8 Months & Counting!

Wow!  Has the time flown by!  Our little girl is 8 months old, and it feels like she was born yesterday, yet I'm already feeling like I need to plan her 1st birthday party.  It has been an amazing 8 months, where Lana continues to make us laugh, challenges us, and teaches us to enjoy the simple things in life.  

When my mom came to visit, she handed down my baby book where she filled out information about the day I was born, the visitors in the first few weeks, and the age I was when I experienced my "firsts", such as smiling, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, etc. She wrote several notes about my personality and interaction with Rachael, my older sister.  I read it after she left, and I cherished each word that she wrote, and I'm so thankful she took the time to jot down these little notes.  I thought I would be better at documenting this for Lana, but like I said, she kept us busy, and I feel like I've barely blinked my eyes and she is now 8 months old.  So, here's my attempt to get us caught up.

These pictures are so fun to take.  I can never predict how she is going to act and taking the pictures in the morning right after she is fed is key to the success.  It takes about 15 pictures in order to get 1 good one where there isn't something blurred from her moving around so much.  This 2 month photo is pretty funny.  :)

So, two months...  EAT, EAT, EAT!  Man, I'm not lying.  Breastfeeding is tough when your child wants to eat every 2 hours...or so I thought.  The more I Googled it, I learned that maybe she was just getting tired rather than hungry.  My parents still feel like I feel her way too often, and our babysitter thinks Lana is starving, but trust me, she is being fed the amount that she needs to be.  

I think Lana's first smile was closer to 5 weeks.  When Lana gets fussy, if you make her stand, she will almost always get over her bad mood.  And if she doesn't, then she is probably tired.  Life was so easy at this time because Lana still slept for most of the day.  I can't even remember what I did while she slept.  I would say that I miss that, but I always wanted Lana to be older so we could interact more.  Lana was always a good sleeper, though.  She slept in her own room at 6 weeks.  We would put her to bed around 9 PM, and I would have to get up around 3 AM, and then again around 7 AM.  Life was good!

3 months...  Anyone who meets Lana will say she's going to be a dancer one day because she never stops moving her legs!  I've had people in Aldi tell me this, people in Church, and her babysitter.  If she's anything like her parents, she won't be a dancer, but maybe a really good soccer player.  One thing is for sure, she never stops moving her legs.  She is constantly slamming them on the floor, swinging them around when she's being held out, or shaking them in her car seat.

Lana started rolling to her side right around 12 weeks.  She's never been one of those children that just rolls and rolls around the house.  Lana will roll over once to her stomach and play for a while, and then cry in order to roll back over.  Lana often slept on her side in her crib.  If she ever rolled over to her tummy during the night around this age, she would cry for us to in order to be turned back around.

4 months... Lana loved to "talk", hold her feet, blow bubbles, and roll over.  I went back to work at 12 weeks, and I, at first, hated every minute of it; however, I think Lana thoroughly enjoys going to the sitters and spending time with the other kids.  I think this is wear she picks up a lot of her new tricks.  Right around 4 months, we would be driving somewhere in the car, and Lana is just babbling in the back to herself.  It will be interesting to see if she ends up being a social butterfly!  We first tried not to teach Lana anything that develops extra drool, such as blowing bubbles, so she definitely got this from the kids at her sitters; however, I did learn that it helps develop their speech, so maybe it's okay.  We actually have been pretty lucky with Lana because she doesn't drool much.

At the 4 month appointment, the pediatrician said we could start giving Lana rice cereal.  It was fun to experiment with that.  We only fed her a little at dinner time until she was 6 months. 

At 5 months, Lana finally started enjoying laying on her stomach while she played with her toys.  She really started developing a laugh around this time, oh yeah, and a scream.  Those are fun.  And, she has started tracking the pets, and thinks they are so funny.  She laughs if they walk by her and look at her.  Abby still is hesitant around Lana, and Chase will lay down right in front of her and take it if Lana pulls on his fur some.

Lana was 6 months right after Christmas.  Christmas was so fun having her around!  She picked up sitting up right after Christmas and found her love for bouncing in her jumping seat.  I think everyone has seen enough of those videos to know how much she loves that thing.  She also starting putting a lot more of her toys in her mouth, which made me think she was teething, but she doesn't have any yet.  I also put on her board that she laughs at Dad.  Lana loves Greg.  Everything he does is funny to her.  If I try and do the same thing, she won't laugh for me, only for her daddy.  It melts my heart!

Right after Christmas when all the holidays and traveling were done for a while, we buckled down and wanted to get Lana on a schedule.  Her doctor said we could let her cry it out at 4 months and get her to sleep through the night, and we gave her 2 more months of night feedings and cuddles, so we were ready!  So, crying it out really wasn't that bad.  It took only 3 days, and she never cried for more than 30 - 45 minutes.  We have the night time routine down, and we're still working on naps, but I'd say we have definitely made progress.

 7 months...  Lana loves to eat veggies!  I was really excited to introduce food to Lana.  She loves food and as much as you will give her!  She will have her mouth gaping open waiting for the food to be shoveled in there.  I was really hoping for some funny faces as we tried new things, but no taste seems to surprise her.  We finally tried oranges and pineapples, and I think those made her eyes water some. 

Lana has starting moving around the house by her "army" crawling.  I looked this up on the internet, and they call this type of crawl, "creeping", where she doesn't quite get her belly off of the ground and uses her forearms and legs out to the side to get around.  

Bath times have also become fun for Lana.  She loves playing in the water.  At first Lana didn't care for baths when she was around a month old, but its gotten better ever since.  After I'm done washing her hair, she gets to sit up and play in the water.  She loves splashing around.

8 months! Lana loves to play peek-a-boo, try new foods, her Elmo toy, and she's getting into everything!  Lana will hold a towel over her face or a blanket and whip it down and look at you waiting for a reaction.  We always say, "Where's Lana?", and then she appears.  She was given an Elmo toy for Christmas from my Aunt, and it's actually for ages 2 and up, but you can put a different hat on Elmo and he will teach her different things from counting to sound recognition to following directions.  Elmo's mouth moves when he talks, and Lana thinks it's a riot.  She laughs out loud when Elmo speaks, and she will crawl across a room to get him.  I can't wait until she can understand what he is saying.

Meal time has become more fun now that Lana can try things off of our plates.  It's been hard keeping up with how much we can actually feed Lana.  I just looked at a guideline the other day and found that I was feeding Lana according to a 6 month old, so she needs twice as many solids now.  It's crazy that we are completely getting rid of bottles in 3 months.  Lana is starting to hold her own bottle now.

She is still army crawling but getting around just fine.  We've started baby proofing the house a bit.  She will crawl up to the drawers in the kitchen and open and close them.

So, it's taken me a month just to finish up this post and get it out and now Lana is less than a week away from turning 9 months old.  It's Spring now, and this warm weather has breathed new life into Greg and I, so we are getting excited about some projects around the house that I hope to post on here soon.

Vacation to Gulf Shores, AL

Most of you have already seen our pictures from our trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama, but I thought that I would put it on the blog as well.  Our friends, Jessica and Evan, were planning on going there for vacation and asked if we wanted to join them.  We were a little hesitant at first considering Lana would be only 6 weeks old at the time, but we didn't want to pass up the opportunity with friends, having time off due to maternity leave, and Greg having more vacation to spare.  AND, it was going to be Lana's first vacation, plane ride, and trip to the beach!  

We did some research on bringing babies to the beach since Lana isn't old enough to wear sunscreen and babies can't regulate their temperature as well as adults.  We also learned that sand isn't supposed to touch babies skin because it can scratch the surface when you try to rub it off.  Jessica and Evan were driving down there, so they came to our rescue in packing the extra items for Lana.  They purchased a beach shelter from Walmart that would provide some shade and protection from the sand.  We also packed a cold pack that Greg had from his shoulder surgery that we laid her over.  Below is a picture that Evan took of Lana laying in her shelter.  Needless to say, she looked pretty miserable on the beach for the half hour that she was down there, so we went to the pool most days.

We would start off our days with breakfast at Jessica and Evan's condo and then feed Lana and head down to the beach or pool.  Then, we would go out to dinner or lunch at some pretty cool places.  We had a lot of seafood on the trip.  Greg ordered either shrimp or Mahi tacos everywhere we went, which is a nice change from his buffalo chicken wraps that he usually gets at every restaurant that we go to. :)

The trip was really nice catching up with Jessica and Evan, getting our fill of HGTV, and spending quality time with Lana, and just relaxing.  Jessica was good in suggesting that we get pictures on the beach one morning.  

Then, Lana started getting fussy, so we went back to our place, calmed her down, and took a ton more pictures in her adorable lobster swimming suit that Jessica gave her.

It was so nice to get away.  We have so many new memories and adorable pictures of Lana.  Greg helped out a ton with Lana, and it was so nice to have him home another week.  We're already talking about trips to New York and Brussels to visit family over the next couple of years.  I can't wait!

Welcome Lana Addison

This post is a little late, but this blog has been more so documentation for Greg and I and the things in our lives, and we love looking back at all the posts and seeing everything we have accomplished.  So, we introduce to you, our daughter, Lana Addison.  The birth of Lana is by far the most monumental experience that we have shared together.  I cannot put into words how much I love this little girl that we have created.  I knew I would love her before she was born, but from the moment she was put into my arms in the hospital, I could not stop telling her that I loved her, and I continue to fall in love with her everyday.

I don't want to go into my birth experience because I understand that all experiences are different, and how different they can be from child to child.  I read so many women's stories beforehand to prepare myself, and none of that knowledge was needed for when we were at the hospital.  I was thankful to have Greg there right by my side sharing in the experience and making the hospital room a calm atmosphere.  Greg is always so calming, and I'm lucky to have him as a husband.

So, we checked into the hospital at 9:30 AM, and Lana was born at 6:18 PM weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces and 19.5 inches long.  She was a little angel and perfectly healthy.  That's all I wanted.

Since then she has grown like crazy and constantly changes each week making more and more people fall in love with her.  Everyone says that I'll miss this stage of cuddling and quiet time before she talks, and I'm already realizing how fast people grow up.  She has such personality in her silence and the faces she makes just taking it all in.  

With only a few weeks left until I go back to work, we're making the most of our time together.  It's been an awesome 8 weeks, and we have been so blessed by all the visitors that we have had, dinners that have been made for us, and the time people have taken to share in our daughter's life.  

Progress in the Room Above the Garage, Part 2

In another few weeks, the room above our garage will be complete!  Kind of crazy to think about!  It won't meet the baby deadline, but it will be ready for the slew of guests that we are sure to receive a few weeks after she is born.  We cannot wait!  In this room, our dreams are truly becoming a reality, and we are so grateful!

The last update stopped with rock hung on the walls, and then we quickly got into the finishing process after that.  

The knock down finish on the ceiling makes such a difference.  That and the added can lights makes the room so much brighter.  We brought back the fan that we bought and exchanged it for one without a light kit because the room is so bright already.

We decided that we eventually want taller base throughout our entire house to add to the character of the wood casing around our room openings, so we started with this room.  We picked out a base that's 5-1/4" tall from Lowes.  It changes the entire look of the room, and we are so happy with it.  It's unpainted in all the pictures below, but it will eventually get painted to match all of our existing base, wood blinds and doors.  I mentioned in a previous post that we painted the walls in this room a color that Greg picked out as a potential color for the baby room.  It's Glidden 38-D8 "Dusty Miller".  We thought it was fitting that our last name was in it.  :)  It's a very calm green-gray color.  It's going to look so good once we have everything finished.

We met with a casework provider and went over some ideas we had for the casework and showed him Greg's original design.  Below are the pictures that we printed for our meeting.

This picture is similar to Greg's original design, but we liked how only the TV protruded into the room, so we could still maximize the space in the room since we're already losing some because of the slant of the ceiling.

These 2 pictures show the type of casework that we like, which is referred to as the "craftsman" style.  It has the simplicity of the square border around the edges.  The gentleman with the casework company suggested that we still install a small piece of quarter-round on the inside edge because this style didn't go with the design of our doors in our house.  It was nice to have the suggestion, and we saw an example in his showroom with the quarter-round piece, and it's very subtle, but a nice touch to pull it all together.

Then, there's our beloved craft/computer table, which is the whole inspiration of the room, really.  We were going to build this ourselves, but I just couldn't resist the help and the idea of just having it all done.  Without this table, the function of the room would be lost, so we threw it in our order.

He left our house and a few days later, we had some shop drawings to review.  At first there were 6 drawers next to the TV because of the concerns with weight of the items placed in the drawers.  They were just so small, so we had them change it back to 3 drawers, and we changed the drawer glides to help better support the weight.  The first round of shop drawings also had the height of the casework stopping at 30" with a full depth of 24" for all drawers and shelves.  It was just so short causing the drawers to be shallow, so we had them raise up the height to 40" and make the top drawer less deep.  This will also make the countertop only be around 14" deep.

For the countertops, he put the idea of granite in our minds saying that they may have a leftover slab in their boneyard pile that will be large enough for our project.  We couldn't say no to that!  We went into their showroom and picked out a couple slabs for them to use.  We also picked out the hardware for the cabinets to match the pulls on the casework in the picture below.  We ordered 20" long pulls for the drawers, 8" tall pulls for the doors on the cabinets, and 6" long pulls for the drawers on the craft table.

We also have carpet picked out from Lowes.  They are having a deal on their Stainmaster carpet right now (through August, I think) with free installation if you order that carpet and a Stainmaster pad.  We are getting a little ahead of ourselves, and we are going to have them measure the entire 2nd floor for pricing.  After we brought home the samples, they were just so fresh and clean compared to our dull, set-in, stained carpet that we have on our landing upstairs and our bedroom is probably the worst of all of the rooms.  They come out on Tuesday to measure, so we'll see how the pricing comes in.

Other than that, it's down to furniture and accessories...my favorite, and yet the most challenging!  We'll hold off on that for a little while.  We have a double bed to go in the room for now, but we will eventually purchase a smaller foldout couch.  Oh, and a TV.  You know Greg won't wait on that for long, and I think I saw some good upcoming sales for 4th of July, so we might have one waiting to install in the room.

Well, the next post for this series will be the finished room!  Can't wait!