3 Months and Growing!!!

Stella,

Today you are 3 months old!! You are growing so fast, and have changed so much in the past 13 weeks! You are such a happy girl now, smiling constantly at mommy and daddy, and even people you meet for the first time if you're in the mood. You squeal with pleasure when you see big smiles or when someone pay you special face to face attention. You are such a chatterbox!!! We sit and talk for hours throughout the day, and if we are distracted, you screech and let us know you were not done with our conversation. I have to admit, you make mommy laugh constantly throughout the day, with your many noises and faces you make, you're one hilarious baby girl. You've taken quite the leap on many levels over the last few weeks. You now wiggle and squirm your way all over the place, using your super strong legs to push yourself up and around on the carpet, daddy and I have to watch you carefully to make sure you don't scoot your way into the couch, or make it too far across the room. You also roll back and forth, from your back to sides easily, and once or twice to your tummy, we're thinking you'll be rolling around the room in no time. We are trying to get you to sleep on your own, for more than a couple hours at a time. Last night you actually slept in your travel crib next to our bed, for 4 hours!!! Mommy was so happy!! Hopefully you'll be going almost through the night very soon, with just one feeding in the middle, that would be perfect! Your body is also now absorbing almost all of the food you get from mommy, which means you have taken to only pooping once every 7 or 8 days... which at first scared mommy and daddy a lot, but now we kinda get it's normal, and you're thing, and you're still growing and doing just great, so were not too worried. You love your bath time, and baby massage every evening. You love to snuggle, love your naked time, and love the mirror. We cannot believe how much you've grown and changed so far, and how fast you're developing mentally and changing physically! We are so excited to see what this 3 month of life brings with you, and what changes you'll make over the coming days and weeks. 

We both love you so very much baby girl, 

Love, 

Mommy and Daddy

Spending your 3 month birthday on Jayson and Lindsay's boat on the Owhyee Reservoir 

You LOVED the boat!!! And your life jacket, thankfully!! You took several naps, usually lulled to sleep by the jetboat engine and the bumps on the water.

Chillin' with daddy on the boat, you were so freakin' adorable in your little life jacket!!!  Daddy forgot to get a picture of mommy with you, but that's ok, we'll get one soon hopefully. 

Happy Easter!

 Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at our favorite spot, Big City Coffee in downtown Boise. Stella was kinda a cranky pants this morning, so we got a late start, but still got a great seat and had a good time. She also celebrated the holiday by letting mommy and daddy sleep for 6.5 hours straight last night! I couldn't believe it when I work up at 6am to her just starting to cry, I always get so nervous when she sleeps that long, but she did great and didn't seem to starved right away. Thank you baby girl, mommy definitely needed the good night sleep. 

The sweet onesie from Abuela Norris, "Somebunny loves me" 

Easter kisses from daddy

This was on Saturday, she seemed so bored at our efforts to get a smile out of her and then....

A smile!! (sorry it's blurry) She has started responding to us with smiles over the past few days! They are adorable, full cheeky grins! Brent seems to get the best reaction out of her, he can get her to smile repeatedly for several minutes, it's so adorable! I cant wait to capture even bigger and less blurry smiles soon.

a kinda smile, she does this a lot

and blurry again, but how could I not share that happy face! She's so stinkin' cute!

She's over it, no more smiles for us

Now were being completely ignored. Get the hint mom and dad huh.

Our Little Chunk-A-Monk

I have to admit it sooner or later... we may have a little chunk on our hands. Stella is getting to be so long and chubby, and she's starting to have little rolls on her thighs, its pretty adorable. She's also developed quite the little double chin, but a little neck pudge never hurt, it's quite cute actually.

Look at those thighs! and that belly! and those oh so kissable cheeks!

Now you may be wondering what a Chunk-A-Monk is... It's our nickname for the little chunky monkey that is our daughter, well more of my nick name for her, I just cant help tickling her tummy and giving her chubby cheeks a kiss and calling her my little Chunk-A-Monk very affectionately. and oh, those cheeks are so darn kissable, I love them.

And now, A photo dump from the past two weeks. I've been trying to get these posted since last week... but the little just wasn't having it when i'd put her down for more than a few minutes, she loves her snuggles.

Enjoying a little vitamin D. and Linking up with My3Boybarians for Sweet shot Tuesday...  On Thursday.

Playing Xbox with daddy... we'll at least he's trying to play, she kept wiggling and reaching out for him, which made things difficult.

Getting some loves from Auntie on her second visit last weekend

More snuggles with Auntie

And a little afternoon nap on the couch

It was pretty entertaining watching Pam try to juggle the plate with a wiggly Stella on her lap, but she did great.

Getting ready for bed with mom

I love me some bedtime baby kisses 

1 Month and growing

Stella, my little, my munchkin, my sweet baby girl,

I've got to start with the cliche that everyone says, this month has gone by much too quickly. You are growing and changing so much every day baby girl, and I am trying my best to take it all in, every cry, every smile, every second spent snuggling with you, nursing you, laughing at your cuteness. You have made your daddy and me so incredibly happy. So far, you have grown out of your newborn clothes at just 2 weeks old, mastered nursing and letting us know when you are hungry, gotten into the night time sleeping habit thankfully, and so many other things. You love baths with mommy, I soak and you join me for an average 10 to 15 minutes of snuggles and scrubs, you actually love to be in the water also, not just sitting or laying on me, fully submerged up to your shoulders, we usually do a few dunks to rinse you off. You also love naked time, for a little bit. This usually happens when changing your diaper, which you're now fully into cloth diapers and it makes daddy and I so happy to see you in your adorable cloth. You love laying on the changing table to air out a little, fully naked and enjoying your birthday suit. You also love your car seat and car rides, thank goodness! It's a little rough getting you all strapped in, you don't actually enjoy anything about that part, but once your in, tighten up, and clicked into the base in the truck, your happy as a clam. You love the sound daddy's truck makes, it lulls you to sleep almost instantly. Daddy also stumbled upon the fact that you love rock n roll, His favorite. Or more a little alternative I guess, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, that kinda rock. I also discovered your like of more up beat music, Katy Perry, Sugarland, and anything with a good beat that mommy can dance around the house to, nothing too slow. This makes mommy kinda happy and certainly has helped me loose the baby weight.

This past week you've been a bit more of a challenge, fussing quite often throughout the day. You only want to be held, which it absolutely fine with me, I love to snuggle. I love my days with you, but I am most definitely ready for a break when daddy gets home, which is something rough when you cry, I wish he could see your sweetness throughout the mornings and not just the fussy you at night.

Current 1 month stats (approximated)
about 10 lbs, were guessing from weighing ourselves then you.
23.5 inches, I measure you every week just for run.
pooping and peeing all day long, and feeds about 8 or 9 times a day
Sleeping about 5 hours straight at night, then feeds for an hour or two, then sleeps another 3 hours, love!

We both love you so much Stella, you are our little, our baby girl, and we are so excited to have you in our lives.

Love,
Mommy and daddy

One month old, and a few days... I had to wait for sunshine.

Newborn Pictures with Nikki Hoover Photography

There here!! I am so excited to share these beautiful photos of Stella, Brent and I. Nikki is our Boise photographer of choice, as you may have noticed in the past few months. She is truly amazing and has a beautiful and talented eye for photography. These pictures were taken when Stella was 8 days old, isnt she adorable!?! We had so much fun shooting these, a little too much fun in fact, I think we were in Nikki's home studio for almost 4 hours... maybe more. Thank you again Nikki, for putting up with us and capturing some of the most beautiful baby pictures I have ever seen. We love them!

"Picnik Show"

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Life with a baby

Things are finally starting to settle down here in the Norris household. Were starting to get used to having a baby around, waking up multiple times a night, eating on her schedule, going to the store on her schedule. I don't make appointments or plans with anyone without warning them that things could chance at a minutes notice... it's all dependent on the baby. We did make it out to our first restaurant with her today, lunch at Bad Boy Burgers. It went well, we were only there for 20 minutes or so, Brent's a quick eater and I just packed mine up to go to keep up with him, but she only fussed once, yay! We probably wont be back to any of our favorite down town eateries anytime soon, but hopefully starting with quick, small outings will get us ready for taking her to bigger, better places. 

On to Cloth... Stella is finally fitting into all of her diapers!! Below she's wearing a polka dot Blueberry pocket diaper, and the light yellow is a Fuzzibunz perfect fit pocket, my personal favorite on her, they fit very trimly and have not had any leaks at all! She even went 7 hours in a Fuzzibunz the other night! only for testing purposes :) I would have let her go longer but I was already feeling like a bad parent for letting her go that long. 

Napping next to Mommy the other morning

holding her own paci in her mouth... she also pulls it out on her own too

hangin out in the swing  while mommy cleaned, she had the funniest looks on her face

Daddy's new favorite snuggle spot, hands free loves, adorable

Our Weekend in Pictures

I thought I would post some of the pictures we've been taking while Abuela Norris is here this weekend visiting the little. We've not done much, only left the house a few times, but it's been nice to have company again and have an extra set of hands. I was finally able to catch a few extra zzz's this weekend, Brent and Beth took turns helping with the baby in the morning so I could sleep, Thank you Brent and Beth! So, Enjoy our weekend in pictures. 

Thank you Sharon Wells for the adorable onesie! 

Enjoying some napping in the swing

Bath Time! We usually do baths in the big tub on mommy's chest, she loves them normally, but in this little tub? Not so much... She screamed almost the whole time! Not to mention the first minute we had her in there, she pushed off the bottom wall and splashed water ALL OVER the counter/floor/ mom and dad... it was a mess! But, she got clean and smells nice, and we still got some pretty cute naked baby shots. 

My grandma, Stella's great-grandma Grisham, made her several of these adorable crocheted hats, they are perfect for chilly days like today, and finally fit her tiny head. We added a beautiful bow that a friend here in Boise made for Stella, its adorable on this hat!

Stella snuggling with Abuela Beth

So, thats our weekend :) It was wonderful having Beth here to visit and help out, I truly appreciate helpful visitors now, and Stella loves new people to cuddle with.

Some Very Special Onesies

At my Seattle baby shower we asked the guests to decorate some very special little onesies that our baby girl would wear when she finally arrived. The time has come to show off these beautiful onesies! I'll be putting Stella in a different onesie every day, and taking pictures to share with our friends and family. I hope to send out the pictures along with the thank you notes I'm slowly getting finished up on, or i'll email them to everyone, that might actually be easier and might actually get done... having pictures printed isn't something I do regularly. But, I will also try to share most of the onesies on here also, not that everyone who was at the shower looks at my blog, but it's still fun to post her adorable pictures as much as possible. 

Enjoy!

Shirt decorated by Tia Renee

Shirt decorated by Aunt Michelle

Another thing i'm going to really try to do from now on? Take more pictures of me and my baby girl. I'm realizing I am the only one taking pictures of Stella, everyone wants daily updates of just her... so it's all I think of, and now looking back through my pictures, I got teary because she's almost 3 weeks old, and I have maybe 5 pictures of her and I together. Tons with Daddy, Tons with Auntie and grandparents... but hardly any with me. So last night I asked Brent to really try to make an effort to grab the camera and take pictures of her and I together... he said he would more but I usually have a boob out, so i'll try to cover up more, lol. So this is my new daily effort, I'll try my best to take pictures with my baby girl, not just of her, I want to remember her with us as a family, not just sleeping and laying my our laps. 

Progress!

Our baby girl has a crib! and her room is so close to being finished! Brent and I tore apart the desk this morning, which was actually quite fun. I loved using the sledge hammer to break it up! until Brent came in and told me to take all the screws out first lol... oops! So, he finished demolishing the desk... I wasn't allowed to touch the hammer anymore. So instead, I hung up our babies girls first outfits! They are so cute! Thanks Mom! She's going to be the most adorably dressed baby girl ever :)

Here is the crib!! We ordered this from Restoration Hardware back in August, so it's been in the garage all wrapped up for the past 4 months, I'm so excited to finally have it up and in the nursery. It really is beginning to come together, I just have a few more things to do, or more of a long checklist of little things, It should make the next couple months go by quick, I hope! 

Lil loves the nursery, she sits by the door each morning waiting to be let in, so cute. 

I picked up this adorable mini chair at TJMaxx Home-goods a few months ago, It's so tiny, our baby girl will be able to fit into it earlier than most of the other kids chairs I've seen. I cant wait for her to sit in here and flip through her books, I realize it's still awhile until that will happen, but it's fun to think about! 

14 weeks

I am Finally, Officially in the second trimester!!! Hopefully this means the next 16 weeks will be full of bliss and i'll not have anymore morning sickness, exhaustion, sleepless nights, migraines, or any of the other fun first trimester happenings. This week our baby has made some major milestones. His/Her facial expressions are starting to function!! Our baby can now squint, frown, and grimace, working out it's facial muscles as he/she moves from one expression to another. Also something I've definitely never experienced... the baby can now pee inside of me!! This awesome new happening means the babies kidneys are now functioning on their own, which is truly amazing to me. I am still blown away to learn of individual organs and body parts functioning on their own so early in this babies life. Incredible. Our baby can now also suck it's thumb, and make a fist with his/her hands, which he/she wont even realize they have for another 8 months or so. 

As you can see above from the lovely lemon picture, Our baby is now about 3 and a half inches long, and weights about 1.5 ounces. I'm kinda glad this last growth spurt is over... I'm exhausted! Every time the baby grows significantly during a week, I feel completely drained, and no amount of food or sleep can keep me going for a full day. There are so many more growth spurts still to come i'm sure, but for now the significant ones of leveling off. The baby will grow at a steady pace from now on, and I sure hope that means I get my energy back. I have a beautiful nursery to start putting together. 

13 weeks

Today I am posting on time, woo hoo!! I'm 13 weeks today. Which means that I'm starting to finally show, I have a little bump. I've been reassured it looks actually like a bump, and not like I'm just getting chubby or had way to big of a lunch. Big things this week... our baby has fingerprints!!! He or she has it's own identifying  feature finally, that no one else in the world will have. What an amazing development! When baby is born, we will have these little fingerprints and their little footprints framed, and hung on the nursery wall. I cannot wait to see his/her little fingers and toes! Our baby is just about 3 inches long, thats quite a growth spurt over the past few days, 1 full inch in a week is a big jump! No wonder I've been so tired and achy. All my energy is going to growing the person inside of me, which I am more than happy to assist with. 

I'm starting to notice my tummy is growing, which means more itchy skin and aches and pains. Sleeping is becoming more uncomfortable, I cannot fully lay on my belly, which is making me sad and restless at night, I love sleeping on my tummy, so I now sleep modified with a pillow under one whole side, so i'm angled up off my belly, this helps me sleep much better. No movement on the inside yet, at least not that I can feel, I do feel twinges more often, but nothing like the little flutters I've been told it feels like. I cant wait for our next appointment, I hope we get to have another ultrasound, if so, I'll be able to update with another fun picture. 

3 Months!

Seriously!?! It's been 12 weeks since this little person started growing inside of me, I cannot believe how fast the weeks are going by! next thing we know we'll have a baby! :) So this weekend Brent and I were at Elk camp up above Donnelly, ID. He is hunting with a friend, (who reads this blog more than most of our family I guess, Hi Jason! :) and I went along because it was a long weekend, Labor day weekend, and I didn't really want to stay home by myself. I did end up having to come home tonight, Sunday night, on my own, because I have to work tomorrow. So, I dropped the boys off at the top of the mountain, and was on my way home. Anywho, that all is completely besides the point of this post! Saturday, while we were in the mountains, our Baby turned 12 weeks! So i'm a day late posting, I feel like I post late every weekend... but, I guess that just means we keep our weekends busy. So this week, our baby is the size of a plum! Which means he or she is now just over 2 inches long! and weights just about a half an ounce. 

A couple of neat things this week, one is that my tummy is finally starting to pop! I have a feeling this means my uterus is finally correcting itself and moving toward the front of my belly, instead of resting against my spine, like it has been. As for the babies development this week, he or she now has intestines! They are growing rapidly, and starting to move inside the babies abdominal cavity, where they will continue to grow as the babies belly grows around them. One of the biggest developments this coming week will be the babies reflexes!! the fingers and toes will begin to move, eyelids will begin to flutter and clench, and our baby will begin to make sucking movements with it's mouth. What amazing feats these will be for our baby!! Apparently, if I push into my abdomen too much, or poke around my tummy, the baby will start wiggling in response to the pressure, but, I wont be able to feel it, That wont happen for a few more weeks still. but, that is something I cannot wait to feel!!! 

Nesting?

So, I thought nesting happened at the end of the second trimester... not the end of the first? I had been itching to paint something for weeks! So on Sunday, Brent finally relented and went with me to pick out some new kitchen colors! We picked up some Martha Stewart Aegean blue, low VOC and no odor for this pregnant lady, and an accent pint of Sand-something tan... I cant remember the name of it... But I love the colors! it's made our kitchen so much brighter and it's so cheery! Now I just need to paint the ceiling, because I got a little frustrated and just started rolling along the seam... Brent doesn't like my Morse code on the ceiling. I'm thinking of stenciling something neat on the blank white cabinets, something bright and fun... any suggestions?