Our almost 7 month old!!

Ok, Im a lousy blogger lets not kid anyone here....but I will try to be better. I have to force myself to blog because these little moments with Payton come and go so fast, and this is a great way for us to look back and remember all the cute little milestones.

Payton these days is such a big girl, she totally acts like a little adult, and in fact that is one of her nick names- "little adult", or really it's "little ee-dult" (the pronunciation comes from one of my nephews and it has somehow melded its way into my everyday vocabulary lol).

Here are some of Paytons many recent milestones:

*TALKING!! Saying "Dada" sometimes she can say "Hey" or "Yeah" but she really doesnt know what any of these things mean yet so Im not sure if it counts or not!!

*Sitting up all by herself

*Rolling ALL over the place, from one end of the room to another!

*Scooting- this is a pretty recent one. She will be on her tummy doing her rolling routine until she makes it on the hardwood floor and she can scoot back and forth pretty easily on it. It is so cute because she kicks and kicks her legs trying to get going, but all she will move is about 2 inches lol.

*Drinking out of a sippy cup. Paytons pediatrician told us to start introducing the sippy cup because they want the babies off the bottle by 1 year. She is doing pretty good with it, she needs a little help tipping the cup all the way up so she isnt drinking air...and she will get a drink of water and make an eewie face and then smile.

*Eating baby food like a champ (almost). We have a spoon situation. We will be feeding her, but the whole time she will be reaching and whining for the spoon we are feeding her with, we can usually dodge her hands and get the food to her mouth for a few bites. BUT if she doesnt get her spoon she will start crying-more like wailing. So I will give her an extra spoon she can hold and chew on in between bites. This usually makes quite a mess but at least she is a happy girl and at least she will let us feed her. Also she loves to pull her foot up to her mouth when we feed her...so by the end we have a food covered baby.

*At her 6mo. check up she was 16lbs.10oz. (in the 60th%), and was 23 and 5/8"(30th percent) but she is growing steadily up the growth chart so that is good. She also had to get 5 shots at her check up, poor thing she was NOT happy. On the bright side she wont have to get any more shots until she is a year old! YAY!

*She is becoming very independent and loves to roll around on a blanket and play with her toys, that is when she is the happiest these days :)

*The other day at Kohls I had her in the baby Bjorn and she was doing her excited leg kicking while smiling and laughing at strangers, waiting for them to give her a reaction.

*Brandon got her on video laughing the hardest I have EVER heard. He would snap his fingers and say "What you talkin 'bout Willis!?" and she would laugh so hard her face turned red lol :)

Hard to beleive in only 5 short months she will be 1! She surprises us everyday with new cute things and her awesome smile and laugh. Couldn't love her more!

~Ashley

4 Months Old!!

Seriously every time I go to update our baby blog, I think "Whhhhat? Our baby is already how old?!"

I got home from a long day at school yesterday and I looked at her- and just when I think she can't get any cuter- she does. She is getting so big. We are going to give her her first solid food of rice cereal sometime this week. She has her 4 mo. check up and shots next week... Here are some recent cuteness facts on P:

*She is a champ at her tummy time now. She is lifting her head up to about 90 degrees and then she looks at you and smiles like she is so proud.
*She loves to use her legs and "stand" as mommy or daddy hold her up under her armpits- and again she will look at you and gets a huuuuge proud smile on her face.
*She is grabbing (this includes grabbing mommys hair)
*She loves to suck her thumb- ok more like her whole hand
*She is laughing so hard now at..well anything...sometimes we just look at her and she will start cracking up!
*She is ticklish now!! She's in trouble!
*She is still working on talking-saying ah-goos and gees etc. However, she recently started yelling her ah-goos and gees. And man she hurts mommy and daddys ears sometimes she gets so loud
*Sometimes when she is sitting or laying back,she will fold her hands over one another and sit there like a little lady- so precious
*She likes playing games (head, shoulders, knees, and toes is a fav.) and getting books read to her
*She likes getting lifted up into the air like a rocket

She is such a big girl, getting cuter and cuter every day!

Payton at 2.5 months old

I cant beleive I have not blogged about our little one for over a month, she has grown so much since then. Just when you think she can't get any cuter- she does. My heart beams with joy just thinking about her. But the thing that has been really getting me lately is when I am holding her in my arms and I am feeding her a bottle, sometime she will stop eating a second and look up at me and smile and coo. Oh man she is cute! Here are some typical Payton things going on lately:

*She is grabbing/grasping things in her little hands- she loves grabbing onto her rattle or Mr. Frog and giving them a good shake (and giving herself the occasional rattle to the eye/face)
*Her favorite toy is Mr. Frog- he's a little stuffed frog with a rattle inside and he has crinkley wings, all you have to do is put Mr. Frog in front of P and she will automatically smile :)
*Mommy and Payton invented "The Paci Game" this is where P will suck on her paci and spit it out and I say "Uh-oh, you dropped it!" and she will laugh and smile, then mommy will suck on her paci and do the same thing....man she laughs everytime. It is so fun to see her interacting more and more and thinking things are funny!
*Peanut had her 2 month shots, she handled them like a trooper, only cried a little bit right after the shots, was sore and a little fussy for a couple days after...but it all went way better than I thought it would. Her 2 month check up went awesome too, she is in the 16% percentile for her head circumfrence, but her weight and length were right around the 50th precent.
*She is talking like crazy saying Ah-goo, ah-gee, ah-gaa, da-goo, hiiii, and a bunch of other silly combinations.
*She is laughing like crazy too! It is my favorite to hear her laugh and squeel!
*She is sitting up- if you hold her around her low back she hold her head up so straight, and loves to sit up like that.
*She is a hungry baby, the other day she downed 7 onces in one hour! She is a growing girl!
*She is loving her baby bjorn, but she is able to face outwards now so she can look around which is one of her favorite things to be able to do.
*As she loves looking around...she discovered the TV (uh oh) So if mommy and daddy are watching a movie she will watch it for bits and peices too- AND will laugh at it too!
*She is immitating! She will watch mommy or daddy click their tongue and she trys soooo hard to do it, but every once in a while she will do a tiny little click, it is so cute!

Lovin our little girl! Can't beleive she will be 3 months old pretty soon!

Our baby is a month old!! (what?!)

How time flies... P is already a month old, and she is growing so fast! Everyday I see her she seems to have grown a little more. I keep telling her to stop growing up so fast, but as usual she doesnt like to listen to Mommy too much. She has been sleeping much better and got up every 4 hours last night (compared to the ever hour or two she was doing before!)

*She still loves her mobile in her crib and even if she is fussing when you lay her down and turn on her mobile she will get super wide eyed and get a huge smile on her face
*She loves to play the game where Mommy and Daddy get her by making a chomping noise and gobble on her neck, she get super excited and starts breathing really fast and flailing her arms and legs around.
*She is ticklish on her feet, tummy, and armpits...but she doesnt laugh when you tickle her...just jerks around and evily glares at you lol.
*She has been super smily and has a cute little laugh
*She is starting to discover her voice and makes lots of "ahhh" noises, sometimes she even yells it out!
*She loves to look at Mommy or Daddy talk and she smiles if we say silly things or sing silly songs.
*She loves "You Are My Sunshine"

She is so pretty...Her eyes are turning a lighter blue color, I though she would be a brown eyed girl- so we will see!! We love her more and more everyday, being a parent is the best gift in the world I can't help but feel overwhelmingly blessed everyday. Sometimes I get butterflies in my stomach because I can't beleive how lucky I am!

3 weeks old and growing fast!!

Payton is 3.5 weeks old today and I can't beleive how big she is getting! It is so true what everyone says that they grow up fast... Everyday that goes by our love for her and bond with her grows and grows. She has such a happy personality and loves to laugh and smile. Last night she was up quite a bit (she thrives at 3am) and she was ssooooo happy with a huuuge smile on her face and was bright eyed looking around. Even though it was 3am and I was dead tired, I didn't care because she was being so darn cute! Grandma and Grandpa Boutain were up babysitting all week while I started my first week back to college. It was so hard to leave my baby girl, I welled up with tears everyday walking out the door, I hope it gets easier because I get such mom guilt. Even leaving her to take a shower I get mom guilt lol...

Some things about Payton this week:

*She attended her first Fantasy Football draft with mommy and daddy this year (will be many more to come!)
*She has been smiling and laughing more and more
*More and more eye contact
*She loves her Bumpa's (Grandpa Greg's) singing- she fusses when he stops singing to her
*She likes taking naps on mommys chest
*She can hold her head up for several seconds at a time
*She started scooting! We laid her down on her tummy on the couch and she pushed with her legs and scooted about a foot!
*She is up to drinking about 3oz at a time- I think she has gained quite a bit of weight since her last appt. She is getting really cute chubby cheeks!
*She loves her feet and head rubbed
*She loves bicycle kicks- sometimes it is the only thing that will get her to quit crying
*She likes being held by Uncle Derek (she smiled 3 times when he was holding her- Uncle Derek is so proud...)

Next week Payton gets to stay home with Daddy while I go to school- it will be an interesting adventure! I am sensing some double trouble coming on!

~Momma and PowPow

2 weeks old today!

It is Payton's 2 week B-day today! I can't believe how fast these last 2 weeks have flown by. She is growing up so fast already! She had her first bath the other day and absolutely loved it, she just laid back and chilled in the tub no crying or fussing! Here are some other fun facts about our little Payton at 2 weeks old:

~She can roll over from her back onto her side
~She loves to be in her Baby Bjorn
~She is eating every 2 hours or so and eats like a champ- almost 3 oz
~She moves her mouth in her sleep like she is eating
~She smiles all the time, especially after she is done eating (I think it is her favorite thing to do)
~She smiles and giggles in her sleep
~She loves looking around the room, at the ceiling, at faces, and she loves to look at the bedding and mobile in her bedroom
~She doesn't like to sleep at night- just durring the day
~She loves to be held and rocked
~She loves to sit up
~She is very gassy & fussy lately, poor thing...
~She does awesome in her carseat & almost always falls asleep durring the car ride
~She doesn't mind getting her diaper changed anymore but she doesnt like getting dressed
~She has an umbilical hernia
~When she is really hungry she starts grunting like crazy and flails her hands around, Daddy calls this "The Gremlin" lol...
~She goes cross eyed when she is really trying to concentrate on something


She is so amazing! I could go on and on about all the cute little things she does... I have never felt so overwhelmingly blessed in my whole life. I love our family and I couldnt ask for more! <3

~Ashley

I thought I should write a bit about the whole labor & delivery and our life with our little girl since she is already almost 2 weeks old!!

So around 8pm on Tuesday Aug. 10th- my official due date- I decided to take a chance on trying out castor oil to see if it would start labor. I had heard that it worked for a select few ladies and others just got all the bad side effects from it and no baby. But I was rrreally wanting to meet our little angel so I though why not?! 8pm- Castor oil ingested, it was disgusting and I gagged it down... the next hours consisted of many trips to the bathroom...12am finally got to sleep...1am got back up to go to the bathroom and then all of the sudden, my water broke! I was in denial for quite a while about it actually being my water for some reason...then I say "Honey, wake up, my water just broke!"

Brandon jumps out of bed quicker than I've ever seen him move...he's running around the house packing bags & bringing stuff out to the car...hands me the phone with the Birthplace so I could tell them I was heading in...getting paper work and phone numbers and our birthplan out and ready...in about 5 minutes he's ready to go with keys in his hands and I haven't even gotten over the fact that my water broke!

We drive to the hospital, its about 15 minutes away, no contractions yet so I was feeling good. Brandon and I look at eachother & we both can't believe its finally time. Brandon drops me off at the Emergency entrance where I am escorted to the Birthplace while Brandon parks the car.

I am greeted by the night nurse at about 2am, change into a hopsital gown, and then they hooked me up to the external fetal & contraction monitors. Brandon finally finds his way up to the room after some parking ramp confusion. The nurse attempted 2x to start an IV and failed so she called in another nurse who was able to get a good line started right away. Contractions start kicking in...They test my water to make sure it actually broke, and it did but with Meconium in it that will require the NICU to suction out the babys airways ASAP after delivery. The Dr. comes in (finally) for an exam and I was 3 cm dilated.

The next couple hours I suffered through contractions that got stronger & stronger, Brandon was THE BEST labor coach- he was so supportive and kept telling me how great I was doing, which I really needed! The nurse came in and offered me some pain medication because she said the anesthesiologist wouldnt be here for a while- I refused until about half an hour later I couldnt take it anymore & she gave me a small dose which didnt seem to help too much. Finally the anesthesiologist comes in at 5am & started my epidural which I was able to control with a push button if I started to feel it wear off. Thank God for epidurals- after it was started I felt very little pain, it was suuuch a relief and made the rest of my labor experience a good one! Next time I was checked by a Dr. I was 10cm & ready to push! I pushed for 2 hours & needed an episiotomy, after the episiotomy I think I pushed one more time & out she came! They suctioned her up and she was all ours!

She was 7lbs, 21inches long, born at 12:15pm- Our little miracle!