Thirty One + Thirty Two Weeks!

 

With all the holiday hustle and bustle last week, I never found the time to sit down and blog... which means this week's post will be a combo post of weeks 31 and 32 :)

Weight: Somewhere around 14 and a half and 15 pounds maybe?
  
Sleep: Sleeping has been really good for Lizzie. She's going to bed between 7:15 and 7:45 usually, and will typically sleep until 3:00, when she wakes (like clockwork) wanting to eat usually. She'll usually sleep in until at least 8:00 :) Woooohooo for everyone during Christmas break :)

Medical Issues: Not a one :) We went in last week to get her second dose of the flu vaccine. I hadn't anticipated giving her the vaccine, as I didn't even think it was allowed for babies. But her doctor highly recommended it, and I trust his judgment for a variety of reasons, so she got her first installment at her six month check-up and, as I mentioned, had her second dose last week. It was pretty hilarious -- the moment the nurse walked into the room with us, Lizzie wailed. I said, "Oh  my gosh, it's like she knows what's coming and she remembers you're the one who gives her the shot!" and the nurse confirmed that she actually does recognize the signs of a shot coming -- she said that by seven months, they can usually tell. But on the up side (I guess?), Lizzie was already so upset about the fact that she was getting a shot that I don't think she even noticed that she actually got the shot. Babies are smart little ones, I tell you!

Clothes: Hanging out in three to six month clothes by day, zero to three month jammies by night. However, in light of the ridiculously frigid temps, we've been putting her in some of her three to six month jammies at night because she has a few fleece jams in that size. They are pretty ginormous, but they are so darn cozy!

Socialite!: Due to the holidays, Lizzie girl has been especially social with people she doesn't always get to see! She hasn't been going to daycare the last week and a half because I've been off (whooo Christmas break!), but we've seen lots of family. On the day before Christmas Eve, my dearest friend from high school came to visit, so Lizzie got to hang out with her. Then on Christmas Eve, we saw my extended family on my mom's side for the night. On Christmas day, we hung out with Andy's family, and then my family that night. I've said it before, but Lizzie really loves to watch the "big" kids. She's completely fascinated by everything they do! And they make her smile real easily :) On Friday, we drove down to the Twin Cities and did a little shopping with Andy's mom and sister, and then left from there on Saturday to make the trek to Iowa for Andy's extended family Christmas. Lizzie met buckets of new people that day! Aunts and uncles, cousins, and even a great great uncle and her great grandma! It was pretty neat. I think she was pretty overwhelmed by the new place and all the new faces, but she really did a great job -- wasn't as smiley as she normally would be, but that's okay! She was out of her normal element and routine, so that's to be expected. 

Diet: Oh boy, big changes here -- for me, anyway. After much deliberation, I decided to start weaning Lizzie the day Christmas break began. We whittled feedings down about one a day, sometimes waiting a day before tossing one out due to either A) my being a little too "full" to pull another or B) my not being ready emotionally for weaning to go so quickly. We've got enough of a back-stock in the freezer to last a little while, but it's amazing how fast it goes. At this point, I'm hoping it will last until she turns eight months, which would be January 12th, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't last quite that long. After that, we'll obviously have to switch to formula. She's now exclusively taking bottles and does great with it. She's a smart cookie -- she picked up on the whole, bottle --> eat association super quickly. We're now hiding bottles until it's time to eat :)

Aside from breastmilk, Lizzie's food diet has been expanding. Last week and this week, she tried green beans, had more turkey, some lasagna, some spaghetti, chicken, avocado, broccoli, cauliflower (a new favorite!), pears, pineapple, blackberries, blueberries (another new favorite!), raspberries, red pepper strips, toast, organic baby yogurt, pita chips and spinach and artichoke hummus. I'm sure we had some other things in there too, but I can't think of them right now. Anyway, she has yet to meet a food she doesn't care for. She's a pretty awesome eater.

As far as the foods go, I've been putting a lot of thought into expanding her "meals" from just at suppertime, to also at lunch as well. This is tricky with daycare, and I'm not quite sure how to go about it at this point. Not that I don't trust daycare, but I feel like a person always watches their own child better than someone else would -- and not that I don't trust Lizzie to feed herself, either. We've never had even one incident of 'choking' for her with BLW. So I'm considering one of two options: either organic baby puree or really easy, "mushy" foods that I won't be concerned with. These would be things like very ripe pear, avocados, broccoli that I've steamed the night before, hummus and pita chips (they soften as she eats them), smashed blackberries and blueberries. And maybe if I do go the food route, I'd go over to daycare for the first few weeks and show them how I cut things for her and how I give blueberries and blackberries a little 'smoosh' before letting her pick them up -- not to make them feel incompetent, but I just want to make sure everything is as it should be before I put that kind of trust in someone.

Anyway, along those same lines, I introduced a lunch meal with her today since I'm home. We tried a few pita chips (a pita that I cut into wedges, put a little olive oil, garlic and pepper on and then roasted in the oven) with some hummus for the first time -- she wasn't so sure at first, but then she really chowed down. Ideally I'd like her to learn to dip her pita chips in the hummus, but that's a little advanced at this point -- so for now, I'm spreading the hummus on the pita chips with a baby spoon. She happened to get her little hands on the spoon and took a big bite of hummus on her own... and that's when the love affair started :) She had pears as her side, too.

Another thing to note is how much Lizzie is noticing what we're eating these days. She'll fuss quite a bit until we give her what we're eating for the main course some nights -- which is fine by me, because I wanted to start including her with that anyway, but sometimes it's hard to know how to give her some of what we eat, specifically if it's a little higher in sodium. Easy fix for that, though: cook with low-sodium/no salt ingredients, add salt later, or just leave it out of her food and put it in ours.

Baby Gear Love: Lizzie got so many great new toys and books for Christmas! Her favorites so far include the Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Soothe and Glow Seahorse (a God-send when we were on our way home from Iowa... sweet girl spent half of the car ride home in the dark, which had to be ridiculously boring for her. This lit up her lap so she could see her activity bar and other toys we'd packed for her to play with in the car!), the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn: Learning Kitchen (she can't get enough of how the light turns off and on with the flip of a switch!) and the B. Snug Bugs (she loves to chew on them, plus they are so great for little hands to grab onto and they are so darn CUTE! We toss them a couple in the diaper bag so she has something little to play with if she gets restless). Another thing we're in love with is the JJ Cole Car Seat Cover, which I've mentioned before. But it's an amazing thing -- Andy read that thicker "warm suits" that you can put baby in during cold weather (like the ridiculous cold snap we seem to have been in for the last MONTH...) can negatively affect a car seat's safety for a baby because you can't get the straps as tight as they should be. Anyway, with this car seat cover from JJ Cole, a warm suit really isn't needed anyway -- it's incredible how warm this thing keeps Lizzie. We definitely tuck a blanket around her to keep her cozied in, but that plus the cover keeps her very toasty. There have been times where the outside temp is negative 10, and we pull Lizzie out of her car seat and she's sweating. It's pretty awesome.

Crying: Baby girl is awesome, as per usual. Only cries when she's tired or hungry... or if you take food away from her :)

Mommy News:  As mentioned previously, over the past two weeks, we started and ended the weaning process. This was definitely a really big step for me emotionally. I felt it was time, but I still had a really hard time actually giving up nursing -- just ask my husband. I'd considered giving it up for the past two months, but just couldn't do it. I'm a very sensitive girl, so things that go through my head that "taunt" me are things like, "this is the fifth to the last day you'll nurse Lizzie at night in the rocking chair" (ridiculous, right?). I've always been like that, setting these little milestones and making things extra dramatic. And while I know they're dramatic and that life will go on and that everything will be fine, I still worry over it and think about it too much and ask my husband eight times in one night, "am I a bad mom for not nursing her longer?" Again, ridiculous. Of course not. But for some reason I just felt selfish for making that decision. Anyway, now that I've done my last nursing session (a few nights ago), I'm fine. In fact, going into that nursing session, I 'prepped' myself, saying "enjoy this last one, and drink in the moment"... and I did. But I didn't feel any emptiness upon putting her down in her crib. And last night and tonight were no less special or snuggly when I fed her a bottle in her rocker and kissed her goodnight. I knew it would be fine. I'm just not one for change -- it makes me very anxious and can tend to make me sad. And I'm glad the process, for the most part, is over. The process itself made me anxious, too. Anyway, now what's left over is that uncomfortable 'full' feeling until my body realizes it can stop making milk. Which is also kind of sad... but I'm just looking forward and looking at the positives: now we can give her bottles when we're out and about, I won't have to find a dressing room to nurse in while shopping, skip prep times at school to nurse, wear clothes that aren't "nursing friendly" -- not that I minded any of these things, but again, I'm focusing on positives :)
 
Milestones: We have our first Christmas under our belts! Lizzie was certainly more interested in the bows and tissue paper than anything else, and was less interested in ripping open packages than I thought. I anticipated that she'd love ripping the paper off of her gifts, but she didn't care much for that.

Lizzie also met a whole bunch of new family over the weekend on Andy's side! This included her great grandma :)

We're working so, so, so hard on the "b" sound it seems. She's 'buzzing' her lips like she wants to say the "buh" sound, but she's not quite there yet.

Lizzie is holding her own bottle when we feed her most of the time :) We're encouraging a sippy at mealtimes with a 1:10 ratio of prune juice to water (for constipation purposes), but she's got a case of the T-Rex Syndrome (i.e., arms too short to actually hold her sippy up high enough to get anything out!) so we have to help her for now.

Her self-feeding skills are really amazing at this point. She's getting that pincer grasp down incredibly well and can pick up relatively small bits of food with her pointer and thumb and get them to her mouth. She also likes to grab my fork/utensil that I might be using to feed her with every so often and guide it to her mouth with amazing accuracy. I basically give up all control of the utensil and let her do the guiding... and she's perfect every time.

Lizzie is now starting to show quite a preference to people. No longer is it where she can go to anyone and be happy that she's being held -- instead, she's typically quite concerned with where Mommy is. The moment she gets passed off to someone, she's often looking to see where I am and it's not long after that her sweet little face wrinkles into a cry and she reaches for me. I won't lie... I do kind of love it :) But I also want her to be happy going to her daddy and other family members as well. Not to mention, daycare is going to be impossible for me if she cries every time I leave her!

Thirty Weeks!

Weight: I'm guessing around 14 and a half pounds.
  
Sleep: Lizzie's been sleeping like a champ. She's out around 7:30 or 8:00 each night pretty easily and she'll sleep usually until around 2:00 when she wakes up feeling hungry. I feed her and she falls asleep immediately after burping, and then proceeds to sleep until we wake her in the morning :)

Medical Issues: All is well for our sweet girl! We've been so lucky that the worst we've encountered has been a cold and a nasty bout of constipation. Praise God for her healthy little life!

Clothes: Hanging out in three to six month clothes by day, zero to three month jammies by night.

Socialite!: Going through the usual routine this last week -- hanging out with the other kids at daycare. She seems to especially love the older kids because she can watch them play and do all kids of neat things she can't do yet :) Apparently she's been watching another little girl who's just a few months older than her and has been getting inspired to spend more time on her tummy to get better at crawling (this is all according to daycare… is this possible for her to think this way?). She's always so happy and social and gives smiles at the drop of a hat!

Diet: Still nursing Lizzie exclusively with baby-led weaning-themed solids for supper each night. She's been eating steamed broccoli, roasted sweet potato, avocado, mango and pear this week quite a bit. I let her have some spaghetti (love at first bite!), which she did really well with. I think the noodles go down really easily without much work, but I do cut them pretty small and feed them to her (which is against the BLW mentality, but I do what works for us). She also had some (low-sodium) chicken broth and shredded chicken from our chicken and dumplings last night, which she really, really liked, too. Again -- I fed it to her. I've been encouraging her to use a spoon to feed herself yogurt lately, too. We've been showing her how to dip her spoon to "reload" it, but I think she's still working on that concept. If we load the spoon, however, she can feed herself (by default, because she sticks anything in her mouth :)). She also loves pizza -- I've only offered her homemade pizza crusts with some tomato sauce on it, but she really likes that. Last week at my parents' house she tried some of those Gerber puffs, which she liked but had a hard time getting to her mouth. I really want to start offering her more of what we're eating each night, but I've kind of been waiting for that pincer grasp to develop a little more. It's definitely improving, so I think I'll start giving her the "main course" on her tray. Another reason I've been waiting to do this is because I want to be really cautious about the sodium intake, as babies can't handle much extra sodium in their diet. While I don't add a whole lot of salt to our food myself, I do know that certain ingredients can contain a high amount (like chicken broth, for example) -- so I'll need to do a lot of label reading and the like.

Also… anyone ever roasted carrots? I'm still trying to perfect that so I can offer Lizzie some other veggie options. Anyone out there done baby led weaning and have other food suggestions? We would love to hear some! :)

Baby Gear Love: We love our jumperoo these days! Lizzie is now getting tall enough to make that thing bounce! Ours is the Luv U Zoo Fisher Price jumperoo, and Lizzie loves it! She's always looking at the hanging gorilla and carefully trying to grab it :)

Crying: Baby girl is awesome, as per usual. Only cries when she's tired or hungry... or if you take food away from her :)

Mommy News:  Mommy can't wait to spend almost two straight weeks with her baby girl over Christmas break! Weehooo!
 
Milestones: Lizzie seems to be waving lately, though I'm not sure she really knows what it means. I think it's more than she's copying us -- but really, it's ridiculously cute. She's got this beauty queen/princess wave down beautifully. It's adorable :)

Twenty Nine Weeks!

 

Weight: My best guess is between 14 and 14 and a half pounds.
  
Sleep: I thinks we've finally solved our sleep issues (at least this time, anyway… I'm sure there will be another bout of poor sleep habits in the future again :)). As mentioned last week, Lizzie was battling some constipation issues. When those were (finally) resolved last week, Lizzie girl started sleeping beautifully again. She's now waking once each night around two or three to eat, and that's it! It feels good to be sleeping longer than two-hour stretches at a time again!

Medical Issues: Last week, I mentioned that Lizzie was having constipation issues and that we were headed in to see her doctor. Though I thought our issues would be solved in that visit, I was dead wrong. Long story short: after a doctor visit, a call to the ER, gross things we had to do at home that I never thought I'd do in my life (ever), another doctor visit, and more of that gross stuff, Lizzie's system was running as it should again! But it was sad and pretty scary for a few days. That poor baby! We were on the schedule for a baby-friendly enema at the hospital, but we were able to resolve the problem before it came to that... hooray!

Clothes: Hanging out in three to six month clothes by day, zero to three month jammies by night.

Socialite!: Over the weekend, sweet girl had her six month (er, almost seven, really) and family pictures! We should be getting them back tomorrow :) Yay! After that, we went to Grandma Kathy's and made Christmas cookies with Auntie Jenny and Grandma K. Lizzie also helped decorate the Christmas tree. Actually, she watched. But she was great for moral support! She also continues to be extremely friendly with those who sit behind us at mass on Sunday mornings :) Our sweet girl was practically playing peek-a-boo with the people behind us this last week! Too cute. She also made friends at her second doctor visit last week. Even when she was all stopped up, she was still ridiculously happy (aside from when she was trying to make things happen, that is...).

Diet: Still nursing Lizzie exclusively while doing baby-led weaning, though we backed off from solids completely for a few days when we were trying to work out her 'digestive' issues. During that time, she only had breastmilk and a tiny bit of organic baby purees -- but to be honest, she's not really a huge fan of them. Her new favorite food seems to be pears -- she can't get enough of them! 

Baby Gear Love: Nothing new to talk about... but just wait until Christmas comes! I have a feeling she might have some new favorites to rave about ;)

Crying: Baby girl is awesome, as per usual. Only cries when she's tired or hungry... or if you take food away from her :)

Mommy News:  As mentioned in a previous week, there is a couple from our area who had a sweet baby girl with a rare genetic diagnosis determined shortly after being born. Sadly, their sweet girl passed away just a couple of weeks after they welcomed her. I honestly cannot even begin to fathom what they must be going through -- it is so heart wrenching to think of that scenario. We've been squeezing our little one extra tight every day and thanking God for every second we have with her. Our journey to have Lizzie may have been agonizing and painful, but we are so lucky to have such a healthy little lady.

Milestones:Lizzie is babbling like crazy lately! She's got different tones to her voice now, almost sounding like she's asking a question or very excited about something. It's too cute! Still no repeated sounds at this point...

She's LOVING peek-a-boo now! Which she has for awhile, but we can get some really good belly laughs out of her with it! She's also a HUGE fan of the Itsy-Bitsy Spider :) It is too, too sweet.

Lizzie also drops things now and looks to see where they fell :) It is so adorable. She does the same thing whenever someone hides during peek-a-boo, too. 

Oh, and... first Christmas jammies! Silly milestone, I know, but seriously. They are too cute and even have little reindeer heads on the feet :)

Twenty Eight Weeks!

Weight: I'm guessing our baby girl is around 14 pounds at this point.
  
Sleep: Sleep remains an issue for us right now. I'm not sure if it's just that I need to change my mindset and accept the fact that, though she slept through the night beautifully for a decent period of time in her life, she's since given that up and is now waking up again like she did when she was younger. I didn't mind it then, so why worry about it now? Anyway, we're averaging three to four wake-ups a night I would say. Last night, she woke at 11:30 p.m., 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., and 5:00 a.m. So maybe the reason why her night wakings are concerning to me is because she's waking up so much more than she ever has before. However, I have to cut the girl some slack: she's dealing with a rather uncomfortable issue at the moment…

Medical Issues: As I just mentioned, poor girl is dealing with an uncomfortable issue right now. Last week, I said that Lizzie started some multi-vitamin drops to ensure she has enough iron in her system. Unfortunately, a side effect of the vitamin is the potential for constipation. Because of this, I opted to only give her one dose before going full-speed ahead and giving them everyday. Alas, that one dose was more than enough to wreak havoc on her poor little digestive system. Since Thanksgiving day, she's been terribly stopped up. We've done so many things: pureed prunes, pureed pears, pureed peaches, increasing water intake, glycerin suppositories (poor baby!), helping her push her knees to her chest… and nothing has helped. I'm completely certain that at this point, we have some issues with impacting :( So sad. Poor girl. But she's still so happy, you'd never know it! Well, until she tries to go to the bathroom, anyway. So I have a hunch that her nighttime wakings are a direct correlation to this issue. My main concern is that her waste is going to get backed up so far that it overflows into the rest of her little body! Which I'm certain is irrational, but you know me. So I put my second call in to her doctor so far this week (mind you, it's only Tuesday) and just heard back. We're headed to see Lizzie's doctor right after school and they'll do an x-ray to see what's happenin', and we'll talk logistics after that. Poor babe.

Clothes: Hanging out in three to six month clothes by day, but zero to three month jammies by night.

Socialite!: Lizzie girl was a bit of a shut-in last week because I was home most days! Hooray for Thanksgiving break! When we weren't home, we were with family. Lizzie loves watching her big cousins play :) Lizzie's Godfather, Norm, also stopped to see her over the holiday weekend. It was so great to see him, not just for Lizzie, but for us too! We love when Uncle Norm visits. I'm convinced he holds bitty babies in his free time -- he seems like an expert at it.

Diet: Still nursing Lizzie exclusively while doing baby-led weaning. I've started letting her try some meats other than ground beef now. She had a little bit of rotisserie chicken the other day, as well as some turkey on Thanksgiving (what else?). She also tried some regular potatoes, and she also had a baked sweet potato (though I fed it to her, which, I know, is against BLW rules, but oh well). I also picked up some very soft pears at the grocery store the other night, and she's been eating those like a boss -- she can't get enough! I learned a valuable lesson in avocado buying, too: firmer avocados are better for baby -- not hard, just firm. Lizzie can so much more easily grip them, and I can cut them more easily.

Baby Gear Love: Nothing new to really express love for this week, just the usual suspects that I mentioned last week. 

Crying: Even though she's had some tummy troubles, baby girl has still been so good -- we're not even sure she's all that uncomfortable with those issues because she really doesn't cry or fuss about it. 
Mommy News: I'm learning quickly now just how easy it is to worry sick over your little one when they're not feeling well. Even though Lizzie girl isn't exhibiting any outward signs of discomfort via crying and fussiness, it breaks my heart to know she's not feeling as well as she could be.

I also continue to be reminded what a miracle of life she truly is. A couple close in age to us recently gave birth to a sweet baby girl, too -- but their sweet girl has a rare genetic syndrome called Zellweger's Syndrome, so she likely won't live beyond six months old. My heart aches for their little family. I truly cannot imagine how devastating that news would be. When I learned of the baby's diagnosis, I called Andy crying -- I just felt so, so, so sad for them. Please pray for this family. They have incredible faith and are such a beautiful little family.

Milestones: Lots more little milestones this week! Lizzie girl celebrated her first-ever Thanksgiving Day! Which means she was also a part of the annual DeCock family gingerbread house building tournament. She wasn't exactly on a team this year, but next year I have no doubt her team will dominate!

Lizzie also had her first Christmas tree decorating experience! Sweet girl got to "help" us put ornaments on the tree, although I have yet to pick out a Baby's First Christmas ornament. I think I'm too picky maybe :) Anyone have any suggestions? I've been perusing Etsy for quite some time and have quite a few contenders, but I have yet to make a decision.

Anyway, along the same lines of Christmas decorating, it's hard for me to believe that just a year ago, I was holding my breath, hoping that this would be our life right now. I know, as I think we all do, just how fragile new little lives can be, both before and after birth. I can't express how big my heart smiled and eyes glistened as I so carefully wrote "Lizzie" at the top of her stocking in glitter puffy paint, just like my mom did and does for each one of us and each grandkid, and hung it next to Andy and mine on our railing. Oh, sweet girl. You don't have any idea just how special you are to us. Such simple gestures, done with such great love just for you.

Twenty Seven Weeks!

 

Weight: At our six month appointment, we got some surprising news: Lizzie actually weighs about a pound less than we thought! When she went in to be checked out a few weeks ago for her cold, they weighed her with all of her clothes on. But at a Well Child visit, baby goes down to a clean diaper for their weighing -- so apparently she wasn't 14 and a half pounds that day :) So her real weight this week is 13 pounds, 10 ounces -- still hanging out in the fifth percentile for weight. Her length is 25 and a half inches (25th percentile) and her head circumference was in the ninth percentile.
 
Sleep: I'm not going to lie: it's been a rough week for sleep in the Bristow household. Lizzie has been waking some nights as often as every hour and 20 minutes -- not necessarily to eat, but just because. After a few nights of waking every couple of hours, I decided that maybe I needed to toughen up and try having her cry a little. So at 2:00 that morning, I let her cry for 10 minutes before swooping in. When I did come to her rescue, I tried the ol' "stand by the crib, rub her tummy and let her know Mommy is here" trick. Didn't work. She cried for a half hour straight that way, but I figured she had to get tired and fall asleep soon. Well, she did, and I thought I was an awesome mom: let her cry, but not all alone and abandoned like my vision of crying it out would be. So I went back to my cozy bed, was almost asleep, when not two minutes later, Lizzie woke up and gave a full-fledged cry with all that little lung power. So I nudged Andy and told him it was his turn, and gave very specific instructions not to pick Lizzie up, but to try soothing her by rubbing her tummy and letting her know Daddy was there. I asked him to do this because I felt like I'd just 'invested' 30 minutes in trying to break the habit of Lizzie needing us to fall back asleep, and I didn't want to teach her that if she cried long and hard enough, we'd give in. Anyway, he did those things exactly and just beautifully. But fast forward 30 more minutes, and poor baby was still crying, and we were still not sleeping. So at this point, we'd spent an hour total with Lizzie crying. Obviously, it wasn't working, and I felt like an hour was the limit. We abandoned ship, Andy picked her up, and right to sleep she went until morning. At that point, we felt a little perplexed -- do we pick her up, soothe her, and sleep soundly after comforting her in the middle of the night for five minutes, or do we continue to try to have her cry while we stand by her side for an hour? Decisions, decisions. Any thoughts or advice out there?

Which brings me to my next dilemma: bedtime routine. How many of you rock/rocked your babies to sleep completely? Because I enjoy it and don't mind it at all and want to cherish every second of it because I know it doesn't last forever, but will I "ruin" her for life?

Anyway, the nighttime wakings seem to be better, but not completely taken care of. Last night she woke twice -- once to eat, and once just "because" (I'm sure she has a good reason, but she can't share it with me, really :)).

Medical Issues: None! We did start Lizzie on multi-vitamin drops (that smell disgusting, by the by) to ensure she's getting enough iron since I'm nursing (formula has added iron to make sure baby is getting enough, but breastmilk doesn't have that, and apparently baby's "stores" of iron are used up by around six months).

Clothes: Our three to six month gear is a little big yet. Still wearing zero to three month jammies.

Socialite!: Just continuing to hang out with the kids at daycare and with our families :) And being friendly with the people that sit around us at mass on Sunday mornings, of course :)

Diet:Still nursing Lizzie exclusively while doing baby-led weaning. We've introduced mango and butternut squash now, and I continue to be amazed at how much her fine motor skills have advanced in such a short time. The butternut squash I made tonight was cubed into two centimeter cubes (roughly), and she could pick those up and even have enough room in her grip to nibble on it -- pretty awesome. She loved the mango and has really learned well how to hang on to and control avocado, so that seems to be a big favorite of hers as well. I've started putting cinnamon on her sweet potato fries as well. Antioxidants + exposure to new flavors = two great things :) Lizzie has also now tried (sucked on) a strip of pork loin, taco meat, sloppy joe meat, and a skinny strip of homemade pizza which she loved because of the sauce. So far, there's been no negative reactions to anything, which doesn't really surprise me because there's no family history anywhere. I know I've said it before, but I repeat: we l o v e baby led weaning! We continue to be amazed at how awesome Lizzie is at it, and we find it hard to carry a conversation at supper now because we're so enamored by her eating skills!

Baby Gear Love: Lizzie still loves that silly Fisher Price Go Baby Go! 1-2-3 Snail. It's one of the few things she looks interested enough in to consider rolling over for... We're still loving our Fisher Price Luv U Zoo jumperoo, our high chair and her OXO Roll-Up Bib.

The weather has taken a turn for the worst in Minnesota lately. Well, not the worst, really, but definitely so in terms of cold at this time of year. We've had some frigid, single digit mornings (with below zero wind chills, I'm sure!), so we've been very appreciative of our JJ Cole Car Seat Cover and Lizzie's "warm suit". She stays super cozy in there -- we're often amazed at how toasty she is when we pull her out of her car seat! We debated and went back and forth on what type of outerwear to get for Lizzie for winter, but I think the warm suit we went with is perfect -- not too warm that she'd overheat in the car seat, but still enough warmth to not worry about her (especially with the car seat cover).

Crying: She is one sweet baby. She's only fussy if she's hungry or tired :) Although I have noticed some "stranger danger" tendencies where she'll cry if a stranger gets too close.

Mommy News: Mommy is off for the rest of the week from work and is looking forward to not having to get Lizzie up and out the door quickly in the morning! Yahoo for Thanksgiving break!

Milestones: I've been working a lot on showing Lizzie how rolling is a means of travel to try and encourage her to roll from back-to-front (we've been rolling front-to-back since she was born), and I think I'm getting my message across. She's finally started to show interest in rolling from back-to-front, and I think it will be soon that she's successful :)

She's sitting like a pro now! Not that I'd sit her down and walk away, but I don't have to worry too much about her, really.

It seems like overnight, Lizzie realized she can reach for things. And I don't mean just reach -- she's been doing that for quite a while. I mean really stretch and reach and lean toward whatever it is she wants (which happens to be anything and everything, by the way!). She's also started leaning toward who she wants as well -- it's a pretty awesome change. She puts all her body weight into her lean and stretches that little arm and fingers so hard toward what she's got her eyes on.

She's also started throwing little tantrums, which we (currently) find hysterical. She often wants to look at the remote control for the TV or our cell phones, and sometimes we'll put them behind a pillow or under the couch so she stops being so distracted by them... but doing so elicits a breakdown for her. If she's sitting, she'll fold forward all the way to the ground and rest her forehead on the floor and just cry -- it really is pretty hilarious :) Poor girl is trying to get a point across and all we do is laugh!

And maybe one of my favorite things so far: she pats our backs now when we hold her :) So sweet. It kind of (er, completely) melts my heart.

Twenty Six Weeks!

Weight: I did the good ol' weight trick that I always do and came up with around 15 pounds!
 
Sleep: We've had some amazing nights and some not-so-amazing-nights. A few nights in a row, Lizzie girl slept clear through the night -- woohoo! But last night and the night before were a little rough, with wake-ups every couple of hours -- not to eat necessarily, but just waking up sad and needing to be picked up to be comforted. Poor little babe.

Medical Issues: Nada :) Our stint with the common cold is over!

Clothes: Wearing 3 to 6 month clothes; shirts are a little big and pants are quite too big, but that's okay!

Socialite!: Baby girl went shopping with me, my mom and my grandma this past weekend and was perfect. She was happy as could be as I pushed her around the mall and slept at the perfect times (on our drive to and from St. Cloud :)). Sidenote: I've never been a nursing mother before (obviously) so I'd never appreciated the nursing rooms they have at the mall in St. Cloud -- they are incredibly wonderful... and with such a comfy chair, too :) It makes nursing on-the-go so much less inconvenient and so much more enjoyable.

Diet:Still nursing Lizzie exclusively while doing baby-led weaning. Since last week, I've seen some really awesome changes in her abilities to feed herself. Already she's much more accurate with both her grasp and her aim once she's trying to put the food in her mouth. She's also far less messy than she was when we first started a week or two ago. We've stayed on a pretty steady diet of steamed broccoli, sweet potato wedge "fries" and avocado, but I started to introduce a few new things over the past few days. Last night we tried organic baby yogurt with toast strips as "dippers", which she really liked. Tonight, we went with the toast dippers and organic baby yogurt again, but also tried two new things: roasted carrots with paprika and cucumber spears. Baby girl was in heaven! More often than not she had a cucumber in one fist and a carrot in the other, alternating between the two :) The carrot was quite similar to the sweet potato in terms of texture, which was good I think. Different flavor, but easy for Lizzie to break through the outside roasted skin and squeeze the inside out into her mouth. She had a great supper tonight!

Baby Gear Love: Still loving our Fisher Price Luv U Zoo jumperoo with books underneath so she can bounce herself (she's a shorty!). We're still glad with our high chair pick, which is the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat. It's so easy to clean after she eats. Another thing we've come to love is the clear plastic we put down on the floor beneath Lizzie's high chair before we eat. That way when we're finished with supper, we can just roll it up and throw it away and don't have to worry about cleaning up the floor below her. Another eating-time necessity is her bib. I ordered two different kinds: the OXO Roll-Up Bib and three of the Bumkins Waterproof Sleeved Bib. So far the Bumkins bibs are way too big for our little peanut -- she drowns in them. However, the OXO bib is awesome. It catches lots of what ends up falling out of her mouth (which, let's face it, tends to be quite a bit at this point) and can be washed up and cleaned in the sink after supper and left to dry. It makes clean-up of baby so much easier than if she doesn't wear a bib at all (which we did do for a little while until my parents suggested giving a bib a try, which only makes sense -- I had just thought it would get in the way previously).

Finally, I should also mention Lizzie's love of a pink stuffed bunny from a student's family from last year. She cannot get enough of this bunny, who happens to be almost her same size. She jabbers at it, eats its nose and reaches for it all the time. We like to sit her in front of it and just watch them "interact" :) It's way too cute.

Crying: She is one sweet baby. She's only fussy if she's hungry or tired :)

Mommy News: Not a whole lot to say about Mommy, really. Trying to ramp up the eating in order to accommodate for the lost calories due to nursing because I continue to be losing some weight it seems. Bring on the birthday treats, kids!

We're starting to Christmas shop for Lizzie and are also trying to think of ideas for other people to get her. Anyone out there have any good toy recommendations for babies? We would love to hear any you have!

Milestones: The sitting abilities become more and more impressive all the time. She can't be trusted to sit without someone ready to catch her if she loses her balance, but that's just a precautionary measure -- I'm sure she sat tonight without any assistance or anyone to lean on for several minutes. Playing with toys is so much more fun when you don't have to lay down!

Lizzie has also developed a lot of new sounds this week. She has a whole variety of noises to share different emotions, and it is completely awesome. We love love love listening to that little voice! Maybe the funniest new voice she has is a little "whine"... it typically elicits a laugh from us :) Poor girl.

We are also noticing how easily she will smile and giggle these days! Andy coughed last night and she laughed a good belly laugh :) Today he just came home from work and said "Hi" and she gave us a giggle. She is so sweet!

Twenty Five Weeks!

Weight: As of last Wednesday, Lizzie was officially 14 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces. So by now, maybe 14 1/2 pounds possibly.

Sleep: Lizzie has returned to her own room and crib again this week and has been sleeping well. She's ready to sleep like clockwork around 7:15 each night and has typically been waking once around 2:00 a.m. to eat. After that, she'll sleep clear until we wake her in the morning.

Medical Issues: I mentioned last week that Lizzie had quite an icky cough, and it continued to persist through last week and was accompanied by a rattly chest. Anyway, daycare commented Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday about these things and probably thought by the third day that I was a horrible first-time mommy for not bringing her in to get checked out by the doctor yet. But I figured she wasn't running a temperature and she was as happy as ever, so she must be fine, right? Anyway, I decided it's better safe than sorry, so I called to see what her doctor thought. Unfortunately, he's not in Wednesday afternoons, so we got in with the next available pediatrician. Double unfortunately, I teach Religious Education on Wednesdays, so I couldn't take her in and neither could her daddy. So I called my mom to see if she thought we could wait to go in until tomorrow and whaddya know? Grandma to the rescue! She swooped in and offered to be by in 15 minutes to pick Lizzie girl up to take her in. And again, whaddya know? The doctor said she's completely fine -- just a head cold that might take 10 days to get rid of. So anyway, false alarm and a lesson in mommy instinct: follow it. Baby girl's been nothing but happy in spite of her cold :)

Clothes: Our 3 to 6 month stuff is still quite big, especially the pants -- but it sure beats the muscle man look!

Socialite!: Lizzie shows us, again and again, how much she loves kids (and people in general, really). When we go to mass, she no longer falls asleep five minutes in... not our little socialite! She loves to be up, looking around, and making eyes and smiling at people behind us :) Doesn't matter if she knows them or not, she just loves the interaction. Our sweet girl is also making a pretty adorable habit of being "shy" now. She'll look at people and smile and then turn and burrow her head into our neck/shoulder :) It is the sweetest thing. She also touched heads with her great grandma on Sunday after mass at lunch while smiling at her :) So cute.

Diet: Still nursing Lizzie exclusively, even after returning to work. However, we've added one meal to her day now! She now eats supper with us at the table in her high chair. So far, I haven't given her what we've been eating -- for the most part I'm trying to stick with mainly veggies and a fruit as a "dessert" item at the end so she doesn't favor the fruits and leave the vegetables to the side. We're doing baby-led weaning, which basically means we're forgoing the purees and cereal and instead forging ahead and giving her real solids from the get-go. So far, she's had (and loved) steamed broccoli (her favorite!), sweet potato fry wedges (just a teensy bit of olive oil on wedges of sweet potato, then baked in the oven), and avocado. She's also tried banana, pineapple, raspberries, apples and blackberries. She does like the fruits, too, but mostly seems to really enjoy the veggies (whose daughter is she!? Can't be mine!). She found the berries to be a little sour, but really likes sucking on the pineapple and apples to taste their juice I think. The banana she hasn't had much reaction to at this point. I did give her a little taste of ground beef the other night off of some pizza, but she spit it out :) Probably wasn't much flavor there compared to those fruits and veggies! She tried red bell pepper one night, too, but I think I cooked it too long and it was too limp for her, so I plan to make another attempt. I also offered her egg yolks the other morning at breakfast. She tried them and definitely found them odd, but she didn't spit them out.

 Watching Lizzie dive into these foods and eat with such skill has been incredible. She honestly is so amazing to watch. Her hand-eye coordination is already improving so much, and I swear we don't say a word at supper to each other anymore (and hardly eat our food before it gets cold!) because we're just watching her in awe. It is amazing to watch our six-month old handle and eat food so easily. We love love love baby-led weaning so far! It is a mess, but not terrible, really. We've learned to put down some plastic on the floor for easy clean-up afterward (things do definitely come off of her tray!) and that Lizzie shouldn't be wearing anything but her diaper, because she'll be covered from belly button-up in food. So far, she hasn't had any food smashed into her hair -- only hidden in her belly button and in her neck! So a careful clean-up and once (er, twice thrice)-over are a definite necessity. But she is loving it and so are we. She is a great eater so far! It is so much FUN!

Baby Gear Love: We are loving our Fisher Price Luv U Zoo jumperoo now that mommy and daddy have been putting books under Lizzie's feet! She's now figured out a little more how it works and is loving the bouncing she can do :) She's also starting to bat at the things on it more, too. We're also appreciating our very simple high chair, the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat. I did a lot of researching on which high chair would be best for baby-led weaning and considered quite a few. I knew we wanted one with absolutely no fabric whatsoever because baby-led weaning can be very messy! We needed to be able to wipe down the whole thing (or put it in the shower to hose it down...) after supper each night and not have to worry about washing the pad in it. We were thisclose to buying the OXO Sprout high chair, but I changed my mind when I read the reviews and learned that food can get trapped in the velcro of the seat... gross. Then we considered the Keekaroo Right Height high chair, but I read that its tray is too small. Next, I considered the IKEA Antilop high chair after reading some baby-led weaning message boards, but then I stumbled across the Fisher-Price option that we ultimately ended up buying. So far, so good -- we love it. Super easy to clean and doesn't take up any extra space because it sits on top of a dining room chair.

Crying: She is one sweet baby. She's only fussy if she's hungry or tired :)

Mommy News: Not much. Still thinking about weaning and if I'm ready. I think I would be, but I'm not good with change... so for right now, we'll just keep on what we're doing :) And there was some sad news about a stillborn baby in our community over the weekend, which completely broke my heart. I truly cannot imagine -- it would be my worst nightmare. I've been hugging Lizzie extra tight and saying so many prayers of thanks, as well as so many for healing for that mommy and daddy.

Milestones: Lizzie's sitting up skills are insanely impressive now. She can sit-up, unassisted for at least 30 seconds now I'd say. Of course, the moment she gets distracted, she's wobbling and falls over, but still. She can also pull herself up to a seated position from where she's at if she leans all the way forward with her nose on the floor. Most impressive.

She loves peek-a-boo! Oh, she loves it :)

This week also marked her first good try at solid foods... woohoo!

Yesterday marked exactly a half of a year since she was born! And tomorrow will be her six-month birthday. Happy half-year birthday, sweet girl! You are the love of our lives and we can't imagine life without you!

Twenty Four Weeks!

Weight: Baby girl is around 14 pounds I'm guessing. She feels solid right now!

Sleep: Sleep has definitely improved over the past week. I think we've gotten through our growth spurt and the stuffed-up part of Lizzie's first cold. She's been napping great lately (at least two one-hour naps each day) and has been sleeping clear through the nights some nights, and others just waking up once to re-fuel. She has been sleeping in our room again in her bassinet lately because she's had a really nasty cough. 

Medical Issues: We're over the runny/stuffy nose we had last week, but that's now evolved into a nasty cough. Poor sweet baby sounds like she has so much "gunk" stuck in her chest and throat. She's not rattly when she breathes anymore, so I'm glad we've moved beyond that, but her coughs are still pretty intense. As mentioned previously, we've been having her sleep in our room next to my side of the bed just for the sake of being close by. She hasn't run a temperature at all and she seems to be in a very happy mood all the time in spite of the yucky-ness of this little cold. 

Clothes: For the most part, we've moved beyond the 0 to 3 month things now. I'm opting to put her in 3 to 6 month clothes now because, although they are a bit big, they look a little more comfortable for her to be in. I would say that about half of her 3 to 6 month stuff is still too big for us to put on her at this point, though. We went through her closet and dresser last week one day and put away all of the 0 to 3 month things that she wouldn't be wearing again, and we were definitely a little sad and nostalgic about putting away all of those little outfits. Regardless, I won't lie: I was kind of excited this time, too. I've been curating a 3 to 6 month wardrobe for Lizzie since she was probably three months old! So she's finally growing into the cute stuff I've been hoarding :)

Socialite!: Lizzie got to meet my third graders (and other kids, too!) at school this last week on Halloween! Since she goes to daycare right across the street from school, I ran over to get her for our school's costume parade on Halloween afternoon. I let the kids vote on her costume (she had two… a cupcake and a cheetah :)) and they wanted her to be in her cupcake outfit -- so that's what we did! And everyone (including Lizzie!) had a great time! They couldn't get enough of her :)

Aside from that, Lizzie also saw her great grandparents Jack and Janice over the weekend for brunch on Sunday. She's always a bit fussy shortly after church, so we only have a limited time after mass to go out to eat -- but she did really well with it and even smiled nice for some pictures before we left, too :)

Diet: I'm still nursing Lizzie exclusively, but I think I'm starting to soften a bit on the Baby Led Weaning rules that state babies must be six months old before beginning… because I definitely let her go to town on a waffle or two at brunch yesterday. She loved it and is ridiculously eager to eat pretty much anything we have… as in, she fights to get food from us, more than she fights to get her little hands on toys. So she's now gnawed on a couple of apple cores, a sugar snap pea and two waffles. I do think she got a little bit of waffle in her system because she had a diaper that looked a little different than usual this morning. Anyway, after the waffle experience, I've decided to throw caution into the wind and start introducing foods. On tonight's menu for Andy and me are fajitas… so I plan to give her some roasted red pepper strips :) My students have requested video to show them how it goes tomorrow, and I think I'll be happy to oblige. I can't wait! So excited to see her little reaction! I think next will be avocados and sweet potatoes… eek!

Baby Gear Love: Still loving books, her Snugabunny Swing and also the Fisher Price Go Baby Go 1-2-3 Crawl Along Snail -- she honestly cannot get enough of that silly snail! She also got a cute little (fake) MP3 player from Grandma and Grandpa for Halloween that she loves. It sings songs and lights up, and we do love to dance to it ;) We're also big fans of our Bumbo lately... her sitting abilities have really improved lately!

Crying: She is one sweet baby. She's only fussy if she's hungry or tired :)

Mommy News: Not a whole lot in the mommy arena lately. I hadn't been as "impressed" by how quickly time goes with my little lady, but now that she's almost a half year old (!), I realize just how fast time does go! I continue to cherish every second with her. Not a day goes by that I forget just how blessed we are to have this sweet girl. Last night when I was rocking Lizzie to sleep, I remembered all the struggle and heartbreak we went through to meet her. And one of the best parts was that I found it hard to remember some of it. I had to really dig deep in my memory to recall that I used to spend just about every waking moment, worried that we would never be able to have a baby of our own. I'd forgotten that. All of those awful days, months, couple of years, practically erased -- replaced, instead, by the incredible love and gratitude for our little one. All of those now seem like a bad dream that's hard to remember. Not that I don't remember -- because I do, when I think and try to put myself back there -- but I think my mind and my heart have so many better things to fill it with now, so why bother?
A stranger saw me with Lizzie yesterday and he said to me, "you've been blessed". If only he knew just how blessed.

Oh, so blessed.

Milestones: She's amazing! Lizzie has been doing an amazing job of sitting up as of late. Late in the week last week, she could hardly balance while sitting. But it seemed like suddenly overnight, she could sit, unassisted, pretty easily for 10 seconds or more! She's certainly still wobbly, and she has to be somewhat concentrated in order to do it, but still! She's awesome. I'm thinking the next week will be filled with lots of sitting strides.

I also heard her say the "b" sound the other night for the first time. She's saying all kinds of new sounds, especially when she wakes up from naps or in the middle of the night and babbles to herself (so darn cute!). The buzzing of her tongue has also returned (my favorite!), and she's now started to blow bubbles with her mouth, too :)

I swear she's learning how to give hugs, because when you say "give hugs", she'll lean into your chest... we'll see if that continues, or if it's just been a coincidence :)

She's also starting to lean for things and people that she wants -- Andy was holding her the other day, and when I came around, she leaned toward me with her body. She also has a tendency to do that toward toys she's interested in, and then she'll start to grab at them with her hands.

She's become especially smiley and giggly lately, too. She loves peek-a-boo now, too! My mom was playing with her while I was holding her the other night, and when my mom would hide, she would say something (so Lizzie could hear her voice, but not see her). Lizzie girl would look and look and look all over to see where grandma was, but she was nowhere to be found! Until she'd pop up, and Lizzie would laugh and give big smiles :)

Lizzie also loves when one of us carries her around the house and the other person follows behind. She thinks it is hysterical when we do that, especially if we're coming up the stairs behind her :)

Other milestones: Lizzie's first Halloween! She was a cupcake by day, a cheetah by night! We also tried chomping on a sugar snap pea and waffles for the first time!