5 Months

Preface: I am obsessed with a website called Pinterest. It's amazing. I found this idea on there that looks like this:



so I decided to do it for the girls. I like how it came out, and i think I'll keep doing it.

4 months!!!!

I feel like time has sped up exponentially these past two months. She is no longer my little newborn, but a giggly, engaging, smiley person who is by far the most popular member of our home. We all dote on her, kiss her adorable cheeks, and will do anything to hear her laugh.

She is a rolling maniac, and is now unable to be swaddled, and that is the challenge we are facing right now. She has a love/hate relationship with it. She sleeps AMAZING in it, but will kick up a fuss when you are putting her in the swaddle. She is now able to escape from it too- and when I say escape, I mean she is completely out and on the other side of the crib. Houdini. So we are back to getting up a couple times a night- hopefully it won't last long, and she will figure out how to sleep swaddleless.

She had her appointment on Wednesday, and she is now 12 pounds 4 ounces, and 24 inches long. She is in the 40th for her height, and 25th for her weight.

She. Is. Awesome. I can't say that enough.

5 Things

5 Favorite Movies

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Sleepless in Seattle
3. Newsies
4. So I Married an Axe Murderer
5. Young Victoria

5 Songs that always make me cry

1. I Am by Nicole Nordeman
2. In my Daughter's Eyes by Martina McBride
3. Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood
4. Why by Nicole Nordeman
5. Why by Rascal Flatts (not a typo- both songs are called "Why"

5 Things that get me fired up

1. Being (and feeling) judged
2. Being misunderstood
3. Games where the Steelers are losing
4. Cold weather
5. When my favorite contestants get kicked off of American Idol

5 Reasons why I love having daughters (and children in general)

1. Mike and I make super beautiful girls
2. Matilda Jane :-)
3. They have softened Mike, and it's amazing to watch him with the girls
4. They make life 20 million times better
5. Their giggles, smiles, cuddles, and all around awesomeness.

5 favorite TV shows (Present)

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Glee
3. American Idol
4. Raising Hope
5. Castle
(Honorable Mentions: The Mentalist, The Office, Psych, Chuck)

5 Favorite TV shows (Past)

1. Lost
2. 24
3. Alias
4. Will and Grace
5. Monk

5 Favorite Books

1. A Walk to Remember
2. A Prayer for Owen Meany
3. Keeping Faith
4. Love You Mean It
5. The Notebook
(I constitute "favorite" by the fact that I have read these books multiple times)

5 Names we considered before deciding on Makaela

1. Cecelia
2. Hope
3. Celeste
4. Hailey
5. Reese

5 Boy names we considered for both pregnancies

1. Isaac Stephen (Isaac means laughter, and that is what Mike did when I told him I was pregnant with makaela, and Stephen is my dad's name)
2. Aaron Michael (After Mike's best friend, not Amy's brother) :-)
3. Elijah-nicknamed Eli (couldn't figure out a middle name that sounded good)
4. Liam
5. Noah (but now we have a Norah in the fam, so it would have been weird)

5 Favorite movie quotes

1. "You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events. - Juno
2. "If you're a bird, I'm a bird"- The Notebook
3. "So long Sucktown!"- Just Friends
4. "Did I hear a nine-r in there? Are you calling from walky talky?"- Tommy Boy
5. "You better pay for that pee-stick when you're done with it. Don't think it's yours just because you marked it with your urine!"- Juno
(and pretty much every other line in Juno- should probably put that one my favorite movie list)

Top 5 Favorite Memories

1. My wedding day
2. The birth of my children
3. The first time I saw harmony after Makaela was born
4. The birth of Norah
5. When Mike proposed to me

2 Months

Some FAQ's on my two month princess and other things:

Weight/length/percentiles?
As of today, she is 10 pounds, 3 ounces, 22 inches long. Her head was 14 1/2cm. That puts her in the 39th percentile for weight, 40th for height, and 11th for head. She is proving to be my "chunk", since Harmony didn't hit double digits till almost 6 months! Tho Harmony was taller than M at this age.

Is she sleeping through the night?
Nope. Still up twice. Usually around 2 and 6, then up for good at 7-7:30. But she is usually in bed by 8. She no longer wants that late night feeding. And even if I do wake her at 11 to feed her, she still wakes up at 2, so I usually just let her sleep. So I guess that's progress.

Who does she look more like?
I don't know, you tell me. I see her looking less and less like Harmony-who is Mike's mini-me, so I think she is looking more like me *this pleases Becca, since Makaela is her closest bet to having a child who looks like her*. I think the blue eyes make her look like Mike, but she does look a lot like my baby pictures. But this could all change, so I don't think much about it. Like my dad said, "She looks like Makaela", Well put, Papa.

How is Harmony doing with having a sister around?
She is doing awesome. She adores her. So so much. And I love watching M just light up when Harmony comes in the room, and vice versa. Harmony is DYING to play with her. She is always trying to put toys in her hands, and asking me to put her on the floor so she can be near her. The issue we have is sharing mommy in the evenings. During the day she is great. But since M is fussy at night, she requires more attention from me, and H does not like this. She constantly is asking me to put Makaela down and says "take care of me now, mommy". It's tough. To feel like I have to choose. I can honestly say that I haven't figured out how to master the "witching hour" in our home, so any advice is much appreciated.
But other than that, I am delightfully surprised at how smooth the transition was from 1 to 2. It's a crazier pace, but it's awesome. i just LOVE being a mom of 2.

How's Kemper doing with the new addition?
Awful. He is a bigger grump than ever, and he is a little depressed if you ask me. We just don't have much time for him, and as much as I hate to say or admit it, he isn't priority right now. We debate on whether we should find a new home for him- a place where he will get more attention and affection. We shall see.... we still love him tho. We really do.

Are you done having children?
Ask me in 2 years. :-)
Right now, I feel like yes, we are done. We always said we wanted 2, and having Makaela makes our family feel complete. But we aren't going to close that chapter quite yet. People always say "time to try for your boy!". This is something I won't be doing, since no one can promise me a boy next time around. What if I have twin girls? DEAR GOD, I would die. But I am not one of those people who feel like they need a boy to complete my family. I love my girls. And I am happy with my mostly estrogen-filled family. :-)

So is life good?
Yes. So very very good. And Makaela? She is more beautiful every day.

Summing it up

This


plus her


plus them


plus this little mover


Equals a pretty great morning. Yay for playdates with amazing women and their adorable kiddos. (Sorry you didn't make the blog, Carter!)

Nothing But Love

Guess


who


loves


her


Uncle Mike!?


Norah Does!!

Oh, and look who is all smiles now!?!?

Sick Days

A couple months ago, while I was still preggers with Makaela, I remember secretly dreading winter, and all that it brings. Cold. Snow. Short days. Cabin Fever. But mostly, I dread cold and flu season. I know that it's inevitable, especially when Harmony goes to day care, and is in a class of 15 (give or take) three-year-olds at church on Sundays. And I knew that it would be even harder when there were two. I thought I had prepared myself for it.

But I didn't prepare myself enough.

Not at all.

It hit our home on Valentines Day. Harmony all of a sudden darted from the dinner table to throw up. The next day, a cough started. And by the end of the week, her fever spiked. High. It was over 103, and it freaked me out. And through it all, Makaela became heavily congested, and wasn't sleeping well at all. I also feared that she would catch whatever was causing Harmony's fever.

Oh, and did I mention I had the flu? Icing on the cake, people. Icing on the nastiest, ugliest, grossest cake you ever saw.

So you can imagine my panic on Tuesday when Harmony's fever was STILL high, Makaela still wasn't sleeping for more than 30 minutes at a time (during the day- at night she was still doing very well- thank goodness, since Harmony was up every hour), and COMPANY WAS COMING. Mike's sister was coming to visit with a friend of hers, and also his mother was coming for the weekend. And my house was TRASHED. It was almost comical. ALMOST. This is what it looked like:

My table was caked in food.


My kitchen had dishes everywhere.


My living room had clutter everywhere.


And oh, my closet. Laundry piled high.


My bathroom had bath toys, damp towels, and my toiletries everywhere. (and yes, those are my winter boots in there. Don't ask)


God was feeling sorry for me, so he cut me a break. I put Makaela down for her mid-morning nap, and I put a movie on for my sick little girl and hoped for the best (just look at her- so miserable. She has a terrible cold sore, hence the bandaid on her face).



I got to work. And two hours later, I finally had a clean home. Harmony watched the entire movie and Makaela slept the whole time. And I was a cleaning maniac. It was almost therapeutic- to rid my house of germs, to make progress on SOMETHING. To get my mind off of worrying about the girls.

And it felt good. Clutter makes me stressed. Even watching house demos/renovations on TV makes me anxious. So to see my house that messy, and to not have time to do anything about it made the whole thing even more difficult. But the girls came and always will come first. We aren't out of the woods yet. We're pretty sure H now has an ear infection, and M is still having a hard time breathing. I still hate cold and flu season, and how awful it makes my girls feel. But my house is clean, and that's a start.

Bragging

I was going through my computer to "clean out the clutter" so to speak, and I was putting a bunch of pictures onto my external hard drive, and when I usually do that, I tend to get all nostalgic and look through all my old pictures. While doing that this morning, I came across Norah's one week pictures, and I stopped at the pictures of Norah's quilt. And it prompted me to brag a little bit about my mother's quilting abilities, and that she has taken the time to make them for all three of her granddaughters.


Makaela


Norah


Harmony (better late than never)

All were made with love by their Grammie. :-) Thank you, mom! I know we will treasure them forever!

Makaela was lucky enough to have TWO quilts made for her. One was made by Mike's mom, and it's awesome! She is one lucky girl! As soon as Mak (or KayKay, or Kaylee, or Reesie- she's getting quite a few nicknames these days- wakes I'm going to try to get some pics of her on that quilt too.

One Month

Our sweet girl turns one month today. I have a hard time believing it. It's strange because it feels like we just had her yesterday, yet we cannot remember life without our incredible little girl. She truly is amazing.



So far, Makaela has proved to be an easy going baby. She settled into a routine fairly quickly, eating every 2 to 3 hours, with an hour to 2 hour nap in-between feedings, except for evenings. She tends to cluster feed, so she eats about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It tends to be a little difficult only because it's Harmony's bedtime- trying to get her into her bath, her pajamas, and bed isn't easy when you have a baby who wants to constantly nurse. When Mike is home it's a non-issue, but there are a few nights a week he isn't, so it's.... interesting. :-) But I have to applaud Harmony for how well she is doing with a new baby sister. She LOVES her. Makaela is smothered in hugs and kisses during her wake times. It's adorable, yet she is a little too aggressive with her love that we have to constantly tell her to be gentle. But we try to include her in all we do with Makaela. If she cries, we ask Harmony what she thinks Makaela wants, so that way she feels important by being able to help make the decision. Best thing we ever did. She loves to help change diapers, change clothes, give her baths, and to shush her while she cries. She doesn't love when Makaela cries in the car, or when she is on mommy's lap when Harmony wants to be, but other than that, it's been a surprisingly smooth transition. Yay for big sister, Harmony! P.S, she is looking so grown up these days.



At Makaela's one month appointment, she weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces (up from 7p 6oz at her two week), and was 20 1/2 inches (up from 20 at her 2 week). She had a bout of gassiness at around 2 weeks, but with a diet change, it already seems to be going away. Thank goodness. It was sooo hard to see her in pain.

She's a pretty darn good sleeper at night- usually hitting the hay between 10, then up like clockwork at 2:30 and 5:30. She usually is up around 9ish, which is nice cuz we have an hour where Harmony has us all to herself. We eat breakfast and get dressed for the day, and usually by the time we are done with our morning routine, she is begging to get her sister up. I still send Harmony to day care two days a week. She would go insane if she stayed home every day, so it's so good for her to have that time with her friends. She BEGS to go to school. So she goes Monday and Wednesday, and is home with us Tuesday and Thursday, and Fridays are our family days. It's been a great routine for us, and it's so nice to have these quiet days with just Makaela and I. Lots of snuggle time. :-)

As for Harmony, she is our constant chatterbox, who needs to be doing something/going somewhere/seeing someone at all times. She is one of the most social children on the planet. On the days she is home, I try to find play dates for her, or think of creative things to do at home. Like playing with bubbles in the sink.





Her most favorite thing to do? Dance. All the time. We soooo need to put her in ballet classes.





Overall, we have a good routine going here at the Shipman home. We're loving life, and we constantly are thankful for our beautiful, healthy little girls.

Speaking of beautiful, I still see a lot of Harmony in Makaela, but at the same time, she looks so different. Maybe it's the blue eyes that get me, or that she is chubbier. What do you think?

Makaela


Harmony


Either way, I can't get enough of her. We're a big fan of Makaela Reese around here. We'll keep her.

Norah Kathleen

Aka Junie Bug



Norah Beaner



Norah Kate



And my favorite: Sputnik :-)



I love her like I love my own girls. Truly.

Happy 9 Months, Junie. TiTi loves you so much.

Fridays

Our one day off. We always take full advantage of our family days- even more so now that Makaela is here. Us girls let Mike sleep in a little while we get the coffee started, and let Harmony eat her breakfast while watching a TV show. Once Mike rolls out of bed (usually about 30 minutes after we get up), he starts a fire and we drink our coffee and catch up on our week. And now added to our morning routine is a suggle fest with our sweet girl.


Daddy is a baby hog, i might add.

Not to be left out, Harmony needs Makaela snuggle time too. :-)


Once the coffee is gone, we rummage up some yummy breakfast, and this past Friday, we feasted on pancakes made by Mike and Harmony. It's her most favorite thing to do ever- she pulls up her stool and gets to work. She is finally at the age where its becoming fun (ie, I don't have a mess all over my counter and floor after I let her stir the batter).







Our finished product



I love this picture because it depicts all what we did that morning- we have the pancakes and syrup, plus the ipad where Harmony and Mike played games and read interactive kids books, and two pairs of sunglasses, because Mike and Harmony claimed it was so sunny that they had to wear them. So I scrounged up two pairs of my sunglasses, and giggled while my manly husband strutted around in them. I should have gotten a picture.

I wish I could tell you that we spent the day all snuggled up in front of the fire, but we didn't. I wish I could tell you we went somewhere fun and exciting together, but that wasn't the case either. Instead we cleaned up the kitchen, threw on clothes, and carted our girls to the mall. I hate the mall. But Mike was in desperate need of new clothes, so we went. It was a bit hectic with the girls- correction- it was a bit hectic with HARMONY (Makaela slept the whole time). By the time we left the mall she was in full blown melt down mode. Fun. We learned our lesson: Don't go to the mall before nap. The end.

Not every Friday is drama-free, but we look forward to it nonetheless. It is OUR day. We cherish it, and we protect it. Family days rock.