2 Months Already?!

Someone is TWO months old today!

[caption id="attachment_750" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Cheeeeeks![/caption]

She's definitely filling out! And her hair just keeps on sprouting out. I can't wait to put giant bows in it. I got a couple of new backgrounds in the mail this week. I'm pretty excited for a couple of themed photo sessions with this sweet little baby.

We also got our photos from our family session with Ashley Hodges Photography. Here are a couple from that! I love them all. She really had some of the funniest little faces.

[caption id="attachment_751" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Sweet girl[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_752" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Daddy loves that baby[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_753" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Aww[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_754" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Cat Nap[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_755" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Love her little faces![/caption]

Planning for the Future

I think both Colette and I have a little bit of a cold. She's still a happy baby, so I'm not terribly worried. Just a few sneezes and coughs once in a while. Still watching her like a hawk, just in case.

She'll be 2 months old on Saturday. I can't quite believe that. We go in for her 2 month well check next Tuesday. I'm excited to see how much she's grown. Well. I mean I can physically see it, but I'm interested in the numbers too!

Of course, her 2 month well check also means that the day I return to work is coming fast and hard. I go back in 19 days. Seems like a big number, but I know these days are going to fly by in the same fashion that the last two months have. At some point I'll be able to stay home with her. Cory and I gathered all our finances on Monday and I made a huge spreadsheet to help me figure out how to get all my debt paid off, live comfortably, and still save. I found that I can have everything paid off (damn you student loans! *shakes fist*), with my current salary, by Colette's 2nd birthday. 22 months from now. I'm totally okay with that. That still gives me plenty of time to shape her little mind before she's off to school.

I'm thinking about starting the Dave Ramsey method of putting cash in envelopes. But I'm terrible with cash so maybe not! We'll see!

I'm definitely blessed to have a husband who supports me in my decision to want to be a stay at home mom. When I met Cory I was still in the mindset that I didn't ever want kids and now I can't imagine that life. Don't get me wrong, I know it's not an easy job, and it's not something I want to do because it gets me out of a 40 hour a week desk job. I actually quite like my current job. It's a breeze with a decent salary, benefits, and occasional travel (not to mention the people I work for are pretty great); and being a stay at home mom will be pay-less 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That said, I feel like the rewards that come along with staying home far outweigh any benefit or travel opportunity I could possibly get from my company -- the chance to be the one who raises our kids.

For now though, I'll be thankful to have a job with healthcare benefits. We're currently looking for a nanny who can come to the house 3-4 days a week to watch the little babe, and her Grama will be watching her the other days. Finding a nanny is serious business. And expensive. Whew. How do you find someone you can trust to leave your baby with?! I can't even imagine trying to find a daycare.

Well... enough with that! I took some Valentine's photos last week. Pretty excited to share those in a couple weeks. AND our friend Ashley with Ashley Hodges Photography took some family photos for us this weekend like I mentioned in my last post. We've had a couple of sneak peeks and I'm very excited to see the rest. It was freezing cold so we had a little bit of an unhappy baby in the beginning, but she brightened up a bit in the end! She wasn't the happy, smiley baby she normal is, (who could be in that cold weather!?) but she definitely put out some sass. I can't imagine how we got a cold....

 

[caption id="attachment_747" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Sweet Sleepin' Baby[/caption]

Someone Loves Her Daddy

Smiles, Giggles, and Thumb Sucking

Looks like it's been a few days since I posted anything! We're moving along in babyhood way faster then I would like. Colette is certainly filling out those little 0-3 fitted pajamas these days.



She has hair on her head, she smiles like crazy, and just today, she giggled. Can't believe how quickly things change. She loves her swing and watching the sheep spin above her, and she loves when you stick your tongue out and make mouth noises.

Last night she slept from about 11:30pm til 6am. I think it was a fluke as she pretty much slept all day yesterday, probably just a growth spurt!

As for me and dear husband, we stay pretty busy! We actually left the babe with her Grama on Saturday and had a date night. It was excellent. We went to dinner at a place we'd never been before, 1885. It's a very small little place with local cuisine and it was very delicious. Even had carrot cake with a salted caramel cream cheese frosting for dessert. Nom nom nom.. If you're ever in Chattanooga, I definitely recommend it!

I also spent most of Saturday taking down Christmas decorations. If you know me, you know this usually doesn't happen til late March. I was surprised at how quickly it all came down. Now I'm just going to focus on getting the house scrubbed down now that I can get on my hands and knees and move around without a giant belly in the way!

We're having some family photos taken this weekend by our friend and excellent photographer Ashley Hodges. You should check her out, she's fantastic. Hopefully we'll have sessions every few months so when Colette grows up there will actually be photos of me and her together!

Nana and Aunt Katy are also coming down this weekend for a visit. We're pretty excited about that since they haven't seen the baby in a few weeks!

And that's about it for now. I'll try to come up with something more substantial for you read soon!

I'll leave you with this photo of the dinner I currently have simmering on the stove:

Favorite Part of the Day

My favorite part of the day probably isn't what most people would say. I think I would have to go with burping. No, not the actually burping, but rather when I get to put her up on my shoulder and rub my cheek on that soft little fuzzy head. Adorable.

For the past couple of night she's slept from 2-6:30am and then goes back down for another hour or two. It's been fantastic. Hope we can keep that up!

She's really starting to fill out those baby clothes too. Neck rolls are officially forming. (Noooo! I'm not ready! Stay little bitty forever!)

Interesting Percentages

I spend a lot of my time nursing. It feels like most of the day is actually spent doing this.. So I find myself browsing the internet a lot. A few days ago I came across the CDC's 2013 Breastfeeding Report Card. (http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/reportcard.htm)

I was shocked when I looked at the percentages for my state (Tennessee). We're dead last in the percent of babies that are exclusively breastfed until 6 months (4%) and second to last in percent of babies exclusively breastfed until 3 months (17.9%... Behind Mississippi at 17%). The South in general has fairly low numbers.

I know there's a decent sized margin of error, but still. Those numbers are crazy for something that's so good for both a mom and a babe.

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no issues with anyone who chooses to use formula for their baby for whatever reason. As I've experienced over the last five weeks, breast feeding is no walk in the park with sunshine and butterflies. You read and hear all the stories about breastfeeding being "a learning experience" and that it "isn't easy" and sometimes "it hurts." For some reason I guess I didn't really read too much into those phrases. Maybe I would have understood better if it said something like, "If you take a cheese grater and rub that on your nips ten times a day, you'll be more prepared for a life of breastfeeding." Those first weeks were hard. Cursing, crying, screaming, and wanting to give it up hard. But I persevered and can finally say we're in good place.

Ahhh, life. Anyway... This was all just to say I was shocked at the numbers and definitely not to judge anyone on their decisions.

[caption id="attachment_724" align="aligncenter" width="560"] The Stats[/caption]