No longer a newborn

It finally hit me the other day that Gracie is no longer a newborn. She is rapidly approaching four months old and gets bigger everyday. She can hold her head up on her own and sits up well in her little bumbo seat. For some reason she is having difficulty again sleeping through the night. I know she is too young to be teething and we have tried the cereal thing. She was sleeping through the night at least every other night but now it is either at 1am or 4am. Since she does not like pacifiers so nothing will seem to soothe her but the bottle! I am enjoying being home with her so much. I get to be apart of every new and wonderful thing that happens to her daily. We will be moving to the country August 23rd and I couldn't be more ready. We have been working on this house for almost a year now. It has been one of the hardest challenges John and I have ever taken on together. It was harder than building a house since we did most all of the work ourselves and gutted it completely. At night I seem to collapse from exhaustion between packing this house during the week, painting and preparing the other house on the weekends, and taking care of our little one during all of this. My family has been a big help, they come over to help paint, clean, do wood-work, and all the other odd jobs. My parents have been amazing and I can't thank them enough. My sister and Mom are coming back for the move. My sister is the biggest work horse you have ever seen. She and John are very similar with their work ethic. John's Mom has been a big help too, she keeps Gracie so that we can get all of our work done. That on top of giving us the house, she has been a saint. Please just pray that we make it through the move! We will miss Augusta, but I know Gracie is going to enjoy being a country girl.

3 Months old

I can't believe I have waited so long to update Gracie's blog. Things have been a little crazy around here. John was in Atlanta for three weeks of training with his new job and I had my last day of work on the 25th. I am officially a stay at home Mom with little Gracie. It couldn't have happened at a better time because we are also in the 12 days of due diligence for selling our house! It is a rough market for people selling there homes right now so we are very grateful that this buyer came along. It will be a little bitter sweet since this is the house we came home to when we were married and brought our daughter home from the hospital. It has been a great home and we have met some great friends here but now the next chapter of our lives is beginning. We are off to the country. We now need to spend every weekend packing and finishing up our new home. We still have some rooms to paint and alot of cleaning. Gracie has grown by leaps and bounds, she is now 3 months old. She grabs objects and pulls them to her face, smiles at our silly expressions, and laughs out loud. She is starting to hold her head up. But the the best new development has been sleeping through the night, the past two night have been 9pm to 8am. We are praying this continues but we know when she starts teething it will get rough again. Gracie had such a good time in Atlanta with her Aunt Julie and Nana. She is having a hard time adjusting to be home since she was held constantly at my mothers house. We had dinner with some of our friends from church and there babies. It is so much fun to see them all together since they are only a few weeks apart. Our best friends Betsy, Walt, and Luke will be moving to Fountain Inn to start a new church. There son Luke was born two weeks after Gracie. Betsy and I went through our entire pregnancies together (even our classes and same doctors office) and usually go to lunch weekly. I am sad to see my best friend go, but I know they will be bringing the gospel to people who need it! I am posting several pictures of Gracie since it has been so long. Thank you all for being such great friends!

10 Weeks

Gracie is rapidly approaching her 11 week mark. She is growing like a weed and I notice changes in her everyday. She is still not sleeping through the night, she gets up between 2:30 and 3:30 every night ready to eat. She is very healthy and enjoys her feedings so I can't complain. Last week we went to Atlanta with John for two days and got to spend some quality time with my family. My Mom and sister are so good with her and her sour hours were very mild for her. I have noticed she is much better at night when she has a good long afternoon nap. She still loves her bath time and smiles all the way through it. We need to film it one night. I apologize for not keeping the blog up the past two weeks, I am trying to juggle work too! My last day will be the 25th. We have been very fortunate to have John's family and my family helping us with Gracie while we work. Here are some good pictures we took recently.

Two Months old!

I am sorry it has taken me awhile to update. I am back at work for the month of July so I have less time to update her blog than I did on my maternity leave. Monday was her two month check-up and her first round of shots. John was out of town and my Mom was here to watch Gracie so she went with us. Gracie was so good and fell asleep in my arms, until they came at her with three big needles. They gave two in one leg and one in the other. Luckily she has a little bit meatier legs thank some two month old babies so she might not have been quite as sore. She screamed for a minute or two then fell back asleep. They told me she might be a little groggy and fussy but to call them with any concerns. She had a rough afternoon. She cried most of the afternoon and the only thing that made her feel better was being held. I was working so my Mom did all of the holding. Our house is not very big and since I work at home, I know that anyone who called me wondered if I was running a day care or working for LLS. That night she went to bed at 9:30pm and slept until 6am. I went in twice during the night to make sure she was breathing. I was so excited until last night came and she woke up at 3am for her usual nighttime feeding. I guess it was the shots and we are still a little while away from sleeping through the night. I have confidence it will come soon! The doctor said she looked healthy and is growing on her curve! I will not reveal her weight since a lady never tells, but she is definitely healthy. She is smiling at our facial expressions and is starting to make noises at us. It is so much fun to watch her respond. Before we know it she will be sitting up on her own! This weekend she is going to John's Mom's house for the fourth so that we can enjoy some much needed R&R at the lake! Happy fourth to everyone!

Gracie is growing

So this past week Gracie is officially 7 weeks old. I tried to weigh her last Sunday and she is rapidly approaching 13 pounds. I always said I wanted a chubby baby and I definitely got my wish. Now I would just like a baby that could sleep through the night, I hope I get that wish too! We went out to Johnston again this weekend to work on our house. We ended up spending the night both nights. We have a queen size bed and Gracie's pack'n play. I related it to camping, but as John pointed out we have a full functioning kitchen and a jacuzzi tub. That is hardly roughing it. But I did go without TV for a full weekend. That is really something for me! Gracie's sour hour at night is starting to expand from her 7 o'clock bottle to her 11 o'clock bottle, a little bit more than just one hour. She really just wants to be held during that time if she is awake. John is good about taking her for an hour or so during that time so that I can relax in a bubble bath for a little while. He is focusing on trying to teach her to say Daddy, he would love for that to be her first word. Her favorite time of the day is bath time. She kicks her little legs in that baby bath tub and smiles. We were just saying how fun it is to see her react to our words and facial expressions. She will smile and make funny noises at us and we think it is amazing. I am posting a picture of Gracie right after her bath. She looks so cute in her ducky towel John saved the picture as his desk top. When John called his friends to let them know Gracie was born, his friend Tyler summed parenting up so well. He said, "this is when life really begins". I have to agree with that.

Big Weekend

This past weekend was big for Gracie. We had her dedication on Sunday morning at church. She slept throughout the whole dedication and then woke up once the sermon started and was ready to eat. She looked so cute in her little outfit Nana gave her. We have several friends at church who have also become parents recently so it was fun to be at the dedication with everyone. There were fifteen boys and only five girls, so I think her odds are great. After that we went over to Gama's (John's Mom) to have pool party with all of her cousins. The water was still a little cool for her so she watched from the sun room. She is so content. We are still trying very hard to get her on a nighttime schedule, which seems to be our biggest challenge. Last night she made it 6 hours without a feeding. I was so happy when I looked at the clock and realized how long she went. She just likes to cry when it is time to start the bedtime process. If anyone has suggestion let me know! I am reading the book by Jo Frost from the TV show supernanny. I haven't gotten too far yet. I am trying to read everything I can get my hands on and then take what I want from each persons suggestions. The only thing I have learned so far is that nothing is constant and I have to do whatever is best for Gracie and myself!

Lunch Date

Today Gracie and I got to go to lunch with one of my good friends and her son. Her son is only two weeks younger than Gracie, and much smaller. Gracie looked rather large next to him. She is doing so good, today she smiled and laughed at the same time. I couldn't help it, I cried. I have turned into that sap I always dreaded. I happened to be on the phone with my Mom at the time and then she got sad that she wasn't here to see it. This time I know it wasn't gas and she wasn't dreaming because she was wide awake. I know this is the first of many amazing moments I will have in my life with Gracie. This elderly woman sitting at chic-fil-a stopped me and wanted to take a look at her. She asked me what her name was, when I said Grace she teared up and said that my little girl was filled with Grace so the name was perfect. Then she about hacked up a lung (almost on Gracie) and ruined the beautiful moment. My pediatrician Steve said people will be dying to touch her in public just like a pregnant woman's belly. I told him when I was pregnant if a stranger touched my belly I touched there's back! He liked that. I go back to the Dr. on Thursday, hopefully I will get the ok to start working out again. I am ready to get the rest of my baby weight off before I put on a bathing suit! This Sunday is Gracie's baby dedication at church. Of course her Nana had to buy her a new outfit, so I will post pictures once I have some.