Preslie Kay at Eight Months

 

Sweet P turned eight months old on Monday, December 2nd!

I’m going to be honest and say with complete certainty that this past month has been by far the most difficult month we’ve had with Preslie. More difficult than her newborn days ever were. The stomach flu, 103-degree fever for over a week and a new tooth are all to blame for this.

^ Preslie not feeling well

Measurements

Weight: 18lbs 14oz (she was weighed when we went to the doctor for her fever)

Appearance

~ Cute as ever, if you ask me!

~ Her hair is constantly sticking straight up. It never goes down, no matter how I brush it when she gets out of a bath. I think it lends more to her personality. Ha!

 

~ She has her Papa’s ears; they stick out towards the top - luckily they don’t stick out too much.

~ She has a tooth! One finally broke through on November 21st.

~ Preslie has some long legs on her! It’s hard to buy her an outfit set because the pants are usually too small, but the tops fit. All onesies are too long in the arms and short in the legs.

Sizes

~ Mostly 9 month clothes, a few 9-12 month items and she’s most comfortable in 12 month pants - 9 month pants seem to be a bit too snug.

~ Size 1 shoes. She has tiny, little feet!

Personality

~ This child has my stubbornness and her Papa’s craziness. This makes quite the combo.

~ She gets mad easily: when I won’t give her the spoon while I’m feeding her (I’ve given into just giving it to her now, she has to learn how to feed herself eventually!), when we take something away she wants but shouldn’t have, when she reaches and reaches for something and can’t get to it because she won’t crawl forward!

~ Oh the whining this past month has been at an all-time high. Lord give me strength. Most of it had to do with not feeling well and then teething, but when it’s neither of those things it’s like a guessing game as to what is going to make her happy.

~ When she wasn’t whining or getting mad she has learned to turn on the Cheese Grin for the camera. As soon as Girlfriend sees me pull out my big camera she gives some big smiles (and scrunched noses). It’s pretty darn adorable.

~ She giggles a lot more now and it’s a sound that continues to warm my heart and soul.

~ She is so determined to do something when she sets her mind to it. Like I said - my stubbornness.

~ She gets her feelings hurt. I lost my temper with her and raised my voice one day and I’m pretty sure I hurt her feelings and broke my heart at the same time.

Likes

~ Food

~ Being at Miss Kara’s house during the week (I think she gets bored with us when we’re at home - ha!).

~ Animals

~ Loves to be thrown up in the air. She will laugh and laugh.

~ One of her favorite things to do is lay on our hardwood floor on her tummy and spin herself around.

~ She has learned to lean over her high chair and put her hand down so Stella will lick it. How do they discover this stuff so young?! Stella is a big fan of Preslie’s new trick.

~ She loves to hold on to a soft Lovey with her left hand and rub it while she drinks her nighttime bottle. I think it’s soothing for her. If she doesn’t have that in her hand she’ll pull on her hair - she’s started doing that when she’s tired so I’m trying to deter her with the Lovey.

~ Preslie really enjoys sitting in her crib and playing. Sometimes if she’s whining and we’ve tried everything we’ll just put her in her crib and she’s as happy as can be in there. Maybe she just enjoys some alone time.

Dislikes

~ She is definitely going through the stranger phase. When we went up to my MIL’s house the whole family was there, and it was loud. Preslie was not a fan of the noise and people getting in her face to say hi. She only wanted me to hold her (which I secretly loved) and when someone would come up to say hi to her she’d put her head down and start to whine. She eventually warmed up to everyone, but we’re discovering that it’s not really her personality to just jump right in to a social situation. Much like me.

~ Car rides are becoming a bit tricky. She doesn’t want to be in her car seat for long. She’d rather be out of it exploring. It makes our trips to my parents’ house a joy (said no one ever).

~ Getting dressed and having her diaper changed.

Eating

~ She didn’t finish most of her bottles this month. Mostly because of being sick and the teething. It was hard to get her to drink her bottles when she had her fevers and it was important for her to get fluids. I was worrying so much that she was going to get dehydrated!

~ She is on strictly formula now. *sigh* Not necessarily by choice. My goal was to provide her with my milk until she turned one. But that goal changed when I came down with The Stomach Plague of 2013 that nearly wiped out my milk production completely. I do feel good about the fact that I basically strictly pumped for eight months straight. During those eight months I tried to quit pumping on three different occasions because I was sick of doing it all the time, but each time I just wasn’t ready. I don’t know how to explain it but there was a weird feeling of needing to keep doing it. Probably much like a woman who nurses her baby and isn’t ready to stop. I had a lot of feelings of guilt: guilty because I could produce a lot and here I was just wanting to quit because it felt inconvenient when there are women out there in this world who would give anything to provide their own milk to their baby; and more guilt like I was letting Preslie down, even though I wasn’t. I will say that I’m a pro as increasing your supply from basically nothing to a lot so if you ever have any questions just ask! Ha!

~ New food Preslie tried this month: mashed potatoes, stuffing, tomato bisque, refried beans and the masa from a tamale.

~ She is pretty good at picking up pieces of food with her index finger and thumb and getting it to her mouth. She would much rather feed herself than have us feed her - which we encourage.

Sleeping

~ Oh sleeping…this has been a challenge this month. She has slept worse this month than she did when she was a newborn. Hard to believe but it’s true.

~ When she had her fevers she was waking up almost every two hours and she would just want to lay on my chest, suck her thumb and be rocked. It broke my heart that she felt bad and I knew she was tired but felt so miserable she couldn’t sleep.

^Just keeping it real here, folks. This is me in the morning with no makeup rocking my sick baby.

~ For a good week she would wake up crying a lot because of her tooth breaking through. We went through a lot of Tylenol that week.

~ Just within the past week she’s started sleeping through the night again. 

^Typical Preslie sleep position

~ My hat is off to all you parents who wake up with your kids multiple times a night and then go to work the next day. It is HARD and EXHAUSTING!

New Experiences

~ She was baptized and I did a recap here.

~ She had her first stomach flu thanks to The Stomach Plague of 2013.

~ She had her first really high fever. It was scary seeing 103 pop up on the thermometer time and time again and not being able to get it to come down. Also frustrating that the doctor said there wasn’t anything she could give her because she had no infection and to just keep doing what we were doing. Also exhausting that this was all happening while Kevin and I both came down with The Stomach Plague of 2013. Fun times.

~ She says “dada” but not in reference to anything or anyone in particular. Kevin likes to think it’s in direct reference to him, but it’s not. Ha!

^Twins!

~ Her little feet are ticklish!

~ We’re pretty confident that she is left-handed. She grabs almost everything with her left hand and uses it a lot more than her right hand.

~ She had her first Thanksgiving which I plan to recap soon.

~ She has a walker now that she’s learned how to scoot around in.

~ No crawling. She will go from sitting to her tummy, she’ll scoot backwards, spin around, roll all over the place and rock back and forth on her hands and knees but no crawling and she gets so frustrated. It was cute at first when she’d get frustrated. Not so much now.

 

Even though this was a tough month for us, this parenting thing is still the most rewarding job there is.

Thanksgiving 2013

Note: I am over a year behind on posting blog posts. I plan to eventually make books about our life using my blog so I need to get caught up while I have the time (ha!) and I'm off work. So bear with me as I do a little reminiscing. ;)

For Thanksgiving 2013 we went to my parents' house to celebrate. Preslie was almost eight months old and was at such a fun age!

^ Mom and me

This would be the second year we had fried turkey and it was delicious as per usual. My dad is in charge of that. It's actually nice because then it frees up the oven for casseroles and pies.

^ My dad all prepped to start frying the turkey. He put up old wood boards for 

safety measures with the hot oil and open flame and all.

My parents bought a walker for Preslie and it was the first time she had been in one and she loved it. It was nice that she could be outside and we didn't have to worry about her putting something from the ground in her mouth.

We were able to relax and not have to host on this particular year. We hosted the year prior when I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Preslie and that was exhausting!

Preslie got to enjoy her first taste of Thanksgiving goodness! I stripped her down to just her diaper and let her have at it! She was in heaven!

^ Preslie had her first little tooth poking through on the bottom here.

My Grandma Ruth and my brother were also there for Thanksgiving 2013 but I didn't get pictures of them. It was a nice, relaxing visit and one we all enjoyed!

My Thoughts on Parenthood

Prior to becoming a parent, I knew there was one thing in life that I wanted more than anything (besides being Kevin’s wife) and that was to have a child. I feel so incredibly fortunate that it was in God’s plan for us to make that a reality. Before that happened I never really took into account two things that come into play when you parent a child: 1) Doubting, and 2) Guilt.

Let me explain…

Now that we’re in the throes of parenting an almost-eight-month-old I find myself questioning my parenting decisions all. the. time. Right now, they are just small, menial decisions like “Should I put an extra layer on her before bedtime?” “Is she bored?” “Should I feed her more?” “Are we providing her with enough stimulation to learn?” When I ask Kevin what he thinks, he’ll usually shrug his shoulders and say “I don’t know. What do you think?” Well, that’s why I’m asking, because I don’t know either! Ha! New parents.



I’m well aware that the decisions we have to make as she gets older will become much more important and serious; but dogonit if I can’t help but question every single decision I make! I wish I felt more confident in the choices we make for Preslie instead of doubting every time. And it becomes a little more daunting to me that I will probably second-guess and doubt my decisions as her mother for the rest of my life.

As for feeling guilty, I know I’m not alone in this one. After a long day with the child and all she does is whine, whine, whine for no apparent reason (that I can tell), all I’m looking forward to is her bedtime. I hate that I think this. Each moment in her life is a treasure and when she’s a teenager who doesn’t want anything to do with me I’m going to wish I could go back to these moments when she whines and only wants to be entertained or have me in her eyesight. But there are days when 7pm cannot come fast enough and I feel guilty thinking that. However, 9pm will roll around and Kevin and I say to each other that we want to go wake her up to play because we miss her! Ha! Craziness!



I also get some major Mom Guilt when some days I know she’s probably not feeling her best and I have to be at work and she has to be at Miss Kara’s and she probably just wants to be home and take naps in her own comfy crib and laugh at her own doggies. The guilt is a horrible feeling. Yet, I know if I am home with her I’d probably feel guilty that she’s not getting the socialization that she likes while she’s at Miss Kara’s. It is a never-ending guilty cycle.

I’m realizing that this parenting thing is hard. Not so much the day-to-day care, but being confident in the decisions you make as a parent and not letting the guilt eat you alive. This is by far the hardest job that Kevin and I will ever have. I know we’re going to make some mistakes and learn as we go along. I just hope we do right by God and by Preslie.



Preslie’s Baptism

On Sunday, November 3rd we had Preslie baptized at the same church Kevin was baptized in 30 years ago. It was such a special day that we were able to enjoy with all of our family and close friends.

^ My girl and me.

^ Preslie and her favorite person, her Papa. (That sweet bonnet didn’t last long.)

Preslie’s Godparents are two of my best friends that I grew up with: Michelle and Brandon. They have twin girls and a newborn baby boy. Kevin and I feel so blessed to have them as part of our family now.

As a gift to Michelle and Brandon I wanted to get them something that was meaningful - but not over the top. I found this vendor on Etsy that makes gorgeous, memorable picture frames. This is the one I chose for them. I was so pleased with how it turned out.

The Christening gown Preslie wore was handmade by her Great Grandmother Helen (Kevin’s Grandma). It was a gorgeous gown. I hope to get some much better photos of Preslie in it soon.

It was tough holding this 18-pound, wiggly child in a slippery, satin gown. I was a sweaty mess up there!

Preslie had so much family attend her baptism. She had two great-grandmothers there, three out of four of her grandparents there, three great-uncles, three great-aunts, her two favorite uncles, her most (and only) favorite auntie, many second cousins and some great family friends. The baptism itself was a very small and intimate gathering - it turned out perfect.

^ Preslie with her Uncle Matthew (aka Uncle Machew, Kevin’s brother) and Aunt Courtney (aka Auntie Frug, Kevin’s sister).

^ Uncle Jay Jay (my brother) and Preslie

^ Grammy and Grampy (my mom and dad)

^ With Great Grandma Ruth (my grandmother)

^ Great Grandma Helen (Kevin’s grandmother) and Grandma Debbie (Kevin’s mom)

We had the reception at my MIL’s house (which was near the church). I did a little decorating using light pink and Tiffany blue, and included some photos of Preslie throughout. We served brunch and it was a good opportunity for the family to get to know Preslie’s Godparents, and vice versa.

This cake was delish! It was lemon filling with white chocolate cream. Yumm-oh! It says “Baptized in Christ - Preslie Kay Marie” on it.

^ Michelle and Brandon had these cookies made as favors for everyone. They were so good!

And this was the invite we sent out and it’s exactly how we feel - “BLESSED” beyond measure to have our little girl in our lives and great family and friends to help celebrate a special day like Preslie’s baptism.