A Pumpkin for my silly Punkin

Today we started our first tradition as a family! We went pumpkin picking at a local farm. It was fun! My parents came along also. We all had lunch at a pizza place up the street then headed to the farm. It was a really cute place with a market, I had never been there. Makenna amused everyone with her silly noises on the hayride out to the patch. Such a goof. I know she wasn't as excited as I was about our new tradition but next year she will be! I found a really cute pumpkin sweat outfit on sale at Babies R Us so she was adorable and festive too! It ended up being pretty warm and sunny though so the sweat shirt didnt last too long. Because the sun was shining so much she didn't really want to open her eyes up bright eyed like she usually does. But we ended up getting a few good pics anyway!













~In other news~

- We are moving along pretty quickly (considering) upstairs. Makenna's room will hopefully be done by the end of the week. We have both her room and our room painted. Mr. Jersey is working on getting up the wainscoting and then comes the flooring. I'm excited for it to be done! It will make life much easier and more organized!

- I found a new arts and craft project. I was browsing through Etsy a few months ago and found these ADORABLE letters (I forget the Etsy seller so if anyone knows, let me know so I can give them credit!).

They were pretty pricey though so I figured Id try it myself. I used orange instead of the pink since her room is orange and yellow. They aren't 100% finished but here is what they look like so far-



The Latest in Makenna Developments

~She still hasn't figured out how to get back onto her back after rolling onto her stomach. She definitely tries though so I give her credit! Although in the last week she has become a belly sleeper due to it, she seems to like it better.

~She is holding herself up MUCH better while on her stomach. She can actually push herself up so high that she can peek over the top of the pack and play. We are definitely rushing to get her room done and get her in a crib!

~She laughs! I have gotten a few giggles out of her in the past month- here and there. Nothing I would really consider a laugh though. This weekend she decided just about everything is funny. And her laugh is SO adorable and contagious! Yesterday my Dad was sitting with her on their deck and Cedar (the old-man family dog) would come over to check out Makenna and she would laugh her butt off! She is use to her little Neiko so maybe the sight of a big dog (he is a lab) was exciting! Mr. Jersey was playing with her in front of mirrors yesterday too and she loved it. So cute.

~She blows bubbles. Like its her job. All over the place. I constantly have to have a rag with me because she is a drooly mess!

~She thinks anything that is in reach of her little arms is hers. And hers to taste. No matter if I'm holding my phone, a drink, if we are in front of the keyboard...she's goin for it!

~She has decided she doesn't need nap time. Yep. No naps. She isn't too bad with it actually. She doesn't usually get "over tired" since she goes to bed around 7:30 now that its darker earlier. Sometimes she will fall asleep during a feeding for about 5-10 mins but then she wakes up bright eyed and ready for her clown (thats me) to entertain her! I would like her to take some kind of nap during the day though, it would be so much easier for me to get things done...and I wouldnt have to do a mini novel of a blog at 11 pm.

~She is trying to sit! She is over being held like a "baby". Not that she was ever REALLY into it though. If you try to have her relax in your lap- she is doing little crunches to pull herself up. She is still wobbly but definitely in the next few weeks she will have it down and be sitting! When she has something in her head, there is no stopping her!

~We have also decided that I am going to teach her baby sign language. I saw it on an episode of Quints by Surprise. They taught their babies it before they could talk so they could communicate with them. Seems to be a fun activity that Makenna and I can work on during the day once she is a little older and can mimic us better.

~She has decided that Neiko is her bff. She loves petting him, grabbing his ears, nose, feet and tail. Neiko TOTALLY eats it up. He loves it, he loves her! He doesn't even get the slightest bit mad when she tugs on his ears or tail. He just comes back licking her. Its hard to believe that I was concerned how he would be with a baby or if he would be insanely jealous. He loves that Makenna is a part of our family and gets just as excited to see her as he does us.

~Lastly, I'm not sure where she got it from but she makes this silly dinosaur noise when she is excited. Mr. Jersey seems to think it came from one of her toys that makes a lion roar noise. Maybe!



Wu! That was a long post. If you hung in there with me- you're a champ! I hope every one has a great week and a Happy and safe Halloween!

Heaven has gained an angel

The world has lost an amazing man. My Pop, or Father Pop as I have referred to him as, passed away on the 12th. This weekend we had the services in CT. It was hard. I absolutely adored my Pop. Although I didnt see him as much as I would have liked, I always felt close to him and I completely admired him for all he has done. He led an amazing life. A husband of a beautiful woman, a father of 6 girls, a grandfather of 12 and a great grandfather of 2 little girls. Not to mention he has been a catholic priest for 17 years and has had his own parish for 11 years.

He has been through SO much throughout the years medically. I cant help but be relieved that he isn't in pain anymore and that he is happily looking down on us with my Nana. He will be missed more than words can express though. Its hard to believe that he wont put his hand on my face and say "hello beautiful" in his deep voice when greeting me anymore. Or I wont hear his laugh or get one of those warm and comforting hugs he was so great at. Im not sure its fully hit me. Its hard to stop and realized the magnitude of it all while taking care of a 3.5 month old 24/7. When she goes to sleep or is with her Daddy and I get to focus on other things it starts to hit me. I keep telling myself that he is in a better place though and although Im not sure what I believe in religiously, I truely believe he is with my Nana and looking down on us.

I'm also so glad he was able to meet and christen Makenna a few weeks ago. Not only was it special to me and something I will never forget, it gave my family the chance to go up and see him. With our family living in many states, its hard to say if we all would have made it up there to spend time with him one last time.

I'm sure Pop isnt in Heaven blogging and wont read this but if I could I would tell him how he has always been and will always continue to be a big part in my life. He will never be fogotten and will always be missed and loved.










Rest in Peace, Pop

Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'

Makenna is now offically on the move! She rolled over on the 9th. She has been arching her back and laying to the side for about a week or more now but Saturday, she woke up determined. She realized that if she kicked over her leg that she could ALMOST roll over...if that little arm didnt get in the way. She wasnt giving up though. Finally she realized she had to pull her arm in closer to her body...VICTORY! So there she was proudly on her belly. But after the "now what" realization set in, she panicked. Her arms and feet went flying all over as she yelled like she was mad at me for putting her there. Im not gonna lie, it was a little funny watching her flop around. I was hoping she would realized how to flip herself over but she didnt. Everytime I flipped her over to her back, she was right over onto her belly again in a matter of seconds. She was proud.

My reality hit in that night though. My proudness (pretty sure I just made that up) quickly turned to sleep loss. After her 5 am feeding I laid her into her bed and there she went, onto her belly...and the flopping/ screaming began. Awesome. I flipped her back onto her back and there she went onto the belly again. Of course I couldnt leave her there, she wouldnt calm down and I couldnt sleep knowing she wasnt comfortable being on her belly. After about 1/2 hr of sitting with her and trying to get her to stay on her back I gave up and brought her into the bed with us so I could hold her and know she was okay. She didnt want to cuddle though, she just wanted to roll. We went back and forth between our bed and her bed for about 2+ hours until she finally was tired enough to fall asleep with us in bed.

Last night, I got smart though. I ended up stuffing a rolled blanket under the sheet so she couldnt roll over. Of course she ended up getting herself rolled over after a while but atleast it wasnt an all night thing.

Im hoping she calms down with the rolling over or learns how to roll back onto her back, quickly.

Also, she seems to have a new goofy habit every week. Two weeks ago she would puff our her cheeks and make this almost kissy face with her lips like a little monkey. Then last week she decided it would be cute to stick her toung out, all the time. Goof. This week she will roll to her side and put both her hands up to her cheeks and pushes her cheeks in while making all kinds of silly sounds. Little miss personality. I dont know where she comes up with this stuff!

Being a stay at home Mom sometimes drives me nuts to be stuck in the house most of the week but I couldnt imagine missing out on all these little moments with her and watching her grow and learn.

Blessed in more ways than one

As you can see, I changed the blog name. I'm not 100% satisfied with the new name but didn't feel the old one fit well since most of my writings have been about my daughter and not our animals. I have decided that I am going to print all these posts and put them into a book for her also, starting with the during the pregnancy posts. I think it will be neat for her to read about everything when she is older. I just wish I started the pregnancy posts sooner than I did so I had the entire pregnancy. But- whatcha gonna do?!

Anyway, the Christening in CT was this past weekend. It went AMAZING. Makenna was in such a great mood. She slept almost the whole way up, we stopped about 45 mins before we got to my Grandfathers for a bathroom break and she woke up so I fed her. Then she was awake the rest of the trip and happy to see everyone once we got there. I'm pretty sure she didn't miss one person with the smiles. Around feeding time she was super gassy and screamed- a lot. We got her fed, dressed and calmed down though. Then we headed over to the church (which was just a short walk since its right next to the rectory). Side Note: If you remember from the previous post, my Grandfather is a catholic priest and has his own parish in CT. End side Note. Father Pop (as we sometimes call him) made the ceremony pretty quick though. Makenna started to fuss a little and then turned it into her goofy noises as she usually does. Everyone got a kick out of it. The ceremony was really special and intimate since it was a few members of the family and we were the only ones in the church. The day couldn't have been more beautiful, even the weather cooperated. After everything was done, a few of us stayed in the church for a bit to take some pictures while everyone headed back to the rectory for lunch. We layed Makenna down on the floor and she let that little personality shine. She was talking, smiling and kicking around. She had a blast. Her Godmother (my cousin), Godfather (my brother), my Aunt and Uncle...they all loved it. I'm pretty sure we got about 200 pictures between my Uncles camera and mine. After about a half hour the smiles began to turn though so I headed back to feed her, change her and put her down for a nap. A few laps around the house in the stroller did the trick. They key is to use the bumpy grass though, she doesn't like a smooth ride as much.

Then Mr. Jersey and I got to spend some much needed time with the family. It was great sitting around the table chatting and laughing. Later, my parents took my Dad's side of the family for a walk into the adorable town to see the little shops. They took Makenna for a walk with them also and she loved it!

Everyone ended up staying for dinner also before they made their journeys back home. It was so good seeing everyone and we were so thankful they could make the trip. I'm really glad everyone got to see my little munchkins personality also. The last few times we saw everyone she was a big time fusser so this was a nice change. Also I'm really glad she got to meet Pop and her Godmother Kathryn. They are both really important people in my life and I was so happy she got to meet them. Oh, and also my cousins Chris, Buddy and Shannon who she hadn't met yet!

All in all, aside from some missed family, I don't think the trip could have been more perfect. We have such amazing family and I cant thank everyone enough for joining us and helping make the day so perfect!

Here are some pics of the day!












On Monday Makenna and I had a little photo shoot to try to get some really great posed shots of her in the dress. Take a look!

Time flies!

Pretty crazy that my lil punkin is 3 months today! She is growing smarter by the day also! In the last week she has decided her hands were pretty awesome. They are not only great for chewing and sucking on, they are also fantastic for pulling Mommy's hair, grabbing Mommy and Daddy's face to pull them in for kisses and even for putting every toy possible in her mouth.

Last night I introduced bath toys! I'm pretty sure she thought bath time couldn't get more fun than splashing, until she met her new bath time seahorse...

It was love at first sight


And now for the taste test...


Mmmm. Definitely passed the taste test. Luckily Mommy had my back and didnt let it touch the soapy bath water!


Ive also started Christmas shopping- like a mad woman. We found a few great sales on baby toys in the last month so Ive bought her a few things here and there. Everything is so adorable though and I picture her playing with it in her playroom (that we haven't even started renovation on). Like I said, a mad woman. I'm pretty sure Ill have her done in two weeks at the rate I'm going. :o)

We also picked out her Halloween costume! The original plan was for my Mom to make an adorable Panda costume. However, my cousin told me about a SUPER cute giraffe costume from Old Navy. Now, I know no one will believe me but I really didn't have any intention of her being a giraffe. The costume was way too cute though and only $16!



And, another buy that I'm excited for is this awesome leaf (shown in the picture below) from Ikea. Mom and I hit up Ikea over the weekend in search of awesome accessories for the nursery and we both fell in love and thought it would look adorable over her crib since we will have the whole jungle theme going on...



Her nursery is still a work in progress though. Since we have the funky ceiling upstairs, we decided to do built in storage in the walls (similar to the built ins in the picture below). So far we have the wall demoed and the carpet ripped up but since the walls(like everything in this house) are plaster and lathe, its more involved than we planned and will take longer especially with Mr. Jersey doing side jobs. Ill be sure to post pics when its done though!



Lastly, I'm super excited about this weekend. We are heading up to CT to my Grandfathers church so he can christen Makenna. He actually isn't doing well and we talked about canceling the christening and just doing a visit but he insists we go with the plan. He cant wait to christen his Great Granddaughter. I'm still worried it will be a lot on him but a lot of my family will be up there to help out and we wont let him push himself too far. It really means a lot to us to have him be the one to christen her. It makes it that much more special and also she will be wearing the same christening dress that my Nana (his wife) made and that all my cousins and I wore. My Nana wasn't able to finish putting everyones initials in the dress though so my Mom took it to have everyones initials (including my munchkins) embroidered in it. Its a really special family tradition that I'm honored my daughter could be part of. Also my cousin (her godmother) will be flying up from Florida! I;m really excited to have that much needed family time with my Grandfather and some of the family we dont get to see often.

I'm sure I will have pictures to post after this weekend!

I figured its about time for an update on our lil pumpkin. She is doing well, getting big so fast! She is looking more and more like me when I was a baby (but she is much cuter!).

The first four weeks
For the first month she was a major fusser. If she wasn't sleeping or eating...she wasn't happy. During our visits at the pediatrician they couldn't believe how fast she was growing. She came home from the hospital weight 8.9 and a week later she weighed a whole lb more. At the 3 week appointment she was another 2 lbs heavier so she was gaining about a 1 lb a week. The doctors said they usually like to see them grow an ounce a day, our princess was growing 2 ounces a day! Im curious to see what her weight is at the 2 month appointment in a few weeks!

Mommy hood took a bit getting use to and the first month wasn't so easy, especially since she was fussy. She threw us for a loop and started screaming and spitting up a lot during some feedings at about 4 weeks also. After a visit to the doctor, we thought it was acid reflux so she was put on medication. After a few weeks of meds things were still the same and I figured out she gets very gassy from the way she breathes while nursing and even the smallest bubble was bothering her. So I took her off the meds and it has gotten better with burping her multiple times during a feeding.

During the first month she was having a hard time falling asleep during the day and would scream from being over tired. We tried everything. She didn't like the swing at all, wouldn't lay down in her crib, I had doc orders (because of the c-section) that I could not to go for walks or drive for 6 weeks and it would take me forever to calm her down by holding her. It was a very frustrating and upsetting feeling of not being able to calm your own baby down. Sometimes we both rocked in the chair, crying. Of course she sleeps light like me so once she fell asleep I couldn't put her down without her waking up screaming again.

We did do some traveling with her in the first 4 weeks though. I had to, I was going stir crazy being in the house and it seemed she was too. She has always been an alert baby. Loves to look around, has held her head up since day 1. So I had a feeling she was just as bored in the house as I was. We took a few day trips to see family on the weekends and she fell in love with the sky. She would stare at it in amazement.

Into the second month
Six weeks seemed to be the point where things smoothed out some. She became less fussy as she learned to sleep during the day. We also started a bed time with her which is probably one of the best things we have done as parents. Her bedtime is 9:30 but more times than not she shows signs that she is ready for bed sooner. I really have to say we are blessed when it comes to bedtime sleep. We put her in her pjs, kiss her goodnight and lay her down in the pack and play in our room. After about 10 minutes of her talking and kicking around, shes out. This continues all night after feedings. We also learned in the 2nd month that she didn't like being held. Go figure. I think we had the only newborn in the world that didn't like being held- by anyone. The bouncer and her playmat were my saviors.

Around the time that she turned two months, she discovered her hands. She has always kept her hands in tight fists, since the day she was born. Once she realized she had control of those little fists, she would hold them up and stair at them in amazement, sometimes moving her hand with her wrist. We would joke because she totally looked like a stoner! Within a few days she realized she could concentrate and move those fists into her mouth- when she wanted to, not just by accident. Then began fist sucking. There never was a particular finger that ended up in her mouth, just any part of the fist. She had a new love.

Into the third month
As she gets older, it gets more exciting to watch her interact with things and learn. Last week (at 10 weeks) she started to grab the giraffe on her bouncer. The crazy mother I am was SO excited for her. I even called Mr.Jersey and told him to get home soon so he could see his little girl learning. He was equally excited.
Our little girl was growing up so fast! We had a doctors appointment the next day and learned she was growing faster than we thought. Our 10 week old was now 15lbs, 24 inches and already started to show signs of her teeth growing in. The doctor said usually their teeth start to grow in between 5-7 months, so it looked like she was gonna be early with the teeth. He also said that trying to grab for things was early. I personally think she is trying to catch up to her older cousins. She has always had this frustration about her that you could tell she just wanted to get up and go but couldnt. I think she is stubborn and determined to do what she can to catch up. Her younger cousin Lia was the same way, with 3 older boy cousins running around, she learned to move faster also. There is no denying that stubborness runs in both our families!

Our next big steps are the christening and her bedroom!

Im excited for the christening in the begining of October since my brother and cousin will be her godparents and we will be traveling up to my grandfather's in CT so he can christen her. We are also having her christened in the family gown which is really special to me since my grandmother made it and I also wore it.

We should be getting her bedroom started within the next week or so also. We picked up her crib at Target last week and Mr. Jersey is going to install build in shelves in the wall and also install new flooring. Then its paint and decorating!

Hopefully I will be able to keep up with the blog more often so I dont have these crazy long posts!

Expect the unexpected

So as you know, I went into the hospital on Monday, around 1 am on Tuesday they inserted a folie catheter to help get me dialated some. I think I slept about an hour that night/morning. At about 8 am I was about 5 cm dialated and my contractions were pretty close together so they decided to break my water instead of giving me petocine to induce. About two hours later I wasnt progressing without the petocine so they gave me that to speed things up a bit. At 1 pm I was 7 cm dialated...and excited I wasnt far from having my baby! Contractions continued...no pain medication just as planned...check up after check up, I was still between 7 and 8 cm and the contractions were pretty strong. I lie, "pretty strong" is definitely an understatement. Im stubborn and wouldnt scream show pain, I just did the breathing and relaxation techniques to get through them. The doctors and nurses all told me they were impressed how in control I was and wasnt making a peep. I just didnt think screaming would help things and was surprised to hear they thought I was in control. SO anyway, at 7:30 pm I was still only 7-8 cm. It seemed my stubborn little princess wasnt dropping, so they said they would like to do a c-section because usually they like to see 1 cm every hour and obviously I was far behind that schedule. I knew it went against everything I wanted but I was EXHAUSTED. I was falling asleep in the 1 minute between contractions and didnt know how much longer I could last or if I would even have the strenth to push out the baby. Plus they had broken my water about 12 hours ago and even though she wasnt showing any stress, I was worried about the baby. I went against everything I believed in and went for the c-section. At 8:45, they rolled me down to the o/r. I dont think I have ever been so nervous in my life. I litterally shook the ENTIRE time! They put the spinal in and cut me open. Before I knew it, I heard my baby girl cry for the first time and I instintly burst into tears. They said she looked amazing and was big! 9 lbs 2 ounces and 21 inches! Once she was cleaned up a bit they brought her over to see us. She was perfect, even the nurses said she looked like a porclin doll. The doctor and nurses were amazing and so nice. They were actually pretty funny. They started talking about one of their daughters going to the midnight premier of Eclipes and then got into all the other vampire shows and books. The doctor said how she believes there are really vampires- not like they show in movies but people who eat blood. Kinda ironic that they are stitching me back up and talking about blood suckers so I told them they better not suck any of my blood. They all laughed and told me there was plenty of it. I probably shoulda been freaked out by the thought of plenty of my blood but I was just happy our baby was here. They took her back to finish checking her and noticed that she was pretty congested and they were having a hard time clearing it out, Si they told us they called Neonatal to come down and look at her (insert instatnly worried mom here). But before neonatal could get there they had her all cleared out. Mr. Jersey was able to go to the recovery room with her while they finished everything up with me. A few minutes later, I joined my family in the recovery room. The nurse that assisted us in the recovery room was awesome. She helped me try breast feeding after about a half hour which I was really happy about. I was afraid with having a c-section and the recovery time and medication that the baby wouldnt take to breast feeding so easily. She was a champ though! She had no latching or sucking problems. After about an hour plus in recovery we were able to go up to our room. After a long day and night it felt amazing to relax with my perfect little family.

So even though it didnt go as planned, holding my baby girl in my arms was the perfect ending.