Vacation

My first Florida vacation!

Last week we headed to Florida for vacation with Mom, Tim, Jordyn and our family. We drove through the night, so the trip down went pretty smooth - Lucy slept all but a half hour at around 3 am when she woke up and cried for a bit. Same for the way up. I think we'll probably travel that way until our kids are at least over 6 - a sleeping child is a happy child!

I had been told vacations throw babies off, so I decided we'd be a little more relaxed about schedules and naps on this trip. Fortunately the first four days Lucy slept amazing and stayed on schedule on her own accord- despite the new conditions. Panama City is an hour earlier than Indy, so we found ourselves waking at 6am every day (Lucy normally wakes around 7am at home) but Lucy would then go to bed pretty early. Unfortunately, that only lasted four days and the second half of the week brought a lot of tears, a lot of fighting sleep and a grumpy mom. Double unfortunately, those trends have continued here at home... but I'll talk about that in another post.

Lucy loved the ocean and the pool - but mostly loved playing with her water toys inside her swim float...






In keeping with the flexible theme, Lucy took some of her naps on the beach... but they usually ended up being short naps, so I tried to lay her down back at the condo as much as possible.


When she was awake - she was happy as ever!


It was nice to go on vacation with Mom and Tim as they helped a lot with Lucy and allowed Ben and I to spend more time at the pool/beach and have a little alone time.




Although sometimes we caught them sleeping on the job...


Jordyn really came out of his shell on the trip - going into the "big boy pool", the ocean, and riding a jet ski!!




And of course he loved playing with Lucy...


All in all it was a great vacation. I learned a couple things: if you are trying not to get burned at the beach - take a 6 month old, as you'll spend a lot of time in the shade and a lot of time indoors... go with the flow - it was so much easier to follow Lucy's lead than for her to follow mine... little boys have a lot of energy :)... and lastly, taking a 6 month old to the beach can actually be fun - I thought this vacation would just feel like every day I am at home (which I love, don't get me wrong, I just figured why pay a bunch of money to go do what I do every day), but I actually had a blast hanging out with my family, getting extra help with Lucy and playing with her as she took in new experiences at the pool and ocean - much more fun than being at home by myself all day!

Solid Foods Continued

Here are some pictures from our first solid food experience with Lucy - as I mentioned before, she loved it! In fact, so much so, I was concerned about the amount she was taking in. The first time we offered carrots, she finished a whole jar and then cried when I took it away. Now every time we start to get the food ready she gets so excited shaking her hands up and down - kind of similar to what Ben does when I start to fix him a meal.

So far we have done Rice, Carrots, Banana, and Avocado. The avocado did not go over well, but she is slowly taking more of it, and I tried to make homemade carrots (we started with jar carrots since we were on vacation) and she did not like those as well at first either.

It's funny, Lucy has never been a very hungry baby, but I think these solid foods are changing her. I can finally start to see some of those Wehner hunger genes in her.

Solid Foods

We had a big week last week - Lucy started eating solids, she started crawling, and we took our first vacation to the ocean. Here is some video of the first time eating solids. She loved it! I definitely think she was ready...

Crawling!

Lucy started crawling last week! We were on vacation in Florida with my family - I think these new water toys gave her the motivation to get moving. I got some video of her going after my cell phone. Look at her move!

New Milestones!

Lucy has been on the move this week! She's officially "creeping" - not quite crawling, but gets forward by getting up on all fours then throwing herself forward, she can go from laying down to sitting up (adding a new dimension to nap time), and just yesterday I discovered her ability to pull herself up and stand holding on to something other than Ben or I.

Learning this was actually funny, I've never seen Lucy pulling up on anything before, but after about 20 minutes of her talking in her crib (odd bc she's usually only sleeping or crying in the crib), I peaked my head in and found her up on her knees sucking on the crib rail! What a little rascal... I couldn't help but crack up laughing... who needs a paci when you can just suck on the crib!

I took these pictures later...




I helped her to standing (she's still working on getting past being on her knees) but once she was up there she stood all on her own!


Today's nap... I peaked in after 20 minutes (thinking she was zonked) and found her sitting, spinning the mobile... this should make for an interesting couple days!

**editor's note, right after I wrote this, I was playing with Lucy downstairs and she was able to pull herself up onto her feet!

Kappa Cousins

We had a packed house this past weekend, Mom's sorority sisters came to stay for a wedding... so that would make these guys my sorority cousins... right?

Ok, let's get a group shot... places everyone...


I am one lucky lady!


And we're off...

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