first night away from home

Well we survived our first night away from home. We went to Wolf Lodge with Joe's family. It's an indoor water park in Canada, so we took Zoey swimming for the first time. All in all it was a good trip, but it was a bit stressful for me. I was so nervous that I was going to forget something. You wouldn't believe how much stuff I brought for just one night away. So, we got there around 3ish on Friday, checked into our room and then headed into the water park. I was excited to try out Zoey's cute little bathing suit that I bought for her. She really loved the water - it was so cute! After a while, we decided that we wanted to try some of the waterslides, so we left Zoey with Joe's dad while we did that. It was kind of a pain though because the lines were long, and I felt a little bit uneasy leaving Zoey because she was getting passed around between the people that we were there with, and some of them were friends of Joe's dad that I don't really know that well. I know that she was fine and it's not like I don't trust them or anything. But still, the paranoid mama in me has a hard time leaving her with someone I don't know very well (even if it is just for 20 minutes so I can go on some waterslides).
So we had a good time, but once we tried to settle in for the night, things didn't work out so well. I got Zoey to sleep in the Pack N Play, but she woke up after only about 45 minutes and wouldn't go back to sleep. I nursed her some more until she settled back down and then put her in her carseat to sleep. Well, that lasted for maybe an hour or two until she woke up again. I think that she could sense that she was in an unfamiliar enviroment. So, I spent pretty much the whole night fighting with her to go to sleep. :( At around 6:00, I decided to put her in the stroller and walk the halls of the hotel. That put her right to sleep in about 15 minutes and then she slept until around 10:00. So, it wasn't too bad, but definitely not a great night's sleep.
So, we got up around 10:00 packed up and then went back to the water park for about another 2 hours before heading home. All in all, it was a good trip, but we were all very happy to come home.
Here are some pics from the trip:
All ready to head to the water park - I love this pic!
Modeling her bathing suit. (I didn't want to be in the pic -photos in a bathing suit = yuck!)
But I had to give up hiding from the camera - Joe is picture crazy, so here's one of me and Zoey.Zoey with Daddy Swimming! She loved it when I put her on her belly so she could move her arms around and kick her legs - she's definitely gonna be a little swimmer!
Playing in the pool with cousin Madalynn
After a while, she had enough and wanted to get out. (awww...doesn't that face break your heart?) After swimming Zoey was perfectly happy just to hang out with daddy. She is completely facinated by his facial hair so he has been keeping it long for her - she's spoiled by her daddy already! And lastly a view of the park. Not the greatest pic, but you get the idea.

First Thanksgiving

Zoey's first Thanksgiving was a good day. We went to my sister-in-law's house and had a very yummy meal and got to show off Zoey to some of Joe's relatives who hadn't met her yet. Zoey was very happy for the whole day and everyone just loved her. :) She sat happily in her bouncy seat while we ate dinner and everyone commented on what a good baby she is! She really is such a little angel - I am just so in love with our little girl!

Here are some pics from the day:

With Grandma and cousins Madalynn and Cole

Zoey loved getting kisses from Madalynn and Cole :)

An early Christmas celebration

We have had a busy week this week trying to get ready for Christmas even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Since my grandparents leave for Florida the first week of December, we got together the Sunday before thanksgiving to celebrate Christmas with them. It seems kind of crazy celebrating Christmas before it's even Thanksgiving, but we had a really nice time. Here are some pics:


Zoey opening up her first Christmas present ever - a Baby's first Christmas stocking from Great Grandma.

Four generation pic - my mom, me, sister Shannon, Grandma, and of course Zoey :)


All tired out from too much holiday fun!

Once she woke up again, we took a nice family photo
And another pic of mommy and Zoey just because I love those chubby cheeks

Zoey's 4th month October 11th-November 11th

4 month pic:

Month 4- October 11th - November 11th
Things continue to go well with little Zoey. I love being a mom so much and I’m so happy that I have this whole year off and don’t have to go back to work until September. I have even started to have the itch to have another baby! It’s a really strong itch too. If it weren’t for the fact that it wouldn’t really work out financially, I’d want to get pregnant again right away. And surprisingly enough, Joe feels the same way. We don’t talk about it all the time, but he has made comments here and there about wanting to have another one fairly soon. We’ll see though…I really don’t think that we should start trying until Zoey is around a year old because that way I would be able to work and hopefully save money up to be able to stay home for a while with baby #2!
Okay, before I get ahead of myself talking about baby # 2, back to Zoey. One big thing that has happened is that she has started to laugh a little bit. I didn’t really recognize that it was a laugh at first because it sounds more like a squeak - so cute though! She will open up her mouth really wide and smile and sometimes make this little squeaking sound. Not your typical laugh, but it’s adorable. She will laugh when I hold her on my lap under her arms and bounce her up and down. She loves it!
Also, she discovered her hands this month and is all about them. She really wants to be able to suck her thumb, but hasn’t quite mastered it yet. She pretty much sticks her whole hand into her mouth and will suck on whatever finger she gets hold of. Sometimes it’s her thumb, sometimes her pointer, sometimes it’s a few fingers at a time.
As far as sleep goes, she seems to have digressed a little bit. She isn’t sleeping through the night quite as consistently. Sometimes she wakes up around 3 or so to eat. She’s still sleeping in the cradle in our room and I really feel like we should move her to the crib because she is starting to be more sensitive to noises like us getting into bed or the dog making noises. We tried one night to put her in her own room - I had her all settled in and asleep (in the cradle, but in her own room) and then I said to Joe that it felt weird having her in there and he said he thinks that she should still sleep in our room. I never expected for him to be that way, but he said that he would feel more comfortable leaving her in with us for a while longer. So we did But now I am feeling like we really need to make the transition sometime soon before she gets too used to sleeping in the same room with us and it’s hard to get her into the crib. But it makes me really sad to think about not having her in the same room with us. It’s not like her room is very far away - it’s so close that we probably wouldn’t even need to use the monitor to hear her. But, I really like being able to wake up and see her sleeping there next to me. We’ll see…Joe says that he wants to keep her in the room with us for another two months. I’m not really sure what he’s basing that on, but he says that he likes having her there with us. I think it’s cute :)
Hmm…what else? She’s still not rolling over, although she will tolerate being on her tummy for longer periods of time now. She loves to lay on the little rainforest play mat that she has and kick her legs like crazy. She will kind of roll onto her side in order to be able to see her toys, but she isn’t rolling onto her tummy yet.
Oh and one last thing, it was Zoey’s first Halloween. She had a little pumpkin costume that I thought was really adorable. We didn’t do anything much, just went to my sister’s house and my parents and grandparents came over to see her in her costume.
I think that’s about it for her 4th month…Oh she had her 4 month appt today (11-11) and she weighs about 15 lbs and is about 25 inches. 87th percentile for her height and 90th for her weight. All looks good. The doctor said that she seems very strong for her age with holding her head up and pulling herself up to standing when you hold her hands. He called her “strong as an ox”. He said that we can start to think about giving her cereal sometime soon, definitely by six months. So I’m not sure when we will decide to introduce it to her. It seems crazy that she is almost already ready to start eating!

A year ago today...

I found out that I was pregnant! It's hard to believe that a year went by so quickly, and our lives are so completely different now. We are so happy and I can't imagine life without our "little bean" (as Daddy likes to call her).
So...is it crazy that I took a pregnancy test this morning?! Of course it was negative. There is almost no chance that I would be pregnant, but it is pretty nerve-wracking not getting your period for months at a time. I never really realized that was a side effect of breastfeeding. It's nice not to have to worry about that, but at the same time it makse me nervous that I could get pregnant and not know it and assume that I'm just not getting my period because of the breasfeeding. So, I still have some internet cheapie tests laying around the house and I have a feeling I will be taking one every month just to put my mind at ease!