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!