going to bed...she must've seen it
*"Neckie"...i.e. necklace...she was playing with it last night before going to bed...same as above
*"Diaper"...she gets her diaper changed
*"Mama, Lauren"...Bradley just told her that Mama was in with Lauren
*"Eat?"...even if she's not hungry...she asks to eat after waking up in the morning.
*"Dog goes 'ruff ruff'"...who knows why this was said!! :)

And of course...I overheard Bradley cracking up at our sweet little girl. She is so funny to us. Now that she's learning so many new words each day...she wants to "practice" saying them constantly. We love it and we love her!

Jesus Book

Claire loves to read. Just this morning, during her roomtime she was sitting in the floor surrounded by all of her books, reading. I have a pile of books in Lauren's room for Claire to look at while I'm feeding Lauren. One of those books is the Bible that Bradley and I purchased her when I was still pregnant with her. She calls it her "Jesus Book". It is so sweet and everytime I hear her refer to her Bible as the Jesus Book, I just melt. (I know, I melt at a lot of things that she says & does).

Claire is also learning more and more words each day. She is repeating just about everything that we say in hopes to learn how to say the words. It is precious! Some words that are in her daily vocabulary are:

~"hibbits"...i.e. hiccups. Both Claire & Lauren had the "hibbits" yesterday.


~dog, cat, monkey, hippo, lion, frog, sheep, duck, bird, walrus, bear, bunny...etc. All animals that you can think of. She loves animals and the sounds they make.


~All family member's names: Nannie (Nana), Gampa (Grandpa), Gamma (Grandma), Gee (Granddaddy), Ashee (Ashley), Titeen (Christine), Tia (Tara), Teton (Steven), Angy (easy to say, I guess), Don (John), Char-Jake (refers to both Charlie AND Jake together), Adeeya (Adaya), Ellio (Elliot). She even knows the family dogs names: Cletus, Duke, Sam, Laddie, Rosie, Baxter.



It is a JOY to be the mom of this precious girl. I love teaching her new things. I love the look on her face when she learns something new. I love the look on her face when she knows that she has obeyed me and I'm happy about that. That precious smile. I love the excitement that she gets when she hears her daddy's truck pulling into the driveway after a day at work. I love that she enjoys going to wake up Lauren from her naps with me. I love that she enjoys the outdoors like her daddy does. I love that she calls her Bible her "Jesus Book". I just love this precious girl.

And baby makes 4

It seems as though the last 6 months, I just can't keep this blog updated! Well, a lot has happened with our family. On November 23, we welcomed our second daughter, Lauren Kathryn Wilkie. Even though it was 3 days past my due date, we were still taken a little by surprise. I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions for several weeks and had even sat at home timing contractions a few times the week that she was born. The week before Lauren was born I saw my doctor and she strongly recommended that I not go past 41 weeks. I was very anxious about when Lauren's arrival was going to be because of the Sears store...Bradley HAD to work Black Friday, which was 6 days after my due date. (Claire was 8 days past her due date). My doctor had me schedule an ultrasound for 2 days after my due date for us to make sure the baby was still healthy and thriving. I was familiar with this because I went through it when I was pregnant with Claire too. However, with Lauren, unlike Claire, the ultrasound did not show that Lauren was "thriving". They measure several different movements as well as the level of fluid and on one of the tests, Lauren measured 1 out of 4...which didn't make the doctors happy. They recommended that I go in THAT NIGHT for an induction. I was SUPER sad...I even started crying at the appointment. I did NOT want to be induced again...I wanted this baby to come on his/her own time. (We did not find out the gender of Lauren before she was born...we did the same with Claire). Well I, of course, trusted my doctors and followed their recommendations and proceeded to make the round of phone calls and run a few errands before checking myself into the hospital. First to be called...Bradley...who was SHOCKED that I was heading to the hospital (as was I). Why were we so surprised? I mean, I was 2 days late!! Once we both made it to the hospital and I got settled into my room, I met with the doctor. She told me that they were going to induce me a different way than I was induced with Claire. In most women, it jump starts labor within 6 hours. In a small percentage of women, labor starts within 1 hour and in another small percentage of women, they have to start pitocin (which is what I had with Claire) after the 6 hour mark. Because it took several hours for labor to start when I was induced with Claire, Bradley and I settled in for a long night. His brother even stopped by to see us after he got off of work. Well, during that visit, I started to feel bad...could I have contractions already?? It had been less than 30 mins since I was induced! Well, in less than an hour I was having some serious contractions...the kind that you have to concentrate on....the kind that you cannot talk through. Bradley walked his brother to the car and while he was out there got my overnight bag and a few other things. And while he was gone, labor progressed fast! My labor and delivery nurse was right there with me through it all and said that she thought we would have a baby before midnight! WHAT? My labor with Claire was 15 hours! And didn't the doc say that most women took hours for this kind of induction to start? It had only been 45 mins to an hour!! I was in so much pain, though, that I went ahead and asked for my epidural...before Bradley even returned from the car! He was SHOCKED that I asked for it in that short amount of time. Finally, I got my epidural...and we both thought that we could get some sleep or at least some rest before this baby came. Well...Lauren had a different plan. As soon as I laid down, I started feeling bad. There was no sleep and no rest for me! At 12:48 am on November 23, we welcomed our second baby girl into this world. I was CONVINCED that she was going to be a boy! And THRILLED that she was a girl! I couldn't believe it! We had TWO girls!! We were both so overcome with joy...and surprised...that Lauren was here. My labor was a total of just 5 hours and 15 mins! Start to finish. As I'm typing this, I still can't believe it!

Well, the next few days for us weren't as smooth as the first. We found out that Lauren's bilirubin level was high and she needed to stay in the hospital longer than we expected. She was put on a bili-bed on Wednesday and HATED it. She cried literally all day. We could not hold her, unless I was feeding her. And because she was awake and crying all day, everytime I'd feed her she'd fall right to sleep. By that night her glucose level dropped dangerously low and we were persuaded to supplement with some formula (which devestated me). After quite the ordeal on
Wednesday and Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) we finally got the go-ahead to come home on Thursday evening. We got home at 6 pm on Thanksgiving night. Bradley's parents brought Claire home to us and I finally got to spend some quality time with my firstborn. I missed her so much when I was at the hospital. My heart hurt I missed her so much. The next few weeks with her would be tough. It was a bit of a transition for her, going from only child to older sister. But, after a few weeks, she grew to love Lauren and now asks me where she is and asks to kiss her head when I go to put Lauren down for naps. She is so sweet with her and it fills this Mom's heart with joy that she loves her so much. It's been 2 months since we brought Lauren home from the hospital. The first 2 weeks were tough...Bradley worked A LOT, I slept very little, Claire had some emotional days when I didn't know what to do with her. But, the Lord was good to me...He showed me grace and love and answered my many prayers for my family. Lauren is such a sweet baby. From the beginning, she's really been a great nighttime sleeper. What a blessing! She is now starting to organize her daytime sleep. Here are some other 2 month stats:

~12 1/2 lbs...over 1 lb heavier than her big sister was at the same age!
~smiles a lot...the person she smiles at the most? Big Sister, of course!
~she is a social child. she is calm as can be as long as someone else is in the room with her.
~much to her mama's dismay...she is not sleeping longer than 5 hours at a time at night...however, she will go right back to sleep. I have not had to walk around the house bouncing her to soothe her. So even though I may not be getting a lot of sleep yet, at least I'm not up for hours at a time!

I love this little girl more than I ever imagined. She is a true joy in our lives and often makes us laugh. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but never imagined being a mom would be SO rewarding! Thank you, Lord, for giving me these children. They are a true blessing and I can't imagine my life with out them.