Three!!

I've seen these lists all over pinterest for a while now so I decided that three years old was a good time to start this tradition.  Basically, you take a list of questions and ask your child every year the same ones to see how their answers change from year to year.  Mallory and I sat down this afternoon and I asked her all these questions and she told me that I had a lot of words.  So here we go!

1.  What is your favorite color?  pink

2.  What is your favorite toy?  a dog.  but one that don't get fur on my hands.

3.  What is your favorite fruit?  pears

4.  What is your favorite tv show?  peppa pig

5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  noodles

6.  What is your favorite outfit?  a sparkly shirt

7.  What is your favorite game?  monkey lunchbox

8.  What is your favorite snack?  cheese crackers

9.  What is your favorite animal?  horse

10.  What is your favorite song?  old macdonald

11.  What is your favorite book?  rudolph

12.  Who is your best friend?  carter & brinkley

13.  What is your favorite cereal?  lucky charms

14.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  get in the sprinkler

15.  What is your favorite drink?  grape juice

16.  What is your favorite holiday?  i don't know  after giving her examples of holidays:  easter

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  my dream light.  i like something cozy like a blankie

18.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  just noodles

19.  What would you pick to eat for dinner on your birthday?  hot dogs

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  a nurse

Two months

As of last Friday, Hadley was two months old.  Here she is on her "month day."

She goes to the doctor tomorrow for her two month checkup, so I am not sure of her exact stats.  I think she weighs about 12 pounds.  She's a big girl...just look at those legs!

She is definitely a mama's girl.  If someone else is holding her, she is usually looking at me or looking for me if we are in the same room.  That's probably because we have very rarely been seperated in the last two months.  The only person that has kept her so far has been my mom.  I think everyone else is a little wary because she still does not care for the bottle at all.  Most of the time if someone talks to her or shows her some special attention, they will get a big smile.  Especially Mallory.  Hadley loves when Mallory talks to her and she gets the biggest smiles.

Hadley is wearing a size 1 diaper, but as soon as I finish the box we are on now, she is going in a size 2.  She wears 3 months clothes, but some are a little snug!  I'm guessing by three months old, she will definitely be wearing some six month sizes.

She is pretty content in her swing or laying in her pack-n-play looking and swatting at the animals above her.  She has days here and there where she wants to be held a lot and just can't seem to be satisfied, but don't we all?!  She loves to be outside in the stroller or worn in a sling or carrier.  Also, she does great riding in the car...as long as the car is moving we never hear a peep.  Her bedtime has become earlier and earlier recently and she is now going to bed about 8:00.  After getting a bath, getting in her swaddle blanket and eating her last meal, she is out until around 3:00-4:00.  Then she usually wakes again between 6:00-7:00, will eat again and then I put her back in her swing for another hour or two of sleeping.  She will pretty much nap anywhere, she just goes off to sleep when she gets tired. 

We could not have asked for a better baby.  She is so easy-going and laid back.  She is loved more than she could ever know!

Show us your life - master bedroom

I'm linking up with Kelly again for her Show Us Your Life posts and this week is master bedrooms.  There were tons of gorgeous kitchens last week so I am sure master bedrooms will not disappoint either. 

This is looking in from the door.  I'm not sure why there is a weird shadow on the left side of the picture.  Notice we don't have any blinds or window treatments.  That is because we live WAY out in the country with no neighbors.  I eventually want to get plantation shutters throughout the house and we had someone come give us a quote on the price.  Let's just say they are not a priority for me right now, ha!

I guess I should have taken the time to straighten the pillows a little more.  My talented future sister-in-law made the throw pillows for me.

My side of the room, along with Hadley's bed for now.  I plan to move her to her crib in a few weeks, but for now she is sleeping good in her rock-n-play and it is convenient for me to feed her during the night.

The opposite side of the room.

Now, for the not so pretty.  We bought our furniture on sale off the floor from a local furniture store.  The mirror that went with the set was already sold so we didn't get a mirror at the time.  One can be ordered, it is just something we haven't done yet but need to.  I'm getting a little tired of looking at that big bare wall.

A put a picture of the fan up because as far as ceiling fans go, I think it is pretty!

 
That's our master bedroom.  Hope you enjoyed!!

Please slow down.

Hadley is now six weeks old...almost seven.  To say that I have enjoyed my time at home with her and Mallory would be an enormous understatement.  I could SO be a stay-at-home mom.  I didn't really feel that way when I had Mallory so I am not sure what has changed.  Maybe I am just more comfortable as a mother now, who knows?  Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to stay home right now with a brand new mortgage payment so I will be heading back to work in about three weeks. 

Now, more about this little girl...

She is one big pile of sugar and we are pretty inseparable.  One reason for that is she doesn't like a bottle at all.  We need to work on that a lot in the next three weeks and I pray that she will take one soon.  She is really such a good baby though.  We did have a little rough spell around the time she turned one month old where she wanted to be held at all times during the day.  Mallory was like that a lot too and so that's what I did with her - hold her.  But with a two year old at home too, it was impossible for me to hold Hadley all the time.  We have had to let her cry some and honestly, I think it has been the best thing we could have done.  She has learned to like her swing and being in the pack-n-play and now soothes herself to sleep at night.  I never thought I would see the day! 

She is ready to go to bed around 9 every night and has slept up to seven hours, but mostly she sleeps between five or six hours then wakes to eat and sleeps another two hours or so.  She has been on a routine lately where she eats in the morning and then I put her in her swing and she will go back to sleep for about two hours.  Ever since turning one month old she also really studies faces and smiles when being talked to.  Hadley has brought our family so much joy.  She is sleeping right now and Mallory keeps saying, "I want Hadley to wake up."  I am amazed at how much she loves her little sister and what a big help she is to me.  I honestly thought she would be way more jealous.  I am so thankful that is not the case.  So far. Ha! 

This was at Mallory's end of year preschool program.  She's with her two teachers she had, Mrs. Regina and Mrs. Carol.  She LOVED them and it is so funny when she plays school and pretends that she is one of them.  It was a fast school year and I can't believe there are only 2 more years of preschool left for her!  Time just needs to SLOW DOWN.   

Show us your life - kitchens

I am going to do my first ever link up with one of my all time favorite blogs, Kelly's Korner.  You can't help but love Kelly!

We have only been in our house for seven months so it is a work in progress.  One thing that I have always known that I wanted for our kitchen was white glazed cabinets and dark hardwood floors, so those were easy choices when building.  Picking out the countertops and backsplash were much harder for me, but in the end it all came together and I am happy with the results. 

Here is our kitchen looking from the living room- 

View from standing at the pantry door and a glimpse of the living room.  I wanted to link up last week for living rooms but never had a chance last Friday.

I still need to get a rug to go in front of the sink and some pretty dishes for the glass cabinet.

View from the other side of the kitchen.

All of our appliances are KitchenAid and we love them except for the refrigerator.  It's impossible to get ice without it falling on the floor!

The breakfast nook.  This is where we always sit and eat as a family when I cook.

View of the kitchen when standing in breakfast nook-

 

That's our kitchen, hope you enjoyed the tour!!

Two weeks old.

Here is the new little miss at 10 days old.  I have a picture of Mallory at 1 month old sitting in the same swing with the exact same expression on her face.  No doubt they are sisters...they look just alike.  I have enjoyed showing the two pictures to family members and asking them if they can tell which one is Mallory & which one is Hadley.

When I have both girls with me at home, this is what we do.  I've been pleasantly surprised at how well Mallory has adjusted to being a big sister but she is not giving up her lap time.  Actually one of the first things that Mallory said to me when I came home from the hospital is, "Mama, you got your lap back!"  Haha!

I know I said this in my last post, but I still can't get over how different Hadley has been from Mallory.  I swear it seems like I went weeks with no sleep when Mallory was a newborn.  She had her days and nights mixed up and she would not let us put her down at night.  I was terrified to go to sleep holding her, so I would stay up with her until 3 am, and then Patrick would get up with her until he had to go to work so I could sleep for 3-4 hours.  Hadley sleeps great at night and hasn't pulled an all-nighter like her sister did for so many nights yet.  She wakes up on average twice a night, eats, and goes right back to sleep.  Such a good baby girl!  I skimmed over the Baby Wise book yesterday and hopefully we can keep Hadley on track with the methods in the book and we won't have a repeat of all the sleep issues that Mallory has had.

Sisters in froggy pj's

I could seriously get used to staying home with these two girls everyday.  They have been so good and sweet.  Unfortunately, there is a mortgage to be paid along with a car payment and insurance and on and on on so I will cherish the next eight weeks until it is back to reality.

Hadley Michelle Heath

She's here!  Sweet girl arrived exactly on her due date, Sunday April 22.  On Saturday, we stayed home...I wasn't feeling the best in the world.  I had actually gone to bed as soon as I got home from work on Friday because it had been a crazy day with me trying to tie up a lot of loose ends at work and I was exhausted and just not feeling good at all.  I had planned for last Friday to be my last day of work, whether Hadley had come on Monday or not.  Mallory had asked to go to her favorite restaurant (Two Dogs Pizza) all day Saturday and I told her we would go that night.  My parents went with us and before we left, I noticed that I was having some contractions so I started timing them with a contraction timer app on my phone.  All through dinner, contractions were regular at around 8-12 minutes apart.  Nothing painful though and I really didn't think much of it.  We got home and they continued.  I drank a big glass of water and laid down about 9:30 to see if they would stop.  The contractions continued on and were coming every six minutes so I decided to call my doctor.  She told me I could come on in and be checked.  Patrick's parents came over and picked up Mallory.  Bless her heart, she was so worried about mama.  I was in no pain or anything, but she knew I had called the doctor and she was confused by going to Grandma and Grandaddy's house so late at night.  We got to the hospital Saturday night a little after 11.  They checked me to find out I was only 1 cm dilated and they did not seem impressed although my contractions were now 3-4 minutes apart and starting to be painful.  They told me I could walk for an hour and be re-checked or go back home.  Since we live an hour away from the hospital, I was not about to go back home so we walked.  After walking for 15 minutes, we went back into the triage area and I told the nurse that the contractions were becoming too painful to walk through and I had had 5 contractions in the short time I had been walking.  The nurse told me she wouldn't re-check me within an hour and to keep walking because that was the best way to dilate more.  She said on average, women dilate 1 cm an hour.  Not what I wanted to hear again...I was ready for some pain medicine at this point but we kept on walking.  After 15 or 20 more minutes of walking, I couldn't bear the pain anymore so I went back and laid down in the triage.  At this point, another patient came in who was saying this was her 6th baby and she had delivered her 4th baby at home because it had come so quick, etc, etc.  The one and only triage nurse focused solely on getting this lady into labor and delivery at this point while I was laying on the other side of the curtain, slowly dying.  My water broke around 12:35 I think and Patrick called out to the nurse that my water had broke.  That got her attention and she called my doctor to come check me.  My doctor came in and I was at a 4, yay!  I was happy to hear that I had gone from a 1 to a 4 in an hour.  They finally said I could go to labor and delivery.  During this time, my pain level had sky rocketed.  I felt like I was going to throw up with every contraction and I was begging them to hurry up with my epidural.  They tried to get me to walk to labor and delivery and that wasn't happening!  I was in so much pain that I couldn't move much less get off the bed, walk down the hall and get on another bed.  They rolled me down to L&D and I did manage to change beds.  My doctor checked me again and I was at an 8!!  That's when she informed me there would be no time for pain medication.  NOT what I wanted to hear...but then she said at this rate, I would be holding my baby within a few more contractions.  That was promising to me after such a long labor with Mallory.  Immediately after hearing that, I started feeling the urge to push.  My doctor put on her scrubs and after about five minutes of pushing, Miss Hadley made her entrance into the world at 1:21 am.  She put her on my chest right away...she was beautiful and perfect. 
 

First bath and my awesome L&D nurse who I never had a chance to meet BEFORE delivery but she was on shift all night and she was wonderful.

Big sister and little sister meeting for the first time.

My two girls

First family photo (even though we were all looking at another camera)

In the moment, I thought my labor was awful and traumatic but looking back it really wasn't so bad and faster is MUCH better.  Compared to Mallory's it was a breeze and I feel like I have bragging rights saying that it was all natural!  Hadley has been such a good baby so far.  She even lets us sleep at night right now!  She wakes up about every three hours most nights and goes right back to sleep.  This whole experience has been so much different than my first.  Breast feeding has come naturally this time and there is no doubt that she is getting enough milk and thriving on it.  We can not express how blessed we are to have two healthy and happy girls.  Mallory has been very clingy to me, but she loves her little sister and enjoys helping mama out with Hadley.  Not everyone agrees, but to me Hadley looks just like Mallory did as a newborn.  It is hard to imagine yourself loving another child as much as your first, but it does happen!  We are so in love with this little girl and enjoying every minute with her.