How is it possible that my baby girl is already over 2 months old?!?
For the first few weeks, not only did I cry every time I even THOUGHT about leaving her but I also cried because I swore I could see her change every day, which to be honest was probably realistic because of how much they change daily in the first few months.
I spent every day of maternity leave soaking up every second with her. I was determined to make the most of my time and although we spent a lot of time at home, we also did a lot of shopping and mini trips out until I felt less like a first time mom who was terrified to leave the house alone with my baby! I have so many pictures of her, so I'll post some (not all) on here.
It's crazy how smart she already is and how her personality is showing through. She is the best cuddler, she smiles all the time, she loves to talk, loves being held, and already loves toys. She smiled for the first time (intentionally) on March 27, just over a month old, and started rolling from her belly to her back at 7 weeks to the day!
Whoever said your life ends when you have kids was totally wrong, because we haven't let having a baby stop us from doing anything. It's definitely more difficult at times, but it's so much more fun! For instance, last weekend we took Tatum to her first baseball game. She only made it through half the game but it was funny to see pretend to watch the game and smile at the people around us.
She is so particular and only lets me hold her certain ways. Those ways are different than the ways Brian is allowed to hold her and she loves when he sings to her and bounces her. She definitely frequently gives us arm workouts as a result. It's probably bad but she loves sleeping with us. So much for no co-sleeping. Especially when Brian leaves for work at 5 am, I can't resist grabbing her and cuddling her when he's gone.
She has so many funny quirks. For instance, she will sit in a poopy diaper for an hour, but if there's a single drop of pee in her diaper, she will scream her little face off, and boy does she have a voice!! She loves the sound of my mom's voice and will instantly stop crying when she hears it on speaker phone. As of last week (around 2 months) she started sucking on her fist, just the right one. She loves her binky. She's a big eater! She's been eating 4-5 ounces since she was 3 weeks old and it's only getting to be more. She's been eating every 2 hours lately and I can barely keep up with her. We had her 2 month check up at 9 1/2 weeks (oops) and she's 22.5 inches long and weighs 10 lbs 5 oz! I cried longer than she did when she got her shots. She seriously only cried for like 10 seconds and then cuddled with me and was fine. Good thing Brian always comes with me because I'm a bigger baby than she is and sob whenever she starts crying.
She's been sleeping through the night for weeks now and she loves her carseat, especially when it's in the stroller. We're hoping she still likes it after a 36 hour drive to Florida at the end of the month! Luckily (or unluckily) we have a test run starting tomorrow when we go to Disneyland! We're breaking it up and staying at Kevin and Amanda's in Vegas so hopefully that will help make it a little easier.
Kevin and Amanda and the kids were here the week before Easter and Tatum and I went to the Hogle Zoo with them one day. It wasn't the DC zoo or San Diego, but it's not bad for Utah haha. Brian blessed Tatum on Easter Sunday (April 16) in a dress my mom made for me for my Catholic baby baptism when I was little. She didn't get it finished in time though so she's held onto it all these years and Tatum got to wear it! It made me so happy to see her in it and have a piece of my parents there, since they couldn't make it for the blessing day. I'll post a separate post with baby blessing day photos!
In non-Tatum news, Brian graduated on Friday!! FINALLY. I keep picking on him since I graduated 3 years ago, but I guess that's what happens when you serve a mission! It's been so nice to have him around to do literally whatever we want and not have to compete with homework! He's also been playing a lot more Xbox and finally making use of that Xbox One I got him for Christmas ;) We went out to a yummy dinner at Tucano's to celebrate and it was so good! Definitely one of our favorite places. I'm so glad I've showed Brian some of the more upscale places in Salt Lake City and that he's more willing to try a new fancy restaurant for every occasion. We've been to Tucano's before but he loved it so we did it again for this.
Because we're renting out our house while we're in Florida, we moved into Kirk and Lindy's until the end of May and are bumming it. We feel like such freeloaders hahaha. However, the people renting our house had to be out of their current place by the end of April so it worked out. I'm actually glad we decided to do that because we had so much stuff to go through and now that we've gotten rid of so much already it'll be easier to pack the remainder when it's time.
I was released from my calling at church as the Beehive Advisor and it was so hard to leave the girls! I successfully finished my goal of getting my young women's medallion in a year before we moved and was awarded that on our last Sunday in the ward. Leaving our ward has been so hard, we have so many incredible friends there!! And it's so weird being in Brian's home ward that he grew up in. Luckily he thinks so too haha.
I've gone back to work part-time until we move, and I only work Monday-Wednesday so it's great having long weekends every week while still feeling productive. It was so hard to leave Tatum the first week but I know she's in good hands. Brian's mom watches Tatum while I work so now it's even easier because she's already "home" and waiting for me when I'm off work and I don't have to drive her over every morning.
Lindy is going to make the drive with us when we head to Florida and we already have our route planned out. I'm pretty excited! I can't wait to live by the beautiful beach all the time again and show Brian all over the east coast, not just close to home like we have on our trips back to see my family.
Brian's cousin Randy and his wife, Sabra, had a baby (Zoey) exactly 6 weeks after Tatum. It's so fun that one of my best friends had a little girl so close in age to Tatum. I know they will be best friends growing up, regardless of where we end up living. They're already planning to come visit us in Florida and it will be so fun!
Being a mom is the hardest, yet most rewarding, thing I have ever done in my life. I look forward to waking up every day to spend time with her and the time is flying by. I hate that I feel like she's getting bigger by the second, but I guess she can't stay little forever and life will only get better! I will try to be better at updating this again. After I'm not working I may have more time. I'll have more updates after our family vacation this week though! I think that's all for now! :)
