Boo Hoo

Whoever said "Don't cry over spilled milk" was not a breastfeeding mother. I thought this the other day as I spilled a few precious ounces that I pumped at work. I think I might have even shed a tear.

Happy Easter!

Hadley had a great first Easter! Beautiful weather, a wonderful church service, and lunch with the Skeens! Here are a few pictures of our day!

7 Months!

7 months old - I can hardly believe how fast Hadley is growing up. It doesn’t feel that like long ago we were bringing her home from the hospital. She’s changed sooo much in these 7 months! Here is what she’s been up to lately:

• Weighs 16 lbs 6 oz
• Wearing some 3-6 months and some 6-9 months clothes
• Loves eating solids! I haven’t found any food she doesn’t seem to enjoy. She’s a great little eater! She’s eating solids about 2-3 times a day now, and 3 bottles during the day and one small bottle before bedtime.
• Sits all by herself now, without support! She just started doing this so it’s pretty new to her.
• Loves grabbing at necklaces, earrings, glasses, or anything else “interesting” that someone is wearing.
• Sleeping from around 7:30p to 6:00 or 6:30a.
• Thinks Riley is so funny, especially when he gives her kisses!
• Says “ba-ba-ba” and “da-da-da” and really likes to make fun noises with her voice.
• She rolls everywhere – under the bed, under furniture, gets stuck in corners. She is on the move! She’s showing signs that she might start crawling soon. I’m excited and nervous about that!
• Loves playing with her toys.
• So very sweet and cuddly!
• She reaches now if you reach for her. I love it when she reaches for me ☺
• She has such a good time at daycare and has lots of little friends now. Someone in her class gave all the kids a little Easter bag with bubbles and plastic eggs filled with Cheerios – how cute!

Rolly Poly!

Hadley is such a little rolly poly lately! Gone are the days where we can plop her down in one spot and do something in another room for a few minutes! She can roll from one end of the room to another pretty quick....we've got to keep our eyes on her for sure!

She's also just starting to sit up by herself with no boppy or any support. She will face plant if you aren't watching her too carefully though. She hasn't quite figured out to use her hands/arms for balance. I'm sure she will soon though :)

We had a nice weekend - went to the Dogwood Arts Festival in Market Square, had brunch with some friends Saturday, date with Brandon on Saturday night (thank you mom for watching Hadley!), hit up some open houses Sunday.

We were going to take Hadley to her first Vols game, the Orange and White game Saturday, but it was too cold and windy. We will have to save that for football season! Maybe she will have some hair by then so I can put these adorable orange bows in her hair :)

Last week we had a little incident that is too funny not to tell. Hadley had school pictures last week and I dressed in an adorable pink Polo dress. Well, she peed on her dress during a diaper change before the picture and her "back-up/emergency outfit" apparently wasn't cute enough for pictures, so they put her in another little girls outfit. Brandon picked her up from daycare and she was still in the other girls outfit. We were going to look at 3 houses right after work that day and Brandon had to change her diaper in the back of the car before we went into the first house on the list (I was meeting them there). He told me that that weren't any diapers left in her diaper bag, so I knew we had to make this a speedy outing! We went through all the houses and I noticed that Hadley felt a little damp at house #2. We sped through house #3 and I took Hadley home while Brandon went and picked up dinner. When I got home, I went to change Hadley's diaper immediately. Only to find out the child had NO diaper on!!! So when Brandon said there were no diapers left, he really meant it! I thought he meant he used the last diaper during that change! He did manage to find a disposable liner I use when I change her in a public restroom (think puppy pad folks, thats pretty much what they are!). So poor little Hadley came home in someone else's outfit and without a diaper (well, with her "MacGyver diaper" I should say)....I felt so bad! Had I known she had no diaper on, I would've gone straight home with her. Thank goodness she didn't poop!

Eventful Week!

We had such a busy and great week last week! House showings, full week of work, sick baby, meet 2 newborns, and a great birthday party for Cooper!

We meet Cara and Justin's little boy, Gabe, on Tuesday - he is such a sweet, tiny little thing! I couldn't believe how alert he was during our visit. He's got the most awesome head of hair I've ever seen on a newborn :) Hadley looked gigantic compared to 6 lb 14 ounce Gabe! I'm hoping for a family vacay with the Plummers one summer!

On Sunday, we met Craig and Alee's little boy, Aiden - he was one tuckered out baby during our visit! He too looked SO small compared to Hadley weighing in around 7 lbs! It's crazy to see the different 6 months can make! So excited to see these babies play once they are all mobile.

Hadley loved the little babies! I know they all will be best of buddies one day!

Daycare called us Thursday and said Hadley was running a temperature and was really fussy. My mom was nice enough to go get her and take her home that afternoon. I couldn't get a doctor appointment until Friday morning though. She did not sleep well at all Thursday night. I felt so bad for my little baby! Friday, my Aunt Rita took care of Hadley and took her to the pediatrician. She had a really bad cold, but no fever thankfully. They checked her ears and her earwax was compacted really close to her ear drum and so they had to irrigate her ears. How traumatizing! She did not like this procedure at all, and I'm sort of glad I didn't witness it. I can barely watch her get her shots. She is taking benadryl and sleeping with a cool mist humidifier - she was MUCH better on Saturday. She's such a little trooper :)

On Saturday we went to Cooper's 1st Birthday party. Brandon used to play golf at UT with Andrew, Cooper's dad. Sara Buff did a fantastic job with the golf theme! Everything was perfect and Cooper really enjoyed his cake :)

Workin' Girl

Sorry I haven’t been updating the blog as I should. We’ve been busy, busy, busy! I started a new job last Monday, March 28^th, as Financial Analyst in the External Reporting Group at TVA. Brandon works there too, but we don’t work together. He’s on another floor, so we really have to plan it if we want to see each other.

Going back to work has been difficult for sure. As if going back to work wasn’t enough of a change, I had to attend training Chattanooga for my first 4 days. I wasn’t crazy about Hadley starting daycare at Goddard School while I was out of town, so my dad and stepmom were generous enough to come stay here for the week while I was gone and help Brandon with Hadley. We decided to take her to daycare a few hours each day and build up to a full day for last Friday. Hadley loved spending time with her Nanny and Papaw! She did great at daycare too! She has the greatest teachers and about 5 other babies in her class. They leave notes on everything they did with Hadley during the day (learning activities, baby signs they are teaching her, nap times, eating times, dirty diapers, and a memorable moment from the day). It’s definitely been an adjustment – for the last 6 months I’ve been loving on Hadley 24/7, wearing sweats, and had time to cook and clean and shop. Now I’ve got to get up at the crack of dawn and get myself and Hadley ready, pack her bag, and get us to daycare and work at a decent time. It’s crazy here in the morning, haha! By the time I get home, play with Hadley, get her to bed, sterilize her bottles and prepare her bottles and food for the next day, it’s 9:00 pm and I’m ready for bed! And I’ve definitely had to get used to wearing heels again! It is so nice to go pick up a happy, smiling baby at the end of the day though. If she weren’t happy at the end of the day, this would be so much more difficult! I totally have a whole new level of respect for working moms!!! I miss my Hadley during the day, but I am blessed to have been able to spend 6 wonderful months with her.

Hadley had her 6 month check up last week. She weighed 15 lbs 13 oz (49%) and was almost 26 inches long (52%). She had always been in the 80-90% range so Brandon and I were a little concerned at the drop in her stats, but the doctor said that is normal for babies to sort of level off and not grow as rapidly at this age. She is a great eater, so I’m not too worried. She was perfectly healthy and did a great job with her 2 shots she received that day!

Also last week, 2 of Hadley’s friends were born! Gabe Plummer and Aiden Strand! We met Gabe this week – what a CUTIE PIE! He’s got the most awesome head of hair I’ve ever seen on a baby! We are going to meet Aiden this weekend and I can hardly wait! I’ll post some pictures of Hadley and her buds this weekend!

We had an open house this past Sunday at our house, a showing on Wednesday night, and another one scheduled this weekend. We’ve gotten some really great feedback on our house! Fingers crossed!

So glad tomorrow is Friday – TGIF!