4 Mpnth Dr. Appt

Svea is growing so well!  She now weighs 13 lbs. and 14 oz. which is the 57%.  She was 24 and 1/4 inches long which is the 51%.  She has a little peanut head too just like her mom and  dad do. I can't rememeber what the measurement was, but it was the 37%. Dan did awesome taking her in all by himself. He accidentally forgot her pacifier, but she did just fine without it.  She was talking and smiling when I got home, but right now she's sleeping in my arms and wiped out from her busy day.

4 Months Old!

 Svea-today you are 4 months old and your personality is really starting to come out.  You LOVE to talk and have started to reply back to us.  You'll get going for up to a half hour of just talking with us.  You can say ga, ah, and then sometimes you just scream. We love it and you make us laugh!  Here are some of your stats and things you've been up to!

-You are wearing 0-3 month clothing, but some 3-6 month tops are fitting you now
-You wear a size 1-2 diaper and a size 2 at night
-You are sleeping all by yourself now in your crib for up to 6 hours, although you usually average 4 or 5 before needing to get up and eat.  You are mostly only getting up once in the night to eat.
-We're not sure how much you weigh as you have a dr. appt. tomorrow, but with Mommy on our home scale our guess is you'll be high 12's or low 13's
-You started blowing raspberries this month and like to stand with our help
-You can roll all the way over to either side and you keep trying to roll to your belly, but you just aren't quite there yet

-You giggle at the kids at daycare.  Almost everytime we pick you up you are smiling and laughing.
-You can really reach for things now and pull them towards your mouth.  We give you toys and we know they'll end up in one place with lots of saliva on them:)
-We love you oh so much and one of us makes the comment weekly that our lives are so much more rich with you in it!

We Survived!

Well we've all survived our first major cold as a family.  Fortunately Svea had it the least of us and Dan and I took the brunt of it with body aches, fevers, and such.  It brought me a new appreciation for my mom who describes when I was younger her getting migraines and locking the two of use together in the bathroom.  She'd be getting sick and I'd be slamming the toilet seat down on her head.  I'm so sorry MOM! 

Two fun things Svea is doing now is standing with support from us.  She loves to do this and we are amazed at how long she tolerates it.  She's also started blowing rasberries!  Bllhhhhhh!!

Sick Baby:(

 Svea started sounding congested yesterday and last night. We were hoping she had just a touch of a cold like she did a few weeks ago, but this one is turning out to be more uncomfortable for her. She's not the happiest camper today, but we are still getting a few smiles from her. At least we get more snuggle time and hopefully this will past very fast. You can tell from these pictures that she's not feeling 100%. Dan has it too and I think I may be getting it...boo!

Wednesday Morning

This was from Wednesday morning...I think.  Well, it was from one of the days last week that Svea woke up at about 7:00 am and she and I had a whole half an hour together to eat and get ready for the day.  Here she is ready to spend the morning with Dad and then off to daycare.  I love when I get to see her before I leave in the morning!

I Love My Daddy

Every Monday Svea and Dan have a date for the day.  They get to hang out, play, and snuggle.  It is their special time together.  On a typical Monday they might skype with Grandma Dornfeld and Shay.  They play and Svea laughs at all of her Daddy's goofy faces....trust me, there are many of them.  Svea just wanted to say, "I love my Daddy"!

Happy Valentine's Day

Pillow Pet from Daddy....he can't leave a store without getting her something...what a softie!

After church on Sunday.......she was wide awake at church today and all smiles for people!

Thanks for my bib Grandma D!

For Valentine's Day today Svea and her Dad get to hang out together...awww, my two Valentines:)  On a fun note, Svea slept in her crib ALL by herself last night.  I think the pack n play mattress was starting to get uncomfotable for her.  I felt it and it's all lumpy and bumpy.  She didn't sleep very well in it this weekend, but last night she slept from 10:00-2:00 (one paci mishap) and then from 2:30-7:15.  I woke up to my alarm this morning, something that hasn't happened in a long time.  I'm so glad!!!  We'll see how this week goes. I think Dan is VERY happy about this:)

Random Thoughts From the Dornfelds

-Dan and I counted and I've nursed Svea approximately 800 times!

-We then multiplied this by two and got 1,600 as an average amount of favors I've asked Dan to do for me while I nurse Svea!

-Svea is starting to put herself to sleep...she's better at it during the day and not so much at night

-Dan is going strong at work being the only pastor...we don't see each other as much, but we try to make the time count when we do

-Going back to work has been REALLY hard......we are looking into me going somewhat part-time next year.  We are ONLY LOOKING into things as I don't want to get my hopes up and am going to stay level headed about this:) 

-Svea's week at daycare went well.........better than mine!

-Little girl weighs 13lbs with a wet diaper and jammies on.....so I'm guessing around 12 lbs.

-A fun milestone this week has been she'll grab her pacifier out of her mouth and put it back in all by herself.....she's not the best at it, but she can do it.

-40 some degrees here this weekend sure feels good and puts me/us in a better mood....I wish we could all go on a walk together right now!

Day Care

Well....daycare is going well so far.  It seems that she is having about the same type of days there as she does at home.  The only thing is I think she might be in the swing a bit more and not get as much one on one time, which is to be expected.  Our daycare provider is wonderful and I know she has other kids too.  I like that she has mostly school age kids so during the day she has more time for Svea.  No picture right now....just trying to keep up with things at home, playing with her at night, and keeping our heads attached to our bodies:)  Just wanted to update.....I counted it out and I have 15 weeks until summer vacation.  We can make it!

Superbowl XLV-Go Packers!

 Can you tell who we are rooting for at our house?  How about those boots....pretty  cute huh?  they are now just fitting her so I'll have to find some other cute outfits she can wear then with.

 Svea had many fans today in church, however only made it through half of it and missed Daddy's sermon before needing to go home for a nap.  She just didn't want to nap today at church.

I love these smiles......I could look at her all day.  Speaking of that....I'm thinking of ways to make that happen.  Do you think a doctor's note saying I have to stay home because of a broken heart will work?  I go back to work full time tomorrow and I'm in a HUGE funk.........arhgghhg!  I HATE this!  I am so depressed!  :(

Video Monitor

We originally were given a sound only monitor for the baby's room, however I slowly worked on Dan and talked him into getting one of these.....

I love it!  In the morning when she's in her crib and I'm getting ready for work I can watch her closely.  If her pacifier falls out I know and can quietly replace it, allowing her to get up to an hour of extra sleep.  Having a regular monitor you wouldn't catch this until she was in an all out cry with no hope of her getting back to sleep.  I think Dan is sold since it allows him a few more minutes of sleep. I am of course sold on it becuase for obvious reason I can see little miss even when she's sleeping...I can't get enough of her:)  For those that are debating a video baby monitor...it is SO worth it....I am so much more relaxed now having her in another room.  If you have two children you can also purchase another camera and flip back and forth between children with one monitor.

 P.S. Happy Birthday Today Dad!  Hope it's a bit warmer today down there and you have a great day!

Just a Typical Morning

When I'm not working Svea and I get to do things like this in the morning.  She laid on her boppy for about 15 minutes just talking to me and playing with her toys.  I like these mornings better than the ones when I go to work.  She sat in her bouncer this morning while I took a shower and just talked and talked to herself...I wish I knew what the conversation was about:)

Svea, Dan and I went to Linda's house this morning (her daycare provider) to drop off paperwork and get a feel for what it will be like for Svea there.  This was us right before we left.  She has the goofiest little grin on her face and Mom needs a tan!  I felt so relieved as Linda is on top of all of the safest practices for babies.  As Dan reminded me she has to be since she is licensed, but it still made me feel better. 

She was checking out her mobile in this picture....she really loves watching it, which I'm glad.  I thought it might end up as just a pretty piece in her room, but it's getting good use.  If she's in an all out cry this usually settles her down.

*UPDATE* In other exciting news.......Svea took a whole hour nap today.  She was snuggled in my arms while I took a nap too, but still!  Then, this evening she sat and laughed and talked to Dan and I while we laid on our bed.  All of the sudden I put her on her back instead of sitting up against a pillow and she threw her fist in her mouth and PUT HERSELF TO SLEEP!  We usually have to snuggle and rock her, but this was laying flat on her back all by herself.  She's sleeping in her crib right now....woo hoo!  We're going on about three days/nights now with her sleeping on her back.  That was my goal to have her do this before she went to daycare.  We had such a great day today!  I love being at home with her!

White Reflex

WArning...this post contains many run-on sentences that I don't have time to fix.  Sorry Dan:)  Ha!  The life of a new mom with horrible spelling issues and lazy grammar when tired!

 We had quite a scare at our house this week.  A former classmate of Dan's emailed him through facebook and said she had been looking at some photos of Svea and as an eye doctor was concerned about the white reflection she was seeing in her right eye in some of her pictures and that we should get it checked out.  At first I wasn't going to blog about something so personal going on in our lives, but then I thought this was good for people to know....of the few people who read this it'll be a few more of us that know about it and can point it out to any other parents so that we can keep babies safe.  Basically the human eye is supposed to reflect back as red as you see in the first picture and what most people try to avoid.  However, there is this condition where infants eyes will reflect back as white meaning there could a tumor behind their eye or possibly cancer.  To say the least it was very nerve racking and we had our first experience as parents going about our day just trying not to throw up with anxiety.  We took her to the eye doctor right away where she told me that if we catch it early it's ok.....fake eyeballs look pretty real these days and it can be fatal so this is good we came in...arhghghgg!  Not what a parent of 3 months wants to hear.  Anyway, she said things looked really good, but wanted to refer us on to an Opthamologist since they have better equipment. 

ORIGINAL PHOTO...red eye=good!

PICTURE ON FB THAT HAS HAD RED EYE FIXED=SVEA'S RIGHT EYE APPEARS WHITE

 3RD PICTURE I USED A DIFFERENT PHOTO PROGRAM THAT TURNS THE RED EYE BLACK LIKE IT SHOULD!

As you can see it was our photo shop program that caused the white reflection...so in case you see this in a child or see this on your own...make sure it's not your computer program!  Ahh!!  All that and it was nothing.  We are VErY thankful and appreciative of someone pointing this out to us anyway even if it did cause us to possibly develop some ulcers:) 

I promise I'll have some new pictures of Svea soon...it's so hard to get posts out when I'm working!  I was going to take a picture of her in her dress this past Sunday, but we got home and she was quite crabby from being there all morning and most of the afternoon...soon!!!