Our Princess is 4 Months

Rhowan had her four month doctor appointment on Monday and got three more shots and one orally. The same shots as her 2 month appointment. I hate shots...my heart melts when she cries and the after math of how uncomfortable she is for the night and day after. This time the nurse was not so good with babies, odd huh, considering you are a nurse at a freaking pediatricians office!!!! Yes, its the end of her shift, we are always the last patient out because I am a full time working mommy, so I get the tired, grumpy and non patient nurse...I was NOT a happy camper. She was rough and had no compassion, not to mention that we had to wait over a half hour for her to get in there and get our appointment going. I always put up with the wait because I love her doctors and the group. They are very well recommended and her Dr has been awesome. She always makes me feel comfortable and gives me all the time I want with my lists of questions I always come in with. She never makes me feel stupid for asking, I like that.
Anyway, Rhowan looks great according to her pediatrician. She only grew an inch, making her 25 1/4 inches now, which I was quite surprised with, but she had such a huge spurt last time the Dr said that's normal to slow down to her curve (growth chart.) She is still in the 90th percentile for height and has gained 4 pounds in 2 months, now she is 14 lbs and 8 oz, putting her in the 75 th percentile, which is above average, however the Dr said she is very well proportion (tall like her mommy!) She is already teething, full on gumming things, swollen gums and drooling up a storm...I am always on line trying to look up fashionable and cute bibs, because she wears and goes through about 3 a day now...my poor baby, she is so good but you can tell she is just not comfortable. I have bought lots of teething things for her and have even put a wash closh (that's right everyone closh) into the freezer as her Dr says they love that! Since she is teething so early, we can start stage one foods in about a month once she transitions from her rice cereal to oatmeal. She is loving her rice cereal every night...she is a piggy! :)
I also asked about her bed time routine...she is down by 6, sleeps til 4 and goes back down til 6:30 or 7, which don't get me wrong is awesome. I want to stay consistent with a good routine, but I get home from work at 4 and start rice cereal at 5, bath, nursing then bed by 6. She said a normal bed time is between 6 and 8, so I can push it back but do so at 15 min intervals. Therefore, I took her advice and did 6 :15 Tuesday, 6:30 tonight and tomorrow will go to 6:45, and then the next night moving her bedtime to 7. That gives me more time with my princess after work, gives us time for rice cereal, bath and to nurse before bed. She goes right to sleep and has been sleeping through the night (knock on wood.) But why is it that she is sleeping through the night and I am up all night staring at her monitor wondering if she is ok because she hasn't woken up?! LOL. I need to get over that!
Well Daddy leaves town tomorrow morning for their first baseball road trip. Which I have become very accustom to after our first year of marriage with all their road trips and being alone in our scary apartment. But with a baby it's so different...I am scared to be alone here with her at night, sleeping. Now that we are in our own home and it's one I am very familiar with, being I practically grew up in this house, I am never scared...I would sleep with all the windows wide open in the summer while TJ was away. With a baby it's so different...I think the worst and play things out in my head of what would happen. I have a flashlight and baseball bat by my bed, but come on, really?! I want an alarm system...TJ is gone a lot with his profession, so I think it would be worth it. Although, we are flying out Friday morning to meet him in Arizona for the weekend and go to the games. I am very excited about that, but nervous about Rhowan's first plane ride and travel. I have made numerous lists, so we'll see how it goes. She's going to have to get used to traveling at some point! :) Especially with Daddy coaching in Alaska all summer.
Well that is our update for now. She is growing so fast...she rolled over from her back to tummy for the first time Tuesday at her baby sitters. I knew it was only a matter of time because she would get to her side and stop for a week or so now. You can't take your eyes off of her for a second...she will scoot herself right off her changing table if you'd let her! I was so sad I missed such a huge milestone in her life...I immediately called TJ and told him, I can no longer work and just need to be a mommy...which is fully supports, but says financially we just can't, which I already know, but like to hear myself complain about it I guess. :(

Rhowan 4 months

Rhowan's 4 month photoshoot! :)

Last weekend my friend Angela came and took Rhowan's 4 month photos. She does such amazing work, we are so blessed to have someone to capture all of our princess' milestones. I wish I could post every single one because I just love them all. I can't wait to get them blown up and printed around our house.

Rhowan goes for her 4 month Dr appt on Monday and more shots

:( I am anxious to see how much she's grown and how she is doing. I think she is starting to teeth a bit because she just drools for days and really gums anything she can get into her mouth. She will be 4 months tomorrow...can you believe it? Time flies when you are having fun. She has been the greatest blessing in our lives, marriage, and families. Couldn't be happier. :)

Enjoy the photos! We love and miss you all!

xoxox,

The Bruce's

More Pictures

More Weekend Pictures

Happy Valentines Day!

We hope you all had a wonderful and loving Valentines Day with those who mean the most to you. We had a nice 3 day weekend...Rhowan got her 4 month pictures done on Saturday (she will be 4 months next week!) from our good friend Angela once again...she does amazing work and we just love how they always turn out. I can't wait to see the final product and order some more of our princess to put up all over our house with her 1 month pictures! :) I will post them as we get them, she hurried on two of them so that I could see them, with our princess and her tutu on! :)

Then we had a birthday dinner for Uncle Anthony, Rhowan and Alexa were sleeping most the time in their carriers, but Rhowan woke up toward the end to give an appearance and take some picures with her cousin Nathan! She also had her first night of Rice Cereal...we had tried a few weeks ago and were unsuccessful, so we tried again on Friday night since we are getting closer to her 4 month stage and she seemed to like it much better. I kind of watched the mess as Auntie Peggy fed it to her, boy is that a messy dinner! :) We will definetly be re doing our nightly routine now that we have rice cereal we will have nightly baths! She has only woken up once for feedings for awhile now, which the dr says she should only be waking up once by 4 months and through the night at 6 months. I think we are almost there because with the rice cereal and nursing her right after she is making it til 4:30 am rather than 2:30-3 then up again between 6:30-7 am which works good for me because I like to nurse her before I leave for work. It's been real hard because her bed time is so early, 6 o clock, that it gets thrown off with the littliest of things that come up. I want and am adament about keeping her on her schedule and coming home by 5 or 5:30 to start her routine, but with our crazy lives things are always coming up and throwing that off just a bit. Now with the rice cereal and bath our routine has g0tten longer, so I am debating of changing to 6:30 or 7, but I still want her to get her 12 hours and wake up in time for me to nurse her before I leave in the morning. What were your babies bed times at this age? I know 6 works for her and she gets sooooo tired and fussy any later than that, so I keep telling myself, we need to adjust to her, but I feel like such an awful parent when one night gets thrown off to 6:30 or 7. I know, I know, I am wayyyyy over thinking this, but you have no idea about how anal we are of her being on a routine! And we want to keep it that way! :)

Anyway, back to work tomorrow, I took Friday off for the opening game of the baseball season. (We will be leaving early to get home in bed and probably won't make it to Friday or Saturday night games this year, gotta keep that routine! But for opening night, I will stray again!)

Then next week Rhowan goes to the Dr for her 4 month check up and shots :( We'll update you again next week. Have a blessed week and we love you all!

xoxox,

The Bruces

Play Time (15 weeks)

Rhowan meets Alexa

My sister, Anthony, Nathan and Alexa visited us for a little bit today. Rhowan and I went to go meet her over the weekend, but Alexa is like her mommy and loves to sleep, so they didn't see much of each other. Between my dancing to entertain Rhowan and Alexa only waking up to nurse it was an unproductive visit for them! So I asked my sister to stop by today so I could one hold Alexa and two get photos! :) I just look at Alexa and can't remember Rhowan being that tiny! :( It goes too fast! Rhowan just kind of stared and tried to suck Alexa's hands for her, Rhowan loves to put everything in her mouth right now! Teething?! Not sure, but that could explain her terrible fussiness and crying today, although babies have their off days too.

Nathan just kept going back and forth between the two girls, kissing them and playing with them! It is so cute.

I can't wait for the upcoming events with the two girls...well that is as soon as Rhowan and Alexa realize and know how to play together. Rhowan kind of looked today like, "hmmm, that looks like a fun toy!" LOL. :)

Routines?

Just a little update of our princess. Today was my first day off with our princess, I finished my long term sub assignment on Friday. It was so nice being home with Rhowan for the day and getting some QT (quality time). We had our stations throughout the house, our princess is a little high maintenance and gets bored quite easily! As my sister says, I was a high strung kid and her daddy is a high strung adult, so she has it from both sides! :)
She has been doing so well on her routine (knock on wood), she is in bed by 6, wakes up once to nurse and then goes back down. Well last night, being it was Super Bowl Sunday we were at TJ's parents house for a get together. We tried putting her down at the house, so we could play a dice game and she was NOT having it. So on the way home, about 9 she was half asleep, so I had daddy drive around a bit to get her in a real good sleep. She knocked right out and went right in her crib until 3 am. Perfect, went back down til 7 am...nice! Oh my, one day of her routine being off and boy did I pay for it today. She had two mini naps, about 45 min each and then around 3:30- 4 she got super fussy, crying. That is just not like her, so I gave her a bath to soothe her and then feed her and do our usual nightly routine, a bit early 5:30 to get back on the routine. Needless to say she was not having it. I don't get it, how does one night ruin it all?
I keep telling TJ to stop stressing, a night won't throw her off and everyone who has babies doesn't just hide away in their houses to be in bed at a certain time. Don't get me wrong, I am all about routines! I think they are very important and will continue to have Rhowan on one. We have agreed early on that if we miss out on things and have to stay home or leave places early, then that's what we need to do. This baseball season we probably won't make it to many games, being they changed Saturday's games to night games as well. Sunday is the only day game now. :(
Let's just hope she stays on this routine and we never have to experience the "crying it out." (knock on wood again.)
Rhowan goes for her four month check up in two weeks...how fast they grow!
Now that I am back day to day, we will get to have more days together, so I am happy about that, I don't like missing out on all her moments!