From City Girl to Small Town Wife: April 2012

Zoey is just growing like crazy! She is picking things up and learning new things every day. She hasn't quite gotten the whole rolling over thing, since she hates to be on her tummy. So I've had to get creative and try new ways to keep her entertained and not think that she's on her tummy. I've put her on my legs on her tummy and move them back and forth. I've also got a musical snail that has been amazing for tummy time. It has a mirror on it so she can look at the baby in the mirror, it plays music and lights up. I think that she likes that it lights up and plays music the best because she will stare at the lights and kick like crazy. It seems to distract her so that she doesn't have time to cry about being on her tummy.
She has also started eating big girl food! Zoey has always had so sort of reflux/spitting up problem since she came home from the hospital. It was getting so frustrating to feed her and have her spit up half if not more of her bottle. She was also just always so hungry. I decided as her Mom, with no help of her Dr. which was frustrating, that she was ready for Rice Cereal in her bottle. So on March 22nd we started her on Rice Cereal in her bottle. It was a a miracle that the rice cereal helped keep her formula down and NOTHING came back up!!!!! I only wanted to start rice cereal once a day, but the next feeding we gave her a bottle without the cereal and she was hungry with in an hour and spit it up again. She went through 12 ozs. of formula before she was finally full and happy. That first night was a rough one because we didn't want to feed her too much rice cereal to start with, yet she was desperately wanting more filling foods. I gave it about a week and on March 29th we decided to give her real food. Her first food was sweet potatoes and after the first bite, she licked her lips and gave me a huge smile, like "Mom you finally gave me the good stuff." She has been such a happier baby now that she gets to have real food in her tummy. We usually give her fruit with Oatmeal Cereal in the am with her morning bottle and a veggie for dinner with her bottle. She LOVES her big girl food and we are so happy to give it to her. She has done so great with the transition. She has also done better since we have had a routine of her lying down and taking a nap everyday at 2:30pm. She seems to be a happier baby when she gets that nap at the same time everyday.

Eating sweet potatoes for the first time!

So happy to be getting fed real food!

We did have a little trouble with her wanting to stick her fingers in her mouth while having the food in there. She is learning to get her fingers out of the way so that she get more food.

Eating breakfast in the morning. Umm.....oatmeal cereal and pears!

So far she has eaten sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, squash, prunes, oatmeal cereal and rice cereal. All of those she has really seemed to like. I think carrots are her favorite because she will eat a whole container of those in one sitting compared to about half a sitting of the rest. I have tried to switch it up so that she gets a variety of fruits and vegetables. We've also tried peas and green beans, which have not been a success! The peas she took one bite of and gave me dirty looks, like why was I feeding her something this gross. Green Beans she actually spit them right in my face!!! So as for the greens so far they are not ones that she likes at all. She must get it from me, because I'm the same way. I'm going to try them both again here in a couple of weeks to see if maybe she will like them then. She will be 5 months on Tuesday, can't believe the time is going so fast with her!!!!

This past weekend was so wonderful! It was so nice to have so many people come in town just for Zoey and celebrate with us! It was a weekend full of first time meetings of Zoey and of course some spoiling time. Friday night my Aunt, Uncle, and Grandpa got into town just in time for dinner. We headed to Fred's Fish House and ate some really yummy catfish. Aunt Marcy got in town alittle while after dinner and then at about 11pm my 2 sisters, our Nephew, and my sister's boyfriend all got into town. We spent the evening hanging at the hotel and playing with Zoey. After everyone finally got in town, we talked for a bit and then headed to bed. Junior Auxiliary's Annual Easter Egg Hunt was early Saturday morning. It was the first year that it was actually not freezing cold or rainy! Cayden loved getting eggs and had a blast at the carnival afterwards at the Youth Center. Afterwards we headed to lunch and then everyone headed to our house to hang out for the afternoon. We spent the afternoon playing the Wii and everyone took turns stealing Zoey time! :) We had such a great weekend with everyone that came to town and I'm so happy to have so many people love our little girl!!! My best friend from childhood came in town for Zoey's Baby Blessing and her Dad was the speaker for the day. My nephew Cayden is so cute. He's 5 yrs old and very smart and says the funniest things some times! On Sunday during the Blessing I told him that the man at the front talking was my childhood friend's dad. He looked up at the front and looked back at me and says "Jesus is her Dad?" There was a picture of Jesus at the front of the church right behind her Dad. It was the cutest thing I think that I have ever heard! Here are some pics from the weekend:

She's ready for Easter with her Easter Bunny from Grandpa Hillers.

Aunt Cammie had so much fun playing with Zoey early Saturday morning and wanted to put the Pooh bear that she gave her on top of her head. Every couple of hours Aunt Cammie enjoyed playing dress up and changing Zoey's outfits! So was so good with Zoey.