Merry Christmas

Ridley enjoyed her first Christmas and Phil and I enjoyed our first Christmas as parents. I can't wait to be able to make memories with Ridley like baking cookies for Santa and picking out/making gifts for family and friends. This year was fun, but next year will be even better!
On Christmas Eve, Phil, Ridley and I went to Phil's grandmother's home to what I lovingly like to call "Christmas Chaos." There are a bunch of kids running around and family members gathered. Ridley didn't know what to make of it all quite yet, but I'm sure it will soon become one of her favorite places to visit. Her Aunt Elizabeth told her all about Santa coming that night, and Ridley must have listened because she went to bed at 8:30pm (the earliest she's ever gone down for the night BY FAR). She woke up at 4am, but went right back to sleep.
The next morning, we opened a few gifts at the house, but honestly I didn't wrap many of her gifts. I didn't see a point really. We put a tree up, bought her a stocking and her first christmas ornament and I felt like that was enough for a first time mom to handle with a two and a half month old!



We went to Phil's mom's house (Grandma!) and Ridley had plenty of gifts to open there. Her Aunt Felicia in particularly spoiled her with a big bag of toys and clothes. She was so well behaved too! She was in such awe of all the bright colors on the tree and on the wrapping paper. She also loves to watch her cousins run around the house with her Aunt Elizabeth. Philip made his famous mashed potatoes and I made banana pudding--my nana's recipe.



After dinner we returned home and had a nice little afternoon with my mom (Grammie!) and took it easy. It was nice and relaxing. And Grammie brought over lemon squares and a pie.
We ended the day with a short walk down our road with the dogs. We got Ridley all bundled up and put her in the front carrier, a great way to walk off some of that turkey and banana pudding.



Hope everyone else had a great holiday as well! Now it's time to post pictures, take down decorations, and put away gifts. Whew!

Hands On Genius

The last few days and weeks, Ridley has been discovering her hands. She's staring at them, chewing/sucking on them and grabbing things better. Her favorite thing to do is to hold on tight to her burp cloth and munch on it. She's also reaching for things that I hold up for her. Tonight she grabbed a hold of her rattle shaped like a ring and shook it around for a minute or so before dropping it.

While staying with Nana Evelyn on our road trip last weekend, Ridley proved to me that she's a genius. So, I'm just letting everyone know right now: my child is a genius (I may not be the first mother to say that, huh? haha). I was talking to her on the couch and she was in a very talkative mood. She kept "coo-ing" and giving me some crazy facial expressions. She wanted to really tell me something! Then I started cooing back to her and I said, "ooh ooh ooh." And without missing a beat Ridley repeated back to me, "ooh ooh ooh." It was in the same tone and everything! I looked at Phil and Nana Evelyn. "Did you hear that?!" Nana Evelyn chuckled and said she heard it and Phil told me to do it again. So I said, "ooh ooh ooh." And sure enough Ridley repeated it again. We all got a kick out of it and I have witnesses that Ridley is a genius baby! The fact that she hasn't done it again is in no way proof against her genius!! I'm telling you, Ridley is twenty years away from taking over the world.

Road Trip

We just got back from our first family road trip! It was a great weekend of fun and family and Ridley did surprisingly well.

We left Friday evening after Philip got off work. Ridley cried a bit on the first leg up and we thought we were going to really be in for it. But we stopped and grabbed some quick dinner that allowed me to nurse and change her. After that she did pretty well. I sat in the backseat and played with her a little and then Philip and I changed places after the second pit stop. Towards the end of the trip (it was about a six hour drive total), she just fell asleep and rested until we arrived in North Wilkesboro.

We stayed that night with my great Aunt Evelyn. She has an RV camper on a mountain campground that is anything but a plain ol' RV. It's more like a small trailer. Aunt Evelyn calls it a "park" model. It was super cozy and comfortable. Ridley didn't sleep through the night once we were settled, but she only woke once and wasn't too fussy. We spent the next day (Saturday) helping Aunt Evelyn cook and talking/catching up. It was wonderful, and Ridley really enjoyed getting to know her Nana Evelyn.

That evening we went to a local church (across from the elementary school where I went to kindergarten and first grade) to have our family dinner. Everyone in my family from my great grandparents and down are welcome to this dinner. That means a lot of people since my great grandparents had seven children! I wish more could have made it, but there were still cousins and aunts aplenty (someone pointed out that our family is good for producing females--definitely true). Among the family that made it: Aunt Nancy, Evelyn and Shirley, cousin Cindy with her family, cousin Lindsey with her new addition, cousins Jessica and Tabetha with their families (Tabetha has another one on the way...a boy!), and cousin Sheila.

My cousin Cindy has a posting on her blog about the dinner and about meeting Ridley that really touched my heart. Here is the link: Soulshine-cindy

Isn't she incredibly sweet, loving and wonderful? And aren't Ridley and I lucky?! Cindy put it a bit more eloquently than I can, but I too felt it was special for Ridley to meet her family and for her family to meet her. (I will post pictures soon under a holiday posting, but for now check out Cindy's post with pictures!).

The next day we had an even larger family lunch (from my great great grandparents down) over at our family church (Bethany). Nana is buried there along with my great grandparents and great uncles. Aunt Nancy and Aunt Evelyn keep their graves full of flowers year round. I helped them this year while Ridley was in the car with Philip to change all the flowers over to winter/Christmas flowers. Then we had a large buffet style lunch with the extended family before heading back on the road (mmmm...southern country cookin'...yummy).

This time we only had to drive a couple of hours down to Gaffney, SC. That's where my dad's side of the family lives. Ridley cried a little on the trip, but fell asleep and let us make pretty good time. Mimi Hilda had everyone over to her house that evening and I don't think I held Ridley all of 20 minutes the whole night! Everyone loved meeting her, holding her and playing with her. I couldn't even begin to name everyone at this family get-together! But my uncles were there and so were all of Mimi Hilda's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren! And of course my dad, aka the new Papa John was also there to dote on his first and only grandchild! Ridley loves her Papa John.

There was so much excitement going on that night, Ridley didn't fall asleep until 1:00am! I thought I had her down around 11:00pm, but I walked back into the bedroom soon after putting her down and there she lay, staring at the ceiling content as could be. I just had to laugh. But once she fell asleep, it was another full night! She didn't wake until about 9:30am.

We headed out on Monday around noon and really had an incredibly smooth trip back. Ridley slept almost the entire way back. Our only stop was in Chapel Hill to eat at PF Chang's. Ridley got to nurse and get changed and we got to sit back and relax a bit too. Of course that night after we got home, Ridley didn't sleep well, but how could she when she had slept all day?!

I wish we could have stayed longer with everyone. I look forward to making another road trip with Ridley when she's a little older. Maybe we'll take a trip with warmer weather next year.

2 Month Checkup

Ridley had her two month checkup on the 9th. She weighed in at 12 pounds, 8 ounces which puts her in the 90-95% for weight! She's in the 75% for head circumference and 50% for length. She's growing well!

She also had her first set of vaccinations. It was a hard appointment to sit through because she was upset for most of it. I wanted to wait to nurse her until after her shots (so that I could soothe her) so she was hungry and crying as we waited for the doctor, talked to the doctor, sat through the doctor's examination, and then waited for the nurse to administer the shots. When they came in to give her the shots I was already a wreck. I wanted to feed her already and get the shots out of the way! I ended up nursing her a little in between the doctor's examination and the nurse anyway because I couldn't stand it any longer. But I just nursed her long enough to calm her down. The nurse came in finally, put a shot in each leg and quickly left the room to Ridley crying again. I wished she had been as fast to come in and give Ridley the shots as she was to leave the room afterward! I think it was a little over an hour after our appointment time by the time the vaccinations were given. I nursed her right after the shots and it seemed to calm her. Of course the shots took their toll on her because she slept almost the rest of the day. And when she did wake up during the day she was fussy and sore. Although I like to limit medication as much as possible, I gave her a little dose of infant Tylenol to ease the soreness. She did better the next day. I hate to think we have to do that all over again in two months!

Smiles and Songs

Ridley smiles a lot now and she recognizes me when she sees me. She's grabbing on to things, mostly her burp cloth and lovey (and my hair!) And she loves to talk a lot in the morning. She's in the best mood in the mornings. Her favorite place is the changing table where she'll tell me what she dreamed the night before and we sing Christmas songs together (Ridley coos along to my attempts). She also loves it when her onesies go over her head. She smiles and coos every time. And recently she has discovered the little birdie that hangs down from the handle on her car seat/carrier.

Sweet Sleep

It goes without saying that sleep has been in small supply since Ridley's arrival. The first few weeks home, she wanted to nurse every two hours (or more) from start to finish, day and night. It was exhausting and difficult. But I'm happy to say that she quickly started to get her days and nights sorted out and on December 2nd, she slept through the night for the first time! It seems that moms have different definitions of "sleeping through the night." I read some where that 5 hours was "STTN." I don't know who's night 5 hours is, but it ain't mine. So when I say Ridley slept through the night, I mean 7 hours or more. On December 2nd, she went to bed around 10pm and didn't wake up until 5:45am. I was so excited, I couldn't go back to sleep!

Of course the next night she didn't go to sleep until close to midnight and woke up twice in the night. But she's had a few more nights of full sleep since then. Last night she went to bed around 11:30p and didn't wake up again until 7:45am. I hope these nights get more and more frequent. Now we have to get her to sleep earlier! As of right now, she's asleep (went down around 9pm) and it's the earliest I've ever gotten her to sleep. Here's hoping (and knocking on wood) that tonight is a STTN night.

Bottle Battles

As I sit here typing this, Philip is in the nursery with our crying baby. We are trying to get her to take the bottle. I hadn't considered the idea that this would be an issue for us. I was so set on breastfeeding and nervous that I might not be able to do so that I made sure I did everything I could so that Ridley would take to the breast. As it turns out, she didn't have a problem taking to it at all. I was told not to introduce the bottle until she was at least four to six weeks old for fear she would prefer the bottle and not go back to the breast. We'll that's definitely not Ridley. She hasn't taken any types of pacifiers either. We've tried a couple of different types of bottle nipples to no avail and we've tried every suggestion we've come across. She has taken about an ounce or so before, but that's been rare. My mother-in-law watched her for us for a couple of hours and said she drank an ounce "under protest." Mostly she'll cry until she either gets the breast or falls asleep or she'll simply chew on the nipple!
She'll have to take it eventually. I will be going back to work in January and there won't be an alternative for her!

Trick or Treat and Giving Thanks

Here are a couple of pictures of Ridley's first Halloween and Thanksgiving. She didn't seem impressed this year, but I'm sure the hoopla will interest her a bit more next year.

With her great grandparents from Florida (Brewer).

Catching Up

Now that Ridley is about two months old and I'm getting a better handle on this thing we call motherhood more and more (do any of us ever really get a complete handle on it?), I've decided to pick this blog back up. What started out as a blog for my pregnancy will become a journal of Ridley's growth and development. I want to record her milestones and remember this hectic and crazy time in our lives. Of course the hectic and crazy aspect of our lives is what will make it all the more difficult to keep the blog up to date, but I'm going to do my best! I'm not sure how many people are still reading this blog or will come back to see it grow, but that doesn't matter to me as much as keeping a record for me and for Ridley. But for those of you here, thanks! And I hope you get a kick out of the Buehler Family journey!