Pictures on the walls!

So we officially have moved in since we have started putting pictures on the walls!! YAY!! That finally makes the house feel like a home :) There was a lot of debate and Lynn came over and helped us out as well. Nothing is perfect yet but it is a lot nicer with pictures. Some of my initial plans on where they would go were completely wrong. But it is coming together :) There is still a lot to do to get ready for Easter next Sunday but the good thing is that it is finally getting done. Easter is giving me a nice hard deadline to get the house in order :)

Wheezing :/

So ever since Friday night Jemma has been making a sort of wheezing noise when she breathes in. It was a little disconcerting but she didn't do it all the time or when she slept. I ended up calling the doctor this morning (only my second call to the doctor about something since she was born) and it is probably just her liking to hear herself make that noise. Since she does not have a cough, no fever, it doesn't bother her, and it only happens when she breathes in, i shouldn't be worried. The doctor said it may be the start of croup and if we start to see other symptoms we should call back but she isn't worried.

Oh, and Jemma does like to make all sorts of noise. She started making raspberry sounds today! She also likes people to drum on her mouth while she makes different pitches of squealing noises. We call her a "noisy noisemaker" since she makes so much noise. A high pitched squeal is one of her favorites right now :)

Pulls to a Stand!!

So this morning Jemma pulled herself from a sitting position into standing!! She is also trying really hard to crawl :) she gets into the crawl position both from the laying position and sitting so i don't know which will be her preferred method of crawling. she always flops right onto her belly though after wigging on all fours for a while :)

Yardsale

So I went to the Nearly New kids yardsale at the HoCo fairgrounds this morning and it was great!! I got almost everything i had on my to buy list. I bought:

• a Joovy stroller like denises that collapses super small for $50 (originally a $200 stroller), it is definitely well loved and the wheels might need to be replaced but that is $80, so I think I am going to hold off on that for a while 
• a Lands End diaper bag backpack in excellent condition for $15, it is exactly what i was looking for and i am really excited about it
• a whole box of baby proofing items for $15. it was marked at $20 but i ran out of money since the atm was broken and asked if she would take $15 and she said yes, so thats perfect. i also picked up 3 more outlet covers that conceal cords for $1 each
• a SUPER cute turtle costume for $8. it is a little big for her now, but she will grow into it (splurge ...)
• Unopened parts to make another set of pump parts for $6
• unopened bag of breastmilk storage bags for $3
• unused stroller blanket for her new joovy stroller for $5 and got two little 
• brand new unopened sippy cup for $3 (not sure if a great deal but thats ok) and i got 3 free white onesies at her booth as well 
• a tutle aden and anais bib for $1, yay!

all said and done I spent $109 but i got a super deal and only bought things i actually needed (except the turtle costume ...)

Erin and the MP stopped by with Ethan along with the Hannahs and the Dans with Emily. We went out to lunch afterwards at a pizza place. We put Jemma in her new stroller and she loved it, she fell right asleep after being fed. Jemma was being her normal goofy self at lunch and trying to eat the paper plates and making noises on my moms hand. 

Starting Blogging

So as per the suggestion of several people, I am starting a blog ... I am going to go back and take my journal and input it into the blog so there will be a lot of older postings, but as of today I am officially a blogger :) Hopefully this lasts longer than any of my previous attempts.

Signed Least with Renters!!

Today we signed the lease with our new tenants for the Hazel Ave house and I got to meet them for the first time. They seem like such great people and I am super excited  They really are exactly what I was hoping to find. A little family with kids who will love the house and live there for a number of years. They are going to build a fence in the backyard for their dog. The dog was a bit of a compromise for us but the benefits outweigh the cons. Apparently they looked at about 15 houses before seeing ours and was getting pretty discouraged since they didn't want anything worse than what they were living in. So when they saw our house they really wanted it.

JCP Portrait

Today Jemma had a 6 month professional photography session at JCPenny. We stopped on our way back from Massanutten. It turned out FANTASTIC!! I spent $25 on a Living Social deal for 1 collage and 3 sheets of prints and ended up buying the CD for an extra $100 cause the pictures were so good. I will post them when I get them in the mail :)

First Rice Cereal Experience

Jemma has her first experience with rice cereal last night and it was drastically different than her experience with avocado. She LOVED it!! Mike and I had a small disagreement on how thick it should be. I mixed it according to the box and it was pretty soupy, so Mike kept adding cereal to it until it was super thick. We were feeding her this whole time. I told him that she is only supposed to get 1 tbsp of cereal and that she might get constipated if she eats too much. So I added more breastmilk to it to water it down. She was opening her mouth really wide and pulling at the spoon to eat more. She was loving it. We fed it to her when she was hungry and she just kept wanting more but I thought she already had too much, so I cut her off and finished feeding her with milk. I can see why people use cereal to help their babies sleep because she was fussy afterwards while we ate dinner while mike was holding her so he laid her on his lap with a blanket and she passed right out. That cereal put her right to sleep :) She woke up a little later and got some awake time but then went right to sleep last night and slept through the whole night. I'm still not sure if it will make her constipated or not, we will have to see. I am going to wait for her to poop before giving her more. (tmi, i know ...) But also last night, I laid her in her crib while she was drowsy but still awake and she played with her rattle for a bit before falling right asleep with no fussing at all. It was amazing!

Move Update

I think that just about sums up how Jemma is doing :) Now onto the move ... that has been even crazier!!

First off, we rented the Hazel Ave house!!! YAY!!! It is to a military family with 3 kids around the ages of 5-7ish who wants to live there for 3 years!! It's perfect!! The specifically wanted the Halethorpe area and love the house. The only problem is that they have a dog and cat which originally we didn't want pets but their current landlord wrote a letter about how nice the pets are and other than that they are exactly what we are looking for. The guy is apparently very handy and wants to install a fence in the backyard which we are ok with. The guy is a mechanic with the Coast Guard which is funny because that is exactly what Mike Tosh is! They are moving in April 1st. So the house was only on the rental market for about 2 weeks before it got rented, not too shabby ... :) We had a fair amount of interest in the house but a lot of people couldn't move in until June which got us nervous. We even started looking into how much the house would be worth if we wanted to sell it. But everything worked out in the end!

At the Highland house, things are going well. Most of the house is unpacked and it is functional. Most of what needs to get done at this point is smaller projects. Like on Saturday, the MP helped me sort out all the cleaning supplies from my parents house and our house and consolidate them and put them in the cabinet. The furniture is all set up in the dining room. My goal at this point is to have the house in order by Easter. Mike and his dad installed a new dishwasher and cooktop on Saturday as well. The new cooktop looks awesome!! So much better and it's the glass top so it will be much easier to clean! And boy am I glad to finally have a new dishwasher!! It is soooo much nicer!! Its a little off-white which i didn't initially notice but it works fine, so that's all that matters. I bought bigger bottles with extra nipples and rings for Jemma the other day, so now we don't have to hand wash them every night and they can go straight in the dishwasher. I should have done that months ago, but oh well :) I also just picked up some sippy cups for her so we will be trying them with her soon too. Mike just bought a new John Deere tractor last night as well! It comes with a snowblower and 54" mower deck. He got it off Craigslist from a guy up in PA who owns a landscaping business. Hopefully it will do what we need it to do for a couple years at least :)

Living with my Parents

So as for living with my parents, it has been going surprisingly well!! I was a little nervous about it but I think it has been working out fantastically. They make the most amazing dinners! We had baked fish with brussel sprouts, perogies and salad for dinner last night. I had the left overs for lunch today and it was great! We have had meatloaf, baked chicken, and all sorts of yummy foods. I think I have ate more fresh veggies in the last couple months than I have in the last year. It makes life much easier too to have grandparents around especially when Mike works late or on weekends. And he has a lot of weekend projects so it really helps. Not having to drop Jemma off at daycare is really nice too! Most mornings we pass her off still in her pjs. And its nice that Jemma is great with them and they are great with her. Things have been going well enough that last week Mike came up with a new idea for the addition that involves not building a new kitchen in their side and we share an upgraded kitchen in the main house. 

6 Month Jemma Update

So Jemma is 6 months now! YAY! She had her 6 month doctors appt yesterday morning and the doctor said she is 100% perfect! :)

She weighs 15 lbs (34%), 26 3/4" (86%) and her head is 16.5 inches (37%). I asked about her weight since it was low and the doctor said that once she starts eating solids it will start going up. But she gets plenty of food I think. She drinks ~6oz for breakfast then 3-4 5oz bottles during the day, then eats another ~10 oz at home at night (sometimes another 5 oz in the middle of the night too), so she gets about 31-41 oz per day which is at the upper end of what I read is standard for a 6 month old (24-36 oz). So I don't know why she is skinny. Oh well. My mom had been saying for a little bit now that we should increase the amount she is fed but from what I understood breastmilk gets fattier over time and so it doesn't have to be increased unlike formula. But the doctor said that we can certainly increase her to 6 oz if we think she wants it, so that is what is going to happen now. She has gotten 6-7 oz bottles a few times before. But she got her first of many 6 oz bottles yesterday. She is a little piggy, so of course she finished it. I'm not actually sure what her limit is on how much milk she will drink before stopping but I am sure it is greater than 7oz. I wasn't there but she spit up a little bit after it. Her spitting up is definitely getting better but has not gone away. Spitting up is another reason I was a little reluctant to up her milk intake but it is getting better so hopefully it will be ok and hopefully she won't eat quite as often as well :) 


Anyway, she is doing great and is getting very mobile. She is a very active kid and never seems to want to sit still. She wiggles and squirms and rolls nonstop and wants to touch everything and put it in her mouth. It is nice when nap time corresponds to dinner time. At the doctors office, she was having a blast and was pulling on the wall decorations next to the scale and the nurse had to pull her hands off to weigh her. Mike had to hold her so the doctor could do her thing. She also poked a hole in the paper on the table then had a blast ripping it all apart. When we left the doctors office, the paper was all ripped up and what wasn't ripped up was all crinkled up from her pulling on the edges and rolling all around. We kept having to take the paper chunks away before she would eat it and stop her from getting on the plastic under the paper. We kept trying to distract her with toys but it wasn't working, the paper was just too interesting :)

She calms down when she is tired though and is good at snuggling then and will fall asleep in your arms pretty easily. I just have to cover her head with a blanket and she goes right to sleep with a little "shhh" sound and a little rocking helps too. If she gets over tired, we have to walk her around for a bit but in general she falls asleep pretty easy.

Which segues nicely into her sleeping! She sleeps in general very well. She goes to bed somewhere between 8-9pm and sleeps till around 6-7am. She seems to wake up at one point a lot of nights and needs her pacifier put back in but then she goes right back to sleep. Mike usually does this cause she seems to get more upset if she sees me and wants to eat. But I have to wake him up to do it because he sleeps through her making noise. Sometimes this doesn't work and she is too upset, then she needs to have her diaper changed and get fed before she will go back to sleep. But once she gets a fresh dry diaper on and some food in her belly, she goes right back to sleep.

Also, she is getting really good dexterity. She can see her pacifier, pick it up, and put it back in her mouth with no problem. She picks things up really easily now and can pass them back and forth between her hands.

As for daycare, it is working out perfectly. My parents watch her everyday except Thursdays when my mom volunteers for neighbor ride and Becky watches her. She seems to be doing very well and seems to like both places a lot. She gets to play with bunnies at Beckys and her kids seem to like her a lot (especially Sami). Silky, my parents dog, and her seem to get along pretty well. She tries to pet her and pull her hair all the time and sometimes Silky likes it but sometimes not so much. Silky smells Jemma all the time, just sniffs the top of her head, its weird. Last Thursday, Becky got sick and so my dad had to watch Jemma all day long by himself. She was very good with him. My mom has no problem taking Jemma with her shopping or if she goes out to lunch. And Jemma is pretty good, so it works out well. Plus it gives Jemma outside interaction. I asked the doctor about the fact that Jemma doesn't play with other kids her age and the doctor said until around 18 months, it really doesn't matter and it is almost entirely parallel play, so that made me feel better. She said if she is too withdrawn that she can get anxiety about people and noises but I think Jemma is around enough different people and out in public enough that it wont be a problem. 

Solid Food Adventure Begins - Avocado

And the solid food adventure begins!! We spent a lot of time talking to the doctor about foods. I decided Sunday night to try her out on some solids (last minute decision) just in case something happened then we already had the doctors appt the next morning. I tried avocado mixed with a little breastmilk and just smashed up with a fork. I fed her with a spoon. She definitely ate some of it. I fed her after she already ate so I am sure she wasn't hungry. She stored it in her mouth for a few minutes before swallowing. It was definitely a new experience for her. She kept opening her mouth for more and grabbing at the spoon. She definitely swallowed at least 2 full spoonfuls of it. After a little while she started making a really disgusted face but still opened her mouth for more. I'm not sure if that was cause she was full and didn't want any, didn't realize what was going on or if she decided she didn't like avocado. Anyway, we will have to try avocado again :)

Anyway, the doctor recommended fortified baby rice cereal also to help with her iron intake. And if that causes her to be constipated, then to move on to baby oatmeal. So we are going to pick some up tonight for her to try. She also said we should do it when she is hungry and in the morning, so I am going to try that. The doctor also said that she can start feeding her anything now with pretty much no exceptions. She said we should try and make sure it is high calorie though. For example, she said baby yogurt is fine but don't feed her adult yogurt cause they take a lot of the fat out of it and she needs the fat. And if we cook something up, to use full fat butter and not oils. Of course that meant that the second we got home from the doctor, Mike tried to feed her some banana bread cake sugar side first. I'm afraid this means that Mike is going to really start feeding her everything ... :)