Friday, October 29, 2010

Yes, I'm About to Rant

I got to thinking about all the things people tell you when your pregnant and how it only gets worse after your baby is born.  Although helpful advice is always welcomed, I've gotten increasingly agitated with the "myths" (as I see them) people love to throw in your face.  I'm not claiming to know about these topics, I just know what I believe and what works for us.  I thought I'd rant about a few of them...

1.  "You're spoiling her by holding her too much" - ok this one REALLY irks me!  I in no way believe that holding an infant can spoil them, and what kind of crazy person would believe something like that?!  If anything it shows that you LOVE them, you're there for them, you'll protect them and keep them safe.  Why in the world would you want to deprive your child of that?  I hold Peyton used to hold Peyton all the time (except when she was playing of course).  Now she's so busy rolling and playing and trying to crawl, she doesn't have time for me to cuddle with her unless she's sleepy or we're around people! 

2.  "You just have to let them cry it out" or "If you go to them, you're letting them win"- Now I know some people swear by the CIO method, but I am not one of those people.  I will let Peyton fuss and do some light crying without going in her room, or go in and pat her and then leave, but when she starts full on screaming and crying I refuse to let her just lay there and scream until she passes out from exhaustion.  I fully believe that if a baby is crying (I mean really crying, not whining or fussing), they NEED something.  That's the only method they have of letting you know that they don't feel good, are in pain, are scared, hungry, etc...  I don't believe that by going in her room and consoling her, I'm "giving in" or "letting her win".  Letting her win????  She's 6 months old!!

3.  "She should be sleeping through the night by 6 months!" - First of all "sleeping through the night" is actually defined as 5-6 straight hours of sleep.  We've been very lucky that Peyton has been doing that since she was 8 weeks old.  She generally wakes once to eat and goes right back to sleep.  With that being said, there is always something that pops up to throw a wrench in this, ie: teething, learning to roll, learning to crawl (which we're going through right now), etc...  Even though we have been relatively lucky in the sleep department (MOST of the time), I would never condemn another parent because their baby wakes more than mine.  I hate that people try to make you feel like you're a bad parent because your baby wakes up.  I found an interesting blog and I really liked this one part.  It's called Secrets of Baby Behavior

"Good Parenting and Sleeping Through the NightWe've noticed that parents whose babies sleep through the night sometimes are seen as the "good parents" who don't spoil their children versus parents who are still getting up as "indulgent" or "giving in" to their unreasonable babies. While parents do have a lot of influence on how much or how little their babies sleep, the truth is that babies wake up for lots of reasons, many of which are not under their parents' control. Some babies are very sensitive to changes in stimulation or the discomforts of teething. Others are driven to practice crawling and standing or are fearful of sounds in the dark. Efforts to get these babies to sleep through the night might work, but only for a short time. Now, I'm not trying to tell you that your baby will never sleep through the night! Babies do sleep! The problem is in the belief that you can force a baby to sleep the way you do.

Sleep "Training" versus Understanding Infant Sleep
Some of the sleep training methods require that babies be put in their cribs and left to cry for ever lengthening periods of time. This is very stressful for parents and babies. While these systems might work for a few nights, many parents find that they have to do the "training" over and over again. Bedtime becomes a battle for weeks on end until one day, the baby starts sleeping longer and parents congratulate themselves that the training finally worked. But the baby is also several weeks older and most older babies will sleep for long stretches if their parents don't interfere. From our perspective, understanding how infants sleep and why they wake can go a long way in helping parents cope with their babies' nighttime behavior."
This week is one of those weeks where Peyton isn't doing so hot in the sleep department.  Last night was sooo much better than Wed. night, but around 3am I heard her fussing and I looked at the monitor and she was up on all 4's rocking back and forth "practicing" her crawling LOL.  As tired as I was, I couldn't help but get tickled.  When she'd fall she'd get mad and start fussing, then right back up on all 4's! 

Whew, I feel better now!  I've had a lot of these statements thrown my way in the past few months, and I'm pretty sure other new Mom's (or experienced Mom's) have at some point in time as well.  I'd love to hear some other "smart" comments you've heard!  Thanks for reading this far!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

It's Starting

A lot of things have "started" this week already...and it's only Wednesday.

Peyton has started her attempt at crawling (more than an attempt if you ask me).  I'm not sure if I'm ready for this, it's happening so fast!  She gets up on hands and knees, rocks back and forth, puts 1 hand and knee forward, then the other hand and knee, then she crashes.  I see it coming in the next few weeks...she'll be all over the place.  All she wants to do is be on the floor practicing lately! 

Peyton has also started sitting up completely unsupported for longer than a minute or 2.  Stage 2 foods, here we come. 

We have started PACKING...finally.  It hit me that we have about 4 weeks before we move.  That's not a long time at all, especially with Thanksgiving coming up!  I worked on the living room last night and got all of our decorations boxed up and all of our decorations and pictures in the dining room packed up.  Edwin's at home this afternoon working on the kitchen.  We're just leaving out the bare minimum, and everything else is going in boxes!  We'd like to start taking boxes over to the new house and storing them in one of the empty rooms so we're not crawling over boxes for the next few weeks. 

Monday, October 25, 2010

Halloween Fiesta!

Saturday night we left Peyton over night for the first time ever.  It was so hard to leave her, but it was nice to have a night out with adults too.  Our friends had their annual Halloween party and let me tell you they NEVER disappoint.  They do it up right every single year!  Edwin and I went as a 50's greaser and a pin up.  We had so. much. fun!  It had been a long time since I had partied like that (14 months to be exact) and I know I couldn't survive nights like that more than once a year!  Here are a few pics from the night, and the stories...well they don't need to be told lol.  They're just for the friends that were there...sorry readers!

The boys...

Thanks for the bunny ears Dr. Vardy

I love my Nicole!

And my husband :)

2 of my favorites!


Thursday, October 21, 2010

Bored

I'm officially bored with my hair, but I think I've finally decided what to do.  My options for a cut are limited since I'm still growing it out.  I want it to be below my shoulders when it's curly.  For those that don't have naturally curly hair...it takes FOREVER.  So I have to keep my longer layers because that's the best style for my hair when it's straight or curly.  I'm going to get my side bangs cut since they're so long I can put them behind my ear now...kinda defeats the purpose of a bang.  I think I've picked out the color I want for my hair too.  It's close to how I had it in college.  It's a deeper red/brown color.  I feel like my color is just "blah" right now and I'm tired of the same old highlights.  So we'll see how it turns out!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Things are Ah-Changin'

I was just sitting here realizing how much Peyton has changed just in the past month and how much our life has, and continues, to change. 

Peyton is 5 1/2 months now and it seems like over night she has grown and learned so much.  Like I've said before, she's rolling both ways all. the. time now.  We can't keep the child still.  She loves me to hold her hands so she can stand up like a big girl or pull her up from laying on her back to standing up.  She gets this huge grin on her face like she's saying "Look what I did, Mommy!  I'm so grown up".  She's sitting up for longer and longer periods now.  She can go several minutes on her own now and she's figured out how to lean forward, put her hands down, get on 1 knee....then as she pulls the other knee under her she collapses and starts to do the worm (as we like to call it) and scoots across the floor.  I have a very strong feeling we will have an early crawler on our hands.  She's been sitting front facing in her stroller for a while now and can now sit in a shopping cart on her own.  When did all this happen?!  In the past few weeks she has learned how to scrunch her nose up, and she does it constantly.  She's such a talker (wonder where she got that from) and must be in the middle of everything.  She's so active and gets bored easily.  We try to make sure we have things planned to do every weekend, or save all of our errands for the weekend, so she can get out of the house and experience as much as possible. 

Monday evening I spent packing away more of Peyton's clothes and a few other things like her bouncy seat and infant swing.  I have no idea why it's always so emotional for me when I have to pack away another size, it's almost embarrassing!  I guess it hits me that she'll NEVER be able to wear those clothes ever again and I realize how fast she's growing.  I packed away pretty much all of her 3 month clothes and all of her Summer clothes...and let me tell you, she had a LOT of 3 month clothes!  She has a good selection of 6 month fall/winter clothes and pj's but when I got to her 9 month clothes....nothing!  I'm not exactly sure how this happened?!  She has a few 6-12 month things, but very few, and 3 sets of pj's that are 6-9 month.  That's it.  I guess I was too busy concentrating on 6 months when I went shopping for fall/winter clothes.  9 months seemed so far away at the time!  So I'm going to try and hit some sales in the next few weeks, and definitely put 9 month clothes on Peyton's Christmas list! 

Another huge change is that we're moving in about 6 weeks.  I've done absolutely nothing to prepare for the move.  I'm not sure why, since I have so much free time these days (riiiight).  I couldn't be more excited about moving into a bigger and nicer house.  We'll have so much more space and tons of storage space, not to mention a good chunk of land for Peyton to run around and play when she's a little older.  We'll be right next to my parents, perfect since my Mom keeps Peyton , and across the street from some good friends of ours.  But I can't help feeling some sadness.  We've been in this house for almost 5 years.  It was our first home together after we got married.  We spent so much time doing our own home renovations and upgrades, saving every penny so we could do things on our own.  We spent months working on Peyton's nursery and getting everything just perfect.  This was Peyton's first home, the place we brought her home from the hospital to...I tear up just thinking about it.  BUT then I think about our little hole in the wall bathroom that only 1person can fit it, the fact that you can't run ANY water if you're taking a shower, the minuscule amount of storage space, the AWESOME master suite we're about to have, no more city taxes, and the list goes on.  It's a huge life change for us, but a great one.  We'll always cherish the time we spent in this house and the memories that we made there. 

Sorry for droning on and on, I promise not to bore you (as much) next time! 

Monday, October 18, 2010

BUSY Weekend

Wow we had a busy weekend, but it was so much fun!  Friday we made a Target run when I got off work and got some takeout from Kiko Japan (yummy) then watched the new  Nightmare on Elm Street once Peyton went to bed...to get in the Halloween spirit of course.  It was...ehhhhh. 
Saturday we went to Vollmer Farms to get some pumpkins.  We had so. much. fun!  I love doing things like this now that we have Peyton.  Like I've said before, it's like experiencing things for the 1st time all over again with her!  She was amazed with all the bright orange pumpkins, kids, and of course shadows.  Shadows are her new favorite thing...she loves watching them and squealing at them lol.  Here are a few pics from the farm....




After Peyton's afternoon nap, we headed off to our friends surprise birthday party.  I was a little wary of taking Peyton since it didn't start until 6pm and she wasn't showing up until 6:30pm.  She had been a little fussy all afternoon and I could tell her teeth were really bothering her.  But, we decided to try it out and she was the life of the party until about 6:45pm and then came the meltdown of all meltdowns!  I didn't even know what to do because it wasn't like her AT ALL.  I can't remember the last time she screamed that loud for that long!  Poor girl was exhausted, in pain, and just wanted to go home.  So we took her home and the second she was in her pj's and the lights were out she snuggled against me and was out like a light. 
She was all smiles (as usual) when she woke up Sunday morning.  We decided to FINALLY go back to church.  We hadn't been since July!  It's just a difficult time for us since Peyton goes down for her nap right in the middle of the service, and as noted above she doesn't do well when she gets exhausted!  But she napped a little later Sunday morning, so she didn't need to go down for her 2nd nap until right after church.  I left her in the nursery for the 1st time ever, and I just knew they were going to have to come get me.  But no one did!  When I picked her up they told me she definitely wanted Mommy and cried, but they were able to calm her down.  She was happy, playing on the floor when I got there.  I'm sure she'll cry the next few times, but she'll get used to it and everyone there.  She's generally a really happy girl, but she gets a little overwhelmed around a lot of "strangers"....especially if Mommy isn't there.  She's fine with most anyone and everything as long as she's in Mommy's arms.  Then Peyton took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap and we made a family trip to Food Lion.  Peyton sat in the grocery cart with her cart cover for the very first time, and she loved it!  She was so amazed at everything.  She even got to see her buddy Eden :)  After the grocery store we headed to my parents house for some good home cooking and to meet with my Uncle to find out when we can move into our NEW HOUSE!  We move in December 1st, woo hoo!  Sooo much to do in 6 weeks, but we couldn't be more excited that we'll be in the new house in time for Christmas. 

If you know me, you know I decorate for Christmas the beginning of November...so that will be hard.  But we can start going over and working on the yard and cleaning room by room in the next week or so.  I do plan on putting up at least a wreath and some garland before Thanksgiving, so we'll have some decorations up when we move in lol.  I know it's crazy, but I L-O-V-E Christmas.  It's the most wonderful time of the year after all.  So I'm super happy we'll get to have our tree and lights up for over a month so Peyton can enjoy them! 

So it was a busy, fun filled weekend.  Next weekend will the big Halloween party, and the first time we've ever left Peyton over night....to be continued!

Friday, October 15, 2010

The Next Few Weeks

The next few weeks are going to be very busy, and very fun!  We have parties, family events, Halloween, house stuff, the list goes on and on.  I'll start with this weekend...

I'm so excited, we're taking Peyton to the pumpkin patch tomorrow morning.  We were going to go to Hillridge Farms, but after talking to Hannah, we decided to try out Vollmer Farm.  It's much closer to us and since Peyton's still so young, closer is better.  I can't wait to take her.  I've always loved doing little family things like this and everything is so much more fun now that we have Peyton.  It's like I get to experience everything for the 1st time all over again!  Saturday evening we have a get together to go to, we won't be able to stay long since it starts later in the evening but we'll go for an hour or so.  Then Sunday we don't have too many plans.  We've got to do some major house cleaning and de-cluttering in case we have anyone that wants to come look at the house.  We have 2 people interested in our house, that should be contacting us in the next few days.  I haven't announced it officially yet, but we're MOVING!  We're staying in the same town, we just need more space.  So we're moving to a bigger house, and we couldn't be more excited.  Sunday evening we're sitting down and talking about a move in date. 
**It's my Uncle's house, but he lives at the beach full time now so he decided to sell it.  He still has lots of furniture and stuff in the house and we're meeting with him Sunday to hopefully agree on a move in date before Edwin's work schedule gets insane and holidays get here.**

NEXT weekend we're going to an awesome Halloween party.  Some friends of ours have this party every year, and it never disappoints.  They do it up right!  This will be our first night away from Peyton (overnight), and I'm a little anxious about it.  I know she'll be fine, it's me I'm worried about!  But it will be good for us to go out with friends and let loose for a night.  Edwin is going to be a 50's greaser and I'm going as a pin up :) 

The FOLLOWING weekend is HALLOWEEN!!!  Peyton's 1st Halloween, I can't wait!  We'll probably take her to the fall festival at my parent's church that Friday night.  They do "trunk or treat" and have lots of fun activities.  Then Sunday my little munchkin will get to wear her awesome strawberry costume and go trick or treating...OK she's not really going trick or treating, but we will go out and pretend to trick or treat! 

So those are our next few weekends.  Soooo exciting!  In between all of that we'll be cleaning, boxing things up, throwing things away, etc....  Lots of excitement in the Killette household these days! 

Monday, October 11, 2010

Weekend Plans

What a great weekend!  Not that it was anything super exciting, but it was great nonetheless.  Saturday morning we got up and ran some errands, came home, and Peyton went down for her afternoon nap.  We had plans to go to Greenville for a friends baby shower/ housewarming party that afternoon, and the shower started at 3pm.  Well Miss Peyton was doing some hardcore napping, and I wasn't about to wake her up.  Sleepy head finally woke up around 3:10pm, so we changed her and hit the road.  We missed the baby shower, but we made it there for the cook out and housewarming part.  Peyton was her usual charming self, laughing and babbling at everyone and everything.  There were lots of older kids there, and of course she was intrigued by them the entire time.  It was great to see our friends, it had been years!  I'm always so excited when I have friends that are expecting their 1st baby.  Now that I know exactly what they're feeling and thinking, it makes everything so much more fun.  Peyton made it until about 6:30pm, when she started getting sleepy and a little fussy, so we decided it was time to hit the road.  She slept in the car for about 45 mins, then laughed and talked the rest of the ride, and crashed as soon as she had her pj's on and her head hit the bed!

Sunday we went to Babies R Us to get formula (it was 30% off, woo hoo), but "somehow" we walked out of the store with a Baby Einstein jumper.... 

We already have an exersaucer AND  a doorway jumper, but Daddy just knew we needed a stand alone jumper as well (since she likes the one at Nonnie's so much).  Yup, she has him wrapped around her little finger already!  We also got her an adorable fleece hat and mitten set, so she can get ready for the cold weather!
We came back home and  when Peyton went down for her nap, Mommy got to go out by herself :)  I just ran to Kirkland's and Blockbuster, but it was some alone time I really needed since Edwin has been working SO much lately and I feel like a single Mommy most days.  I really wanted to look for some good deals for some house decorations for our new house (more details to come later), and I definitely found some!  After her nap, we ran to Nonnie's for a few minutes then came back home for one more short nap.  *It's an unwritten rule in our house that Peyton MUST sleep at least 1 1/2 hours for her afternoon nap, otherwise she'll never make it until bedtime without a 3rd short nap.  Daddy must have "forgotten" this rule (probably since Mommy does all naptimes and bedtimes) and let her get up after 45 mins just because "she didn't want to sleep anymore"*  So after a short 45 min nap, we went on our evening walk, came back for dinner and some play time, then the munchkin crashed by 6:30pm. 

Once she was in bed, the hubby and I watched "Splice".  I have to say, I wasn't really a fan.  It was more disturbing (in a gross way) than anything else.  So that was our not so exciting, but wonderful weekend!  It went by WAY too fast...and now I'm attempting to tackle Monday :(

Friday, October 8, 2010

Oh My, She's MOBILE....

Well, sort of.  As I mentioned earlier, Peyton is rolling over in both directions like a champ now.  I put her in the middle of the bed this morning so I could change clothes before work.  I watched her as she barrel rolled across the bed...back, tummy, back, tummy!  I guess there's no more laying her down to do a few quick things!  Thank goodness for exersaucers and doorway jumpers.  I have a feeling we're going to have an early crawler on our hands.  Christmas should be interesting this year!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

5 Months Old!

I can't believe it, my baby girl is 5 months old today!  It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital...I know people always say that, but it's true!  She's really becoming such a little person and is FULL of personality. 

She's most definitely a talker (wonder where she gets that from lol).  She likes to be up and moving constantly...no sitting still for this little girl.  She's riding front facing in her stroller now like a big girl, and she loves it.  I have to be careful because she grabs everything we walk by in stores and tries to put it in her mouth.  Speaking of putting things in her mouth, her new favorites are my cell phone, our remotes, and....her feet!  The feet of her footie pj's are always wet in the mornings. 

She loves talking to people, but we have noticed that she tends to prefer women over men.  She's definitely a Mama's girl and is a little wary of people that come on too strong or get in her face.  However, if we're out shopping she talks to EVERY SINGLE PERSON that walks by.  It's so funny.  She gets an offended look on her face when people ignore her comments too.  She loves shopping just like her Mommy :)  She also loves our animals...all of them!  If they walk by she gets excited and squeals and reaches for them.  Matty has always been protective of her and she lets her pull her fur and ears and sits there like a champ.  Our cat Marshmallow loves rubbing up against her and our pug Otis loves any kind of attention!

She's finally rolling from front to back and back to front, which is making Mommy's nights much easier since I don't have to constantly flip her back to her tummy.  She has just started sitting up on her own for about a minute at a time!  Her first 2 teeth are going to come through soon.  I can see the outline of them about to break through the top of her gums, and a small corner has already started. 

She goes to bed super early, which can make it difficult to do things in the evening.  We never go out to dinner anymore and we can't attend our small group now, but it's what's right for her.  I refuse to keep her out and tired just so I can do something I want to do.  I'm sure her sleep time will change at some point, but for now it's between 6pm and 6:30pm. 

I really don't know what we did before we had her, she's our whole world now and we're so blessed to have her in our lives!  I love her more and more every single day!