Allons!

Being in Cavalry unit means having tradition everywhere you look! We were in an infantry until at Hood and maybe it was the unit and maybe it was the fact that is was infantry but I never felt as close and wrapped in tradition as I do in the 11ACR. Blackhorse soldiers are that forever it seems. Every year they get together, past soldiers and visit Ft. Irwin and the party it up in Vegas. While they are visiting Irwin they get a tour of "the box" and enjoy a yummy DFAC (dining facility) lunch and watch a Cavalry charge and demonstration by the Horse Detachment! 

Jason and one of his soldiers (Davis) before the show got started

My baby love in her black horse bow

We were offered the chance to fund raise at the show and our FRG baked and baked and managed to raise some money even though it was windy and cold in June (the 2nd to be exact!)

Her first tutu

J in his 1901 uniform and baby girl

 

Just for the record Clayton was at camp...I didn't forget to take pictures of him!

Week 8...June 22- June 28

We are almost to the 2 month mark but not yet!

Babywise and schedule: Schedule is pretty much the same as last week. Still on a 3 hour schedule and sleeping mostly through the night. A few nights ago she gave us a run for our money that ended with an early morning for Clayton and needless to say two very sleepy parents! I am super worried about keeping her on a schedule in GA. I just plan on being very strict with people and making people mad if need be...there's the warning. I understand that family only sees them once/twice a year but that 2 week vacation can set back what we have been working toward for 2 months back to the beginning. No thank you! My plan was to keep them on CA time which is 3 hours behind GA but that would mean going to bed late and sleeping late in turn losing time with family...I am still thinking about what to do...any suggestions?

Sleeping: Getting much better at naps except the 1:00 nap. That one is most important to me because that's also when Clayton goes down for his nap. I need them to nap together!!! She is just really struggling with it :( Other than that she is napping better and like I said before sleeping through the night 90% of the time.

Wake time: Now that she is "playing" more I am initiating more structured wake time IE...tummy time, swing, playing in the pack and play. She loves wake time and seems to be really happy during it but is also able to show when she has had enough and in need of a nap! She is really enjoying the swing and bouncy more now than she was before.

Tummy time: Not her favorite activity so I only do a few minutes a day and plan to increase as she is willing.

As you can see here it was not successful!

Growth: I am guessing 9.14-10 lbs and around 20 inches long? Still in a size 1 diaper and newborn/0-3 month clothes. She is slowly moving into some Carter's 3 month stuff (it says 8-12lbs).

Eating: Every three hours and like a champ! No more shield and I think my supply has finally evened out some. I am still really nervous about feeding in public and basically everywhere I will go excepts my mom's house while we are in GA is not going to be like home where I can just nurse without feeling like I need to cover up. The Dr did suggest at her appointment last week if the gas did not ease up and I wanted to get some probiotics in her system before she is able to eat cereal that I can do a  few ounces of probiotic formula a day. We have not done that yet and honestly I don't think I will. Why spend the money when we don't have to.

Outings: This past Tuesday she went to a Coffee with me to share some time and fun with the other ladies in Jason's squadron. She had a great time and loved being held and played with by the other ladies. I have noticed that she can not just be held for holding sake by me...she thinks she needs to eat if I hold her! And of course she went to the library/Starbucks with Clayton and I on Thursday.

Noises: This weekend we cleaned the carpets and steam cleaned and I can't tell you how happy Charlotte seemed all day! She loved the noise! YBFYWBW says that babies this age will find a noise they really like and start to associate with memories of happy and fun...maybe her noise is a vacuum?

Diaper Duty: She has gone from pooing once a week to almost everyday. Maybe it was a phase or something going on in her tummy? I started a probiotic chew from GNC that I love. It is helping me and possibly helping her too.

Taste like Laffy Taffy :)

In my post about baby items I can not live with out I talked about a video monitor and a sound machine. Since Charlotte is not in her room at night yet we have been using these items in Clayton's room...and will be getting the second camera and second sound machine in the mail tomorrow!! We love them both so much we decided each kid needed one.

YBFYWBW

-she can grasp objects for a few seconds

-she is holding her head up really well now
-she cycles her arms and legs smoothly and all the time
-she can discriminate between noises, faces and objects
-she can pick me out by my voice from other people
-she can repeat actions (smiles)
-has really started watching people and studying their movements and actions
-she makes some noises like "ahs" a little laugh that sounds like she is gasping
-she loves her hands and is always chewing on them

Concerns: The only real concern I have this week is flying with her. Will she be a good baby or will the flight hate me? Will she be safe from germs and random people? Will she stay on her schedule? I am also just concerned about her schedule in general while we are gone. I want others to enjoy her but I am going to have to sacrifice some fun for some strict feeding and napping times.

ME 

Tuesdays are also my weight Watchers weight in days and I woke up to find I had gained .5 lbs back! I know this happens but it made me realize I am not REALLY tracking everything I eat. Those little things you forget to add are what will get you.  I pulled out an old DVD I had with Clayton called Mommy and Baby Fitness by Parents and have started doing that with her as one of my workouts. I think Clayton was getting jealous so I ordered the toddler/ pre-k version of it to do with him. I love that I get a workout, she has an activity during wake time and it includes a section on baby massage and baby yoga/stretching. I can't wait to get the older kid one and start "working out" with Clayton.

OH...I also got a push present from Jason! He ordered me the Firm Express. It's a P90X type workout but 20 minutes a day instead of an hour+ and 3 days a week to allow me to add in the workouts with the kids.

If you read my blog while I was pregnant you know that chewed ice all the time...it is so coming back to get me. My teeth are killing me and once is even broken! I need to see dentist SOON!

Clayton

He made a necklace at the library after story time.

While I was at the coffee with Charlotte Clayton stayed home with Jason and was apparently really whiny so Jason sent him to bed earlier than normal...he slept through the night! So the next night we stuck to that earlier bedtime and a strict routine and guess what? He slept through the night in his own bed again...and has every night since then! Just shows that there is something to the crazy structured life!!

This week he is enjoying cooking camp and I can't wait to see all the fun projects and stories he brings home.

In Toddler wise it talks about structures times such as room time...sibling time...mom time. We had really gotten away from that with the new baby and me being pregnant and I am excited about getting that schedule up and working again! He seemed to thrive when he knew what was coming next and didn't ask me so many questions about what there was to do!

 

Prepping for nap time

Jason

Jason found out he will be taking the other command he was hoping for (699 maintenance company) in September. This is a great career move but it means we will be here until Spring 2013...I never thought we would live somewhere that long in the Army. Most people here so 18 months - 2 years and move on but we will have done 3.5 years. On a great note though that means very slim chance of another deployment until we move again!  

Next week will be published from South Georgia!

Groovy Smoothies!

 

If any of you watch Nick Jr you will know The Fresh Beat Band and their groovy smoothies. Clayton has been asking me to make a groovy smoothie for days so after nap one day I printed out the Fresh Beat Straw Toppers and we made some smoothies! I have no idea what we put in there but it was tasty and fruity and made Clayton happy!

Charlotte on the other hand was pretty bored with our smoothie making : )

I love these pictures!

The 1st water play of the year

While Jason was gone to Torrance the weather finally hit warm enough to enjoy the desert sun. Clayton's Grandma and Papa brought him a slip n slide from GA and it was the perfect weekend to set it up! Clayton had a blast!  

As you can see it was a little chilly :)

And it turns out the desert sand does not soak up the water! Sorry Jolene and Micah! 

Charlotte and Grandma watching from the sidelines

Once Jason got home we pulled out the little pool. Seeing as how it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to take them both to the pool alone this little pool does the trick until daddy gets home from work!

She is not super sure about this swimming thing but we are hoping it was just a mood.

Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade 2011

Every year Torrance, CA hosts the Armed Forces Day Parade through their city and every year the 11ACR horse Detachment is asked to ride along with several other units from Ft Irwin. You can read about your trip down there last year.
The weekend that my in laws were in town happened to also be the weekend the parade was on which turned out to be a good and a bad thing. Bad because they were not able to spend the time they wanted with Jason here at the house but good because they were able to go with me and the kiddos to Torrance to see Jason in action! Also good because it meant I was not home alone so soon after the baby was born. 
Torrance is roughly 3 hours from our house so I was a little worried about both kiddos is the car that long and it was the first time I had had Charlotte out that long and would need to nurse in public which is super scary to me. Over all the parade was nice, we got to see Jason ride and we got off of "the island" for the day.

Clayton and Donnell crossing the street for a better look...and a potty break!

 The police officer we talked to about the parade route told us wrong and we were not able to see the whole parade because we were on the wrong street...along with quite a few other annoyed people!

 Tired boy!

 My patriotic boy...I love him!

The fly over

And no there were no pictures taken of the baby because she stayed tucked away in the Bjorn all day...sweet cuddly baby :)

Princess - Week 22- project 52

 

Princess-Week 22-Project 52

Do they look alike?

They are both 1.5 months old in these pictures

Our Thursday read and relax

Thursday mornings at 11:30 the on post library offers a story time for little people. We had gone a few times during the "school year" but the time didn't work out from us then. So on a Thursday starting a weekend that Jason was gone I knew I needed to fill up as much time as possible so we headed to the library after camp. It was a success! The majority of the kids he already interacts with somewhere on post and the other moms were familiar too. This summer they are offering a reading program for older children and a modified version for 0-5 year olds.  There are different stages to complete that lead to different shields. Each shield completed the kiddo gets a price.

The sword is the award Clayton got for making it to level 2 in his reading program.

The crown was that weeks art project. They do a project after the story time.

This week's project was a necklace.

Charlotte's take on story time...and yes she is wearing pant in June in the desert...the library A/C is not lacking!!

The library is across the street from Starbucks so of course we go over after story time and I enjoy my Thursday special treat!

Charlotte and I enjoying our treats at Starbucks!

Week 7...Charlotte June 15-June 21

7 weeks have gone by already and I can't believe it! I am seriously getting more depressed as the weeks go on but I know I should be thankful for her growth and development.

Babywise and schedule: We have established the morning wake up time finally. She will wake up at 5:30 instead of 6 sometimes but will fix the schedule by her 9 am feeding. She is still on a 3 hour schedule starting at 6am and taking her last feeding at 11:30.

 

obviously not her but I will replace when I get a picture of her in one!

Sleeping: Sleeping through the night totally now and is taking much better naps. Next week I am going to really start working on her napping in her bed. She is napping on average 1.5-2 hours of her 3 hour routine. Once we get beck from GA we are going to transition her to her crib at night. She will be 2.5 months old and I think she will be ready. Still loving the swaddle and realy liking the Swaddleme Swaddle Pod!She is staring to show signs that she is tired instead of me just laying her down at the appropriate times. She rubs her head on my shoulder and starts searching for her pacifier while pulling in a fetal position. We are settling into a more structure bedtime routine for both kids together, I'm giving myself one more week before I report on that!

Diapers: Size one but since we buy cases at a time from daipers.com she is actually wearing a 1-2 (up to 15lbs). Side note: with Clayton I loved huggies little movers but with Charlotte I am loving Pampers...weird how different it is!

Clothes: newborn and 0-3

Weight: at birth 7.9 and 19.5 inches now she is 9.12 and 20in (she went to the Dr this morning so it is not a guess!)

Eating: Still nursing. She takes roughly one bottle a day and then I pump to make the difference. I took her to the Dr this morning because I was concerned that she might have reflux. She will gasp for air and I can feel her chest rattle but both only happen after she eats. According to the Dr it is associated with my overactive let down and not reflux which is great because I am already working on that problem and I am so glad we do not have to put her meds. We thought she might have a milk allergy because she cries after she eats and he said it sounded more like she was still hungry...Thanks goodness, I love milk and dairy!! She has been nursing with the shield for 4 days now and that has really improved the ease of BF and helped her get more caloric milk at each feeding.

Witching hour seems to be getting much better or maybe we just know it is coming and are prepared but either way 6-10 has calmed down a lot around here!


She is interacting with Clayton so much and will give him the biggest smiles.They play a game where he swings the chicken hanging from her bouncy seat and she will laugh this sweet little silent chuckle. I love it! 

She is becoming a total diva....knows how to get attention! And will cry this sad awful lip quivering fake cry that is so hard not to laugh at : )

Diaper duty: Slowed down a ton! Like maybe once a week now! I talked to the Dr about it this morning and he said it was completely normal for breast fed babies and as long as she doesn't go longer than 10 days than we are OK. I was concerned she may be dehydrated! It is SO easy to do out here in this dry 100+ heat. however she has some awful smelling gas. So I am going to start taking pro-biotics and when she starts on solids I will introduce them to her per his instructions. She is having well enough wet diapers!

YBFYWBW milestone:
-tracking objects with her eyes
-loving her hands
-starting to use the pacifier to soothe
-really lifting her head now...when pulled up by arms alone she will straighten her neck to raise her ehad level with her body
- grunting to communicate and starting to make some cooing sounds

Clayton

We got his school pictures back and I have to say he is handsome! Still loving camp...this weeks theme was Camping and they brought in fake light streamer fire thing that he is raving about and they got to build tents and have water play in the fake creek...so cute! 

Me

 Weight watchers is going great! I have lost 3 lbs in one week and an inch off of my waist! These yummy Coconut Creme Frappacinos might just be the death of me though!!  

My OB has cleared me for all normal activity and said I was looking great! So workouts here I come!!!

Jason

We should be hearing something really soon about his future assignment maybe by next weeks post we will know something!  

Week 6...Charlotte June 8- June 14

Charlotte is 6 weeks old today! The time is flying by so quickly :(

Babywise: I'm still working on the setting the wake time and we are still working on full feedings but it is getting much easier. I love having this schedule and knowing how to plan the day. It is so helpful with Clayton as well! We are slowly moving to a 3 hour schedule. I decided to make that move because I was having to wake her for every feeding and I assume that is a sign that she can go longer than 2.5 hours. She was crying around 5:30 every morning to be feed but I wanted a 6:30 am wake up. BW suggested when this type of thing happens to either move up the wake time or wake her earlier than when she cries, feed her and then put her back to bed. I tried the second option but once I was up for 30+ minutes at 4:30 I had a hard time going back to sleep so I went with option 1. Our new schedule is:

6 wake up...then she eats every 3 hours so 6,9,12,3,6,9,11:30(dream feed). She then naps for 2 hours at 7,10,1,4,7 and goes to bed at 9. I feed her for around 15 minutes on each side and then we do an activity or play to keep her awake for at least 30 minutes and then lay her down for nap. She is a routine girl and I can already tell a difference in her when she gets too far off of the schedule.

Sleeping: I talked about the schedule above but she is still sleeping in our room in her Rock and Play and will most likely stay there until we get back from GA in mid July. I don't want her to get used to sleeping alone and then have to room with us and then go back...consistency! She is still loving being swaddled and likes her pacifier to go to sleep. I have noticed she likes a dark room with some sort of moving light to watch...ie..projection from her sound machine. OH and she is officially sleeping through the night (11:30-6)

Diapers: size 1 

Clothes: newborn and 0-3

Weight: Complete guess here but I would say around 8lbs

Eating: Nursing unless having a witching hour and then Jason will give her a bottle to relieve me for a little while.Or when we are in public...I am still having a hard time with that one!

Witching hour: I thought she was suffering from colic or really bad gas. She would cry and cry for hours in the evening so I consulted the BW blog and found this post on the different cries and how to distinguish between colic and gas. And if you are a blog follower at all you know that sometimes you click and click again and end up somewhere way off from where you started. Well after a few clicks I ended up a BW post on Witching hour that sounded JUST LIKE our house from 6-10! I knew that babies/children have a fussy period but I was glad to know there is something that can be done about it. Charlotte loves the noise making the post suggest and also going outside. Although it is difficult to tend to her almost non stop for those few hours we have adjusted some things in everyone's schedule and are now handling it better. One of the most frustrating things though is the cluster feeding, or having to feed every 2 sometimes ever hour during that time. I am sore, Clayton is annoyed and everything else is left to be handled later. I am hoping she is past this soon and we can have our evenings back!!
BW blog says: "Do what it takes to keep baby happy during this time. Do what it takes to get baby to sleep during this time so she doesn't get overly tired and overstimulated. It will all be okay :)" I was so glad to read because I worried that breaking the routine would set us back but things fall right back into place the next day.

Smiling: She has really found this cute smile in the last week and I love it! The best part is that she will smile for Clayton bigger and more often than anyone else. At first I was a little jealous but I see that I want this to be the way they are with each other...melts my heart!!

Rolled over: Charlotte can roll from tummy to back if laying the right way and if she is mad enough!

Pooping: I was really worried about her BM's! She is only going every few days but I have read that that is normal with BF babies...was different that Clayton was for sure!!

Massage: I am still massaging Charlotte every time I bathe her and often during the day to relieve some of her gas.

Tummy Time: She does not love it but I try to do it every day if even for a few minutes. She is getting much better at holding her head up for a little longer than last week.

Hair: Still has really dark hair but is slowly losing it and getting the baby bald spot :(

Baby Bjorn: She LOVES it and I "wear" her to grocery shop, clean the house and any time she is fussy. I read that babies that are worn may be smarter! 

Dermatitis: She had HORRIBLE baby acne when we brought her home and that is clearing up but she still has a little rash that seems to get worse the day she is scheduled to take a bathe...oil maybe?

YBFYWBW Milestones:
-gaining neck control
-expresses excitement by flailing arms and legs and grasping at air...really cute!
-will stop when a new sound is introduced to her surroundings
-loves to sit up (controlled by someone obviously) and look around and seems to really notice things in this position
- can study an object in her hand...usually her other hand
-gets excited and anticipated objects...ie bottle or the boppy which both equal food! This shows memory improvement
-is staying awake for longer periods of time on her own
-really starting to reach for things like the little animals from her mobile in her swing

Me

I have started weight watchers and hoping that will help me lose some of this awful weight!! Once I get "cleared: by the doc I am going to get hard core about the exercising again. 

Clayton

Clayton is still in camp and loving it! We are also going to the library story time followed by Starbucks on Thursdays.

And swimming every chance he gets!

Jason

Everything that Jason experiences with Charlotte is new to him. He missed this part with Clayton because of his deployment so it is really fun to watch him interact with her and learn how to care for a baby over the age of 3 weeks. He is changing command but we will be staying here at Ft Irwin to take another command that is more related to his job field. He has also really gotten interested in working out and weight lifting...pretty inspiring for me to get back in shape...don't want to be that couple!