Summing Up The Smiths: Time Flies

I should be so ashamed of myself for not blogging like I should be. The past 3 months have been a whirlwind and I haven’t found the “extra” time to blog OR the computer/internet access that would have made this so much easier. We have had a Mifi and it took forever for the pictures and blogs to load so I got a little frustrated and just totally abandoned the whole thing. I am going to do much better now that we have Wifi I hope. I even went and bought a new desktop computer so that I could have my own personal little place to write posts, pay bills, upload/print pictures, etc. I am glad to finally have a little “Amy Space”!

Let me catch you up on Suzy!!! She has grown so much. It is hard to believe that that wee little baby that we brought home from the hospital has grown into such a chunky little thing. She is 14 weeks old, weighs 14 lbs, and has fat rolls all over her. Memaw still keeps Suzy while I am at work and it seems like Gigi (Scott’s mom, Linda) has her at least one night per weekend. My mom (Mimi) always has little projects going on or is going to the Lake House and cannot get her much on the weekends. I know that as soon as her schedule slows down that she will be fighting Gigi for a weekend! Mimi does get to see Suzy a lot during the week though. If 3 days have passed and she hasn’t seen her she tends to get a little whiney!

Mimi and Suzy at the Lake House over Spring Break.

Gigi and Suzy the same week!

Suzy is an absolute joy. She has been sleeping all night since I went back to work when she was 6 weeks old. Thanks to Jill Lamar I read the book Babywise and it changed our lives!! I was venting to Jill one day about how rough things were going with her crying, sleeping, feedings, etc. and Jill recommended the book. I went to her house one afternoon and picked it up. I read it in one night and started the Babywise method the next day. It was a life changing experience I assure you. The first couple days were pretty stressful and very emotional. For those of you that are not familiar with the book I will fill you in quickly (I could talk about it for days). The book just recommends that you put your baby on a schedule, stick to the schedule, and teach the baby how to “self sooth”. Well, in other words it tells you to put the baby on a schedule and let them cry the problems out themselves. Needless to say, I cried about as much as Suzy did for 3 days or so. Babywise says to feed the baby, have “awake time”, then “rest time”. Suzy picked up on everything so quickly that within a couple days she was thriving. I am now a firm believer that babies thrive on schedules. After a week of using the methods Suzy was a brand new baby. There wasn’t nearly as much crying going on, she would swing or sit in her bouncy chair, and I didn’t have to hold her constantly. It had gotten to the point that she was falling asleep on my chest and I would slowly move her to her baby bed, but the book taught me how to make that change. I feed her at night, kiss her, tell her I love her, walk out of the room and she never makes a fuss!! It is ahhhhhmazing!! She was going to sleep at 9:00 PM, but has moved her bedtime up herself to 7:30 and sleeps until I pick her up in the mornings to take her to Memaw’s house. One area that I cannot complain about is the “bedtime routine”. I recommend this book to every person that I know that has babies or is fixing to have a baby. Naptime has been a struggle because we didn’t know that she should have a scheduled naptime everyday. I guess I was too enthused about bedtime to remember what the book told me about naps. I picked up the book again and reread the chapter on naps and that is getting much better now that I have some knowledge on how to implement them.

This is Suzy’s schedule as of right now (when she starts teething things may become a bit different, so I don’t want to get too attached to it):

6:30 AM- I wake Suzy up to change her diaper and we head to Memaw’s

7:00- Feeding 1

10:00- Feeding 2, naptime

1:00- Feeding 3, then they go outside to “play”

3:30- I pick Suzy up from Memaw’s

4:00- We are back home, Feeding 4, naptime

6-6:30’ish- Suzy gets a juice bottle (2 oz) to help hold her over until “bedtime”

7:00- bath time and preparations for bedtime (if she can hold off until 7:30)

7:30- Feeding 5 and off to Sleepytown she goes, she is usually dead asleep by 8:00 at the latest

For those of you that read my blog posts from the early days of Suzy’s life know that she had so many problems in the bowel movement department. We tried everything that we could try with her being so young. She finally reached a point where the doctor suggested giving her juice to help the situation. She is allowed 1-2 oz, 1-2 times per day. It has helped tremendously. We no longer have those problems, thank goodness. When she went for her last check up he told me that we could start implementing cereal by spoon to her diet, so we have started doing that as well. She gets spoon fed cereal with her morning bottle and she is loving it. She also gets 2 tablespoons of cereal in her “bedtime bottle”.

Going back to work and getting back in the swing of things helped Suzy and I out tremendously. I don’t know if I could ever be a stay at home mom. I went stir crazy and it drove me nuts not having a routine/schedule for myself. I believe that I also thrive on a schedule J It is extremely hard being away from her, but it makes 3:30 so rewarding when I get to see her.

My sweet friends Betsy and Jennifer sent me flowers on my first day back to work!

Happy Suzy was still wearing newborn or 0-3 month clothes at 6 weeks.....

In Suzy’s first 14 weeks she has done a lot of things! She has been to the lake house several times, attended her first crawfish party, been to a baby shower, ventured on shopping trips, strolled many a mile, spent the night away from home at least once a week, and been in an Easter Pageant. She is already a very busy girl.

Suzy was getting prepared for the Lake House over Spring Break in her sweet blue stripes... I will never buy blue stripes again. Even with the flowers on the collar everyone we saw said, "What a sweet baby boy".....UGH!