Little & Big Loves

Most of our life revolves around our little love, Waverly and our big love, Cole so I figured I'd write a post on them.

Here's an update our BIG love...King Cole!

I have to admit...Cole has gotten the shaft in the past 5+ months.  He hasn't gotten the walks and exercise he deserves since Waverly has arrived. I had hoped that I would LOVE to walk Cole with Waverly in the stroller, but the reality is that it's not easy.  He's 120 lbs right now (hoping to reduce that) and I haven't taken the time to train him well to walk with the stroller...even though I did try a little before Waverly was born.  He's getting better, but will pull when another dog walks by and zig zags behind me so I'm constantly trying to keep him on one side.  He gets a couple walks a week from me....it really should be everyday.

I also always find him in the way these days...he's SO. BIG. He'll lay across the kitchen while I'm in it or in a walkway...I know he just wants to be where we are...but it's in the way.  He's also been begging like crazy...he used to stay away from our food, but not recently. We may not be feeding him enough either, but as I stated he's 120lbs!

On the positive side...Nick and I loooove our big lab and know that all he needs is exercise, attention, and some more training.  We're thinking about obedience school which would actually be fun for him because we'd have our attention 100% on him!  He loves Waverly though and kisses her lots!  She has started to reach out and touch him...can't wait for her to crawl after him!

Winter Walk

Checking each other out

Cole may seem interested but really he's sleeping.

Waverly watches Cole while Cole watches for food.

As for my little love, Waverly, she is now 5 months!  I can't believe it...she is so much fun. I kiss her soft chubby cheeks at least 1000 times a day.  She is growing great and hitting those developmental milestones like a champ!  She is rolling all around our house!  I feel like I need carpet or foam padding everywhere because I can't keep her from rolling off her play areas. She started rolling from front to back around 2.5 -3 months, but on Christmas at 4 months started rolling back to front and now does both sometimes multiple times in a row....often toward something she wants of course!

She's also soooo LOUD and vocal (we often wake up to her squealing and "ahh-goo" noises).  She blows raspberries, puts everything in her mouth, and has the best grin.  She's also starting to sit up a little more now and bounces like crazy on her legs.

Luckily for us she has always been a great sleeper...slept 8 hours at 2 months and 10 hours at 3 months. But 4 months threw us some major curve balls, so we have been tired in January!

All the 4-5 months changes were so rough on us. It also takes me a little while to adapt and figure out what kind of change she needs, so in the meantime we struggle with lack of sleep and a decent amount of crying at nap and bed times.  Changes included:

-rolling around like a crazy woman
-no swaddle
-not keeping pacifier in
-wanting mommy or daddy more
-starting to eat more...including rice cereal
-possible start of teething

So I have been doing process of elimination to find out what might be causing her sleep disruptions. This resulted in doing a couple things I didn't really want to do...

-no blanket/sleep sack so that she can roll over
-let her sleep on her tummy
-let her cry some to sleep to prevent us from replacing the pacifier constantly
-reducing naps from 4-3 a day so that she can get longer naps

This week starts the new schedule!  I'm a schedule mom while also keeping the schedule flexible if necessary...I think it helps life be more predictable and Waverly knows what to expect and falls into the schedule naturally.  I learned a lot of this by reading Becoming Babywise...and really attribute our early sleep success to applying some of the theories of this book.  I am now reading Becoming Babywise II and wish I had started it last month!

LOVES to bounce up and down in this thing

smiley rolling baby

diaper change for Waverly means time to chew on her toes.

messy!

yay!

love those chub cheeks.

So we are in constant "adapt" mode, haha.  Guess that's life with kids!

Love from Virginia!

Mommyhood

So hopefully you can understand my absence from blogging recently....but thanks to my co-blogger and best friend for announcing the birth of my little girl, Waverly!  It will be a month this Friday and man, does time fly with a newborn.

I'd like to share my birth story with you, so here it goes....NOT.  haha :)  I will spare you the lovely details of how my little one came into this world.  It was an amazing experience though.  I got induced the night after her due date and after 16 1/2 hours of labor and only 20 mins of pushing...she came into this wonderfully crazy world!  I gave birth at Morristown Memorial Hospital and was overall pretty happy with our experience there...my doctor and the nurses were great.  There were a few not so great moments at the end of my labor, but that goes with the territory and is definitely part of the experience of having a child.

Waverly Rose Gupta was born at 5:24pm on August 24th...she was 5lbs 13oz and 19 inches...so much tinier than we thought!  She is perfectly healthy which we feel is such a blessing.  You may wonder about her name since it's definitely unique.  Nick and my's favorite tv show to watch together is "Friday Night Lights" and there was a character named Waverly on the show...that was the first time we heard the name and really liked it.  Then when living in NYC in the west village we found a winding tree-lined street called Waverly Place.  We love the name and love that it reminds us of our time spent in New York.  Rose is after my mom, Rosemary. I really like the way the two sound together...Waverly Rose...but we're just calling her Waverly.

My husband, Nick has been nothing short of phenomenal.  You know you're with your perfect match when they truly take care of you and go above and beyond to do whatever it takes to make life easier during this crazy time.  He was awesome in the hospital and there every step of the way.  He even helped with the delivery!  But it was when we came home that really counted...I needed a lot to be done for me so I could stay off my feet and take care of feeding Waverly.  Nick took care of my every need and has jumped into being a dad without hesitation.  We've always been a 50-50 couple...I clean, he cooks, he does the bills, I take care of family logistics (like rsvping to weddings...)...same goes for the baby.  He is changing diapers, burping, consoling her when she's crying, cuddling with her and doing as much as I am, except he obviously can't breastfeed.  Everything about how he's taken on his new role as daddy makes me emotional...I cried at least 5 times in the first week we were home just from being so appreciative of him.

Nick...I know I've told you this, but I love you...thank you for everything you've done for me in the past month and for already being a great daddy :)  I couldn't imagine starting this journey without you.

So how has the past month been??

Crazy. Whirlwind. Wonderful. Full of love. Emotional.  Hard. Stressful. Tiring. Worth it.

We had a wonderful welcome home with my family and Nick's mom...everybody got to meet Waverly and it was a great way to arrive home.  The following week and a half were very hard.    Everyone says it's the toughest time, but you really don't understand till you're in the trenches.  No sleep is an understatement...I literally got NO SLEEP and not because she was waking up crying...because I had to wake her up every 2 -2.5 hours to feed her which took close to 2 hours leaving me with a max of 45 mins to sleep.  The reasons this week was so hard is because I was recovering from giving birth, trying to figure out breastfeeding while also making sure Waverly got enough to eat so she could gain weight.  She lost too much weight between the hospital and her first day home so the pediatrician wanted to make sure she didn't lose anymore.  Thanks to constant feeding she gained 3 oz in 24 hours so the drs didn't have to worry and at 1 week had re-gained her birth weight!  At 2 weeks she was 6lbs 2 oz...I'm excited to see how big she is at her 1 month appointment this Friday.

first week...

second week...

Breastfeeding is very hard which makes the beginning much more stressful. My friends had told me their struggles, but I didn't think twice about how truly stressful it might be.  Waverly didn't latch on properly from the beginning so I had a whole week and half of trying to teach her to latch.  I also had to pump to get my milk supply established and give her some breast milk in a bottle to make sure she got enough to eat.  This is like pulling double duty....double the amount of time.  After a lot of research, phone calls to a lactation consultant, and conversations with friends and family, I figured out how to get Waverly to nurse properly...yay!  In the grand scheme of things, a week and a half wasn't that long.  We're still figuring things out...she gulps, so she becomes very gassy and spits up so I'm still figuring out the best positions for her, how to get her to burp enough, and how to semi-control how much milk I'm producing.  It's all trial and error...I'm just so happy she's breastfeeding in general and know it will all work itself out.

Here are the things I love about our little girl....her sweet soft cheeks that are so kissable...dark hair and dark eyes like her daddy...little smiles as she's falling asleep...alert eyes that focus on my face...the way my voice can calm her...the way her tiny little body curls up in our arms...how much she stretches out her legs and arms while kicking and flailing around (swaddling is not her favorite)...the squeaks she makes even when sound asleep...how her hair is all fuzzy and sticks up after a bath...how she grabs my hair or shirt when I hold her...

smiles...

first hokie game!

first walk!

We are so in love with our little Waverly and incredibly happy that she is part of our lives now.  Life is truly remarkable.

Nesting...aka creating a nursery

Although I'm not one for interior design...I loved creating Baby G's nursery.  It took a lot of time, thought, effort, and many times of telling myself "ok just go with it"....and I love the way it turned out.

I think there is something about nesting with your first child that is special.  We are going from the world revolving around us and whatever Nick and I want to do  (and sometimes Cole) to life revolving around our family of 3 (and Cole, haha).  I think the process of getting all the baby items we need and creating a nursery slowly helps make that transition.  Who knows what kind of nursery we'll put together for our next children, but I'm glad we did this one in full.

We have a two bedroom townhouse, the guest room is downstairs which we turned into the nursery.  I was a little sad to take it apart b/c it was the only room in the house that actually fully decorated...here's what it looked like.

To decorate the nursery, I started with a main source of inspiration. While shopping in Manhattan in SOHO one day, Nick and I passed by this artist selling his pieces on the street.  They were watercolors of different characters and animals.  I loved them and got prints of my favorite 4.  Even though we weren't expecting yet, I thought "one day these will be perfect for a nursery!".  Then I picked some colors...aqua and yellow with white furniture, and finally fabric...the details fell together from there.

Nick helped a lot, especially with putting furniture together, hanging things in the room, etc.  My mom also came up (thanks mom!) to help me put up the fabrics I had ordered, shop for a few things I needed, and put the room together.

shopping at babies r us with my mom

damage.

nick hanging curtain rods and valences.

folding mini clothes :)

putting together a cute playmat!

mom hard at work.

finished closet

relaxation spot.

the cheerful room

Now the room is completely done...we had to get new blinds, fix a cracked window, and add a few more decorative items.  It's so cute!  The crib, changing table-dresser, and the bookshelf in the closet are from Pottery Barn Kids, the chair is Little Castle ordered online from Rosenberry Rooms, the fabrics in the room are all sewn by a woman on Etsy (ModifiedTot), and the butterfly mobile is from an artist on Etsy (LittleDreamersInc).  Everything else was randomly gathered and found...a very fun process!  I love how it came together.

the inspiration...giraffe, pink elephant, round penguin, and turtle

my favorite...the turtle

cute elephant lamp!

oh, hi!  what should we name this guy?

I put together this mobile...hours of stringing butterflies.  Worth it though!

organization :)

friends who are ready to meet Baby G!

toys ready to be played with!

cute nightlight

someone found their spot!

Now we just need a little one to complete the room!