Hallie- 3 months

Hallie

Nicknames:  No true nicknames, but more phrases...Hallie girl is the most common, as is baby Hallie, especially when Hudson is referring to her


Traveled to Southern California for Christmas and did great on the 7 hour drive there and back. However, her daytime sleeping habits and nursing habits suffered while we were in Hemet (coincidentally we were in Hemet...i don't think it had anything to do with being there, but more due to potential digestive issues). She prefers the bottle to nursing, which adds a step to the task as I have to pump.

Has a really strong neck, which is great, considering she doesn't get much tummy time.  As the second child, my forgetfulness combined with me wanting to protect her from an overly loving brother who would swipe her off the ground has resulted in minimal tummy time.

Loves bath time and the sound of running water. She has started to really kick as she lay in the tub and it is so fun to watch.

Hallie is our social baby.  She just wants someone to talk to her and smile with her.  If we leave her in a room alone and happy, she starts crying within a few minutes.

I finally packed away her newborn clothes and it made me sad to realize she really has outgrown a size completely.  They have sat unworn in her drawer for weeks, but I have now made it official.  She has not really outgrown her 3 month clothes, but is fitting into some 6 month things.

Her cheeks have rally filled out and are the most kissable and paintable things ever!

She constantly has her hands and arms pulled into her body.  Her left fist is always clenched so tight that it is almost purple!  At bath time, we notice a red mark on her chest from her pulling her hand in so close.  When we bathe her, I always find "treasures" of lint, etc, tucked away in her fists.

Speaking of hands, if she doesn't have her pacifier in her mouth, her hands are in her mouth.  sometimes she tries to figure out how to get both her hands and pacifier in at the same time.

Already with Hallie, we are learning how different two kids, even from the same parents, really can be. Hallie and Hudson really are opposites in so many things...

• Hallie loves to be swaddled.  She will go to sleep within minutes of being swaddled, held and patted.  Hudson hated being swaddled and tough the "Tal tap" as we lovingly call patting a baby on their bottom to get them to sleep.
• Hallie thinks nursing is a means to eating, at most.  We have recently gone through a stretch where she refuses to nurse, and will only take a bottle--pumped milk or formula.  If she isn't hungry, but is rather tired, she will not even think about latching on. Hudson, however nursed whenever it was offered to him and would use nursing to pacify himself.
• Hallie LOVES her pacifier.  If she wakes in the night, we simply give her her pacifier and she heads right back into slumberland.  Hudson wanted nothing to do with a pacifier.
• Hallie is quite indifferent about wether she faces forward or backward.  From a week old, we knew Hudson wanted to face outward and take in the world. 

We all met Natalie and love her!  I am sure these two girls will be great friends. <3

2 months- Hallie

I feel like I'm wasting my time when I type out how I feel that time is flying by, because I am realizing pretty quickly that I will think that every time I sit down to write up one of these posts.  But,  it really is crazy how fast the time goes with the second baby.  Tonight I was looking through pictures of Hudson on my phone, because I always have a full memory and need to delete pictures so I can take more, but I love having all the old pictures on my phone...ah!!...anyway, as I was looking through old photos, I realize how many more I have of Hudson by the time he is Hallie's current age, and I swore that would never happen to me.  Well, it has.  And I want to do better.  I feel like I just want to freeze time with her, because I can't seem to get in a spare moment just to memorize how she is right now.  I love her at the stage.

Here is what she's doing:

• GROWING!  
• Height: 22 3/4"
• Weight: 10 lbs 10 oz
• Head circumference: 15.5"
• all 50th percentile
• she smiles!  It is so adorable.  She has the biggest, gummiest smiles and her whole face lights up.  Sometimes she accompanies the smile with a sweet little coo, and if we are lucky, a squeal.  
• I have found her a few mornings in bed awake cooing to herself, rather that her usual waking up and crying to be fed immediately
• She is wearing size 1 diapers as of a bout 2 weeks ago.  We were almost out of the newborn diapers we had when I realized it was probably time to move to the bigger ones.  She still has a good blow-out every now and again, despite the bigger size.
• She is easily fitting into all her 3 month clothing, and though I still try and squeeze her into her white newborn sized undershirt onesies, she really has outgrown them. 
• Doesn't like tummy time, but probably because she isn't having time to get used to it.  I don't put her on her stomach much, because whenever I try, Hudson comes running to play
• She LOVES her pacifier and if she wakes up in the day during her nap without it, she cries until it's back in her mouth.  I have a love/hate relationship with the thing. More of a love though.  It is nice that we can give her the pacifier and it usually instantly calms her down.  It's hard to believe that today was the first day I was smart enough to use a "leash" for it instead of trying to hunt it down 100 times a day.
• really enjoys her baths.  If she is fussy before bath time, I know she will calm right down in the tub, and she does.  She is just now starting to slightly kick in the tub.  she mainly just lays there and moves her head from side to side.
• Fussy when we put her in her carseat, but usually stops fussing as the car starts moving.
• is sleeping through the night!!  For a week straight she has slept from around 9-11 at night until 7 am.  It's magical. 
• Nurses and takes a bottle like a champ.  We had her using Enfamil newborn formula to supplement nursing on occasion, then when that was out switched to Similac.  She was not a fan, so we are back to Enfamil, and she does great with it.  She doesn't have much formula though and has only gone through 1.5 sample cans in 2 months. 
• Has gained quite a bit of neck strength and can entirely hold her head up on her own. She is finally able to hold her weight in her legs if we slightly support her standing on our legs.  
• sleeps soundly in the swing during the day if she falls asleep and then we put her there.  Unlike Hudson, she doesn't like being rocked to sleep in the swing.  She actually kind of hates it.  I think this is mainly because I've worked on her having better sleep habits than Hudson did at this age, so I'm ok with it. 
• Hallie was blessed on November 2 by Colby in our home ward, the Moorpark ward

We love Hallie so much and love the joy she brings into our family.  Hudson thinks she's the coolest but still can't wait for her to be able to play with him.  You can tell he is somewhat patient with her lack of playing skills, but still yearn for her to hurry up and run around with him. :)  I love having a daughter more than I could have imagined and find it hard to believe that I ever thought our second may have been a boy.  I can't even fathom.  

Rainy Day Fun

Our little Hudson is a Southern California, sunny0with-a-high-of-75, boy.  He doesn't understand this thing we call "rain" and since its been a regular in the forecast the past few days, he is getting tired of me telling him we can't go to the park because it's wet. I'm sure he's wondering, since when does wet matter?!  Well today I caved and we went in the backyard and played in the rain.  It had let up for a bit, so it was more of a drizzle, but he was fascinated with the drips from the patio cover, the puddles and the rain gutter.  To say he loved it is an understatement.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

San Francisco

Colby took the week of Thanksgiving off, and since we hadn't gotten out on a little day trip as a family of four yet, we figured a trip up to San Francisco was in order.  In the car on the way up, the kids were being so good.  Hallie was in dreamland, and Hudson was loving watching the cars, trees, and airplanes out the window.  I actually turned to Colby and said, "you know, these kids are actually at a perfect age for this.  Hudson enjoys these outings and is quite cooperative, and Hallie is still easy, as long as she's having a good day and not fussy.  She really only sleeps and wakes to eat." Colby smiled.

We continued through the east side of the city, and saw gorgeous homes in the Sea Cliff and Presidio areas near the coast on our way to Baker Beach.  We didn't have a huge plan, but knew Hudson would love the ocean, and thought it would be a cool view of the bridge from the beach.  Both were great assumptions!  The only things we didn't consider was how cold and windy it would be.  We sure aren't used to these Northern California beaches in November. Ha! Hudson loved gathering sticks and drawing in the sand.  He kept drawing "tracks" and accidentally drew a perfect heart that Colby and I were quite impressed with.  We walked almost the whole beach and stopped to take a couple pictures with the bridge.  Hallie needed to eat, so I took her back to the car to feed her while Hudson and Colby continued to play, watching the fishermen and playing with the dogs, rocks, and sticks.  When they got back to the car and went to start it, we quickly realized that I had the auxiliaries on and had killed the battery. Whoops. Luckily the man parked next to us was in his truck and had cables and a kind enough heart to help us out. :)

We went on to eat lunch at Lou's Cafe and had great sandwiches. From there we headed into Golden Gate Park so we could take Hudson on the Merry-Go-Round.  We got a little lost with our GPS and it took us about 20 minutes to make the simple drive that should have taken 5.  Oh well. Part of the experience. :) On our way, Hudson started saying "hurt" and pointing to his stomach right where his pants hit his waist.  We figured they were too tight, so loosened them.  He said it again, and we realized there was sand in the top of his diaper that was probably rubbing him, so we brushed it away.  We got to the park, loaded hallie in the stroller and stuck a bottle in her mouth, as she was now hungry again and letting us know it.  I pushed the stroller and Colby and Hudson meandered to the merry go round.  Hudson was sure taking his time, and we soon realized he kept stopping to go to the bathroom.  By the time he finished, he had a very full, stinky diaper.  We changed that and Colby and Hudson got on the merry go round.  By the look of hudson's face, you would never guess he was having fun, but when ever Colby asked him on the ride what he thought, he would say "fun!" so I guess he enjoyed it.

We headed over to the playground nearby to let hudson play before heading home.  After a few minutes, Colby noticed wet lines on Hudson's jeans around the edge of his diaper.  This could only mean one thing.  Poor Hudson had been saying "hurt" because he had a stomach ache, and now the diarrhea was coming. oh no!  You could tell he was miserable, but at the same time did NOT want to leave the playground.  We dragged him away to the car telling him we'd head back after we got him changed.  Luckily, I had grabbed a change of clothes from home because I figured he'd get wet and sandy at the beach (which wasn't the case). We changed him and put him in the carseat and he had a huge meltdown.  We had told him we'd go back.  And I guess he remembered and was holding us to it.  We headed back for a bit, he filled his diaper again, we changed him and called it a day.

So, I guess my statement on the way into the city came back to haunt me. We had a fun day, but definitely not easy.  Poor Hudson clearly didn't feel well and slept the whole way home.  Thankfully we live close to the city and will return again and give Hudson another go at the Merry-go-round and playground when he feels better.