Nine (and a half) Months

My dear Makenzie - You are such a fun baby!!  You are into everything and Aiden is learning that he better keep his toys picked up or you will get them.  You love to crawl and are really good at pulling up and standing alone.  No steps alone yet, but you can walk behind all your push toys.  A couple times you have even stood up from a sitting position with no assistance!  Walking soon??  Maybe so.  In other news ....

* You have your top two teeth now.  That's four total.  You are a pro at biting Veggie Straws now - one of your favorite snacks.
* You can wave and clap your hands.  You will clap on command.  You'll wave when you feel like it.
* It's hard to know if you are saying any "real" words, but it sure does sound like you are saying "Hey!" when you wave at someone.  You say "dadadadada" a lot and will look and find Daddy when we ask, "Where's Daddy?".  Other than that, you just ramble on with a bunch of sounds strung together.  You love to talk to yourself when you are going to sleep.
* We have been on two camping trips in the last month and you were great 3 out of 4 nights.  The second night of our first trip you screamed. a lot.  We ended up driving an hour back home in the middle of the night.  You promptly went to sleep in your bed and slept all night.  Stinker!  The second trip you were awesome!
*  Still in 6-12 month and 12 month clothes and are now pretty much wearing size 2 shoes.
* You love to be outside!  I can open the sliding door and you love to play in the deck while I do work in the kitchen.
* You hate having stuff on your head - hoods, bows, hats - so it will be interesting trying to keep your head warm this winter. :)

Eight Months

Makenzie is EIGHT months old!!  Right now she is busy, busy, busy - crawling everywhere and pulling up on anything.  She has been crawling on her hands and knees since about seven months.  Now she has gone to this funny crawl where she keeps her knees off the ground and basically goes around on her hands and feet.

We call her our little squealer because she is constantly "talking". LOUD.  It is almost like she is crying, but she is perfectly happy.

The kid eats anything.  I mean anything - rocks, grass, little pieces of dust ... :) Really though, she is a great eater and loves finger foods as well as baby food.  I am still giving her some homemade baby food, but really she prefers food she can pick up herself.  She still nurses about four times a day and will take formula if necessary.  We have started giving her juice in a cup and she does great with that.

She is in 6-12 month clothing these days even though a few of her 6 month outfits still fit her.  Her teeny tiny little feet are still a size 1.

She is an incredible sleeper.  Just lay her in bed and she's off to sleep!  Still 8-5 each night and then, after a quick snack, she's back to sleep till about 8:30.  She will take one or two naps each day.

As far as teeth go, she still just has the bottom two.  The top two are right at the surface and I expect them to break through any day.

She is such a happy baby and started Mother's Day Out at church one day a week.  Her and Aiden are there from 9-1:30 on Thursdays.  It's nice to get a little "Mommy Time"!

We are gearing up for our first camping trip of the fall next week.  I expect Makenzie will love it!

I Haven't Forgotten

Our little Makenzie is going to think we forgot about her as I have not been good about doing my monthly blog updates.  I assure you, sweet girl, that I have not.  You are your brother keep me busy, busy, busy.  Rest assured we enjoy every day and are amazed by you. 

At four months we started giving you rice cereal and you somewhat enjoyed eating it.  After I started adding a tiny bit of applesauce to it, you really warmed up to the idea of solid food.  You still nurse 5 times a day and we give you one serving of cereal per day.  You learned how to roll over from your back to your stomach and enjoyed practicing that skill.  At the beginning of May we took you to Alabama to meet your great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and a few of daddy's cousins.  You also got to meet your second cousin, Makala.  She was born just a couple months after you.  At four months you were wearing 3-6 month clothes and we moved you to a size 3 diaper.  Some of your 6-9 month clothes fit too.  Especially when you have on your cloth diapers.  You are laughing and cooing and love to talk.  You are a great traveler and will sleep the better part of long trips.  We have no problem giving you a bottle when necessary and you'll take formula on the rare occassion I'm not around to feed you.

At five months we went on a vacation to Kansas City.  Again, you traveled like a champ and just hung out in your stroller or in your carrier while we went to museums and ball parks.  You sleep so good at night and will only wake up once to eat.  Mommy thanks you for that!  You are also a great napper and will take two decent naps each day.  While we were in KC, you started "army crawling".  We were sooo surprised!  You were on the bed with Daddy and you just started inching over to him.

At 6 months you are "army crawling" everywhere and love to be on the floor.  Nothing of Aiden's is safe and he is learning to keep his toys picked up!  At your 6 month appointment you weighed 16 lbs 2 oz (50th percentile) and were 26.5" long (72nd percentile).  You LOVE to eat.  We have given you several veggies and you love them all.  You are also a big fan of Gerber Puffs and have learned how to feed them to yourself.  We are just beginning to give you fruits but you have had a few bites of raw fruits and have chewed those right up!  You are cutting some bottom teeth and one has begun to poke its way through.  Won't be long and we'll really be able to see it.  At naptime and night time you put your self to sleep without and fussing.  Again, we thank you for that.  You wake up around 6 to eat and then you back to sleep until 8 or 9.  You are pretty much wearing only 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes and some of your 12 month outfits already fit you!  You adore Aiden and he is pretty smitten with you too.  The two of you will play on the floor together and will just laugh and laugh at each other.  It melts my heart to watch!

Three Months Old

Our precious girl continues to grow and grow. Just another month until she can start eating cereal. Wow! Right now she...

*sleeps about 6-8 hours when she goes to bed and generally only wakes up once in a 12 hour period at night. She will put herself to sleep if I lay her in her bed with a paci and cover her with a blanket. It's so nice.

*does great with her bedtime routine. We bathe her, I nurse her, and then it's off to dreamland. She's typically asleep by 9:00 or 9:30.

*is in her 3-6 months but some of them are seeming to get a little snug. Not sure if that's because the cloth diapers are taking up the extra space in her clothes or if she is going through a growth spurt.

*wears size 2 diapers when she is in disposable diapers (which is not that often).

*is eating every 3.5 to 4 hours.

*takes a good morning nap and then a longer nap in the afternoon when Aiden naps. Sometimes she'll take another cat nap before bed depending on how long her previous naps were.

*is such pleasant baby! She is all smiles and loves to watch what is going on around her. Aiden can really get her to smile!

*still cooes a lot and has recently even laughed a few times!

*is starting to sit at the table during Bible class. Her teachers say she watches everything and "talks" the whole time.

*has "found" her hands and will put them together in front of her face and just stare at them.

Another Month

Well our precious Makenzie is two months old! It is getting easier every day to have two kids at home. Aiden is so good with her and wants to help all the time. He will gladly go get pacifiers, diapers, or whatever I need. It's nice having him around! lol

In the last month, Makenzie ...

*has gained about 3 pounds and weighs 11 pounds 12 ounces (70th percentile) and is 25" long (90th percentile).

*has gone from sleeping 2-3 hours at a time to 6-8 hours when she goes down for bed. It's wonderful! Sometimes she wakes up twice in a 12 hour period at night, but mostly it is just once. She usually sleeps from 9-9 (or 10). I love that my kids sleep in!

*has learned to hold her head up really well and can roll from her tummy to her back.

*nurses every 3.5 to 4 hours instead of every 2.5 to 3.

*still sleeps on her tummy and likes to be warm at night. I have a space heater going at night and I put a fleece sleep sack over her pjs.

*cooes and smiles a lot!

*still wears 0-3 month clothes but some of her 3-6 month clothes are beginning to fit. She wore newborn diapers for the first month of her life and is now in size 1. However, when we are not out of town, she wears cloth diapers. I love the cloth diapers! They are soooo cute.

*goes to sleep easily with just a little rocking. Sometimes she'll want a pacifier to fall asleep, but usually she spits it out once she is asleep. This is good because I don't want her to become to dependent on it. The easier it is to break her, the better. I'm not a fan of toddlers with pacifiers.

*has become a really easy going baby. She loves to be held and doesn't care who is holding her. She tolerates her swing and bouncy seat for short periods of time.

*loves when I carry her in the sling. She will go right to sleep so I usually "wear" her when I am out running errands.

*made her first trip to Hot Springs. She got to meet all her great uncles, great aunts, and great grandparents.

*she continues to nap at the same time Aiden does every day so I have a chance to rest, do housework, or relax.

I have to say that at this point in time, life is good!!

Meet Makenzie

Wednesday, December 28, 2011 we welcomed Raelyn Makenzie Blair into our family. She was born via c-section at 7:47 a.m. Since this was a planned c-section, we had to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m. They admitted me and all the paperwork was done by 6:00 so I had a little time to rest before surgery. The nurses came in to do blood work about 6:45 and then at about 7:00 we were ready to go!

This was such a different experience from Aiden's delivery. Instead of it all being a blur (after a day of labor) I was really aware of everything that was going on. They had me walk to the OR and then proceeded to do the spinal block. After two tries it was in. The first place she put the needle didn't work due to the position of the baby. I had a great anesthesiologist who talked me through the whole process and an awesome nurse who held my hand and kept me still (it's hard to bend forward when you're nine months pregnant!). Once Dr. Sarver arrived it was time for Makenzie to make her entrance into the world! I couldn't believe she was only 7 lbs and 9 oz! SO tiny compared to the 9 lb 2 oz chunk that was our first child. :)

Monty went with her to the nursery and then I went to recovery. At about 10 I went back to our room and then they brought Makenzie to us at 11. This picture was taken shortly after we got her. I love how alert she looks.

Grammy and Aiden came to visit that afternoon. Aiden didn't really want to have much to do with her but finally kissed her on the head. He was more interested with the airplane that Makenzie had given him.

We stayed in the hospital for two days and went home on Friday afternoon. I bought Makenzie an outfit with snowmen on it because I thought it would be appropriate for the winter weather. Funny enough, it was actually warmer the day we brought her home than the day we brought Aiden home in May. Go figure! Grammy made her hat and blanket.

Austin and Papa came back up on Saturday to meet our little one. What a sweet girl! We all loved cuddling and loving on her!