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Hadley

First Year Months, Hadley

Hadley at Five Months

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Hadley Grace,

I’m in denial that you are already five months old. You are no longer a newborn or even an infant, you are a full on baby! You are moving around and interacting with us and we are all loving every second of you sweet girl. You complete our family and we are so thankful for your sweet spirit and fun personality that is starting to shine through!

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At five months we are hard pressed to find you without something in your mouth. We keep thinking that you’re teething but no teeth have shown up yet but you love chewing on your hands, your toes, our hands, toys…basically anything you can get your hands on. I’m just glad for my germaphobic self that you can’t touch much that’s too dirty yet!

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You are also all smiles. You cry sometimes but usually not for very long and can be soothed pretty easily with snuggling. You give out smiles freely to everyone but especially love your Sissy and Bubba. And you’ve just started noticing Luca a lot also and send smiles his way.

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You are a really good sleeper these days. I finally just quit getting up around 4 when you’d cry and you, most of the time, sleep until wish these days. Sometimes you wake up earlier but will get yourself back to sleep. Your schedule is usually to eat at 7am, 11am, 2:30 pm, 5:30pm, and 8pm. You nap all of those cycles but only for 30-45 minutes during the last cycle if at all. You tried rice cereal a few days before your five month birthday and loved it! But then didn’t sleep great for the next few days so we’re holding off giving it to you consistently. Also, Mommy can’t handle much more in her morning’s so rice cereal is on the back burner until you need it! All those meals mean that you’re growing like a weed. You wear 3-6 month, 6 month, and even some small 9 month outfits and wear a size two diaper.

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This month you have mastered your grip and can hold on to toys or, your favorite, hair. You are great pushing up on your legs and standing in your exersaucer and are wobbly but getting steadier at sitting up. You are great holding yourself up though if I hold you on my hip which breaks my heart a little each time because how are you old enough to be on my hip!?!? We set your high chair up at the table and you prefer to sit in it while we’re eating so that you can see everyone.

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We love you so much Hadley. You are beautiful and we get comments from everyone who sees you about how gorgeous you are. God created you in His image and you are a beautiful reflection of his love for you. In addition to your outward beauty, we can’t wait to see what God does in your heart which is infinitely more important. You are an amazing creature of God Hadley and he has a special plan just for you. Never fear to let Him guide your life because the plan that He has chosen for you far exceeds any plan that you or I could dream up.

You will always be my baby and while I’m sad to watch you pass on your tiny baby stage, I am in awe watching God’s plan unfold in your little life. I love you sweet pea. Every second of every minute of every day.

love, Mommy

 

First Year Months, Hadley, Kid Growth

A newborn no longer

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Sweet Hadley,

You are coming in to your own more and more each day! Even though this post is really late, this picture was taken on your four month birthday. Taken between rushing around trying to take care of your sick brother and get your big sister to and front school. I definitely couldn’t say that your life is calm or that you are the center of our attention, but your life is definitely full of people who love you and lots of different experiences so that has to count for something!

This month you learned how to roll from your back to your tummy. You did it first on James’ birthday during your nap and screamed and screamed. I went and flipped you back over and you just proceeded to flip over again and scream. So I turned you over again and a few minutes later when you started screaming again, I looked on the monitor and you were back on your tummy! I ended up feeding your early because I couldn’t get you to calm down. Thankfully you mastered the art of sleeping on your tummy within a day or so and now flip over almost as soon as you get in bed.

At your four month appointment you weighed 11 pounds and 12 ounces (10%), were 24.5″ tall (50%), and your head was 16″ (45%). These stats are pretty consistent with your siblings. Even though you now seem huge to us compared to where you started, people are still surprised that you are so old given your smaller size when we’re out and about. We think you’re just perfect the exact way that you are!

You are wearing 3-6 month clothes and sometimes even 6 month outfits or sleepers. Some of the 3 month onesies that we’ve been using from near the start still fit but we’ve phased out some that were too small. You are wearing size two diapers (I’ve totally given up on cloth right now) and are eating (were eating at 4 months) six meals a day.  Your schedule is wake up around 4 am, eat and go back to sleep, are woken up at 7:30, eat, nap from 8:30-11, eat, nap from 12:30-2:30, eat, nap from 4-5:30, eat, nap from 7-8, eat, go to bed.

You are getting better at sitting supported in your Bumbo and we introduced the activity bouncer/saucer this month which you really like. You prefer to just chew on the hard plastic pieces that you can reach but sometimes play with the beads and roll the rattles around also. You are about as big as your bouncer right now but still enjoy it when you’re strapped in and can’t go anywhere.

You drool all the time and constantly have your hands in your mouth. We thought you might be getting a tooth but your doctor says that there’s no sign of that. You go some days without spitting up and then will spit up constantly for a few. Your reflux dose got upped due to your weight gain and we really think that it’s making a big difference and making you feel so much better. You still don’t really like it though which is a bummer and makes morning’s when we’re trying to get out the door to school a little crazy.

You love to smile and squeal at us when we’re silly and, believe me, you’ve got plenty of silly situations to work with. Your sister and brother are still smitten with you and always have to give you a kiss and tell you good night when you go to sleep. It sometimes sounds like you say “Hi” back to us but I know that’s just you vocalizing. You have blown raspberries a few times but, like me, seem to have a hard time doing it every time you try.

We love that you’re getting more active and more interactive sweet little girl. Our whole family loves you so much and are so thankful that God placed you in our lives. Don’t ever doubt that you are surrounding by people who wholeheartedly love you!

I love you, every second, of every minute, of every day.

Mommy

 

Charlotte, Family, Friends, Hadley

Birth Week Friends

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I’ve talked about Natalie and how I couldn’t have gotten through this summer without her.  If you think I’m kidding know that I most definitely am not.  Having baby girls five days apart allowed us to hold conversations via text at all hours of the night and discuss all the ups and downs that new motherhood of child number three holds.  She has encouraged me and supported me and let me vent constantly over the last three months and I am eternally grateful for her and so thankful for her friendship.

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Two weeks ago we finally were able to get everyone together and meet each other’s new babies in person.  We had so much fun spending a few way to brief hours together and are already looking forward to the next time that we can see each other again.  But, until then, we always have texting!

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Charlotte, Family, Hadley

The rest of our summer

This summer has really been mostly spent at the house since Hadley’s schedule has been so up in the air and we haven’t wanted to expose her to much.  Plus, I’m basically terrified at taking all three kids out by myself if I’m honest.  But we’ve had fun here and I wanted to share a few other pictures from the last month of our summer.

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No one can ever say that this girl doesn’t have spunk.  She has started posing when she takes a picture and uses various dance poses when she does it.  Like this one.  Bless her, I don’t even know what else to say.

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My kids love eating out.  Huh, can’t be because I’m not a very good cook, right?  Anyway, one night after dinner we came back to Memma and Papa’s to get some peach pie and ice cream and I snapped this of Mom and Hadley.  Aren’t they both so beautiful?

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Once we moved Hadley upstairs we have all spent a lot more time in her room.  The big kids run back and forth to the playroom but by the time she’s done eating they’re usually in her room and want to hold her.  I love how sweet they are together.

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Looks like Hadley’s excited to be in a picture with her beautiful name painting from Mrs. Kim! (PS She’s got a Christmas limited edition painting and kits for kids to make coming out soon on her blog.  Follow her on Facebook or Twitter so that you’ll be the first to know when they’re for sale!) (PPS  She doesn’t know I’m saying this, just a friendly public service announcement so you can enjoy her awesome art like we do!)

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Another post-feeding picture of my three cuties.  It seems kind of unbelievable that I have three kids but if I had to pick any three kids, I’d want these three!

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This girl.  She’s so grown up you guys. With some gladiator-esque sandals and a grown up dress for church she’s looking more 10 than 5.  She makes me so happy!

 

Hadley

First Day at Church

On July 13th Hadley took her first trip to church.  She slept in my arms in a rocker in the crier room during the service and did great.  We pray daily for her to love the Lord with all her heart!

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