Sabrina at 3 Months!

My girl is growing so fast!  Having Kayla around helps me to realize how much of an infant Sabrina still is, though.  The contrast between them is so amazing: one speaks full sentences, one communicates through coos and cries; one walks and zooms all over the place and the other is dependent on me to zoom around with her.  Sometimes, though, these differences are very blurred, and I can see how much of a baby my "big girl" still is. 

Sabrina is a sweet, sweet baby (have I mentioned that before?).  She only gets really upset when a nap or feeding is overdue (by her timeline, anyway).  Otherwise, she is content to sit on my lap, play with her toys, smile at her sister or the ceiling fan, blow bubbles, and kick her feet in excitement.

She LOVES taking a bath with her big sister!

Weight/Height: We don't have a checkup for 3 months, so my best guess-timate of her weight is 12 lbs. 8 oz.  She is wearing 3-6 months clothing and so far, no shoes...

Eating Habits:  On January 1st, Sabrina decided she was done breastfeeding.  I just wasn't producing enough for her and she was getting extremely frustrated.  Thankfully, this wasn't as upsetting to me this time as it was with Kayla.  We obligingly filled a bottle with formula and she drank it down with pleasure!  Poor baby must have been hungry because she ended up gaining 1 pound in 10 days (they should average 1/2 an ounce a day, so 5 oz. in 10 days).  So now she nurses twice in the morning and then has four 5-6 oz. bottles (half formula/half pumped milk) during the day.  I find it a little more convenient to bottle-feed when I'm out and about, but it is hard to wait for a bottle to warm when she is screaming! 

Sleeping Habits:  Sabrina is now going down for bed at 7:30 (just like Kayla does...yay!) and sleeps well until sometimes 2ish or 4ish.  After those times she may be a bit more restless, but just needs the pacifier and some shushing to go back to sleep.  We are usually up for a feeding at 5:00.  She takes catnaps of 30-45 mins. in the morning and evening and one long 3-3 1/2 hour long nap in the middle of the day (again, when Kayla naps!).  We are still swaddling her and sleeping her in our room in the pack-and-play.  When she sleeps a little longer and more consistently, we are going to try moving her into Kayla's room.  I know, I know, we planned a nursery for her, but Jeremy and I got excited about using that as a playroom for them, so we'll see!

Sleeping in her swing while Mommy and Kayla eat dinner.

Motor Skills:  She is now grabbing for her toys and kicking happily when she can make them move.  Her sister is constantly bringing toys over to entertain her.  She holds her head up really well to look around.  She has also started pushing her elbows against the ground to lift her head and upper back off the ground.  It looks like she is doing crunches!

Sick, Sick, Sick

My poor baby girls have been sick all week.  Sabrina started with a cough which thankfully was not RSV and never moved into her chest.  Kayla started with a cough and fever a few days later and has been up and down ever since.  They both sound miserable and I know Kayla feels bad because she won't even eat her favorite "rackamony and cheese."  They both want to be held and cuddled, which I am glad to do.  My lap has been very crowded lately!  (as has my bed...)

 It is so hard to know when to go to the doctor.  I call to make an appointment and the lady asks what is wrong.  "Fever and cough" and I feel like she is thinking..."Your child has a cold, lady."  But, I feel better going anyway.  Kayla hasn't been sick like this before so I just want to make sure it's only a virus that has to run it's course.

Sabrina with the "deer in the headlights" look from the camera.  :)  This was the day we spent nearly the whole time in bed.  Thank goodness for Netflix.  We watched Tangled, which I thought was pretty cute.

And I left the camera unattended...at least she felt good enough to say "Cheese!"  "Look, Mommy, I'm taking pictures of my shirt!"

She took many more than these (it's amazing what she can do when I run to the restroom!) but these are the cutest!

Sabrina at 2 Months

Wow!  Is she 2 months already?!  Sabrina is growing so quickly!  I remember being sooooo ready for Kayla to grow out of early infancy because everything seemed so hard.  Now, I want time to go slowly and enjoy Sabrina's early months before she gets too big!  (And if I could just freeze 2-year-old Kayla I would, too...she is such a blast right now!)

STATS:
Weight:  10 lbs. 15 oz.  She is gaining weight well!  Kayla was 1/2 a pound heavier at this point.  (I have been looking back in her baby book just for reference.)

Height: 24 inches, one long baby!  I think she will be even taller than Kayla!

Sleeping Habits:  Days and nights are definitely as they should be now and she is proving to be a great sleeper.  We've already had almost a week of nights where she goes to bed at 8pm and sleeps through til 5 or 6 am.  While the extra sleep really makes a huge difference for us, I am trying not to get too used to it...infant sleep always seems subject to change.

Eating Habits:  Still nursing very well!

Sabrina has a "strong neck" just like Kayla did and is always lifting her head up and looking around.  Her favorite things to look at are my face (aw!), a piece of iron artwork we have above the couch, and, of course, the ceiling fan.  She has also started smiling!  It is so amazing that this is something that happens so soon in infants.  It brings such delight to my heart!  At this point, the ceiling fan and I are tied for our ability to make her smile, though.
Although she is super sweet, we can see a bit of temper in her.  She is very insistent about when she is ready to sleep.  When I hear that cry, I know she just wants to be bundled up and cuddled.  Otherwise, we don't really hear much from her besides the occasional "coo."  She is a very happy baby! 

Sabrina at 1 Month

So, yes, this post is very behind, but I am going to play catch-up just in time for her 3 month-old update.  I got this idea of the fabric background from a blog that I enjoy reading.  Although they did their little one's pics weekly.  Like I could keep up with that!

Here is my beautiful baby girl!

 It feels like Sabrina was born yesterday, while at the same time it's like she was always here.  I guess that just means she is part of the family and it now wouldn't be the same without her!

STATS (thinking back to 1 month old):

Weight: 10 lbs. even

Height:  22 3/4" long

Hair: strawberry blond, especially in the sunlight

Eyes: navy blue, Kayla was born with brown eyes, so I thought Sabrina would be too.  I am excited to see if her eyes change color to be darker or stay light.

Sleep Habits:  So far, she has her days and nights mixed up.  She tends to get up around 1:30 am and think it is time to play.  Mommy and Daddy are very tired!  After I get up and nurse her, I watch Netflix while cuddling and waiting for her to be tired again.  I have watched lots of movies...

Eating Habits:  She is nursing so well.  I am super pleased that she has taken so well to it and that I am producing enough to keep her satisfied. 

Sabrina is such a sweet baby and is very healthy!  We are grateful for her everyday!

 

"My turn!

Kayla has been missing her mommy-time lately.  She went through this when we first had Sabrina and then she seemed to feel better about sharing after a while.  The past few weeks, however, have been a bit more difficult for her.  One particular source of envy has been when Sabrina is in the Moby wrap, ie, "in Mommy's shirt."  This makes it difficult for me to pick up my big girl and give her "huggies."
The other day I had Sabrina with me in the wrap as I made dinner...she loves to snooze in that thing!  We could tell Kayla needed some mommy time so we switched babies and ended up like this....

At least my big girl still fits in my shirt!  :)  She stayed in there the whole time I made dinner.  I love this girl!

Like Daddy, Like Daughter

When Kayla was first born, everyone said she looked so much like Jeremy.  I didn't see it until Sabrina was born.  Now I see that both my girls look a lot like their daddy.  They have such similar profiles (and an apparent interest in football...)

...does Penny bear the same profile resemblance??

a Spontaneous Saturday

This past Saturday, our family of 4 took a little trip not really knowing where we were going.  We wanted to walk on the Riverwalk (Jeremy's favorite) and park at the Pearl Brewery, but couldn't manage to get there for various reasons....So, we ended up at Brackenridge Park intending to go to the zoo (which also didn't happen). 
We started out at the Japanese Tea Gardens which mainly consisted of convincing Kayla that she did not need to go swimming with the koi.  Those things are massive!  She also loved the many steps there and insisted that she climb them all on her own.
The picture on the left is from the last time we visited the Gardens, about 1 1/2 years ago!

This was the first time we had gone out as a family to anywhere other than a doctor's appointment or a family home.  I was nervous to take Sabrina out...where would I feed her, would she be cranky, etc.  But, I had my favorite tool, the "Moby" wrap, so that gave me confidence to at least try a longer-than-usual outing.

 Here is the wrap with Sabrina inside!  She slept the whole time and I got funny stares from people, who would eventually exclaim, "Oh!  There's a baby in there!" 
A lady at the playground also caught the black and white one for me.  She thought it was so sweet and couldn't resist.

We rode the train, which was very interesting for Kayla for the first 5 minutes, then she was done.  Jeremy had to restrain her from climbing all over and under the seats the rest of the time.  She is a wiggle-worm!

I am so glad that we didn't waste this beautiful day indoors!