Catching up - 5 and 6 months

So I've realized I don't make time to blog as much as I'd like, so I'll try to catch up and just record some of Reese's milestones, so I can always remember when she started doing things.

4 months - started opening mouth when she sees the bottle..she recognizes it and grabs and smashes it to her face.
4.5 months - started really noticing Logan and laughing at him when he licks her or runs around

5 months - starting to just do 2 naps most of the week
           - watched her first Baby Einstein shows and some Mickey Mouse clubhouse - it kept her attn for a bit
           - weighs about 16 lbs (weighed at home)

6 month stats: 18 lbs (88%), 92% in height

6 month shots - that night she slept over 14 hours! I had to wake her so she'd be on schedule for our first flight that day to PA...July 22nd. Flight went well, was alseep boarding plane, but woke up on take off and cried, so I fed her and that helped her ears. My mom and I had to entertain her for the hour+flight.

6 months, 1 week - sitting up on own for minutes (right after Leah's shower in PA)

6 months, 3 weeks - starting to crawl..she rolls and lunges forward but gets to what is in front of her, especially if it's her bottle or a cell phone. :) She can move a couple feet forward.

She Rolls!

So one night right after Reese turned 4 months old, I looked at our video monitor before heading to bed and there she was all swaddled in her Woombie...face down! It freaked me out, so we ran upstairs to turn her over and she rolled back again, and again and again. We had to take her out of her Woombie, since it binds her arms and couldnt let her sleep like that. She began sleeping on her belly that night and has ever since then (today is about 17 days later). It was very scary for me when she would bury her face in her bed, but now that she was able to roll, we knew we could let her do it. She only sleeps on her belly now and will not ever sleep on her back. Hopefully at some point she will.

Her bedtime used to vary between 7 and 9pm, but to keep her on a schedule, Ty has made her bedtime 8pm, which is very nice. I try to go to bed at the late hour of 10pm, so we have a couple hrs to ourselves to hang out and watch tv before I hit the sack. She was waking up about 6:30/6:45ish pretty regularly but now some mornings it's 5:30. I try to put her back to bed those days, but she's usually back up around 7am.

Now Reese rolls over and over and over on the ground and loves it. She likes being on her belly now too and can really hold her head up high. She only rolls to one side typically, so once she gets to the end of the room we have to move her back to where she started so she can do it again.

Check out this footage:

No more leaving her alone on the floor unattended!!

4 Months!!

Here are some 4 month shots on the infamous green chair and with the pink bear, She smiled a bit and just opened her mouth wide a lot too:

And one in the bumbo..her new fav spot.

A few days after Reese turned 4 months old, Patrice, Ally and Erika (college friends/rommates) came to visit. We had a great weekend and hung out with Meg and Lucy too. The girls went out on Sat. night in the Dillon minivan to Europa (in Cov) and LBYC! Earlier that day we went to the park. Here are some pics:

At President's Park with their "Best Friends" shirts

In the "Burpberry" onesie from Ally 

Reese yawning before we went out (she was so tired at this point, but stayed up because of all the action at our house)

Then a couple minutes later she was out - sucking on her fingers of course. 

4 MONTH DR. APPT. - 6 days after Reese turned 4 months old, Ty took her to her Dr. appt. and these were her stats:

WEIGHT: 15.3 lbs (81% - woohoo!)
HEIGHT: 25" (74%)
BMI 17.19

She got a couple shots and the Dr. said she has mild torticollis (head tilt). We take her to PT tomorrow and will see what we need to do - maybe stretches or something? Hopefully it can be fixed soon. It sounds funny when I say Im taking my 4 month old to physical therapy..but at least it's not serious. Or hope not!
They also told us we can  to give her rice cereal in the next month or 2 and then can start introducing foods. Im in no rush, since bottles are easy, but Im sure it'll be fun to start her on other things in a bit too.

15 and 16 weeks old

So updating this blog every 3-4 weeks was NOT my intention, I'd like to post entries once a week, but that just doesn't happen. At least Im getting things down eventually though. This is a great e-baby book and way for me to look back at Reese growing up.  (Thanks to my co-worker Nicole for the idea).

15 weeks:
Reese was sleeping through the night (swaddled) for the past 5 weeks, but got up 3 nights this week for some reason. Then she slept through again. You just never can predict them, I guess. She has been taking longer midday naps, as well as one in the morning and 2 others throughout the day still. She is over 14 lbs, too! She's beefing up. She gets cuter and cuter every day!
We've noticed some of her hair is finally starting to fall out in the back and on the sides. We find it in her bed, on blankets and stuck in the rolls in her neck.

Grandpa came to visit and watched her a few times on his own.

Thanks to Jen for the bow, Tara for the onesie and Mimi for the skirt/pants!

I love my ball from Megs

Derby party where she was overwhelmed by all the people and cried most of the time. 

Half naked babies are cute!

Tummy time isnt her favorite yet.

Still getting used to the bumbo!

See the bald horizontal stripe? 

I also enjoyed my first Mother's Day. Ty (and Reese) got me a card, Pandora charm, made me breakfast and let me sleep in! Ty also cleaned the bottles and pump parts all day, which no one likes to do. We also went to Gram's house for dinner. Again, like the Derby party she was overwhelmed and cried most of the time. That was a rough 2 days in a row. Thank goodness for the Moby though, which is where she slept at both places!

 
16 weeks
She is now starting to reach (slightly) and grab for items. She can now also hold one thing and bring her one hand to meet the other. She is putting this in her mouth a lot now! Still won't really take a pacifier, but loves to suck on toys and her hands. She even held her bottle by herself a couple times this week - with our supervision of course.

14 weeks old

Reese has laughed a couple more times, but doesn't happen too often yet. We LOVE when she does and keep trying to sing and dance around to get her to giggle. The only times she has she has been on the activity mat or changing table.

We also noticed this week that she can see a farther distance than we thought. She was in the family room and Ty was up on the 2nd floor balcony and she followed him as he walked along. That was very cool to see. Also, she has started to watch her hands and feet as she moves them. I was washing bottles and doing laundry and for 20 or so minutes she occupied herself by watching her own limbs move, ha.  Even though they are small developments, they are awesome to witness.

14 week shots:

Lucy also visited this week:

During tummy time she can actually hold her head up for a bit now:

(13 weeks old here)

1st Easter; Browns' Visit

Reese's first Easter was fun. Terry and Earl came in on Friday morning and stayed until Sunday evening. On Friday we stayed in, Saturday we went to Gram's house and Sunday was Bonnie's. We were all worn out after the weekend, especially Reese. She slept 12.5 hours Sunday night and napped a lot on Monday. She actually had been napping a lot longer this week (in addition to her long nights), maybe she's going through a growth spurt! Alright by me...she is such a good girl!

 She fell asleep in Joe's arms right after this shot.

 Cousin Hollyn kissing baby Reese.

3 Months Old

On 4/20 Reese turned 3 months old. She is getting chubby!! :)

At about 12-13 weeks we found out she is ticklish! When you rub her ribs, or sometimes even her neck she makes this weird deep laugh that she can't help. It's funny! She doesn't like to be tickled for too long though.

The Thursday before Easter Reese and I took her first trip to the mall. She stayed in the Bjorn the whole time and was very good! We also visited the Easter Bunny.

She looks pretty unenthused, but sat there very nicely in her bunny outfit and skirt!

PS- Im blogging right now, as Im watching the Royal Wedding coverage from last night and Reese is sleeping in the Moby on my chest. Love it!

First Night Away from Mom and Dad

For our 3 year anniversary, Jen offered to keep Reese overnight so we could go to dinner and have a night to ourselves. It was wonderful. Reese was a little over 12 weeks old when she slept over night at Jen and Joe's - her first time away from mom and dad! We dropped her off at 7pm and she fell asleep at 7:05pm for the night. So they didnt get much awake Reese time until the morning. Jen told us she couldn't pick her up before noon the next day (we got her about 1pm). All went well and Reese slept for 11.5 hours in Jen's pack n play.

On our night out Ty and I went to The Summit (at Cinci State) and had a great dinner. They gave us a 'special table' and the chef sent out some complimentary dishes (bone marrow, foie gras). We weren't sure why, but enjoyed them. Then the chef came out and said "Hi Lauren"- but I still didnt know him. He thought I was another Lauren Brown. He seemed a little embarrassed, but we were thankful for the free food!

It was definitely weird to wake up and not have her here and not have anything to do. A nice little break, but we were happy to pick her up!

We plan to go out to a nice dinner (just the 2 of us) at least once a month. So far we're on track...hope we can keep it up!

(No photos of this event....sorry!)

Heather, Hollyn and Gram's Visit

The day after the photoshoot, Heather, Hollyn and Great Gram came to visit. This was the first time Hollyn met her cousin Reese. Hollyn ran around most of the time and said "dog," "baby," "ball" and other cute words. I think she liked Logan and was able to pet him a few times. Gram held Reese and got her to sleep. Before Hollyn fell on our coffee table and got a black eye (sorry Hollyn), we were able to get some pics of the 2 kids together. They are about 13 months apart. 

12 Week Photoshoot

On April 14th, we took Reese to the Photosmith studio for her 2nd photoshoot. They were my wedding photographers and I won a free session when I was pregnant, which was great.   Even though Reese didn't give us a full smile once that hour, we still got some cute shots, poses and a smirk or 2. They did a great job! Here are some of our favs:

Laughing out Loud

At 11 weeks Reese laughed for the first time. It was the best thing! Ty was playing peek a boo with her over her activity mat and making all kids of weird sounds, which made her laugh. It was short but so cute and I teared up a bit when I heard it. I wonder how I'll be when she starts to roll over, crawl, talk and walk. :) She has only laughed one other time since then (about a week later), but looks like she wants to a lot. Hopefully more laughs will start coming soon! She still smiles a lot, though you cant tell it from all her pictures. It's usually in the mornings, or right after naps.

I took Reese to Lisa Rose's baby shower at Jen's house on April 10th. It was her first baby shower (out of the womb). Kaia Fritz was also there who is just 6 weeks older. Everyone loved holding the babies. Here's Jen and I with Reese after the shower.

Also this week Reese received her NDA Panda Alum Cub bib in the mail from my alma mater. So here she is at 12 weeks old, with a matching bow, of course:

A FUTURE PANDA....I hope!