Hello 2010!

My goodness, 2009 was an action-packed year for us and it finally came to a close! We first found out that we were expecting a little one on March 1st, and 9 months later she finally arrived. We are definitely not looking to top 2009 as far as excitement goes, but we are looking forward to all that it will bring with Gabrielle's first year! She is 7 weeks old now and I just packed up all of her newborn sized clothes...she is officially in all 0-3 month sizes! I could have probably done this about a week or two ago, but it makes a part of me so sad that she is getting bigger and outgrowing her clothes...though a much bigger part of me is so thankful that she is healthy and growing well! Here are a few assorted photos from the end of 2009!

Sooo happy to see her Uncle Greg at Christmas!

Enjoying play time in her Pack 'n Play

As you can tell, I can't get enough of her little smiles!

Such a big girl...she is so good for her baths now!

I got her play mat out again and it went much better this time

Mommy and Gabrielle on New Years Eve. She made it until 9:00pm :)

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful first Christmas as a family...and it's not even over yet! My brother is coming down to Hastings and we have our Christmas with him and my parents tomorrow. Gabi and I just came down with a cold, but hopefully it won't be too bad. Our baby's first cold....I feel so bad for her. Her little nose is all congested and she is really sleepy and cranky. Poor thing :( She still managed to give me a few smiles this morning which always makes my day. At least we just about made it through the holidays healthy....

Gabi made her first trip to Dad's work on the 23rd for their company Christmas party. All of the guys got to meet her and she got to see where daddy goes everyday. The party was during her nap time but she just couldn't sleep - all the new sounds and smells and people kept her little eyes open and alert. That was fine though, she was a very good baby and behaved the whole time.

Later that day we had our friends Alexis and Steve over for dinner. I made manicotti (such a pain to make but sooo good)! Then on Christmas Eve we had our friends Mike and Megan and their little girl Kate over for cocktails and appetizers. Christmas morning quickly came and my parents arrived around noon. We opened presents and Gabi was even awake for a good portion of it! She got some very nice things - books, clothes, toys...she was a very lucky girl! Nick's big gift from me was a PS3. Last year I tried to be creative with his gifts and he didn't end up liking anything, so this year I got him something I knew he would like! Nick spoiled me like usual. I got a beautiful watch, some really cute boots, and a new Coach purse :) I am a very lucky girl too! Nick cooked Christmas dinner while I while I entertained Gabi and my parents. We had ham, macaroni and cheese, rolls, green beans, and a delicious caramel apple dessert my mom made! Yum! FYI - baby diet and workout plan will be in full swing after New Years Eve...by two weeks post partum I had lost 23 lbs but I STILL have those darn 9 lbs to go to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I have yet to get back to the gym with the holidays and Nick's long work hours, but I am excited to start back up this week!

On the 26th we went to Jason and Corinne's house for Nick's family Christmas. We had another great dinner as well as some great gifts. On the 27th we headed out to the Mishler Christmas. We also had some great food and a good time there, though at this point we are pretty much exhausted and Christmased out! Gabi did really well with all of the traveling and visiting over the holidays.

She is continuing to cry less and be less fussy. We have noticed that she really likes music, like singing stuffed animals and such. And we also found that the more toys we put in her pack and play, the happier she is. When we used to just lay her in the bare pack and play she would scream after about 10 seconds. Now that we have a bunch of toys in there around the edges and have added more hanging toys to the activity bar above her head she can be content in there looking around and kicking her legs for quite some time. She still loves her singing stuffed cow, but for Christmas my mom got her these big soft stuffed blocks. I stack those two high next to her and she will look at them and eventually push them over. She continues to be a great sleeper! She is currently sleeping anywhere from 3-8 hours at a time just depending on the night...usually getting up between 1-3am and again around 5-8am. Her little smiles are also becoming more of a regular occurrence. She seems to smile a lot right after she wakes up, but will also smile whenever something just plain makes her happy! She will be looking at the wall or out the window and just start smiling away! She also smiles at her cow, of course. There was so much to be grateful for this year...a beautiful, perfect baby girl, a wonderful hubby and daddy, great parents and families and so much more!

My first Christmas!
Mommy and Gabi opening her Christmas gifts

Grandpa Paul and Gabi
Grandma Jo and her "Grandma's 1st Christmas" ornament
Merry Christmas!
Great Grandma and Grandpa Taylor with all of the great grandchildren

Mommy and Gabi at Uncle Jason and Aunt Corinne's

Grandma and Grandpa Taylor with Gabi and Landyn

Sitting with Dad while we are opening presents

Gabi getting some love from her cousins

Taking a snooze after all of the festivities....

Smile Time :)

So as I was saying, our little one is starting to have some social smiles. She was having a particularly smiley time today and I was able to catch some of it with the camera :)

Growing Girl

Gabrielle had her one month checkup today with the doctor at 4 weeks 6 days. She weighed in at 8lbs 12oz which is the 34th percentile and is 21.5 inches long which is the 57th percentile. Our little lady has grown 2 inches since she was born and gained 1 1/2lbs! She is still in newborn clothes and diapers, but they are starting to get snug. She is able to fit into a few 0-3 month tops but 0-3 month pants are still a ways off for our little one!

Gabi is also starting to have a *few* spontaneous/social smiles...not just the sleepy smiles she has done since she was born. She is also starting to coo and babble to herself a little bit at times. She's growing every day!

Video!

My sweet hubby finally showed me how to get my videos off of our camera...and has created a monster :) Here is a little dose of Gabi in motion...

1 Month Old

Our sweet baby is one month old today! I can't believe that it has been a whole month since I was in the hospital having her...yet it seems like a lifetime ago without her. She is continuing to change so much - she is looking around and focusing on objects more and more. It is her favorite thing to do right now to just be held and walked around so she can look at different things. Some of her favorites are looking at the ceiling fan in the living room, looking out the window or at the Christmas tree lights, or at her singing cow. She loves this stuffed cow that sings "Old McDonald Had a Farm"...really weird. They say that babies primarily see in black and white so I think that the big cow spots are interesting to her. The song seems to calm her down too. She will track a rattle or other toy with her eyes back and forth. She started having tummy time a few days ago - it is either a love or hate thing at the moment, depending on her little mood. We'll put her on her tummy in her pack and play and sit her cow next to her to look at. She'll stay there for a good five or ten minutes before getting upset. She even turns her head from side to side while on her tummy and can roll from her back to her side!

She is doing much better with having her diaper changed and a little bit better with bath time. She will rarely cry anymore when we change her diaper, but still screams bloody murder when we change her clothes. The past few baths she has tolerated much better than before - probably crying less than 50% of the time. She sort of enjoys being in the warm water and I think that she would much prefer to be submerged up to her neck and then left to relax by herself. Being the slippery little ham that she is...that probably isn't safe :) The actual washing part, especially her face, is what she does not enjoy. After her bath I wrap her up in a towel and she is instantly happy. We go upstairs and I put a diaper on her and then lotion her up - after that, she stays naked and I wrap her up in a fuzzy blanket for a while. Have you ever tried to dress a sticky lotioned baby who hates to be dressed in the first place?? Not fun...so we wait to let the lotion sink in a bit before getting dressed for the day. She is more than happy to be naked wrapped up in a blanket :)

Sleeping is continuing to go pretty well. She is still sleeping in her crib and swaddled for about 3-4 hours at a time (usually more like 4 hours lately) so I will typically get up twice at night...I am looking forward to the days (not sure how soon this will be) when she will only have to get up once or not at all during the night. No no, I should never wish her baby days away...they are going quick enough!

I am enjoying my maternity leave, if that's what you want to call it. I am really getting into the swing of things managing the animals, cooking, taking care of and spending time with Gabi, as well as getting some stuff around the house done. When I first got home from the hospital I couldn't imagine how I was ever going to get anything else done besides care for Gabrielle, but I am slowly getting a handle on it all! Nick is very busy at work lately - going in early, staying late, and working on the weekends. It is obviously great that work is so busy, but hard on him and us at the same time. He actually reads this blog to keep up on what is going on at home :( Even though work is crazy right now, the first thing he does when he comes home is pick Gabrielle up and spend time with her.

Here are some recent pictures of the little angel :)

Merry Christmas!
Sweet Gabrielle sleeping in her crib

"Tolerating" her bath

Clean, happy baby!
Tummy time with her cow

After Christmas shopping with mom

I learn new mommy lessons every day...

We had a very busy Sunday this past week. We woke up early and headed out to a Christmas tree farm to cut down our tree for this year. We bundled Gabrielle up in a snowsuit, hat, and blanket and carried her through the trees until we found the right one (in all actuality it is a little skimpy and not so perfect - but it's here and decorated). She started crying a little bit while we were waiting for Nick to cut it down, but the rest of the time when we were walking she was out. Mission accomplished - three weeks old and went to cut down her first Christmas tree!

So after we got home from the tree farm, we quickly decorated the tree, got ready, and headed up to Midland for our friends Neal and Katie's baby shower. They are due with a little boy in about six weeks (we were 9 or 10 weeks apart in our pregnancies). Gabi had her first big car ride (2 hours each way) and party. She did well in the car, as expected, but I was dreading taking her to a social gathering especially by myself. She surprised me again and did very well. She slept through most of the shower and was pretty well behaved even when she was awake. After the shower was over and everyone was standing around talking, I was holding Gabi and all of a sudden everyone around started to gasp...she had pooped through her onesie, pants, and dress and it was now running down the front of my shirt also! Nick quickly grabbed her, I grabbed a receiving blanket and her bag and we ran to the bathroom. We took everything off her and used an entire travel box of wipes to basically give her a bath (poo was up to her neck and down to her feet) and clean everything off.

Mommy tip #1 - always bring an extra outfit with you wherever you go.

Very luckily, I was ahead of the game on this one and had thought before we left that maybe I should put an extra set of clothes in the bag since we would be gone all day. Thank goodness for that or Gabi would have been sporting a diaper and wrapped in a blanket for the car ride home.

All in all, it was a good day!

First Night in Crib = SUCCESS!

Well, I decided to make the dreaded transition of Gabrielle from her bassinet to her crib last night. This came about because she was consistently wiggling herself a quarter turn and got wedged the short way horizontally in her bassinet each time I put her down. The top of her little head would be squished up against the side and her feet would be bunched up and hanging over the other side. It didn't look very comfortable (or safe) to me so I figured it was time to move her to her big baby bed in her nursery. So, at 3 weeks 1 day old we put her down in her crib and she did fine! She slept for close to three hours, woke up and ate (offered an ounce of formula afterwards and she didn't even want it), went back down rather easily, and then slept for another 4 1/2 hours! Our little champ! I was very proud of her - and happy that she is in her own bed and not sleeping in our bathroom anymore :) Now, of course she will have good and bad nights, but at least the crib experiment wasn't a complete disaster.

Our baby monitor worked great and we used her swaddler that my mom got us. I had tried using it once before and she screamed and seemed to be engulfed by it so we retired it indefinitely. She was fussy last evening as usual and was flailing her arms and legs...smart me thought I'd get the swaddler out and put her in it - it couldn't hurt, after all. I wrapped her up in it and she was happy as a little clam! She slept in her swaddler too, so I think that will be a keeper for a while. I guess Grandma does know best sometimes ;)

We also conquered something else yesterday that I had been dreading - professional baby pictures. As you know, our little angel has a temper but I really wanted to at least try to get a few newborn pictures of her done. I took her to this kids portrait place in the mall - nothing too fancy. You only pay for the prints that you want, so if it was a complete disaster it wouldn't cost us anything. I made an appointment and when we arrived the place looked like an absolute zoo. There were about 50 kids and a collection of parents all getting holiday photos done. So much for the "appointment" I thought. Even though I had to park the stroller in the corner and feed her standing up, we actually got in pretty close to our scheduled time. There was a photographer and a helper during our little photo shoot. I wanted to be that over-baring, know-it-all mother who explained to the photographer that my baby was only 3 weeks old and to get any good shots of her that she was going to have to be very quick with the camera, etc etc....I restrained myself and it turns out that the lady knew what she was doing :) We did a few different poses/positions and we ended up with some nice pictures. Gabi gave us some sleeping and some with her eyes open even. She stared to melt down once but calmed down very quickly - I was so proud! Right in the middle of the photo shoot she took a giant poo - I think it bothered the photographer more than Gabi though! I will be sure to put up some the pictures soon.

Here are few photos from 2 1/2 to 3 weeks old...

2nd Anniversary

Today is our 2nd wedding anniversary! I can't beleive it was two years ago today that we had our beautiful winter wedding...and an ice storm that night :) It was a wonderful day and we have had a great (and busy) two years. I look forward to many many more! My sweet hubs sent me flowers today from our little Gabrielle - he said that she told him yesterday that they had better do something for mom today. She's already a little woman :)

Gabrielle's 1st Thanksgiving

Gabrielle was exactly two weeks old for her first holiday - Thanksgiving! We didn't really make any plans because of how close my due date was to Thanksgiving and we weren't sure if I would have the baby late or how we would be doing. Luckily everyone was healthy and up for getting out to have dinner...not that I actually made any of the food, but we at least got out of the house! We had a pretty laid back day at Nick's parent's house. It was Nick and I, Mistye, Dustin, and baby Landyn, my parents, and Nick's grandparents. It was fun having both of the babies there - Landyn and Gabrielle are only five days apart in age. It is funny to see just how different they are! It was nice having a house full of baby holders for the afternoon too! Here are a few pictures of the day.

Great Grandma Taylor with Landyn and Gabrielle

Dad and Gabi just waiting for dinner...

Three generations of women!

Grandma Billie with the babies

The Taylor Family