Elizabeth takes a bottle

Thursday 8.27.15

My biggest success of the day is that I can say that Elizabeth really takes a bottle now! She's always been hit and cold about it... Mostly cold... But I figured she would get better over time. Well, she only got worse. After a stressful night of leaving her with a babysitter (and hoping she slept the whole time... She didn't... I came home half way through to nurse her and leave again) I realized that this whole no bottle thing was just not going to be an option I was going to accept very willingly. So for the next ten days, I gave her a bottle at least once a day. At first she was really fighting it. It would take 30-45 minutes just to get her to take half an ounce. And even then, it was probably only because I was squirting it into her mouth. Well, I kept at it. I'd just hand express and ounce or two and then try to get her to take as much as I could. It was at least 45 minutes those first days. Well, she's gotten better with the consistency and I've had the best luck feeding her first thing in the morning when she's super hungry and doesn't care as much what she's sucking. She was getting better but still not great. She wouldn't take a bottle from Christopher (let's be honest, he's kinda lazy about it and doesn't put in the effort to sitting up straight and cradling a baby correctly, etc) so I knew I still had work to do. But this morning... She took a bottle in her car seat without anyone cradling her. And she wasn't fighting it and spitting it out or chewing it... Evidenced by the fact that she was pretty self sufficiently feeding herself with a propped bottle! 

No hands! 

She even kind grabbed it back a time or two when it fell out of her mouth. That's a pretty big deal. With Abigail and Brady, 5-7 days was enough to keep up the habit, but it seems like I'll need to stick to every other day with Elizabeth for a while. I neeeeeed to be able to leave her before she's six months old. Totally worth the effort. 

A happy accident... Somehow we all were wearing matching shirts. 

Also, Brady is the cutest. He loves pictures. 

Just not as much as he loves Elizabeth. So obsessed. These two have such a special bond. 

He's been really into socks lately. And made up this game where he slides off the chair onto the floor.

It seems like it'd be more painful than enjoyable but whatever. The kid is a mystery to me. 

Also, he's hilarious. 

Our smoothies time. Brady is my smoothie buddy. I always make a big smoothie and he gets a fully sippy of it and I get the rest. 

Elizabeth is 11.5 lbs of adorable. 

Brady seems to have a knack for sports. He likes sports, but he's also naturally good at them. So I was confused for quite a while that he seemed to have so much trouble hitting the ball off of his t ball set. 

Well I figured out the problem. He thought you were supposed to hit the red part. Once I explained to him that the bat was only supposed to hit the ball, he was golden. So now he's awesome at baseball too. 

Natalie came to play for a few hours. I just watched the kids outside the whole time. Outside with kids is so much better than inside. 

Then honey came home by 4:30! Woohoo!  So we hung out for a bit and decided to do early dine at Texas Roadhouse. 

While we were giving Elizabeth another 30 minutes to sleep before heading out, Brady curled up and fell asleep. He's sooo not ready to be giving up naps. If he was my only child, I'd totally sit with him and help him take an 11am nap or something. But, he's just one of three and I don't have the time or motivation for that. So if he wants a nap badly enough, he just snuggles up and takes one. 

So sleepy. 

So then we woke up Brady and woke up Elizabeth and got the kids all in the car to go. It seemed like a pain and it was, but I really wanted Texas Roadhouse. Honey offered to bring it back for us. But it's never as good as eating it there, right when it comes out piping hot. Well, it was soooooo worth it. The rolls were some of the best I've ever had... A little underdone and so soft and I asked for tons of extra honey butter so there was no skimping on that. We got the grilled shrimp for appetizer and it was amazing and the half roll that's toasted with garlic butter or something that comes with it was also the best I've had. My steak was good and so was my sweet potato. Everything just tasted amazing and it was 100% worth it waking up two kids to go. For the record, the kids all loved it too... So I'm not entirely selfish in that. 

These two. So cute. 

As far as Brady's sleep goes, it's been working best to move him to Abigail's sofa after they're both asleep. If he wakes up during the night while he's in Abigail's room, then he doesn't come downstairs crying, he just stays put. I wish I'd tried this sooner but part of me thought he wouldn't transfer well (he transfers beautifully because he's so exhausted), and part of me just hoped he would phase out the night waking (HA... Maybe someday). 

So this is how we end our days.