Sisterly Love

This video makes my heart feel like it's going to explode!

Love these girls more than I will ever be able to express.

Brynnlee is 3 Months!

And five days!

After we had Jordan, I was so worried that I had things too easy and that the rest of my babies would be nightmares. Boy was I wrong. Brynnlee started out a bit touchy with the diaper change and cold wipe freakouts and her hatred for the bath and carseat, but once she got over those things, she has been a breeze! I'm probably jinxing myself as I write this, but it's the truth. Aside from the 12 week growth spurt/Wonder Week (I'll get to that next), she has been such a joy. So easy going and rarely cries. She complains some here and there and I have nicknamed her "Squawker" because of it. She just lets out these little squawks letting you know she's not 100% happy, but she's not going to cry about it. 

Around two months, I started working on getting her to sleep in her crib more. I started with naps just because it made things easier with Jordan wanting to play and make noise downstairs, and at 10 weeks I moved her to her crib for nighttime as well. We were consistently getting long stretches of sleep to where I was only getting up with her once before I got up for the day and she was only nursing on one side for that wakeup. I thought for sure she'd really be sleeping through the night at any time. That was until we went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. She slept fine there, but the night that we got home, she was all out of whack and I was up 3 or 4 times with her. It continued for a few days and then I just assumed that it was an early 12 week growth spurt. Seemed reasonable, right? It made complete sense until she really hit 12 weeks and then things got really ugly. I could barely get 3 hours at a time out of her at night and it would take more than just laying her down and walking away to get her back to sleep. She has become so much more aware and I can tell she is actually looking at me and seeing me walk away now. Her naps were still wonky as well and some days she would wake around the 45 minute mark and then go back to sleep, other days she couldn't even make it more than 30 minutes. This all lasted for a full 7 days (SEVEN days of minimal sleep was brutal! I swear the newborn days are NOTHING compared to the random wrenches thrown at you after you've gotten used to your sleep again). But, even though I was frustrated and getting so much broken sleep, I still consider her easier than Jordan because there was no inconsolable crying and not once did I have to analyze every little thing and wonder why she was not sleeping. I'd get up, feed her both sides (dead giveaway for it being a growth spurt), lay her down and rock her with a hand on her chest and then go back to sleep. A few nights were spent in the upstairs guest room just to make it easier on me and hopefully keep from disturbing Bobby and Jordan. Now that all of that is over, she's back to 6+ hour stretches at night and her naps during the day....AH-MAZING! It seems like she occasionally still struggles to get through that first sleep cycle and will cry out or wake up and talk to herself for a bit and then she falls right back to sleep. I'm getting 2 and 3+ hour naps out of her once or twice a day. It's totally thrown my planning for a loop because I like to get out and run errands in the morning and come back for lunch, but now she's sleeping right through that time. I doubt it will last long though, so I'm soaking it up. 

She nurses about every three hours unless she's sleeping and then she could very well sleep right through that mark. When she wakes up in the morning, we come downstairs and she is totally content hanging out and watching TV or Jordan and I know I have plenty of time to get my coffee, Jordan's breakfast, etc before I sit down to nurse her. 

When left with a sitter, I have been leaving 4.5 oz bottles and she seems to do just fine with that.

This girl can also talk up a storm. It is so fun to listen to her coo and babble and her expressions make you think she's just going to start talking any second. And the laughs??? I die. Seriously. It should be illegal to be able to make such a cute noise. I am determined to get a bit of it on video because it is truly something that I want to be able to remember forever.

She is such a smiley girl and will smile at you by just seeing you smile. I have been able to catch so many amazing smiling pictures on my phone, but more recently she has become fascinated with the back of my phone and makes the weirdest face when it pops up in front of her now. It looks something like this...

LOL! She juts out her jaw, purses her lips, and gets her tongue sticking right up against her lips and she kind of shakes her head a little too. It's so random! Needless to say, getting those huge smiles on camera has gotten a bit harder because of this. 

She has rolled from front to back a number of times now.

Just like big sister, she has her share of birthmarks. I thought she was going to get by without any, but one started to pop up on her chest and another one on the top of her head. 

Birthmark just below her cheek/chin

Over the past month, she has had a strange amount of green poopy diapers, but nothing mucousy, nothing frothy, and nothing consistent, so I am not too concerned with it. She has no other symptoms along with it, so I think it just comes with the breastfeeding territory. 

She's still wearing size 2 diapers, but has moved into 3 to 6 and 6 month clothes already. All those adorable tiny little outfits that I was so sad to put away when Jordan outgrew them have barely made an appearance this time around. I think I've managed to get them on her once, maybe twice. 

Her cradle cap is still hanging around, but looking MUCH better that past couple weeks. I'm still using olive oil on it at bath time, but moved to a fine tooth comb instead of the soft bristle brush and I have been able to lift so much more of the dead skin. 

Speaking of bath time, Brynnlee and Jordan shared their first of many baths together the other night while Bobby was working late. 

That last picture should exemplify why I'm struggling at keeping this girl swaddled as well. She's huge. Plain and simple. Hercules busts out of her swaddle every time now. I attempted to get rid of it cold turkey the other night, but after getting up three times before we even reached midnight, I gave in and swaddled her right back up. I may reattempt the process tonight and just give her one free arm to start, but we'll see. 

Clearly, I have already ditched the survey that I attempted from her last update. It's just too boring for me. 

Brynnlee Elaine, you bring more and more joy to our lives with each passing day. As my maternity leave is coming to an end, I am getting so sad to know that I wont be with you all day, every day, but the fact that we get to share you with someone else that will take wonderful care of you helps me get through it. I cherish every day with you and your big sissy, but these last couple weeks at home are going to be spent nom-ing on your cheeks and kissing every roll because I know those adorable things are going to fade faster than we want them to. Keep up the good sleep patterns and the ear to ear grins! We love you with all of our hearts, sweet pea!