Letter to my 5 month old.

My dear Amelia,

At this time last year, you were just a tiny heartbeat in my tummy. We did not know your due date, we did not know if you were a boy or a girl, we did not know what an amazing little person you were going to be. We only knew you were on your way and we were already madly in love with you.

Now you are 5 months old and another year is coming to an end. 2010 has been the most wonderful, exciting, scary and love filled year of my life. You have changed my world, my days, my perspective and my ideas on love. You are a constant source of joy for everyone who loves you and I am in awe of what a wonderful and happy person you are. I am so excited to spend the next year with you and watch all that you do. As always you are changing and experiencing firsts day by day.

This month:

• You started eating cereal, so far we have tried rice and oatmeal. You absolutely love to eat your cereal and are becoming increasingly impatient with the bottle.

• You are becoming a pro at sitting up. You can sit unassisted for longer periods of time, but still fall over frequently.

• You are consistently sleeping about 11 hours a night. Usually from about 9:30 pm to 8:30 am.
  

• You are trying so hard to crawl, and are getting so close! You can get up on your knees and and raise up on your hands, just not at the same time.
  

• You had your first visit to Santa.
  

• You had your first Christmas! And loved it! We spent a lot of time with family in Stillwater and Ardmore. You had so much and got way to many toys, but you love them all.
  

Amelia and Santa (Uncle Jon)

4 Generations
Great Grandma Hodson, Grandpa Hodson, Daddy, Amelia

Wooden rocking horse from Great Grandma Hodson.
Made by your Great Grandpa Dewey for your Daddy on his first Christmas.

Paw Paw

Cousin Braden, Aunt Jessica, Cousin Austin, Uncle Christopher

Grams

First family Christmas

The holiday season was so much fun to celebrate with you. Your smile and joy brought so much happiness to our family and renewed my Christmas spirit.

So much has happened and so much has changed in the course of one year. As this year comes to an end, I am so thankful for you, all the changes and all the blessings you bring to our lives. I know 2011 will be full of new firsts, new challenges, and new surprises. I have no resolution for the new year, but my goal is to always live in the present and treasure each day. I will spend the next year trying to be the best mommy that I can be. This is my promise to you , my sweet baby girl.

Letter to my 4 month old.

My Dear Amelia,

This month you have changed so much! You are growing so fast and becoming so many new things. Day by day you are changing from a sweet little newborn to an infant with a very big personality. You love to entertain and laugh and be the center of all attention. You are very curious about everything around you and love to explore new things. You are a charmer, you can give a little grin that will melt anyone's heart.

This month:

• You found your voice. You love to scream and shriek and make noise. You rarely cry, but you love to be heard and learn new sounds.

• You learned to (almost) sit up. You can sit by yourself for short periods of time, but don't yet have full control.

• You like to try to stand up by yourself. And can do so for approximately 1 second before you start to topple. But it makes you happy so we let you try.

• You became really aware of Suki and Sullivan. You love to reach for them, pet them and grab their ears.
  

• You found your feet. The left one is constantly in your mouth.

• You have become aware of food. You watch everything we eat and follow each bite of food to our mouths. We hope to start you on rice cereal within the next month.

• You go to bed between 8:30 - 9:00 pm and sleep until 7:30 - 8:30 am.
  

• Had your first Thanksgiving. Actually two Thanksgivings. We had Hodson Thanksgiving the Sunday before and you saw your first turkey, sat at the table and drooled over all the food. On Thanksgiving day we were in Ardmore with Grams and Pop, where we cheated and gave you a taste of cranberry sauce, gravy and sweet potatoes. You did not like any of them.
  

At your 4 month well baby visit you:

• weighed 13 lb 12 oz. (50th percentile)
• were 15 1/4 inches long (75th percentile)

During this month of giving thanks and celebrating our blessings, I am ever reminded that I am so thankful that you are in my life, my sweet sweet baby girl.

10 Things I have learned in 3 months...

1. You can accomplish any task with one hand a baby on the hip.

2. Showering every day is a luxury I once took for granted.

3. There is no limit to the things I will do to make my baby smile.

4. Day time TV is ridiculously awful.

5. I can make up a silly song about absolutely anything.

6. Just because you lose the baby weight, does not mean that your body is exactly like it was pre-baby. And that's okay.

7. Peek a Boo and play dates are way more fun than conference calls and client meetings.

8. There will come a time that every new mother eats the words "I will NEVER let my baby..."

9. No one cares about the color, consistency or frequency of your baby's poops like you do.

10. Motherhood is a beautiful thing.

Letter to my 3 month old.

My Dear Amelia,

Another month has passed and you continue to entertain and amaze us. With every day, you change, grow and do something new. You are such a happy little person and it is so much fun to be around you.

This month:

• You had your first real belly laugh! It was after a very interesting diaper blowout, which evidently you found very funny. Your Daddy and I were both there to hear it and it was without a doubt, the best sound I have ever heard.

• You are still sleeping through the night. You usually go to bed between 10:00 - 11:00, but you are now sleeping until about 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. You love your sleep! I think you must take after your mommy. :) You have started to take naps during the day, usually two, sometimes three anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.
  

• You cried your first real tears.
  

• You started rolling from your back to your tummy. You now roll from tummy to back and back to tummy pretty frequently.
  

• You propped yourself up on your elbows. We were in Ardmore visiting Grams and you were lying on your tummy. We went to the kitchen and when we came back you were propped on your elbows watching TV and grinning.

• You found your hands, and now are completely obsessed with them. They are constantly in your mouth or clutched together at your chest. You are getting pretty good at seeing your thumb and sticking it in your mouth.
  

• You discovered the TV. You LOVE to watch TV, and your favorite thing to watch is football.
  

• You wore your first Halloween costume. We went to the Downtown Stillwater Halloween Festival for some trick-or-treating and you loved it! You were a skunk or "lil stinker" and you were so adorable! You were so excited to see everything and soak it all in...

...until you passed out.


You did not have a well baby appointment this month, but from weighing you at home, you currently weigh about 12 lbs. You are growing so much and changing so fast, and I am loving every minute of it.

Letter to my 2 month old.

Dear Amelia,

You have had such a fun and exciting 2nd month! You have learned new things, met new people and experienced so much in such a short time. This month:

• You made your first ever road trip. Over Labor Day weekend you went to Ardmore, which was your first long trip in the car, and you did so great! You love to look out the window at everything passing by. You slept most of the way and enjoyed the ride. While we were in Ardmore you got to meet Uncle Adam, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jess and cousins Braden and Austin for the first time. You also met Great Grandma and Grandpa Powell.
  

• You made your first trip alone with Mommy. We went back to Ardmore to say goodbye to Uncle Adam before he went back to South Korea for another six months. He is currently in his first year in the Air Force. Again you were so good on the ride down. During this visit you also went to Texas for the first time when we took a little girls trip with Grams to Sherman.
  

• You started sleeping through the night! Yay! You were 5 weeks old the first time you slept through the night and you have doing so consistently since you were 7 weeks old. You usually go to bed somewhere between 9:30 - 11:00 and wake up between 7:00 - 8:00, averaging around 9 hours a night.
  

• You stopped taking regular daytime naps. Evidently you decided that if you are going to sleep all night you do not need to sleep during the day. But, I'm certainly not going to complain because, oh how I love sleeping at night again.
  

• You have become so alert and interactive. You love to talk and interact with everyone. You love to smile and coo and giggle. Right now your favorite thing is the ceiling fan. You can spend forever watching and smiling at it.
  

At your 2 month well baby appointment:

• you weighed 11 lbs. (50th percentile)
  
• you were 24" long (95th percentile) wow!
  

You are growing and changing everyday. Everyday you do a little bit more and it is so exciting to watch you learn. I can see why everyone says it all goes by so fast. I already miss your tiny newborn days, but I love what every new day brings. All I can do is savor each moment of every day, treasure the memories and look forward to your future. I love spending my days with you, my sweet sweet baby girl.

Letter to my 1 month old.

Dear Amelia,

Right now you are sleeping peacefully in your nursery. I've been watching you sleep and thinking how perfectly wonderful the last month has been. One little month and one little person has forever changed me. You are such a blessing to our family and I have loved every minute spent with you. I love your sleepy yawns and your huge grins. I love the way you smell so sweet. I love your soft skin and the way you hold so tight to my finger. I love your contented sighs. I love the hours we have spent memorizing each others faces. I love every single bit of being your mommy.

I love watching as you grow and learn new things every day. You are so alert and attentive, soaking up every detail of your new world. In your one short month you have learned so much. You have learned how to express your feelings, you have learned to smile, you have learned to track things with your eyes, you have learned to roll from your tummy to your back, you are learning to hold your head up. Every day brings new adventures for you and it is so fun to watch as you discover them.

I know as the months pass you will continue to learn an infinite number of new things, and I will be there with you along the way. But out of all the things I want you to learn, the most important is this: you are very loved.

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

Last week was Amelia's very first bath, something I had been looking forward to as I waited for her little cord to fall off. She was, not quite so excited.

I'm not sure about this.

I don't think I like this.

I really don't like this!

But I do love my hooded towel!

And my cute robe!

Daddy Love

The best part of my day.

And Life Will Never Be the Same...

I've been absent in my posts the past couple weeks, because I have unable to stop staring at and adoring this:

Amelia Gayle Hodson
Born July 28, 2010
4:44 pm
7 pounds, 12.2 ounces
20 inches long

For days I have been meaning to post a recap of the past couple of weeks, but somehow nothing else seems as important as holding our sweet baby. Our days and nights have been filled with feeding, changing, holding, rocking, kissing and loving our new baby girl.

After reaching my due date, and still no signs of labor in sight, we decided to be induced on Wednesday, July 28. Because of an Rh negative factor in my blood, my doctor would only let me got so long before inducing. Being induced was not my first choice, but I was definitely ready to meet Amelia.

We arrived at the hospital at 7 am, began the Pitocin at 9 am and after a fast and hard labor, Amelia arrived at 4:44 pm. Looking back, the entire day seems both a blur and precisely clear all at the same time. David, my parents and in-laws were all there. I could feel their presence and support in the room, but was only vaguely aware of their coming and going. After the contractions began, I could only focus on Amelia, and how with each contraction we were one step closer.

The hours passed quickly, and at approximately 4 pm I was shocked when the nurse said we were ready to push. The delivery is the one part of the day that I remember vividly. I can remember the excitement, the fear, the anticipation and the joy that I felt. I remember each push, I remember the doctor's face and the nurse's voice, and I remember the indescribable feeling of seeing her for the first time. I remember the panic in my heart when she didn't immediately cry, and I remember my sobs of relief when I heard her finally make her first sounds.

My memory of those precious minutes will be with me forever.

The past two weeks have flown by, with all the days and nights running into each other. The first week home David took off work and my mom, Grams, came to stay with us. David and I will forever be grateful for her help and encouragement during our first days as parents. My in-laws were a tremendous help, bringing dinner over each night and providing a needed break so we could all rest.

Now that David is back to work, Grams has gone home, and the 24 hour help is gone, Amelia and I are spending our days together. I'm learning how to manage on my own during the day, how to recognize her different cries, how to rock her to sleep and how to be a mom. We've had our share of unexpected difficulties, mainly in the breastfeeding department, but we are powering through. The days are sometimes long and hard, but I would not change one minute of one day we have spent with our baby girl.

Amelia is already more than I ever dreamed or imagined. I'm soaking up every minute of these precious newborn days and am so excited for all the fun things to come in her future. I'm also pretty sure she is the most adorable thing ever, don't you think?

Amelia's Nursery

David and I have been working hard the past couple of months on Amelia's nursery. The room definitely needed a lot of work considering it had been a bedroom for our two pugs, Suki and Sullivan for the past couple of years. After some serious deep cleaning, fresh paint and lots of love, we finally have a nursery! (95% complete, still finishing some decorations and little touches).

Rug is not quite as bright as it looks in the picture,
The mirror is from furniture that was mine as a little girl.

There will be a cute mobile hanging over the crib at some point. I'm working on that.

Imagine some really cute artwork or photos over the changing table.

The little duck is passed down from David's grandma Hodson and was painted by his great grandma.

Favorite nursery find: antique bird cage from a local store.

Closet dividers I made for the hanging clothes.

Dresser that was mine as a little girl.
Holding onesies bigger than 3 months, towels, pj's, etc.

Changing table/dresser stocked with supplies.

Diapers, burp cloths, socks.

Newborn and 0-3 onsies, pajamas.

Blankets

Extra diapers and wipes.

I'm really happy and excited with how the nursery is coming together. After a few more personal touches, it will be ready for Amelia!

The nursery is ready, our hospital bags are packed and we are as ready as we can be. All we need is a sweet baby!