Although we would have made it through the summer if we had to and at times it has been overwhelming and a little stressful preparing to travel with our new family of five….I am so thankful we didn't have to stay here and that we are heading to Washington and that John will be with us the entire time! Such a blessing that he has as much vacation as he does and I am thankful for the extra help that he will be. Things always run smoother at our house on the weekends and now I get a month with every day being the weekend with him!
Not going to lie….preparing and packing for an extended vacation with a newborn and staying at our house for the first time has been slightly crazy and overwhelming at times. Thinking through what we need for Shiloh and determining whether we should bring it from here, buy a second version to stay in Washington and then just preparing for our summer plans for our family and for house projects….we have been busy! But we are all packed and ready to go and have a really great summer planned! We are trying to be realistic on what we will be able to accomplish with the house with a new baby and picked easy, quick and not labor intensive projects such as finishing up the master bedroom (paint and bedding) and then painting a couple of other areas. Most of the house work this summer has been going already! We have a contractor who has been working on replacing the back upstairs windows, repairing the porch, replacing siding that has rot, patching up the siding, a new paint job and new gutters. We also have a new fence up, and are doing a new front door and exterior lighting. It is a lot of much needed work and I can't wait to see the end product. They have already started painting and I am sure it is going to be crazy to see the complete transformation when we arrive. It will be a major before and after picture!
Shiloh had her 8 week doctor's appointment last week and her immunizations. I was so looking forward to this appointment only so I could know how much she weighed and I was excited to hear she was 11 lbs 9 oz! She is also 22.8 inches long! I don't have the percentages and when I look them up I get varying numbers but she has an appointment later this week with our pediatrician in Washington (nothing is wrong, I just have all the kids see a doctor there when we are home) so I will get her percentages then. The doctor here said she looked great!
Other updates and developments I want to remember about Shiloh are…
- She refuses to nap! I did Baby Wise with both of the older kids and she is following it as much as I can but Shiloh is having a hard time with the sleep aspect. Part of it I think is gas and tummy issues but other part is that she is pretty easily over stimulated and also just doesn't nap right now :( I was reading past blogs about both of the older kids around this age and Graham refused to nap anywhere but in my arms and Peyton only in the swing and I know they grew out of it by 12 weeks so there is hope…I just forget about all those details and it was throwing me for a loop this time why she wouldn't nap and I was getting worried! Probably because sleep is even more precious this time than ever :) It has been very time consuming trying to get her to nap and going in and out of her room throughout the day at 10-20 minute intervals which is why I am so glad John will be home for a month to help so one of us can continue to working on her naps and the other can be with Peyton and Graham
- Although she doesn't nap, she still sleeps at night from 8-10 PM, 10 PM - 3 AM and then from 3-7 AM.
- She loves her bath time in the big tub and her bath seat.
- When packing for Washington I packed all her 6 month clothes as she is just under the starting weight of 12.5 lbs for all of them but is long enough to wear them and she is pretty close to growing out of the 3 month clothes and I didn't want to bring them for her to wear for a week.
- Shiloh is smiling so much now and is cooing. She often tries to coo and smile at me during her 3 AM feed when I am swaddling her back up and it takes all my strength and energy not to look at her and smile back….I don't want to encourage her to stay awake and want her to go back to sleep easily. Yesterday she was on her play mat and cooing and smiling at the owl.
- She is taking a bottle at either her 7 or 10 PM feeds and doing great. We went to a bottle for one of the evening feeds to give me a break. Mostly so I could go and spend time with friends and watch the Bachelorette during girls night without taking Shiloh and then with going to Washington so I could go have a drink of wine or go out for dinner with my family, just some flexibility. And since Peyton refused bottles I wanted to make sure that wasn't the case this time. Often it is 3 ounces of breast milk and 1 ounce of formula. Even if I have enough expressed milk I still make sure there is just a little formula so that her body stays used to it in case I need to add more at some time.
- Overall she is a happy, sweet and super easy baby. She rarely cries and is just smiling all the time. She is pretty easy to settle down even when she is super gassy. She just loves to socialize with everyone and doesn't want to leave the party!
I think that is about all happening around here. We leave tonight for Washington and although are not looking forward to the long flight with three kids we are incredibly excited about the rewards at the end of it!
1 comment:
I am so glad you get to go to Washington! I know how hard it can be to be housebound with very active kids. You are going to have fun! Please show pics of the house, I love following all of your renovations.
Also Isla was a terrible mapper, and it's so much due other very sociable, doesn't want to miss anything personality! Keep at it and Shiloh will get there. Isla didn't really click into that perect routine until between 3.5/4 months when she could roll herself over to sleep!
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