Whirlwind Vacation: Part 3

After Kansas, we all drove to Arkansas for a weekend at the lake. I've never really done a "lake weekend" before and I LOVED it. The house we stayed at was perfect and right on a bright blue lake. The water was a little chilly, but the sun felt amazing. After working inside/being pregnant and sick last summer, my skin hasn't really seen the light of day in about 2 years. I am in serious need of some sun!

First time on jet skis. So fun.

Colton being a lake stud

Jaxon and Colton liked grabbing Milo's feet while I was feeding him. Also, explaining nursing to Jaxon was really cool. "Where's his bottle?" "He's eating your blood?" "So when I get big I can feed babies milk too?"

The seconds prior to a big spit up are always so serene.

Milo's new favorite toy! Who cares that his feet don't touch the ground of it?

Madi and me sunbathing. I love her.

Oh that Trevor. Always keeping things interesting.

Cousins and their Uncle Seth!

All the cousins. I love it!

It was a pretty perfect trip. So glad we got one last trip with Seth before he leaves for Brazil in July!

Whirlwind Vacation: Part 2

Milo's Blessing!

We decided to bless our sweet boy while we were at home with everyone in my family. It was so nice and I am so excited for everything my little Milo has ahead of him! Oh how I love that boy.

 My mom made his adorable blessing outfit. She is so talented!

 I can't get over it. I love my little fam.

Afterwards, my mom had apple pie for everyone. Talk about impressive... those 2 pies were ancient history in minutes! So good.

Milo Karl Hansen has officially been blessed. We love him!

Whirlwind Vacation: Part 1

We've been doing lots... and lots... of driving lately. Last week Milo finally met his Aunt Sarah, Uncle Chris, and cousins Madison, Jaxon, and Colton (and soon-to-be new nephew)!

Colton wanted to cuddle Milo the whole time. It was adorable. He is going to adore his new baby brother!

We also did plenty of shopping, swimming, and jumping on Uncle Trevor :). 

Words cannot describe how happy I am to be living near my Sarah and her family now! 4 and a half hours is infinitely better than 21.

After a few days in Dallas, we caravanned up to Kansas to go through the new Kansas City temple with Seth! It was my first time at that temple and it was gorgeous! So exciting to have one so close to home now! Also. Call us ridiculous, but when Trevor and I left Milo with Seth's darling girlfriend Shelby outside on the temple grounds, we almost cried. Talk about separation anxiety. I mean for the love. Ridiculous.

Milo cracks me up. We like to call him the rod. He does not bend.

The whole fam!

It was so fun to all be in KC for Seth's day! He is going to be such a great missionary in Brazil!

On Being a Rookie Mom:

Sometimes it takes an expert mom of 3/ favorite sister/best friend to watch from the outside in and tell you that it's OK to let your baby cry himself to sleep, and that babies can learn to self soothe at this age, and teach you very lovingly about the sleeping habits of a 2 month old. And luckily, her house is a lot bigger than my apartment so I can let him cry it out upstairs in her closet where I can't hear.

And just like that, we had a wonderful day full of good naps, productive feedings, and tons of smiles.

Ahh. Thank goodness Milo doesn't know how clueless I am. We'll get there. 

To those of you who gave me your advice on Instagram today (@daniellehansen), THANK YOU! And everyone else, please... tell me all your mom secrets! Some days it overwhelms me how much of a rookie I am.

However, I did change a blowout on my lap in the back of the car on the way to Dallas the other day. You can call me the diaper ninja.

I'm thankful for a mom who ends my guilt trips and tells me it would be weird if my baby didn't cry sometimes, a dad who unlocked the secret of Milo's favorite way to be held (laying on my forearm on his belly), a sister who is helping me figure out how to teach Milo to sleep better and get on a good schedule, and a calendar that involves far less trips across the country next month so that we can finally be a little more settled.

Milo and cousin Colton!

Also, words cannot describe how lucky I am to have a husband who was born to be a daddy, and a mother and father in law who raised him that way. So glad to have all these people on my side while I fumble through motherhood. I may not have it all together (or even kind of together), but I'm in love with this life. 

I want a hundred babies.

Milo at 2 Months

I can hardly believe my little man is 2 months old! My favorite things he does right now:

 

When he is laying on his belly, he wiggles his little bum all over the place. I love it.

He sleeps with his feet sticking out in either direction.

When he's eating, he pokes his cheeks and holds his face.

Sometimes he fake sneezes. He winds up for a big one and then lets out a little coo. 

He loves sticking his tongue out.

He LOVES being held. 

He makes the funniest sounds when he swallows. Actually, the whole time he eats. I'm not very conscious of how loud he is now since I'm used to it, but whenever someone else hears him eat, they crack up at how squeaky he is.

He is starting to smile! Melt my heart!

His little legs are getting so pudgy. I could squish them all day.

He loves boxing practice with Daddy. And I love watching them.

As of this morning, he can roll over! 

He also slept a 6 hour stretch last night... as did I... Oh, heaven!

We LOVE our little Milo!

Howdy

 See what I did there? That's how I greet people now. Cause I live in Texas.

Seriously though, I'm in love with this place.

It's 1:39 a.m., my babe(s) just fell asleep, I'm listening to the dryer finish a load, catching up on work because we finally just got internet, and taking a second to breathe.

My boy on packing day. It was taxing, clearly.

This morning I woke up to a thunderstorm. I listened to it roll through while I was cuddled up with Milo in bed feeding him. Then I walked out to the front yard of our apartment which is about as on the edge of this little Texas town as we can get, warm, post-rain wind blowing on my face, massive, flat fields in every direction, and felt more at home than I ever did in Utah.

Traveling with Milo was...

I'm so evil... it's just that... his crying face is still so cute!

We sat in the backseat the whole way. All 3 days of the drive.

Milo's seat was in the middle. Want to know how much he likes sitting in his carseat?

He doesn't. Unless he's asleep.

If he's awake, he is so NOT thrilled to be strapped in. I can't complain, though, that he loves me SO much that he wants to hang out with me all the time. I LOVE cuddling that boy, and I'm getting some killer toned arms to boot.

Don't tell anyone, but I spent the better part of the trip across New Mexico wrestling my 7 week old sweet baby boy in the 6 inches of backseat I had. And oh, how fun that was.

And yes, for part of the drive I DID have an empty cheezit barf bag in one hand and a bottle in the other. But hey! We made it.

We even took him swimming! And he loved it! Another fishy in the family!

My sleepy, sleepy baby who refused to fall asleep!

The second we walked in the apartment (which is amazing- another post for another day), it felt like Milo sensed that we were home. After 4 fussy days of upheaval and fussiness and not sleeping, he passed out almost immediately and has been completely back to himself ever since. He has some pretty keen senses, and I love how much he likes to be home and at peace with his mom and dad, even at the ripe old age of 8 weeks.

He also likes to sleep on my face. I melt.

So- essentially, I'm in love with our new home

I'm really tired

I'm happy Milo is happy

And I'm going to bed!

:) 

Is It Tuesday Yet?

I'm currently posting from my phone while I feed my baby. It works.

We are leaving on SUNDAY for Texas, and officially moving in on Tuesday!!! And I can't wait. I can't!!!!

Also, a few things:

I don't usually notice quite how sleep deprived I am. But when I have to think through things like packing to move, my brain suddenly remembers that sleep doesn't happen so much these days, and everything in my head is lined with a fog. Kind of inconvenient.

Milo has been having a few special days. And by special I mean not going to sleep when I want him to (how dare he not follow my schedule) and being fussy in the evenings. Also, he is having a kind of hard time taking a bottle (we have been practicing trying to prep for the drive across the country. I've been pumping a bottle at least once a day). It is making me kind of nervous.

At the same time, he has been sleeping about 3.5 hour stretches pretty consistently at night! Which is heaven after all that "eating every other hour" craziness!

We will be in our new apartment Tuesday. We will have a dishwasher and a disposal. My dad, brother, aunt, uncle, and cousin are saving us by coming out to help us pack. Milo is cute and sweet and squeaky and I love him even though after kind of trying to put him to bed for like 3 hours now, he is staring at me with wide open eyes and cooing up a storm. I think I'll just kiss this fuzzy little peach fuzz head for a while.

Moral of this story: I'm kind of not feeling like much of a supermomma right now. Happy mom, yes. But also tired and kind of incompetent and like I'm falling behind on a lot of things that need to get done. I mean shouldn't I automatically be the Milo expert and know exactly how to help him calm down or fall asleep in any situation and under any circumstances? Isn't my baby supposed to be the miracle child who never gets agitated or cries for no reason?

Oh, Danielle. Dream on!

Maybe once I'm not surrounded by boxes and crap things will feel a little less crazy. And for now, I'll stick with the few tricks I have learned as Milo's mom and we can keep figuring this thing out as we go!