This girl LOVES bathtime

Mom actually put a bow in my hair today

Our very own adorable cabbage patch doll

This book is hilarious!!! 

Having fun in my jumper

I can lift my head ... this lasted about 2 seconds.  Slowly but surely... 

Easton, the Photographer

She's really into this book...can't get her to put it down. 

More pictures

Fun play time with big brother

Mom is making me do tummy time again.  I hate it. 

Thank goodness for my thumb

Funny face

Sitting in the bumbo

Raya officially prefers to suck her thumb rather than use her nuk.  The upside to this is that we don't have to keep putting the nuk in when she spits it out but the downside is we can't cut her thumb off when it's time to stop sucking your thumb!  We'll see how long this phase goes for.  I'm starting to get a little worried about her not pushing herself up on her hands during tummy time.  She definitely should have reached this milestone by now but she just cries when we put her on her tummy and will not even try to push herself up.  I'm trying some different techniques to see if we can get her to do it.  Hopefully before her 4 month appointment next month.  Sleeping has been going better at night.  Lately she sleeps for about 5.5 hours before waking for the first time.  She's been waking around 2 and 5 each night and then goes right back to sleep.  That I can handle!  She's been napping pretty good too.  When I'm home with the kids I've managed to get them both to nap at the same time and this includes the 1 long nap that Raya takes during the day.  Hallelujah!  Momma needs some downtime!  She's still not napping that great for Jake's parents but she'll figure it out soon enough.

Great news: I refilled her prescription and it only cost me $18!!!! woohoo!!! AND they added flavoring this time.  Hoping that helps her keep it down better.  

p.s. I am LOVING working part-time.  I am able to spend extra time with my babies AND am still able to have my professional life as well. I miss them like crazy when I'm at work but it's good to be able to keep up with my career as well.  Life is good.  Busy, but good :) 

3 months

Can't get enough of her smiles

Raise the roof - whoop whoop 

I think Raya has had enough pictures

Trying to get Raya to smile

Dad dressed me today.  It looks like a field of flowers barfed on me.

Back to work I go

The time has come.  I went back to work.  Boo.  I've only been back 1 day.  It was much easier this time around than I remember it being with Easton.  The reason being that I don't need to bring the kids to daycare.  Just thinking of Raya having to be in an infant room all day everyday makes me cry - so I'm so thankful the grandparents are watching her and Easton AND that I only have to work part-time to make this all happen.  I'm still super sad about leaving for work in the morning though :(  Don't ask us to do anything that involves money in the next year though because we're going to be broke as a joke for a year.  But it'll be worth it (as long as we stay above water).   I'm going to become an extreme coupon-er.  Ready for that?  ;)

Raya is officially sleeping in her crib at night and for naps!  It's been going pretty good.  We also moved up bedtime from 10pm to about 7:30-8pm.  This has also been great because it gives us about an hour with both kids in bed before we go to bed.  Although, I REALLY want to go to bed at 8 - I force myself to stay up longer to have some non-kid time...even if my eyelids are weighing 12 pounds each.  The last few nights she has gone about 5 hours before waking up to eat.  Yay! We're going in the right direction :)

Chompers:  I believe Raya is working on getting her first tooth.  Lots of drooling happening and she has been wanting her nuk a lot more than usual.

I was wrong about her medicine in my last post.  The next day we received a letter from insurance saying they will not be lowering the price of her medicine.  Ugh.  BUT the good news is, the medicine is working and she's feeling good.  That's all that matters.

"I'm happy feeling glad I got sunshine in a bag"

This song is in my head all day every day because of this sweet girl.  Her smile just brightens the room.  If you smile at her she will flash you non-stop smiles.  I think we'll be getting some giggles out of her soon.  She's trying.  I've heard a few squeals here and there.

She also has a new found love of sucking on her hands now that she con control them and bring them to her mouth!  This has also helped her get her nuk in her mouth on her own a couple of times.

I had success in the medicine department for her. I'm very proud of this as working with doctors and insurance isn't easy or fun.  But, I was able to get he doctor to up her dosage which seems to be helping and they also put in an appeal to the insurance and they agreed to lower our co-pay for her medicine!  yay!  Now, I just hope this keeps working for her.  I do think I need to go and throw away some milk that I pumped from all last week though from when I had some dairy.  Jake gave her some of it last night and her reflux was bad again.  It's all a guessing game with this---but we'll keep trying anything so she's not in pain.

Something hilarious with her medicine is that the past 4 days in a row she has fallen asleep while I attempt to give her her medicine.  She absolutely hates getting her medicine so apparently she has found a way out of it... falling asleep.  Grandma Cathy says she has amazing coping skills! ha :)

We're also doing great with getting her in a routine!  Of course this makes me so happy (routine/organizational freak that I am) but I know it's also very good for babies and kids so I'm happy with the progress.  She is taking most of her naps in her crib (with the exception of the past few days from reflux) and is awake for 1-2 hours after she eats and then will nap for about 30-40 minutes with one long nap for about 2 hours in the afternoon.  Then bath time is around 9 and she's usually sleeping by 10.  Hopefully it'll continue to be more concrete in the next few weeks which should also make it easier on the grandparents when they"re babysitting so they can know what to expect (somewhat).

Epitome of happiness... enjoy:

loving herself in the mirror

having a great time playing on her mat

Yes, she even smiles in her sleep.  I went to check on her and wanted to take a picture of how relaxed she looked and she flashed me a smile right when I took this picture...all while she was sound asleep. :) 

chewing on those hands

falling asleep during medicine time

And again...

Raya (Rae-yuh)

Come on people it's not that difficult to pronounce, "Raya." It's not, "Riya."  Ok, that's my rant for the day.

I wish I could slow things down

Everyone always says, "they grow up too fast."  Ugh, it's so true.  Seriously, someone, tell me where the time goes?  I go back to work a week from today.  How did this happen?  12 weeks have gone by already... really?!  When I'm at work time literally stands still.  However, when I'm home with my kids I have no idea where the time goes.  Some days I can't tell you what we accomplished other than eating and pooping (I'm talking about Raya, here).  At least I'm only going back to work part-time for a year.  That definitely helps with the transition and my eyes shouldn't get quite as wet my first day back. :(

We are really struggling with her reflux again.  We had a couple great weeks and things were going great but now things are starting to hurt for her again.  Currently we're waiting to hear back from the Doctor on what our next steps should be.  It seems to be at its worst right now too....I really hope we can get this figured out.  And I hope insurance gets their act together and decides to start paying for it or else we're going to spend Raya's college fund (that we don't have) on her reflux medicine!  

She is still a pretty happy baby.  Her smile is probably the best smile I've ever seen... just melts my heart.  I challenge you to not smile when you see her smile.  It's impossible.   Nighttime is usually the worst time of day for her reflux.  Although,  once we bring her in the bathroom for her bath she instantly gets happier.  She still loves her bath time.  

She also loves to look at herself in the mirror.  Typical girl ;)  She will talk to herself in the mirror for a good 20 minutes - it's adorable!  

She's still not a big fan of tummy time.  Well, actually, she doesn't mind tummy time if she just gets to lay there.  She is not a fan of Mom making her lift her head from side to side.  One day we'll get there.  She definitely doesn't have her brother's craziness at this age.  When he was 2 months he was a wild man and already had rolled over and was moving all over the place - Miss. Raya is quite content with where you lay her down.  Hopefully that's a sign of calmness in our future :)  

Pictures to come later - time to go pick up Easton from school!

A baby wearing leg warmers... adorable! 

Easton practicing his photography skills again :)