First time at the park

Yesterday, we (Auntie Amanda, Uncle Billy, Grandma and me) took Samantha to the park for about an hour or so. It was so beautiful I had to get Samantha outside and play. First thing we did was swing, which she LOVED. Then we went to slide on the slides. We could only really slide on one. The rest were a little wet from all the rain we've been getting. But we had a very nice time at the park. I can't wait to take her again!
Samantha is trying SOOO hard to crawl. She can almost get it. She gets on her knees pretty good now and she tries to push herself forward but she ends up pushing herself on her side. I'm thinking she'll get it here in a week or two!
Also....
Last night Seth told me that he's ready to start on baby #2. He said that Samantha is getting more mobile now, so he's ready to get #2 on its way. So he told me to start tracking my ovulation days and most fertile days. We're going to try on our own for a few months and see what happens. If we can't do it on our own then we'll have to get put on Clomid (to help me ovulate) again. Wish us luck!!

TEETH

I noticed on Friday, March 12th that Samantha has a tooth poking through her gums. She was being very cranky for Grandma that day so I decided to look and see if she had any teeth coming in. I saw a little white dot and felt a bump. So Samantha is finally getting a tooth in. Then Friday night Seth looked and saw another white dot so I took another look and there it was, another tooth coming in. It's her 2 front bottom teeth. She hasn't been doing too bad. No fever. Just cranky sometimes. She had a rough night last night though. I could tell she was hurting. I gave her some Tylenol around 8:30-9. Gave her, her bath like usual. She fell asleep around 9-9:30. She woke back up about an hour later crying.... :o( She seems to be doing okay today. I haven't checked to see how her pearly whites are doing, but I'm sure they are still a little white dot.
Also, She has been trying to talk for a couple weeks now. I swear, I have heard her say dada and mama. I have been working with her to try to get her to say dada. She's getting there. I know she doesn't know what it means or anything. But just hearing her trying to say some words is just awesome! :o)

Samantha's 4 month doctors appointment

Samantha had her 4 month appointment on Friday, February 12th. She's doing wonderful! She's 14 lbs and 24" long. She's growing so fast. The doctor gave us the okay to start her on solid foods. Which we are pretty excited about. She has been ready for a long time but we just wanted to make sure the doctor okayed it first. On the down side... poor little girl had to get a couple of shots. It was so flippin sad! The nurse stuck the needle in her leg and Samantha jumped so high. It was very hard to watch! Of course I cried and Grandma did too. She didn't feel too good the rest of the day and the next day but she was back to her usual happy self on Sunday. We are so blessed to have such a healthy baby girl!

Samantha is 3 Months!!!

Samantha turned 3 months this month! She weighs almost 13 lbs. Not sure how long she is. Her 4 month check up is in February. So we'll find out all that stuff then. I just can't believe how fast it has gone by! It's amazing how she went from just laying there not doing anything to just none stop talking(cooing), kicking her legs, laughing, smiling. She smiles and laughs AND talks all the time!! She also loves playing with her toys and puts anything and everything in her mouth, especially her little hands. She has a few toys that are her favorite... her lion (Mr. Slobbers), crawling ball, steering wheel baby driver, books and a rattle! But she loves playing with mommy, daddy and Grandma the most! :o)
She tries so hard to sit up on her own. I'm thinking once she starts crawling she will be out of control...lol. But I can't wait until she can just crawl into my arms!
You can really tell Samantha will be a total daddy's girl!! Every day when daddy gets home she smiles and laughs!! It's so adorable and I just love it!!
She has been sleeping wonderfully!! She used to not go to sleep until around midnight every night. But now that she's up more during the day, she has been going to bed between 9-10, which is wonderful! and sleeping all night, which is even more wonderful!! So, Seth and I have been getting a lot more alone time with each other and our own.
Today, which was REALLY exciting for me(and maybe Samantha) she rolled over on her stomach from her back!! It was soo amazing to see. She has been trying so hard lately and she finally did it! She has been rolling from her stomach to her back for sometime now but not the full back to stomach! I was so proud of her!! I swear she's too smart for her own good! lol. But I knew she would be smart, just like her Daddy!
We got her 3 month pictures taken at Sears on the 25th. They turned out great!! We had them take valentine pictures for her daddy for a gift. And then just regular, adorable pictures.
I can't wait to just watch her keep on growing and learning! She amazes me everyday and I'm sure that won't change until she graduates high school!!
She's such a joy to have in our life! I just couldn't imagine life without her!

First Month with Samantha

The first month with Samantha was the hardest. She was born with a little jaundice. But it wasn't a bad case of it at all.
I started breast feeding right away in the hospital. I thought it was actually easy and I didn't see what people were complaining about. BUT then it got harder. Samantha latched on wonderfully at first. Then she wasn't latching on like she was. She gave me really huge and nasty sores. It was hurting so bad that I was crying every time nursing Samantha. I went to the lactation consultant and see what she could do to help us. The consultant told us a few tips. So I tried them.. And I tried so hard! But it didn't work and I just couldn't do it anymore. But on top of that I wasn't able to produce enough milk for her either. Seth wasn't too happy about it but we decided to start giving her formula. It was difficult seeing her eat formula for the first time. But she was able get my milk for about 2 weeks so I didn't think that was too bad.
Her 1st doctors appointment was on October 27th and it went great! She was right on track. She was 7lbs 2oz and 20 1/2 inches long. Samantha has been so observant ever since she was born. She would look around at everything! And she has to touch everything! I just love seeing her little brain grow! We also got to take our first family pictures when she was a month old. But I hated our photographer and I was really disappointed with the pictures she took and that she didn't take more of Samantha. But Samantha was able to get some pictures with her cousin, Noah. Noah did wonderful! He was so cute with Samantha. We got really good pictures of the 2 of them together.
Overall the 1st month was tough. But we got through it. It has been such a blessing being a mother. I honestly can't remember what it was like before she was born. We honestly didn't think we could get pregnant and then she surprised us! She's our little angel baby!!!!

Pictures of Samantha!!

Samantha Kaitlyn Fern Mize has arrived!!

I know I haven't been on here in forever to update you all!! But as most of you know, Samantha made her entrance on October 11th, 2009 at 8:56AM. She was 7lbs 1oz, 19 1/2 inches long!
Labor and delivery went surprisingly awesome! I started having contractions after I woke up from a nap the day before. I could barely tell they were contractions. So we waited a little while to see if they would get stronger. They ended getting a little stronger so my husband and I went to the hospital to see if I certainly have started labor. The nurse told us I was only dilated to 1 and the contractions weren't strong enough. She told us we could either stay at the hospital or go home. We figured it would take a while so we just decided to go home. We didn't want to stay at the hospital longer then we had to.
After returning home around 10 or 11. I decided to get something to eat and lay on the couch. While I was laying there I felt and heard a big POP! Yup... My water broke! (let me tell you... it is the MOST disgusting feeling, felt like you were peeing on yourself constantly) I called labor and delivery. The nurse told me to take a shower and pack my bags and head to the hospital. My husband called his mother and after I was done showering and packing a few more things, off we went to the hospital.
As we were driving my contractions were getting a lot worse and on top of that I was leaking everywhere. We finally made it to the hospital. My husband wheeled me up to labor in delivery. We got to our room and I changed and got hooked up to the monitors. Everything was going beautifully.
The contractions were getting a lot worse so I tried the Whirlpool a couple of times. It helped for a little while. Then while I was laying in the tub, I just couldn't take it anymore. So I told my mother in-law that I needed a nurse and some epidural. After getting sick (thank you mom for holding my hair back,lol) I went back into the bed and the nurse hooked me back up to the monitors. Finally the anesthesiologist got there with the most wonderful drug in the world! He had me lay on the bed on my side with my needs touching my chin, which as you can imagine was very uncomfortable with this big belly, I had a couple of contractions as he was poking me which wasn't fun but I didn't think it hurt at all getting poked. I thought getting my IV hurt more then the epidural. They also gave me some Pitocin to help things speed up. After a few minutes I was pain free!!! I could actually lay there and just relax and watch some movies. I was going to try and get some sleep since I've been up all night but, I couldn't. It was just too exciting knowing that we were going to meet our little girl at anytime.
It wasn't more then an hour and it was time to start pushing. I pushed for a couple of minutes and my doctor told me that she was hung up on my tail bone so she had to use a suction cup to help her out without having to break my tail bone. Before the doctor had Samantha all the way out, the doctor held her head up and waved Samantha's arm to Grandma while she took a picture. It was so incredible! I ended up only having to push for about 15-20 minutes and there she was!! Our beautiful baby girl! It was AMAZING!!!!!!
I got to hold her right away. I couldn't believe it! This beautiful creature that lived inside of me for 9 months was in my arms and I could actually see her moving around and hear her cry! Everyone was crying themselves.. Yes, even my husband! Which I have NEVER seen him cry before. But I knew this day was going to be the 1st!
They took her away to get her cleaned up and weighed and do all the things they needed to do to make sure she was a healthy baby. And she is a VERY healthy little girl! We are so blessed and couldn't imagine not having her in our lives!