ANOTHER wild, busy, crazy month has passed by and now our foster baby girl is 4 months old!
Height: I swear I keep telling myself I will find my tape measure.. but every month I fail to do so! So I will def. get it on the 12th at her 4 month appointment!
Weight: 13 pounds taken at home scale.
Likes:
-To grab her feet! It’s the absolute favorite thing of hers at the moment!
-To play with her sisters! She LOVES Brielle and our 17 month foster baby girl SO much!
-To eat, I swear she is going through a growth spurt, because this girl can eat a lot! She is up to 4 oz. every 2-3 hours (sometimes every 1-2)!
-To sleep! She loves to nap, and is great at sleeping at night.
-Her mouth! Well, she has been teething like crazy!
-To be outside. I remember it used to be one of our “tools” to keep Brielle happy!
Dislikes:
– Still only a fan of the “perfect temperature” bath.
– Hates when she is trying to feed herself her own bottle and it falls out and she can’t quite grasp it to pick it back up to put in her mouth.
Teeth: She FINALLY has a tooth!! About a week and a half ago! Her second one will be here one day soon as well!
Language:
She is cooing and interacting so much lately, it is adorable!
Milestones: She is SO close to rolling over, that I am sure she will accomplish this any day now!
Upcoming:
Family visit (1 hour every week on Tuesdays)
MD appt: 4 month appt sept. 12th
monthly visits with ECI team
Monthly visits with team (now just legal worker and case worker)
I will leave you with some CUTE (but blurry due to her being in foster care) pictures! We just love this baby girl so much!💓
I was reading a blog about how one mom chose to parent a little different, and it intrigued me. Sara is a mom of 4, and she is currently doing a 30 days towards connected parenting. I think that parenting is one of the most hardest/rewarding jobs God can give us, and I always like to see how I can be a better mom.
In the first part of this series, it asks two questions:
What outdated assumptions about children do you need to let go of?
In which areas can you give your kids more control over their own lives?
I think some outdated assumptions about my child is that she SHOULD say hi/be nice to everyone who says something nice to her (or about her). I do believe that Brielle should be respectful to people, but I usually just let her say whatever her heart desires to those comments/compliments. Some are “thank you”, or some are “no! I am not a pretty girl!”. Well, I usually just play it off, and say some kind of joke or remark to that. Now, I am thinking that there are definitely some days/mornings that she just doesn’t want to talk to someone. I completely understand, because for the most part, I like to keep as much to myself as possible. So, here is my promise, to let Brielle just say what she wants to, instead of me prompting her to say something nice or be respectful. She will learn by demonstration, and with that, I have full and complete trust that she will learn what the right thing to do, without me constantly having to remind and tell her.
One of the areas that I can really give Brielle more control over is dressing herself. I usually am the one to pick out her outfit that she is wearing, the night before. Letting her have a say in what she wants to wear, instead of shooting every outfit down that she suggests, will definitely be hard for me but I know that help us grow with our relationship. I also think giving her more choices on what she would like to do on my off days, instead of running errands around for me, would be a good idea. She is great to go along for the ride (majoring of the time),but asking her and truly listening and going somewhere that she chooses, would be a great change.
she is my reason for change.
I am so excited to do the next 7 sections of this challenge, and I would highly encourage many of you to read along! 🙂
I was asked the question on why I blog.. and here is the answer. I blog because I am the voice for my children who did not get to live a full life and I am here to spread the word about Trisomy 13 and 18 and share their lives with others through the internet. I blog because I love to write and it’s a passion of mine to connect with other moms/people out there who have the same interest as me, and allow me to connect with them on a deeper level. I blog because this is “my thing”. As a wife, mom, daughter, sister, etc., I tend to lose time to allow myself to find something that I enjoy doing. I love to do this, and really want to grow my blog this year, and I am excited for all of my new followers, as well as all of you who continually to read my blog daily.
This question got me thinking about Rochelle’s 8 month anniversary since she passed away. I can’t believe so much time has passed, yet it still feels so fresh in my mind. I can finally say that talking about her life story doesn’t have me in tears (though I am not sure if this is normal), but I do find that I am more emotional with other aspects in my life. I am still unable to handle books/movies/tv shows that have anything to do with a baby dying, but I am able to handle facing my biggest fears in my professional environment by having to walk down the same hospital ER where Rochelle was, and transferred to floor two. It was so surreal for me to be there with my patient and her mom, knowing it was not a life or death situation like it was for me and Rochelle. It has changed me as a person, and I feel like I am a better mom/nurse/friend and just overall person because of what we went through with Rochelle. Losing a baby is never easy, it is not something that I would wish upon my worst enemy, but knowing that God has a purpose and a reason for us here on this Earth that has yet to be completed, makes it a little bit easier to appreciate the time we have here, before I get to join my children in Heaven.
This month, I wanted to do something I haven’t done in a while. I opened up her memory box that I saved all of her precious belongings in, shortly after she passed. I thought I would be a mess going through and opening the box, but God gave me the strength and calmness that I needed in that exact moment, to feel such joy when I was looking at these items over again. Her feeding tube was something that I will never forget, and having majority of her care be based around that, made it such a sweet thing for me to have forever, and I am so glad I saved her last one she had at home. Looking back, every single one of her outfits were special and so meaningful, and I truly wish I would have saved more. I was in such a dark place during that first week of her passing, that I didn’t want to look at anything that resembled her stuff.
This box is so powerful and will always remind me to live, laugh, and love. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I did, and I hope you all know how much Rochelle loved each one of these items.
Her precious boxHer first bath brush and my wristband from her birth!Her favorite paci’sThey gave us this in the NICU and I loved it!Her daily items. Feeding bag, hand splints, thermometer, mittens, PH test strip, feeding tubeNewborn diaper! 🙂ER gownSome of her favorite socks, and the cute sock pet someone made her!This used to be on her car seat!Her tutu for monthly pictures and one of my favorite pants she had!Some of her favorite bows, headbands, and hatsHer daily schedule.
When people ask me what Brielle’s room looks like, I often have to explain that it’s not only her room, that she shares it with her siblings as well. To some people, they think this is odd because both her brother and her sister are in heaven. To me, putting up a special place for each one in her room in honor of her sibling, is something that both me and my husband felt was the right thing to do.
I will take you on a little tour throughout their room! Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Brielle and Rochelle’s hospital keepsake boxesBeautiful crossBows and headbandsThe couch in the roomBrielle feeding her baby on the couch! 🙂What hangs above the couchKitchen AreaAlphabet wall!Lamar’s Special AreaMy pregnancy shirts made into a blanketSome of my favorite pics of Brielle on the dresser that used to belong to my grandparentsBrielle’s first year stats and her two year photo!Little notes that people wrote to Shane and I before we had BrielleShoe section!Sonograms and name on wall!Rochelle’s special areaDream catcher given from Adriane and Brielle’s first year photos!Live, Laugh, LoveBrielle’s crib!
Hope you all enjoyed! I love this room so much and it brings me much joy every time I walk into it!