One Year!

Dear Baby Delaney-

                    It is hard to believe that 365 days have passed since you came into the world.  This past year with you coming into our lives has been unbelievably amazing and so much more than we could have ever imagined.  While doing all this getting ready for your first birthday party, it got me thinking about things and all I could do was cry.  I want to say sorry to you sissy, because I never knew how much I could possibly love you until you showed me how.  I hate admitting that I had a hard time connecting to you while you were in my belly.  I think its because when your big brother came so early and we were scared, we thought we couldn't go through that ever again.  I remember telling your grammy that I did not want to have any more babies, and soon after that we found out you were coming.  But, the truth is.. God knew best what we needed, and he has shown us that over and over again. Especially since you and your big brother were born.  

Me and Daddy's initial reactions to the news were "oh, poop!" and "what are we going to do?!".  Well, all we needed was love and the amazing family and friends we have. They threw us a baby shower yet again, getting you everything you needed to be fed, clothed, snuggled and even a nice crib for you to sleep in.  We had some of the same doctors again and they helped make sure that you grew and grew inside my belly until you were ready!  

Sissy-girl... You have changed me for the better, I hope to be a good mommy to you and I will love you with all I've got.  You are so beautiful, the prettiest little girl I've ever seen. Your eyes twinkle, and you smile so big and crinkle your nose!  You dance and sing, and give the drool-iest kisses. You can say da-da, ma-ma and you can even wave and say "hi!".  You love to clap your hands and shake your head and wiggle your body when you listen to music.  You are so great at crawling and you are getting ready to stand by yourself and learn how to walk.  You are being such a big girl already trying to feed yourself and you can drink out of a cup!  I am so blessed to watch you grow, and it's going by too quickly!   I know you are going to be a beautiful person inside and out, and I look forward to seeing what great things you are going to accomplish in this life. You are and will be an amazing woman.

I love you Laney-Bug

Love,

Ma-ma

       

11 months

Hard to believe that in just one month our baby girl is going to be a year old!!!

Laney recently had a dr's appointment to get a flu shot and she weighed 21 pounds. She is in the 75th percentile for height and weight and was overall healthy and happy!

She now has 4 teeth. two bottom and two on top!  She has a split in her top teeth and its very adorable.
Sissy is a hungry little piggy she eats two servings of pureed food and/or oatmeal cereal 3xs a day, and she still takes formula.  She is doing very well with a training sippy cup and has her bubba at bed time.
She has been picky about solid foods, but we are working on introducing more.

She has been crawling for awhile now, and pulls herself to stand. She walks along the furniture, but hasn't been able to stand on her own yet.
We love how vocal she is, and how much she loves music. She is constantly humming or singing she says "la-la-la" and sways side-to-side :)  She claps her hands and loves to play peek-a-boo.

We are looking forward to Halloween, she is going to be a ladybug! Which, will also be the theme for her 1st birthday!

Dedication

On Sunday, We had a dedication service for Delaney at the church of the Nazarene. Performed by my uncle, Pastor Mike Chambers.  We also did this service for Collin last summer.  Its nice to get the family together and celebrate our little baby.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a dedication service is, it is very much like a catholic christening, but the difference is in our faith we believe that a person has to choose on their own when they are of an age to understand what it means to be baptized. So this service is actually for us as the parents to say we are promising to raise our children to the best of our ability to teach them what we know about God.  It also makes the God Parents feel official :)

We chose Jason's sister, Teagan as the God Mother.   I got close to Teagan on a family trip a few years back. We bonded during the plane ride there and back and had a great time sneaking out of the hotel in the middle of the night to get ice cream and go on a roller coaster in Las Vegas.  She was also a bridesmaid at our wedding! Teagan is just like her older brother. She's basically the girl version!  She is kind and funny, and a little sarcastic!  She is so much fun to be around and is a good auntie to the babies. We wish we could see her more, as she lives in Maine. At Christmas we gave her a picture of Delaney with a note that said "will you be my godmother?" And she of course, said Yes! :)

And, for the God Father we chose my brother, Seth!   We love Seth for his humor and love of family.  We also have many common interests in music, movies and super heros! He has been an amazing uncle and since he is the oldest, he goes by just "Unkie".  He has been an excellent uncle to both Collin and Delaney, he visits at least once a week.  Although he still refuses to change diapers!  We knew that he was the perfect choice to be a god father because of how great he was with Collin.

Delaney enjoyed her day, even though she slept through most of the party!!
And, an update on how she's doing.... She will be 9 months on the 16th of this month. We just had a Dr.s appointment and she weighed in at 19lb 12 oz and was 28 inches.  She was in the 90th percentile for height. He guessed her at about 5'7, 5'8 as an adult.  She was in the 75th for weight. AND 97th for head circumference.. so we've got a fat head!! LOL  She has a couple immunizations and handled them like a champ!  She cried of course, but settled right down with a hug and kiss.  She's so used to Collin picking on her that she's turned into a tough cookie.  She has been sitting by herself for a while now and she now does an army crawl.  She gets up on all fours and does the rocking back and forth but she's still figuring out how to coordinate a full blown crawl.  She now waves and says "hi" and she babbles, coos and screeches! She definitely loves music and she often hums.  She hums herself to sleep.  She has the best, biggest smile and we often get compliments on her sparkly-smiling eyes. She is a sweetheart for sure.
Here's some updated photos and pics of her dedication

6 months

Miss Delaney is 6 months old now... the time is getting away from us.. I didn't even do a 5 month update!!!! ooops...  She is growing more hair, and it looks like it will be strawberry :) yay!  She has beautiful blue eyes and the cutest dimples/smile.  She weighs about 19 pounds now.

Delaney now has longer periods of awake time during the day.  She takes a morning and evening nap, both about an hour long.  She sleeps through the night about 9 hours, then back to sleep for 2-3 after a morning feeding.

We just stopped breast feeding. She now takes formula.  I was supplementing for a couple weeks, but we just made the switch completely.  My original goal was 3 months, and we made it to 6! :)  Honestly, I would have loved to keep going.. but work really got in the way.  It is hard to have to leave to pump, and since I'm the manager I can't exactly up and leave the crew for 20-30 minutes every few hours. I would be in the back room pumping and get a knock on the door saying "we need you!!"  After a few skipped pumping sessions and Delaney getting hungrier, we had to supplement.  So, I figured since she was already getting the formula I would forget the hassle and quit. 

She can now roll over and also grab her toes!  She tolerates tummy time for quite awhile and she extends her arms out and lifts her head and shoulders completely.  She is sitting propped, and can sit by herself for a few seconds before toppling over.

She is a drool machine, and loves to suck on her hands.  She is now reaching out for faces when you hold her, so you get a nice drooly hand grabbing your face!  hahah

We can't get enough of her smile, and she's quite the chatterbox too.  She is very observant and watches  Collin and also the cats walking around.  She likes the sounds of the TV or music in the car, or the mobile in her crib.  We are looking forward to taking her swimming for the first time, probably next month. she's so cute in her bathing suit! 

4 months

Delaney is now 4 months!  Time is just flying!!!  We love this little girl so much.

She is sweet as can be.. all you have to do is smile at her, and she smiles right back!  She coo's and babbles, and can now do raspberries too!

She tolerates tummy time for awhile, but she prefers to lay on her back.  She is starting to roll onto her sides from her back. And, when she is on her tummy she can lift her head and shoulders and hold them up for quite awhile. She is very strong!

She has the best giggle!  She will giggle when tickled, or if something seems very funny to her. She will giggle at daddy when he gives her eskimo kisses :)  She is going to be a daddy's girl for sure!  She has been going through a phase where she doesn't really like anyone holding her except mommy or daddy.  She does however love to look at people and "chat".  The TV catches her attention a lot (ut-oh!)  Collin is still not interested in watching tv, so this is very different for us.

Delaney has many nicknames already.. "Laney-bug, pretty-pretty, widdle, sissy, baby girl, boggs, and "The Mrs."   To name a few ;)

She weighs 16.5 pounds and is about 27 inches!  ALL with only breast milk!!  So proud of us both for sticking with it!   She takes bottles of pumped milk while I'm away at work, and nurses when I'm at home.  She is a chunka!  She now drools constantly and likes to eat her hands and bibs.

She's a tough little lady too.. Collin likes to smack her on top of the head as he crawls by.. and if her belly is visible, he will poke her belly button too!  She never cries though, she watches every move he makes... I think she will be catching up to him in no time!

She will be leaving her bassinet this month and going to her crib! She's getting too big, and since she sleeps through the night now it is best to get her used to sleeping in her own bed!

12 weeks

Miss Delaney is such a great baby!  I tend to not call her by her name. I've been calling her Sissy mostly, or pretty-pretty or girlfriend! hehe.. I'm sure she will grow into Delaney, just seems a little old for her right now.

Ms. Pork-chop weighs about 16 pounds right now!!!  She eats and eats and eats.  I can't believe that she has grown so much already, and with only breast milk! I feel very proud and accomplished!  I plan to continue nursing, it is going well.  I was worried that my supply would go down, once I returned to work, but I've managed to work pumping times into my daily schedule pretty well.

We can't get enough of the coo's and smiles..she even giggled for Daddy today :)  She enjoys the swing now and takes naps there during the day.  She has been sleeping through the night, about 7 hours!  We do a midnight feeding and sleep until around 7.  At which point she joins me in bed and then she nurses, and we snooze until Collin wakes up, around 9ish :)

She is very strong already lifting her head up and I even saw her reaching to grab her toes.  She loves to be held and snuggled. She is very snuggly, so its great!  Collin gets a little jealous sometimes, so he joins in on the snuggles!  Everything is going great, we couldn't be happier :)

7 weeks old

Delaney is now 7 weeks old!  The time has passed quickly, and it has been great having her home with us.  She sleeps a lot, and eats a lot..normal baby stuff!!   She fits right into our lives..and its already so routine I forget what it was like without her.   Collin LOVES his little sister :)   He likes to touch her, but he tends to hit...we are trying to teach him how to "do nice" or "gentle", but he is very young and it might take awhile for him to fully understand.  He loves to "kiss" her though, his way of kissing to anyone is leaning in and placing his forehead on you. lol. he is so cute!

So far Delaney has been sleeping pretty well. She feeds about every 3-4 hours.  She has had a couple nights where she slept 5-6 hours.  She rarely cries, but when she does she makes it count!  She likes to be held and snuggled.  She does not like the swing.. oh well.

She's already started smiling and cooing also :)

I have to go back to work on monday.. mixed feelings.. I am very excited to get out and be an active part of society again. Being on bed rest since August I am so ready to get back to work.. But I will miss my babies so much!  I'm glad to have a husband that is also a great daddy..I know they will be just fine when I'm at work!