3 Months Old

Our little Norah is now 3 months old, and I can hardly believe it! Her little personality really shines through her tiny little body. We absolutely adore her.

People often ask us if Norah ever stops smiling. Um... no. Not really.

 

 

You getting the feel of her crazy smiliness, yet?

Okay, her one pout face fluke

As long as she's not hungry or sleepy, she is ready to ham it up for you. She will often sit there and stare at Rich and me with a big grin on her face, waiting for us to look at her. She's such a cheese! We have gotten some full out laughs out of her now, not just little giggles, especially when we're getting her ready for bed. Rich is the best at getting her to laugh.

We are still haven't figured out hair and eye color. She does, however, have my big eyes, as witnessed in the above picture. I don't feel like her eyes have really changed color in the past month, but I still have no idea what color to call it. Her hair hasn't grown at all and probably won't for a nice little while (which is a real shame because I am dying to use the hair clips we have).

Since there was no checkup this month, I don't know her stats. I am pretty sure, however, that she has chunked up a bit. For about two weeks she was a champion eater, going for thirty minutes every three hours. Then, suddenly, she decided she wasn't really interested in eating anymore. Now, she gets what she wants and is ready to be done. Meal time is often a struggle, especially if I'm trying to sneak in a feeding too early. She seems to get what she needs, though, and weighs over 13 pounds and is about 24 inches now.

She is a major hand sucker. You have to be careful with those hands because they are almost always covered in slobber. She is also getting pretty good at finding her feet, too. She's started grabbing them, although she's not exactly sure what to do when she gets a hold of them. Norah also loves to talk. She will goo and gah constantly, making it kind of difficult to hear what is going on around us. But it never fails to make me laugh because it is so stinkin' cute.

Our one big struggle right now is sleep. She is kind of a rotten sleeper. If she is not swaddled and held close with a pacifier in her mouth, you are not getting her to sleep. I got my hopes up for length of sleep because she slept through the night a couple times the past month. But, over the past two weeks weeks, things have gone in the opposite direction. She finally grew out of her cheater swaddle (the SwaddleMe), so I've been trying my own imperfect blanket swaddle with very little success. She's out of that thing like it's no big deal, and I'm waking up with her at all sorts of crazy hours (last night it was 12:45 and 4:15) trying to re-swaddle her. I'm heading to Babies 'R Us this weekend and getting the next size up of the SwaddleMe because I'm dying for sleep here.

I have been trying the Baby Whisperer's sleep method, which has helped her to fall asleep more quickly but still not on her own in her crib. I don't want to try any cry-it-out methods because we have people on all sides of us (although with how much I hear from the family above us at all hours of the night I kind of want to give them a little taste of what I'm going through down here). I think it has also helped with naptime. We used to be lucky if we got two hours of naps total each day, but now we're getting closer to four.

Basically, we're still learning this parenting thing. We're not perfect, but she sure is adorable, isn't she?

Farewell

The above truck has been in Rich's family for a long time. Rich's dad bought it new in 1992, and the Nelson family has treasured it since. Notice the lack of rear-view mirror on its right-hand side? This feature earned it the name Vincent Van Gogh, Vince for short. Rich was lucky enough for it to become his truck, which then meant it became ours when we got married. It's hard to say what was so special about Vince. He was a great little runaround truck, and Rich always said that he was just fun to drive. (I've only driven him once since I'm a little afraid to drive a stick shift, but even that little drive was fun for me.)

But now, Vince has taken his last truck breath. While driving home one day, Vince blew a head gasket coming up our hill. It seems 5 Mile Road was just too much hill for him in the end. As much as we'd like to keep Vince going until Norah can drive him, it's just not practical to put $1500 into him and wait for something else to break down in the only too near future.

This was the truck that Rich and I dated in. He took us on our first not-really-a-date to play catch. He took us to our first real date, dinner and the driving range. He took us to Ogden for Rich to meet my family the first time. He took us to the park where Rich proposed. (He, however, did not drive us on our wedding day - Vince wasn't exactly made for snow.)

Vince makes me think of summers in Provo after we were married, when it's just fun to be there because most of the students are gone and the city is quiet and beautiful. Vince was our vehicle of choice for Provo summers. Now, when I think of Vince, I'll always remember driving down the peaceful Provo streets on a warm summer evening.

I guess this is goodbye, old friend. I hate to see you go. You had a good run, and the Nelsons will treasure all 236,686 of your miles.

(Think this post is a little over-the-top for a truck? Obviously, you never knew Vince.)

Two Months

I can hardly believe that Norah is now two months old. Time goes by so quickly with a baby, even faster than before. It's amazing how much she has changed and how much her personality shines through.

Norah is our happy little girl. I know research says babies don't smile socially until about 6 weeks, but Norah, whether reflex or not, started smiling around 2 weeks old and hasn't stopped since (she's currently smiling in my arms right now). And we're not just talking about sleepy smiles and random grins. These are in response to people and are full-faced and mouth-lifting where she squints her eyes like her daddy. Rich is the best at getting her smiles.

Norah is very social. She loves to be held and will only fall asleep at night if someone is cuddling her (for about half an hour). The same goes for after nighttime feedings. She can chill in her bouncy seat for a while but gets bored with it and wants to be held. I might have created a monster by holding her all the time, but I don't care that much. Things won't always be this way, so I know I should enjoy her cuddling while I can.

 

Norah had her 2-month checkup yesterday. Her stats basically told us what we already knew - she is long and skinny. She is 23 3/4" long (90th percentile) and 11 pounds 1/2 ounce (50th percentile) and has a head circumference of 15 1/2" (80th percentile). At her two-week appointment, Norah was in the 75th percentile for weight, meaning she hasn't advanced in the weight like we thought she would. Nothing to worry about as long as she keeps eating well; she just might be smaller than we originally thought. The nurse and PA kept telling her how smiley she was, and then they jabbed her with the vaccine needles, instantly ending the smiles and starting the screaming. I almost started crying with her. It's so hard because you can't explain that you let those mean people poke her because it's for her own good. She was pretty crabby for the rest of the day, but what can you expect?

Norah sleeps pretty well, usually about 4 or 5 hours between feedings. This week I got lucky and had a seven-hour night, followed by an eight-hour one. That was great, but I don't think it's going to last (we sure didn't have that last night). The PA said she probably needs the calories from nighttime feedings anyway since she's such a skinny minny, so I don't mind if it means putting a little meat on those bones. We swaddled her from the beginning, which worked great, but then I tried to stop once the hot weather finally hit Spokane. That worked for about a week, but then Norah decided one sleepless night that she'd only sleep for about thirty minutes at a time without it. Now we're back to swaddling, and I can get a little more rest. There are currently no plans to stop it again in the near future.

I have no idea who Norah looks like, but we hear that she looks like both of us. We're still trying to figure out what color her eyes and hair are going to be. Her eyes were rather brown when she was born, but a lot of these pictures make them look blue. I think we'll end up with some sort of hazel color. She had very fine, short, dark hair when she was born, but now when I look at her roots I see quite a bit of blond there. I don't think we'll really know her hair color until she's like a year old. She is also super active, a little crazy at times. If she gets going, she will kick and kick for hours on end. That's probably the main reason she's skinny - she burns so many calories moving around all the time.

We love our little Norah Kate. It hasn't always been easy (definitely not), but it's more than worth it. It's so fun getting to know her better and getting to know ourselves as parents. I love when I figure out something new about her.One of the biggest things Rich and I have learned is patience because now things cannot happen on our schedule. But most importantly, we've learned even more about love. It is so wonderful feeling how much our love for each other has grown and how completely this little girl has captured our hearts.

Heavenly Father really has blessed us with this special, beautiful, happy little girl.

Blessing Day

On July 8th, Rich was able to give Norah a beautiful baby blessing in my parents' ward. I would have liked to have her blessing in our ward, but it worked out better to do it in Utah since so much family was there. We felt very blessed for both of her grandpas, two of her great-grandpas, and six of her uncles to be in the circle, and, of course, to have Rich give her the blessing (we were one of those annoying groups that have a ton of men in the circle).

Norah's blessing was wonderful. I know Rich was inspired to say the things he did. I feel the overall message of her blessing was that she is loved, which is so true. We are so lucky to have Norah in our lives.

Norah's blessing dress was gorgeous (and overflowing out of her car seat!)

I feel like I have a special relationship with both of my grandpas. It really meant a lot that they were both able to stand in Norah's blessing circle.

 

Grandpa Max (rocking the fedora) 

Grandpa Burnham

Dre and Jed

The main reason we went to Utah was for a wedding for Andrea ("The Dre") and Jed. It was a beautiful wedding in the Bountiful temple, followed by a great reception in Brigham City.

The boys with their girls 

 All of the Nelson cousins

 The three 2012 cousins

 Rich had fun practicing his photography skills on the temple

 Our happy baby

I hate it when the eating of the cake is nice (I got cake up Rich's nose at our reception), so good job Dre and Jed!

This was the last wedding for our siblings. All six Nelson kids and all four Fredrickson kids are married, so no more family weddings here (at least until our niece Alison gets married, hopefully in the distant future). The best part of this is that all of our siblings chose wonderful spouses. We love all of our siblings-in-law, and Jed is no exception to the rule. Welcome to the family, Jed!

Road Trip, Part 1

The past few weeks were pretty busy for the Nellys. We made the road trip to Utah for a basically nonstop vacation. The trip was great (though exhausting), and some of the best news is that we didn't lose any of the pictures from our camera this time around! (I've also discovered how much fun Instagram is, so we have several phone pictures, too.)

Norah handled the drive pretty well. We left about 10:30 p.m. hoping she would sleep for pretty much the whole ride, and she sort of did. There was about half an hour where she was not a happy camper, but after that she slept from somewhere in Montana all the way to Ogden.

 

Lola, the first cousin Norah ever met

Grandma Burnham's Party

Grandma Burnham (my mom's mom), turned 80 at the end of June, and Rich and I were lucky enough to make it to her birthday party. A lot of my mom's family was there, so it was fun to see a lot of people I haven't in a while.

Norah with Uncle Brian

The cousins were taking turning sticking their fingers inside Norah's pacifier - oh to be a kid again

So Many Cousins

Norah is going to be lucky enough to have four cousins about her age. On the Nelson side, she has Trey,who was born in January, and Kelsey, who was born two weeks after her. (The other two on the Fredrickson side and are yet to be born, although baby Hugh is only eight days away now!)

 

Notice how bumpy and red Norah's face is? She had some kind of rash, but Rich's pediatrician uncle told us how to help her so be sure to notice in the pictures to come how much better her skin looks (and don't mind the boogers!)

Kelsey's Blessing

Cami and Ethan blessed their adorable little girl while we were there. Baby blessings are special experiences. Ethan gave his daughter a beautiful blessing, and this one made us especially excited for Norah's (which would come a week later). 

 Kelsey, the star of the day

4 generations on Rich's side

I can't get over Trey's amazing blue eyes!

 

 These two cousins could hardly be more different. It's crazy to see how different their personalities are, even when they're so young!

 Norah smiles all the time - I LOVE it!

Long day for Poppa

More Cousins

My mom can't resist matching outfits for the girl cousins.

 Grandma Kari had to get her Norah fix while she could.

 Oh my gosh, is Carson not the cutest?!

Handsome Skyler

4th of July

This picture does not do justice to how completely opposite these two are! Somehow Rich and I ended up with the long, skinny one! 

The soon-to-be newlyweds

Obviously a lot happened while we were in Utah - so much that I do not have enough time/patience to post it all right now. So, more to come later!