Sanibel Island 2015

In the beginning of this month we had a wonderful family vacation to Sanibel Island, FL. We decided to drive there and back...slightly crazy with a 3-month old and 3-year old, but it actually went pretty well, all things considered. Because I'm breastfeeding, we were going to drive through the night, so that the kids would sleep and we wouldn't have to stop as much, but when we left we hit a huge snowstorm about an hour south of our house. We decided to drive a few hours and then stopped around 1am. Because of the weather, it took us a little longer to get there, but we still managed to get there in 2 days.

We did have to stop frequently for nursing breaks, and potty breaks, but we had minimal crying, and Avery didn't have any accidents the entire way down! She also loved staying in the hotel, and surprisingly slept really well there. I was more worried about Kendall being thrown off schedule, like sleeping all day driving, and staying up all night, but somehow she managed to stay pretty close to schedule too! I was definitely counting my blessings.

We arrived in Ft. Myers on a Friday evening and stayed with my parents for one night. It worked out well because Travis had a fishing charter on Saturday, so we spent time with my family on a walk,
and at the pool. We headed out to Sanibel on Saturday evening after dinner, and my sister Kelsey tagged along. She stayed with us from Saturday until Tuesday.

Basically we spent most of the vacation at the pool and beach, and just relaxing in the condo. Avery loved swimming in the pool, flying her new kite on the beach, and building sand castles. I used a Moby wrap to walk with Kendall on the beach, and she was also able to take many naps by the pool and on the beach. We ate breakfast and lunch most days in the condo, and went out to dinner most nights. Both girls did really well at the restaurants, but it will be nice when Kendall can sit in a high chair on her own (very soon!)

My mom came out to Sanibel most days and spent time with us at the pool, and it was fun seeing Avery get more comfortable in the water. Mid-week we went out to Ft. Myers to do a little shopping and had a great time while Travis and my dad golfed. We also met up with Travis's Uncle David, and his family, for dinner at Islamorada (at Bass Pro Shops.) My parents babysat the girls the following night so that Travis and I could go to dinner on our own, and that was really nice too!

Overall we had a great time and it was way more relaxing than I thought it might be (with a new baby and everything.) I feel very fortunate to have such an amazing family.

Kendall - March Update

It's been a little while since I've posted because our month has been busy, and has included Kendall's first vacation (more about that in a separate post.)

To start with, Kendall turned three months old on the last day of February. She's doing great and I just love her so much!

Kendall - Three months old

She's still breastfeeding, and I have officially nursed her for longer than I did with Avery (only 14 weeks.) I'm really happy that it's going so well. Originally,  I didn't have any real goals for the amount of time that I would breastfeed, but now I'd like to try for a year. I'm still not putting too much pressure on myself, because I know that changing to formula would be fine, but I feel like I've made it through the most difficult first three months (now almost four months) and I just want to keep going! Currently she eats about 7-8 times a day, and I am also working on getting her to take fuller feeds so that she'll go longer between eating, but not reduce the amount of milk she's taking. I'd like to be down to about 6 feedings per day by 5-6 months, but we'll see what happens.

She's continuing to sleep really well at night, even with a 10-day vacation to Florida which included two days of driving down, and two days of driving back home. She mostly goes down around 8:30 pm and then wakes anytime between 5:30-6 am to eat, and then sleeps until 8am. I have read that I could do a "dream feed" at 11pm or so, but I actually prefer putting her down early in the evening, and having a few hours to myself before bed to relax and spend with Travis and not worrying about waking her to eat before I go to bed. I'm more of a morning person, and she goes right back to bed after the early morning feed, so it works for us. I also prefer not having her go so long between eating, because when she was sleeping longer, it led to problems for me (clogged ducts, etc.) She's taking four naps on most days. Occasionally she'll take three longer naps, which I would prefer, but we're working on stretching them out a bit, and adjusting her wake times. She is still being swaddled, but she often breaks out of the swaddle on her own before going to sleep. I've started leaving one arm out of the swaddle during naps, and that seems to work well. 

She's a really happy baby and finally starting play with toys and become a little more active. She coos and makes cute noises all the time, and loves to play with her hands. She also plays with some lovey blankets and she really likes her playmat now. She still doesn't love tummy time, but she rolled over for the first time on March 17th, from back to tummy, to her left. She's only done this once, but she rolls to her left side all the time, so I am being more careful not to leave her on her changing table or bed. I also put her in the bumbo seat now occasionally when I'm in the kitchen. She likes it for about 10 minutes or so, and then she's ready to go back on the floor. 

I broke out the exersaucer last week and she seems to like it for short amounts of time. I only put her in about every other day, because she still loves laying on a blanket and chilling. The best thing about Kendall is that she loves sitting on my lap and just observing. She doesn't need me to be walking around or moving with her; she is content to be held and still. She loves staring at my face, and I love looking at her beautiful face too! She's growing so quickly, and I'm trying to hold on to these little moments whenever I can.