7 and 8 months

Sorry for the lack of posts these days. Sometimes I can get pretty discouraged blogging. But anyway I keep reminding myself that this is Rylee's baby book of sorts. So lets get right into the updates. Months seven and eight are really one big blur, I can barely remember which milestone she met when. As of right now she does a swimming crawl which kind of looks like how you paddle with your arms and she kicks off with her toes. She has just recently started crawling on all fours and with one leg dragging behind her although its not consistent. She started pulling herself up to her knees and withing the last day or so she now pulls up to her feet and can stand, she also will stand on all four for a few moments before sitting back down. She knows how to sit up from a laying down position which really sucks for nap time and bed time.

She had a really good routine going for a few weeks where she would bath, book, boob, and in bed sleeping by nine. The last couple nights she has gotten really fussy around the end of bath time when she is getting oiled up so i think she may need to go down a half hour earlier. She has been overly tired where she doesn't fall asleep as easily or quickly so I really think an earlier bedtime is the answer. 

She is not teething. A-hem! lets rephrase that and say she is not cutting teeth, but she is teething. Does that even make sense? I can see her little teeth buds but pretty sure they wont be appearing anytime soon and if "what they say" is true then she will be like her mama and not have them till after one.

She is babbling up a storm, she can say mama, dada, and hi. Im pretty sure she can say " i love you" or she is good at making her babbles sound like it. She is quite the smarty pants and knows three signs too. She knows mama, kisses, and milk. Its so cute when i sign for her to give mama kisses and she opens her mouth with a big smile and plants a big wet slobbery kiss on me, Ugh! Baby kisses are my favorite! And then when i sign milk she starts to laugh and pull at my shirt. She knows whats coming. Smart gal she is. Oh how i love her so.

Eating, nursing, eating, nursing, nursing and eating. The story of my life! This kid is always hungry. She eats three meals a day and nurses four or five times a day and that's not even including night time or snacks. Okay so what do we feed her? Well, we didn't do the traditional route of purees and then solid solids. Maybe we did, sorta? anyway, we started giving her oatmeal once a day with a fruit puree and then she would nurse the rest of the time. This was very back and forth as it freaked me out to give her anything besides breast milk.  Once she turned like 7 1/2 months or so is when we really decided (or her) that she needed more because she was actually hungry for it. So we gave her the oatmeal and fruit consistently. She then started reaching for everything we were eating so we would give her a few bites here and there. Well apparently there is this thing called Baby Led Weaning which totally worked for us. Today at 8 1/2 months she eats everything except honey things and we still haven't tried PB, but she is eating grilled cheeses, pancakes, pasta, meat, and everything in between. Its kind of scary having to feed your child real food because its a lot more effort then just pulling your boob out of your shirt and you have to remember to feed them. yikes! Its making me anxious just thinking about it even though i do a great job at feeding her! Just sayin!

And to end this extremely long and thoroughly updated post, the cutest little girl in town! Ugh those eyes!

Rylees' First Trip to the Dairy Farm

Since Spring has finally sprung in our neck of the woods, we took advantage of it by getting outside in between the rain clouds. We took Ry to the dairy farm where she got to feed the goats and pet the calves. She was fascinated by all the animals and wondering what they were.

Now you all know how goats are. They act like they have never been fed every time they see people with a bag of corn. We were just chilling feeding the goats and see the one below? She was quite sassy! She would push the other goats out of the way to get the feed bag. She even ripped my bag of corn and spilled it every where. Rude! And I felt bad for the other goats.

 

 

I love love love baby moo moos. They are my favorite and I cannot wait to get my own when we have our farm. This particular baby moo looked like a Dalmatian to me so I loved her even more. She loved getting her head and neck rubbed. She also loved trying to eat Ry's pants and boots.

 

With Casey working new hours at a new job, we have been having a hard time taking advantage of family time. Its usually raining and cloudy on his days off. But with good weather on the horizon-somdeday-not this week-we will hopefully be doing lots more field trips. And the dairy farm is one we visit often. Did I mention they have fresh from the cow ice cream? Yep! They also sell fresh milk in glass bottles! Like back in the day. I love it all.

 

 

 

Rylees' First Easter

So far Easter has been my favorite holiday as a parent. It so simple and relaxed. I loved shopping for Rylees' Easter basket.

We initially weren't planning on coloring eggs with her, we had bought some plastic eggs that we were going to let her "find". But the night before my mom called and asked if they could come over to color eggs at our house so naturally I wasn't going to let Ry miss out on all the fun. Of course we ended up eating the hard boiled eggs instead of hiding them for her, alas fun was still had. :)

Her basket consisted of  a sippy cup, some bath toys, eggs filled with yogurt melts and banana puffs, The Lorax story, The Easter story, and The Three Trees story and the cutest Hippo Garanimals rattle. She was excited about all of this but I think she cherished her hot pink pearlized egg the most. She carried it around most the day.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And by the end of the day she was ready for no more pictures! Still holding on to that pink egg!

6 month wellness check

I am way behind on blogging. I don't have a computer at home right now so all my post have to be done from my phone and it really sucks because I can't organize my thoughts in a better way due to how the app on my phone works. I am going to try to make it to the library at least once a week to write a post and I really want this blog to be more than what it is so I'm also going to be working on making it more personable and most important Updated!

 

With that fine introduction I give you my sweet darling girl at 6 months old.

 

 

 

AGE: 6 months

WEIGHT: 20 pounds

HEIGHT: 28 inches long

 

This little wild thing is craaaaazy! She is ahead of the curve on all her mobile skills-says her doctor. ;) She is sitting up, grabbing at things and teething. She will gnaw on anything she can get her hands on. Still no sign of teeth just yet. Poor girl is miserable.

 

She is quickly outgrowing all her clothes. We have already entered into 9 month and 12 month bins.

 

Her favorite things are chewing, playing with her feet, climbing up me or Casey trying to get to things, baths, eating, story time and going on walks.

 

We have dipped our hands in the baby food a little bit. I am stuck between giving her cereal and purees or going the baby led weaning route. If I am honest we are doing a bit of both and just winging it. I give her oatmeal and a fruit puree for breakfast and then she will just nurse the rest of the day. Sometimes I will give her a taste of what we are eating but not very often. Feeding has definitely been the biggest challenge thus far. She has only nursed her whole life so I know that will sustain her and keep her healthy. Switching up her food intake is terrifying. Of course I know she can live on people food because everyone does, but taking that leap is still scary.

 

I am pretty sure she says "Hi" and sometimes we think we hear "mama" and "dada", but that could just be our imaginations.

 

That's all for now. I will be  back soon with a few more posts. When I write, I write a lot.

 

Valentines Day

This valentines day was by far the best we've ever had. Mainly because there was zero pressure to make it super special and romantic.

We started out the day with some heart pancakes and heart shaped bacon. I gave Rylee her gifts from her daddy and I. We got her a cute mermaid doll, book, and cartoons.

I gave Casey his gift of a box of chocolate and a protein shaker the night before because I was so excited I couldn't wait.

And then of course I couldn't resist trying to glam Rylee up for the special day. When I wasnt trying to get her to smile in her tutu, she was rocking some comfy heart leggings with a heart onsie.
Then we ended the night with an amazing dinner. I've recently mastered the art of making skillet fried chicken so we had that on a bed of tomatoes, spinach, and noodles. So delicious! Pair that with a glass of sparking white grape juice and it was pure magic.

But like I said this was the best V day because there was no pressure to buy extravagant gifts or go out to a romantic restaurant. In fact when the few events I just shared werent happening, Casey and Rylee slept most the day and I hung out and watched black and white movies and TV shows.

I hope you all had a great valentines day!

Cloth diapering

I'm so excited to share that Rylee is back in cloth diapers!! We finally had the funds to invest in a pretty good stash of bum genius aio pocket style cloth diapers. We have a total of 15 and I think that is plenty for now. This is our first time using BG so in a few days I will write a review on how they are working for us.

A little about our cloth journey and some tips and info:

Okay, so cloth diapering really isn't that hard. It can be just as easy as disposables if you want it to be-depending on the type of diapers you buy.

I know most worry about the poop thing, hold your hat because we're about to get serious about poo. Ha!

I don't know if your baby is breast fed or formula fed and/or on solids? Rylee is breast fed so her poop is very water based so it comes out in the wash no problem. I'm not sure what formula poop looks like, but if your baby is starting on solids it may have that more regular poo consistency in which case you would have to scrape the turd into the toilet and then put her cloth diaper in the pail. I'm not to that point yet, but I'm sure once I get there it will just be a matter of finding the best routine with diaper changes.

The washing part is super simple. You just throw all the dirty diapers in the washer, rinse them once with warm water, wash with cloth diaper safe detergent, then rinse them twice on warm. You can dry them or hang dry them. The poop doesn't get stuck in the washer or anything. That was my husband's huge freak out.

Washing usually gets any and all stains out, but if you see some staining left you can let them sit in the sun and the sun will take them right out. I sun dry mine all summer.

Okay so moving on to types of diapers. When Rylee was a newborn we used kissaluvs fitted diapers(organic cotton, not water proof) with a cover(water proof layer-no leaking through) that fit size 5-15 pounds. She out grew them in like a month and a half. So for the last few months we've been using luvs until we could afford to buy a new stash.

This time around we wanted something that we could use on her until she was potty trained. So we went with a one size fits all diaper. (5-35 pounds)
We also wanted something that was quick and easy. Note: I hated using her nb fitteds because I would have to snap on the diaper and then snap on the cover and Rylee hated changes at that time so it was torture on both of us.

Anyway we wanted something that resembled disposables for the ease. We went with the Bum Genius AIO (all in one) pocket diapers. This means it looks like a normal diaper(but cloth) but you stuff the inside pocket with a cloth insert to absorb the pee and poop. These you can stuff right after you wash and they are ready to go on baby quick and easy. We bought both Velcro and snap closures.

Rylee is a heavy wetter so we also bought some organic hemp inserts(super absorbent) that you can put in them as well.

Now let's talk prices. Rylee's nb fitted stash was used so I was able to buy 19 fitted cloth diapers, 6 water proof covers, a wet bag(put dirty diapers in like a genie), a smaller wet bag for outings, and detergent for $240.
I wouldn't recommend this option for anyone unless they have the money to spend on continuously sizing up there diapers as the baby grows.

The stash we just bought was 15 all in one, one size Bum Genius pocket cloth diapers, 2 packs of organic hemp inserts, and a quart of detergent for $302. The diapers come with two inserts already so you dont have to spend extra on buying more.

This is the best option in my opinion because it's $300 to diaper your baby for 2+ years and you can use them on any future kids.

If your like me you will probably end up addicted and wanting to buy more as limited edition prints come out. Lol

Best things in life

I just need a mommy love moment. I love being a mom. It's the most amazing and rewarding job in the world. There are hard nights, but the good nights surely out weigh the bad. I love picking up my baby girl in the middle of the night to feed her or cuddle her back to sleep. I love giving her her night time bath, putting her jammies on, reading her stories and nursing her. Our bond is so strong and amazing.

Her smile is contagious. She smiles not only with her mouth, but her eyes and and her whole face. She sparkles!

We got her a jumparoo and she loves the thing so much! She will play in it most of the day. Tonight after her bath, we put her in it and she jumped herself to sleep. When I went to pick her up to put her in bed she started jumping wide awake. Haha Then she jumped herself back to sleep multiple times. We finally put her in her bed after minutes of stomach pain laugher.

It's just fun moments like this among so many others that make me love being a mommy.

4 months

I can't believe Rylee is already 4 months old. She is changing and maturing so much everyday. Some of the milestones she has reached are hilarious and entertaining. One of the things she does now is she grabs her toes. No matter if she is laying down or sitting up, she is reaching for her toes. It's so flipping cute!! The one down side of her toe grabbing is it is impossible to get her to nap. Now I have to put her on her belly to sleep and pat her butt. She also fights her sleep now because she is excited that she is learning new things and she would rather stay up and play. Which has been making this momma run on little sleep.

She also is giggling. Giving her raspberry kisses under her double chin send her straight into the giggles. It's so adorable!! Just the way she laughs and smiles melts us into pieces.

She is still exclusively breastfed, but we're looking forward to starting her on cereal and purees within the next few months. 

She is very tall for her age and we haven't had a recent doctor appointment to see how much she weighs or her height. I am guessing she weighs around 18 pounds now. We did have to size up to size 3's diapers.

She loves to be read to. We go to the library every other week and take home 20 books to read at bedtime and random times throughout the day. She likes to play in her exersaucer but she gets bored with that quickly.

Her favorite thing is just to be engaged. She likes to be talked to in funny voices, tickled, and smooched all over.

Ry Ry we love you so much and love watching you learn and grow.

Xoxo

Date Night

It was our first big night out since Rylee was born four months ago. I was a nervous wreck and I also had to pump for two days to make sure I had enough milk stashed. I hate pumping more than anything and it was almost enough to make me veto going out.

Our really good friends won Monster Jam tickets for Saturday night and they invited us to go along with them. It has been on my bucket list to attend a show since I  was a kid. I've always loved monster trucks! Forever!

My awesome parents and siblings came and baby sat for us so we could go out and have a worry free good time. Ha right! No such thing as worry free night out as a new mom.

We left like two hours early and still managed to barely make it on time. Plus we had to walk in the freezing below zero cold to Ford field from like 4 blocks away. Did I say it was freezing cold? 

We finally found our seats and what would you know we got second row seats! We were right up front on the action and it was awesome!

I'd have to say the best show was when the crustacean hit a jump and landed into a wheely and hit another jump them flipped forward and rolled up into the stands and onto another truck. Best. Of. The. Entire. Night.

There were about seven cars left in the free style show and I found myself ready to get home to my baby. I was really starting to miss her badly at that point. Once the show was finally over we tried to book it through the icy tundra to our car but kept getting stuck behind super slow movers! Once we got to the truck we hit the freeway and hit traffic. Dead. Stop. For ten minutes. Ugh! Momma just wants her baby. Of course she was sleeping when I got home and obvi I didn't want to wake her little butt up. 

I couldn't wait till morning to see that smiling face of hers. 

This little girl has every bit of my heart. 

Xoxo

Valentine's Day shenanigans

Valentine's day shopping for my little love bug! I am so excited for Rylee to rock all of this come February. I don't even care, she will be decked out in red, white and pink all month long. 

My heart is bursting with cuteness overload. Not only because I have the cutest little pudgy face baby, but Old Navy has some of there Valentine's day apparel out! Oh my bursting heart! 

There is a part of me that just wants to be the most festive, crafty and decorative woman/momma out there and then the other part of me finds it incredibly overwhelming to even think about attempting all my pinterest inspirations. No matter how badly I want to. 

However one of my goals as a mom is to blow every holiday out of proportion and go all out and I really think that starts with clothing. You put your baby in a festive color block sweater with a big red heart on the front of it and it amplifies every bit of festive spirit within. 

So here are a few of the pieces my heart is swooning over right now. I mean those baby tights with the heart on the butt??! Come on!!! 

Heres to a New Year

Happy New Year friends and family! I trust you all had a wonderful night out or in. There is nothing more fun than popping the bubbly and getting glitzy! Our New Years was very low key. We were invited to a couple different parties but chose to stay home instead and curl up on the couch and watch movies. We usually go out for the occasion, but didn't feel comfortable going anywhere and driving home and the "drunken hour" especially with such precious cargo. Rylee must have known it was New Years because she wanted to stay up and party with us until midnight. Normally I would have vetoed that, but since it was her first New Years how could I say no??

 

We ended up turning the movies off at 11 and watched the tale end of the New Years show with Carson. Can I just say, I had no idea he was still around. Ha! I think he only comes out of hiding once of year for this show.

 

As always a new year brings new goals, resolutions and new fun! I hate making resolutions because I feel like its just setting yourself up to fail. So when I make my goals and resolutions for the new year, I like to implement it just a few days before so that I feel like its something I can continue doing rather than something to start doing.

 

Here are a few of my resolutions to keep up with in the new year:

 

1. Create a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. I feel like this one is always on my list of things to do but this year it is more important to me than ever. I've been really struggling lately with being happy and content where I am at. I feel like I have back slidden quite a ways down in the last year or so. I know now is the time to get right with God because my heart is literally yearning for it. I want to feel comfortable speaking his name without embarrassment and I want godly friendships that challenge me to grow and be a better person.

 

2. To strengthen my marriage to Casey. Having a baby changes a lot in a marriage. It has strengthened us in ways and hindered us in others. I want to work on implementing a date night for us every other week. I want us to take up a hobby together. I want to talk to him about things besides work and the baby. I want our deep friendship back. I want us to talk in a way that is uplifting and proud.

 

3. To be content and happy with where I am in life.

 

4. To try to see the positive in situations instead of the negative.

 

5. To let go of the past once and for all. I harbor all sorts of feelings of not completing college and becoming successful amongst other things. I need to realize I am successful. I am a wife and mother. Those are the hardest jobs and achievements of all. I am doing exactly what I wanted to do. This was my dream-stay at home wife and mother. Why isn't it enough??

 

I would say that's a good start. This isn't my goals list-that's completely different in its own. I have many many goals. Each area of my life has a different set of them.

 

I hope you all have a safe, happy, healthy, and bountiful new year and that this year may be better than its last.

 

xoxo

Shelbie

Rylee's first Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones. We had so much fun celebrating Rylee's first Christmas! She got lots of presents and actually plays with everything she got. Her favorite toy right now has to be her hedgehog rattle and chicken puppets.

Here is our Christmas in pictures. 

Our week

Merry almost Christmas!

It has been quite the last few weeks here at the Jewell house. Casey caught the flu and had to miss a few days of work. Naturally I started getting it so I got on meds asap and then Rylee caught a cold so she's been on Tylenol. Were all finally starting to feel better thanks be to God because it's almost Christmas!! It would break my heart to miss our first Christmas as a family of three.

Rylee had her 3 month dr visit last week. She is doing so well! She weighs 15 pounds and is 25 1/2 inches tall. She is in the 99th percentile for height!! That's my girl. She is also above average for weight, which isn't unusual since she likes to eat. The Dr was super impressed with her and how much she smiles and talks and how well she can hold her head steady and her upper back muscles. She didn't get her shots because my husband and I have decided to not vaccinate. We have really concrete reasons and personal experiences why we chose this option. It's a choice each parent has to make for there child. Our doctor was very understanding and respectful of our decision. Thanks be to God again because we've all heard those horror stories and I was very nervous about that part of her appointment. Rylee's just hitting milestone after milestone. She now tries to grab stuff and hold it to chew on. I can't wait til she can sit up on her own and we can play together. 

All around a very good doctor appointment.

We also got to spend some time with family for a few days. My youngest brother and sister are only 2 and 4 years older than Rylee so they love to play with her and take baths together, you betcha I got a picture of that. Rylee also had her first piano lesson! My mom has an exact picture of me as a baby sitting with my nana playing the piano and when my nana did the same thing when my daughter I had to get a picture of it. 

I did all my Christmas baking this past weekend to! Rylee joined in for a few cut outs, she could really care less as you can tell. But Momma loved it!

Lastly we did all our Christmas shopping and are officially done! I really wanted to stick with the 4 gift rule with Rylee and I think we did a good job at it. She of course got a stocking to go along with that. 

I can't wait to post about Rylee's first Christmas and all the details and festiveness that comes along with!!

3 months update

Baby girl is three months old today! I love everyday with her. I love watching her grow and learn knew things. Her smile is my favorite thing and that pouty lip is absolutely adorable. 

It took me forever to get her to smile for this picture, as you can see it started out with a pouty lip and then turned into laughing and smiling.

Rylee is weighing in at 15 pounds and a little over 24" tall. She loves being in the water and splashing around during bath time. But if she is too tired for bath time she quickly looses her marbles and that lip gets a going. Usually we can make her happy enough to finish bath time but it becomes a full blown melt down when we lather her with lotion. 

She is always smiling and hardly ever cries. Her big brown eyes light up every time she sees us. We just love her so much!!! I couldn't picture my life without her! 

Happy three months baby girl!!