Well, I'm slacking on the blogging again...haha. I have a good excuse though...our internet never works. Well, let me rephrase that. We don't have internet at our house. Even after 3 years of living in our home (that we built in a new development) no interent provider can provide us with internet. How crazy is that? It's two thousand THIRTEEN people! It's just the houses on our street though, which is even stupider. (yes I made that a word) All the houses across the street from us have Internet, as do every other house in our neighborhood except for the ones on our street. Luckily, we have a sweet man across the street from us who lets us use his internet...BUT you have to be sitting at a certain spot at our kitchen counter for it to work, and even then, it is horrible. Anywho.
off. my. soap. box.
So, the kid will be 3 months old in a little less than 3 weeks. THREE months old? Seriously Addie. Stop the growing. I mean, don't stop growing, but you know what I mean.

People say I need to get out of the house more. Well, about that... Addie is a fussy baby...and when I say fussy, I don't mean that she has colic, but she's just fussy when I take her out in public. And when she starts crying, it escalates into a loud scream that sounds like a cat being mashed by a 500 pound man. Not kidding. She has the loudest cry of any baby I have ever heard cry. I know what you are thinking..."Jenna, all babies cry." Ohhhhh NO. When my kid cries, people turn heads and stare because it is SO loud. Hopefully she will get better as I take her out more and more.

We went to church this past Sunday for the first time...and that was interesting. We arrived during her nap time...and listened to Ian lead worship. Of course she wasn't going to be able to fall asleep with all of the loud music. Then she started to get fussy. She normally naps between 1-2 hours between each feeding during the day, but only napped for about 25 minutes at church. Everything was fine though, and at least I got to hear some good worship music! Oh, and I completely forgot that it was St. Patrick's day and forgot to dress her in her little St. Patty's day outfit, so we had to put it on when we got home and take some pictures. :)

Addie being fussy aside, she is seriously the cutest thing ever. She is smiling and giggling so much now, and pretty much every time you talk to her, which is SO much fun. She's also strong as an ox. She will stand in my lap for a very long period of time before her knees buckle, and she has very good head control! She's really starting to like her Jumparoo too, although she doesn't look like it in this picture. Haha.

Also, she will kill me for this one day, but she is very gassy. I have been lucky to catch it on video a couple times...lol. Enjoy.

 
:)
 

Growing like a weed

I cannot get over how much our sweet girl has changed in just 1 month. I wish time would slow down! She will be 2 months old on the 8th of March and I can't believe it.

We've had some pretty awesome milestones in the past few weeks...smiling, cooing, sleeping for 5 hour stretches at night. Oh, and she's even had projectile spit up twice...and by projectile, I mean it didn't even get on her. Lol. I think my jaw hit the floor when it happened the first time. I totally wasn't prepared for it.

Being able to stay at home with this sweet girl has meant everything in the world to me. There is nothing else I would rather do, and no other job more fulfilling. The sleepless nights are SO worth it!

I also still can't believe that she was once inside my belly. How does that make sense? Seriously...I don't think I'll ever comprehend that.

We have discovered that Addie absolutely LOVES bath time. She gets SO mad when we take her out of the bathtub...haha.

We love our girl!

Addie at 1 Month Old

Wow. I cannot believe that our sweet girl is already a month old. :::sigh::: It's true what they say...time really does fly by! My mom and I decided to try and take some 1 month pictures of her yesterday, and sweet girl wasn't happy. I am shocked that we were able to get just a couple of good ones. Her shirt says "1 month" on it, but Addie's hands are always curled up in front of her chest so you can't really see it. Oh well. :)

We have started putting Addie in her crib to sleep at night, which I thought would be a really big deal emotionally for me...but surprisingly, she (and I) have done really well! In fact, last night she had 2 of the longest stretches of sleep since we've had her, which was amazing! I decided I wanted to try and put her on a "schedule" of sorts...so I looked into Moms on Call, which my friend Terri swears by. If you haven't heard of it, check it out. It's pretty nifty, and Addie is doing really well!

In other news, Ian and I went out on our first "date" last week...since Addie was born. We went on a double date with our bestest friends Brett and Kate to Olive Garden. Boy was it was nice to get out of the house! Thank goodness my mom is close and could watch her for us.

Sweet girl cracks me up every time she wakes up. She loves to stretch, and it's the cutest thing ever.

Anyway, I love this kid. Obviously.

  Y'all have a good day now ya hear? :)
 

Addie's Newborn Pictures

An advantage of being a photographer, is being able to take pictures of your sweet child anytime you want. I have done just that. In fact, I think my followers on Instagram and Facebook are getting tired of seeing me post so often! I can't promise it's going to stop though. ;)
If you would like to follow me on Instagram to see my daily pictures of our sweet Addie, my username is @JennaAllen. :)
Here are the newborn pictures I took of Addie the other day when my mom came over to the house for a little while. I absolutely love how they turned out! Enjoy.

Oh Google How I Loathe Thee

You know, they should really send you home from the hospital with a manual. Don't you agree? Haha...I'm silly I know, but seriously! I've never had a baby before, and I've only babysat one time (yep, once)...but yet they still send you on your merry way after a couple of days, to do things on your own . . . Be a parent! Eeeek!

So, on those first few nights home, what did I do in the wee hours of the morning when I was up breast feeding? I turned to Mr. Google. Now, there are many things Mr. Google is good for, but I'm here to tell you that if you need parenting advice, just don't do it. If there's one thing I've learned, it is that every single parent is completely different, as is every single baby. I mean, it's nice to hear the different things people do, just so you know your options, but ultimately it's up to you! YOU are the parent!

The main thing I was stressing out about is whether or not I should wake Addie up in the middle of the night to feed her, or let her wake me up when she's hungry. I made the mistake of posting the question on Facebook, and within 30 minutes I probably had 50 comments! I appreciate everyone that commented, but I will definitely say I was extremely overwhelmed. A couple days later, I spoke with my midwife and thought I would ask her opinion. She told me that as long as she is eating good, to not let her go more than 3 hours during the day without eating, and then at night, just to let Addie let me know when she's hungry. This is exactly what we have been doing and it's working great! I feel like we are somewhat getting on a schedule (obviously it takes longer than 2 weeks to get your baby on a schedule) which is awesome!

Things have definitely gotten easier over the past couple of days. We started putting her in a cradle next to our bed a few nights ago (we had her in the bed with us for a few as well), and it has been great. Also, the past 3 nights, she has only woke me up once to eat in the middle of the night! Woohoo!

Also, can we talk about how obsessed I am with taking pictures of this sweet child? Whether it be with my iPhone, or my Nikon, I am always taking pictures of her. And yes, people might get tired of seeing me post picture after picture of my little butter bean, but I will be so happy I did!

So...Mr. Google...not a good source for parenting advice, and you can never take too many pictures! Speaking of pictures...here are a few. :)