baby photos – Simply Stoops

Baby

Four Months of Baby

February 20, 2021February 1, 2021by Rachel StoopsLeave a Comment

And just like that we were into Vivian’s fourth month of life! This has been the most fun month yet, but I’m guessing that I will start to say this as each month passes. She just grows and learns so much, I cannot get over it!

This month she really took an interest in toys. She absolutely loves holding onto her little teething toys, and we found some great ones that were easy for her to grasp. Hence the teething toys, she loves to put absolutely everything into her mouth. I have another post planned with some of her favorites that I will share soon!

Vivian celebrated her first Hanukkah with the family via Zoom and we found some cute pajamas at Old Navy that I love! I have gotten as much use out of these as I could even past the holiday just because they are so dang adorable!

She also loves her sit me up from Uncle Scotty and Auntie Sima, and feels like such a big girl!

Otherwise, our days look the same as always, lots of playing, napping, and eating.

She has rolled from her tummy to back during tummy time, though I think that was an accident as she isn’t too consistent yet, and likes to turn onto her side when she’s on her back, but hasn’t rolled fully over from her back just yet.

She also really loves her daddy. 😍 She’s a pretty good video game buddy!

She had her four month check up, filled with more vaccines. 😫 I hate seeing her cry out in pain, though nursing her immediately following seems to help. I will say that she had the best sleep of her life the night after the vaccines, so that was the only bonus. She wasn’t running a fever, but seemed to be in pain so we attempted to give her some baby tylenol and that didn’t go so well. It was grape flavored (gross, I understand) and she spit it back out and then vomited all over me. 😂 I guess we will only use that in pure desperation from now on; note taken.

Otherwise, she is growing well – she has gained about 9 pounds total and grown 6.5 inches! She’s finally starting to take after her tall mom and dad. The pediatrician also began discussing when we can start introducing solids – how exciting! Though I am in no rush…

She has also gotten quite the flat spot on her head because she is very stubborn about her sleeping position, and will only sleep with her head to one side. We’ve tried stretches and changing her sleeping position, but have had no luck. It sounds like we will have to get her one of those baby helmets to help shape her head, so I will report back as we go through that process.

She is a healthy, happy, big girl and we love her so much!

She also has the sweetest little relationship with Olive. Okay, this doesn’t happen often, but is this not the most heart warming photo you have ever seen?!

Monthly milestone picture!

I wish I could slow down time and enjoy the baby cuddles forever, but am also so excited for all of the fun milestones ahead!

Laugh Often – Rachel

Baby, postpartum

Three Months of Baby

February 11, 2021January 29, 2021by Rachel StoopsLeave a Comment

My parents left on Halloween morning, so for month three of Vivian’s life, we were officially on our own. I was so terrified to no longer have my mom. She was such a huge help, especially in keeping me fed, but also rescuing my sanity throughout the day. I had no idea how I was going to do this alone. Spoiler alert: we got into our own groove and made things work. I now had a new normal and a daily routine that I stuck to day in and day out, and it seemed to work for us. It wasn’t the most exciting, but pretty much consisted of feed Viv, playtime, naptime, repeat.

Month three looked quite similar to the prior two months, but now Vivian was really starting to grow her little personality. She was becoming more alert and interested in things, and really started to enjoy playing. We have two little activity mats that have a piano on the bottom that she loves to kick. She also likes to watch the lights flash while she does her tummy time. This was when she really started making more eye contact and smiling back at me consistently and really seemed engaged. This was so fun to see.

Every morning when she woke up, she would greet you with the biggest smiles, and it truly was the best start to the day. No matter how tired I was, this sweet little girl could always put a smile on my face.

November was another beautiful month weather-wise so I filled it with as many walks as possible for us to get out of the house.

We also bundled up to experience going outside for the first time in the snow! She started crying about 3 seconds after this photo. 😂

Three months was also when she started to prefer to be sitting more upright, or held facing outwards so she could look around, rather than be laying down.

Daddy also figured out that he could baby wear and continue playing his video games; a win for all.

Even though she was getting more interested in the world around, there was still plenty of time for sleepy snuggles, followed by silly faces, and posing for more photos. I just cannot get enough of this sweet girl!

And last but not least, her monthly milestone photo. 😍

I love watching her grow and change in each month of life. The changes seem to happen so quickly, and overnight she learns something new. The sweet innocence of a babe is so precious to watch as she learns the big world around her. Thanks for keeping us on our toes – we love you little one!

Laugh Often – Rachel

Baby

Two Months of Baby

February 2, 2021January 24, 2021by Rachel Stoops1 Comment

Before we knew it, Vivian was in her second month of life! Some days seemed to drag on forever (or nights, should I say 😆), but at the same time, time was flying by. Thankfully, my mom was still here helping out. She kept me well fed, and would also swoop in at the perfect moment to tend to Vivian if I needed some extra rest. Oddly enough, no matter how tired I was, I could never manage to fall asleep for any daytime naps.

We stuck to staying in the house, basically only leaving for pediatrician appointments, and we did take her for a few chiropractic appointments in hopes of helping her tummy. Starting around week three, Vivian seemed to always have an upset tummy and would often cry out in pain and just seemed so uncomfortable. A friend had recommended cranial sacral therapy, so we gave it a shot! We were pretty desperate for any relief for little Miss Viv. Not only was she fussy all the time, but it was so hard to see my baby in pain.

We visited the chiropractor maybe 4-5 times. We didn’t see any immediate results, but I do think it helped her in the long run. The chiropractor was so very gentle on baby Viv and Vivian would often sleep through the whole appointment. I did end up cutting all dairy from my diet, and I think ultimately this was the biggest factor in her tummy troubles easing up!

Otherwise, we just stuck to our walks when the weather was nice and playing in the house. Just before Vivian turned two months, we started getting purposeful smiles! This was so exciting, but they were always hard to capture because they were quick, and she was sneaky about it. She tended to smile more in the mornings than any other time of day.

My step dad also came down toward the end of October to meet Vivian, and she even got to take a couple of field trips to the condo my parents were staying at so I could have some time for myself.

Vivian also started loving tummy time, especially on top of her Daddy! 🥰

Some other highlights from October were Halloween, though we settled on a onesie rather than a costume for this year, and a Seahawks game!

Making it to two months also meant it was time for Vivian’s first round of vaccines; an appointment I was dreading. Luckily, both Mike and I were able to attend. I didn’t know how I was going to handle seeing her cry out all by myself. Overall, she took the shots like a champ. It was hard to hear her scream, and she immediately turned bright red, but it was over in no-time. I nursed her as soon as the shots were done, and then we packed up and headed back home for snuggles. Such a brave girl after her shots!

And of course we cannot forget the two month milestone photo.

Another great month in the books!

Laugh Often – Rachel

Baby

One Month of Baby

January 21, 2021January 11, 2021by Rachel Stoops1 Comment

The first month of Vivian’s life was an absolute whirlwind. I was sleep deprived, overwhelmed, emotional, and the list goes on. I kept reminding myself that she sure was lucky to be cute because boy was it hard! Luckily, all I had to do was look down at her and I would instantly fall back in love with this tiny creature that was keeping me awake all night.

Vivian was nocturnal for the beginning of her life, as most babies are. Perhaps another thing no one tells you? You just assume that new babies sleep all the time. While kind of true, it’s also so false. 😂 They are happy to sleep in your arms, but as soon as you’d like to put them down somewhere so you can get some shut eye too, their eyes instantly pop back open. At 2am, this was no longer cute.

When babies are awake, they like to eat. And boy did Vivian find her voice quickly. She could go from zero to 100 in a matter of seconds and would scream at us if she was hungry. Not necessarily a bad thing – girl just knows what she wants. New babies need to eat every 2-3 hours because their stomachs are so tiny in the beginning. This doesn’t sound so bad, right? What I didn’t realize beforehand was that the timer starts at the beginning of the feed, not the end. So really, it could end up closer to an hour in between feeds, depending on how long she ate for, burping, settling back down, etc.

In those early days, I constantly had the timer on my phone going and would reset that 3 hour timer as soon as she began to feed. Rarely did we make it to the 3 hour mark before she was ready to eat again. It was sometimes only an hour and a half. She was a hungry girl!

In this first month of life, we were simply running in survival mode. Mike went back to work after two weeks, so I did my best to let him get his rest, though he did help out in the evenings so I could take a nap after dinner. For those first few weeks, it seemed that as soon as the sun would set and it would get dark out, my body would go into shut down mode, and I could barely keep my eyes open any longer. I assume this was a response to knowing another sleepless night was coming my way. Mike also moved into the guest room to get better sleep, so I had our big bed all to myself, and Vivian in her bassinet next to me. It was quite luxurious after being used to sharing the bed with Mike plus our two dogs!

During many of her night wakings, it would be hard to get her back into her bassinet afterwards. She just wanted to snuggle me. It was so hard to resist, but I knew that we both needed our rest, and safely where we belonged.

I took my sleep for any number of minutes I could get. I often awoke in a state of confusion. For a while, there was a period where I always thought I fell asleep holding her so I would wake up cradling my pillow or blanket, assuming it was Vivian. As I opened my eyes, I would realize that she was in fact in her bassinet, and I had lost my mind. There were even times that I dreamt I was feeding her, so when Mike walked over and said ‘the baby is hungry,’ I told him I that I was already feeding her and closed my eyes. This was when I realized how real sleep deprivation was. It is kind of funny to think back on now, but was quite awful in the moment.

We didn’t do a whole lot during Vivian’s first month of life. Mostly because I was exhausted and it was too much effort to get packed up to go anywhere, but also because the world was pretty much still shut down due to the pandemic. I figured we would keep Vivian even more safely away from those big, scary germs out in the world.

If we did leave the house, it was typically for a walk around the neighborhood because the weather was still beautiful through September and into October; lucky us! We had very few visitors, again due to the circumstances, so it was snuggles at home for us!

Exhausted and sleep deprived, it was also an accomplishment to have made it through one month! Everyone assured us that things would get easier with time, which they have. She is only that tiny once, so enjoying those newborn snuggles is so cherished.

Laugh Often – Rachel

Baby

Newborn Photo Shoot

January 18, 2021January 9, 2021by Rachel Stoops1 Comment

We scheduled a newborn photo shoot for Vivian’s one week birthday and I was so excited to see how it would come out! I couldn’t help but melt over the sample photos I had seen of the squishy babies in buckets, and all wrapped up.

Our shoot was scheduled for 10am, so another frantic morning of attempting to get ready. This time I actually had to look half-way decent. 😂 I was smart enough to book an in-home photo shoot so at least we didn’t need to leave the house to get anywhere on time.

We were instructed to crank up the heat in the house, and feed baby upon arrival so she would be nice and sleepy and easy to pose for the photos. The photographer brought all of her amazing props and was a dream to work with. Vivian loved her, and she was magically able to capture the tiny, sleepy smiles and cute faces.

I was a little bit hesitant to book a shoot because so many photographers seemed to be quite expensive, but I am SO glad we did this. The photos turned out absolutely amazing and I love having them to look back on. She has already changed and grown so much – I cannot believe she was once this tiny! After seeing all of the work that goes into the shoots, and how long it takes, I completely understand the price point. Either way, I highly recommend.

Here are some of my favorites! It is so hard to choose because they are all perfect! Mind you we ended up with around 250 pictures from this session!

Photo credit: Andrea Rae Photography

Laugh Often – Rachel

Baby

First Week with Baby

January 15, 2021January 9, 2021by Rachel Stoops1 Comment

After bringing baby home and surviving the first night on our own, it was time to take our next venture out into the world – to the pediatrician! They like to see the baby 24-48 hours after leaving the hospital, and since we left Thursday evening, Friday was our only option before the weekend. Attempting to get the baby all packed up and get semi-dressed with my newly postpartum body that was now somewhere in between maternity clothes and normal, was a challenge to say the least. I have no idea what I ended up wearing, but getting some clothes on was a win. 😂

Another scary car ride, this time a little bit longer. I can’t quite remember, but I have a feeling she may have screamed the whole way, or at least part of it. We did figure out that she liked classical music and this would calm her down, luckily. She also spit up, and pooped along the way so we had to change her in the trunk once we got to the office. Thank goodness the snow and freezing temperatures from earlier in the week had passed!

Our pediatrician is such a gem! She has a sweet and friendly demeanor, and helped to put us tired, and uncertain new parents at ease.

Vivian was born weighing 5 pounds and 12 ounces. When leaving the hospital, she weighed 5 pounds and 9 ounces. At her first pediatrician appointment, she was down to 5 pounds and 4 ounces. It is completely normal for newborns to lose a certain percentage of their weight in those first few days because mama’s milk hasn’t quite come in yet, and since she was especially small, it was extra important to keep any eye on her.

Because she was so tiny, the pediatrician wanted to see us back in on Monday to see how her weight was looking after the weekend, and she recommended that I try to pump some colostrum over the weekend and give it to her in between feedings to get her as many calories as possible.

Saturday morning, I pulled out my pump to see what would happen. To my surprise, not only did colostrum come out, but in a moment, it was actually milk! As a new mom, this was the most exciting thing! Especially with a hungry baby who wanted to eat 24/7.

Over the weekend, the exhaustion intensified. Vivian seemed to be eating constantly, which made me fearful that I wasn’t able to give her enough milk. The hard part about breastfeeding is that you have no idea how much they are getting, and I was getting very discouraged.

Come Monday morning, we prepared for our second visit to the pediatrician. I was terrified that Vivian was going to have lost more weight, and I could feel myself getting emotional as they got ready to weigh her. To my surprise, she was back up to 5 pounds and 12 ounces; her birth weight! She had gained a whole 8 ounces over the weekend. The pediatrician was overjoyed as getting back up to birth weight that quickly seemed to be unheard of. I was so unbelievably relieved that my milk was working out for the both of us. This was just the boost that I needed.

The rest of the first week was a bit of a whirlwind. Not much sleep was involved so I was tired and emotional, which is to be expected after having a baby. My body would grow tired very easily, or if I tried to do too much. We went for a short walk around the block, and I washed some dishes and that was enough for my aching body.

Here are some pictures from Vivian’s first week: