The first of many! (0-12)

List of Firsts (0-12 months)

(Pictures follow in order)

• First ride in her carseat (4 days old)
• First Bath at home (5 days old)
• First visit to the grocery store. (3 weeks old)  First time I took Dakota out on my own.  Scary!
• Lost the umbilical cord (4 weeks)
• First time to church  (4 weeks old)
• First time to sleep through the entire church service. (5 weeks old)
• First Christmas!! (Exactly 1 month old)
• First hike (6 weeks old)
• First successful tummy time (She had this day one. 10 weeks old)
• First road trip (11 weeks old)
•  She found her hands (11 weeks old)
• Giving us eye contact and smiling at us (11 weeks old)
• First nap without arms being swaddled (12 weeks old)
• Laughed out loud!  (14 weeks)
• Holding, grabbing, and playing with toys (14 weeks)
• Sleeping through the night consistently!! 8-9 hours (14 weeks) 
• She has found the thumb (15 weeks)
• First attempt at the bouncer (16 weeks)
• First big laughs for her daddy (16 weeks)
• Rolled from tummy to back (17 weeks)
• First ski trip with Papaw (18 weeks)
• Roll from back to tummy (21 weeks)
• First bite of cereal (22 weeks)
• First sickness (23 weeks)
• First Flight (6 months)
• First Hike (7 months)
• First Time to the Ocean (7 months)
• First Time to the Lake (7 months)
• First Time with sippy cup (7 months)
• First time feeding herself (7 months)
• Sitting up all on her own (7 months)
• Eating puffs by herself (7 months)
• First Ride in front of cart (8 month)
• First time seeing a horse (8 months)
• First visit to Wind River Ranch (8 months)
• Standing up on her own (9 months) 
• Crawling (10 months)
• First steps (11 months)
• Walking (12 months)
• First cupcake (12 months)
• Using her spoon for the first time (12 months)
• Playing Pretend (12 months)
• First pigtails (12 months)

Dealing with the unexpected

As first-time moms, I think that we often have to be brought back to reality after getting lost in our fairy tale ideas of what pregnancy, delivery, and motherhood should look like.  I like to think that I am easy-going, yet over the past couple of weeks I have had to be reminded that things don't always go as planned.  We as moms have to be flexible.

#1 Planned: Dakota would arrive on Dec. 13th

• Happened: Arrived Nov. 25th

#2 Planned: breastfeed

• Happened:  Dakota was bottle fed formula by the nurses in the NICU.  (I am still a little mad about this.)

#3 Planned: Come home with no problems

• Happened: Came home with oxygen, which Dakota had to stay on for over a month

• Dakota was able to say goodbye to the oxygen tanks and the painful sticky pads that left marks on her cheeks on Jan. 1.

#4 Planned: Start nursing as soon as possible

• Happened: Dakota hated nursing because the bottle was a lot easier. She was even able to hold the bottle up on her own.   It wasn't until after 'Booby Bootcamp' that she is finally starting to get it.  It has taken A LOT of tears from both mommy and baby to get this. We are still working on it!  I always felt that it was an uphill climb from the beginning because she was started on bottle right away.

#5 Planned: Dakota would eat well with no problems.

• Happened: Dakota has acid reflux and is on medicine.  She is doing better.  She makes so many funny noises.  We call her our little velociraptor.

#6 Planned: Dakota wouldn't have any join problems.

• Happened:  She had to get an ultrasound on her hips because of the way that she was sitting in the womb.  Thankfully the results were good.  No hip problems.  This was just another thing that I had to worry about.  We are hoping that she is a volleyball player, so we don't want to have to worry about any hip problems.

Overall, I have learned to be flexible as a little mom.  Things will go differently than planned and it doesn't help to stress over them.  Dakota is healthy, happy, and very cute. (We are a little biased).