Adjusted

So this pic has nothing to do with my post, but good heavens, I just love this beautiful baby!

Okay, back to the original post...

Ah...those milestones. Every new mama seems to always be obsessed with those, and I am no different.

 I remember back when Rowan was in the NICU, the doctors had mentioned that because she was born six weeks early she may have developmental delays. Basically it meant that she may not be meeting milestones at the same time as her term baby friends. The doctors said we had to use her adjusted age rather than going by her real actual age. What adjusted age means is how old Rowan would have been had she been born on time. For example Rowan is 6.5 months old. Her adjusted age would then be 5 months old. So, that means any big milestones we have to treat her like a 5 monther rather than 6 (I know, monther isn't a word, LOL).

I remember hearing that I just brushed it off. I figured that wouldn't be her case and we would be just fine. At times, even now, I forget that Rowan was a preemie. When I look at her I don't see preemie, I just see my beautiful girl, my little spit fire. She is a fighter and so incredibly strong.  She has had zero problems, and she's even chubbier and bigger than some of her term baby friends. I just figured that 6 weeks really wouldn't make a difference. I just remember feeling and thinking "we're going to prove the doctors wrong". Rowan is going to do everything on time". I remember feeling very smug that before Rowan turned her actual age of 4 months old (only 2.5 months adjusted at the time), she actually rolled over. She was actually quite roly-poly and was rolling for the next few days afterwards. I remember thinking "see I was right!" But then as some days went by she stopped doing it completely altogether. It freaked me out and made me think the doctors may be on to something.

Currently, Rowan rolls around like its going out of style. However, many of her baby friends (many of them 6 months like her) are currently sitting up with no problem, crawling and some are even pulling themselves up. Last week I got an email from baby center about sitting up. In reading the comments, some moms put

"Oh my 4 month old is sitting up" (really!??)
"My 6 month old is sitting up and crawling",
etc, etc, etc.

I see my friends' babies and these comments and I can't help but feel concerned. While Rowan is rolling, holding up her weight through her arms, she isn't sitting up. She sits up for 10-15 before she does a "TIMBER" fall. to the floor. AND certainly, she isn't crawling. I feel a sense of pressure and panic has seem to set in, till I remember....

ALL THESE BABIES WERE BORN AT TERM. MINE WASN'T. THE END.

When I remember that, it gives me a sense of peace. I have to calm the heck down, and realize Rowan will do things when its time, and when her body is ready. It is important to also know that even termies don't always do everything "on time". Despite all of this, it hasn't stopped me from being proactive. For the last 3 months, we have been seeing a physical therapist, to make sure she is developing okay and catching any issues early. In those sessions, the doctor has noticed Rowan has a slight bout of torticollis, which basically a head tilt. Its getting better, but something we for sure need to work on it. In this last session, we noticed she seems to have very slight floppy arms, which means when you pick her up, it feels like she could slip through your fingers. The therapist thinks its minor, and taught us a slew of things we could be doing. She thinks with tummy time and other exercising, she should improve between 1-2 months. On the positive, Rowan is the 95% percentile in meeting milestones as a "5 month old". For her real age, 6.5 months, she is at the 40% percentile for milestones. I heard that number and my heart sank, because as a teacher, 40% isn't good. However, her therapist said that was actually good, considering she is a preemie. With all of that, I left feeling my amazing little girl is on the right track.

All of this said, this is a good reminder to calm the eff down. Rowan is already doing amazing, and will continue to do so. I am so incredibly thankful that her early birth hasn't given way to huge problems. We have a lot to be thankful for. So, I am just going to sit back, continue to work with her, and just enjoy my beautiful girl. Time is flying too fast anyway.


 

Happy 6 months Rowan: the half year recap

Happy 6 months Rowan!

This makes my heart ache! How the heck did half a year fly by?!?!? I don't want my beauty to keep growing, lol!!!! It seems like yesterday I looked this, ready to deliver at 34 weeks:

and it seems like it was a minute ago that Rowan looked like this:

And now, she is my 6 month old tank of a girl!

Be warned, this post is long. I am your typical over emotional, overly sentimental girl. I will go over her stats in just a minute, but be aware, this blurb is long, LOL!
It has been quite the journey with our little girl. I will admit, it hasn't always been easy. Being a parent is pretty tough. She definitely keeps us on our toes.  However, we feel beyond honored and blessed that God handpicked us to be her parents. She has brought so much joy to our lives. As many of y'all remember, I really struggled with wanting children. Then, my life forever changed once I found out I was pregnant. Prior to writing this, I re-read some of my old posts of while I was in the hospital, NICU and our first few weeks home. Being the emotional person that I am, I totally cried. The start of our journey with Rowan wasn't easy at all, and it was so overwhelming of what we went through to get to her. The hospital stay was quite traumatic. People have asked if we will have more babies, and honestly, I am not too sure. Our experience was frightening. However, I see how God brought us through everything and protected my girl this whole time.


I remember how overwhelmed I was in the beginning. I full blown had the baby blues. Everything about being a mother was super overwhelming and I was terrified if I could even handle the job. Again, through God's grace, we all got to know each other, the blues disappeared and I can't imagine life without our girl. Life sure has been incredible, and Rowan makes me want to be a better person. I just love her so much!


Okay, enough of the sap, let's get to the fun stuff!



Name: Rowan Decaris Potter

Rowan's age: 6 months old, 20 weeks adjusted age

Weight: Well, this girl is a solid 17.13 pounds. I keep calling her my tank, because she is SOLID! I am SO not even close to being in decent shape, however, I have some strong arm muscles thanks to holding this heavy girl! Oh the rolls and cheeks! Kissing my chunkette NEVER gets old.


Solids?  No solids yet, still a little nervous. However, we bought some rice cereal and we will try this week. I think she is ready as she has great head control and she just STARES at us when we eat!






Clothing size: definitely 9 month clothing now, size 3 diapers and she can fit in very few 6 month clothing! We had bought a lot of cute, warm winter outfits in 9 months. However, in California its just not cold enough and she is outgrowing everything. We had to get 12 month clothes, sheesh! The one funny thing about her, is she has the tiniest feet! It makes me sad we have the cutest shoes for her, but they just keep falling off!

Rowan milestones (for her adjusted age):
-Rowan is has become the professional roller! Its amazing what a few weeks can do! She rolls everywhere, on both sides, etc. She is crazy and on the move! I am very excited for her physical therapist to see all these changes!

 -Rowan is NOT a huge fan of sitting. Her term baby friends are all sitting up and we are still working on it. However, I HAVE to remember her adjusted age! In the last few days, Rowan has ACTUALLY  been sitting up, the longest for about 15 seconds before she plopped over! We work on "bottom time" (haha that sounds weird) everyday, as much as possible. She will get it!





-Rowan hits things with force, and also  is starting hold her own bottles. However, I still hold them for her as she drops it, lol!

-Rowan holds and grabs things with such confidence! You have to be careful, because she grabs EVERYTHING. She is also good at putting her own paci in her mouth too!




Rowan loves:

-her food! She is eating about 6 oz most bottles, 8 oz at bedtime.
-loud, screechy noises. I know that sounds strange, but she will squeal, laugh, and scream back
-Songs, like "Row Row your boat" and this random weird "I know your name" song that I made up. Don't ask how it even came about, lol!
-CHEWING, especially burp cloths!
-Other kids. She loves watching older kids at preschool, especially her cousins. She will squeal, scream and coo at them.






Rowan doesn't like: Sitting in her carseat too long. Ooh she gets mad! STILL hates being burped.


Her first cold: Yep, Rowan got her first cold. Sadly, she caught it from me, despite my best efforts to be careful. I was super sad because she was so dang congested. However, she was a trooper! She had a very low grade fever one night, but beyond that, she took in stride! I am glad she is building immunity.


New/fun things we did this month:


-For our 5th wedding anniversary, we went to the beach again, and stayed in a hip hotel called The Aloft, which was awesome, modern looking and fun. I want to go back simply because they had Bliss body products in the room. Heck yes! Rowan once again was an incredible traveler, and did so well! We visited one of my closest friends and she was such a good girl!


-We went to the pumpkin patch! It was so fun! She was amused by the pumpkins and even tried to eat the hay bales when sat her on them!


-She was asked to be a flower girl! My friend Shannon is getting married and asked her to be the flower girl! Shannon's wedding won't be till February 2016, but still, so fun to be asked! I also got asked to be a bridesmaid! Yay!


-I was off for 2 blissful weeks, thanks to a fall break. That's why I love being a modified traditional teacher! Thanks to that, days were spent with my beautiful little girl. I just loved it! It sure was different, considering breaks prior to Rowan I was a lady of leisure and I had a ton of free time. However, spending tons of time with her was awesome!

How is Rowan's spit up?: Actually its flaring up! I kinda think its because she is so dang active that it just comes up more easily. It doesn't bug me, and more importantly, she isn't fazed at all.

Sleep:
I am furiously knocking on wood as I write...but her sleep is decent. She isn't sleeping perfectly through the night, but our routine goes like this. Bath around 6:15, bed by 6:30-7. She eats at 11 or 11:30 and then "typically" sleeps till 5:30, sometimes 6. She will squeak and let out small cries usually around 3 am, but usually a paci re-insert does the trick. She starts off on her back, but she ends up on her tummy. I am beyond PETRIFIED of SIDS, however, I have to let go and let God. Especially now that she's rolling around!



Naps?
She takes a cat nap in the early am, a bigger one in the mid morning and afternoon.

Rowan's personality so far: This girl is hilarious! She is super squealy and now screams for joy! She gets super loud sometimes! Grumpy kitty faces  sometimes make an appearance in pictures, but in reality, she is super happy and so smiley! She loves to be snuggled and doesn't mind the endless kisses we give her. However, there is one thing. She literally, throws fits. She gets super screamy, to the point where she sounds like a 2 year old. She will arch her back and let out the angriest of cries. 90% of the time is because we aren't moving fast enough, or we left her playing alone (probably because we went to the bathroom or something) and she is mad about that. Honestly, it makes me laugh, because its so dramatic. However, we will have reel that in as she gets older.


It sure has been an incredible, life changing 6 months. We love you forever  sweet Rowan!!!


Here's our photo dump:

children

Rowan's 3 month photo shoot...HAHA

Is it insanely embarrasing that my beautiful girl is nearly 6 months and I am just barely posting 3 months? Sigh, I am a hot mess!

We decided at the time to Ro's pictures when she was closer to 4 months. I did that because I wanted her to be more sturdy with holding up her head, etc. It was a good thing to wait and she was definitely stronger when we did our session. For our pictures, we went with Jamie Cardoza photography. Jamie is incredible, awesome, and super affordable.

Jamie set our session for 6:30, and I was incredibly nervous Ro would be a nightmare. Rowan is very much routined and has a pretty set bedtime, and I assumed she would be a hot mess. I let Rowan nap as long as she needed to, and she took a whole bunch of naps! While she napped, I had styled some outfits and accessories for her, and I was beyond excited to see how she would look.

DUring her session, Rowan was GRUMPY. I know she has a tendency to look grumpy in pictures, but in reality, Rowan is a super excitable, happy girl. I was hoping for that, but of course, got the opposite. During her pictures, she had a stink face about 90% of the time. She was squeaky and whiny throughout the shoot too. I was so nervous about how they would turn out. I was thankful for Jamie's patience!

About a week or so later, Jamie put out some sneak peeks, and turns out the pictures were adorable! Once we got all of our pictures, I couldn't get over how much I loved them. Some of faces she had made totally made the picture hysterical and adorable. It actually made the pictures quite funny. This girl is so sassy and silly. I was/am so happy with them! I can't wait to meet next month for pictures!

Here are some of my absolute faves, can't wait for her 6 month shoot!:

A re-do....Happy 5 months Rowan!

So, I demand a redo!

                                                      

Holy crap, I was so rushing on this post I forgot a few things. I like writing a cute, sappy paragraph before all the stats and for some reason, I totally left it out  :( So, here we go:

I can't believe Rowan turned 5 months. I am not very happy about this, her babyhood is FLYING by and I am not a fan. I love babies and I truly am enjoying having my own precious baby. Rowan is seriously the most amazing little human. I look at her and can't believe I made her. Seeing life through her little eyes is amazing. I swear she seems to discover something everyday. It is incredible.  Being a mama isn't always easy. I sometimes wonder if I am up for the task, and if I am even doing it right. I do remind myself that God handpicked me to be the mother of this beautiful girl and I have to keep trusting in him to guide us!

Some updates about my little darling:

Name: Rowan Decaris Potter

Rowan's age: 5 months old, 14 weeks adjusted age

Weight: My chunk-a-munk is 16.5 pounds (this is an updated weight).This girl is quite the tank! She is solid and getting super heavy! She has more than tripled her birth weight in less than 5 months! I just LOVE having a chubby baby! 
Solids?  No solids yet. Her pedi wants us to wait another month, because of her preemie age. Honestly, I am okay with that. However I am so excited to start giving her solids!


Clothing size: definitely 6 month clothing, size 3 diapers and starting to fit in 9 month clothes, eek! I have had to REALLY make sure she wears all of her beautiful outfits. I can't believe how fast she is outgrowing everything!

Rowan milestones (for her adjusted age):
-Rowan is a pro at tummy time. She actually really enjoys it now, but sometimes gets tired after awhile. She does this crazy thing where she scoots and pushes her legs under with a lot of force. She was doing it last month but seems like she is getting even better at it.  It seems like the makings of potential crawling!

-That said...this crazy girl refuses to roll over from tummy to back. SIGH. What bugs me is that she was totally doing it a few weeks ago. When she DID it a few weeks back, she was super rolly polly and now she's stopped. OH THIS GIRL. I have been told with ALL babies this can happen. However, Miss stubborn pants tries with all her might to roll over from BACK to tummy and is getting pretty dang close to mastering it. What cracks me up is that this is way harder to do than rolling from tummy to back! Oh Rowan! And remember, this is all for her adjusted age. Anything milestone wise, we have to treat her like a 3.5 month old (that's her adjusted age) rather than her actual age. I have to always remind myself of that too.

-Rowan is starting to put EVERYTHING in her mouth and is still super "grabby" with everything. she loves to pull on toys, swat and hit. She will grab anything that is within her reach with no problem.

-Rowan isn't sitting up completely on her own, but she can stay "up" for at least 3-5 seconds before plopping over, lol!

-Rowan is SUPER CHATTY. She was always cooing before, but now she comes up with all kinds of different noises. Sometimes when she is crying she will do a "mummma mumumummum" sound, lol! I feel like she definitely "found" her voice and is super loud about it. I think its precious but in the middle of church it can be distracting, LOL!

-I think we MIGHT  have a teether. Most docs and mamas will tell you 4 months is TOO YOUNG to be cutting teeth. I agree. However, she is so insanely drooly, and will soak your shoulder more quickly than you can wipe her mouth. She will bite hard on anything, especially if it's hard.

Rowan loves:
-her food! She is eating about 6 oz most bottles, 8 oz at bedtime.
-is starting to have favorites with certain toys
-WATER. This makes my heart happy, as hubby and I were swimmers and water polo players. She loves baths now. She will kick so hard (potential breast stroke swimmer?) and splash the water with her little hands. So sweet!
-CHEWING, especially burp cloths!


Rowan doesn't like: sitting. She is getting to the point where she is moving in that direction but she really doesn't like to sit. OH THIS GIRL. Already she is showing her Potter stubbornness!! I know she will like it eventually.

New things we did this month:

-Towards the end of her 3rd, practically 4 month, we FINALLY went back to church and it was awesome. We kept her away because I was so nervous about the whooping cough epidemic and because of her being a preemie, her doctor wanted us to wait 6 months, but that I couldn't handle. Rowan does decently well, but she gets VERY CHATTY right when pastor is preaching. People will turn and smile, but I feel terrible I have a noisy baby. I am not ready to send her to nursery, so we sometimes watch the service in the cafe when she decides to be loud. I am loving it though. I am so excited to raise my little in the church!

-Birthday parties! My little girl's social calendar was quite busy with many invites to birthday parties! We couldn't go to all, but the ones we made it to, they were so much fun! Of course Rowan couldn't do a whole lot, but it was nice to be around friends and other little humans. 

- we tried "swimming" (or at least a modified version). Here in good ol' California it is still stupid hot, which makes me angry. Hello, where are you cold fall weather? We were invited to a pool birthday party, but I didn't plan for her to swim. Rowan has uber sensitive skin, and I was nervous putting her in chlorine. However, my poor babe got so hot! So, we borrowed a swim diaper, put her in those big baby bath tubs, and filled it with cold hose water (it was SO HOT outside). I thought she would scream because of the cold water, but she LOVED IT. She squealed, kicked with all her might and splashed. I had so much fun watching her! She looked so funny in her swim diaper! Oh this girl:

How is Rowan's spit up?: Still so much better! Thank you Jesus!

Sleep: I'm terrified to say anything because I am CERTAIN I will jinx it! Well, this month was big in regards to sleep. Rowan used to start off the night on her tummy, and after her 11 pm bottle we would move her to the rock and play. She didn't like being flat on her back. It bugged me that we did that, because I just wished she could just stay in her crib. I also wanted to stop tummy sleeping because we had a bit of a scare. Her snuza (which is a breathing alarm) went off while she was on her tummy. She woke up immediately (after we ran like the wind and picked her up) and to be honest, I think it was a false alarm. Anyway, it was enough to scare me. AND YES, I know once she starts rolling like a pro she may end up on her tummy. Anywho, we began "training" her on her back. It was hard in the beginning, but surprisingly, she has been back sleeping for almost a month now! Again, terrified I will jinx it, but after her 11 pm bottle she basically sleeps till 5. She will squeak and cry in her sleep at times, usually around 3 am. She isn't awake and normally if you put in her paci, she will fall back to sleep. Oh geeze, I bet I just jinxed it all, LOL!

Naps?Well...she has big time regressed. Now that she is on her back, she doesn't stay asleep very long. Sigh. She will take a super short nap, a decent one in the middle, and sometimes an okay one in the afternoon. 

Rowan's personality so far: This girl is quite the child. She is very stubborn about things but this girl is so insanely cute and snuggly. She makes quite the faces, but LOVES to smile. She LOVES attention too. We get so many comments while we are out,  and boy, does she know it! She will smile and coo. Oh Rowan! People always comment how deliciously chubby she is, or how beautiful she is. It makes my heart want to burst!

Here is our monthly photo dump:

The day that everything changed

So I hesitated writing this post. It may be weird, cheesy and may induce some eye rolling.

However, I don't think I care, lol!

A year ago today was the day I found out I was pregnant. 

I remember it to a T. It was 9:45 at night, and we had just come celebrating my mom's birthday. I had been a day late, which has happened. I had felt something was a bit off. I took my pregnancy test and just sat. After 2 quick minutes, I peeked and saw one word that would forever change my life:

                     Pregnant

I remember feeling shocked and stunned. What?!?!??! After some time of shock I started laughing. At that moment, my heart felt an indescribable joy. This was huge because as most y'all will recall, I was pretty certain I didn't want kids. I felt like having a child would be a death sentence to our fun, carefree lives.

Yet seeing that word, well, my world was happily turned upside down. 

After telling my shocked husband, we decided to keep this to ourselves until I was 12 weeks along. I was petrified of miscarriage.  Those first few weeks I was nervous, scared and beyond excited. We had a Disneyland trip and a Las Vegas trip planned. I remember feeling so nervous and fussing over my tiny baby. I was so excited, I wanted to scream it from the rooftops! In Vegas we went out to the clubs (I know how trashy that sounds, I wasn't showing!) we broke down and told this other adorable couple that we had just met, lol! It took the edge off of us dying to tell friends and family. When we finally did, our families cheered and cried tears of joy. When we announced on FB and IG we were met with a plethora of likes, comments and private messages, wishing us well. This is the pic we revealed:

 I went on for 8 ish months having the happiest pregnancy on the block. I had no morning sickness and no major issues. For the first time in my life, I felt like a super human. I felt alive, radiant and beautiful. I had the quintessential big belly and I couldn't be happier. To this day, I still feel kinda depressed about not being pregnant anymore. That's how much I loved it. Am I psycho? Probably, but anyway...

As we all know, stinker belle Rowan decided to come early, etc. etc. But in the end, God gave me the best prize I could ever ask for. 

That day was monumental for me, and it forever changed my world and flipped it upside down. I feel thankful I got to take part of this huge miracle and feel honored God picked me to be the mother of this beautiful, precious baby girl. September 22nd will always be special for  me!!!

The catch up series: Our first road trip as a family

One of the things hubby and I are known for is our constant travels and roadtrips.

Prior to Rowan, we would at least go on 4-5 trips yearly, and really try to enjoy the crap out of life. We would often do things on a whim, and I loved it.

Then we had Rowan.

Haha, sounds like I made her a buzzkill, LOL! Definitely don't mean to, because she is incredible, but life sure came to a skidding halt when our beauty was born. For a good 3 months, we hardly did anything and that was very hard for me. At that point, we would have at least had two trips and our annual Vegas trip done (sigh, I miss Vegas).

Towards the end of July, we decided that we would road trip somewhere as a family.
We decided to go to Santa Cruz beach and stay one night, just in case it got ugly.

Oh how I regret on staying longer! Turns out, Rowan is a decent traveler! We had so much fun and she did so incredibly well, especially in the 3 hour car ride!






We started our trip by making a pit stop for breakfast

The day we got there we checked in to our hotel, and then went straight to the beach. We showed Rowan the water and the boardwalk. We spent a good chunk of time there, and had dinner. Rowan was a rock star! We then headed back to the hotel got her and ourselves ready for bed. We let Rowan cosleep with us, which we normally don't do. Rowan had a harder time settling down, but once she did, she actually slept through the night and we woke up completely refreshed!

Day 2, we got up, packed up our stuff and had breakfast. Rowan was a little more squeaky and I held her while I ate, which was kind of a drag, lol!

We ventured to downtown Santa Cruz, which was actually pretty fun!  We stopped at a winery, did some window shopping  and enjoyed the gorgeous day! She had one small meltdown, but then she conked out. After, we headed over to Capitola, one of my other most favorite beach spots. It was super crowded but we took Rowan to the beach and took some pictures. She of course, was asleep the whole time. After, we gorged on some pizza from one of our favorites, Pizza My Heart.

On our way out, we made sure to stop by Gayle's for pastries. It was a good thing we stopped because Rowan had a MAJOR blowout! From that little pit stop, I got some of my most favorite pictures of her:

On the way driving home on hwy 17 (which is known for make people car sick thanks to the winding roads), Rowan had a tough time in the car, because it seemed like she actually got car sick. She got super inconsolable but after 20 minutes, she calmed down and went to sleep. We made it home safe and sound.

We were so excited our trip was a success that we planned a few others. In the next 3 months, we have 3 road trips planned and I am so excited!!!  This is the stuff I am so looking forward to. Having our adventures with our amazing daughter :)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Catch up series: our first mother and Father's Day

Hey everyone,

I'm trying really hard to make sure I'm catching up on all my posts a life in between NICU and now. 

Next step in the series, our first mothers and fathers day. I was so stoked that we brought Ro home in time for Mother's Day. I was so worried we wouldn't be able to. On Mother's Day, Rowan had been home for a grand total of 10 days. To be honest, it was kind of rough for us. The whole experience was just all kinds of crazy. Finally bringing our newborn home was amazing and great. However it was also tough as any parent would imagine. We were running on very little sleep. I was still dealing with so many hormones, feelings, and baby blues. When Mother's day rolled around, I was looking forward to celebrating and enjoying a great day.

 

We celebrated at my sister's house. We started off with eating yummy appetizers and then onto a delicious lunch! Shannon and Rowan got me some beautiful jewelry and a willow tree figurine! That figurine was so especially sweet, because Shannon gave me an expecting willow tree figurine. I really loved it and his beautiful card and words made me cry! Overall, it was super relaxing and the best of it all, I got a nap! Something I needed so badly! I loved celebrating Mother's Day. I never would have thought I would get to this point in my life, and getting the chance to celebrate it was truly special!

 

Some pics of our day, I can't believe how tiny Rowan was:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now on to Father's day.....

 

If any of you know my Shannon, you know how much my precious husband wanted to be a father. He is one of those rare gems that had no problem at the thought of having children, if anything, I was the one holding us back.

 

Shannon has been such an amazing daddy from day 1. Rowan is seriously one blessed little girl. He super hands on, and is overall just incredible. I was SO excited to celebrate my husband! We once again celebrated at my sister's house. We had a delicious lunch, gave the daddies of our family some gifts and just lounged! Really it was a perfect way to celebrate. Shannon also got to take a nice nap with his princess too. I am so excited Shannon got to celebrate his first father's day. It was so fun!

 

I sadly didn't take AS many pics, but here they are!