She's Growing Up So Fast!

This has been a big week for Reese! On top of turning one month old, she has started doing all sorts of new things. She's really started smiling a lot more. Matt & I haven't gotten a big smile out of her that we know for sure was intentional, but she smiles at the star on her activity gym when it lights up (no fair, right?). She is much more interested in the objects on the activity gym this week, & she has started cooing during playtime. She has even reached up to touch the toys a few times.



Sometimes playtime is just exhausting though. :)



We have been doing a lot more tummy time now that her umbilical cord has finally fallen off. Here is a picture of tummy time on the quilt that her Grandma Mary made for her:



Since her cord fell off and the scab from the cauterization is healed, we were finally able to give her a real bath (we could only do sponge baths until now). She definitely liked it much better than her sponge baths, & we did too!









Here are some pictures from the rest of the week:

Newborn Photos Sneak Peek!

My friend Morgan posted a sneak peak of Reese's newborn photos on her blog, and they are gorgeous. She did such a great job. I love the photos, and I can't wait to see the rest. I'll share the sneak peak with all of you, but you have to promise to act surprised when you get your birth announcements in the mail. :) I love them too much to wait to share them. Here is the link to Morgan's blog:

http://www.morgancranephotography.com/blog/

For some reason, I'm having trouble making it a clicky link, so you'll have to cut and paste. Enjoy!

Surprise!!!!

Matt's family caught us COMPLETELY off guard with a surprise baby shower last night. We thought that we were going to a surprise retirement party for Mary (Matt's mom), and Matt's mom thought she was going to a surprise baby shower. Well, Mary arrived at the party at 5:30, & was surprised with her retirement party. We arrived at 6:30, & were surprised with our baby shower! When we pulled up to the house, everyone was standing on the porch holding signs that spelled out, "Welcome Baby Reese".



Matt & I thought that it was so sweet (and of course it made me get all choked up), but we still didn't get it. We just thought that everyone was being sweet & welcoming Reese to the party (uhm, in a really big way!), but we didn't realize that the party was for us. It took a few minutes, and the realization that Matt's mom was already at the party before we started to understand that we were being thrown a baby shower. When we walked into the house, there was a huge picture of Reese above the fireplace that said, "Welcome to the family, Reese Sophia Gunier". I, of course, started crying when I saw it. Matt said he got choked up too, but don't tell him that I told you that. :)



There were balloons, an adorable cake, & baby gifts everywhere inside. It was so incredibly sweet and unexpected. We felt so loved, & everyone was so excited to welcome Reese to the family. Reese had such a great time that she even slept for almost 6 hours straight last night to celebrate!!! Woohoo!!!

One Month!!!

Reese turned 1 month old this week!!! She has kept me too busy to create a blog post until now. I told Matt that it's funny how one month ago, I felt like we had no idea what we were doing, & we were completely flying by the seat of our pants everyday. Now, one month later, I feel like no one could ever take care of her like we do, & it would be impossible for anyone else to even try! It's funny how much a month changes things. We're still kind of flying by the seat of our pants, but with much more confidence! Here are the pictures from her One Month Day.

Bye, Bye Umbilical Cord

Did you know that little girls can shoot pee 4 feet across the room? I didn't. I do now. After Reese's bath on Tuesday night, we took her into her room & laid her on her changing table. As we were getting ready to put her diaper back on, she decided to pee from her changing table all the way to the rocker. Just for perspective, here is a picture of the distance between these two things.



I just stood there with my mouth hanging open until it finally occurred to me to put my hand there to block it. It was seriously impressive. And messy.

Reese's umbilical cord FINALLY fell off today. She no longer has her last piece of mommy attached to her. Sniff, sniff. I had actually called the pediatrician office on Wednesday because I was getting concerned that it still hadn't fallen off. They said if it wasn't off by Saturday (4 weeks), to bring her in. Well, it fell off this morning, but when it did, her belly button was bleeding & oozing. It was really gross, & it freaked me out. I called the pediatrician, & they said to bring her in. I took her over, and the doctor said that it had formed a granuloma, which I guess is pretty common when the cord stays on for this long. She screamed her head off while he cleaned it & cauterized it, & I felt soooo bad for her. So, it's official--I held her down & played the "bad guy" role today, Matt gets to hold her for her shots at her 2 month visit. It's only fair.

We plopped Reese on the scale when we were at the pediatrician office. She is up to 8 pounds, 5 ounces!!! They say that newborns gain an average of .75 ounces per day. Reese has gained 33 ounces in 27 days! I asked the pediatrician if she was gaining weight too quickly, and his exact words were, "There's no such thing." He said that she is doing great, & that she is "chunking up" nicely. :)

3 Weeks

How can Reese be 3 weeks old already??? Time is already flying by. Slowly but surely, we're starting to feel like we know what the heck we're doing!

This week has been a good week. On Wednesday night, Reese started sleeping in 4 hour stretches at night. We are really hoping this continues, because 4 hours of consecutive sleep is WONDERFUL. She's starting to have more alert time during the day, which is really fun. I still sit & stare at her all day, but now she stares back! She's starting to focus on objects and faces, so we've started playing on her Baby Einstein activity mat as well.

Reese's biggest milestone this week was receiving her first bottle feeding. The pediatrician recommended waiting no longer than 3 weeks to introduce the bottle, so Matt fed her a bottle of pumped milk on Friday night. It was exciting for him to be able to feed her!

Since I'm nursing, we don't really know how many ounces she's taking at a feeding. I tried to do some online research ahead of time to figure out how many ounces of milk to thaw out, and everything I read suggested that a baby her age would probably be eating about 2-3 ounces at each feeding, so I thawed 3 ounces to be safe. She went to town, and sucked down that 3 ounce bottle in about 5 minutes. That was with a newborn slow flow nipple! Matt burped her, & she was STILL rooting around looking for food, so I ended up having to nurse her as well! We couldn't believe it. She's a little piglet!!!

Two Weeks

I can't believe Reese is already two weeks old. The last 2 weeks are a bit of a blur! We had her 2 week check up with the pediatrician yesterday. She is doing great, & she is up to 7 pounds. The goal for the 2 week check up is to be back to birth weight (6lbs, 4oz), & she has gained 12 ounces over her birth weight! She's a great eater!

Matt went back to work this week. My mom came over & helped me out, which was great. Although it was nice having someone to make me lunch everyday, I'm really looking forward to being on my own with Reese this week. I'm going to snuggle this baby all day long. I'm sure I'll miss the help though. My goal is to be showered & at least have eaten breakfast by the time Matt gets home each afternoon. :)

My sister and 8 month old nephew came up from Florida to meet Reese this weekend. It was great to see them. Austin is such a cutie. We only got one quick picture of the cousins together before they left this morning, & I obviously need to learn to use my new camera, since I only got the picture focused on Austin. Oh well, they still look cute together.




The Guniers came to visit on Thursday night as well, & Uncle Brian & Grandpa got to hold Reese for the first time. :)




Well, Sleeping Beauty is waking up, so I guess this post is over!