3 Month Update

Can you believe how big our little wee one is getting?!? Heres whats Happening with Harper!!!

- Sleeps thru the night!!! Bedtime is 9pm and she will sleep until 6:30 or 7am! Woohoo!!!!

- Wears 6 months clothes and size 2 diapers

- Takes a good 2 hour nap in the am and catnaps throughout the afternoon

- Eats about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours

- Has been very grabby lately, loves to grab her toes and rock back and forth on her back

- Starting to roll over from tummy to back (although if she doesn't get it with the first couple tries she gets pissed!!! Such a little overachiever!!!)

- Loves to sit up, whether its in your arms or sitting in her bebe pod.

- She LOVES to be outside!

- "Talks" to her daddy every evening about her day!

- Having more "good days" at daycare! Thank goodness!!!

 I am also so thankful that Harper seems to be adjusting better at daycare. Her first couple of weeks were pretty rough for both of us. I think after being with just her momma for the first 10 weeks, we had a little bit of separation anxiety. But her caregivers absolutely love her, so that helps. Also, her 3 cousins also go to the same center and get the chance to peek in on her from time to time!

These past 3 months have flown by!!! And I find myself already missing parts of her baby phase that I complained about during the first few weeks. They change soooo fast and I don't want to take a single moment of it for granted. We love you little wee one!!!

First Mother's Day and Back to Work

This mothers day was by far the best mothers day ever (mainly because I was able to officially celebrate this holiday myself)! My husband and daughter made this day especially memorable. Evan had made a special mothers day card with pictures of Harper on it for me and these two also surprised me with a pandora charm for my bracelet and a necklace of Harper's birthstone! We spent the rest of the day with our families and enjoying our time home with our baby girl before my offiicial start back to work that following Monday!

We are slowly falling into a routine again since my returning back to work 2 weeks ago (part of the reason of the lack of posts lately!). It has definitely helped that Harper has decided to start sleeping through the night! Thank you baby girl! My first day back to work was.....okay. I missed Harper like crazy and it was weird returning to work on day shift. My coworkers were very supportive and understanding though, which made a huge difference. The nice part after working my first 12 hour shift in over 3 months was I got the next 2 days off to snuggle with my wee one. On my 2nd day back to work I was able to go home 4 hours early and my 3rd day I was cancelled altogether!!! I know it won't be like that every week, but it was a nice way to ease back into things!

Challenge Accepted!

After having Harper I was feeling really crummy about my weight. I mean during my pregnancy I gained...over 50 pounds!!!! I know I have just had a baby and should give myself some credit but I had been unhappy with my weight before getting pregnant and post baby was not much better. I knew I had to do something, but it was hard to find the time and energy to workout to my Jillian  Michael's dvd let alone find the time to take a shower some days!!!  Evan tries to be supportive, but he is a bit of a health nut. I mean his idea of "comfort food" is soup and salad, where mine is anything covered in chocolate!!!
I knew losing this babyweight was going to be a challenge for me.Then I heard about this new product called Visalus! After going to a recent party to sample the shakes I have decided to accept the Visalus 90 Day Challenge!!! Your probably asking yourself what is Visalus??? Well it's a meal replacement program that is not only great for you but it even tastes great too!You can choose to drink 1-2 shakes a day depending on what your own personal health goals are. I have one shake a day for breakfast. I love how healthy this shake is for me. It is chock full of fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals. The added bonus is this company did research on the benefits of Visalus with breastfeeding. So I know its safe to take while I'm still nursing.

So far I am on day 5 of my 90 day challenge  and I haven't  had the same shake yet! When you open a bag of this stuff, it smells just like cake batter! My favorite is when I have mixed the sweet cream shake mix with frozen berries! I actually look forward each morning to having my shake! I am so excited about this product, I am having a Challenge Party this Saturday at 3pm at my house so my friends and family can come and taste Visalus for themselves! I would love to have you come (not only will you get to try Visalus, but you will get to see Harper too and whats not to love about that!!!) If you want to learn more please check out: http://www.laurastuart.bodybyvi.com/ or message me for directions for Saturday! Hope to see everyone soon!

2 Month Update

Here's what Happening with Harper!

- Wears size 1 diapers

- Currently wears 3m clothes (although I don't think that is going to last for much longer! this child is growing like a weed!)

- Loves to play on her Fisher Price piano kick and play activity mat

- Cat naps in the morning, takes two 20-45 minutes naps, but will take a nice 1 1/2-2 hour nap in the early afternoon

- Eats about every 2 hours during the day

- Goes to bed between 9:30 - 10pm

- Only wakes up once in the middle of the night for a quick feeding around 4am and then is up again at 7am (she has only graced us with sleeping through the night once so far!)

- Loves to ride in the car preferably the highway, not a fan of city stop and go traffic!

- Loves to "sing" with momma

Harper is growing and changing every day! Its amazing to watch her learn the world around her. I am looking forward to see what new milestones next month will bring for our baby girl.......stay tuned!!!

Daddy's Girl

Already at just shy of 2 months old, Harper is already a true daddy's girl! It's adorable to watch their interactions with each other. When Evan gets home from work for the day and Harper hears his voice, she will immediately start craning her neck to find him. Then once she locks her eyes on him she will follow him wherever he goes! If he goes upstairs and goes into a room where she can't see him, she will start to whimper and get this look on her face like "what the hell?".

Evan can also always soothe her! Once settled in her daddy's big strong arms she can sleep for hours. She will just stare into Ev's eyes and make this cute little baby sigh. And I know shes thinking "daddy I love you"!!!!

I love to watch these two loves of my life together!!! But I know in a few years this daddy's little girl thing is going to be a tad bit annoying. Like the times I tell her no and she bats her baby blues at her daddy and gets her way! But for now I am going to enjoy the fact that she is wrapped around her daddy's finger, because I know all too fast he will be wrapped around hers!

Diaper Notes

At my baby shower my family had in February one of the activities we had our guests do was write words of wisdom or encouragement on diapers. Well we finally got around to using those diapers and it was fun after changing the umpteenth diaper to have a fun message to look forward to reading! Here were some of my favorites: " Handle with Care"...."Beware of Shooting Poo"...."The diapers years will truly go by fast"....."What a miracle!"...."Enjoy every minute".... There was also a very special drawing of a smiley face on one with the words "poo explosion"!! We have only had one diaper change which resulted in a bath (more on that story later!). I think that's a pretty decent track record for 6 weeks!

6 Weeks

Parenting is so much harder than I ever thought it would be. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my daughter and I love my new job as mommy. But this is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. No one tells you about how you will constantly second guess yourself, how incompetent you will feel when you have done everything to comfort her and she still cries, or how exhausted you will feel all the time and all those people who told you to sleep now when you were pregnant you want to beat with a large stick! That being said we survived the first 6 weeks!!! Although the midnight feedings are still hard and we are not on a schedule (besides hers!) I wouldn't trade my time home with her for anything!



Harper is doing amazing! This week she started smiling, her smile lights up her whole face. When she smiles at you, you can't help but smile yourself! Its the best feeling in the world!!!