Allison: Three Months

Three months with our sweet Allie girl! What a fun fun month it has been with her. 

At the end of September, Allison was baptized alongside her cousin Mason after mass. When I have that blog post written (whoops!), I'll be sure to link it here. Nichole and Connor Walters were Allison's godparents, and Eric and I were Mason's godparents. It was a fabulous day!

I started back to work on the 9th, (which has me feeling all the feels- but mostly super happy!) so that means that Allison started daycare that day. I was a little worried about how well she would do going from a pretty quiet environment during the day to a lot more noise at daycare, but she has handled it like a champ. It's like she was made to be the baby of the family- it's never quiet when the other crazies (read Brayden, Ashley, and Katie) are around so she is just used to that I guess. Girlfriend loves to sleep, we've been way too lucky on that forefront, and she has kept up her schedule that we had at home at daycare. Enjoy some pictures from her first few weeks there!

She's enjoyed some fresh air at the farm while the big kids had a combine ride with my dad.

She had her first big car ride when we took the kids to the zoo last weekend. 

And she helped Eric celebrate his birthday!

This afternoon we will be heading to Scare on the Square, so stay tuned for her Halloween costume!

As for the rest of this past month, I think I can sum it up with one word- love.

Allison is weighing about 13.8 pounds and is roughly 23.5 inches long. She is wearing 3 month clothes and is in size 1 diapers. 

She is doing so much better holding her head up during tummy time, but is usually pretty over it after about 5-7 minutes. We do get lots of tummy time on our chests too, and she does really well holding her head up and looking around when you are holding her upright. 

And the smiles. SO many smiles. At Eric and I, at the kids, at the toys on her swing or playmat. It doesn't take much to make to make this girl happy.

She has really started chatting up a storm, especially in the evenings. She even is having some back and forth "conversation" with you. 

She is eating a total of 28 ounces, three 6 ounce bottles at 6:30, 11ish, 3-4ish, and then two 5 ounce bottles around 6:30 and 9:30. We are in bed sometime between 10 and 10:30. I'd love to push that up a bit more so I can get a little more sleep, but we will get there eventually. I honestly can't complain, she sleeps SO well, taking two long naps, one nap about an hourish, and then usually a 30-40 minute nap around 8/8:30.

Current nicknames include Allie, Al, and Brayden's favorite, "the new baby". I'm secretly hoping he keeps calling her that for years to come ha!

Allison's favorites include being more upright in her swing or bouncer to see what is going on, any and all attention she can get, and having a blow out sometime between her 6:30 and 9:30 bottle. Seriously, if we ever have a blowout, it's going to happen at that point in the day. She also really enjoys bath time.

She is not a big fan of not being able to get a burp out. We went from trapped gas on the bottom end last month to trapped gas on the top end this month! If you lay her down, especially at night, and she starts fussing, you can pretty much guarantee that she needs to burp again. 

This next month is bound to be a fun one with the fall season setting in, and of course her first Halloween, and we are ready for it!

Katie: 4 Months

How is our Katie a quarter of the way to one already!? Time sure moves fast when you are having fun, getting big, and learning new things. 

Katie's most exciting event this month was getting baptized, and you can read all about that here if you haven't already.

She still smiles a ton, and now she will even let out a giggle if you get her going. She is starting to babble up a storm, I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say. Right now it's a lot of "ah ah ah's", so we'll see what sounds she adds this month. 

She is currently in 3 month clothes and size 2 diapers. We bumped up her nipple size to a 3 and that has really helped speed up her eating. We also discovered that she can go a while longer between feedings and doesn't always need to eat right after waking up. If she doesn't take the bottle right away, give her 30 minutes or so and she usually takes it all pretty quickly. She (thankfully) has also stopped needing to be burped so much. In fact, I don't burp her at all until she is done with her bottle, or until she pushes it away and doesn't want to eat anymore. She is still a dribbler though, so she gets a drool bib when she eats. 

Katie has loved sitting up in her sit me up seat to see what all is going on around her. She loves it when you stand her up and let her look around that way too. She locks her legs and does a great standing on her own if you give her some balance support, all with a huge smile on her face. I've caught her smiling at Brayden and Ashley playing by her, I know she can't wait to join in with them soon. 

Katie is still a fan of the swing and her play mat. Brayden and Ashley like to take the animals off her playmat to play with themselves, so sometimes she ends up with nothing up there to grab onto, but such is the life of the third child I suppose. Her favorite animal to grab has been the monkey. She likes to pull on it and will suck on it's feet or tail. 

Speaking of pulling on things, this girl loves a good hair pull, and she has a tight grip. She's started grabbing onto the O-ball with a little help from me. She also is starting to bring lots of things to her mouth, and loves to suck on her pacifier and her fingers, she's even started getting just that thumb in there, so we might be in for another thumb sucker with this one. A few days ago I noticed she had her toes in her hands, so I'm looking forward to her grabbing those more.

Katie really loves music and being sung to, especially when her daddy does it. 

Loud, unexpected noises will still bring on a good cry from Katie, and she also doesn't like when she is in the carseat in the van and it isn't moving. Other than that, I haven't found much that she doesn't like yet.

At home Katie is measuring 14.2 pounds and is 24.25 inches tall. We go to the doctor Tuesday for her four month check so I'll update with those stats once I have them. 

She is taking five 6 ounce bottles, one around 6, one around 9-10, one around 12:30-1, one around 4-5, and one around 730. She is awake for  an hour and a half to two hours before going down for a nap. She is still swaddled for naps and bed, but I know once we stop swaddling her she will be sucking on those fingers, because I've seen her wriggle her hands out of the swaddle and have them up by her mouth when going to in to get her some times. 

Here's to looking forward to all the fun that our next month will bring!

Slow Down Summer

With August coming to a close, that Thomas Rhett song keeps ringing in my head. "Slow down summer, just wait a minute, we weren't finished." 

I feel like every year summers go by quicker and quicker, and as August has ended and I'm back to work after my maternity leave, those lyrics will continue to play in my head. I wish these late summer nights, playing outside, and relaxed days weren't over. Thankfully with the end of a season there's always the joy and excitement of a new one to come, but let's look back at our last month of summer.

Since we knew we were moving in to the new house this month, we really focused on trying to get Brayden and Ashley potty trained. We did the naked method, and didn't really care if they pee-ed on the floor because we were tearing the house down anyway. Ashley caught on really nicely, and after two days we were able to put underwear on her and only had a limited number of accidents. Brayden on the other hand just wasn't getting it. He would sit on the potty, then get up and go pee on the floor. I think after day two of trying with him I decided he wasn't ready yet and we went back to diapers. It was the best decision for us, because I truly think he just needs a little more time, and we were able to give Ashley the attention she needed to really get her potty trained. It took a while for her to go poop on the potty, and here at the end of the month I've still thrown some underwear away after she's pooped in them, but she's been doing so much better, and is waking up from naps and even overnight with a dry pull-up. She still needs reminded to go potty some times, especially after meals (that has been when we've noticed accidents happening), but it has been SO nice to have one less child in diapers. And in a few months we will hopefully have Brayden potty trained as well. 

The 17th was our last night in the old house, which meant the last night in cribs for Ashley and Brayden and the bassinet for Katie. 

The twins graduated to twin beds and Katie graduated to one of their old cribs. You really underestimate how nice a crib is once you no longer have them. I didn't realize how much Brayden and Ashley would just get up and move around once they were put to bed. That first night at the new house Ashley did really well, but Brayden came out of the room crying after about a half hour. I can't blame him, it was a lot of new all at once- new house, new room, new bed. I had to stay in their room for quite a while that night before they finally settled down to sleep. After that night, Brayden has done really well, and Ashley is usually the one to get up out of bed and come out of her room. Thankfully now after being in the house for a few weeks we don't get that anymore and they both stay in their room (for the most part) until morning. We've also realized our time of ever sleeping in is pretty much over, because once the kids are up, out of their room they come. Maybe one day we'll get to enjoy that little luxury again!

The 19th was Eric and I's summer Friday day date. We golfed, ate at Heron Cove, and enjoyed some wine at Cameo. It's one of my favorite days of the year, and much needed time together. 

That weekend Eric and I (along with help from some nice friends and family) finished moving everything over to the new house, and Nichole and Connor took the twins to the park and The Freeze for a few hours so we could get things done. From the looks of the pictures, I think they had a great time with their cousins! 

On the 21st we celebrated the baptisms of our nephews Austin and Jack. (Katie gets baptized in a few weeks.) Eric is Jack's godfather, but I failed to take any of my own pictures at the baptism (probably because I was overwhelmed with the twins who were being less than cooperative and Katie who pooped up her back right as church was starting.) I was thankful we decided not to get Katie baptized that day and to hold off a little longer. We did manage to get a family photo after church was over, don't mind Brayden's lack of enthusiasm. If I can track down a photo of Eric with his godson Jack I'll be sure to update this post with it.

The 29th was back to work for me, which meant Katie's first week at daycare. I was thankful I had a special education coordinator meeting in Ste. Marie that day and didn't have to be so rushed that morning. I would have been about 10 minutes late to work that morning if I had to get all the way to Palestine. It was a good test run, and I was on time for work the rest of the week!

Dropping Katie off at daycare was way less emotional for me than it was when I dropped the twins off for their first day of daycare. Maybe it was because I was home with the twins for 6 months, or because they were my first kids to drop off at daycare, or because I didn't really know Amanda well yet, but I was a wreck the night before dropping them off. But Brayden and Ashley both love Amanda and going to daycare, and I know all the kids there and their families now and I know that Katie will love it there too, so I had no hard feelings about sending her that day. From the looks of the pictures from her week, it looked like she had a great time at Amanda's!

We had a a pretty low key Labor Day weekend that started with our first Eagles football game of the season (with a big W), and ended with us enjoying the new house, playing outside, and getting some much needed family time in. 

We also said our official "goodbye" to the old house- it should be coming down very soon! Don't worry, there will be a blog post to come on that one. 

Katie celebrated turning three months old this month, and has really turned into such a smiley, happy girl. If you want to read more about her month, you can check out my blog post here.

August did well for Brayden. His vocabulary has soared this month, and you can really understand so much more of what he is saying, and he's saying a lot of things. He's been copying about everything Ashley does (which has its perks and disadvantages), but I do think that has helped his speech come a long way. He is a lover of all things animal, tractors, and monsters. I think we've watched Monster's Inc. and Monster's University so many times I have them memorized. And I know we've watched them enough for Brayden to have them memorized, because he loves to act out certain scenes in the movies- my favorite being when he does the scarer line up in Monster's Inc. before they all get ready to go through their doors to scare the kids. He has that thing down pat. He loves ice in his cup, his pillow, the Diggersaur book (seriously, I'm buying another one of those if it every gets ruined), and the color blue. He is also a fan of sleeping in Ashley's bed instead of his own. 

Ashley loves being her own independent person. She always has to try something by herself first, but does eventually want you to do it if she can't (which can be very annoying when you tried to do it for her in the first place but "no, me do it!"). She loves helping out with Katie, having ice in her water cup, and being tucked in for bed. She also loves for you to give her "one more hug kiss". She is more often than not the instigator of everything, but she will be the first to come crying to you saying Brayden did it. I hope I can always hear the sound of her saying, "K, Brady?" when she is convincing him to follow her to do something. She is also a fan of the monster movies, and prefers "monsters on the school bus", or Monster's University.

I'm loving the bond that all three of them share. Brayden and Ashley adore Katie, and love loving up on her. Katie sometimes gets overwhelmed by their love, but she'll get used to it ha! Brayden and Ashley also love each other so much. They play very well together, and while they have their fights, they have many more moments of love. 

August was definitely a great way to end the summer. And now that it's September, it's on to all things fall. Bring on the pumpkins, cooler weather, and changing leaves. This Schackmann family is ready!