5 months old!

     Well, this week has not been nearly as productive as last week, but I did still make another dress for Emilee (thanks to my grandmother letting me borrow her sewing machine), and I at least THOUGHT about my story. lol.  Hey, it's a start!  If it's in my head it doesn't take hardly any time to write it down... (for those of you who missed it, the first 3 chapters can be read here: http://mlhutchinson.wordpress.com/ )

    Emilee seemed to have difficulty sleeping completely through the night this week. I don't know if it's teething (she chews on her gums a lot and drools), or if it's just digestive issues since she's started eating solid foods, but she's been a bit more fussy lately too. She DID sleep amazingly last night, but a large part of my lack of productivity this week was because I was exhausted from being up multiple times at night plus having difficulty falling asleep! Ahh! Of course she is still as cute as ever, AND she turned 5mo old this week! Such a big girl!  Here she is trying on one of her new dresses. :)



     Valentines day was also this week and I surprised my family with cards and candy for everyone, which was a lot of fun. :)  Ray and I went out for desert valentines night and it was a nice little time away with just us. :) See, don't we look happy?



     We got a bit more snow on Monday, but otherwise it's been a great week for taking walks, which Emilee really likes.  She's taken to cooing at herself while we're walking and it's the cutest thing ever!  Maybe next time I'll have some pics for you of her in her snuggli. :)  Also, as stated before, my grandmother let me borrow her sewing machine because my mother's died on me.  I didn't like how the zipper part of the first dress came out, largely because my grandmother's machine didn't have a zipper attachment, so I decided to put buttons on the second dress.  My grandmother's machine DID have a pretty sweet button holer attachment that made it super easy, but it also had an attachment to sew the buttons on for me!  Totally cool!  I think it came out pretty good too. :)  Here is the finished product!



     Next week Emilee will take her first big adventure!  We are going to visit my grandmother for a few days, and then my sister and her little boy.  It will be Emilee's first time meeting her great-grandmother and her aunt and cousin.  I'm excited to see them and introduce Emilee to them, but a little leary about how it's going to affect her...all that time in the car, plus a new place, plus a disrupted schedule...oi.  Could be stressfull!   Anyway, all that to say, next weeks blog post will likely be late because we will be driving back on Saturday. I'll try and be sure to take lots of pics though! :)

Until next time, Take care and God bless!
~Mae

   

Productivity!

Hello again friends! :)

This week has been MUCH better and I have felt so incredibly productive!  My secret?...I don't take the morning nap with Emilee.  Really, this has only worked because she was cooperative enough to slide right into a new 4ish hour schedule.  Perhaps the fussiness of last week was in preparation for this?

Anyway, this week she has developed this new schedule: Up by 5:30, 2ish hour nap at 8, 2nd feeding at 10ish, 1ish hour nap at noon, 3rd feeding at 1ish, 2 hour nap at 4, 4th feeding at 6ish, in bed by 8.  I can work with this. :)

She is such a happy, talkative, excited baby and a total joy to have around. :)  We also discovered a new "game" that she really likes!  Behold, the diaper-box express! See how much she likes it!?



As far as productivity; this week I have added 20 new pages to my story! (I will be posting the first few chapters here, http://mlhutchinson.wordpress.com/, when I get the site and everything figured out), I have started sewing a sweet little dress for Emilee, I created a new site on wordpress, I put together an application for an online teaching job (well see if THAT pans out...) and I've been able to stay on top of little things around the house as well as write some blog entries. :)  Believe it or not I haven't watched even 10 minutes of tv!  The story takes up time because I like to write by hand first, then type it in, and I was going to make two dresses, but I 1.) forgot how tedious using a pattern can be...all that pressing and heming and disciphering instructions...and 2.) had trouble with the machine keeping the right thread tension...plus it just stopped working entirely and I had to stich the skirt on by hand! Boy was that time consuming and painstaking! I certainly do not have the skill for efficient hand sewing!  I actually drew a line on the back of my fabric with a pencil to keep my stitching even! haha...and I still didn't do it as straight as I'd like.  Here is a pic of the dress...not finished yet, I still need to put in the zipper, hem it, and add the ribbon, but I love it!  I particularly love the little ruffles on the bodice! <3 good.="" isn="" lighting="" p="" so="" sorry="" t="" the="">



Today we are battening down the hatches and riding out "Nemo" (a little fish with big dreams...we'll see how big this storm will dream), and tomorrow Emilee has her baby dedication at church! :)  I'll be sure to take pictures for you all. :)

Take care and God bless!
~Mae

Fussiness

     Phew, what a week! Last weekend my husband and I took our daughter down to visit with his family, approximately a 3 hour drive from home.  She kept her schedule just fine while we were there, napping and playing and eating and so forth.  We came home sunday night and she seemed very pleased to be home.  But then, babies are rarely consistent or predictable. lol This was my week...

Monday - She refused to be put down, AT ALL! If I even turned her around to set her on my lap (so I could at least sit down) she would fuss!

Tuesday - She handled being put down, but wanted me in sight at all times!  One good thing that came out of this, was that I discovered some new positions she enjoyed.  The mother of all inventions is necessity they say, and I discovered that she liked sitting in her stroller...presumably because it allowed her to sit more upright.  I tried her in my mother's antique highchair too but it wasn't quite enough support for her, even with stuffing a blanket around her. lol.

Wednesday - She fought pretty much EVERY nap, sometimes for almost an hour! I discovered that crying is super stressfull and very exhausting to listen to!  She also got tired of everything very quickly and kept wanting a different toy, a different position, a different view...also very tiring.

Thursday - She was almost back to her normal self and able to occupy herself for about 20mins at a time, but I was exhausted so I was a zombie while she was awake and slept when she slept! lol

Friday - she was back to normal and I started doing all the things I didn't have time or energy to do before! :-p

It didn't help that she didn't have a bowel movement from monday night untill saturday morning and boy, when she did it was a douzy!  Phew!  She had a stink radius!  I feel sort of like her fussiness this week is teaching her to be generally more fussy and dissatisfied with things but hey, maybe she just needs different stimulation at this stage and I haven't figured out what that is yet....she could also be teething...but man do I find crying (and particularly whinny crying) soooo irritating! Gah! It grates on my ears like nails on a chalk board!  Fortunately, she is still the cutest little goober you've ever met. :-p  Here are some pictures of my sweet peanut from times when she was momentarially satisfied. :-p

She does love her bouncy seat! :)

 

In the highchair

 

Enjoying a book with mommy

 

 

     It's been a pretty stressful week and it doesn't make it any easier that we are currently living with my mother and sister and her fussiness disrupts them too.  Sadly, she seems to be back to being dissatisfied with everything this morning and of course it is happening at the WORST time.  *sigh*  Parenting is hard enough without other people criticising how you do it.  But, I WILL praise God because she is healthy, generally happy, and a little blessing.