Bethany is 2 months old!

Updated with stats at 2 month apt on 12/30:
10 lb 5 oz - 15%
22.5 in length - 50%
14.5 in head - 10%
The Dr. said she's doing really well and is happy with her growth rate. Its amazing that she is 10 lbs already at 2 months when she started out at 5 lbs! We did one more check for her jaundice levels and hopefully the results come back in the normal range tomorrow.

Original post:
We had a great Christmas last week! There was a huge snowstorm so everything was cancelled including our family Christmas Eve celebration (rescheduled for Jan 2) so we left for the cabin on the 23rd and stayed until Saturday just the three of us. We made a big Christmas meal, went for a snowshoeing hike and just relaxed as a family.

Now we are at Bethany's 2 month birthday! We have her apt on Wednesday so I'll update then with her stats. She is staying awake longer during the day and we're still working on getting her to sleep longer at night :) She loves to look over my shoulder while walking around and holds her head up herself. On tummy time she lifts her head up while pushing up on her arms. She still loves her baths and is getting better with diaper changes! She smiles more and more likes to look at lights and ceiling fans - cheap entertainment I suppose. It is hard to get her attention if she is really concentrated on a super neat light.

2 Months old - December 28th, 2009: She can hold her head up, but can't sit by herself if not set correctly (whoops)... but this way she looks like she really likes her monkey :)

Our first family ornament

The cabin decorated for Christmas!

Dan and Bethany at our Christmas!

Bethany enjoying our snowshoe adventure!

Christmas is almost here!

We've already celebrated quite a few separate times, but Christmas Day is still coming! We are planning on going to the cabin, just the three of us, and with all of the snow expected it should be a very white Christmas.

I downloaded the pictures off my camera and wanted to share a few pictures over the past couple of weeks.

Bethany is really enjoying staring at things, especially when they are within 12-18 inches from her face. Right now the toys hanging from her car seat are fascinating.

Even though my mom and I are the only ones that like to make gingerbread cookies, I couldn't let the tradition die and made them myself. Bethany was helping but got tired and fell asleep on the couch.
Aunt Amber held Bethany at our family Christmas so she could get to know her new cousin that is expected to arrive in February!

You can't read her shirt, but it says Santa, define "nice" and she's wearing a Baby's 1st Christmas bib. Aunt Amber and Uncle Brent are practicing...

Me and Bethany at my parents house in front of the tree

Bethany and her new stocking from Grandma and Grandpa. She had lots of fun toys in it the next morning!

I think her santa hat is a bit big... and does pink go with red??

Here is the gingerbread man for Bethany - complete with a bib.

And, my picture with Grandpa at his 90's birthday party.

The other big news of the week is that Dan's sister had a baby girl on Sunday the 20th! Emily Ann was 7 lbs, 14 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. She is coming home today and her brothers Paul III (4) and Jacob (2) are excited to meet her according to Grandma and Papa Totman! We are so thankful that Emily is healthy and Melissa did well. We can't wait to meet her!

We have the Bauman Christmas on Christmas Eve at my parents house, weather permitting, and then its off to the cabin for a long weekend. Dan gets Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off so we are looking forward to some time together on our 1st Christmas as a family.

We hope you have a blessed Christmas with your family too!

Almost 7 weeks

Bethany will be 7 weeks old tomorrow! We heard back from the Dr. yesterday and her jaundice levels dropped all the way to 9.8. I thought they would be down slightly but didn't want to get my hopes up... I am so glad they dropped as low as they did. Now we can stop with the weekly trips to the lab and wait until her 2 month visit after Christmas to see if her color still looks better. If so, we won't have to do bloodwork - yea!

Its be fun to enjoy the holidays this year with Bethany. This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with Dan's parents as we are unsure when his sister will have their baby and his parents will drive off to Chicago. We also had the Momentum Christmas party on Friday night at church with yummy potluck food and good fellowship with friends. Then on Sunday we drove to Kerkhoven to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday at their church. It was a great time to take pictures with family and see people from my hometown that I haven't seen in years. Bethany was a big hit and Grandpa loved carrying her around to show her off. Then that night we saw my moms parents from CA along with my aunt for dinner at mom and dads. Bethany got to meet both sets of great-grandparents in the same day!

I will have to figure out how to post videos on the blog soon. Bethany still LOVES her baths and yesterday I videoed her for a little bit just lounging around in the warm water. She is definitely awake for longer periods of time and loves looking around and listening to new noises and voices. She did so well with new people this weekend and the background noise of lots of voices lulled her to sleep for much of it! I am now washing her 0-3 month clothes as she is graduating into them from her newborn sizes. When I was pregnant I thought she'd go right into 3 month clothes because of her length but because she was born early we got a lot of use out of newborn outfits!

Here are a couple pictures:

Bethany with Daddy watching the Vikings game - well I think she was watching him cheer!

Bethany in her sleepsack

Hanging out on the couch at Grandma and Grandpas with all her friends

Going for a walk in the sling

Smile!

A week ago we thought we noticed Bethany smiling! Both of us saw it at different times and I even caught the end of one on camera last week. It is fun to see her grow and be so much more alert. She watches everything and reacts to noises and her toys hanging from her carseat and bouncy seat and swing. She is making a lot more noises when eating and sleeping... Dan thinks she is taking after me and talking in her sleep :)

Smile caught on camera at 5 weeks - sorry the picture is so close, it was hard to take while holding her and trying to get her to smile. The rest I didn't even get her face in the picture!

At last weeks one month apt Bethany weighed 7 lb 4 oz - getting bigger! Her jaundice levels were the same as I suspected and so the Dr. still wants to keep an eye on her each week with more bloodwork. Because they are mid-teens (14-16) they are a little close to the dangerous 20+ level where they worry about long term brain and liver issues so while we want them to go down we really just want to make sure they don't go up. Most likely we'll just wait it out and hopefully they'll be gone by her 2 month apt.

It is getting colder outside!! November was beautiful and I loved being home with Bethany so I could take her on walks outside. Now we go out to the mailbox quickly and back otherwise we stay inside or bring her from the house to the warm car. Those Bundle Me covers for carseats are wonderful! We are supposed to get a big snowstorm tomorrow - good day to stay inside and wrap Christmas presents!