Where does the time go???

So, I've been meaning to update this for a while, but little Belle has a spidey-sense and knows when I'm getting ready to do something and takes that opportunity to wake up and start screaming her head off. So, finally, here are some new pics. I can't believe it, but Isabelle is already one month old!! I don't know where the time goes... She is growing like a weed and changing so much. It's just amazing to watch her everyday and see the new little things she does. She has started cooing a little - at least I'm calling it cooing. She doesn't do it much, but every now and again she makes a sweet little "ahhh" or "oohh". It's so sweet. And she has the sweetest little smile. I know it's probably just gas really, but it just melts my heart when she smiles at me. I am so not looking forward to going back to work and missing out on these little moments... :(

Anyway, Isabelle had her one month checkup today and she is now 10lbs 10 oz!!! She's turning into a little chunky baby. I love it! :) She's so cute, but she is getting super heavy!! Oh yeah, she's also 22.5 inches now. So that means she has grown 1.5 inches and 2 lbs 10 oz in just 2 short weeks!!! I can't believe it! Obviously, she is still eating like a champ! She had to get a shot in her little leg too. She had big old crocodile tears and it about broke my heart. Next time is going to be so much worse because she has to get 4 shots!!! What are they thinking?!?! 4 shots for one little baby??? It's going to kill me!!

Well, other news, Grandma Flint, Grandpa Brunk and Uncle J came to visit last week. They got to have some alone time with Belle while Nick and I went to his company's Christmas party. It was very nice to have them visit! Belle got lots of loving in with all of them (and the dogs did too). Grandma and Grandpa Hietikko will be arriving either Christmas eve or Christmas day for their visit. Anyway, I think that's about it for now. I have lots of other things to try to get done before Isabelle wakes back up! Enjoy these pictures!
She looks like she's ready to go out into a blizzard but really, she just had a bath. Her little fingers and toes get so cold after her bath so I always have her bundled right up afterward until she warms up. :)
This is a picture in her pretty Christmas dress and shoes after our family pictures. I was trying to get some good pictures to send out Christmas cards and this is one of my favorites. (The other favorite is on the Christmas cards - which I just put in the mail today, so you should all get them a few days after Christmas. :) I'm always so timely.)
Another adorable picture in her beautiful dress. :)
Isabelle sporting her "Little Lumsden" onesie probably for the last time. She is too long for all her newborn stuff and is starting to outgrow her 0-3 month Gerber clothing. The 3 month Carter's clothing fits now and is still a little long, which means we might actually get a few more weeks out of it! I sure hope so because the 6 month stuff just looks so big that I can't imagine her in it!!
Family snapshot after the Christmas party. Next to food, the finger is her favorite thing. It keeps her from fussing and she would rather have a finger than a pacifier anytime!
Grandma Flint and Isabelle.
Grandpa Brunk and Isabelle.
Uncle J and Isabelle. They both had the same look on their faces just seconds before this picture was taken. It was priceless! :)

Well, that's it for now. I will try to get some more pictures posted after Christmas sometime! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year! :)

Girls day out... and then some.

So, Miss Isabelle and I had our first lunch out with the girls today.  It was very nice.  Amber and KP loved up on her the whole lunch and she stayed awake (with minimal fussing) for them the whole time!  She loves the attention! :)

We also went shopping this week.  We went to Kohl's, Target and Giant and she slept almost the entire time.  She started fussing when we were at Kohl's and it was time to leave.  (It was lunch time and she was ready to eat!)  So I have been figuring out her schedule a little better and am starting to figure out when she will sleep for a long time and when she won't so if I need to get out to run some errands, I have a very small window of time in which to do it!

So, Grandma Flint, Grandpa Brunk and Uncle Jeremy are coming out to visit next week and Grandma and Grandpa Hietikko are coming out the week between Christmas and New Year.  We are excited to have company (and a little help so I might get a little nap in every once in a while).  I still haven't mastered the art of "sleeping when the baby sleeps"... in fact, I haven't mastered it at all.  I don't get any sleep during the day, but I'm doing okay with the sleep I get at night.  And if I can get Belle to go back to sleep at her 7 or 8 o'clock wake up, I go back to sleep with her then.  I have also learned that I have a much better chance of getting her to go back to sleep at this time if I put her in bed with me.  In fact, she ALWAYS sleeps better if I put her in bed with me, but it's not something that I do often because I don't want her to get used to sleeping with us and before you know it, you have a 2 or 3 year old child sleeping with you and then good luck getting them to sleep in their own bed after that... but anyway, sometimes I'm just so tired and I just put her in bed with me and usually I fall back asleep before she does!!!  Anyway, I can't really remember where I was going with this story, so I'll just stop with the sleep habits here...

So, we've been getting some gifts in the mail the past couple days... Miss Isabelle now has quite a Michigan Tech wardrobe!!  I am proud to say that she will be sporting MTU parfinalia until about 18 months of age!!! :)  A special "Thank you" to Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom for her very first MTU hoodie.  I absolutely love it! :)  And a special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Lumsden for the adorable pink MTU onesie and the bib. :)  If I wasn't so tired and lazy, I would take pictures and post them here for you all to see, but, well, I'm too tired and lazy. :)

Okay, that's about it for me.  Belle is probably going to wake up to eat in the next couple minutes, so I'm going to relax for a few minutes until that happens...

Oh - one last bit of information... We FINALLY found a daycare accepting infants (I have called more than 25 places and only 1 place is accepting infants...).  Anyway, we are going to go meet with this lady Monday.  The only problem is that her hours are 6:45 - 4:30... That's going to make it really rough, but it's do-able if I get to work by about 7:15 and only take a half hour lunch...  anyway, there were two other places that will have openings for infants in April and in July, so I will probably call them back and make appointments to meet with them too and at least if we don't like the first one, or the hours are too hard for us to make, we can at least have other options come spring... ugh... this whole motherhood and responsibility thing is killing me already... :)  JK  I'm loving it. :)

Ooops - I forgot!

I forgot to tell you all that we went to the doctor Thursday for Isabelle's 2 week checkup and she is now 8 lbs even and 21 inches long.  That means she has gained over a pound in the last two weeks and grown an inch.  She's a champ!   We can really tell that she's growing too.  She no longer fits into some of her newborn clothes (but the 0-3 month stuff is still really quite big on her, but we use it anyway!) and Nick says he can really tell when he swaddles her because her little feet stick out the end of the blanket now!  :)  But she's still very content and just a very good baby.  We are so blessed! :)

I am planning to get out today to get Christmas pictures taken, but it's already 3:00 and we haven't moved and Belle still needs a bath before we get out... so maybe tomorrow instead??? I don't know, but if we don't go soon, she's not going to fit into her Christmas dress!!!  Yikes!  I'll post those pictures when we get them done.  :)

Have a great weekend!

Tired Mama

Well, I am finally getting around to posting some more pictures.  This whole being home during the day with a baby thing is tiring!! Holy cow.  I feel like I should have so much time to get things done around the house, but every time I turn around, Belle is waking up, crying and wanting to eat and I never really seem to get anything done until Nick gets home and can watch her for a little bit.  It's crazy.  On the up side of things, we have been really quite lucky and she has been getting up only two or three times a night (knock on wood) except last night which was terrible... Belle was up from 8:00 until 2am crying and being fussy.  Every time she would fall asleep and we would put her in the bassinet and she would wake up again... finally she fell asleep at 2, just to get back up at 5 and was up until 7:30...  I was exhausted.  Then she got back up from 9:30 til 11 and finally mommy got to rest a little from 11 until 2 (catnaps between her fussing, but rest just the same... I'll take it!)  Luckily she is sleeping right now (she keeps making little squeaking and crying noises over there though).  Hopefully she'll be down for another hour or so so I can get some laundry and dishes done.

Little Isabelle got a wonderful package in the mail yesterday from Grandma and Grandpa Hietikko.  She got a beautiful little dress and red shoes and a little dolly and some adorable puppy slippers (for when she gets a little bigger).  You will see pictures of the dress and shoes as soon as I get some time to play dress up again! :)  In the meantime, here are some more pictures from this week...
This is my sleepy little girl after her bath.  I love getting her picture after the bath.  Her hair gets all fuzzy and sticky-outie and is just so darn cute. :)  I love it!  She still has lots of hair and hopefully she doesn't lose it.  Her eyelashes are so long!! She's going to be a real heartbreaker! Daddy is going to have to get a couple shotguns!! ;)

One of her favorite places to be - snuggled up with mama!! :)
Just so darn cute.  Sleeping after another bath.  I sure wasn't prepared for this bath... I did everything backwards.  Fed first, then bath then diaper... She was up for quite a while after that... I now know that you should do bath time in the following order:  Bath, diaper, food... That should put her to sleep!  We will test it tonight.

She's a little angel.  Sleeping in the warm sunshine! :)

Well, that's it for me.  Have to go get that laundry going before Nick gets home with dinner and Belle wakes up!!  Will post more later.