monthly baby update – Simply Stoops

Baby

Five months of baby

March 4, 2021February 9, 2021by Rachel Stoops1 Comment

As the months pass by, I am realizing we have less and less to report. It sure is a bummer that baby girl was born into this global pandemic. We don’t get out of the house much, and I am longing for some play dates, or fun outings, but alas, we will wait until the safer days ahead.

In the meantime, our days continue to be filled with playtime amongst our different playmats, exploring new toys, and investigating the different rooms of the house. Somehow I still manage to take plenty of cute pictures of our sweet little girl.

This month, we whipped out a hand-me-down from my brother and sister-in-law, which she is loving being in more of a standing position for short bits!

I also ordered some ball pit balls, but she wasn’t so sure about those. 😂

This month she has become a little bit more consistent with rolling from her tummy to her back, though she still will only do it when she wants to, and not often for a video. She also seems to forget that she knows how and will still fuss once she is over playing on her tummy.

Giggles are becoming a little bit more frequent as well, and oh so cute! Again, these are so hard to capture! But she is loving finding this little (or big) voice of hers! From squeals to screeches, and everything in between, she always has something to say… just like her daddy.

Speaking of Daddy, she still loves playtime with him, from high to low, and especially flying around the house like an airplane, chasing the doggies.

She is still her snuggly little self, and loves coming into bed in the morning while mommy finishes waking up.

Since we keep her in footy pajamas most of the time, lounging around the house, we’ve been trying to let her hangout in her diaper a little bit more to feel different textures on her body, and so she can find her cute little toes.

She absolutely loves bath time (thank goodness) and smiles and kicks her feet about in the water. She loves to play with the wash cloths, and hold the water cup now.

She also loves chewing on fingers, at least that’s one surefire way to cheer her up and we are never without them!

As she grows, she is getting wigglier and wigglier. Diaper changes are becoming increasingly more difficult as she rolls side to side, lifts her bum, and kicks her feet about. I can only imagine what is ahead once she is more mobile.

Our sweet, sassy girl is full of personality, and I can’t wait to continue watching her grow.

She also loves her little teether toys and isn’t often caught with out one, awake or asleep.

I guess we did get to go on one adventure this month… a nice scenic drive! We were hoping to go on a little walk, but it ended up being quite windy. At least we got a few photos to show for it. And some fresh mountain air!

Sleep is still questionable and this mama is tired! Some nights are decent, while others are such a struggle. She is also still very much into short naps, so breaks are few and far between for me and I rush to get my teeth brushed or hair tamed before she is back awake. I know how important daytime sleep is, so after one or two naps a day, I will rock her back to sleep and snuggle her. After all, these days won’t last forever, and I am trying to soak in all of these lovely snuggles.

While we are longing for more fun adventures, I try to remind myself that she knows no different than the safety and comfort of our home, and is a happy little babe spending time with her mommy and daddy. We love you so much, Vivian!

Laugh Often – Rachel

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!