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 So we got rid of that sauce and switched it out for the sauce that I had originally made for her.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.