Natalie is 4 months old!

Our little Natalie is 4 months old today! I love how she looks in her little jeans (which have pockets -- why would baby jeans need pockets? :)



We have a growth chart in her room. It's so cute to see her standing next to it. Today we marked her for the first time!
One of her favorite things to do lately is stand up! Every time we try to practice sitting with her, she straightens her legs and stands up. I wonder if she'll walk early.

This photo was taken a week and half ago.

Mommy and Natalie Sleeping

Sometimes in the morning if after Natalie wakes up for a feeding, I have a hard time getting her back to sleep in her crib, I bring her down to sleep in bed with us. I have her sleep in the crook of my arm so I can make sure she doesn't roll into anything (plus we don't put the covers on her - she's wrapped in her swaddle). Emile took the above photo right before he picked her up one morning to get her ready for the day. Ignore how wrecked I look, but doesn't she look so cute sleeping!

Here are some other cute photos I've taken of her recently.

Our new nanny, Kensey, started this past Monday. She's wonderful! I love having her here to help out. It's such a relief after the last one. Kensey is so involved with Natalie. She loves taking her for strolls around the neighborhood (last nanny didn't even want to leave the house), reads her books, practices rolling and sitting with her, and as she puts it, gives her tender loving care! Kensey even puts together a rough schedule for things to do with her daily and looks through books for more ideas on things to do. Natalie has taken really well to her also -- I constantly hear her giggling! It's so great to have found the right person to help care for Natalie while I work!

First time in High Chair

Natalie sat in her high chair at the dinner table with us for the first time yesterday! It's so nice having her sitting up higher than the bouncer with use while we're eating. Plus, I'm hoping she'll start taking more of an interest in eating food (versus just breast milk) over the next month or two if she's up close to the dinner table watching us. She looks so cute in the high chair -- but so tiny! For now, we're giving her toys to play with while she sits there when we eat.

Natalie looks so adorable in her little Dutch outfit she got from Emile's cousin, Dinneke.

Finally, the humdity here is breaking and we're starting to get cooler weather. I sure hope it lasts -- it makes my runs much easier. I'm moving away from putting Natalie in dresses (although I have gotten her some tights) to putting her in pants because of the cooler weather. I love the way she looks in her jeans.

We've noticed this week that Natalie is getting really good at reaching for her rattle and putting it in her mouth! Her fine motor skills are definitely improving. She hasn't been into rolling recently. It's actually been a good week or so since she rolled. I think it's because she spends more time when on her tummy putting everything and her hands in her mouth so she's not really thinking about rolling. I'm hoping she picks it up again soon.


Natalie has also started pulling off while nursing to look around at everything and anything. If someone talks, the cats meow, a car goes by, you name it, she stops eating, pulls off and looks around. It's adorable when she pulls off to look up at me and give me a huge grin. The unfortunate side to this new found interest of hers is that she's not eating much during one sitting and then, wanting to eat more frequently and more at night. I've found a solution -- we now sit in her closet in the dark to nurse during the day. Not the most comfortable position for me, but it keeps her focused and she's eating more -- and hence, less fussy. :) I'm hoping we don't have to do this for very long.

One year ago today...

We found out I was pregnant! That went by fast. And now our little Natalie is already 3.5 months old.


This is Natalie taking a break from tummy time. :) She doesn't seem to get yet that she can lay her head to the side to rest -- or given that she's rolled a dozen or so times that all she has to do is roll over if she doesn't want to be on her tummy.

Because she has really great neck control now, we decided to introduce her to her exersaucer this week. We figured it would give her something new to explore. Her big thing now is to put everything in her mouth. Unfortunately, she can't get all the toys on the exersaucer in her mouth and she occasionally gets frustrated with it.

We're hoping to transition Natalie from her swing to her crib for naps in the next month. In the meantime, I had to get a photo of her sleeping in the swing. She always puts her hands up by her face. It's so adorable!

I mentioned in our previous post that we found a new nanny -- well, we're on nanny #3. Nanny #2 emailed this Thursday to tell me that she had a medical emergency and would be gone for a number of weeks. Hence, she couldn't start this Monday and I should probably find someone new. :( So I've had a frantic few days trying to find a new nanny -- but I'm becoming a pro at interviewing them now. I ended up interviewing 4 this time (in two days) and we found our new nanny #3, Kensey. She's perfect! I think she's going to be much better for Natalie and our family than either of the previous two (even nanny #2 whom we were excited about). Kensey came so prepared to the interview -- she had lists of activities she likes to do at different age groups; she had found activities around Wake Forest that she could take Natalie to; and I felt so comfortable with her. We're really excited for her to start on the 22nd.

Our Little Football Fan

We apparently have a football fan on our hands. I came home from my run on Thursday to find Emile and Natalie watching the first game of the season together.

And of course, we had to put her in her Viking onesie (from our friends Chris and Ros) for the first Sunday of NFL season. Although we don't like her to "watch" TV, we've made an exception for football. I'm sure tomorrow night she'll be snuggling with Emile while watching the Viking/Packer game.

Now that Natalie has better neck support, I have started wearing her around the house more. In the beginning, she didn't like facing in when in the Moby Wrap or the Bjorn but now that she can face out, she's very content being in them. I like that it gives her a different view of the world and gives her an opportunity to learn new things while walking around with me while I do laundry, etc.

We decided to fire the nanny this past Friday. I wasn't warming up to her and was not happy with her approach to most things related to Natalie. I decided to go with my "mommy instinct" that she wasn't the right one for our family. We interviewed another woman last weekend, Silvia, who will be starting next Monday, Sept. 15. She's a very friendly, older woman whom I think will be easy to warm up to. Her references had great things to say about her and I envision she'll be wonderful with Natalie. I'm crossing my fingers that she works out!

I did decide to give up on the bottle and strictly breast feed Natalie during the day. I think it's made a big difference with Natalie. There, of course, was no crying over trying to get her to take the bottle (from her or me!). And she stopped waking up every 1.5-2 hrs in the night to feed. She actually had a number of nights this week of pretty long stretches of sleep -- 4.5, 5.5 and 7.5 hrs. Unfortunately, some of these stretches were in her swing instead of the crib because she put up such a struggle going to bed those nights but I'm hoping as time goes on and she gets used to the crib more that she'll begin sleeping longer in it also.

Great news for me -- I'm able to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes again!!! YAY! I'm not yet back to my pre-pregnancy weight but I can fit into my jeans and everything else without a huge belly hanging out. I'm super excited about this! Running has really been paying off! I'm still training for the half-marathon in November but now that I'm back at work, I'm not always able to get runs in during the week. I think it should still work out though; I'm making sure to get my long runs in on Sunday.