Forty Four Weeks!

Weight: Girlfriend had a bit of a dip in weight due to being sick last week, which I'll write about in Medical Issues below. Anyway, she's 16 pounds, 15 ounces -- just an ounce above where she was a month ago.

Sleep: Sleep has been hit and miss lately because of Lizzie being sick. She got pretty spoiled because we held her constantly when she had a temperature, so I think she forgot how to sleep in her crib ;) Anyway, I'm struggling with what to do in the middle of the night when she wakes. Anyone have any suggestions? Sometimes she'll go back to sleep without help, sometimes she just needs her pacifier, but sometimes she needs a rocking session -- which we do not mind doing at all, but sometimes she'll fall fast asleep while we rock her, and the moment her head hits the mattress when we put her down, she wakes! This happened probably four times one night (er, morning). So then I decided she should lie in her crib and I'd stay with her, rubbing her tummy… Lord knows that didn't work, because while I attempted to soothe her, she just cried -- hard. So then I decided maybe I needed to leave because she wanted me to pick her up since I was standing right there next to her crib (cry-it-out… eek!)… but we tried that for a half hour, and that didn't work either. So, in total, we lost an hour and a half of sleep in the middle of the night with the CIO method. Dang. And she was just getting more and more upset as the moments ticked by… so what's a momma to do? Suggestions are welcome :) I was able to put her down one night when she was awake, and I sat in her rocker. She rolled over and peeked at me through the crib slats and eventually went to sleep on her tummy… I felt like I'd won a huge victory! 

Medical Issues: [Warning: this is terribly long! Feel welcome to skim. Or skip :)] Oofsch. Where do I even start! A couple of Fridays ago, girlfriend's daycare teachers mentioned she seemed really warm, but that she didn't have a temperature. That night, however, she wouldn't take a bottle before bedtime, and about an hour after she was asleep, she threw up :( Poor baby. About 15 minutes later, she threw up again. Double sad! Anyway, she was ridiculously happy after that and was hungry for a bottle, so I figured we were out of the woods. She did have a temperature, right around 100 degrees, but I just figured (er, hoped) it would pass, and she had a really nasty, dry cough as well.

The next morning, girlfriend woke up with a 101 degree temperature. She was still her happy, smiley self and didn't seem any different and her eating habits were the same, so we gave her some Motrin and enjoyed the day. That icky cough continued, along with a  rattly chest, but no throwing up -- although we were lucky enough to have a number of "loose" diapers…

Sunday morning, girlfriend woke up with a 100 degree temp, and I did a little fist-pump, assuming this meant we were improving. So we gave her some Motrin again and headed to mass, because she was still so, so happy and smiley -- no mood change, so she must not feel too bad! Anyway, that afternoon when she woke up from naps, she had a temperature of 104 degrees. That I wasn't quite so okay with, so after a few phone calls to Andy (he had to go in and work on a project at work that was close to deadline) and my mom, and between Andy and his dad, I decided going in to the ER would be a good decision. So in we went.

When we got there, they did a chest x-ray (so sad to see your little baby go in the apparatus they use for chest x-rays!) and some blood work (but no RSV swab). These came back showing pneumonia, so they started her on some potent antibiotics (which, by the way, she promptly threw up all over herself and all over me in the ER. Sweet. She rode home naked + a diaper + blanket over her, and I rode home in barf-covered clothes. Sweet).

On Monday, sweet girl woke up with a normal fever (hooray!), but still definitely not herself. Very lethargic, snuggly and really wanting Mommy. Her eyes were really watery, and that nasty cough continued -- sometimes she was coughing probably 30 times in a row before it let up :( But we'd just been into the ER, and I talked to her doctor's nurse about it, and the general consensus was to give it some more time and let her body start to get better. We still did daycare because her temp was down, but I think she probably would have loved to stay home and just snuggle all day long (and I think I would have, too... but hindsight is 20/20 -- next time).

Tuesday was a snow day, so I got to stay home with her all day :) She seemed much better. No fever, but still not herself completely and very little appetite. Throughout the past few days of this illness, her appetite was pretty horrible. I was quite concerned with dehydration -- she would drink water, but not milk and not Pedialyte or juice -- she hates them both! Since Friday, I'll bet we were changing only two not-very-wet diapers per day. But whenever I brought this up with her doctors/nurses, they all said that this was fine.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning. No temperature, still acting "off", but since she had a good day the day before, I figured she was totally fine to head to daycare. Upon waking, she only took about a half ounce of formula, which wasn't terribly surprising with her lack of appetite lately. About halfway there, girlfriend started crying in her carseat. I just assumed this meant she was sick of it and wanted out, which does happen from time to time. When we got to daycare and I took her out of her seat, however, the crying didn't stop. I tried different things that normally work -- showing her toys, distracting her with other kids, putting her down to let her "walk", offering a bottle (since she'd had so little that morning)... nothing worked. She was pushing away from me, while at the same time grabbing on as tightly as she could, and by this point, she was screaming. As in, I've never heard my baby cry like that or make those sounds before. After five minutes of this, I decided it was time to leave daycare and take her to the ER. She was writhing in my arms so much that I wasn't sure I'd be able to hang onto her without dropping her, and when I went to put her in her carseat, I could only get the chest buckle snapped -- she was arching her back and moving too much to even have a prayer of snapping the one between her little legs. But the drive to the hospital was only a few blocks, so I decided we'd be fine.

She continued to scream the few blocks to the hospital (which were, naturally, the longest few driven blocks of my life!). When we got to the ER, the screaming, writhing, crying, continued. Long story short: she stopped screaming about 45 minutes after we arrived at the hospital, and they determined that the cause of that issue was (wait for it)... gas. How anti-climactic, right? But still, what's a momma to do when her baby is crying and writhing in pain in a way they've never seen before? Anyway, they did x-rays of her chest, which came back perfect this time and they did blood work, which also came back perfect this time. But the unsettling part was that her oxygen levels were around 84%. Anyway, after a lot of questions, the ER doc finally consulted a pediatrician to see what we should do. The pediatrician immediately opted to admit Lizzie to the hospital to monitor her oxygen levels and to give her a little oxygen boost. Girlfriend hated the oxygen tube in her nose for the first hour or so -- she kept trying to take it out and would get so mad :( Poor baby.

We crossed our fingers that we wouldn't have an overnight stay, but they seemed pretty confident that it would be. When the pediatrician arrived, Lizzie had been on 100% oxygen. They dropped her down to 50% oxygen, and her oxygen levels fell again -- which meant her body still wasn't doing its job at that point, so they turned it back up to full-power. The pediatrician informed us of a few interesting things: he thought she either had RSV or whooping cough (which she is vaccinated against, so she can still get it, but as a milder case), but that it would be too late to tell with typical tests because they were working their way out of her system now, and they'd have to be cultured out -- not worth our money, he said, just to satisfy our curiosity. He also mentioned that she should have been in isolation when she first came down with it. Whoopsies. Mom of the year who sent her baby to daycare. But how was I to know?! We had been in the ER and they told us she was good-to-go with her antibiotics when they discharged us. And finally, he said this should really be the wrap-up of her hospital stay... not day one of her hospital stay. So, in so many words: girlfriend should have probably been hospitalized on Sunday, and it was now Wednesday. Again, hindsight is 20/20. And they doc who saw her on Sunday wasn't a pediatrician, he was an ER doc, so maybe he wasn't as versed in dealing with little bitty babies. Nothing can be done about it now, and Lizzie was in good hands on Wednesday, so we didn't dwell.

Anyway, he remained skeptical that we'd go home that night, and said he wanted to see Lizzie on NO oxygen and with a 91%+ oxygen level on her own while sleeping (oxygen levels drop while sleeping). Before he left, he turned her oxygen off to see how she'd do. She napped shortly after he left and initially, her levels were dipping down into that 80% range. But slowly, they improved... and eventually, they stayed around 92, 93, 94% consistently. When she woke up from her nap, they jumped to 96 - 98%, and within a few hours, she had periods of 100% oxygenation! Woohoo, girlfriend! She received two nebulizer treatments that afternoon/evening, and when the pediatrician came back to see her around 7:30, he was pleased to hear about and see that her levels had much improved. Upon seeing this, he opted to discharge her that night to go home and sleep in her own (non-jail cell looking) crib... yahoo! He commented how much better she looked and how much happier she was acting just eight hours after he'd seen her last. And she was -- like a completely different baby than she was earlier in the day.

So we went home, and girlfriend slept through the night like a dream... and the cough is gone now (thank you, nebulizer treatments!) and she's back to her happy, happy, happy self again. Now our goal is to stay completely healthy for the rest of the winter... which should be over anytime, right? Right?

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies!

Socialite!: Hanging out with daycare friends and seeing Auntie Jenny again, who was around on part of her spring break this week :)

Diet: Still into anything and everything, food-wise. Girlfriend and I shared fajitas when we went out to eat over the weekend, and she ended up liking the red bell peppers more than she liked the chicken... ha! It was too funny. She couldn't get enough of 'em :)

Baby Gear Love: Anything she can stand next to and anything she can shake and make noise with -- her favorite being a pill bottle :) Andy doesn't like when I let her shake those because she's holding a couple bottles of my prescriptions from Target and it just looks weird, but they make such fun noises and make her so happy that I can't resist letting her shake them :)

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired.

Mommy News: Not much to share on the Mommy front, aside from the fact that being a momma is the best thing in the entire world!

Milestones: We spent so much of the week nursing that sickness that girlfriend is just returning to herself again, so we don't have a lot of new things to share. Still giving lots of kisses, saying "dadadada" now, and looking surprisingly closer to crawling every single day. We'll see...

Forty Three Weeks!

Note: this was written on Thursday, March 13 -- five days prior to today's date.

Weight: I'm guessing right around 17 pounds, maybe a little more.  

Sleep: Doing well with sleep -- not up to our gold star naps we had over break at home with mommy now that we're back at daycare, but nighttime sleep is still quite good. A couple nights this week, girlfriend woke up and had to be rocked to sleep, but otherwise we've been sleeping from 7:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. or later this week.

Medical Issues: Feeling great :)

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies!

Socialite!: As much as I like to think she doesn't like daycare at all and only likes hanging out with Mommy, it's pretty clear that she really enjoys being with and watching the other kids at daycare -- so lots of socializing at daycare this week! Both sets of Lizzie's grandparents were away on winter reprieves, so they both came to visit her when they arrived back in Minnesota :)

Diet: This week's favorite food seems to be pineapple. Girlfriend sees pineapple anywhere and she freaks out! So if I give her strawberries and blackberries with supper (a favorite of hers!), but she sees me eating pineapple with mine… she's instantly reaching as hard as she can for my fork and plate. She's also a huge fan of apples, which I think comes from the fact that she never gets them, for obvious reasons. I could, of course, bake apples for her, but I tried that once and wasn't a huge fan of the outcome. Otherwise, she loves roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli and kiwi lately as far as produce goes. She's also in love with peanut butter! I let her try a tiny bit of peanut butter a few weeks ago, just to test the waters in terms of allergies, but no negative outcome -- so I threw caution into the wind and gave her peanut butter toast and she couldn't get enough. Lizzie will eat pretty much anything with peanut butter on it… delish!

Baby Gear Love: Any open jar or cup, Lizzie girl loves. Her favorite pastimes with them are to pretend she's drinking out of them (which we will do simultaneously with another cup, and then she'll trade with us :)) and to talk loudly into them. I think she loves the magnified sound of her voice :) It is too funny.

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired.

Mommy News: Not much to share on the Mommy front, aside from the fact that being a momma is the best thing in the entire world!

Milestones: Giving more and more kisses on-demand all the time! So sweet… melts our hearts!

Girlfriend is now "cruising" (walking while holding on to furniture) -- she started to do this just last night. Actually, that's a lie: she's actually been doing this for a few weeks, but not with much confidence. Last night, however, was a different story. Lizzie walked around her B. Zany Zoo, reached across a six-to-twelve inch gap to grab hold of a chair, walked across that, and reached across another decent-sized gap to get to another toy to walk along that. We were amazed. These changes happen literally overnight! So crazy.

Forty Two Weeks!

Weight: As of our appointment last week, girlfriend was exactly 16 pounds, 14 ounces. That puts her at the 10th percentile for weight, which is pretty consistent with where she has been the past nine months. She's following right along her growth curve with weight, so everything looks great!

  
Sleep: Back to sleeping clear through the night, woohoo! I had the week off for spring break, and any hopes I had of sleeping in (even a teensy bit) were quickly laid to rest. I did get to sleep until 7:21 one morning, but that was the record for the week ;) Girlfriend is an early riser now that we've been getting her up at the crack of dawn for work and daycare. I did figure something out about naps this week, too: rather than three so-so naps (30 to 45 minutes long), girlfriend does well if we do one nap in the morning and one nap in the afternoon. That way, the afternoon nap ends up being nice and long, between two and three hours -- whoa! We'll see if they can keep that schedule up at daycare with all the commotion from the other kids (or maybe I should say that we'll see if she can stay sleeping for that amount of time with all the commotion from the other kids).

Medical Issues: Feeling great this week :)

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies! Although I bought two pair of "big girl jammies", as I call them, which are the two-piece jammie sets (my favorites are from Old Navy and Gap), and those are 6 to 12 month sizes. I've been waiting since before she was born to be able to wear these types of jams... they are so darn cute on her!

Socialite!: Lizzie's Aunt Tracy, Uncle Josh, cousins Rachel and Michael, and Auntie Jenny, were all home to visit last weekend. It was pretty fun to see Lizzie and Michael together -- Lizzie did a lot of patting Michael's head, and Michael did a little pinching of Lizzie's cheeks :) It was pretty cute. We're hoping a little bit of Michael rubs off on Lizzie -- he's crawling, so we're hoping she took some notes ;)

Diet: Still sticking with the Baby Led Weaning thing for both lunch and supper. I am starting to give her snacks throughout the day, too. My favorite is to give her some banana bread. The only thing I have a hard time with in terms of banana bread, is that it can end up being loaded with sugar and things she really doesn't need, that pull it out of the "healthy" category and put it more into the "dessert" category. I've been experimenting with a few recipes, trying to find a good whole wheat option, substituting oil with unsweetened applesauce, using flax eggs as a substitute for regular eggs (not that there's anything wrong with regular eggs -- we love them in our house! And we usually do organic. But flax eggs add both fiber and omega 3s, so I sometimes opt for them instead)  and cutting the sugar in recipes in half. I'd like to cut the sugar altogether and sub honey in for it, but honey is off-limits to babies under 12 months, so that won't happen just yet. Anyway, I think I found the perfect combination today, so I'm pretty pleased with myself :) 

Baby Gear Love: Lizzie honestly loves anything "unconventional" for babies (like all babies, I'm sure). She loves pens, small bottles of lotion, my lip balm tin from Bath & Body... anything that's not a toy, she loves and can stay busy with for a very long time.

She is also becoming a huge fan of books (!) which I love!! She has her favorites, and will oftentimes reach with all her might toward her books when we walk by them :) We've now developed a nightly routine that includes reading books... sometimes eight of them! She loves it, and looks so closely at the pictures.

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired.

Mommy News: Sadly, spring break has come and gone. Lizzie and I had an amazing week, and I continue to see how easily I could slide into the "stay at home mommy" thing and how much I'd like to do it (which I've known, but I think when you plug along working, you're fine with the way things are). The debate continues... 

Milestones: We're constantly hearing "bababa" and "mamama" and "rarara", amongst other random sounds mixed in there :) We just love hearing her little voice! It's so sweet! She seems especially inclined to talk (loudly) during Sunday mass... :)

Lizzie is very attached to Mommy these days :) She wants Mommy to hold her, but she loves to look and giggle at her daddy :)

Girlfriend is still incredibly interested in walking and can walk along our ottoman and couch without help, but she'll do this more often when I'm not around -- if I'm there, she really wants me to hold her hands. Sometimes, she won't take a step without holding my hands if I'm there! Girlfriend loves her momma. Anyway, besides that, we've been trying to encourage crawling as much as we can. She wants to get around so badly, but she can't walk yet, so she gets frustrated. She'll go from a seated position onto her hands and knees, but then go down to her belly very shortly thereafter. We're hoping this means crawling might be right around the corner, but we'll see...

Maybe our favorite thing that's happening now is that Lizzie knows how to give kisses! She's known how to do it for quite some time, but the only "people" who were getting the love were her stuffed animals -- she'll kiss them on the noses over and over and over again without being prompted! But giving Mommy and Daddy kisses is another story. She will give me kisses sometimes, but would never give Andy any kisses. I guess she gave up that way of life, because tonight she was giving us kisses on the cheek on-demand :) It was ridiculously sweet. Our hearts were completely melted!

Forty One Weeks!

 

Weight: My guess is around 17 pounds, but we'll be finding out for sure this afternoon at Lizzie's nine-month appointment.

  
Sleep: Sleep had been so good, but Lizzie has woken up the last couple of nights to eat. I think the issue is that she's not feeling very well and hasn't had an appetite… but then wakes in the middle of the night and is hungry. Poor baby. But it's been just a quick bottle and she's back to sleep right away.

Medical Issues: That cough is still lingering, and I'm pretty sure we're having some nausea and GI issues :( Poor baby.

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies!

Socialite!: Hanging out with daycare friends and grandmas and grandpas! Girlfriend was also lucky enough to spend some time with her Godfather, Norm, over the weekend :) We love when he stops by to visit (and when he brings us such cute stuffed animals, too)!

Diet: Due to her upset tummy, Lizzie girl is on somewhat of a "BRAT" diet (bananas, rice, apple(sauce), toast). She's not crazy about toast, but she's all about the bananas. I've also read that yogurt with live active cultures is good for GI issues, so we've been doing that as well.

Earlier in the week, I made a baked ziti with ricotta cheese in it, which I thought would be right up Lizzie girl's alley. I'm not sure if she was just not in the mood to eat, or if she really hated it, but she would put pieces of ziti in her mouth and instantly cry. It was pretty hilarious. Maybe it was a texture thing? Either way, Andy was jumping for joy: he hates the texture of ricotta cheese and isn't a fan when I try to sneak it in things. So I might be outnumbered now on ricotta cheese, two-to-one… dang.

Baby Gear Love: Our gum ball machine from Auntie Jenny! It's the Fisher-Price Roll-a-Rounds: Swirlin' Surprise Gumball Machine and we've now figured out how to press the button to make the gum balls come out and the lights flash and make music! She's pretty impressed with herself when it happens :) We're also becoming a very, very large fan of books. We always read 15 minutes or so of books before bed each night. She loves them! The teacher in me jumps for joy :) Plus, I love reading to her. It was always one of my favorite things to do with my niece and nephews when I would babysit them. Now I get to do it every night!

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired.

Mommy News: Spring break is next week and I can't wait! One week at home with my girl :) Yay!

My doctor started me on a new medication last week, and one of the side effects is bloating… and wow, that'd be me to a T at this point! I honestly look like I'm 20 weeks pregnant sometimes. Which wouldn't bother me, except for the fact that I'm waiting for a student or a parent or someone who knew me last year while pregnant to ask about it because I really do look it. Last night, I didn't think it would be possible for my stomach to stretch any further… it was crazy.

 

Milestones: Her language continues to develop; I'm beginning to hear some "rarara" sounds, as well as a few "mama" sounds every once and a while (not in my direction yet!). She also is really learning to play with her intonation, so we have some pretty good squeals :) She's definitely having some little conversations.

Lizzie also gives kisses now :) She won't hand them out to just anyone or at just anytime, but every so often I'll get lucky to receive a few and they are so, so, so sweet! No kisses for daddy yet, though. Stuffed animals, though? They're a different story. She's always kissing them on the nose! Girlfriend also is starting to grasp the motion of blowing kisses as well, which is pretty darn cute, too. 

She's also getting really good at sharing. She loves to feed us at any opportunity she has :) Cheerios, HappyBaby Puffs, bananas, pasta, pork, broccoli… she's always up for sharing :)

Forty Weeks!

 

Weight: Between 16 and a half and 17 pounds.

  
Sleep: It's been over a full week since we HAVEN'T gotten a full night of sleep in… woohoo! Girlfriend is sleepin' through the night like it's her job now… and it feels glorious. We do ask each other in the morning if she cried at some point -- because I do think she does most nights, but never long enough to fully wake us and have us really consider getting up to soothe her. Yahoo!

Medical Issues: Still dealing with a nasty cold that we can't seem to shake. She has it and so do I -- it's now morphed into this awful stuffy nose with a terrible sounding cough. Regardless, they tell us to just keep on keepin' on and not worry unless she develops a fever, rash or a distaste for eating. And so far, none of the above are happening.

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies!

Socialite!: Hanging out with daycare friends and grandmas and grandpas!

Diet: Lizzie has always had a healthy appetite for "real" food, but she's really ramping her appetite up in all arenas lately -- pretty sure we've hit a growth spurt! Girlfriend has suddenly gone from always drinking four ounce bottles (if that! Sometimes just two or three ounces!) to drinking full-on eight-ouncers! She doesn't have those every time, but at leasttwice a day, with a few other four ounce bottles sprinkled throughout otherwise. 

This week, we tried pulled pork, beef meatballs and chicken meatballs for the first time, and we were a mega-fan of all of the above! I do think we finally saw our limit with regard to the 'heat' factor -- not the temperature, but the spice-level. I make a homemade marinara for Andy to go with our chicken Parmesan mozzarella stuffed meatballs that he  loves because it's got quite the hot-kick to it. Anyway, I decided that since Lizzie likes buffalo chicken, she might possibly like that marinara sauce, too. I did think that she might not, but I figured we might as well give it a try. Anyway, tried it, we did. And cried, she did! It was definitely too spicy. Poor baby was crying and holding her tongue! So we got rid of that sauce and switched it out for the sauce that I had originally made for her. She was much happier then :)

Baby Gear Love: This week, our favorite gear is pens. Yes, pens. As in, the pens you write with. Girlfriend always wants to hold on to one if she sees it. Of course the rule is that she can only have one if she's standing with our help or if she's sitting -- no accident danger here! She loves to hit them against anything and everything -- I think to explore what sounds they make and how they react with each other.

Weird. But she loves it. I think there's that element of "thrill" from knowing she's really not supposed to have it :)

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired.

Mommy News: We've had conferences two nights this week, so I haven't gotten to spend as much time with my girl as I'd like! Regardless, she's a trooper and stayed up past her bedtime to be part of my welcoming committee on Tuesday night. When I opened the door to the house, girlfriend was standing in Daddy's lap, her arms alternating between pumping up and down excitedly and clapping enthusiastically :) I need that kind of a welcoming everywhere I go! It's even sweeter when it's from her :)

 

Milestones: We've finally started to babble "bababas"! We got home from daycare yesterday and three "ba" sounds came out in a slow progression… and it was like someone flipped a switch, and she didn't stop all night. SO cute!! Andy and I just looked at each other and giggled all throughout supper while she babbled :) So sweet. I can only imagine what we'll do when she starts saying words, or "mama" and "dada"!

And I'm totally going to brag now, but seriously: girlfriend has incredible fine motor skills. Her movements are so purposeful when eating, it's just amazing. I truly can't believe how accurate and precise her pincer grasp and other small movements are. Hooray for Baby Led Weaning!

I think I noticed today that she's beginning to understand how to walk along next to things. I definitely also watched her stand, unassisted, for at least five seconds today, without wobbling (yes, five seconds seems like not a long time… but when she's never done it before, it feels like an eternity)! We may end up with a walker before we wind up with a crawler... However, she is starting to roll as her method of travel. Just tonight, she rolled from the living room into the middle of the kitchen (which is quite a ways) pretty darn fast. Ruh roh... :)

Thirty Eight & Thirty Nine Weeks!

Weight: I did my classic scale trick (jump on without baby, hop off; hop on with baby, jump off; do the math!) and I'm calculating around 16 and a half pounds. We did measure her today as well, and found that she's 26 and a half inches tall. So at nine months, she's now up 11 pounds and seven inches from her birth weight and length.

  
Sleep: Last weekend (especially Sunday night) was a struggle. Lizzie was fighting sleep like we've never seen before -- we're talking full-on arched back, flailing arms and legs and very, very sad cries. It was like she wanted me to hold her and rock her to sleep, but she wanted to be able to stretch out and lay on me like she would her mattress... which obviously isn't really possible. Anyway, we weren't sure what was wrong, and after three hours of our typically very happy baby being a sad bucket of tears, we called my mom and asked if she had any thoughts. Baby girl was coming off of her first fever, so we thought maybe she was achy or something, so we tried some Motrin and she was asleep within about ten minutes; so either she was feeling crummy, or she'd just worn herself out enough to sleep at that point. She woke again around 12:30 a.m. (a couple hours later) and went back to sleep after a short time of rocking, but then woke again at three and fought and cried like earlier until five o'clock. She had a somewhat similar night of sleep on Monday evening, and I was crossing my fingers that this was a phase -- a short phase. And to our luck, it was! Because since then, girlfriend has been sleeping clear through the night :) Woohoo! I guess I'll take one or two awful nights if it means many (many) subsequent nights of full sleep.

 

Medical Issues: As mentioned previously, girlfriend finally got her first real fever last week. Daycare called me on Thursday afternoon to let me know that she had a 100.8 temperature. Luckily I was on a prep, so I hopped over to see her (so to have daycare so close! What a luxury!) and she was happy as could be -- so I requested they take her temp again, and strangely enough, it was back to normal. We took it a few more times just to be sure, and it really was around 97.6 degrees. So I left and told them to call if she starts acting sick and/or if her fever goes back up again. It wasn't until 3:15 that they called again and told me the fever had returned... so I went over and got her and we came home. She was an interesting sick one -- she really didn't act a whole lot different. Not as smiley, but she was still very interested in playing and wasn't any extra snuggly I wouldn't say, so she must not have felt all that terrible. After much discussion, Andy ended up staying home with her the next day. She woke up around 4:00 with a 101.8 temperature that morning, so we gave her some Motrin; when she woke up in the morning then, Andy let me know that her fever was normal -- and that's where it stayed all day, until around 7:00 p.m. when it returned again. On Saturday morning, she sort of hung on to her temperature all morning, but we did some Motrin around 1:00 p.m. after lunch, and the fever didn't seem to return again after that. Yippee!

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies!

Socialite!: Got to hang out with Uncle Josh, Auntie Tracy and cousins Michael and Rachel last week when they stopped through Alexandria for a quick visit. Always hanging out with grandmas, grandpas and aunties, and loves to hang out with the kids at daycare and smile at people at Sunday mass. She loves strangers as long as they stay far enough away :) She is too sweet when she comes in contact with people she knows, but not all that well -- she'll often smile at them real timidly and then bury her face in my shoulder.

 

Diet: This week's favorites include sweet potatoes, green beans, blackberries, strawberries, baked tortellini (with a homemade marinara sauce that is finally a winner!) and meatballs... yummy! She is an amazing, amazing, amazing eater. Girlfriend doesn't refuse a thing!

Baby Gear Love: Is it fair to say our ottoman? Or her toy box? Basically, anything Lizzie can stand up next to is a favorite. She just likes to stand by things, pat them, and walk between things. Unfortunately (fortunately?), she's not able to do any of the walking on her own -- she hasn't completely grasped the concept that she can't just lean toward something and not fall down. She's great at standing next to things without us, but she needs a little help when it comes to walking between things/along things.

 

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired, and she will definitely let you know if you've taken something away that she was playing with or wanted to play with! We've also noticed that she cries a lot if I leave the room… she's definitely becoming aware of Mom's absence and of strangers. If strangers stay far enough away, she's fine... but too close, and that bottom lip comes out and she gets pretty sensitive!

Mommy News: Starting to think hard about being a stay-at-home mommy again... I just wonder sometimes if I'm doing the right thing. But I do love my job; like, I love it. But, obviously, I love my sweet girl. And obviously, I love her more. Anyway, it's such a back-and-forth -- any other working mommas hear me?

 

Milestones: We're starting to hear more "ba" sounds, but not a whole lot.

Definitely becoming more and more stable when walking; Lizzie can now do some walking with us just holding one of her hands -- she's definitely not stable when we do things that way, but to be able to do that at all is definitely progress.

She's also showing a lot more interest in rolling to get to her toys; we notice she'll really do this if we're not sitting right there playing with her. When she doesn't know we're watching is when she'll get especially active in this way. She'll also play for some time on her tummy when she doesn't know we're looking... once she picks up on it that we're watching, however, it's game over! Then she'll do some whining until we just give her the toy she wants, rather than her rolling to get it :) Stinker!

Thirty Seven Weeks!

 

Weight: Guessing right around that low 16 pound mark. Her growth seems to have slowed down now, after going through quite a growth spurt over the last month.

  
Sleep: We're getting probably sleeping through the night half of the nights each week, which I certainly won't complain about :) Otherwise, girlfriend just needs a little love in the middle of the night to go back to sleep.

Medical Issues: Still nursing that cold/sinus infection -- we're in the middle of our second round of antibiotics right now, though I think our main issue right now is just the common cold, which just needs time to go away.

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies! Girlfriend got to wear some pretty adorable sundresses over the weekend while we were in Florida on the beach :) So fun!

Socialite!: Hanging out with friends at daycare and smiling at strangers on the airplane and at our resort while in Florida :) She loves to people watch.

Diet: We're eating probably four or so four-ounce bottles each day, along with the food we eat. Our new food obsession is bananas -- can't get enough! Unfortunately, they can make an issue as far as pooping goes (sorry, but it's the truth!), so I try to limit their consumption :) However, I can't eat a banana without Lizzie getting extremely agitated if she's not getting some. 

Baby Gear Love: Still loving that MP3 player like last week, as well as her little Playschool Play Favorites Glow Worm  and Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Soothe and Glow Seahorse. She loves to listen to their songs and look at their eyes… she's become really interested and fixated on any toys with big eyes :) She touches them and looks so closely.

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired, and she will definitely let you know if you've taken something away that she was playing with or wanted to play with! We've also noticed that she cries a lot if I leave the room… she's definitely becoming aware of Mom's absence and of strangers. If strangers stay far enough away, she's fine... but too close, and that bottom lip comes out and she gets pretty sensitive!

Mommy News: We traveled to Florida for five days, so I got a few extra days to hang out with Lizzie :) 

Trying to put on some weight again. I was hoping it would come back naturally after giving up nursing, but it hasn't happened yet, so I guess it's time to put a little more effort toward it.

 

Milestones: First airplane ride on Friday night! Lizzie was a travelin' pro! She slept much of the way down (it helped that our flight landed right over her bedtime), and when we landed, she was wide awake and super happy! Girlfriend got her first stroller ride at the airport in her umbrella stroller and loved it. We definitely got a few upgrades (i.e., choose any car we wanted in the lot from the car rental company!) because people thought Lizzie was so cute :) Pretty awesome.

First time touching sand! She loved it, until she opted to take a handful to her mouth a few times… :) As long as it stayed away from her mouth, she had a great time.

First time in the ocean! She hated it! I think the water was too cold and was a little shocking for her. She'd cry and pick up her little feet, doing her best to keep her little toes safe. Though she hated touching the ocean, she did love watching it/walking next to it. I think the sound was so similar to her sound machine we use at home, so that's why she liked it.

First time swimming! She loved it! Lots of giggles, especially at Daddy when he'd swim under water and pop up to surprise her!

We're starting to get stronger in terms of crawling… I don't think we'll be doing it anytime soon, but she's starting to show a little more interest as far as getting up on those hands and knees goes.