Five Months

Isla dear, how did you get so darn cute?  Your daddy and I wonder this every day.  Your smile and your chubby little cheeks, that I don't think can get much bigger, melt my heart.

Today you were approximately 13 pounds 4 ounces and 24.5 inches long

No doctor visit this month, which meant no shots - Thank goodness!  I feel like Isla is growing like a weed lately.  I look back and her newborn photos and I don't even recognize that little munchkin anymore.  You are certainly filling out with full little cheeks, some adorable leg rolls and even a few rolls on the arms.  Your belly isn't quite as Buda-ish anymore.  Your hair is really starting to fill in as well.  We've started to wear headbands more, but can't quite make a hair clip/bow work yet.  

Her sweet little laugh has become more frequent this month.  We've found a few things that really make her giggle.  She is definitely ticklish, especially on her ribs.  Daddy found that one out.  She also loves to watch the puppies run around in the back yard and that gets her giggling and kicking her legs all over the place.  She also loves when I make faces at her, particularly when I stick my tongue out or scrunch up my nose.   She isn't talking quite as much as she was last month, but she definitely has her moments.  Sometimes when I'm singing, she will start making oos and aws along with me.  She also gets really grunty when she is in her car seat and trying to go to sleep.  That particular characteristic is quite funny and I was sure to get a video of it to show her when she is older.  In the last week, she's figured out that when we place a finger over her mouth, if she yells we will move our finger back and forth to make funny noises.  I adore the little phases that she goes through regarding new tricks she learns.  I'm trying to capture them all!

Sleep, well let's just say it's gotten better.  Little bug is still sleeping pretty good at night.  She goes down 6:30/7 PM and wakes up only once between 7 PM and 7 AM.  We had one rough night where she was up for 2 hours.  I feel so lucky that she normally is a good sleeper.  HAHAHAAAHAHA - I feel like this was a mean trick.  I wrote that a week ago and now she is have such a rough time sleeping.  Spoke too soon, huh?  She screams and will not settle down this past week.  Two nights, she woke up at 11 PM, which is so unusual and it took me about 2 hours to get her down.  She is fighting going down like it's her business.   Now napping, that's a different story.  For a while there, she was not sleeping longer than 30 minutes during the day.  However, the last week has been a transition.  She has been taking an hour to hour and half nap at around 8:30/9 AM and then 2-3 other naps during the day.  A nap transition has been starting to happen as well.  She seems to want to be up longer, so we are going to try out 2 longer naps and see how she does with those.  Our goal is to get her down to two good naps, 9 AM and 1 PM.  She isn't rolling over a ton, so we have still been swaddling her.  Most mornings she wakes up with both arms free, so she can sleep with out being swaddled.  However, it does help to calm her down and get into a deep sleep both at night and in napping.    We haven't started sleep training yet, I'm trying to wait until she is 6 months.  I still don't mind getting up with her once a night.  I am thinking that we need to also start changing our bedtime routine to have her nurse before bath and then rock and read a book before going down.  I know it will be rougher, so I haven't attempted the change yet.  It's not like nursing usually puts her down anyways, we usually have to bounce her to sleep.

Teething?  Well, I don't see or feel anything yet, but this girl is just chewing on her fingers ALL THE TIME.   At certain points, she is trying to get 4 or all 5 fingers in her mouth.  Rarely does she actually suck on her fingers, she just gnawing on them.  She still doesn't love her pacifiers much.  I can get her to take it occasionally, but only when she is really tired in the car.  I did get a few teething toys that I think she likes more.



Isla is still fitting into most of her 3 month clothes and most of the 6 month are too big.  We've had to pack away some of her 3 month pajamas and have put her in a few 6 month.  However, they are still big and look like she is swimming in them.  She isn't wearing a ton of shorts/pants right now with this weather, but her diaper makes her wear a larger size.  She is fitting nicely in her little swimsuit and the GroVia diapers are fitting perfectly now.

This girl LOVES being outside.  I'm pretty sure that she would be out there the entire day if we let her.  She likes anything from swinging in the back yard, to watching the dogs run around or sitting in the driveway and seeing the cars go by.   Between that and how much she loves naked time, we might have a little hippy on our hands.  Her Grammy also got her a rainbow colored pinwheel that she loves to stare at.  I feel like her eyes are constantly wide open, just soaking up everything she sees.

Isla grabs at EVERYthing.  I'm pretty sure that Isla's goal is to pull out all of my hair.

Although Isla still doesn't want to be on her tummy all day, she is getting much better at tummy time. She is still pretty lazy and half of the time, she is laying with her little head on the ground.  I'll hold up her torso and she is able to balance on her arms.  I blame it on her head that's too heavy, so it's super hard for her to stay up too long.  This past week, I've also seen her more stable standing on her feet and actually wanting to hold that position for some time.  I was excited that she made this transition, because I was a little concerned about her not wanting to stand on her legs much.

Our daily schedule is still similar to last month.  She still loves helping me with our morning chores of dishes, every few days vacuuming the floor and eating breakfast.  Isla has become super observant these last few weeks.  She notices what you eat, watches you drink water and loves reaching for and trying to put her mouth on D's cold beers.  We haven't started solids yet, holding off probably for another month.  She is still nursing about 6 times a day.

Isla's favorite thing we do every night, right before bath time & bed is naked time.  She gets 30 minutes before bed where we lay her on the floor (with a water proof mat underneath.  Yes, she has peed a few times!)  and just play.  It's me and daddy and her make all sorts of faces, tickling her and getting out any of that extra energy she might be holding on to.  It's one of my favorite times of the day as well.

Little bug, I love seeing your little personality (although stubborn) emerge and feel pretty darn lucky to be your momma.

Four Months

Little bug, you are just growing cuter and cuter by the minute.  I can't seem to soak up enough time with you.  Although some days are long, you warm my heart with all the jibber jabber and that big adorable smile of yours. 

Today you were 11 pounds 13 ounces and 23 inches long

My favorite thing that happened this month was hearing our little girl giggle for the first time.  Words cannot describe how my heart melted hearing that sound.  On the night of July 2nd, during bath time, that sweet noise escaped her mouth.  We had finished up our normal wash and started with playtime.  That meant D started making faces at her while running water over her belly.  I squish her cheeks and tickle her belly.   I'm not sure if he was sticking his tongue out at her or if it was the sounds he was making, but she had the biggest smile and kept trying to get a noise to come out of her mouth.  Then, to our surprise, she made a few giggles.  The best part was that her laugh was much deeper than we expected!  It killed me that I didn't get it recorded.  My phone was right there, but it didn't have enough space to capture any video.  I’ve since made sure that won’t happen again, but she has been stingy with the giggles since. 

The other major transition we made this month was moving our pumpkin to her own room.  She spent the whole night in her crib on the first of July.  She hasn't been back in our room since and really sleeps well in there.  It was very cute to see D ensure her crib was all secure before we left her alone in her room.  We thought that we would try combining the transition with also not swaddling her.  Yeah, that didn't last a full night.  She had the hardest time falling asleep and finally we gave up and swaddled her again.  She isn't rolling over from back to front yet, so we are still okay with swaddling her at night.  I must admit I was a little sad to move her out of our room.  It wasn't that I couldn't be with out her in the room, but I loved hearing her little chatter she makes when she wakes up.   Her sleep pattern didn’t change with the transition, which was nice.  She still has a few nights where she sleeps the entire night, but most have her waking up once to feed.   A lot of it has to do with her getting herself unswaddled and she wakes herself up.  I sleep about the same when she was in our room or in her own.  

Let’s talk about her fingers, this girl can’t keep them out of her mouth.  We’ve been trying to keep her from sucking her thumb/fingers, but it’s a battle every day.  We’ve gotten her a new pacifier, a wobble, and a teething toy that’s supposed to mimic her fingers.  They’ve all distracter her for a little while, but the moment you turn around, she has her fingers in her mouth again.  She’s really been able to grab/reach for objects on her own, whether it’s a toy or pacifier. 

Isla is still in 3 month clothing right now.  She even as a few newborns (like items from the Gap that run huge) that she can still fit in.  I’ve gone through a ton of her newborns and stored them with her premie clothes she had. 

Isla is such a happy baby.  She just LOVES to talk.  We could lay and read books for half of the day and she would be thrilled.  She likes to lay there and talk while we read to her.   Morning, of course, is the best time to see her being her goofy self.  However, nights have been much better lately.  Our new nightly activity has been to let her get naked and kick around on the floor.  She has the best time kicking her legs and flailing around.  She pushes on the ground and arches her back like she wants to twist over and roll.  Hasn’t happened yet, but she did decide to pee on the floor a few nights ago.  Silly girl.

We haven’t transitioned to a new schedule quite yet, which means she nurses 5-6 times a day and naps 4 times a day (in between feedings) for about 30-45 minutes.  If I’m lucky, I can get her to sleep the full hour, but not very often.  Our normal day starts with a feeding and getting changed for the day.  We usually play a little in her room before she comes in the kitchen with me for breakfast and doing the dishes.  Isla’s favorite book right now is Brown Bear Brown Bear, but any Dr. Suess book is pretty great too.  Her first nap is usually in her car seat during a walk with the pups.  The rest of the day she is usually with her grammy, while I work until 2:30 PM.  Then it’s our time to play in the afternoon.  We read a few more books, work on tummy time and sitting up and standing.  She is usually ready for her bedtime routine around 6:30 PM, which involves a bath, nursing and then getting rocked to bed.  I know we should starting working on bedtime with out nursing, but I still enjoy that time with her. 

She still doesn’t love tummy time and will push herself up a few times, but tends to be lazy after a few minutes.  Pretty quickly she is shoving her face into the mat and getting angry.  She hasn’t found her feet yet, but I’m sure it will be soon.   Her head control is great now and loves looking all over the place.  Unless she is tired, she has no problem at all holding it on her own.  She’s just growing up so fast. 

Baby girl, I can’t imagine what wonderful things will happen with you in this next month, but I can’t wait. 

Three Months

Three whole months.  I am starting to see our little bug really change these last few weeks.  She is such a ham.  I constantly tell her that I'm going to just eat her up, because really, some days I think I almost could.

Today you are 10 pounds 8 ounces and 23 inches long! 

We didn't go to the doctor this month, so all these measurements are guesstimates.  She has filled out more, which I see in her face and those adorable little leg rolls that are showing up.  I had to take out almost all of her newborn clothes from her closet, and we are now mostly in 3 month clothing.  There are a few that are too big, but not many.  The biggest change this month in attire has been changing over to cloth diapers.  We officially are fully in our GroVia diapers, no more disposables.  I must say that I'm absolutely loving it.  I kept putting it off, because it honestly seems like such a drastic change and they were still so big on her.  I think it just took a few days for us both to get adjusted and find the swing of things.  This also lead me to really only put her in dresses vs onesies.  Let's be honest, the diapers do make her booty much bigger and the onesies just look silly.  Dresses and bubble bottom jumpers are the way to go.  I had to go and get a few more items to bulk up her dress wardrobe, and her grammy has made some adorable ones too!

Let's talk about the diapers.  They are SO easy.  I was sold on them from the beginning, but I'm telling you they really are not the pain in the butt that most cloth diapers can be.  They have snap in soaker pads (or inserts) to the shells.  They all go in the same wash and all you need is to line dry the shells and pop the soakers in the dryer.  Until she gets bigger and we introduce solids, everything is water soluble, so in the washer they go!  Since I'm at home, if she has a dirty diaper, I put it in the wash right away.  You certainly don't have to.  That's just something I feel like I need to do.  Having the poopy diaper sit for a day isn't ideal for me.  However, another major change this month was her pooping schedule.  She went from multiple times a day to only once every 2-3 days, so I don't have to deal with one that often.

Digestion has been not so fun this month.  She usually is fine, but with her first flight she had so much gas the night we flew in.  The poor thing.  We sat there and rubbed her tummy and did bicycle kicks for almost an hour.  Finally she pooped, but it was not fun seeing her in pain.  She had a similar instances on the way home.  We also found that she won't sleep when she really has to poop.  I feel like it's been a process that she needs assistance with.

Our first family flight was so much fun.  She is such a good flyer.  I know that is mostly due to her age, but she was awake for the majority of the first two flights, and Isla just loved looking around.  I think she liked the sounds combined with the neat lights on the ceiling (the fan/light switches) and of course the turbulence.  We chose the one day that there were major storms in Austin and even had to deal with delays both going out and coming in to Austin.  Thankfully it actually made our flights closer together vs having a longer layover.  I was just happy we didn't miss any of our connections and were not stuck anywhere over night.    

This month, Isla has done pretty good keeping on the schedule I have for her age.  She doesn't take super long naps during the day, but she does tend to go down right at 90 minutes after being awake.   She feeds about 6-7 times a day and naps about 4 times through the day.  Upon waking up, given the time, she usually nurses and then we have play time.  This is where she has gotten super fun.  She LOVES when you play with her.  Some of her favorite things this month is when you blow on her belly and give her lots of kisses in her neck.  She also has been so talkative this last week.  I will sing ooo and awww to her and she just talks right back to you.  Her little jibber jabber is the absolute cutest thing ever.  I keep trying to capture it on camera, with out success.  In the afternoons we lay on the floor and read 1-3 books to her, which she is so intrigued with.  Her eyes get so wide and looks at all the images and words.  Daddy reads her a few books too and also makes sure to play her some daily Garth Brooks and MJ when he's able.  Her favorite toys are the elephant and turtle that hang from her little play mat.  I also have a giraffe that plays a melody that is soothing to her.  She still loves the swing and all things with motion.

Isla has such better head control now than she did even at the start of 2 months.  She really can be held with out worrying about her head bobbling all over the place, unless she is tired.  Isla doesn't quite love tummy time yet, but she is getting there.  I do have to try and schedule tummy time when she is in a good mood, since she won't have any of it otherwise.  She can lift her head up, look around and rotate from side to side.  I've seen her roll from her tummy to her back 2 times this month.  The first time was mostly by accident, but she definitely can make the flip when she's not tired.  When she is not feeling tummy time, she just puts her face in the mat or sucks on her fists.

I still tend to take her out somewhere most days and she still is okay in the carseat.  Most of the time it puts her to sleep, but she can get royally mad if she's super tired and fighting it.  I spoiled myself and invested in a jogging stroller this month and it made a world of difference!  I use it pretty much every day on a long walk in the mornings with grammy and our pups.  She likes our walks when she is awake.  I tend to use the walk as her first nap time and she falls asleep in the stroller or shortly after.

She is such a happy baby, but she knows how to show her emotions.  She can get so darn mad!!  I must say, it's mostly at night when she's been tired from the day.  However, she starts to get mad and it really escalades quickly!  We say that she turns into a little volcano, she gets so red.  This girl has mastered the pouty lip.  It might just be the saddest thing you've ever seen.  She does smile a ton though, especially in the mornings.  She really loves play time and talks to me a ton.  I still am waiting to hear her giggle, hopefully one of these days soon!

We still have her sleeping in our room, but I know in the next month that will have to change.  She has almost grown out of the sling that we use now for her bed.  We also need to transition her out of the swaddle, but I fear she will wake up a ton more with out it.  She also gets woken up by our pups getting up throughout the night, which isn't ideal.  She has, however, had a few nights this past month where she slept through the whole night - SO nice!  She is ready for bed between 6 and 7 every night and sleeps, usually, until at least 3 AM.   The worst is when she wakes up at 5 AM and is hungry, which messes up our morning schedule some.  I still don't mind getting up with her at night, although I love to sleep, she is still so happy to see me and nurse.  It's the best.  Then she still goes back down easily, which makes it not so bad.

This month I had my first wedding after having her, which meant I was away from her for 15 hours.  Such a long day.  Good thing she has the best daddy who just loves her to pieces.  He is so good with her, in feeding her the bottle, changing her and really knowing the schedule I want to keep with her and trying his best to follow it.  I, of course, would love to be with her 24/7, but I don't feel bad leaving her with him.  I think they can bond with out me there and I know she is getting all sorts of spoiled in my absence.  Whether he wants to admit it or not, he is such a sucker for her pouty lip.

Isla Katherine, you are so very loved.  I can't wait to see how you grow and change these next 4 weeks.  I am so lucky to have you in my life and be able to stay at home with you most days and experience it all.

Two months

Two months, holy cow!  Somehow saying that I have a two month old is so different than my little newborn.  Maybe it's because I can already see how much she has changed or that the newborn snuggles aren't quite the same any more.  Watching your baby grow is so bittersweet.  They grow too quickly and in a blink of an eye change so much.  I just want to soak it all up.  

Today you are 9 pounds 6 ounce (15 percentile) and 20.5 inches long (2 percentile)! 

Our sweet little bug is really filling in her baby rolls.  Looking at her today, I can't believe she was only 5 lbs when we brought her home.  She's been fitting nicely into her newborn clothes, and we've even had to retire a few that were too tight on her Buda belly.  

Speaking of belly, this girl loves to eat.  I have still been letting her lead our daily feed schedule, but she tends to wake up around 6:30 or 7 AM and nurses.  We get out of bed and change out of our PJs.  She is an absolute ham in the mornings.  I seriously could eat her up.  She loves laying on her changing table, so in the mornings we will lay there for a bit, playing, singing silly songs and making even sillier faces.  She loves kisses all over and smiles when I sing her a silly song.  She still is smitten with the ceiling fans and finds them in what ever room we are in.  In the morning she is pretty wide awake until around 9:30 or 10 when she starts fighting her first nap.  I generally have errands to run, so she falls asleep in her car seat, which she really doesn't mind.  

The best part about her getting out of her car seat is her stretches.  They really are adorable.  If you hold her flat, she will pout her little lip and stretch her neck in all directions. 

Let’s also talk about her gruntiness.  She makes the silliest noises.  I keep meaning to record them because she won’t believe me when I tell her how loud she was as a baby.  She is definitely starting to jabber and makes a high pitched cry when she is really getting excited. 

Her naps during the day are really determined by what I have going on, which isn't helping set a schedule.  If we are out and about, she could sleep most of the day.  We were starting out with bedtime around 8 to 8:30 PM, but she was just a pill.  Since we've moved up the bath time, it's gone much smoother.  We generally give her a bath around 6:30 PM, which she loves.  Getting out of the bath is another story.  She hates it.  She'll be just peachy and then upon being wrapped in the towel, she gets full use out of her lungs.  I tend to give her one last feed before putting her down.  That will generally keep her asleep until around 12 or 1 AM.  Sometimes I'll get a nice stretch until 2 AM.  Then she is usually up around 3 AM and 7 AM.   The majority of the days, after I feed her at night, I can re-swaddle her and she will just fall back to sleep on her own.  It's lovely. 

She is already showing her dramatic personality.  You can certainly hurt her feelings already, where she will show you her big pouty lip.  It kills me.  She does not like to be woken from a nap and stopping feeding her too early gets her pretty upset too.  

She is still rocking newborn diapers, although I'm so ready to go to our cloth ones.  I think at the start of June we are going to fully wear the cloth.  I just have to adjust her clothes slightly to accommodate for the larger bottom they give.  Buying diapers is so ridiculous though.  I can't wait to be done with them.  

Isla also decided to have her first official blow out, where it literally came out both the diaper and her clothes, at the doctors office this month.  What a mess.  I’m just glad I make sure to have an extra outfit for her with me at all times.  My pants on the other hand were not so lucky.  We went in because she has some red bumps/dry skin on one of her cheeks, and I thought it was more of a rash verses baby acne. 

This past week she finally took a pacifier.  We had gotten the Advent style, but she really wasn't loving it. She has slowly started to suck on her hand/fist/almost fingers more, so we wanted to get something that she could use instead.  

Along with everything else getting big, I’ve noticed her eyelashes are getting so long!  I also have to trim her nails all the time, since they are constantly too long for my liking. 

She loves laying on her play mat and looking at the animals hanging off of it.  She loves all the crinkle sounds and especially when Dad makes the lion roar.  She will fling her arms and legs in excitement and hits the hanging animals.  She still likes laying in her crib staring at the fan and her mobile.  She even will reach out and touch her bunny that’s always sitting in her crib.  It’s super soft, so she likes the feel of it.  Tummy time is one thing that she doesn’t appreciate quite yet. 

I’m happy to say that breastfeeding has gotten much better this month.  It still has it’s challenging moments, but it’s manageable.  The cracks are almost healed, and I am waiting for the day that I don’t have to worry about them any more, hopefully very soon. 

Easter

This Sunday was the first official (besides St. Patty's day, which mom and dad both enjoyed a Guiness on her behalf) holiday.  We had the best Easter celebrating our little family.  We tried to take some photos together and of Isla in her Easter dress that just barely fit.  We got some good ones and some great character shots.  She was mostly interested in the fan or eating, but I love them all the same.

My London bride brought this adorable little bunny slippers over for Isla.  They took over most of her leg, but aren't they the cutest?

Then I decided to lay down a blanket to capture Isla's full dress and Bella thought the blanket (of course) was for her. 

I'm posting an abundance of photos of her, but this is only a few of the many I took that day.  She's just too darn cute! 

One Month

Sweet baby Isla, I cannot believe that you've been in our lives for a whole month.  Not a day goes by that doesn't make me love you even more.  I look into your big beautiful blue eyes and see my whole world.  You’ve been such a good baby, from the moment we brought you home, we couldn’t have asked for more. 

Today you weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces and are 20.5 inches long!

Isla has grown so much from the little newborn we brought home.  In a blink of an eye, she has changed so much.  How is she already a month old?  She’s almost completely out the premie clothes we had to buy for her.  She has started to fill out, especially in her little cheeks.  This past week I’ve been able to put her in a few of the smaller newborn outfits, which are stinking adorable.  She is pretty long and lengthy, but hasn’t filled out those rolls quite yet.

We started using our stash of newborn diapers this week.  When we brought her home, she was wearing premie diapers, and we were even rolling them to make them fit.  She lost her umbilical cord about a week after she was born, but it wasn’t completely healed for about 2 weeks.  We are hoping to get her into cloth diapers soon, but she is still a little too small to wear them.  Isla doesn’t really care if her diaper is dirty yet, but she is definitely going through quite a few per day.  There has even been a few nights where she had a few blow outs. 

She has actually been a really good sleeper.  Usually she’ll give me a good 4-5 hour stretch of sleep at night, sometimes more.  There have been a few times that I’ve had to wake her, because I’ve needed to nurse.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept the entire night if I held her.  She loves falling asleep on my chest.  She is the best little snuggle bug.  I absolutely love holding her on my chest and rubbing my cheek on her head.  Her newborn skin is the best thing in the world.  It’s been tricky to get her to fall asleep in the sling that we have for her.  It is a little slanted, so I had to put a pillow under her to keep her more level.  She seems to like this position much more and sleeps more soundly. 

We’ve started a bedtime routine.  Every other night she gets a bath.  She usually likes bath time and even didn’t mind her sponge baths.  After bath time, she gets lotion, read a book while being rocked and nursed, if need be.  This usually puts her right to sleep.  Some nights she really fights being swaddled, but her arms tend to be what wakes her up.  She is the absolute cutest when she wakes up from a long sleep.  She tends to pout her lips (sticking her bottom out) and stretches her little neck (lifting her head and moving it back and forth) while she wakes up.    

None of the noises in the house bother her, which is a good thing having two loud pups that like to bark at everything.  Every once in a while Isla will jump, but most of the time their barks don’t even phase her.  She also doesn’t really have many crying spells.  She does have one cry that’s adorable, when she is just getting hungry and wants to let me know.  It’s high pitched at the end and melts my heart.

Isla doesn’t mind her car seat, once we figured out the right strap setting for her.  While she doesn’t hate being in the seat, we did get to experience her crying hysterically, which broke my heart.  D was driving and I was even sitting in the back seat and couldn’t console her.  We had to pull over and nurse in order to make the rest of the trip home.

Isla has such a strong little neck.  When she is laying on my chest, she will completely lift her head off of me and look up at me.  She even enjoys tummy time and has no issues moving her head back and forth.  She’s not too particular about how she is held or even just laying.  She’s started to have longer periods of alertness and loves looking around and kicking her little feet.  She stretches more than anything, since the girl is growing away. 

She is such a little piglet, and loves to get her fill.  She won’t hesitate to let you know she is hungry and start to root or suck on her fist or your arm, if you are holding her.  That tends to lead to her spitting up a little more.   

As amazing as this past month has been, it’s definitely been trying for me figuring out motherhood.  I’ve had quite a few issues with breast feeding.  What I wanted to be the most enjoyable experience, has been beyond frustrating.  Trying to get her off the nipple shield lead to a terrible latch and cracks on my end.  After a night where D woke up to me in tears, we visited a lactation consultant and have been working to perfect nursing since.  She’s been much better now that I know more of what I was doing wrong.  We even changed positions, I’ve found the football hold the easiest with her lately.  I’m still waiting for the day that it doesn’t hurt, I’m completely healed, and we can nurse easily in public.

Love bug, even the hardest times have been worth it to have you in my arms.  We can’t wait to see your little personality emerge.  We love you to the moon and back.