Thanksgiving!

Mellany's very first road trip was to KC for Thanksgiving and it was a huge success! We left on Wednesday and Mellany was an excellent traveller. She slept the entire way, only waking up twice to eat...we couldn't have asked for an easier trip. On Thursday we headed to my dad's Thanksgiving at my Uncle Brian and Aunt Missy's and then after that we went to Johnny's Uncle Raymond and Aunt Nina's to end the evening. (Grandma Elaine also paid Mellany a visit for an hour or so in the morning.) On Friday, we spent the day at Virginia's before going to my mom's dinner at her house. It was a late night (like 2am late) which made it pretty difficult to get up on Saturday morning for breakfast at 8 at my dad's. Mellany spent the evening with Grandma Virginia on Sat while Johnny and I went out on a date. We realize that we are truly new parents because after eating dinner at Olive Garden, running to a few stores and checking out movie times with nothing that peaked our interest, we grabbed some ice cream and headed back to watch a movie while holding our baby girl. Maybe next time we'll be out longer than a few hours. On Sunday, we had some biscuits and gravy and then headed for NE. Mellany did just as great on this ride with only some minor crying right before we got home, which lead to this momma climbing in back with Bo and Mellany (on the floor no less-and Bo wasn't budging one bit). All in all it was a great, exhausting holiday with our baby girl. We are excited for the next trip back for my cousin's wedding, which I'm sure will be an experience in its own as well as the trip back for Christmas 2 weeks after that. Hopefully she continues to enjoy the car seat.

Other than our travels, we've been trying to get Mellany on more of a routine. Up until now, we just kind of let her pick when she would sleep during the day and for how long and she would decide how long she would be awake. After refreshing myself on "Babywise", I realized it is time for that to change so that she will start sleeping through the night. We have now adopted the Feed/Wake/Sleep cycle and in its 3rd day, I can say we have been successful so far. No, we haven't slept completely through the night, but we are getting there and the cycle is working. Basically the cycle means that you feed her, keep her awake with stimulation like changing her diaper, talking to her, tummy time, reading a book to her, etc. and then putting her to sleep for an hour and a half. The entire cycle from start to finish should be anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours. The cycle starts in the morning at the first feeding (somewhere around 7 or 8) and ends with the evening feeding (around 8). Throughout the night if she gets hungry, you just feed her, change her and put her back to bed. I believe that there is some controversy around the method, but for us, it seems to fit and is working like a champ! I would highly recommend it.

Johnny is staying busy at work even though harvest has come to a close, but we are looking to forward to a possible slow down over the coming weeks.

I am enjoying every minute of staying home. Although I do miss teaching, I absolutely love trading in dress clothes for pukey ones. It is the most challenging job I've ever had with the greatest reward and I am so fortunate to be able to spend each and every day with my favorite little lady. The hardest thing about staying at home with Mellany is the loss of adult interaction. You become so wrapped up in what you are doing, that you realize at 10:00pm that you haven't talked to anyone except a 7 week old. So, it is something that I am working on, slowly but surely :-)

Other than that, we're exciting about decorating the house this weekend for Christmas, completing a little online shopping and spending as much time soaking up our baby girl as we can!

A few pictures from Mellany's first trip!

Mellany's riding buddy

Sound asleep...

Dinner time

Thanksgiving morning with Grandma Elaine

Thanksgiving Day with Great Grandpa Jones....

....and Great Grandma Jones

4 Generations

Mellany & Daxton with Dad/Uncle Johnny

Katelynn holding Miss M

Barrett Family Photo

Bedtime with Daddy

Chatting with Grandma Virginia

Stretching out on Aunt Amiee

Ready to go to Grandma Elaine's Thanksgiving

Talking to Grandpa Jones

Daxton talking to Uncle Johnny

A "walker" in training....(Check out Zoe under the end table watching his every move)

Naptime while mommy and daddy are on a date

Telling Grandma Virginia goodbye

Makeshift changing table....on the way home

And a few random pictures.....

Finally getting some use out of the cradle

Tummy time for Mellany (& Bo) :-)

We are SO thankful!

What an amazing year it has been for us. God has truly blessed Johnny and I and we are so thankful! Last November I posted on a somewhat daily basis the things we were thankful for; this year I've decided to combine it into one post.....So, here's the list of a few things we're thankful for:

1. Mellany: She is the most amazing addition to our family and we aren't quite sure what we ever did without her. She brings us so much happiness and we hardly ever stop staring at her. She is by far the biggest blessing in our lives. 
2. Each other: Having a baby has definitely made us even more thankful for one another. We've become more dependent on each other than we ever have been and we wouldn't be anywhere without the other. We thank God everyday for bringing us together. 
3. Wet & Soiled Diapers: It's funny because instead of worrying about what time a movie starts at the theater or what we should do over the weekend for our date, we are worrying about having enough wet and soiled diapers and man, are we thankful for them! :-) 
4. Families: We have the most amazing families! They have really helped us out over the past 7 weeks (and prior) and we aren't even sure where to begin thanking them! We are so lucky!
5. Amazing friends: We have some great friends who are always there for us no matter what. 
6. Health: We are fortunate enough to be healthy for a good majority of the year with no major sickness and are very thankful for that. 
7. Bo: We love our "Bo Bo" and are so happy to have him in our lives. He's such a sweet, happy dog; who is happy to have a future playmate. 
8. Pictures: With life passing us by so quickly, we are thankful for pictures to help us remember. We are also thankful for pictures to share with friends and family who live far away. 
9. Being able to stay at home: I am lucky enough to stay at home with Mellany until she (and any future children) starts school. When we moved, we were able to set up our finances accordingly and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to do so. Getting to spend each and every day at home with my daughter as she grows up is the most amazing feeling in the world!
10. Cargill: Cargill is such a great company and Johnny states on almost a daily basis how fortunate he is to work for such an amazing company. 
11. Doctors, Medicine and Medical Advances: In light of a recent "rough" labor and delivery, we are more thankful than ever for doctors, medicine and medical advances. Without these things, who knows what would have happened to M and I. 
12. Phones: It's amazing to think how we ever lived without cell phones and being able to contact one another whenever we felt like. We are so thankful for this, especially living so far away from family and a good majority of our friends. 
13. Our vehicles: I think we take this for granted a lot, but we are so thankful for the 2 vehicles we have to get us from place to place. 
14. Date night: We haven't really had one of these since Mellany has been born, but we plan to over Thanksgiving vacation because we absolutely love them! It is nice to be out and about just the two of us to make sure we stay "connected" to each other. We can so easily get wrapped up in all things Mellany, we have to remember to focus on each other as well, so we're thankful for the alone time to do so. (I think grandparents will be thankful for this time too!)
15. Restaurants: There's nothing like a good restaurant....and we appreciate good food. 
16. Showers: Not being able to shower for 4 days while in the hospital definitely makes you appreciate being able to shower. (Having a baby at home also makes you appreciate them!)
17. Getting back into non-maternity clothes: Such a great feeling!!!
18. Movies: We really enjoy a night in (or out), watching a good movie. Like restaurants; we appreciate good acting and enjoy a great plot!
19. Cards & Gifts--M got so many amazing gifts and cards when she was born and for her baby shower and we are so thankful and appreciative for all of it. On the "sending" end, there's nothing like finding that perfect card that says everything you want it to. 
20. Neighbors: It is great to have friendly neighbors that you can see yourself becoming good friends with. Gotta love the "smaller" town. 
21. Small Town Businesses: I absolutely love small town businesses. Everything is so personal and you actually get to know the person you are supporting--we are very thankful for that and try to shop/support them as much as possible. 
22. Technology: Living far away from our family, we are thankful for technology and the ability to keep in touch in a variety of different ways. 
23. Seasons: While we favor fall and spring the most, we are thankful for a change in weather every few months. 
24. Relaxation Time: While we don't know what to do with ourselves when get get it, we love having time to relax as a family (or even with friends) with nothing on our "to-do" list....We are really thankful for time to "recoup". 

We wish everyone a safe & happy Thanksgiving holiday and look forward to seeing our family and friends on our trip to KC! 

Love you all, 

Johnny, Rachele, Mellany & Bo

Life Lately....

We've been keeping pretty busy around here with continuing our adjustment to parenthood, harvest winding down and "buckling" in for the winter (I'm in for a rude awakening I have a feeling when it comes to NE winters). Miss. Mellany is doing fantastic! She's 6 weeks old this week which I can't even believe and she's doing great. She's been somewhat fussy lately but we're thinking that it is due to formula. Because of the rough delivery I had and losing so much blood, my milk supply is very low and keeps getting a little lower so M isn't getting enough. I recently ordered a supplement that helps increase milk supply but while I am waiting on it to come in the mail, we are solely giving her formula. We've tried similac which plugged her up, enfamil newborn which made her gassy and enfamil for gas and fussiness which we think made her even more gassy and fussy.....with all of these formulas she has also started spitting up.....(and I recently read after the fact that changing formulas could also upset her stomach--good to know!) Needless to say, the supplements can't come fast enough so she can get back to nursing (cross your fingers).

We've also started using our cloth diapers! We've used them for about a week now and are really liking them. They really aren't as gross as we imagined them to be and the laundering isn't quite the burden that I thought. I am very pleased with them and am so excited to be saving $$! On that same note, we've decided that for the trips to KC we'll be using disposables. Doing laundry over the holidays isn't on our agenda, so disposables it is! Even with that, we'll be saving quite a bit of money.

We are excited to head to KC next week for Thanksgiving and then to go back for Christmas. On the "to-do" list for the next couple of weeks is to clean out our garage, finish up our Christmas shopping, make Christmas candy and soak up as much Mellany as we can....her newborn days are numbered!

Nursery Update

We got crafty and decided to put Mellany's name above her crib. This is something that Johnny had been wanting to do, but wasn't sure how it should be done. This is what we came up with and we really like the way it turned out. We can now say her room is officially complete!

Wordless Wednesday

A good friend of mine suggested more pictures of M a while back and while I've uploaded quite a few, we have more to be posted. So, I'm going to start a "Wordless Wednesday" post. Since writing is quite difficult fitting into the routine right now (if not obvious by the spacing between my last post and this one), just uploading a few pictures each Wednesday (with at least captions I'm sure) should be easy enough. I hope to eventually add some videos too!

Happy Wednesday!

Showing off my new shoes

Day 1 of cloth diapers....does it make my butt look big?! ;-) 

Morning naptime with mommy

Sleeping after puking on mom once and pooping on her twice

Talking with mommy

Making faces with daddy

A little love from Bo

Getting some help with a little gas

I love her foot placement 

I heart the swing

Sleeping with daddy

Sleeping with mommy

Helping dad get some work done... :-) 

A visit from Mr. Noah

Making faces at mom

First official tummy time!

1 Month!

Our baby girl is a month old already! We cannot believe it! She is constantly changing and we feel like if we blink, we miss something. In her first month Mellany has: gone shopping with her Grandma's, mom and dad, made friends with Bo, spent lots of time in the vibrating "magic chair", discovered the swing, battled the hiccups on a daily basis, discovered how to make faces as she falls asleep and while she has gas, learned how to grunt  as her way of speaking and literally melted mommy and daddy's heart over and over. Mellany is such a sweet, happy baby and we are so thankful; the only time she cries is when she wants something--no fussy baby here! She does not like her diaper to be changed or to be without clothes....we figure she is just very modest. Her legs are almost always crossed and her toes curled (just like daddy) when she eats and she's starting to actually focus in on things when it comes to her eyesight. She doesn't really like to sleep at night, as we are usually up about 3 times to feed her (sometimes those feedings last around an hour because she gets the hiccups, isn't tired, etc.) In the first week at home, Mellany got a cold and it nearly broke our heart because you really can't do anything about it. We gave her some saline drops and used the nasal bulb as much as we could but it took a couple of weeks to get "over" it; we've also overcome a little jaundice. Mellany's favorite place to sleep is on our chest and she really does like to be swaddled on occasion. She is still wearing newborn clothes (mostly gowns and one piece outfits with feet and snaps) and diapers but I'm sure that we will soon move out of the newborn size. On occasion Mellany will want a pacifier, but not always. Her burps are becoming louder and louder, which cracks us up--this huge burp coming out of something so small. Lastly, her sneezes are the most petite sneezes we've ever heard....and when she doesn't finish one, it's even cuter! 

It is so amazing to see Mellany grow and change and we can't wait to see how she continues to develop!