A Little Update

Oops I have been neglecting my blog lately but that is because I have been very busy. I started going back to school and just finished two classes over the summer semester. It was super intense since they were semester length (18 weeks) classes condensed into six weeks so my life was pretty much consisted of homework, homework, and more homework. But I am so happy it is done and that I am two classes closer to my goal. I can't wait to start next semester especially, since Katie and I will be going together on Monday nights which will be really awesome since it will be a little break every week.

Not much else has changed. No more progress on Taylor's room.

Seven Months Old: Miss Taylor turned seven months old on June 21, 2012. Not much changed from six months. She has completely perfected sitting, never tips even if she reaches for things. We thought she was teething for a week but no teeth showed up. She loves yelling and making as much noise as possible. She tried Watermelon and it was a big favorite. She is still a peanut, wearing 3-6m clothes with room to grow. No crawling or even the start of it.

Brian graduated with his Bachelor's degree and everyone was there to support him. Taylor was not a fan of all the clapping and cheering and my mom had to take her out for most of the ceremony but she did calm down enough to go up on stage with him to get his diploma which I know meant a lot to him. Everyone loved her and responded with "AW!"

Fourth of July was fun. Taylor was adorable. It was so weird to think back a year and remembering being 5 months pregnant at the time and thinking ahead a year to what it was going to be like next year with a 7.5m old. It didn't feel long enough ago but there she was kicking and splashing in the pool. We didn't stay for the fireworks because I don't think she would have handled it well, she is not a fan of loud noises. Hopefully by next year she will be.

Eight Months Old:
Gah! I can't believe my baby is already eight months old! That sounds so close to one year! She seems to protesting as well. Ever since about a week before her eight month birthday (which would be about eight months from her EDD) she started protesting naps and even night time sleeping, whereas for the last two months she has been going down without a peep she will now often cry for 10+ minutes. It does seem to be calming down since that first week but not quite back to how it was. Other than that she hasn't changed much. Still sitting, no crawling. She started making 'n' sounds and I have been trying to teach her to make 'm' sounds ;)

She can't quite pull up on stuff, mostly because there is nothing the right height for her but she loves for me to stand her up on things. Her favorite is the coffee table but it makes me nervous so my favorite is the back of the couch. She LOVES playing peekaboo especially with her big pink bowl. She will put it on head and wait for you to say "Where's Taylor?" and then take it off and laugh hysterically when you say "There she is!" Her newest thing is 'dancing' aka bouncing up and down on her bottom. She was babysat for the first time by someone other than family. Sareen's mom watched her while we went ice-skating for Sareen's birthday. She did okay, not great and lots of crying. Had another week where we were sure she was teething but nothing to show for it. Still a peanut, wearing 3-6m clothes, with lots of room to go in width and a bit in length, I hope she fits into her nine month clothes while it is still summer as she has lots of cute outfits.

She tried eggs and black beans and loved them, especially the eggs so I am not entirely convinced she is mine. I am going to give her meat either today or tomorrow. I can't really explain why I have been so hesitant to give her meat, it just feels like the last thing that is keeping her a baby. However, I don't want to wait to long and have her not like it, though I don't really know if that would happen since she loves everything, but still I don't want to risk it.

We are planning a trip to visit my dad sometime in August and then taking her to the Aquarium in Long Beach on the way home. She LOVES fish and was so excited to see them at the pet store so I can't wait to see her reaction to the Aquarium! I will be sure to take and post lots of pictures!

I will try and update as things come instead of just periodic updates but my life is so chaotic I don't always have time. 

Grandpa book- For my dad

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo Book Tip: Create an adventurous travel photo album at Shutterfly.com.

Nursery Decorating

Up until now we have been living with Brian's parents in the house that he grew up and the three of us have been sharing his bedroom (which was decorated when he was 16) but now Peanut finally gets her own room because his parent's bought a new house which just so happens to have enough rooms for everyone which means..I finally get to decorate a nursery. I didn't want to have to buy new bedding or anything so I decided to stick to a jungle/safari theme so it would go with her zebra print bedding and all of her elephant and monkey stuff. Here are the before (well after the carpet was removed and the walls were painted..btw I LOVE the color!) pictures:

The house is definitely a fixer-upper but it is shaping up pretty nicely. Especially, since we all spent Sunday there helping out. Brian took our carpet, Nick pulled up the carpet strip, and I scrubbed the kitchen and vacuumed the bedrooms and the hallway. We just have to wait for them to pain the baseboards and trim and then they can lay the carpet in our rooms and we can start decorating! I can't wait. I already have some monkey and elephant decorations picked out and a couple of wall decals. I also want to add some handmade touches.  Oh and this is what little miss was doing while we were all working :P

My Story

 My name is Meradee and I am twenty-one years old. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California by a single mother with two sisters. I met my Fiancee, Brian through friends (Funny story: Our friend Katie set us up because he liked her at the time and she didn't reciprocate his feelings so she introduced us hoping to get him to leave her alone and it worked because we hit it off!) and we started dating on October 30, 2010. We had a rocky start but all that changed on March 10, 2011 when we found out we were pregnant. It wasn't planned but it was the best surprise ever. We got engaged on October 12, 2011 at Disneyland and are hoping to be marred in December 2013.

Here we are when we got engaged

My pregnancy definitely had it's ups and downs (well a lot of 'downs' since I was placed on modified bed rest on August 17 at 26 weeks pregnant but we spent the time getting closer and falling more and more in love. Brian wasn't thrilled when I told him of the pregnancy but he quickly changed his tune. He was a great 'daddy' and spent lots of time kissing her and talk to her in my tummy. Ever since the night I thought I might be pregnant I knew it was a girl and that I wanted to name her Caitlyn Marie well a few days before our anatomy scan where we would find out the gender for sure we discovered that Brian's six-year-old cousin was named Kaitlyn Marie and everyone teased us for stealing her name so we started thinking of new names. I knew I wanted to keep Marie because that was in honor of my grandmother, Helen Marie, who passed away March 1, 2011. We settled on Taylor after we got the wonderful news that she was in fact a girl and we celebrated by going out and buying her coming home outfit and a picture frame to old the ultrasound picture.

Some pictures of me while pregnant!

 I was induced on November 20, 2011 at 41 weeks exactly. I wont go into detail about the horror that was my delivery but I will say it was 15 hours of induced labor with 1.5 hours of pushing with a failed epidural (They placed it incorrectly because I am short and didn't believe me that something was wrong in time to fix it.) but none of that mattered because at 1:34 pm on November 21, 2011 Taylor Marie was born! 8lbs 4oz and 20 in of absolute perfection.

Isn't she perfect?

I on the other hand was a mess with a fractured tail-bone, three second-degree tears, and excessive bleeding but they finally let us leave the hospital two days later on November 23, 2011 just in time for Thanksgiving. I couldn't wait to get home but once we were on our way I freaked out that we couldn't do it on our own and begged Brian to turn around and go back but once we were home I was glad. Turns out hospital beds are the worst for fractured tail-bones! It worked out great because since it was the night before Thanksgiving lots of Brian's family was at our house and able to greet their newest member.

My turkey butt on her first Thanksgiving!

 Unfortunately her early months were a blur of feeding issues and post-partum depression (more about this later) Breast-feeding wasn't working from us from the start, she didn't eat a drop while in the hospital and at eight days old I threw in the towel and we switched to formula thinking our troubles were solved. Well it wasn't quite that easy but after months of bottle and formula changed we finally found a combination that worked for us. Though it was never diagnosed I suspect she has a milk protein allergy and acid reflux. Because of these her early days didn't happen the way I envisioned but we are making up for it now!

A few of the pictures I do have

One Month Old (December 21, 2011)
 Month one wasn't much different from her early newborn days we were still struggling with feeding and finding the right formula. She spend most her time sleeping especially on my chest in what Brian referred to as the baby koala position. She slept right through her first Christmas morning and most other Christmas activities lol, though we did manage to get a great family picture with Santa and she got to meet Pat, Chaye, Lori, Annie, and the rest for the first time. But the most amazing thing happened on December 31..she started smiling on purpose!

One month old: Smiles!

 Two Months Old (January 21, 2012) 
Her second month was much like her first. We had finally found a bottle that worked for us but were still testing out formula's. She wasn't eating much and was spitting-up most of what she was eating. We had her first well baby check-up and she got her first vaccinations, which was heart-breaking. She continued smiling more and more and started 'coo-ing' except hers are more like 'goos' which just melt everyone's heart.

Two months old!

Three Months Old (February 21, 2011)
At three months old we got her pictures taken professionally for the first time. It was so exciting! She did great with them and acted just like a little model smiling and posing for the camera. The photographer couldn't believe how easy she was but she is just such a naturally happy baby and she LOVES attention. I think it was around this time that she started laughing which is the best sound in the world by far.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Four Months Old (March 21, 2011)
At four months old we decided to start feeding her solid food. She seemed really ready she was obsessed with our food and anytime we would eat she would demand a bottle even if she wasn't really hungry. Also, we hoped it would help with her reflux which it did. She took to it right away and LOVED it. We started with oatmeal cereal and she had it all up, didn't waste a drop. After the cereal we moved onto peas which remain one of her favorites. It is so cute to feed her, as soon as she sees the bowl coming she opens her mouth like a little bird! We also introduced her to a monkey lovie and she took to it right away. Once we gave it to her she pretty much didn't let go of it all weekend. We also started doing a bedtime routine consisting of dinner, bath, bottle and stories, and then bed. And the most exciting thing from this month..I finally got a camera! I love being able to take her picture whenever I want. 

Four months old!

Five Months Old (April 21, 2011)
By five months old she was getting better at sitting and started going short times on her own. My PPD finally started going away and I was finally really enjoying her. We started trying to take her more places and do more things with her. We took her swimming for the first time (it got hot early here this year) and she LOVED it. She is such a little fish and loves all things water related. We also took her to the park for the first time and she really liked the swing. She wasn't so sure about the slide though. She was eating more foods and loving every one of them. She drank out of my cup one day. She was taking a nap on my lap and I was holding some water. She woke up, saw my water, grabbed my cup, and drank it before I could even realize what was going on. She drank out of it like she had been doing it all her life! I am trying to get her to use a sippy but she much prefers my cup.

Five months old!

 Six Months Old (May 21, 2011) 
Gah I can't believe she is already half a year old! It went so fast. She is getting so big! She can now sit up on her own fully and we finally were able to get rid of the sling in the bathtub and she loves sitting up and playing with her toys. I started giving her a few 'finger foods'. So far I have only given her banana and avocado slices and gerber puffs. The banana and avocado slices she likes but they frustrate her because they are so slippery and hard to hold onto. The puffs she LOVES. When I first gave them to her she didn't even try to eat them she just moved them around her high chair tray but now as soon as I put them down she grabs them and shoves them in her mouth. It is so cute. She has also started sharing her bottle and pacifier with us and her monkey it is adorable! We got more pictures done and they turned out really great even though I didn't like this photographer as much as the last one. My mom and I made her a tutu and headband and they look really good. The studio even asked us if they could use the images in their store/website and had us sign a model release and people are always asking me where I got the tutu and headband because they want one. I thought about making them and selling them but I am not sure how to go about that or how much work it would be so I am still thinking about it.

6 Months old!

 

Welcome!

Well I decided to start this blog because mostly because I am bored. I am also hoping it will force me to keep track of things better. It will probably focus mostly on my daughter, Taylor also featuring recipes because I love to cook. Obviously, it is a major work in progress but hopefully it will eventually turn into something. The title of my blog comes from Taylor's nickname, Shrimpy, one week while I was pregnant I got a weekly email telling me how big she was and it said she was the size of a shrimp. When I shared this with Brian he said "Aw, how cute she's a little Shrimpy." And it just kind of stuck. I originally thought we would stop calling her that once she was born but since she is a very petite baby it is still a good nickname for her. Whenever she is on her tummy, for the 30ish seconds before she starts screaming, she puts her arms and legs straight out like she is trying to fly hence: Super Shrimp!