Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Trip to Lake Michigan

We traveled to Lake Michigan a couple weeks ago, so Lucy could meet her great grandparents on the Wehner side, and lots of great aunts/uncles and second cousins...

Me and Grandpa hanging out on the beach


Hey - who's taking our picture... dang paparazzi


My look-like-daddy pose...


To all other babies out there, please note: the beach is not like the pool, it is very sandy and that sand easily sneaks into your swimsuit... you may even have to take a bath on the beach... how embarrassing...


I got to meet my Great Grandma DeGraaf...


And lots of other babies!

(Lucy- 5 months, Addy Jo- 6.5 months, Ana Lee- 15 months, Jayda- 10 months)

Beach Bums

Addy Jo and I hit the beach a couple weeks ago, we worked on our tans, checked out the boys... oh wait, I mean we mostly looked for stuff to put in our mouths...


Addy's older than me, so she is always guiding me with a friendly pat on the shoulder...


Sometimes things got a little crazy as we tried to share toys...


But in the end, I think we really saw eye to eye on things...

Friday, August 20, 2010

5 Months

Oh what changes month 4 brought! Lucy continues to amaze me, surprise me and keep me on my toes. This month unfortunately has been full of a lot of tears... but also some laughter, smiles and drooly kisses. Not sure what changed, but my once quiet baby has now found her voice! Ben and I both agree that this month Lucy has cried more than the first three months combined... I thought things were supposed to only get easier!?!? This month, Lucy consistently crys after nursing, when getting her diaper changed, when putting her in her car seat and when going down to sleep. Part of me wonders if teeth may be causing this change? But I'm not totally sure... she's got all the signs - drooling, biting on things, fussiness... and most seasoned mothers swear she's teething, but who knows - I'll believe it when I see some pearly whites in her now gummy grin.

In addition to the crying we've been on a bit of a sleep rollercoaster, going from Lucy not making a peep over an 11 hour night time stretch (yay!) to Lucy waking every hour crying throughout the night. This constant waking led me to do some hardcore research on whether to give the paci up as I realized that Lucy is a great sleeper, she's just got a major sleep addiction, I think I'd call her a paci-aholic. She loves that thing! I polled other moms, read books, looked up information on the internet (I swear I spent more time on this decision than deciding where to go to college) and finally decided it was time to throw the paci out. Of course, as soon as I made that decision, the night crying stopped and the Lucy started sleeping through the night.... so not sure who won this battle, but for now, the paci is going to continue to stay at the Wehner household. Currently, Lucy tends to wake 0-2 times a night, needing a paci pop, which doesn't seem too bad for now!

As I mentioned Lucy is a great sleeper, she typically sleeps for 4-5 hours broken up over 3 naps throughout the day and gets 10-11 hours at night. She typically goes to bed between 8 and 9pm and wakes like clockwork every morning at 7:30am. While I love all the time this nap schedule gives me during the day, it's kind of crazy because Lucy tends to really only be awake for 1.5-2 hours between naps, with part of that time being nursing/diaper changing. This, of course, only leaves me small windows to make it to the store, run errands, go to lunch, etc. So I've found myself spending a lot more time at the house this month as I want Lucy to get good long naps in her crib at home (she doesn't fall asleep as easily as she used to in her car seat).

Naps have also brought some struggles though... some naps Lucy lays down without a peep, other naps she crys for 30-45 minutes, while I go in every 3, 5, 10 minutes to check on her and put her paci back in (even as I write this the little munchkin has been screaming in the other room for about 50 minutes now... I may start slowly pulling out my hair if it doesn't stop soon!!!)

Other changes this month - as I mentioned in previous posts, Lucy is on the move. She is constantly working to get to toys that are out of reach and pushing up on all fours - but hasn't quite figured out how to move forward yet. She does scoot backwards, but I'm pretty sure that's only by accident while trying to figure out how to get forward.

Despite all the crying at the above mentioned times, she is overall the rest of the time an extremely happy baby - she continually smiles, and people always comment on what a great temperament she has and how lucky I am... which of course I know I am. I have gotten Lucy to laugh more this month, even though it's usually only once every couple days, but none the less, hearing that deep belly chuckle from her makes me crack up every time.

Lucy likes to scream a lot - I'm looking forward to the day when those screams turn into mama's and dada's, but for now Lucy let's us know she's got a voice by letting out a raspy scream every once in a while. She also enjoys making a wet razzing sound this month and scrunching up her nose and breathing heavily in and out of her nose (both new, funny discoveries this month!)

Another amazing thing that happened this month - Lucy started nursing in under 10 minutes. My once 45 minute eater, now is super speedy! I even wondered for a while if she was even getting enough. I have come to like nursing her a lot more with this change and have found it's much easier to go places and feed Lucy knowing I'm not going to be camped out in one place for 45 minutes at a time. She is eating 5 times a day now, going anywhere from 3-4 hours between feedings.

Stats: No doctor appt this week, but I think Lucy is around 15-15.2 pounds

And now it's time for my 5 month photoshoot...


Notice the drool...


I am still working on being a lady when I wear dresses...




Reaching for everything these days! Even the camera...


To the untrained eye, it may look like I am bald... but I actually made a lot of progress in the hair department this month...


I typically like to keep one or both of my arms up in the air... it helps me with balance, and I may make an attempt to fly some day

Monday, August 16, 2010

Pre-crawling Moves

Lucy is working so hard to crawl- I just had to get some video of her moves, she's getting so strong! I think there are definitely some hardcore pilates/yoga moves mixed in here...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

This week I celebrated my dad's 27th birthday!

I waited at home for him ALL day, to surprise him with balloons and streamers when he got home...


Even though mom got dad a helicopter ride for his birthday, I still think I'm the best present there is...


We went out to some Mexican place to celebrate, and I attempted to sit in a high chair all by myself! It was a little big, and I'm a little squirmy so I think we'll have to try again in a couple weeks. I was mostly interested in reading my book...


And chewing on Dad's fingers... much tastier than a taco...


On Saturday, Dad got to use his present from Mom... I was napping, but Dad told me all about his helicopter ride when he got home!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Uncles and Aunts and Cousins, Oh My!

Lucy got to meet her cousin Addy Jo and her Aunt Kate this weekend, and see her Uncle Ross for the second time. Almost the whole Wehner family was in town (but we missed Uncle David and Aunt Julie!)

We spent time at Grandma and Grandpa's on Saturday where the girls played and hung out with Grandpa....

(Lucy - approx 4.5 months, Addy Jo - approx 6 months)



Then everyone came over to our house on Sunday where Lucy got to spend more time with her aunts and uncles...

Uncle Ross... an expert at the bottle


Uncle Nick flying Lucy in the air... watch out for spit up...


Playing with Addy Jo and Grandpa


The Wehner Kids + Grandkids (minus Julie and David)

Growing Up

Lucy is getting so big, I can hardly believe how fast she is growing. I was looking at some old pictures of her first bath and couldn't believe the comparison between then...


and now...






Lucy still loves the bath, but now she is much more mobile in it. She used to just lay completely still as if the water put her in a coma. Now she chases after her rubber ducky and likes to scoot around as much as possible.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

My New Tricks

Some of the new things I can do...

Get up on all fours...


I really, really want to crawl... but I can't quit figure out what to do after getting up here


Hey - who's taking pictures of me


Oh, ok - just Mommy, you can continue


If I'm not working on crawling, I like to sit up... the trouble is, when I'm sitting I can't reach any of my toys without tumbling over... hmm... maybe mom can get me one of those grabber things


Sunday, August 1, 2010

Lake Wawasee

We took Lucy on her first boat ride this past weekend. Not only was the boat ride fun, but we all got a kick out of Lucy all strapped in and ready for a day out on the lake. She just looked too cute! Lucy seemed to enjoy the boat and her life jacket - even though it looked as if she couldn't breathe/move, I think it gave her the sensation of being swaddled. As soon as we put it on her she would just sit completely still and eventually fell asleep.

Overall, Lucy did really well at the cabin. In fact, she slept so well, I'm beginning to wonder if I need to rearrange her nursery so it is set up more similarly to the cabin room. She took several 2-3 hour naps every day, and slept great almost every night. In fact, one night she slept from 8:30pm-7:30am, without needing any feedings or paci help from me... it was amazing! Unfortunately, as soon as we got home, she has gone right back into needing paci help 3-6 times a night, so it seems that night at the cabin was a fluke.

Everyone at the cabin of course loved Lucy, and continued to comment on what a pleasant baby she is and what lucky parents we are! Lucy barely cried the whole weekend except when going down for a couple naps and was eager to sit and play with anyone who wanted her! She did cry almost the entire drive up, with Katy and I... but I'm guessing she just got overly tired and couldn't get herself back to sleep during the drive.

My first boat ride, Daddy and Katy made sure I didn't go anywhere


The speed boat made me especially sleepy... mom was nervous for me, but I'm much braver than she is


Family pic!


Hanging out at the sandbar


Mom thought I was just sooo cute... but hey, who wouldn't think so in these shades