The Reynolds Fam: September 2012

It's hard to believe our sweet little girl is 2 months old!! They have flown by :) She's exactly 9 weeks old today and turned 2 months yesterday. As much as she changed in her first month, I feel like she has changed so much more in the past month!!

I'm still at home with Harper and we're loving our days together :) I am finished with my more difficult board exam so no more studying during the day which has been fun! It means I get to snuggle with her a little more while she naps :) We spend a lot of time reading books, singing songs, walking around the house, playing on her mat, etc... I have become a professional at narrating whatever I am doing at the time. While I fold laundry I tell her the colors, who wears it, when we wear it - if she understood me she would definitely tell me to be quiet and let her little ears rest! But I don't want her to be bored so we talk A LOT! She likes to sit in her bouncer for a few minutes at a time in the kitchen. She typically hangs out on her play mat while I work out and looks at me like I'm a crazy person. I don't watch much TV during the day but one day she spotted my workout DVD and watched the entire thing. She loves the bright lights and noise! We have decided what we are going to get her for Christmas... a new light fixture for her room! ;) She looves watching the fan and lights... way more than any of her toys at this point!

We've been pretty busy in the past month! Andy and I did a mini-triathlon with Dad and Cam at the beginning of the month. Mom, Olivia and Christie took good care of Miss Harper while we raced :) We also made a trip up to Indiana for Harper's first Colts game!! She was a trooper!! She slept the entire time we were there. The constant dull roar and the open air stadium lulled her to sleep and she was sacked out. Harper also got baptized in Lexington a couple weeks ago and she loved getting to see so much family! She's typically pretty awesome when we have company because that means someone is holding her, talking to her, giving her attention... and that's all she needs to be happy ;) I spent my first day away from her when I took my board exam in Nashville. I'm happy to report that no tears were shed but I did miss my girl so much!! If I failed my test it will probably be because I flew through the test in 6 hours with no breaks just so I could get back to my girl in Etown. She had her Dad, Grammie and Olivia looking after her so I knew she'd be in good hands but it still made me awfully sad to leave her. But when I got back she was happy as a clam sitting outside watching Olivia play soccer :)

Her hair had fallen out a bunch from when she was born but I'm happy to report that it is growing back!! It's still pretty long and thick in the back so I'm glad the top is coming back. I don't feel guilty putting the headbands/bows in her hair anymore ;) When she was born we weren't really sure what color her eyes were... they looked kind of dark blue/gray. We've been waiting to see if they will change and we definitely think they are starting to get a lot more brown! We're thinking we may have a little mini-olivia on our hands which would be pretty great :)

My girl has definitely chunked up a lot since being born!! At her 2 month well child check she was up to 11lbs 11oz and 23 1/4inches - about 85% in height and 75% in weight. She moved up to size 1 diapers at about 5 weeks. She has also outgrown some of her clothes which breaks my heart! I was dressing her one day and Andy was eavesdropping with the monitor. I put her first ever little personalized onesie on her and realized it wasn't going to fit. Of course I'm telling this all to Harper and then I hear Andy's voice on the monitor saying, "uhoh! is Mom going to cry?" and I tell him "No (sniffle, sniffle)... okay maybe a little!" haha! I mean, I could've gotten it snapped if I really wanted but I didn't think it was worth giving her a diaper wedgie all day long ;) She's wearing mostly 0-3 clothes now. In addition to getting so much bigger she is getting so strong! she loves to stand on your lap and look around and is doing a great job pushing up during tummy time.

She is developing quite the personality and it is so, so fun to hear her talk to you and smile! Andy and I were talking today about how even in the past week she has started smiling responsively so much more often. One of my favorite things though is how when she's drifting off or about to wake up she'll smile in her sleep. I think it's so sweet! Her cries are pretty easy to interpret for us now. She actually cries when she's hungry. When she's tired it sounds like she's talking to you more so than fussing. Her sleep pose always cracks us up. We call it the touchdown stance. We know she's out whenever she raises both her arms up besides her head. We still don't swaddle - she just doesn't like it. Instead we just lay her in the crib and stuck her blanket around her belly and let her arms be free! She still doesn't have her bumper :( She's too wiggly! I went to get her the other night and found her sucking on the one of the slats of her crib!! haha... She found her hands a few weeks ago and often soothes herself just sucking on one of her knuckles. Last night was the first night she really slept through the night! From 10-7!! I wish I could say I slept well but I woke up at 4AM and thought she might not still be alive since I hadn't heard a peep from her! I then couldn't fall asleep for an hour or so because I just knew she would be waking up soon... ha! When she finally got up at 7 she was her smiley little self just waiting for us in her crib. She's so sweet in the mornings... I love it when she wakes up a few minutes before Andy has to get out of bed so she can come lay with us and talk for a bit :)

I have been a little worried about my girl after her last doctors appointment. The doctor was checking her eyes and her pupils look a little abnormal so we have to take her to the pediatric opthamologist :( I looked at her eyes and can definitely see the irregularity with the opthalmoscope but have never heard/seen anything like it. Basically her pupils just aren't perfectly round but you can't notice it until they are magnified. The pediatrician said she'd had another baby with a similar issue and that baby had some cyst that the opthos just followed, no surgery or anything. We're praying for something benign like that for Harper! We don't go until October unless something opens up so we'll just have to wait and see. The dr. does not think it will be anything serious and said it was okay that we weren't able to get in with the optho any earlier so we hope that's the case! After we got her home we kept testing her to make sure she was actually tracking us with her eyes and not just listening to us but after many games, we are confident her vision is okay :) She also got her first set of vaccines at that doctors appointment... her face turned a shade of purple I've never seen on her before but she got over it quickly and did just fine that night! :)

I go back to school Sept 24th and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't absolutely dreading it. Every week on her weekly birthday I am reminded that I am one week closer to leaving my girl. Fortunately, through the blog, we have found the sweetest girl to keep Harper! I know she will be in great hands but it is still going to be awfully hard to be away during the days. My first rotation should have pretty good hours and thanks to some messed up scheduling by the med school, I get to do it at UK rather than having to drive to Georgetown everyday! I'm not complaining a bit! :)

We've got our first big family vacation coming up! I have to take another board exam in Atlanta and then we are going to scoot down to Hilton Head for a couple days. It will be a short trip but we're pretty excited!! We are also hoping that Harper sleeping through the night wasn't a fluke and is something she plans on repeating for us ;) We will see!!

Here's a few more pics of our girl!!

Godparents after her baptism

Olivia watching Harper during the triathlon

Love this hat Aunt Lisa bought her! We call it her Derby hat! ;)

She's in a milk coma... cracks m up

This is the touchdown stance! The funniest thing is when she's fighting sleep but has her arms up like this she'll sometimes grab her hair in the back and then scream like whoooo is pullling my hair?!!!