Homemade Prints

So Brynlee is doing SO MUCH BETTER! It's seriously blowing my mind how much she changes on a weekly basis.  Church was so much better this week! And on sunday we went and had dinner and played games at our neighbors apartment and she was perfect! I was seriously so surprised.  Ben has been working like a mad man so it's definitely been a relief.  About 3 days a week he works from 10 a.m. till 11 p.m. at Freedom and Walmart and then the rest of the week he works from 10 a.m. till 7 p.m.  He also works every other Sunday.  He's such a good husband!

So for most of the day it's just the two of us and as much as I love Brynlee I get pretty bored.  I've tried to fill my craving with just looking at ideas on Pinterests of crafts that one day I could do when we actually had any money left haha and when Brynlee didn't need my attention pretty much 24/7.  I've fallen in love with etsy as well.  I used these as my inspirations for what I made today

 Total cost to buy- $20ish

Total cost to buy and print- $7

 Total cost to buy- $26

So it was really fun to make these! And the whole thing was free except for the couple of bucks I pay to print them at Wal-Mart.  All I had to do was download the free 30 day trial for Adobe Photoshop and then after a few hours of fiddlling around I was finally able to figure out how to design things.  The only one that was really difficult was the Temple Print, I had to find a free clip art and they spent probably close to 2 hours (I know it's a little pathetic) trying to figure out of to change the file and make the temple clip art white.  Let's just say I was SO EXCITED when I finally figured it out! P.S. if anyone wants the temple clip art file to make their own just comment on here with your email address and I will send it to you, just keep in mind that it will be just a blank white page until to change the background of the photoshop document or if you like this one I can email you the jpeg and you can just go and print it out.  Here's my final products! These are all going to go in white matted frames that I have.  Total cost to me $6ish if I had bought them it would have been more then $80 including shipping.  Talk about a steal!   

7 weeks

On Wednesday we hit the 7 week mark! Not to much going on.  We are still constantly trying to figure out what she should be eating.  I probably sound like such a hypocrite because of this post, but we've switched her to a formula to help with her digestive issues.  I'll try harder with the next one!  I'm pretty sure that she is slightly lactose intolerant.  At first we put her on a soy formula and it seemed to really help, then it made her SUPER constipated.  I'm talking like bleeding and in excruciating pain and we kept on hearing concerns from different people about the long term affects of soy formulas...So we've ditched the soy and I feel really good about it! We are now using Similac Sensitive and she is back to normal and seems really content.  She's still fussy at certain times of the day but what baby isn't! :)

Highlights of this week

• Earlier this week I made a mad dash to the doctors because of how much pain Brynlee was in.  Seeing her in pain, screaming, and having these big tears flowing from her eyes completely crushed me.  I started crying while she was trying to get the last of her little poo out (TMI sorry).
• Our new neighbors are super awesome!! Ali and her husband offered to watch Brynlee this week so me and Ben could go on a date for Valentines day and Jennifer made me dinner when she saw that Ben wasn't home.  They are awesome.  I love the little things.
• I got a truck load of coupons for formula from a few different girls in my ward.  Thank you! Again with the awesomeness.  
• Brynlee loves to play on her belly and is definitely building some super strong neck muscles 
• She is cooing like crazy and she's starting to smile a lot more.  They are real smiles too, not just when she's tooting 
• I got ahead in school this week so thankfully I am not rushing to get done a million different assignments on Saturday..And so far I have straight A's.  I'm going to keep it up.
• I've started to make some time to do a craft during the week so I don't feel like all I do is homework and watch TV when Brynlee is sleeping.  This week it was her Valentines day outfit.  She's my cutest little valentine *sorry Ben, maybe next year ;) 
• Ben is on the hunt for a new job before he looses his mind at Freedom ( on a side note: you would think that an owner of the company wouldn't screw up his paycheck every week....and what a coincidence that it is always under...let's just say there is something SEVERELY sketchy with this man) so if anyone knows of any hook a brother up

6 weeks and counting!

Brynlee has reached her 6 week mark last week.  We've been really struggling for the last couple of weeks with constant hysterical crying fits and her not sleeping at all during the day.  We've got our routine down though so I think that that will help.  I have been really worried and stressed that something is wrong with her because she cries SO MUCH but as of right now I have to just chalk it up to colic or purple crying and ride out the storm.  It's weird when she's happy she's really happy and when she's not watch out!  I've been reading that it may have something to do with her approaching a growth spurt both psychical and developmental.

Overall I think Brynlee is just a really active baby! She loves to play on her tummy and it's so funny to watch her try to crawl.  She just wants to move!  She roles over on her side really well too!  She's definitely getting bigger and is finally fitting into her 0-3 months clothes.  Most of them are still really long on her, I think she's just tiny

1 month old!

Well we hit 1 month a couple of days ago and I can't believe how fast it has gone by! It feels like just yesterday I was meeting her for the first time and now we are the best of friends, I love my little squishy!

She's had a very exciting week with both my mom and bens dad coming to visit. They are both completely smitten with her and I can't wait till them come back to visit.

Brynlee had her one month checkup and we got all of stats. She was born at 8.6 lbs and 20 in long then she lost some weight afterwards and is now 21 1/2 inches and weighs 8.13 lbs. so she's in the 40th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. Before this I really had no idea what those numbers meant but the way the doctor broke it down to me is that if you put her in a group with 99 other baby's her same age 60 of them would weigh more then her and 50 of the would be taller then her. She's still really small for most 0-3 months clothes but give it a week or do and I'm sure she'll be filling them out just fine.

She loves to move around. It's the funniest thing to put her on her gym mat and see her kick and wave her arms. She's starting to like to play a lot more which makes my afternoons super fun!

I have yet to be able to capture a smile on camera but I'm trying. She gives me some of the funniest looks and it's clear that she is already starting to shoe her personality

Brynlee's Newborn Pictures

I am so grateful that I came across Tara from http://www.myurbanphoto.com/ I really loved all the pictures that she took and she was so great with Brynlee

When we got to Tara's house Brynlee was passed out in the car.  I thought boy, this is going to be easy! And than I had to take her out of the carseat...she did not like that at all.

I nursed to try to get her to be a little more cooperative--that lasted like 10 minutes! haha So throughout the 3 hours that I was there we had to stop basically every 15 minutes so I could nurse her and she would calm down.She was beginning to cluster feed, so there was no other option.

She was a champ though and looked so beautiful (as always) in all the pictures.  She eventually got a little sleepy and passed out toward the end just in time to make for a peaceful ride home.

I can't believe how much she has changed in just 2 weeks! She has lost a lot of her chunkiness and she is fighting a nasty cold.  We took her to the Dr's on Wednesday and they tested her for RSV, thankfully she doesn't have it! But he put her on an antibiotic just to help her out a little.  I have definitely seen improvement and I think she will be all better in just a couple of days.

Ode to my Left Arm

Before Brynlee graced us with her presence I don't like I ever really appreciate my left arm

I'm a righty so obviously this was my preferred way of doing anything, 

and I think my left hand felt a little rejected.

Now I realize how amazing my left arm is.

Brynlee will only sleep on my left arm.  

The recliner in our living room is a life saver to prop my tired left arm up when she finally wants to snooze

She will only burp on my right shoulder so my left hand is definitely being put to use now.

Thanks left arm, I have no idea what I would do without you.

Brynlee's First 2 Weeks!

Well we've had Brynlee home for a little over 2 weeks now, and it really has flown by! This little girl is so sweet (for the most part haha) but I can definitely see some of my spunk in her.  It's all a huge adjustment having a baby and balancing school, work, and family time.  But we are managing! Ben has been working like a mad man this past week too so it's been a little stressful.  He works Monday-Saturday from 9am till usually 7pm or later.  But yesterday he sat down with his boss and said they discussed him working one day a week from home because I'm getting a little stressed out and it would just be nice to have an extra hand so I could sleep haha not like that will ever happen again!

Brynlee is adorable, but for some odd reason she doesn't really like to sleep at night! She's up about every 2 hours to nurse and only nurses for like 10 minutes until she gets bored and wants to talk.  Yes my two week old talks! I'm talking like grunts and crying for a long time! Needless to say I don't really sleep anymore! But we have a system worked out and our developing a routine.  We have awesome neighbors as well! Last week Brynlee would not stop crying for anything and it was like the third night in a row and I was crying, Ben was getting upset, and we had my in-laws visiting so it was a little stressful that night.  Finally Ben went up stairs to the Turners and Markie came down and gave me some good advice! Every other night we give her a bath, than swaddle her up, and she nurses right than.  She usually than passes out for at least a few hours and than throughout the night she sleeps better all around.  She's got some tummy troubles with gas and all so we feel pretty bad for her because it hurts her little tummy! Anyways swaddling and baths=amazing! Thanks Markie!

Brynlee sleeps on and off throughout the day so I'm able to get my school work done and work ahead too for those unexpected days when she just doesn't want to be put down.  I'm only taking 12 credits (17 was way to much!) and they are all online, but they require a lot of busy work and writing.

First Christmas!

First Bath!

Just being cute!