Brynlee is now over a month old!

Wow, I can't believe my baby girl is 5 1/2 weeks already! The first month of her life has been very busy. Brynlee attended her first arena football game at 18 days and did wonderfully.  Slept right through the whole thing :) One more clue that her daddy is a football coach, lol.  The first couple weeks she slept ALL the time. Way more that I remember Hayden sleeping. It was all I could do to keep her awake long enough to eat. At about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks she started staying awake more and didn't know what to do with herself...so she just cried.  There were a couple weeks in there where she cried most of the evening then it progressed to all evening and into the night and finally ended up with her crying most of the evening, into her mid-night feeding and again for most of the morning.  It was a VERY sleepless couple of weeks around this house.  Plus, it doesn't help that Hayden also gets up 2-3 times a night now as well. 

Thank the Lord things have been getting better. She is still fussy in the evenings (Hayden was the same way) but most of the time we are able to get her to sleep at a semi-decent hour. (It also helps that she is taking her pacifier MUCH better and actually keeps it in her mouth. Yea!)  I am determined not to have another thumb sucker so I have been really pushing the pacifier this time. 

The Stats: At her 2 week appointment she weighed 8lbs 6oz, which put her an ounce over her birth weight.  She also grew a quarter of an inch and was 19 1/4" long.  We don't go back to the dr until 2 months so not sure what she is now.  She is getting too big for her nb clothes but the 0-3 month stuff is still a touch too big. Brynlee graduated to size 1 diapers last week but I can overlap the tabs in front still. Little skinny binny :)  I plan on putting her in the cloth diapers soon!

Brynlee smiles a LOT.  Whenever she starts to fall asleep she starts smiling. It's so sweet and I just love watching her while she drifts off :) Sometimes she'll even "laugh". She does that fast newborn breathing and puts a little voice with it so it sounds like a little chuckle. Seriously adorable! This week she started to smile a little bit for real.  She likes it when I kiss her neck and I'll sometimes get a little tiny smile out of that one :) She doesn't quite "talk" yet but she is getting sooo close! I can't wait to hear her little baby cooing and talking :)

Bath time has gotten soooo much better! At first it was completely traumatic and Brynlee would FREAK out every time.  But, us mom's have some learning to do sometimes too, and I finally figured out that she just needed some more security. Now I give her a wash rag to hold onto with one hand and I hold her other hand so she doesn't get so nervous. Now she does great with baths! Although she does have to be VERY warm. I put a space heater right next to the sink while I am giving her a bath and then move it to the counter where I get her dressed again. It's crazy hot but if she's not warm she's screaming.  Brynlee also likes having lotion put on after bath time. I massage her arms and legs and tummy and she just lays there and enjoys it. Hayden HATED it when I would put lotion on her. Screamed the whole time so I finally gave up. I am glad Brynlee likes it cuz I really doing it :)

Brynlee has met her grandparents of course and one set of great-grandparents so far. She has met Uncle Alex but still needs to meet all of her other uncles.  Chad and Eric are about 2 hours away now and both busy working and Justin is at school in Des Moines about 3 1/2 hours away.  We have a trip planned to my parents house for Memorial Day/my birthday and will get to see Justin then.  Hoping she'll get to meet everyone else very soon!

Brynlee with Great-grandma Oswald and...

...Great-grandpa Oswald :)

The school here had a shower for us last week. It was so nice and was a good opportunity for me to meet some of Kyle's colleagues and for them to meet Brynlee also.  We got so many nice things and Hayden got spoiled as well!

Hayden got some great presents at Brynlee's shower too :)

 
One of the things that the whole family loves to do now that it's warmer is go on walks. We have a double stroller and we load up the girls and walk around the town.  (Literally the whole town...it doesn't take long ;))  Sometimes we go to the park and sometimes we just walk. Either way it's a great way to end a beautiful summer day and spend some time together as a family.

Getting ready for a walk around town :)

Hayden is acting more and more grown up all the time. She is a constant challenge these days but still a joy to have around most of the time :) I like to say she is 2 going on 13, haha.  She is OBSESSED with her birthday these days. The poor kid had to go through daddy's birthday in March, Brynlee being born in April, Mother's Day, my birthday is next week, Father's Day in early June and then FINALLY it will be her birthday.  She tells everybody "my name is Hayden, I am two, my birthday's in June" and then holds up 3 fingers. Hahaha!  Goofy girl :) She wants strawberries for her birthday, they are her favorite.  Glad we got that taken care of ;) Hayden also loves playing with babies and dressing like a princess. Thankfully her definition of "princess" is a little loose and I can still get her to wear a tank top and shorts as long as the top looks frilly enough. No t-shirts or jean shorts though. Her latest of obsession is...wait for it...Dancing with the Stars!!  We watch the show together and she'll dance around to the music with her bear.  Every morning when she gets dressed she puts on a "princess dress" and asks if she can go on DWTS now, lol.   Not sure how many 2 year olds can say their dream is to be on DWTS :)  Oh well, let her dream.  Maybe she will be famous enough to be on the show one day!

Well, that's the info for month one of Brynlee's life. Right now, we are getting ready for a weekend full of graduation parties.  That means no cooking for me! :)

Brynlee at 1 month old!