Happy birthday to you!

We celebrated Jason's birthday this past Sunday! Ry has figured out how to "sing" the first line of the happy birthday song, "Happy birthday to you," so Jason got a serenade on his special day! Jason is a wonderful husband and daddy and a blessing to our family.

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This one goes to ELEVEN

Maylee weighed 11.o lbs at her doctor's visit on Friday! This put her in the 25th percentile for a 3 month old. It is absolutely amazing to see her at triple her birth weight in 3 months! She is our miracle baby and we're so thankful that the Lord and His angels have continued to watch over her. She's doing so well that her doctor suggested I could try breastfeeding alone, and when she wants to eat (versus the every 3 hour schedule she was on) to see how she does. We have another check up this Friday to make sure she's still gaining enough. So far I'm still pumping a few times a day since I have more milk than Maylee needs, but the freedom from pumping 6+ times a day and cleaning all the parts and bottles is wonderful! Yay!

We're also enjoying seeing Maylee smile more often and have caught a few smiles on camera! She's sleeping better and longer at night, going as long as 5-6 hours between feedings, and has dropped a night feeding and is eating more during the day... so we're also happy to be getting a little more sleep!

"Hello!" from the Moby wrap

She has a cute little roll on her neck!





Yay for smiles!

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Family photo shoot

Lainie requested a photo shoot while she and Gary were here. They brought outfits for the event and styled us too. :) Here are some of the fabulous shots Jason got...

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Fun with Auntie Lainie and Uncle Gary

More from their visit! :)

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Auntie Lainie and Uncle Gary's visit

It's past time to catch up on our family who have visited...

After giving us over six weeks of grandmama time, from Nashville to Seattle, it was time for my mom to head home in the middle of August and get some decent sleep! We can't thank her enough for all she did for all of us during an especially challenging time for our family, and for the priceless memories we have of her with Ry and Maylee!

A few days after her departure, Auntie Lainie and Uncle Gary arrived to stay with us for a week and a half to help out. We had a great visit, and really appreciated all their help!! RyRy especially loved playing games and throwing rocks in the river with Uncle Gary, and Maylee loved to fall asleep on Auntie Lainie. We're so blessed by all of our loving family!

Here are some photos of all of us out for a walk to the creek...

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Maylee is 3 months old!

Maylee was 9 lb 5 oz when I checked her weight 2 weeks ago! So she's likely over 10 lb now, and she's got the cute little fat rolls on her thighs and arms and a double chin to show for it! She's also in 0-3 month clothes, size 1 diapers, and her hair is filling out more and her eyelashes are getting longer. Yesterday she turned 3 months old. She's growing so fast, and we're enjoying every minute of this sweet time with her while she's still little.

I still think one of the most precious things in the world is having my baby fall fast asleep on my shoulder with a full tummy. Maylee looks most like Ry when I see her cute sleeping face on my shoulder.

We're starting to get some smiles now when Maylee's awake! She's awake a few times a day now for several hours each time, usually with an alert and curious period in the morning, and a usually more fussy period in the evening around and after we have dinner. She still takes her pacifier, so lots of cuddling and the pacifier help us through the fussy times... and she's such an easy-going baby compared to Ry at this age who was upset so much of the day! She's already grabbing on to fistfuls of my hair, and enjoys swinging at the toys in her activity gym... which Ry also enjoys swinging for her when she's in there. She's making more eye contact with us now, especially during feedings. She's making super cute cooing noises here and there. She was having a hard time getting back to sleep after some of her night feeds, but has done much better at night the few weeks.

She's done beautifully at her doctor check ups (2 regular and 1 eye exam) in the last month, and her doctors are happy with her growth. Breastfeeding is slowly getting better, but she still gets to the point where she refuses to latch again after about 10 minutes (though sometimes much less) of nursing. So she still takes some of a bottle after most nursings, and I'm still pumping after almost every feed. We visited the lactation consultant a few weeks ago, and she gave us some tips that have been a big help. We have another doctor visit Friday, so we'll see how she's doing then!

I had a lot of extra breastmilk from pumping when Maylee was in the hospital, so I checked into donating it. After a lengthy screening process, I was so happy to hear a couple weeks ago that I was able to donate 264 oz of breastmilk (about 2 gallons) to the WakeMed Mother's Milk Bank in North Carolina. They are members of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, and the milk will be used for other very premature and sick infants. I truly appreciate the wonderful staff at the Ronald McDonald House who shipped it there for me since I didn't have a place to store it in Seattle while I was going through the donation screening process.

Here are some more photos of our sweet Maylee...

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