9 Month Update

On July 8 our little Bug turned 9 months old.
I feel like this last month she's changed the most. She has so much personality and she is just so much fun.
This month we got a third tooth, that caused a lot of tears and pain, but it finally came out, and it's a little fang. Almost as soon as the tooth popped she started grinding and that is a terrible sounds. She does it all the time and I cannot handle it.
She also started dancing. Any kind of music can come on and she'll start bouncing. It's so dang cute.
This month we went on vacation with my side of the family. I was so nervous how she'd do with sleeping, but I was surprised that her naps improved and her sleeping through the night was pretty much the same. She'd fall asleep great and then wake up once. She woke  up every morning around 6 and then she'd take a nap in the morning and afternoon, at least an hour each time. I figured we just played so hard it wore her out. Made me feel like she's just bored at home.
The vacation was so much fun and her cousins loved her. She was always surrounded with friends and constantly entertained. She was so happy the whole time, I don't even think she ever cried, unless she was ready for a nap or bed. We even went to Wet N Wild one day, it was 115 degrees and we were outside for about 5 hours, she was so hot but she didn't get upset at all. It was so fun to spend a solid week with  my family and can hardly wait until 2018 when we do it again. I was proud of myself that she came home just about as white as she was when we left. Yahoo for sunscreen.
She is crawling all over the place, and always pulls herself up to stand, She's great at monkey walking from couch to table to chair back to couch. She isn't quite ready to walk on her own yet, but that might be soon.
I feel like she is finally at an age where we can play with her and she'll play back. She talks all the time (in her own little language). My favorite thing is she laughs at herself, she'll be babbling to herself in the carseat and then she'll start laughing. It sounds like she's telling some funny stories. Oh how I wish I could understand her.

We went to the pediatrician today and I'm shocked at her stats.
 Height 29 inches (95th Percentile)
Weight 20 pounds 11 ounces (85th percentile)
Head (can't remember how big) 92nd percentile.
We do NOT know where she got her height, I keep expecting it to go down, but it keeps going up.

Last month I sleep trained her and I remember being so sad that I was losing my time with her when I'd give her a bottle and rock her to sleep. Turns out, putting her to bed is even better now. Matt will change her and get her in her PJ's then I'll hold her, he'll turn off the light and turn on the sleep machine and immediately she'll put her head on my shoulder. I'll sing her some songs, (Que Sera, I know Heavenly Father Loves Me, A Child's Prayer, Lord Are You There, I Love To See The Temple... to name a few, not all in a night, but those are the regulars) and then I'll lay her down in the crib and she'll babble a bit and go to sleep. With teething, she'll have some nights where it's not that easy, but for the  most part, that's the routine.

Since we got home from vacation she's been sleeping pretty well. She goes to bed at 8, if she wakes up in the night it's only for about 10 minutes, and then she'll wake up around 7:30. She's been taking at least one good nap during the day, but it switches off between morning and afternoon.
She's just becoming a real person and I feel like she is so aware of everything going on. She is such a light in our home and we feel so blessed to be her parents.

Likes
Baths
Eating
Car rides
Other kids
Music
Shoes (to eat)
any kind of string (draw strings, shoe laces, cords, hair...)
Anything that we don't want her to play with
Otter pops
biting mom's shoulder

Dislikes
Getting in jammies
when mom leaves the room
getting dressed after a bath
when you take the otter pop away from her

 Swim party with the Halls

 Always standing

 First time sitting in the cart like a big girl

 Father's day

 Definitely a morning person

 How she stares at me when I'm eating and not sharing

 She's a dare devil, we always have to keep a hand on her.

 Exploring the hotel on vacation

 First Movie, Finding Dori. She did great.

 She started out as trying to see what was under the fridge, then it turned into eating the ground

 On our way back from Wet N Wild, so thirsty

 Love that swim suit

 Day after Wet N Wild, we were SOOO tired and just wanted her to take a nap so we could.

 I'm practically just corn on the cob for her.

 Independence Baby in Leila's old clothes. Leila wore this when she was 15 months old

 We now have to strap her down in the high chair

 She followed me to the door one day. Matt took this picture after I left. Breaks my heart.

 Snuggling with Momma's leg

Our baby girl is 9 months old!!!

8 Month Update

Internet issues makes this post super late, but I still want to update. I'll try not to merge with the last month.
On June 8, Sawyer turned 8 months old. I feel like in this month she would start something new and just when we'd get used to it, she'd be done. For instance, she would have these quick bursts of yelling and she'd do it over and over, "Yah! Ah! Ah!". She'd tense up her whole body every time she'd shout. We'd do it back and it was just this little game. It seemed like that lasted only about two days. Then we'd do  it and she'd look at us like we were weirdos.
Her crawling is a lot more steady these days. I feel bad that there isn't a lot of room for her to crawl around our house. Our bedroom is the only place with carpet and the rest of the house is stone floors. She's not completely steady and those floors are too hard if she were to fall. SO the only place she can crawl is in our bedroom, or back and forth on the couch. I feel like if she had more space, she might be walking already. She pulls herself up to standing all the time, and sometimes she'll let go of whatever she's holding and just stand there, all by herself.
She has so much energy. She will just sit there and flail her arms over and over so she looks like she's drumming, or she'll sit in her high chair and just kick her legs for like 10 minutes. She doesn't like to sit still (we learned that well on the flight to and from Utah). Someone will want to hold her and she's so fidgety trying to get out of their arms, they think she wants me, but really she just wants to be put down so she can explore. She does the same thing if Matt or I hold her.
Sleeping has been a challenge. This girl will not nap for longer than 30 minutes. No matter what I do. I'll wake her up earlier, I'll wait a bit longer before I put her down, or I won't wait as long... no matter what she wakes up thirty minutes later. I can practically time it. The good thing is, she doesn't seem tired or ornery when she's awake, she wakes up happy and stays happy until it's time to eat or sleep again.
Night time was more frustrating, I had to feed her to sleep, and if she didn't fall asleep while eating her bottle she would just scream until she tired herself out enough to zonk out. More often than not if she DID fall asleep while eating she would wake up again an hour later and then scream until she fell asleep again AND she would wake up at least once in the middle of the night.
I was at my wits end. Again, I had tried everything other than "sleep training" and I was just dreading that, but it was time.
The first night trying the "cry it out" method I was a wreck. Matt was working late that night so I was home alone. Thankfully my sister-in-law Autumn knew I'd be trying it that night and was texting me the whole time. The method is, you do a routine, sing to them, bathe them, what have you, and then you lovingly lay them down, kiss them goodnight and leave the room. They'll cry, you wait two minutes then go back in, don't pick them up, but rub their back, tell them you love them, be in there no longer than a minute, and then leave again, then you wait five minutes. Go back in... then wait ten minutes. Then 15, you never wait longer than 15 minutes to go back in, you want them to know you're there, you'll always come back.
The first night I would do each time twice, 2 minutes, then 2 minutes, 5 then 5, then 10...
I was sobbing. The first time I did 10 minutes, she fell asleep at minute 9, and then she slept through the night. I hated that she cried until she fell asleep, that I wasn't actually there when she fell asleep, but she slept through the night.
The next night she fell asleep within 10 minutes, the night after that, Matt put her down and she went right to sleep.
Now, every night, we go upstairs, put her in jammies, (she screams throughout that process) then I take her, turn on her sleep sheep, turn off the lights and she immediately lays her head on my shoulder and I'll sing some songs to her. That is the only time she'll lay her head on my shoulder and just snuggle, but as soon as the lights turn off she does it, every time. I'll lay her in her crib, sometimes she'll be awake and just babble to herself, but she'll go to sleep without crying every time. Makes me wonder why I didn't do that earlier. I love our night time routine.
Still doesn't nap though and that method didn't really work out for that.

That was probably the biggest milestone this month. I feel like she is changing a lot, even in just what she likes and what she doesn't. She no longer likes having her diaper changed, when that used to be something that would STOP her from crying. Now she likes being in her car seat and will fall asleep almost immediately, when she used to scream the whole time. She loves baby food and is showing strong interested in eating real people food. She will stare at Matt and me the entire time we are eating, I'll possibly introduce her to the real stuff next month.


She is such a chunk and she is just so much fun. Every time Matt gets home from work she gets so excited. She'll stiffen her legs and flail her arms and just reach out for him until he comes over and gets her.
She won't have another appointment until 9 months, so I'm not totally sure of her stats, but I'd guess she is around 18.5 pounds (given how she has gained weight in the past)
She still just has the two bottom teeth, but I think her little fangs are going to make an appearance soon.
She is just a happy baby, (when she's not teething), she makes us laugh all the time. I love listening to her babble and can't wait for those to be real words.
I cannot believe she is 8 months old already. Time is flying by.

 Waiting for our flight back to Arizona

 Summer ready

 I just love the way she's sitting in this picture. Playing with Daddy

 Not a toy in the world is more fun than a strap

 I can't remember if this was late at night or early in the morning, just one of the times she didn't want to sleep.

D'awwwww 

 Putting out the vibe

 Second hiking attempt, she slept both ways. 

 Pretty much the norm while bottle feeding.

Love this.

 She's so happy WAAAY too early in the morning

 8 months old!

7 months!

Sawyer Mae is 7 months old (as of May 8th)
Its amazing how much she develops each month. They go by so fast, but she learns and changes so much.
Right now she's working on getting her upper teeth to poke out. This has done a NUMBER on our sleeping schedule. She used to sleep a solid 10 hours every night, but her naps suffered. I remember talking to Matt and telling him I'd rather her wake up once or twice a night but have good solid naps during the day. Putting her back to sleep at night is a pretty quick process. She must have understood me because that's exactly what happened. She started waking up in the night but she started taking two good naps a day. Now she wakes up at night AND doesn't want to nap. So... awesome.
I will say though, whenever she wakes up, be it at night or after a nap, when I go into her room to get her she gets so excited to see me. I love that.
I started giving her baby good pretty consistently now (one meal a day usually). She loves it. She devours her baby food pretty quickly. One container would normally hold her over for about an hour and a half, but I noticed that she never turns her head when I feed her (to show she doesn't want anymore) I'd just give her one container and call it good. Last night I decided to give her a second container. She ate it right up. Little chunker.
For Mother's Day this last weekend, we went to Utah. My family hasn't seen her (in person) since she was about 2 and a half months old. She has changed so much and I was excited to show her off. My parents kept commenting on what a happy baby she is. We'd put her on the ground in the family room and she'd just play for hours.
She does so well around other people. Almost everyone that she meets she'll let hold her (for a while) and she'll smile and be happy, even if she sees me standing there. The only time she wasn't that way was when I took her to my office on my last day. I think she knows they were keeping me from her during the day and she was showing her disdain.
She babbles all the time and I just wonder what she thinks she's saying.
We just love our little girl and we feel so blessed to be her parents.

Likes
Watching people eat, it fascinates her
Baths (still)
Momma's singing
Daddy playing with her
Baby food
Her walker
LOVES the little baby in the mirror and babies in general
Running water

Dislikes
sitting still for diaper changes
sitting still at all
being forced to sit still
bananas

 Early morning with Daddy (she always plays with her ears)

 This was a thing for a while

 Just watching her show

 Mmm Green Beans

 If I ever lay on my stomach, it's not long before she is crawling all over me

 again

 practicing walking with Daddy

 First time in a swing, and wearing flip flops 

 Big girl in a high chair

 When you're sick, you can play with Momma's draw string (and completely pull it out)

 Again, this is also her newest expression

 Cute baby in the mirror

 Flying to Utah, that huge dude next to Matt was just in love with Sawyer

 Jennie, trying to solidify her "favorite Aunt" title

 Mother's Day with my parents

Sawyer Mae, 7 months old.

6 Months!

April 8:
Sawyer Mae is 6 months old. We are as close to her 1st birthday as we are to her actual day of birth.
I can't believe I've had this little babe for 6 months, and at the same time, it's hard to fathom how I lived without her for so long. She's a piece of me I never knew I was missing.

This last month has been chuck full of new milestones. She crawled, she has teeth, she babbles all the time. She went from a high pitched squeal to this kind of grunt to a slightly demonic sounding growl, which would be a little creepy if it wasn't so cute.

When she was just a newbie any time we'd drive anywhere she would just scream. Now, it can be a 5 minute drive (or even less) and she'll zonk out. Even if we aren't driving anywhere if I put her in her carseat she just becomes subdued. I took her with me to get my oil changed and she just sat in her little seat for 40 minutes while we waited, eventually falling asleep.

Bath time you have to be ready for. As soon as she is in the water her legs and arms go crazy. Whoever is bathing her comes out almost as wet as she is. She just loves it and it's so fun to see her having so much fun.

She's on a pretty good routine, she wakes up between 5:45 and 6:45, takes a nap around 9 and again around 1-2 depending on how long her first nap is, then she goes to bed around 7:30. Her naps vary in length, they will be 25 minutes or 2.5 hours. I never know. I have learned, however, that any time she is at her babysitters, she naps for about 2+ hours. She watches her in the mornings and in the afternoons. I don't know what it is about her house, but I'm dying to know her secret. Today I looked in her baby's room and noticed that it is quite a bit darker than Sawyer's so I hung a blanket over her window today hoping that will make a difference.

She can't sit up on her own just yet, but she sits well in her bumbo and I noticed today, when I was taking her 6 month pictures, that she'd lean forward, but that she could pull herself back into a sitting position. She just has to have something behind her.

April 12:
Yesterday I took Sawyer to her doctor's appointment. She is 75th percentile in height, 73rd in weight and still going strong at 82 in head size... She had to get some shots and while we were waiting for the nurse to come in I decided to get her bottle ready. She saw it and wanted it right away, so I decided to give it to her, and right as I started feeding her they came in to give her shots, I pulled the bottle away and she was MAD, but what came out of her mouth was, "Oh... Mama!" I know she doesn't know what she said, it was just the sound she made, but it was so cute.
Then after the nurse gave her her shots (poor thing) I gave her the bottle and she just glared at the nurse as she walked out of the room. I'm glad she was mad at her and not me ;)

Our little one is just so much fun. Some of my favorite things are:
When she first sees us, whether I'm picking her up from the babysitter or getting her out of her crib, she gets a big smile on her face and just starts kicking like crazy.
When I lay her on her back in her crib she'll kick both legs at the same time and bounce.
Whenever she sees that I'm getting a bottle ready for her she gets really impatient and starts crying and I love the sounds she makes when I finally put the bottle in her mouth.
I love hearing her squeal when she gets excited.
I love when the theme music from Baby Einstein comes on and she gets a big smile on her face.
I love when I'm putting her to sleep and she rests her head on my shoulder.
I love that she likes to lay across my legs to watch TV.
I am in love with this little girl.

 practicing sitting up

 Binky smiles are the best

 This is how matt found her after her nap

 she loves her daddy

 this picture cracks me up, this is her, "I'm not really mad, but I'm gonna act like it till I get what I want" face.

Little monkey, using her feet to push the toys closer to her

 Lazy Sunday afternoon. She crawled on Daddy and got stuck

 Easter Sunday

 Snuggling up to hear me play

 Got the bumbo all figured out.

6 month photo shoot.

It's The Little Things

Last Sunday I was putting Sawyer down for a nap. I had a bottle in one hand and I was browsing through my phone in the other hand. Sawyer was looking up and me and she took her hand and reached down and pushed the hand with my phone down, like, "Focus, Mom!" I laughed about it and went on with my day.
Tonight I was putting Sawyer to bed and it was the same scene, only this time she reached down and grabbed my thumb. I immediately dropped my phone and spent the rest of the time examining her face as she fell asleep holding my hand.
I love those moments. When it's just her and me. She's falling asleep in my arms, the safest place she could be. We sit there in the dark and listen to the ocean waves coming from her sleep sheep, and in that moment, everything is absolute perfection.
As I was looking at her I was thinking of a poem I heard once that talks about how you never know when the last time will be the last time. We've already experienced some lasts. She used to make this face all the time that we called Sawyer Face that she doesn't make anymore. She used to finish eating and streeeeetch and she doesn't do that anymore. I know I have many more nights ahead just like tonight, but before I know it, there will be a last time. Tonight nothing else existed but her and me.

The Last Time

From the moment you hold your baby in your arms,

you will never be the same.

You might long for the person you were before,

When you had freedom and time,

And nothing in particular to worry about.

You will know tiredness like you never knew it before,

And days will run into days that are exactly the same,

Full of feeding and burping,

Whining and fighting,

Naps, or lack of naps. It might seem like a never-ending cycle.

But don't forget...

There is a last time for everything.

There will come a time when you will feed your baby

for the very last time.

They will fall asleep on you after a long day

And it will be the last time you ever hold your sleeping child

One day you will carry them on your hip,

then set them down,

And never pick them up that way again.

You will scrub their hair in the bath one night

And from that day on they will want to bathe alone.

They will hold your hand to cross the road,

The never reach for it again.

They will creep into your room at midnight for cuddles,

And it will be the last night you ever wake for this.

One afternoon you will sing 'the wheels on the bus'

and do all the actions,

Then you'll never sing that song again.

They will kiss you goodbye at the school gate,

the next day they will ask to walk to the gate alone.

You will read a final bedtime story and wipe your

last dirty face.

They will one day run to you with arms raised,

for the very last time.

The thing is, you won't even know it's the last time

until there are no more times, and even then,

it will take you a while to realise.

So while you are living in these times,

remember there are only so many of them and

when they are gone,

you will yearn for just one more day of them

For one last time.

Author unknown

Chapter 3: Meeting His Family

One thing that was hard for me, while we were dating, was the fact that I felt like Matt wasn't seeing the real me. Everything we did in Arizona was on his turf. I had some friends there, yes, but no one in Arizona had any depth on the person I was or WHY I was the person I was.
I feel like that is an important part in dating; seeing the person around their people. That's when you get to see who they really are.
I remember meeting Matt's best friend Ben and his wife Breann. We met them at Ikea and just walked around the store for a while. It wasn't anything spectacular, and I was intimidated by them so I'm sure I was pretty quiet. Not too long after that we all went to a movie. I remember Matt went to the bathroom and when he left Ben leaned over to me and said, "By the way, you're our favorite" While Breann nodded in agreement. He then said, "Matt has brought around some real riff raff" I was so happy that they liked me. It is so important to be liked by your man's people.

One thing I loved about dating Matt was, he always seemed so confident in where he stood with me. We never had any DTR (determine the relationship) or anything like that. We never had to sit down and discuss where this was headed. He just had the mind set of, "I want this to progress, so I'll progress and if she doesn't want to then I'll know"
I remember we went to Grimaldi's and there was a guy there that was an architect on the project Matt was working on. He took me over to him and said, "This is my girlfriend Julia". I remembered being so caught off guard but I loved that. I just thought, "Oh... ok so I'm his girlfriend now." and that was that.

November 16, Saturday:
Matt was doing a mountain bike race with his brother Craig. It was 12 hour relay so he'd be gone all day. He invited me to meet him there and hang out when he wasn't racing. I was excited but nervous because that meant meeting his brother.
Matt and I had both talked about what meeting the family means. Matt and I are both the youngest in our families. We both dated a lot and we were both "old" for being single in the LDS world. Introducing people to the family meant getting their hopes up, and eventually having to answer a lot of questions about why they aren't coming around anymore. I remember talking to my mom about a new guy once. At the end of the conversation she says, "What was his name again?" I said, "It really doesn't matter. By the next time I see you he likely won't be the one I'm talking about anymore"
I knew Matt looked up to Craig a lot so I was excited that he wanted me to meet him.

I had been rowing all day so I wasn't able to get to the trail until that night. When I got there, Matt was racing. I saw a guy that looked alarmingly like Matt and knew that had to be Craig, but being the introvert I am I just stood out of view for a while until I saw Matt cross the finish line. I walked up and Matt introduced us. That was his last ride in the relay so we got to spend the rest of the time just hanging out with Craig and the other racers. It was a lot of fun and I felt really comfortable around them. The only downside was, we were hanging out in a Winnebago with about 6 guys who'd been mountain biking all day. Stinky.
That night we went back to my apartment and Matt told me that Craig really liked me. He then said, "I'm excited for the rest of my family to meet you"
I knew Matt had dinner with his family on the third Sunday of every Month. That happened to be the next day. I said, "You have dinner with your family tomorrow right?" He said, "Yeah" I said, "Well... I'd like to go." He said, "You want to come to my family dinner?" I said, "Yeah I would." He said, "Ok"
Looking back, I don't remember being nervous at all. I knew he had a BIG family (being the youngest of 9) but I had a big family. I knew how my family was in these situations, and I felt like, I could handle what they threw at me.
I honestly don't remember the initial walk through the door or anything, but I do remember when everyone got their food I was sitting at the counter with a plate and all of the sudden I was surrounded by sisters (I think it was Alison, Heather, Cindy and Aubri and a few of the older neices) They were asking me about my life and my family. About my work and my hobbies. About how Matt and I met and how long we'd been dating. They were so interested in me. They kept asking me if I was overwhelmed or if this was too much to take in, but I just told them it wasn't. It felt just like my family dinners at home. I could see it in their eyes. The hope. The "is this the one?" I wondered the same things.

We had to leave early because I was singing in a fireside that night. I remember when we left his mom gave him a hug and I could see she whispered something in his ear. If I'm not mistaken she was telling him, "I really like her"

I was glad I met his family then because Thanksgiving was soon after and I got to spend that with them as well. Being my first Thanksgiving in Arizona and away from my family, I was really glad to be able to spend it with his family.

This was taken the day after Thanksgiving.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2