It's been a year already!

Taylor is a year old already. It is so hard for me to believe.

12 Things Taylor Loves:
ICE
Watermelon
Kiwi
Strawberries
Peas
Daddy
Mommy
Straws
Music
Baby Einstein
Climbing the stairs
Outside

12 Things Taylor doesn't like so much:
Getting changed
Getting cleaned up from dinner
Sitting in the car
Being hugged
Beans
When her toys don't do what she wants
Being hungry
Being tired
Being strapped down
When she can't have ice
Being let go of when she is holding on to us
Dresses that are too long to crawl in

She is getting to be such a big girl. She is not walking yet, but she has taken up to 11 steps in a row and randomly stands up and walks on her own. She doesn't like it if we hold on to her and help her walk and then let go. She is stubborn (shocker!), and wants to figure it out on her time and do it on her own. When she stands by herself she claps. She is super excited about it, but she isn't going to do it on anyone else's time.
She says a few words now, and we are working on more. She currently says: dada, mama, go, hi,wow, oh-oh (not quite uh-oh), and what.
Taylor started going to a new day care on her birthday. So far, are really happy with where she goes. She was going to someone with only a couple of kids and she got a lot of individual attention and that was great for when she was a baby. Now that she is a little bit older and learning a lot of new things, I think this new place will be better for her. There are a lot of kids, but the babysitter is totally on top of it and I think she manages them well. She has a curriculum and food is included in the price. She has a huge back yard with a ton of kid toys out there and they go out several times a day. Taylor loves going outside and it makes me feel better about not having a yard because she still gets to spend a lot of time playing in one. The price is actually cheaper than what we were paying and that is always nice as well. Her old babysitter was good for her then, and this new place will be ideal going forward. I am happy with it and I believe Taylor is too.

9 Months and Counting

Where have the past 9 1/2 months gone? I can't believe me little one is getting so big! She is a big baby for her age, but still. I have mixed feelings about her getting older. I LOVE the toddler stage and can't wait for her to talk and say funny things regardless of the trouble she will get in to. But she is so cute and fun right now, I wouldn't mind keeping her at this age too. I love watching her learn. I also enjoyed when she was super new born and would actually cuddle, which she hasn't done for about 8 months. She is just not a cuddler. She wants to be held, just don't try to hug her.
Anyway, about Taylor at 9 months: She is 20 lbs 3 ox (74%), 30 in (99%) & has a 45.5 cm head (88%). She is just a big girl, but I think she is perfect and I can't get enough of her smiles. When she turned 9 months she had 6 teeth, and she seemed to have slowed down on the teething (I was wrong, but more on that at 10 months). She is still very very happy most of the time, but she can be very dramatic. She handles bonks really well, but if she doesn't get her bottle or her cereal when she wants it she puts on a nice show. Can't wait for that fun when she gets older. She is starting to pull her self up to walls and let go very briefly. She still mostly likes crawling though, and I think it is faster for her so she sees no problem with it.

I just thought this picture was cute. She leans on her side a lot when she is playing and doesn't want to sit up. She just looks so big in this picture.

This is Taylor enjoying one of her favorite things - the dishwasher - I never thought I would have to tell my baby to get out of the dishwasher, but I do it a lot.

Another one of Taylor's favorites - shoes. She just loves shoelaces and shoes and she used to play with ours, but now that she has her own, they are much easier for her to play with.

This is Taylor on Christmas day. I love this picture.

She is still a very good eater and she absolutely LOVES any baby cereal. When I am mixing it up at dinner time she gets mad until I get it in her mouth. She is so funny like that. She has also started enjoying a little bit of real food, but I need to get better at introducing things into her diet. She mostly just eats baby food, baby puffs, and cheerios.
All in all, we love her to pieces and are happy to have her around. She is a lot of work because she NEVER stops moving except to eat, but I wouldn't have it any other way. She is busy busy busy and I love it.

7 Months & 8 Months

I don't know why I never seem to have time to blog. Maybe because my little one REALLY likes the laptop cord and laptop and wants to grab it or crawl all over it every time I get on it. Or, maybe because by the time I get done with Taylor every night I am usually pretty tired and just feel like getting into bed and reading a book or something. Guess it is just not a priority. Since Taylor is now 8 months, and I missed the 7 month post, this is going to be a combined post about 7 and 8 months. I probably won't remember when anything happened anyway if I did two separate posts.

Taylor is a very active baby. She started scooting around maybe a week shy of 7 months and then it turned it to crawling about 3 days shy of 7 months. It wasn't really a surprise to us since she had been up on her knees quite a bit and she just doesn't want to ever sit still. She has recently started pulling up on things as well, so I don't think walking is in the too far distant future.

Since learning to crawl Taylor discovered the doorstop behind the door and very much enjoys playing with any of them she sees in the house. Her cousin taught her that it to one side and let go it makes a cool noise, so that is what she does. We have purchased plenty of toys for her, but she really likes doorstops, shoes, & cords. Yep, she is a little different. She does also love a little white stuffed panda bear that was given to us as a gift at my baby shower. She will smile and laugh at it before she picks it up and chews on it. It is pretty cute.

Her main baby-sitter had a baby herself, so she temporarily goes to someone else. She is so flexible though and she adjusted to the new place really fast. The girl that watches her has two boys and one of them is about a month and a half younger than Taylor. From what I hear, they very much enjoy looking at each other and smiling at each other.

She is starting to become more of a binky baby, so I try to keep them put away unless she is going to bed or riding in the car. She must have a love hate relationship with binkies, because she throws them out of her crib at night. This is wear I find them.

Under the crib against the wall. I call it the binky graveyard. It makes me laugh when I can't find all of the binkies and I look there.

She has been sick a lot recently, but that could be partly because of the changing of the season. She had a cold and then got over it and I got a cold and gave her a new one. Then she had some diarrhea issues and we are hoping that is over. She has 6 teeth and I think she is getting another one, which seems to cause her all sorts of problems. Almost everything that is wrong with her can be caused by teething.

Overall even when she is sick she is very happy baby. I can see she already has an attitude and she is going to be a little spit fire when she starts talking, but we love her to pieces and enjoy her every day. I hate having someone else watch her all day, but it is so fun to pick her up and watch her light up and crawl as fast as she can over to me. Someday I hope to stay home with her and watch her be cute all day long. Oh dreams...

Taylor is 6 Months Old!

Every time Taylor gets a month older I am shocked how quickly the last month went. The last six months have gone by so fast. She is such a big girl! She is 29 inches long (99%) 17 lbs 5 oz (76%), and her head is 43.5 cm (79%). I always have to remind myself that she is as young as she is because she is so strong and so big I expect her to act like an older child.
She currently has 4 teeth and one more I am guessing will come in in the next few days if not sometime today. She has really struggled with the last two teeth coming in. They are really hard on her and she has had two that were so close to cutting for 2 weeks. One came through and we are still waiting on the other. I don't know why her teeth take so long to come in and cause her so much pain. It is really sad and it is hard to be so helpless against it.

She doesn't quite crawl yet, but she would really like to. She gets up on hands and knees a lot and can move her knees forward, but can't figure out how to move both the hands and knees together. She ends up in downward dog position a lot too. Haven't gotten a picture of it yet, but it is really cute.
She sits up by herself now. She of course still topples over, but she is getting much better.

She is a really good eater now too. She eats everything I have given to her and now that she has a booster seat with a tray, she is really enjoying meal times. She eats her entire dinner most of the time.

When she is not in pain, tired, or hungry, she is a lot of fun to be around. She laughs at her toys and at her self. She loves to show off her top teeth now and will smile really big and scrunch up her nose so you can see them. It is pretty cute. We adore her and love playing with our happy little baby.

5 Months

Baby Taylor is 5 months now! I can't believe it. She is growing so fast. She is so big and so active. She wants to be moving all the time. She has been eating "solid" food for a month now and it depends on the day how well she does. She started out pretty rough, then got better, and now it seems like she is always distracted when I try to feed her. She will get the hang of it sooner or later. Right now it is like she just doesn't want to sit still to eat. Hopefully that goes away! I think part of the problem is I am feeding her in the bumbo and we need to get an actual space saver high chair instead. I think she would be more restricted that way.
We have been pretty sure that she is still teething. After the first two came in, we got a small break and then she seemed to be in pain again, but the last two days she hasn't acted like there is much pain. Who knows, baby teeth a little unpredictable.
She still smiles a lot and most of the time she is a joy. She can get frustrating at bed time and during feeding time, but she enjoys her baths and playing with mom and dad. We take her outside every night before bed and she LOVES to be outside. She loves to watch the wind blow through the trees and will make all sorts of excited noises out there.

She does a lot of crunches when you lay her down. She doesn't like to be laying flat. She wants to be up and moving, so she will lift her head and shoulders and her legs and try to get up. It doesn't work, but it is super cute. We did buy her a exerciser/activity center that she gets to be upright in. She didn't like it at first, but I think she is getting to be a little more fond of it. 

She has started going to her new baby sitter, and she seems to really like her. She is taking better naps now and she smiles like crazy when I drop her off. I am so glad we found someone that will work for us. She doesn't have a day care center and won't take more than two kids. Right now she has Taylor all the time and a friend's daughter once a week. It is really ideal for us, and she really is great and she seems to love what she does. It would be even better if I could stay home, but this is a better solution than a lot of our options.
Now if we could only get Taylor to sleep better at night...

Taylor's Blessing

We finally had Taylor's blessing on Saturday August 20th. With it being Scott's first blessing, we decided to do it privately. We reserved the relief society room and the pavilion and had the blessing inside and then a lunch for our family after. All of our siblings made it to the blessing except for one.
Scott gave Taylor an amazing blessing and of course I cried. It was really special.

Taylor did really well even though I scheduled the blessing right during her nap time. We didn't get very many good pictures though. Taylor did well for the blessing, but wasn't loving picture time. Guess she takes after Scott. I don't particularly love getting pictures taken right now either, but for different reasons ;)

After the blessing we had A LOT of food. We ordered a 7 ft Sensuous Sandwich which was a big hit and both sets of parents and my sister brought salads and fruits and veggies. We had to wait a little while after the blessing to eat, so I guess I didn't plan that part the best, but hey, it was my first time doing something like this, so I am not going to beat myself up about it. All in all, I thought it went really well and everything turned out really nicely. I am so happy to be blessed with a husband who is a worthy priesthood holder. It was a great day.

Teething Time

The last few weeks have been pretty tough. My happy, easy baby has turned into a grumpy, needy baby. She has her days that she is still her normal self, but especially the last weeks has been hard. She has only been sleeping 2 to 3 hours at a time with a few exceptions, and that has been really hard for me being up all night and working the next day. I feel like I have been a bit of zombie all week. The good news is both teeth broke through towards the end of the week. I am hoping now she will calm back down and we will get our happy baby back. We were so spoiled we don't know how to handle the grumpy one. She is such a sweet baby even when she is grumpy she will smile and laugh, but it will change in a second and she will cry. It catches you off guard, and it is hard to handle. Let's hope she doesn't get any more teeth for a while and we can all have a break.

Has it been 4 months already?

Taylor is now four months old. Well, today she is four months and 12 days to be exact. I am amazed how big she is. At her 4 month check up she weighed in at 13 lbs 11 oz (53 percentile), she is 26 inches tall (97 percentile) and her head is 42 cm (78 percentile). She is getting so big, but she is still pretty slender. She still wears mostly 0-3 month clothes because the bigger clothes don't quite fit her around the waist. It depends on the clothes, but in most cases the 3-6 month bottoms just won't stay up.
She is generally a pretty happy baby. I love to make her smile & giggle. She has several ticklish spots, but you have to get them just right in order to get a good laugh out of her. There is no greater sound to me than her little laugh. She has been a little grumpier lately because unfortunately she is teething. Of course she has to get her teeth a little early. I don't want to give her tons of Tylenol so I have tried 3 different homeopathic remedies and nothing seems to help a ton. If she is hurting bad, she has to have the Tylenol unfortunately.
She has been rolling from front to back for a really long time, but now she rarely does it. She just rolls from back to front and then gets mad because she still doesn't love tummy time. She tolerates it better than she used to, but she usually ends up getting mad. It gets frustrating. We decided we need to get her a entertainment exerciser thing so she can play standing up, she loves to stand when we are holding her, and I think getting something like that will enable us to get things done in the evenings besides turning her back over.
We started Taylor on "solid" foods right on the four month mark. Because she is such a good eater and she seems to always be hungry my doctor suggested it. She doesn't do the best with the rice cereal, but she loved the apple sauce. She did a lot better with it and actually got some into her belly instead of all over her face and chest. It is a work in progress, but I'm sure she will get it. She loves to eat, and she tries so hard to gobble up the food, she just needs more practice on how to get it to stay in her mouth.
Here are a few pictures I took of her in her fourth of July outfit even though we didn't get it in time for her to wear it on the fourth. She loves to be outside, so we decided to take pictures outside.

How the time flies by

This beautiful little one is 3 months old already. It makes me sad how much she has changed and how quickly the months fly by. She already has such a cute personality and is also very strong-willed. She still smiles a lot and coos and giggles. She really likes to smile at fans and talk to them. She will talk to people too, as long as you are letting her lay down. She fusses if she is held too much. She is not a little cuddle bug like I would like her to be. She loves to lay on her blanket and kick her little legs and roll over. She started rolling over from her back to her front, and then fusses because she doesn't like tummy time. It is pretty cute. She also very much enjoys sucking and chewing on her hands. Apparently they taste pretty good. All in all she is a very good baby and I can't get enough of her.

Taylor's Newborn Shoot - 4 Weeks Old

Our newest addition



Two weeks ago today I went in to the hospital for my biweekly non-stress test because of the preeclampsia signs I had with the pregnancy. My blood pressure had been fine for over a week and I was thinking everything was going to be ok and I wasn't going to have to worry about the preeclampsia anymore. However, during my appt, my first blood pressure reading was a little high so they decided to take it again. They took it a second time and it was still high...the third time it was even worse, the highest yet. They grabbed the doctor over the maternal fetal care area and he came and talked to me about the possibility of delivering. I had been having a pretty persistent headache for days off and on and that paired with the high blood pressure made him lean towards getting the baby delivered for her safety and mine. He called my doctor and discussed it with her and they decided to admit me to labor and delivery and get things started. So, I went from a routine test with the expectations of going to work after, to I am going to have the baby. Of course, this was the first test I went to alone. Scott was at a golf tournament and my mom was working. I was a little stressed out. I was not at all ready to have the baby. I was not dilated or effaced at all. So instead of starting me on pitocin right away they inserted a little pill into my cervix to get thin it out.

They did that around 11 am. Around 9 pm I had made enough progress that they started the pitocin. Once they started the pitocin I was no longer allowed to eat and I had thrown up my dinner so the last thing I kept down was lunch around 12:30 on Friday. I labored all night long and didn't make much progress. I don't remember exactly what time on Saturday they broke my water, but it was in the morning sometime. After that things started moving faster, but still not super fast. I had a fantastic nurse on Saturday and I wanted to deliver before she went home at 6, but not even close.
I don't think I mentioned this or not before, but I had planned on doing a natural child birth. I had gone to hypnobabies classes which were pretty spendy because I was super scared to get an epidural or get any drugs that would affect the baby. Well, pretty much every part of my birth plan went out the window. I was able to have just a hep lock rather than an IV before they started me on the pitocin, as well as being able to eat until the pitocin, but I planned on laboring in the bath tub, not able to do that. I didn't want to get an epidural, but about an hour and a half after they broke my water, I couldn't handle the pain anymore. I was super scared of getting the epidural and I actually cried about getting the epidural rather than from the pain. I just couldn't handle the pain anymore. The contractions were only a minute or so apart and it was just too hard to try and relax when they were right on top of each other. So, I gave in. I go the epidural and I was really glad I did. I still didn't really get any sleep, but I didn't have to deal with the contractions anymore. I went much longer naturally than anyone at the hospital expected. My doctor expected that when they called her Friday night after they started the pitocin that I would have an epidural by then. After I go the epidural I started puking again.
Anyway, it took most of the day on Saturday before I was complete. My doctor didn't come in until 10 pm. At that point, I had a fever from having my water broke for so long and I was starting to get an infection and my baby was transverse...which is why it took so long for me to get complete. She was not ready to come out. We started pushing right around 10 and the doctor tried to get my baby to turn. I pushed and puked for about 45 minutes and my doctor said she was going to let me push for another half hour before we would have to do a cesarean because she wanted to give me as much chance at a vaginal delivery as possible. After pushing for 15 minutes more, I saw my mom ask her if the baby had moved down at all. She hadn't. She hadn't even moved down enough to use forceps. I was done. I told her I was just going to go with the c section. Another thing I really didn't want to do, but I was exhausted I had been in labor for 36 hours with very little sleep and very little food. I couldn't handle it anymore. During the c section I was half asleep because I was just so worn out. The anesthesiologist actually told my mom that the way I was acting wasn't because of the drugs they gave me, it was just pure exhaustion. So after all that, our baby was finally born at 11:50 pm on March 19th. She was 8 lbs even and 19 1/2 inches long. We decided on a name after I was able to nap. Taylor Lynn Morgan. I was just so glad to finally have her here. She is adorable and people keep telling me that she doesn't look like a newborn. I am super biased of course, but I think she is a absolute doll. Luckily, she did not get the infection I got from my water being broke and she didn't even have any problems during the whole thing. Her heart rate only dropped a couple of times towards the end, but prior to that she was really strong and dealt really well with everything. She is a trooper. Here are some of the pictures of her in the hospital and since we brought her home.  I suck at posting pictures...for some reason I can't figure out how to do it how I want it...so sorry.

Just after the c section

Getting cleaned up

 


Skin to skin

In Daddy's arms



Skin to skin





On mommy's tummy


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In the bouncer seat



She is such a joy to have in our home. We are already madly in love with her. So far she eats ALOT. It took a while for my milk to come in, and I have been pumping to get it coming in more, but I still don't have enough to feed her. So right now we are breast feeding and formula feeding. We are working on sleeping at night. We have had nights where she doesn't sleep for more than 1/2 hour to and hour at a time and nights where she only wakes up twice. We are trying to figure out the reasons behind that and hoping to have more of the only wake up twice nights. She is really good baby though. She sleeps through noise and doesn't fuss a lot.

Scott has been on vacation this week and it has been great. We have enjoyed spending the week together as a happy little family. He adores his little daughter and it won't be long before she figures out how to get what she wants from daddy. It still amazes us both that we created something so beautiful.