Everything Everleigh - 6 Months!

Dear Ev,
Well, sweet girl, I can't believe it! You are six months old today! As I sit here watching you sleep in the monitor, I find it almost impossible that we made it this far together! It may seem to some like six months isn't a long time, but for us it has taken a while to get here! It has been the greatest, most challenging, step-outside-of-myself six months I have ever had. I am better for them. I am better because of you.

In the past six months you have overcome so much. Your tummy seems to be feeling MUCH, MUCH better, though you still aren't eating anything but momma's milkshakes. ; ) We have been able to back you completely off of the Prevacid you were taking, and now you are just taking your Dysmotility medicine twice a day. We hope to back you off of that soon, and plan to try some green beans again this weekend.

You are a STRONG girl, both physically and mentally! You weigh a precious 21 pounds and are just the most delicious roly-poly baby I have ever laid eyes...or hands on, and you are about 28 1/2 inches long. You have some serious thunder thighs that make your legs as strong as pillars! You are able to bear all of your weight on your legs and stand on your own for a good amount of time. However, you are still lacking balance. You have ZERO interest in being on your tummy, but you can push up with the best of them. Because of your lack of interest in being on your tum-tum, you aren't rolling over yet. It will be a whole new world for you when you do! I feel fairly confident that you will walk before you crawl because you are so strong on your legs and show no interest in anything that would lead to crawling. That's okay! Do it your way, sister!


You love to play on your play mat, but would rather talk to and make faces at us and your other friends. You are for sure a social little gal! You LOVE your Sophie Giraffe and your face lights up when she squeaks in front of you. You also love your crinkle book. You love to be sung to and your favorite songs are "How much is that kitty in the window", "The Duck Song" by Elmo, "The Elmo Song", "Open the Eyes of my Heart", and "The Monkey Song" by the Wiggles. Mommy doesn't care how silly she looks singing them to you. Your smile is so worth it!

Right now, you are trying to get some teeth, so you are a drool fountain and chew on EVERYTHING! You are fascinated with hands...your hands, my hands, anyone's hands, and love to put them in your mouth, chew on them a little bit, pull them out and look at them, then put them back in. You are also starting to reach out for people when you want them to hold you, and you also reach to touch our faces while we have you in our arms. Sweetest thing!

You have the sweetest voice, and you love to hear it just as much as we do! Recently, you have started puckering up your face and spitting bubbles when you are frustrated or not happy. I can only imagine what you would be saying if you had words! It's too funny when you do it though!

You are sleeping like a champ! You wake up between 6:00 and 7:00am and take a nap every two hours from when you wake up throughout the day. Then you go to sleep by 6:45 at night and wake up one time for a 15 minute feeding during the night. We are able to put you down awake because you are such a big girl and can soothe yourself to sleep. That has been such a help to mommy and daddy. Especially at night!

You are such a little darling, Everleigh, and have brought more joy to our lives in just six months than either of us have ever experienced. We love seeing how you grow and change every single day. You will always be our first love and we hope you feel it every day of your sweet little life. Can't wait to see what the next six months bring for you, my sweet angel baby. Happy 6 month half birthday, pretty girl!

Gramma's comin' to town! Tomorrow at 12:10pm, we will pick up Gramma (my mom) from the airport to stay a week with us! We are so, so excited! Truth be told, she offered to come because she got a couple...well, maybe a few...hysterical phone calls (the kind with BIG tears) early last week from a daughter whose baby REFUSED to sleep...day and night. It was a rough week, fo' sho! But, momma is coming to hang, and that makes it all better.

Being away from my parents has been one of the hardest, most unforseen challenges of being a mom. If you have kids and live close to family, DO NOT...I reapeat, DO NOT, take that for granted. Let them come over as MUCH as they want to and DO NOT get annoyed! I would seriously give both of my arms for my parents to live close by. Well, at that point I would NEED them to live close by, but I digress. I miss my momma and daddy every day, and am so glad my mom will be here tomorrow.

LOVE YOU, GRAMMA!

It has been a rough few days here! We think Evie is starting to have some movement in her teeth. Though we cant see or feel any little chompers yet, we know they can start moving months before they ever break through and cause little ones to feel yuck! She has been so, so fussy, whiney, and extra clingy, has been drooling like a faucet, gnawing on her hands, my hands, my shoulder, and anything else she can get to her mouth, and has a little rash on her cheeks and chin. All classic teething symptoms.

She sure is cute though. Gosh!

- Posted from my iPhone

Growing Like a Weed

Look how much my baby has grown in just four short months! I am not sure how I feel about this! It's impressive, to say the least.

Week in Review

I feel like this past week just FLEW by! I finally got the BlogPress App for my iPhone so I am able to post on the go. However, it's still no fun to type a long post from your phone. I'm convinced I have Shrek hands. It's hard for me to type and not hit every adjacent key on the phone! Anywho...here are a few highlights from our week!

I have been working for the past month or so on a new Web site for the amazing Beautiful Dream Society. They are an organization based out of OKC who works to fight, and ultimately end, human-trafficking in the country of Lesotho, Africa. They were founded by our pastor's wife, Jennifer Crow, after having a very real dream about the country and the human trafficking industry. CLICK HERE to read the whole story and to view their amazing site!

I have also been busy working on two wedding invitations for two sweet gals! It's always so fun for me to see how different people's tastes are! Some brides are very, very traditional, and some very, very funky! I love getting to know each of them and creating something that is perfectly "them" for their most "perfect" day! Here is a sneak peak of the two, with names and details changed so the invites are still a surprise to those who will receive them!
One of the MOST exciting parts of our week was taking Everleigh to her GI Specialist appointment on Tuesday. We have been anticipating this appointment in hopes that they would start to back her off of her medicine and that we could possibly start eating some solids. She has been so much better with her tummy since the last time we went to see this specialist in November. We couldn't have asked for a better appointment. The doctor agreed that we should start pulling her off of a dose of medication per week, starting with the Prevacid for acid reflux, and see how she does. She also said we could start introducing green beans and squash, since those are the lowest carb, easiest to digest of the first foods. We gave Everleigh her first little taste of squash at lunch today, and she did GREAT with it! Watch and see!



However, I am sad to report that within an hour after eating her squash, she was screaming in pain, just like she used to before she was diagnosed with her dysmotility and put on medication. Needless to say, we are very discouraged by that. We just knew she was better and ready to move on. For now, we will put the solid foods on the shelf, stick with breast milk, and try them again in a couple months. :'( Poor Evie.

Another kind of discouraging event this week has been Everleigh's sleep. We aren't quite sure what is going on, but our girl who was doing so great with her morning and afternoon naps, and sleeping all night, has started to completely boycot all naps and has begun waking again for a nighttime feeding. I have read and read and researched everything pertaining to sleep training, naps, nighttime feedings, etc. and nothing seems to work in our situation. We can't let her cry it out because she is a tummy sleeper who is laying in a pool of drool in a matter of seconds if we let her cry. We can't put her on her back because all she knows of laying on her back is playing and having her diaper changed...totally confused. We can't go in and pat her without picking her up because that only makes matters worse. My girl is a FIGHTER, and I'm not sure how to remedy this one. It's hard on momma. Especially because I can't get ANYTHING done during the day. She is also letting up on eating, which is hard. She is not eating as often or as much, but is also not on a schedule so she eats at different times every day. Good thing she is cute enough to eat up, or I might spank her! ; )

I leave you with some cutie pics from the week. Hopefully next week will bring good sleeping, eating, and lots of laughs!

Everleigh fighting sleep, suited up for a walk

My little hippy girl

Someone is ready for the beach! That makes two of us!

She's the boss at home, and now she is the boss at Daddy's office

Our girl FINALLY pushed up during tummy time! All 19 pounds of her!

I cleaned out Ev's closet and drawers this week. The clothes on the right are what she has outgrown in four short months. The measily stack on the left is all that still fits her!

Cashy Kitty is enjoying the warm weather and glad to reclaim his place in the open window

Move Over Michelin Man!

There's a new kid in town!



- Posted from my iPhone

Nothing Sweeter...

Than a sleeping baby...



- Posted from my iPhone

The Things We Do...

It's amazing the things we will do to get a smile out of a baby. I have made more crazy faces, sounds, motions, etc. In the past four months just to see that big gummy, open mouthed grin!

Lately I have been trying desperately to get that baby chuckle out of her...you know, the one that comes from deep down in their little baby bellies? Well, the other night during bath time I got it. Granted she was deliriously tired and I haven't gotten it like that agin. She had the hiccups somethin' fierce and I was mimicking her. Who knew that would get it, but I will never, never forget it. Most precious sound I've ever heard! And thank goodness Mrs. Maggie was there to capture it!

- Posted from my iPhone

Daily Obsesh

Pretty sure my Boo Boo Baby needs THESE

Nicknames for Everleigh

The hubs and I are partial to nicknames. Dan says it's because he can't remember names half the time, and I just think they are endearing. Needless to say, I have a LONG, running, ever-growing list of nicknames for my most endeared, baby Everleigh. Here they are as of Monday, January 17th, 2011.

Ev
Evie (Ehh-vee) not (Ee-vee)
Elohlee (Eh-low-lee) thanks to my friend Sarah Henry's little girl, Ava, who couldn't quite pronounce Everleigh yet)
BooBoo Baby
Baby Bear
Little Bear
Lovey Bear
Lovey Dovey
Luhbee Duhbee (Mispronunciation of the above)
Angel Face
Monkey Bread
Doodle Bug
Tootle Bear
Tooter
Shooga Boo
Sugar Bear
Sooga Sooga Sooga Bear
Puddin' Pop
Momma Baby

At this rate, we'll be lucky if this kid EVER knows her name! Amazingly, she seems to answer to all of them with a big, toothless, open-mouthed grin. : )