Happy First Birthday Ida!!!

This pretty little lady is 1!!

Newborn

1 Month

2 Month

3 Month

4 Month

5 Month

6 Month

7 Month

8 Month

9 Month

10 Month

11 Month

1 Year!

We had a great birthday party! We got Ida balloons and she loved them! She spent the day grabbing as many of the strings as she could then she would just carry them around the house everywhere she went.

I did a ladybug theme and I think the cake turned out pretty cute! I like to try and design the cake so when you look at it as a whole the cake all fits together but then has a removable item, (in this case the ladybug) that you remove for the cake smash!

Ida enjoyed opening all her presents. When she got this little doll she immediately kissed it. It was so cute! 

Ida didn't really dig right into her cake and make a mess. She definitely enjoyed eating the cake. And ate A LOT of it. But kept fairly clean in the process. :)

All in all we had a great birthday! Thank you to all that came! Ida is still just a tiny little thing. At her 1 year appointment she was 16 lbs and 27 inches tall. Which means in her first year she gained 8 lbs 13 oz and grew 6 3/4 inches. She is still in size 2 diapers. (Probably will be for awhile) Wearing 6-9 month clothes. (Which I just switched out like a week ago) And size 2 shoes. The problem we are having with Ida's shoes right now is finding shoes that aren't too big around on her foot. Length wise they fit her but they are huge everywhere else. Ida's hair still hasn't grown much. :( Makes me sad because I just want pig tails! It is growing some but it is still so fine and baby hair like that you can't do anything with it... Someday... She does surprisingly still keep headbands in pretty well though! Which has made me happy. As long as you distract her right after putting it in she usually leaves it alone. Her eyes look like they may be blue... But they still have a lot of grey in them and a kind of light brown around the iris. So I'm not sure. I'd like if she had blue eyes like her daddy and dark brown hair!

This past month with Ida has been so fun watching her personality really start to bloom. Her favorite thing to do right now when she wants something is to point and say "eh, eh, eh" over and over until she has it. Also Jacob and Ida have been interacting so much more! Jacob actually seeks Ida out to try to play with her and Ida doesn't just scream every time he comes close to her. She still does if she isn't in a very good mood. But I've actually caught them a few times playing and Jacob is actually making her laugh. It's the cutest thing and I love it! I love when they play together and it's happening more and more every day! This little girl has quite the personality. She is seriously the biggest goof ball and LOVES making people laugh! She has also started getting into a lot more things... Like dog food...

Ida started walking about a week and a half before she turned one. She still falls a lot! And crawling is still faster. But she is getting pretty good! She has wanted to for so long and finally the ability has caught up with her desire! Which means my prediction came true. If only by 3 weeks it still came true. I had predicted that Ida would start crawling after Jacob did but would walk before he did.

Ida has fallen down the stairs more this past month then when she was actually learned how to go down the stairs! She's seriously fallen down them like 4 or 5 times! I think her problem is she's getting to comfortable on them and starts doing things she shouldn't and then falls. She really likes to climb up a few steps just turn around, sit and play. Hence the reason she may keep falling. 

Ida is a great eater and I hope it always continues! It's so much nicer to deal with a baby that eats almost everything vs a baby that eats almost nothing! She hasn't really picked up signing yet. She will do all done. Most of the time only if prompted. I'm sure she will catch on soon though! She does nod and shake her head. And it's the cutest because when she nods she doesn't just nod her head. She nods with her whole body!

Sleeping on the other hand.... Not been so great. For the past few weeks Ida has become a terrible sleeper. Ok... Maybe not so much sleeper. But going to sleeper. For some reason if I just lay her down and then leave the room she just screams and screams and screams. She just will not settle down. And believe me. I've tried to just let her cry it out. But this little girl is not the cry it out type. Most like I'll just scream louder and longer type. The only way I can get her to go to sleep is if I stand or sit by the crib until she falls asleep. Which sometimes isn't terrible when it takes her like 3 minutes to fall asleep. But gets really annoying when it takes like 30 minutes to fall asleep. The whole time I stand there waiting this internal battle is going on in my head saying, "This is the worst habit ever I need to stop." and "It's ok, it's just a phase... It's just a phase..." Just recently it has seemed to be getting a little better. She will fall asleep on her own every once in while. Usually when it's going to bed. But I hope it ends soon! Good thing she is a little cutie and we wouldn't trade her in for anything! :) Love you Ida! Happy Birthday!!!

11 Months

I can not believe in one month this little girl is going to be a year old! How does time go so fast!! She is now 16 lbs and 27 inches tall. Her hair has started growing although it's so light colored and fine you still have a hard time seeing it. She is still wearing 6 month cloths although I think before she's a year old she'll be up to 6/9 month. She is also still wearing size 2 diapers.

This girl is becoming quite the little firecracker. She hit a mental developmental jump just a few days ago and now thinks she needs to state her opinion if something isn't to her liking. Especially when it comes to Jacob. If she doesn't want him around her she gets upset and starts yelling and crying. Especially if he comes between me and her. She also has starting looking at books and
pointing to the pictures. It's the cutest! She also gets really mad if you are trying to keep her from touching something and she wants to be touching that something. She also likes to complain to you if you do something to her that she doesn't like. And her face is so cute! She scrunches up her face, closes her eyes and purses her lips. I have a hard time not laughing when she's complaining to me. She is also a little goof ball. She does the funniest things and loves getting reactions out of people. If you laugh... She keeps performing. She has also become quite the chatter box and just loves making noise all day long.

Ida is going to be walking before a year I'm pretty positive. She really wants to walk and loves standing on her own more and more every day.
She took her first step just over a week ago and now will take up to 3 steps while keeping her balance. She has even walked a few steps then stopped and remained standing. She just really has a lot of motivation to walk. As soon as she gets better with the balance she is going to be off! About 5 days ago she walked from the recliner to the couch (about 3 steps) all by herself. The first step was very controlled... The other two may have been more of a fall stepping. But she did it with no one around her which is a big step! She also loves pushing around the walker as long as she has someone to turn it around for her when she reaches the end of the room.

Ida has started signing all done, nodding and shaking her head and waving. I'm still not sure if she knows what nodding and shaking her head mean... But she likes to do it when you ask her questions. She hasn't started signing any other words yet but we keep working with her. One of Ida's favorite things to do right now is pull all the books off the shelf. She can open cupboards but isn't super interested in them so doesn't spend a lot of time pulling things out of them. She hasn't discovered that there is water in the toilet yet or how to open the lid and I'm trying to keep it that way as long as possible. Although she has discovered how much fun pulling all the toilet paper off the roll is.....

She also loves throwing all the bath toys from their bin back into the tub. A couple other things she really likes right now is playing with velcro (this means Jacob's shoes mostly) and being chased. Especially up the stairs. She is starting to catch on to not wanting to be caught. She also really loves to eat paper.... I hate it. It's like she seeks it out and it goes straight to her mouth every time. Also her word comprehension has really started to expand. She know who mom, dad, Jacob and Cricket are. As well as a bunch of other words that she shakes or nods her head to... Again... I don't really know if she understands what she is doing.....

Tiny mouth

I have officially stopped breastfeeding. I stopped shortly after Ida turned 10 months because I just wasn't producing milk anymore. The transition to formula full time was a not a smooth one. Ida was already so hit and miss with it. And shortly after I started she decided she wasn't going to drink it at all anymore. We prob threw away a whole container of formula because she wouldn't drink it. It was very frustrating. Fortunately this only lasted about a week and now she is drinking it very well. She's drinking 13-15 oz a day which I think is a little low... But we take whatever we can get. Currently I give her 4 oz in the morning and 3 oz before lunch, before dinner and then before she goes to bed. She is pretty much eating everything now. We started her on peanut butter and honey sandwiches and she is loving them. She's also been drinking whole milk here and there from Jacob's left overs. Getting her to eat veggies is pretty difficult but I keep trying.

 When dad's in charge of pajamas...

Ida does not do well with teething... Especially her sleeping. Although she currently doesn't have any more teeth, her top two teeth will soon be breaking through. They are swollen, red and bulging. Off and on she will randomly wake up during the night and not go back to sleep anywhere from 1 to 3 hours and all she wants to do is cuddle. Not ideal for me.... Other than when she is teething she is sleeping through the night and it's great! It's really cute because when she is tired or going to sleep she likes to stick or finger or thumb in her pacifier while she sucks on it. But... If you are trying to give her her pacifier when she wants something else that is not ok. She just throws it. She's done that for awhile now. Ida is going to bed around 8:30 and getting up around 7:30. She is taking two naps a day. Her first nap is at 11 am and her second nap is around 3 to 4 pm.

24 Weeks

At my 24 week appointment today I talked to Heather (my midwife) about my groin/hip pain thing. She recommended me to a chiropractor, Dr. Bench, and we are going to see if we can get this pain to go away. I would have to say I'm kind of skeptical of chiropractor's and I don't really think it's going to help.... I would LOVE for him to prove me wrong though. I guess we'll see. I went for my first appointment today and he recommended I get a hip support belt. So I will start wearing that, especially while exercising, and see if we can get this pelvic floor pain under control!

24 Weeks

Date: February 3, 2016

How far along? 24 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I am up 19 pounds. I'm calling this my pregnancy of weight gain. It's like it just wont stop! I'm especially noticing it in my back and love handles....

Maternity clothes? I am wearing all maternity clothes. And I don't know when it is but nothing is comfortable! I feel like my maternity clothes don't even fit right.... The only comfortable thing to wear is my yoga pants and a loose shirt. 

Sleep: As of about a week ago my groin/hip pain has decided to hit full force. I'm currently contemplating if I'm going to switch to the bean bag soon so it doesn't hurt so much when I sleep. I feel like I wake up multiple times a night just to turn over because it hurts so much and I have to turn so carefully so as to not make it hurt worse.

Movement: I'm noticing the baby movements a lot more lately! Either I've just been paying attention more or the kicks are just getting more strong so they are just more noticeable. I always find it fun to feel the baby move but something I wonder what the heck the baby is doing. Some of the movements are so fast and sporadic... It's like the baby is just spazing. I wish I could see a video into my womb at all times so I could see how the baby was moving.

Feeling sick? I am pretty much over feeling sick ever! It is the BEST thing ever! I could definitely get used to pregnancies like this....

Other pregnancy symptoms? Hip/ groin pain.... Sometimes I wonder if exercising on a regular basis is really worth it.... I feel like it just puts me in so much more pain. I am going to go to a chiropractor and maybe a physical therapist to see if they can help. I also get heart burn if I eat too much or I eat to soon before going to bed. And I can't eat very much or else I feel sooo full and it is so beyond uncomfortable.... Another symptom that I have that I had with Ida was razor burn... I get so itchy every time I shave! That's about all the symptoms I have right now. Oh ya... I also feel like I'm starting to waddle already. But I feel like it's because of the groin pain not because of my size.

Have you started to show yet? I. Feel. Huge..... I don't know why. But I just feel so big. Like I'm going to get a million stretch marks. And I'm only 24 weeks! I still have a long way to go.....

Gender prediction: I'm still saying boy although I really don't know. Maybe I'm just saying boy because I want it to be a girl so that way if it is a boy I'm not disappointed because I had mentally prepared myself for a boy. Scott said he thought it was a boy too the other day. But it's because he feels like the ultrasound tech gave it away during our 20 week ultrasound. She told us she didn't even see if it was a boy or a girl, but he doesn't believe her. So I guess we'll see...

20 Weeks

We had the 20 week ultrasound today and here is our little bundle of joy.

Out of all the ultrasounds I think this little babe moved the most! It always surprises me to see how much they move inside without me being able to feel. During the whole thing I only felt a few kicks but the babe was sure moving around a lot! Everything is looking great for baby #3! The babe is 13 ounces currently, which is just an ounce bigger than Ida was. And all the measurements are in the 45th to 65th percentile. The babe is also in heads down position which is what we like! Although I know right now he's moving around all over the place.

My progression pictures for the first half of my pregnancy

Date: January 6, 2016

How far along? 20 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I am up 14 pounds. Which is 4 pounds more than my other pregnancies. I'm trying not to let myself be discouraged but when I gain 4 pounds in one week it gets frustrating. Especially since I haven't been over eating. Although we did just get through the holidays so maybe now things will slow down. So I've pretty much gained 8 pounds in the last 4 weeks.

Maternity clothes? I pulled out my maternity shirts just this past week. They are a lot more comfortable than my regular shirts. Plus the change in wardrobe is always nice. :) I haven't needed to pull out my pants yet.

Sleep: I haven't been very good at getting to bed at decent times the past week so I'm feeling pretty tired these days. I'm still sleeping good though when I do sleep. I really need to discipline myself and get to bed at a decent time.

Movement: I first saw the little babe move at 17 weeks. It was just a little tiny kick. It was still really light so feeling the movement externally was still pretty tough.

Here is a video of the babe kicking around 17 weeks.

You can see the kick around 5 seconds on the left/top side.

The babe got a couple really good kicks a couple days after 17 weeks and Scott was able to feel him. Now he's moving pretty regularly. At least daily. He probably moves more than I recognize because I'm not really paying attention. At night though before I go to bed I can usually feel him move.

Feeling sick? I have been feeling really great! Sometimes in the evenings I feel sick but it's not daily. I do have some bad days very sparsely that I feel slightly nauseous throughout the day. I really can't complain though cuz I feel really good!

Other pregnancy symptoms? My hip/groin pain is starting to bother me more. Especially if I've been really active that day. But I'm really trying to keep up with exercising regularly this pregnancy regardless of the pain. Sometimes at night if I sleep on one side for too long than it hurts as well. I also get heartburn pretty bad at night if I'm active after I eat. If I'm planning on working out I try to eat a very light dinner then eat more after I'm done working out. My biggest pain right now would have to be gas. At night I get so gassy and my stomach just feels like it's going to explode. It is so uncomfortable and tight. I'm not loving it. I've tried eating less and that doesn't seem to help. So I've just been taking gas-x when it gets really bad.

Have you started to show yet? I am showing. I feel like I really popped like a week ago. But around 17 weeks I think I crossed the threshold for just looking fat to actually looking pregnant. I feel really big although I'm not really that big. I feel like I shouldn't be looking this big for only being 20 weeks. But when I compare my pics with my last pregnancy I don't think I look that much bigger.

20 Weeks w/ Ida

Currently 20 weeks

Gender prediction: We stuck to our guns about not finding out the gender. Now the ultrasound has passed and we no longer have a choice! The ultrasound technician wasn't even sure what we were having. I really have no idea what we are going to have. I'm still leaning towards boy because I feel like my emotional state with this pregnancy has been a lot more similar to Jacob. But that could just be because of the situation we are in as well. So I don't know. Everyone thinks we are having a girl. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that has even thought it was a boy. Everyone else I talk to says girl. Only time will tell! Maybe I should start trying those old wives tales for figuring out the gender....

10 Months

Two bottom teeth!

10 months and Ida is starting to put on weight again! She has gained a pound this past month and is now 14 lbs 13 oz and still 26 3/4 inch tall. So she's starting to get some of those fat rolls back. I can't believe in 2 months she is going to be a year old. It goes so fast... I also think she is just so small that she doesn't look like she is going to be a year old. She is still wearing 6 month clothes and they are fitting her about perfect right now and wearing size 2 diapers which are still huge on her. Haha

Ida's personality this past month has just really flowered. She is turning into quite the character and loves to ham it up as much as she can when she has an audience. Especially if they are laughing at whatever she is doing.

She is still such a happy, easy baby. She is so content and we still carry her around in the car seat where ever we go because she is so good in it and will fall asleep in it. Also Jacob and Ida have really starting interacting with each other this past month and I find Ida

 following Jacob around to be apart of whatever he is doing and Jacob trying to include her and play with her (usually very roughly) on a regular basis. And Ida is starting to not mind Jacob rough housing with her as much as she used to. As long as she is in a very happy mood. If not, then she still hates Jacob invading her personal space and getting in her bubble. She still hates people grabbing/touching her hands as well. I wonder if it will be hard to teach her to sign because she won't let me help her do the signs. She can still go from very happy to very upset and via versa on the flip of a dime. When she's upset it escalates very quickly. But as soon as you fix whatever her problem is she also calms down very quickly. She has starting throwing fits a bit for attention. Mainly just when she is in a bad mood or hungry and you tell her no she'll throw her head to the ground. Also when she is in a bad mood everything is taken to the extreme. When she slightly hits her head on something its like the worst thing ever. Even if it didn't really hurt. At this stage its all just still funny. :) She has also figured out how to walk forward in the walker! I'd really like it if she was walking by a year. But if not... Especially by the time baby #3 comes.

Some fun things Ida is doing right now is giving high fives, blowing, clicking tongue, crossing her legs when she is playing or in the car seat, playing with her teeth, climbing up the stairs and walking along the furniture. She starting climbing up the stairs a couple weeks ago and we have been really working with her to go down them on her own but she hasn't caught on yet. She starting walking along the furniture and has been letting go while she's standing next to it for a few seconds just a few days ago. She seems to be getting more confident at letting go of the furniture and standing more and more. Her balance is getting pretty good. Ida has started playing with her two bottom teeth with her fingers and nails. She loves to click her nails on her teeth. It is super cute! I really want to get it on video. Ida's yelling still hasn't changed much. She is just loud. Not angry, just loud.

Ida is eating very well but I have decided this girl gets hangry! If she is hungry and you aren't giving her food then she is NOT happy. She yells the most during meals if you aren't feeding her fast enough. She has decided she doesn't really like eating hard crackers, or puffs, or cereal. I think she just gets impatient eating them because they take so long to break down. Nursing has been going well but we have started supplementing with formula pretty regularly. My milk supply has dropped a lot. And I think we are going to start introducing whole milk to her. I asked the pediatrician today and he said from a medical perspective he was required to tell me to wait till she was 12 months. But from a person talking to another person he thinks it will be fine and I will just join an already large pool of women who don't wait to introduce it till 12 months. But he didn't tell me that. :) So I think I might start giving her an ounce or two a day and see how she does with it. I am also contemplating weaning her from nursing completely. But we'll see how I'm feeling this month. Ida likes to slouch in her chair a lot while she eats.

The beginning of this month was horrendous for sleeping! Once Ida learned how to stand in her crib she refused to sleep in it. She would go a whole day without taking any naps and she was very grouchy! I didn't know what to do. I was beyond sleep deprived. I know this is a phase every baby goes through, but it was so much worse with Ida then it was with Jacob. He eventually figured it out and would lay himself back down and go to sleep. Ida never would.

She would stand or sit in her crib for over an hour just screaming. I wondered if it was because she didn't know how to sleep on her stomach and so she couldn't figure out how to lay herself back down onto her back. And it didn't matter how many times I went in there and laid her back down. One day, after about a week of awfulness.  I decided to try laying her in my bed with pillows around her to see if she would go to sleep and she went right to sleep. It was at that time that I put pillows in her crib to prevent her from being able to roll over and her sleeping has been great ever since! Also... Something I had decided was never going to happen... She is currently sleeping through the night!!!!! YAY! I'm so excited! I don't know why she went from waking up 2-3 times a night to sleeping through the night be hey... I'll go for it! She still has the pillows in her crib but has now figured out how to roll with them in there so she can stand in her crib but she is still sleeping well. She has also, as of a week ago, started sleeping on her side and stomach which I find so cute! I love when they hit the stage they sleep however is most comfortable for them. So now after laying her down for the night, when I go in to check on her before going to bed she has usually moved to the other side of the bed that doesn't have pillows in it and is sleeping on her stomach or side and I love it. I will probably try taking the pillows out soon to see how she does with it.