Scoutty Cat Stats

I have done a horrible job keeping track of Scout's milestones since she has been born. The poor girl doesn't even have a baby book for goodness sake! I should probably remedy that soon or I'm going to be hearing about it when she's older and she sees all of Sawyer's baby stuff! 

2 weeks

Weight: 9 lbs 0 oz  (75th percentile)

Height: 21 inches (75th percentile)

Head circumference: 36.5 cm (60th percentile)

2 months

Weight: 12 lbs 12 oz (92nd percentile)

Height: 23 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circumference: 39.5 cm (75th percentile)

4 months

Weight: 15 lbs 9 oz (90th percentile)

Height: 25 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circumference: 40.5 cm (40th percentile)

Exactly a week from now she will be five months and she now weighs over 16 pounds. She is wearing a remaining few of her six month outfits that were on the bigger side, but mostly she is in 9 month outfits. She was wearing all of her six month outfits at around three months and her three month outfits at around a month, so needless to say this girl likes to eat! Her rolls and squishiness are my absolute favorite. Sawyer was pretty rolly, but this girl has him beat for sure in the homemade rolls department. 

Scout is FINALLY starting to spit up less. Thankfully she never had reflux like Sawyer did, so she was pretty much labeled a 'happy spitter', but that doesn't mean she couldn't generate just as much laundry as her big brother did! Being spit up on at every feeding makes you question what the point of getting showered and dressed in the morning is when you are going to be changing outfits (on you and her) more than a few times and maybe even possibly re-showering depending on whether or not you feel like reeking of sour milk that day. I eliminated dairy from my diet twice to see if it would help (once I only gave it a go for two weeks before caving, the other time I made it four weeks), but whether or not it helped couldn't be determined. We decided just this week that it seems like her spitting up is beginning to taper off. I do feel like I only did laundry every four days this past week instead of every other day so yes I do indeed think we are finally turning a corner! 

Besides the spitting, Scout also had another very unladylike quality. This girl can outdo any teenage boy in eliminating noxious gasses from her body. Unfortunately, her brother was the same way as a baby and continuing to follow in his footsteps she really knows how to belt out the cries at night when her tummy hurts from gas. She has been a tummy sleeper since day one because it was the only way we could even get her to go to sleep. Let's face it, our kids are colicky---whatever that even means. They cried for hours almost every evening, were extremely gassy and no matter what we tried we could not pinpoint the cause. We gave mylicon drops, naturopathic sleepy tablets, rubbed her tummy, bicycled her legs, bounced her, rocked her, took turns passing her off so we didn't lose our minds, and in the end we spent a small fortune (okay, only $27 but still that's a lot for something you are not positive is even going to help!) on a very small bottle of probiotics and they seemed to be the magic potion.  I mix them with breastmilk and give them to her in an oral syringe after she eats. She finally slept through the night (6+ hours) the first night I gave them to her, and that was after two weeks where she was waking up every 1-2 hours at night (at three months old). One can only function on so little sleep before they are willing to spend whatever amount of money it takes on anything that claims it will fix their baby so they can get some needed sleep! After reading online that people said RAW Garden of Life Probiotics for Kids (you can give them to 3+ months babies) did the trick for their baby's gas issues we hopped in the car and ran all over town trying to find some! We finally located them at the Vitamin Shoppe in Boise with ten minutes to spare before they closed for the evening. That night was a glorious night for the Koprowski household. 

The photo below was taken one morning after a week or so of the waking 1-2 hour wakings at night with her. Caffeine helped get me functioning somewhat in the morning, but really nothing makes up for sleep that is interrupted that often! Of course she would snooze once morning rolled around like it was no big deal. Little stinkbug. 

As far as other tidbits about this little girl of ours, she loves to catch people's eye and smile this enormous smile at them. Some have called it flirting, and I would have to agree. She loves her brother immensely and you can just see her face light up when she sees him or even hears his voice. Sawyer loves her a lot too and is very protective of her. One time I left her at home when I went to pick him up from daycare and when asked where Scout was I acted like I didn't know and said I must have left her somewhere.  The look on Sawyer's face was sheer horror. I quickly told him I was just kidding and she was home with daddy (what kind of mom would joke about that?! Apparently me.) I may need to work on my humor because that boy of mine did NOT find my joke funny in the least bit! He was very upset and I apologized for teasing about leaving her.

 I've spied him in the back of the car holding her hand a few times and it's just about the sweetest thing I have ever seen. It's nice having a helper in the backseat that can tell me when Scout is sleeping or put her pacifier back in when she is crying. He hasn't wanted to help dress her or change her diaper, like I would imagine a big sister would want to do, but he has on his own asked to hold her a few times. He holds her for about three seconds max and then is done and lets her roll off of him, but it's cute that he would even ask to hold her in the first place. 

Lately, Scout has become Miss grabby hands and if you don't watch it she will hook your lip with her fingers, scratch your chin with her claws or stick a wee little finger up one of your nostrils. She loves to play with toys lately and is content to lay on a blanket rolling around. She has been a pro at rolling from her back to her tummy since about three months, but rolling from her tummy to her back (which they are supposed to learn first) has been more of a challenge. When she finds herself on her stomach, she lifts both her arms and legs up, flails them around while she squawks and teeters on her belly. She knows HOW to roll from her belly to her back, we have both seen her do it a handful of times, so I'm not sure what her dilemma is, but we both predict she will be a mover and groover before long. Sawyer crawled at six months and I'm willing to bet Scout will be doing the same. Time to get a baby gate and lock up those legos! 

After calling her Scouttypants and Scoutty McScouterson for nicknames and neither sticking, I've recently come up with a nickname that I think is perfection and hilarious to boot. Matt disagrees. We will see what you think. 

Scoutty Cat. 

Now say it really quick.

 Scoutty Cat. 

See? It's oh so fun to say! And to top it off, now I know what she will be for Halloween :)  

Seattle

Part of my job as a research assistant was to participate in the Western Institute of Nursing conference by presenting my research results. I did a content analysis on a website called Night Nurse Nation and how it relates to infant feeding choices. My school paid for me to attend the conference which was in Seattle this year, plus paid for the airfare and hotel cost.  I would normally have been in a room with another person from school, but who really wants to be in a room with a nursing mom and her four week old infant that is going to be waking up every couple hours at night? I don't think a lot of hands would be shooting up volunteering to be my roommate! Thankfully we were able to work it out for Matt to attend with me and we just had to pay the difference in the hotel cost plus airfare for him. Since Scout was just four weeks old when we went so there was no way I could have done the trip without Matt accompanying me.  He was able to watch Scout while I was in the conference seminars and also during my poster session, during which she screamed the ENTIRE time. Poor Matt. I had envisioned him rolling her around outside in the stroller, exploring Seattle and having a great time perusing the city's sights. No such luck. On the bright side though, minus those two hours,  it was a nice getaway with just the two of us (and the baby).  Even despite the screaming episodes I still think babies are way easier than four year olds, especially on trips and our four year old was home having fun with Grandma and Grandpa during this excursion. 

 We left on a Wednesday night and flew back Friday morning so it was a VERY quick trip! We did manage to sneak in a late night dinner at PF Changs when we arrived, during which Scout slept the whole time so that was practically a real date ;) 

This was us briefly exploring the surrounding area by our hotel.  

Scout was a champ on both flights to and from Seattle. 

This was when Matt went with me to set up my poster. You can definitely tell by my rounded face that I had just given birth to a human being four weeks prior! Thankfully the jacket did a nice job of hiding the rest of the evidence. 

We did manage to sneak in some city sights with my friends, like the infamous gum wall, which we just happened upon on accident. I carried Scout around in the wrap and she did awesome. She even joined me that way in an afternoon seminar so Matt could have a break. 

 

It was a super speedy trip, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of fun. Visiting Seattle was a first for both of us and it was neat to be back in a large city again. I think it's safe to say we need to go again and spend at least a week to properly see everything Seattle has to offer and of course see my friend Jessica next time!!

When we arrived home, we were greeted by this little man at the airport, equipped with home made signs and everything. I loved it! 

Grad-ye-8-ed

Scout was born March 11 and I graduated from school with my bachelor's May 17th. Here is the in between with how it all panned out. All my professors knew I was going to be having a baby, not that there was any hiding it at almost 9 months pregnant anyway, but I was determined to miss as little of class as possible.  Depending on my professors, some were more willing to work with me than others. In one of my classes I lost attendance points for missing class while I was in the hospital having Scout, while in another my professor actually let me bring Scout with me after she was born. Granted,  there were only 10 of us in the that particular class AND we were working on a infant health project related to breastfeeding AND that professor was the one I worked for AND she had known about Scout since I was only a few weeks pregnant, but it was still incredibly gracious of her to let me bring her with me. 

Mondays or Tuesdays I had my preceptorship at Meridian St. Luke's that started at 7am so depending on which day it was I would need to drop both kids or just Scout off at my parents around 6:30 in the morning so my mom could watch them(her). Thankfully my mom was just as willing to care for both a newborn AND a four year old as she was to care for a solo two year old when I started this journey.  by the time I was done.  The night before my preceptorship, I would get everything ready (bottles, pumped milk, travel bed, diaper bag, food, etc. ) so that it was good to go in the morning. On the days Sawyer was in daycare, Matt would take him after I had left. On Wednesdays my mom would watch both Scout and Sawyer for my morning class from 8-11, then as soon as it was over I would run to my parents house as fast as possible to feed Scout and/or bring her back with me to that second small class at noon. On the days I was at the hospital for my preceptorship, my mom or Matt would bring Scout to me at least once during a 6-8 hour shift to nurse and I would pump the rest of the time.  It took a lot of coordinating schedules, willingness of family/friends/colleauges to work with me, and a lot of hard work from all parties involved, but all in all it went smoother than anticipated and before we knew it the semester was over and it was time to graduate!! 

Matt's mom Carol came into town that week and was able to meet Scout for the first time and attend my pinning ceremony. The night of my pinning we went to dinner at Bardenay's beforehand with Carol, my parents, Matt's aunt Rosie and uncle Steve, my grandparents, my little brother Bryson, and my aunt Linda and uncle John. Dinner was great and Sawyer had a grand ol' time snapping a bajillion pics on my iPhone while we ate. Literally, a bajilllion. I counted. That's also how I discovered if you hold down the camera button on your iPhone it takes photo after photo after photo in succession. Thanks little buddy for teaching me that trick. 

Speaking of that little buddy, Matt lifted him up at my pinning ceremony so he could place the ribbon (with the pin attached) over my neck and you could hear the audible "awwwwww" from everyone in the audience. You can see the video at the end of this post. This celebration was as much Sawyer's, as it was mine, since for as long as he can remember I have been in school and he is glad to not have to share me with homework anymore. 

The following day was my actual graduation and Matt sat with my parents and held Scout up in the stands while Carol stayed home to play with Sawyer, which worked out great because there was NO way Sawyer would have managed to sit still for five hours! I was worried how Scout was going to do, especially since I left Matt with only one bottle and then found out as I was sitting on the auditorium floor, that under no circumstance was I allowed to leave. I thought about trying to sneak out, under the pretense of it being a medical emergency (hey, needing to nurse your baby is sort of an emergency, right??). Thankfully Scout did amazing and slept in Matt's arms for most of it. He sent me cellphone pics periodically, like the one below, so I wouldn't worry.

There's me sitting down there in the left row of students. What, you can't see me? Ya I didn't think Matt could either, but somehow we managed to figure out where each other were and wave.

Here are just two of the many, many, many, manyyyyyyyyy selfies taken during this little dude's photoshoot at Bardenay's that I previously mentioned.

The rest of the photos below were taken on graduation day. All day long I was feeling a mix of emotions: relief to finally be done, excitement over what the future holds in the field of nursing for me, sadness to not see these friends every single day anymore.  It felt so surreal that two and half years of nursing school with these girls was actually coming to a close! I am going to miss them!! 

The weekend before graduation we all gathered at my friend Mary's house to decorate our caps. I thought mine was super clever, until I realized that in the stands where Matt and my parents were, all you could see was one giant mustache. Nice. 

I told Matt that he has earned at least one corner of my diploma, if not half of it, for all he did the past six years while I pursued nursing. Not to brag or anything, okay I take that back, I am to going to brag about this man for a minute! He never once hesitated to encourage me to go back to school even though I had only been using my cosmetology license for a mere six months or so before I decided to throw in the cosmetology towel and try my hand in the medical field. He didn't so much as flinch when I brought it up after we had just spent a bunch on moola on buying all the hair paraphernalia that one needs to work in a salon, now THAT my friends is true love! Then only a year into going back to school we found out we were pregnant, but that didn't deter Matt from still encouraging me to continue my education. If you have been following this blog since Sawyer was born you know Matt watched him in the evenings while I went to night school ever since Sawyer was just a few months old. Matt also helped me enroll each and every semester, managed my financial aid, edited almost every single one of my papers, helped on more than a couple school projects using his graphic design skills, hugged me when I cried from being stressed, told me I could do it when I didn't think I could, listened to the awful sound of me grinding my teeth in my sleep due to stress, told me I was still a good mom when I felt horrible for being impatient with Sawyer because my mind was so focused on school, the list is truly endless.......which explains why his smile is so big in the photo below ;) He was as ready for me to be done with school as I was!!

First Couple Weeks

Well now that Scouttypants is over three months old, I've graduated from school, and passed my NCLEX, I actually have some free time to blog! I'm way behind on capturing her first few months of life and to be honest they are kind of a blur so I'm going to try my best to remember at least a few key points of Scout's entrance into our family! 

There was a lot of prep work before Scout was born in order to make things run smoothly while in school, but thankfully everything came together really well. I'm dedicating a whole separate blog post  on the specifics of how it all worked so that we don't forget the tremendous amount of help we were given in order to have a baby and graduate from school within two months of each other. 

Since Scout was born at four in the morning, we spent the following night in the hospital and left the next morning. My recovery with her was almost nonexistent, which I fully attribute to having had her naturally. I felt so good I kept having to remind myself to take it easy and not push myself too hard. She was born on a Wednesday and I missed class that Friday, but could have gone if needed. Matt, Sawyer and I actually went to school that Friday before class started to have lunch on campus and show Scout to my friends and professors. The following Wednesday I 'officially' went back to school so I was actually able to have a whole week off, which was better than I had originally anticipated! 

At her first appointment, the day after we got home from the hospital, she had already lost 10% of her body weight, which I figured might be the case since she was such a big baby and my milk hadn't come in yet. Before she was born I was a little worried how it would work with breastfeeding and going to school the first couple weeks. I wanted to solely give her breast milk if possible, so my sister shipped me some of her frozen breast milk on dry ice to have on hand in case I wasn't able to pump enough. At that first appointment we were told to supplement her with formula, but instead I was able to supplement with my sisters milk! The following day my milk came in and she started gaining back all that she had lost and then some. At her followup appointment a week later to be weighed she was back up to her birth weight of 9 pounds. 

Her first two weeks of life were mostly spent sleeping. Seriously. She slept so much that I was worried she was getting TOO much sleep, if that is even possible! She would wake up to eat, but that was about it. We estimated she slept for about 20 hours a day those first few weeks, which her doctor said was not necessarily the norm, but was okay and to be happy to have a sleeper!

Here are some of the first photos taken after she was born. 

Scout with her squishy baby face and mop of dark hair. 

This was the first photo I took of Sawyer and Scout together. I saw them sitting on the bed together and it suddenly hit me that we had child(REN), as in plural, as in TWO kids!!! 

I had to compare both kids newborn photos and decided they look very similar! Sawyer is on the left, Scout is on the right. 

Couldn't pass up the opportunity of snapping a daddy/daughter nap photo. 

This photo pretty much sums up Sawyer's initial reaction to bringing home a baby to HIS house. 

His friends on the other hand couldn't get enough of her! Landon, Trey and both of their younger siblings wanted to hold, touch, and kiss her as much as possible. I think it started to sink in after that playdate, that if his friends thought she was cool, well then maybe having a baby sister wasn't so bad after all. 

I took this photo on my phone while all four of us sat on the couch exhausted from a long night of crying. Scout slept a LOT during the day, but the evenings were rough just like they were with Sawyer. Even at three months she still will occasionally pull out the same loud wail she made when she came into the world, or as Matt calls it, her "I'm being born!!!!" cry.  

Her hair just kills me here. 

It's not very often a brand new baby gets to sport a mohawk. It was fun having a newborn with so much hair, especially since Sawyer's hair was so light and sparse when he was born. At the hospital she loved having her hair washed by the nurse who did her first bath, and that is still her favorite part of bath time at home. What a total girl :) 

Ever since we brought her home Sawyer has been really into helping me bathe Scout. Here he is the first week reading Scoutty a story while I gave her a bath. 

This was taken at McDonald's for our traditional Sunday breakfast before Scout's baby dedication at our church, which was just a week and a half after she was born. 

I was, and still am, loving every minute (or MOST every minute) of having two kids and feel incredibly blessed to be their mom!