5 month-old!

Yes, it feels odd to say so, but I now have a 5 month-old! It is hard to believe that she is already almost half a year old! Lately she has really been giving us a run for our money. We are still working out the sleep stuff. I know that many of you have children who didn't sleep through the night very early and still may not! I was blessed (I thought) that MY child would sleep from 7:15 pm to 7:15 AM with little fuss. About a month ago, she started waking up at about 3 AM. She almost always went back to sleep within 5-10 mins. Lately it has been around 6 ish! I know I am complaining, but when I already had it so good, why did it have to change! I am too crabby at 6 ish! I would be fine if she would wait just one more hour or so! I know Sandra can understand my point on this because she is not a morning person either! This morning I even had the added joy of a dirty diaper to clean! To top it off, most of the time her naps are only about 25 mins. long during the day. She takes three at least, but that is just not long enough. I know I mentioned a lot of this in the last post, so I will quit beating a dead horse and get on to the fun stuff!

Yep, a 5 month-old. She has grown so much! I know that if you are viewing this blog, you have likely kept up with it pretty regularly. Well, she is getting so big. I thought I would post a picture of her when she was newborn and compare it to her 5 month picture. In her five month picture she is wearing an outfit that her Papa Hutchins got her. Doesn't she look cute?

Also, I thought I would include a few more pictures. One is of her playing with her favorite toy which is a cloth book that has the crinkle paper in it. We looked up and she had her hands to her side with the book covering her face! We also have recently discovered that she fits in the Jeep carrier a whole lot better.

I hope you enjoy! We hope that all of you are well.

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

P.S. Here is a link to the video I promised. It really doesn't do the moment justice. I guess you would have had to have been there! Maybe you will enjoy it a little bit. You can certainly tell that Ian LOVES Jesstine! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT_FGVi8tBk

1 week and 2 days-old.

5 months old

Reading through osmosis!

Super Daddy!

Eat, Sleep,....Shake it!

We have had a fun week this week with our little one. She is growing so much each day. We are at that point where a lot of her clothes are really getting tight and she still has a month before she is technically 6 months old! Her cheeks would give you an idea of the size of her belly and her thighs!

So, about the title. I have asked many people about food (hence the last post) and sleep lately. We think we have found a solution to the food that suites us and her pretty well. We just feed her a couple of tbsp. at night with formula in it. Then we give her whatever she wants from a bottle. Then it is off to a bath. After her bath we get her ready for bed. Sometimes she wants more to eat (that has been a comfort thing for her for a long time now). One night she had 2 tbsp. of cereal followed by a 5 oz. bottle at around 6. At 6:30 she had her bath as usual. Then when we got her ready for bed she was really fussy. We got her a bottle of 2 oz. and she sucked it down! So, I got her three more (in case two wasn't enough) and she sucked it down. She seemed happy after that! With in two hours she basically had 2 tbsp. of rice cereal and 10 oz. of formula!!! Amazing!

I have also been trying to get her to sleep longer in the afternoon. She is getting to where she will be awake for two hours then take anywhere from a 20 min. to an hour nap. Most of the time it is about 40 mins. It is a continuous cycle of this usually. I know she is right on the edge of being able to sleep longer. Sometimes in the afternoon she will sleep for two hours or a little more. It isn't consistent yet and Mommy is ready for a break in the afternoons! 40 mins. doesn't leave time to get much done or a nap in myself! So, I have asked around to see what others did when their kids were this age. I have lately started a Noon nap. No matter how long she has been up, I put her down right at Noon each day. This should work for when she stays with Grandmom during the week as well. It has only been a few days, so I will let you know how that goes!

Also along the lines of sleep, she is moving more! I think it is time to retire the sleep positioner! You can tell by the pictures below. I also couldn't help but take a picture today as her beloved Seamoore was resting on her belly when I went in to check on her!

The last clip is a video of her with the stocking stuffer she got! These things are amazing. As many of you know, they just don't make practical rattles that are easy for babies to maneuver! Being a music teacher, I knew I had seen these tiny maracas that were simply an egg shaker with a handle! They are the perfect size and weight for little hands. So, I did some research and got some. They were her stocking stuffer this year and as you can see she LOVES them! She will sit and do this for a min. or two straight! If you are interested in them, the brand is Latin Percussion. I think that you can find them online by doing a search for Chickitas (that is what they are called instead of maracas). Sorry there is no sound! I have a video function on my digital camera, but it doesn't have sound with it. It was much easier than getting the video camera out. Much easier to post as well! Maybe Grandmom can video her with her camera (hint, hint). Enjoy! (For you music teacher friends that follow this: She already knows rest position!)

Having fun in the excersaucer!

Humm, that isn't how I left you!


A toy well loved!

Shake, Shake, Shake! Shake, Shake, Shake! Shake your chickita!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

Solid Foods

Okay, so this goes out to all of the people who read my blog and have experience raising children. I will certainly check with Jesstine's doctor to be sure, but thought I would see if her followers would be my sounding board in the meantime. Here it goes:

I started Jesstine on Rice cereal almost two weeks ago. At first she would only eat a few teaspoons and didn't seem interested. She is up to where she will eat up to three tablespoons! I was feeding her in the morning first thing and then at night before bed. She just seemed that hungry. Before introducing rice cereal, she would be hungry again just an hour after her morning bottle. At first she drank the same amount of formula for the day (with one feeding of rice cereal for the day). Lately (the last three days), we are doing good if she will eat 5 ounces and that only happens for about one bottle a day! The rest are anywhere from 3-4. Before rice cereal she was eating 6 ounces and was ready to move to 7. Should I be worried that she isn't eating as much formula? Is this just a normal thing when they start to eat solid food? I am going to back off to one feeding a day, probably at night, and see if that makes any difference. Like I said, I will also call her doctor on Monday, but wanted to see what you all had to say about it in the meantime.

Please post a comment if you can remember what it was like for your own children. It may be too specific to remember.

Thanks!
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine Hutchins

Lots To Share

I have a lot to share in this post. Hence the title. It is always so busy around the holidays, but this year has been the busiest so far! We are so thankful to have had Jesstine this Christmas and we had a lot of fun as you can tell from the barrage of pictures! She was such a good sport even amidst the chaos that was our weekend following Christmas. As you may have guessed, the actual Christmas morning of opening presents was not really all that exciting to her yet! She basically played in her kick-n-play (kicky play as Stephen calls it) as usual! We also started feeding her rice cereal last week. That is always fun! At first she didn't care for it, but she got the hang of it and quickly graduated to 3 Tbsp. for her morning feeding! Sometimes at night she eats two, but the last few nights she has been pretty cranky and finicky. So, with out further adieu, her are the pictures! I have a really cute video clip to show you too when Seth or Jenni is able to get around to sending that to me! One of the pictures shows a little of what you will see. It is still best to have the sound with it to get the full effect.

I have to tell you this picture is slightly staged. She really had a cleaner mouth than this, but I figured to really show the full experience, her mouth needed to be messy! I really have never seen such a clean eater (for a first time solid food eater that is). Of course I give her mouth several swipes with the spoon. I am sure that helps.

This goes to show how much she really DOES like Elmo! Aunt Jenni and family picked this chair out for her and she loves it! It giggles and wiggles which makes her smile so big! She also sits in it nicely considering it is for an 18+ month old! Thank you Aunt Jenni, Uncle Seth, Noah and Ian for her new chair!

This is Christmas morning and her beside her presents from Santa *wink, wink*. You can see how thrilled she is! You can't really tell but her hat says "Baby's first Christmas on it." She got an incrediblock and some more peek-a-blocks to go with it! She also got a set of small maracas (chikitas) in her stocking. Those turned out to be her favorite!

This is just a still shot of the funniest part of our holiday! Ian and Noah (Jesstine's cousins) got Jesstine to laugh hysterically this weekend! It was so funny! Ian is Jesstine's new buddy. From the start he was fascinated by her. He brought her a stuffed giraffe while she played in her seat. He sat and watched her as she excitedly played. It was so neat to see them connecting even at Jesstine's young age. I keep seeing little glimpses of Noah when I look at Jesstine. She certainly has a lot of Hutchins in her! Hopefully there will be a video clip soon to show you how hysterical this actually was! Until then, here is the picture!

Last but not least. We have yet to get around to getting professional photos taken for her 4-month picture. We spent A LOT on her two-month ones because of where they were taken. It has been hard for us to get up the courage to seek out another photography place. I was told I need to go to Sears or Penny's and join their club to get her pictures done each month. I am thinking about every other month right now. ANYWAY, my family was also in town for the weekend. For those of you who don't know, we have had three babies added to our family in the span of 4 months! We tried to get a picture of all of Mom's grandkids for her as a Christmas gift. My brother-in-law, Ryan, does a great job of getting studio quality shots. So, we called him in to do the work! Jesstine was great to work with and the others were just a little difficult. We were unable to get a good picture of all of them. We managed to get the three youngest. Plus, Ryan took some of Jesstine alone because she was doing so well! Here is what we have decided to print for her studio quality 4-month picture. She is getting SOOOO much better at holding her neck up too. (Jenni, out of about 15 pictures, this was the closest thing to a smile!)

Well, we hope you all enjoyed your holiday season. We wish you all the best in this new year! We feel that God has certainly blessed us with a beautiful, smart, loving child! We are so happy to be able to share her sweet smiles with you!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

P.S. For those of you who save the pictures off of this site, you may want to ask me for bigger ones. There were so many this time, I chose to make them small. The last one was a gigantic file too. Let me know if you want them!

Gonna Get Dressed, Gonna See Santa

This is what I have sang (or should it be sung????) to Jesstine on three different occasions! Today we FINALLY were able to see Santa, only to get a mediocre picture. She was very good. Not at all fussy like many other kids we saw there. She just can't seem to look anywhere but to her left! It is uncanny! I noted that in a caption for a picture in the last post! Stephen's maternal grandfather was always photographed looking in a different direction than the camera. Perhaps that is where she gets it! I did take a photo of her at home in case the Santa visit never happened. Next year I will be in search of a great Santa who is not a mall Santa. 1.) You never know what kind of Santa you are going to get. (This one kind of smelled of smoke and another that we attempted to see was out sick)! 2.) You never know if the mall Santa will be there or not (see last comment)! I would LOVE to find an authentic Santa. Maybe we will have to travel to Aunt Jenni and Uncle Seth's house next year to visit THEIR Santa! Anyhow, without further ado....here she is! Oh, I threw in a picture of her in the Bumbo seat to show you how much progress she is making on her neck strength. Our therapist continues to be amazed. She really is doing great! Before, I would sit her in the Bumbo and she would automatically slump to one side or let her head fall against the back. Now she even plays with toys in it!

Sitting up in Bumbo!

In case we didn't get to see Santa!

Great-Granddad pose....with Santa!

(Stephen calls him the emaciated/hippie Santa!)

Merry Christmas!

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine Hutchins

4 Months!

Well, time is going fast. I was told that would happen. I just never really knew what people meant until now! Our little princess is now 4 months old! She is growing so fast! She is out of all of her 0-3 months clothes. She is well into her 3-6 months and will outgrow those as well. She is such a girly girl already. People have told me that girls talk way more than boys. I don't have a boy to really compare her to, but she has something to say quite often! Also, she is getting to where she is doing this almost shy thing when she smiles. She will smile and bring her hands up to her face, covering her mouth. It is so cute and reminds me of a giggly girl! Today is officially her 4-month birthday. Because it was a Sunday, she just happened to be dressed up. I have to brag about this dress. Okay, I know it looks more like an Easter dress and was probably meant for Easter (being that I bought it right after Easter). It was a steal though! It has four pieces to it (hat, coat, dress, and bloomers) and was originally $40! I picked it up for $10! You can't beat that (unless it was free), right? Anyhow, since she was dressed up and we had some shopping still left to do, we were going to take her to see Santa. Little did I know, Stephen did not like the idea. His reasoning is because she is too little to remember.....yada, yada, yada. Ultimately he left the decision up to me. By the time she would have seen Santa, she was cranky, tired, and hungry. I decided I would make a great effort to get her there sometime this week. I hope to post that picture soon! Until then, here are her 4-month pictures! Enjoy!

Giggly Girly Girl Picture

Happy and looking away from the camera like her Great-Granddad used to do!

Official 4-month picture

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

P.S. Does this hat remind anyone else of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man (Ghostbusters)?

Three T's and a big E: Thanksgiving, Tummytime, The Boys and Elmo

First of all, happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there keeping up with our little blog. We are very thankful this year for many reasons. Ultimately of course for the sacrifice that Christ made so that we could appreciate everything that we have and reach heaven someday as well. This year, we are extra thankful that God gave us our little turkey. She was such a good girl today and she didn't even know that today was any different than any other day. Here are a few pictures of HER Thanksgiving feast!

Nothing like breast milk and formula for a Thanksgiving feast! Mmm-Mmm good!

We have never been real fans of the "First Thanksgiving/Christmas" outfits for the simple reason that you spend $10+ on an outfit that your child will only wear once! So, Jesstine got a simple bib which she promptly spit her dinner on! Oh well! That's what they are for right?!

Okay, so for those of you who don't know, Jesstine has something called Torticallis (SP???). It is a muscle tightness in her neck causing her to slump to one side. She is also way behind as far as neck control is concerned. She is supposed to be pushing herself up off of the ground during tummy time at least a little. Also she doesn't hold her head up at all when she is lying flat and you pull her up by the arms. So, we started some physical therapy this week. We have already seen some progress! This is a picture of some of the therapy we have been working on. She is actually lifting her head on her own! Granted, she is not on a flat surface, but we are getting somewhere at least!

Since Jesstine is now in 3-6 month clothing, she is big enough to show her true team spirit! What a better day than Thanksgiving when the Cowboys play each year! Here she is all decked out in her Cowboys attire. Notice the thrilled look on her face. That is simply because it was BEFORE we actually watched the game. (She did watch a little of it. She sat happily on Daddy's lap).

And last but certainly not least, here is where Elmo comes in. You know, everyone's favorite three year-old?! (I saw that in a book somewhere and thought it was a cute way to look at Elmo. I never knew he was three!) This is NOT a picture of Jesstine watching the game. This is my proof that Jesstine LOVES Elmo! Just before this picture, Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle came on and she cracked a smile and laughed. I often wonder what is going on in that head, but it always seems to be the same when Elmo comes on. She laughs and smiles like she knows what is going on! It is so cute! Oh and this is the episode where they made fun of High School Musical by doing a segment of "Preschool Musical" on the Dizzy channel! It was absolutely hilarious! Notice the gut already forming (not on the one with the glasses either)!

Until next time, find something to be thankful for this holiday. Even if it is just the simple things like tummy time, the Cowboys win or Elmo! We are thankful each day for our little miracle! And she is so darn cute!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine