There's nothing sweeter...

There's nothing sweeter than....

Your baby girl staring into your eyes

Your baby girl gripping your finger with her little hand

Your baby girl reaching out in her sleep just to make sure you're still snuggling her

Your baby girl delicately petting your chest while she tries to fall asleep

Your baby girl nestled on her daddy's chest with her arms wrapped around him

Such an innocent little peanut, comforted by our love. It makes our hearts melt. You can see it when you look into her eyes that she trusts we will always take care of her, and she's right.

Mommy and Daddy love you today and everyday Makaela. You are breathtaking and our life is more beautiful with you in it.

Nana and Papa's Visit

Tim's parents got into town the day after my mom left. Makaela was excited to meet her Nana and Papa and loved them right away <3

We got to go on lots of adventures while they were here (most of which Makaela slept through...haha) and Papa helped install a new, fabulous, extra large kitchen sink and a gorgeous storm/screen door for the front of the casa.

Like I mentioned before, Tim and I even got to sneak out for dinner and movie, while Nana and Papa watched Makaela....she took her bottle like a champ from what we're told.

There was lots of snuggling, facetiming with cousin Gabby and Aunt Sarah and of course some spoiling!

It was nice spending time with family and we cannot wait until we get Nana-Papa time again ("Papa's in the hoooooouse!").

Makaela changed and grew every day they were here...it's hard to imagine what a big girl she'll be when we see them next!! 

Playtime

Yesterday we bought a sassy little Ipod holder on clearance at Target and downloaded some baby apps onto the Ipod touch.....success.

Thank you Daddy for hookin' this up!!

Three Week Roundup

I'm how old?! No way!

Three weeks old already.....say whattttttttt?!?!

Just like everyone promised time really is flying. We love seeing the little one grow and learn...everyday she surprises us with something new.

She is more alert and curious with every passing minute...we always wonder what she thinks about this big ol' world that she is taking in little by little each day.

Baby Makaela is starting to fall into a routine more and more everyday. Either that or mama and daddy are just starting to figure it out ;-) In the night she usually wakes around 12, 3 and 6. Most of the time she keeps it strictly to business...wakes up, eats, gets a diap change and goes back to sleep (score!) A lot of times we get up for the day at the 6 AM mark (because I'm used to being up earlier than that anyway) and play or read books.

We went on lots of adventures this week because Nana and Papa are visiting, which has been a lot of fun. Heck, mama and daddy even got to sneak out for dinner and a movie one night!

Makaela also took her first trip to Seattle. We didn't realize it till we were half way there that it was 4/20....and let's just say it surely smelled like it downtown. Where can we pick up our parents of the year awards?

Baby girl also got to take her first trip to Mt. Rainier, which of course she slept through. But let's be real, we were going for our own enjoyment not hers ;-)

Loves:

- Being a "helper" by holding her pacifier in her mouth with her hand. Unfortunately, that same "helpful" hand sometimes flings the pacifier out of her mouth too.

- Music (Pandora Nursery Rhyme station, Itunes, YouTube animated videos). Technology is great...that's right, I said it.

- Tummy Time. She tries desperately to crawl and be mobile. I don't know how she stayed in the womb for 9 months because she sure thinks she has places to go!

- Head and back massages

Cheering on the Tigers 

Bright eyed happy girl!

Cuddle time

Bundled up after bath

Wet hair after bath

 Milestones:

- Met Nana and Papa

- First trip to Seattle

- First trip to Mt. Rainier

- Becoming more animated, more smiles

- First time away from Mama and Daddy (we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and saw Silver Linings Playbook...GREAT movie!)

- First projectile poop....she was getting changed in the car and it shot OUT of the car. Good thing Daddy is quick on his toes and dodged that bullet

- Developing the dreaded "baby acne" (she's still adorable!)

Watching Goofy with Daddy!

Clean hair can't be tamed!

Coffee date with Mama

Food Coma

Hilarious dream!

Grandma's Visit

My mom came to visit last week and man oh man did she fall in love. It was great timing to have our first visitor because we had been home for a little over a week which gave us time to get adjusted to being home with baby and nursing first.

Grandma got to go to Makaela's 2 week well baby check with us and we also did fun things like going out to eat and shopping (we got spoiled by Grandma!), and lots of snuggling, play time and picture taking. My mom was a also a great help with the dogs (Taylor was attached to her hip 24/7) and other household duties.

I really wish we lived closer to family. It was so wonderful getting to spend time with my mom and I loved seeing how happy her heart was holding baby Mak. She told me lots of stories about me and my siblings growing up and bought Makaela a Precious Moments Bedtime Storybook, which was a favorite of mine growing up.



We can't wait until we get to visit with Grandma again, but until then we'll just continue taking lots of pictures and video :-)

These two may or may not have worn color coordinated outfits each day...

Tummy Time!

This was Makaela's morning workout one day when Grandma was visiting. She was 12 days old when this video was shot.

We are so proud of her strength and ambition!!

Warning: You may need motion sickness medicine for this one, I wasn't the best camera woman around!!

Second Week Roundup

We can't believe little miss Makaela is already TWO WEEKS old! Such a big girl.

Her 2 week wellness check was yesterday and she weighed in at 9.3 lbs. She is in the 75th percentile for weight and head circumference and the 96th percentile for height. What a tall glass of water. The doctors were very pleased with per progress and said she is healthy as can be. Best news ever.

We had some questions about her eye boogies since she has had them since day 1, and they gave us erythromycin which we have to apply to her eyes 3 times a day for 1 week. Here's hoping it works well!

Week Two Highlights:

Loves:

- her playmat, music
- baby k'tan
- looking at the pretty baby (herself) in the mirror
- grunting
- arm wrestling with daddy
- peeing and pooping on the changing table when no diap is on

Does not love:
- gas (but is pretty darn good at gettin' it out, she even had the nurses laughing at her toots!)

Milestones:

- discovered her own hair. loves petting and twirling it
- will stick out her tongue at you if you stick out yours
- introduced pacifier and bottle with the blessing of her doctor (so far so good! no nipple confusion)
- had slight diaper rash (thankfully it cleared up within 24 hours after applying ointment)
- met Grandma

Hey, Makae!

This video was taken when monkey was 8 days old. XoXo

First Week Home

We've officially been home a week; we've been peed on and pooped on but the good news is we are all still alive and no one is sleep deprived!! We even have a few successful family outings under our belt. Her first big outing was to Red Robin and Fred Meyer. She slept through it all. Holla!

Daddy has been wonderful and takes care of virtually everything during the day...cleaning, cooking, diap changes. I feed little one and even get to sneak in the occasional nap when she is napping....life is good! At night time I stay with her, and fortunately she is a good girl so I do get some rest. We try not to wake daddy at all so he can get a full night's rest. So far this has been a great process for us. Neither of us are overly tired and no one is cranky which has to be better for baby girl :-)

Watching the basketball game with Daddy

Makeala has had a couple of doctor appointments. The first was her 2 day follow up after being released from the hospital. And guess what? Little monkey actually GAINED weight. This is great news because it means nursing is satisfying her! Her billirubin (jaundice) levels were a little high so we had to go back in for a follow up on Saturday to have her tested again. She was a champ! Thankfully, the levels decreased so no further treatment was required. Monday, she had her hearing test and passed both ears!! We knew she would do great - she follows voices very well. Yay Makaela!

Nursing is going well and I'll write an entire post about the challenges of that later. Baby girl gets hiccups several times a day but doesn't get bothered by them at all! She really isn't a fussy girl. She is also QUITE the tooter. She has no shame grunting. But hey, better to get it out then have an upset tummy!! We love her little stink butt.

Little girl loves her pups and they sure do love her. We weren't sure how they would adjust, but after 1 day they were in love. In fact, I'm pretty sure they think she is THEIR baby. Rocky tends to be more protective, while Taylor is cautious.

Week One highlights....

Loves:

*Snuggling

*Being swaddled (with freedom to move those crazy arms)
*Music
*Her own hands

*Baby push-ups (tummy time with Daddy)

*Making funny faces
*Car rides

Does not love:

*Diap changes (modest monkey)
*Getting eye boogies wiped

What mommy and daddy love for her:

*Hand mittens
*Leggins (makes her feel less "exposed" during a diap change)

Milestones:

*Sucked thumb
*Went through 3 diaps in 5 minutes
*Umbilical cord fell off and belly button just has a small scab now

Nicknames we've used so far:

Makae Kae
Monkey
Mak
Princess girl
Pretty girl
Hunny Bunny
Punkin girl
Lil Makaela

Hospital Recovery

We stayed in the LDR (labor deliver repair recovery) room for about 2 hours after Makaela was born. Everytime the nurses came in they raved about how good the room smelled. Victory! We brought a Scentsy from home and turned it on before I started pushing. No one wants to smell birth! Picture Tim sticking his fingers in the hot wax and holding them under his nose throughout the whole process. Yes, this really went down.

After they brought me breakfast (I hadn't eaten in about 30 hours at this point and those cold scrambled eggs were the best things ever) we Tim packed up our stuff and the nurse wheeled us over to the Mother and Baby unit where we would be required to stay for the next 48 hours (the minimum for all first time moms).

The staff was so accommodating. They checked on us regularly (made sure we were both eating and going potty) and were totally on top of the pain management stuff.

A couple of my friends came to visit the day she was born and a couple of Tim's friends came to visit the next day. It was fun showing off our little monkey :-)

The hospital rule is that no one can stay over night (between 9-9). Yep, that even means Daddy. Do they fully enforce that rule? I'm not sure, but we followed it. It sounds kind of crazy but we think it actually may have been a good thing. It allowed Daddy to go home and take care of the dogs and get a full night sleep. Fortunately, baby girl was low maintenance so Mama even got some sleep at the hospital in between the nurses coming in to check on us.

On Wednesday they gave us the stamp of approval that both mama and baby were doing fine and told us we could be discharged. Holy cow...she is OURS. Forever.

On the way home we stopped to get some additional "recovery" supplies for mama and also got Wendy's. Makaela did pretty good the whole ride considering she was hungry. We are definitely getting the hang of the importance of timing feedings before activities...

We love learning together as we go.