It's a busy time of year!

In the words of my sister, "You're not a very good blogger." I realize that in order to keep a good blog, one should update more than once every few months. Let's all just agree that I will not be the next "mommy blogger" that makes it big and gets free products to advertise on their blog.

Because it's the holidays and everyone is super busy, I'm going to keep this short and only post what everyone wants to see...... pictures!

Update:

FYI- The above post was written in January and I was too lazy to wait for all the pictures to load...so I didn't. I told you I'm not a good blogger!

The pictures are not very well organized. The most recent are at the top. The bottom pics are from Thanksgiving...yes I know it's March. Savannah is 7 months old and is rolling, sitting up, and enjoying 1st and second puree foods. I'll be sure to post again before she chooses a college.

Growing By the Minute

Savannah is growing so fast. She's almost out of 3-6 month clothes and I've begun throwing clothes into a bin when they don't fit anymore. Every time I put something in it, I'm struck by a memory of her wearing it someplace. I'm afraid I'll never get used to this growing up thing.

She's beginning to use her feet to reach out and touch things. When she doesn't want to stop sucking on her fists, she'll lift her legs to kick at her hanging toys. Just today, Savannah was kicking the dogs backs as they were lying at her feet. Our doctor told us she may not start crawling or rolling over as fast as other babies because she's so big. I bet she'll surprise us because she is so strong! She constantly pushes to a standing position while she's in our lap and can push herself up on her arms when she's doing "tummy time."

Savannah will be 3 months old on the 15th. I'm still very much enjoying my time at home. I've still got until January 2nd before I return to work, but I know it will come faster than I could ever be ready for.

Enjoy some pictures of the past month!

2 Months!

Well, I can't believe that another month has passed. I feel like every time I take my eyes off of her, she's changed.

Savannah turned 2 months on the 15th. We've got her 2 month check-up tomorrow and I'm guessing she weighs about 13 pounds by now.

Some new things that she's doing are talking and using her legs. She'll make a wide range of noises and it's really cute to listen to her "talk" to you. I do a lot of strange things like narrate what I'm doing and ask her questions and wait for a reply. I read that it helps their language development to do so. I think she enjoys it because her eyes get bright and she watches me closely.

I used to think that she didn't realize her legs were a part of her, but now she's kicking up a storm! She'll be joining the rockettes in no time. She also tries to stand herself up when you're holding her upright. It's crazy how strong this little baby is.

Savannah is also smiling and we can start to hear a little giggle. It's so rewarding to make her smile. We can always bank on big smiles when she wakes up in the morning. What a way to start the day!

Sunday was our big return back to church. We had a very good baby wearing a whole lot of dress. She was adored and we were glad to get back to worship. We also attended the Bethlehem Halloween party. Savannah was an adorable "Lil' Lamb" and Kyle and I fashioned a quick "Bo Peep" costume for myself. It was fun to be on the mommy side of a kid's party. We ended our big Sunday out celebrating Aunt Taryn's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Hirsch's house. By the end of the day our baby was tuckered and fussy. We did get some cute pics though.

Enjoy!

Road Trip!

What a trip! Savannah and I took a short trip with my parents and cousin Xander to visit with family up in Chesterton, IN. It's about a 6 hour car trip and Savannah was a perfect passenger. Savannah got to meet her Great Aunt Vicki, cousin Steve, Uncle Don, Great Aunt Rhonda and cousin Saralyn, Great Grandma Metzner (my maternal Grandma), my Godmother Shelly and husband Rick, and her "middle namesake", Great Grandma Crockett! Oh, My! Lot's of important people all in one place.

While we were visiting the "Oz Fest" (Wizard of Oz not Ozzy Ozbourne) was going on in the town park. While it looked interesting, we did not participate. The weather was pretty chilly so we got to give our fleece suit a practice run. She was not a fan of putting it on or taking it off, but she was a trooper. Traveling with an infant definitely comes with more baggage...literally.

In other Savannah news, she's been successfully sleeping through the night! She'll sleep anywhere between 8-10 hours. The catch is that she consistently eats every 2 hours during the day and she's not patient when waiting for a bottle. We go from content to inconsolable in a blink of an eye. This is very unusual for a 1 month old, but our pediatrician assures me that if she's taking in enough ounces in the daytime and gaining weight, she's fine and we should consider ourselves lucky. I think it may have been his first time when a parent is concerned that they're baby is sleeping too much.

In my "What to Expect the First Year" book, they list a few things that your baby should be doing at 1 month (holding up head, rotating from side to side, turing head to the sound of your voice, etc.). Savannah was doing all of the items listed except "smiling in response to our smile", until today! It was so fun to know she's smiling at me because she wants to and it's not just gas :).

Our Dr.'s appointment will be Tuesday and I'm still not looking forward to it. I'm curious to know how long she is now because she seems to have grown that way. She's officially out of newborn sizes and that breaks my heart. I'm really not ok with this getting bigger business!

Enjoy some pictures of the past week, including our trip! Photo 1 is Savannah and Grandma Crockett, Betty Lou and the second pic is Savannah and my lovely godmother Shelly.

3 Weeks and Growing

Wow, Savannah is already 3 weeks old! She's up to 10 pounds 3 ounces already. Everyday she's more alert and loves to stare at our moving mouths. She also enjoys going outside. It usually soothes her when she gets fussy. We go on stroller walks almost everyday and so far she's slept through all of those. It's really fun to see her do things that I know she did in utero from the ultrasounds, like hold her hands up to her face. We have to be careful about what her hands touch because they are constantly in her mouth.

Some of Savannah's dislikes are waiting for her bottle to warm, the hours of 5:00pm-9:00pm, Mommy and Daddy eating meals, falling asleep and the pacifier falling out of her mouth, getting strapped into our car seat, being burped, being tickled, getting out of the bath, tummy time, stoplights, and country music.

Her likes are being held, her paci (only the "Soothie" brand), her hands, being outside, her Daddy's voice, cuddling with Mommy, being swaddled, classic rock (I don't get it), being patted, and a solid night's sleep.

We got very lucky in the sleep department. Since she came home, she's been sleeping mostly at night for 4-5 hour stretches with a feeding in between. She likes to cluster feed every 2 hours during the day which helps her sleep longer at night. Most babies tend to have their days and nights confused but we got a good one! I think it's the swaddle sleepsack. Her arms flail and she wakes up, but when they're restrained, she sleeps longer.

We've been working on tummy time but she really hates it. I lay her on her mat and read her books, but we've only been able to do 5 minutes every now and then.

Our dogs have adjusted fine to her. I think Rascal still expects her to leave anytime. Every morning when he gets out of bed he peaks into her pack-n-play in our bedroom, see's she's still there and groans. Dolly loves sniffing her feet while she's in the bouncer. When she cries, it stresses Rascal out a little and he's at our feet staring at her. During 5:00-9:00 she does her "exercises", and by that I mean crying and fussing. It's at that time Dolly chooses to call it an early night and burrow into bed.

She's got her 1 month well baby check next week where we'll get some shots, yikes! I don't know who's dreading it more, baby or mommy.

Enjoy some pictures from the past few weeks!

Savannah Has Arrived!

Savannah Betty Hirsch was born by Cesarean Section on Monday, August 15, 2011. She weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. She came right on time with her due date and also shares her birthday with her Uncle Jacob, my brother. After a failed induction we made the decision with our doctor to have her by C-section. It was something we wanted to avoid and was a really disappointing choice to make but it was the safest for Savannah.

I had a quick surgery and she was born at 1:05pm. While in recovery we were told her blood sugar was low. I wasn't surprised because this is common for big babies. She needed some extra help stabilizing her blood sugar, so she spent the night in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). We came to see her every 2 hours to nurse and bottle feed. She was the biggest baby in the NICU! Everytime we came in to see her there was a crowd of nurses around her. They told us she was the only baby in the NICU that they could play with. She was released to us in the morning and the real fun began.

We came home on Thursday and have had a whirlwind of sleepless nights and happy moments.

Monday, Savannah had her first doctor's appointment at Dr. Jenison's office. She got a clean bill of health and lot's of attention from the staff :). We don't get out much, just to weigh baby checks at the hospital and doctor's appointments. We were advised by our pediatrician to not take her to public places or big crowds for 6 weeks, so we're finding all kinds of things at home to stay occupied.

Many people ask us where we got the name. We found Savannah on the top 100 baby names list (#40) and Betty is the name of my paternal grandmother. Savannah was the only name we could agree on.

Savannah is already 1 week old and it's been a haze of feedings and diapers. She's a blessed joy in our lives and cannot believe she's actually here.

Nursery Photographs

We've been putting the finishing touches on the baby's room. Many of the owl items I put together myself (3 pictures, flags, lampshade, memo boards). Kyle recovered the trunk and added the embroidered H. We worked together on the curtains and are in the process of finishing the valences. The final addition will be a ceiling fan that has been purchased but not installed (anyone know a good electrician?). I also replaced the drawer pulls with turquoise blue flower knobs. The images on the walls are decals, but I wish we could take credit for painting them. It's always a work in progress but we've got everything we need, just waiting for a baby to help us use it.

Today I am 39 weeks. Anytime now!