Seven Months Old

When did that happen? There always seems to be so much to say and so little time!

Sprout is sitting up quite well, now, though it now startles her when she tips over and gets her upset sometimes. DH set her up in her crib a couple of nights ago and she fell over and hit her head. Scared me to death because she didn't let out the big wail I was waiting for. She didn't move. I think she was just stunned, though, because when he picked her up, she was all smiles. Didn't even phase her. Go figure.

She just started a few little babbles. Finally! She's been using her voice for a long time, but she's starting to throw a few consonants into the mix. Mostly it's "bububububu!" She's also doing this funny scooting thing when she's trying to get to a toy. It only gets her a couple of inches at a time, but it scares me. I realize that she's going to be mobile before too long and I am soooo not ready for that!

Her hair has almost completely turned a sandy blond color now. I never saw that coming. She was born with thick dark brown hair. It turned a little red for awhile and now it's blond. She still has a little dark patch at the nape of her neck, though, which cracks me up. Her bald spot is almost filled in now, too. It's looking a lot like my hair as a child. That secretly makes me happy because she looks so much like DH, I am happy to see a little more of me in her. I also expected her eyes to turn brown, and perhaps they will, but for now, they are still mostly blue-gray, with a few flecks of gold or green. They are beautiful, of course.

And, at last, she is gaining weight well (Yay!). She weighed in at 15 pounds, 12 ounces just after her 7 month-day, which is a solid weight gain. We'll take her in for the official weight check in the next couple of weeks. Breastfeeding is great. I'm scared to say that because I'm worried I'm setting myself up for another problem, but this is how it's supposed to be. We had a little hiccup earlier this week when she decided to try out her two new chompers while nursing a few times. Ouch! But I think we have it under control for the moment. I fear the top teeth coming in, though.

I am often overwhelmed with how much I love that little girl. She is just so adorable and wonderful. Her smiles and laughs just make me melt sometimes. I love seeing the little personality that is starting to develop and I wonder more and more about the little girl and young woman she will become.

My Happy Baby

Sophia did not smile early. I read and read about people's babies smiling at them at 6 weeks and how their two month olds greeted them with smiles every morning. I was sad. I felt like I must be doing something wrong or that I was a bad mom. She didn't smile. We got a few fleeting ones here and there, but they were random and never directed at us. She didn't really interact with us much at all unless she was nuzzling so that I would feed her. She reacted to toys sometimes, but didn't seem to care that much about people.

We went to her four month appointment and expressed our concerns to her pediatrician. My pediatrician husband started looking at her and saying things like, "Please don't be autistic." (Not that we would love her any less or that she showed any other signs. He even admitted then that he was over analyzing and that such delays can be perfectly normal and not mean anything.).

Two days after the appointment, a light went on. She was smiling at us. She was happy when we walked into the room. She lit up at the dog more than anything, but I try not to take that personally. He is a pretty funny-looking dog. Then began the laughs. She laughs she squeals. She is a happy baby. Two months later, I know something is wrong when she doesn't smile. At her six month appointment, her doctor marveled at how she was a completely different baby.

We loved her through it all, even when I spent day after day, just trying to stop her from crying or get her to sleep. From the day she was born, people have commented on how her big wide eyes were always checking things out. It turns out that she just took a little extra time to warm up. Maybe she just thought we were strange that whole time and finally figured out that we weren't that bad and really did try hard and love her, so she gave us a chance. Maybe they put something in the four month vaccines.

Whatever it was, we are thankful, because being a mom is so much fun now. I am so incredibly grateful to spend my days with her. DH comes home a little faster and makes it home for lunch more often and I fall in love all over again when I see him melt when she smiles at him. I know there will be many questions and difficult days ahead, but for right now, life is pretty good.

6 Month Check-up and Feeding

So, we went in for Sprout's 6 month physical on Monday. She was 14 pounds, 8 ounces and 27 inches long. Her weight was in the 14th percentile, which was moving enough in the right direction to keep us from extra tests or supplementation. Mommy was quite relieved. It seems that she's back to growing well. Yay!

She's right on track developmentally, and her doctor commented on how different she was from 2 months ago when she was still so serious and we expressed some concerns about her lack of interaction. Now she's all smiles, sitting up on her own, and grabbing anything she can get her hands on. It's really amazing and she has become so much fun. DH and I feel like we've come out of a fog.

Right now, she's still nursing 6 times a day, but some feedings are much more successful than others. She has become so distractable! We're now feeding her 3 solid meals a day. Each one consists of about 2 tablespoons of oatmeal mixed with an ounce of formula plus a vegetable or fruit. We then give her the rest of the 2 ounces of formula we mixed up in a bottle. Normally, we might not give her so much cereal, but since we really need to get some meat on her bones, that's the way we decided to get her supplemented. She's quite a good eater most of the time and looooves her sweet potatoes!

We decided to use mainly Earth's Best organic baby food. I'd love to make my own and I hear it's pretty easy, but since there is very little organic produce available around here, we decided that it was probably healthier to just buy organic baby food. My entomologist step-father is loving the extra baby food jars.

I'm still really trying to figure out how to meet some mommy friends. I tried the library story time for babies, but there were only 3 people there and this week was the last week. Why do they need a summer break for infant story time? I'm so sad. We'll probably do a baby & me swim class over the summer, so maybe that will be more successful. I'm not sure what else to do. I'm not a very outgoing person in general, so it's tough, but I need friends.

Breastfeeding Update & Solids

So, we introduced solids after Sophia's not-so-good weigh in a few weeks ago. She is a great eater and started plumping up well. Then we went on vacation and she caught a cold. The combination led to some poor eating. We went into DH's office for an informal weight check at the beginning of the week and she'd gained 6 ounces in 2 weeks. Definitely still a lot lower than where she should be. So, we're mixing her cereal with an ounce of formula and giving her the other ounce in a bottle, since you can't mix less than 2 ounces very easily. We also started introducing vegetables and Sophia is a fan.

She took to the formula quite well, which is honestly kind of a relief to me. As a consequence, I decided to stop pumping unless I miss a feeding. I have enough in my freezer stash for a missed feeding here and there, though a big portion will likely be depleted when DH and I go on our date next week to see Wicked (I can't wait). When it's gone, we'll just give her formula for missed feedings. As I said, I'll still pump when I miss a feeding to maintain supply (and relieve pressure) and I may change my mind when we use the end of our freezer stash, but not having to take half an hour of my precious little time with DH in the evenings to pump has definitely made me a happier woman.

Breastfeeding is generally going well, though I did have a bout of blisters while traveling. I guess it just came from having to feed her in strange places in positions that aren't quite right. It gets so discouraging when it's really painful, but it's so nice when it's not, that I keep trucking through it.

Things to bring when traveling with baby

So, I'm not going to go through all the obvious stuff - clothes, diapers, etc., but a few extra things we needed:

• Bring your own car seat no matter how much DH tries to convince you that borrowing from the rental car place is a good idea. We ended up buying one because the one they gave us was awful.
• Wet bags (or Ziploc). I'm a cloth diaperer, so I had wet bags, but they'd be helpful for anyone while traveling to stow messy outfits, dirty bibs, etc.
• Diaper covers. Again, I use cloth diapers, but we used disposables on the trip. Last time we traveled with disposables, LO blew out every single time she pooped. Yuk! This time went much better. We put Thirsties covers over disposables and they worked like a charm to keep in the poo.
• A largish blanket to use as a play mat.
• A pacifier, even if LO doesn't usually take one. Our little girl doesn't love them and used to refuse them entirely, but she'll suck on one for a little while now, and that few minutes provides just enough time to get through security or other situation where I can't feed her change her right that second. With the paci clip, it also served as a toy that she couldn't drop.
• Everything you need if LO gets a cold, because she probably will. (snot sucker, Tylenol, saline)

We went to Target the first morning there to stock up on diapers, wipes & baby food so that we didn't have to pack them. We also ended up buying a Boppy. I was already getting blisters from nursing in odd places/positions, so it was worth it, even though we had to leave it. I'll be sending back that card to get $7 back instead of the parenting magazine, though.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but since it's nap time, I'm going to try to start getting this house back in some semblance of order.

Family Vacation

We had a wonderful family vacation in Arizona. It was certainly an adventure. Traveling with a baby makes things more interesting, for sure, but it was a special moment, sharing the Grand Canyon with my little girl. She was a trooper, even after she caught a cold. She adapted to everything we threw at her with way more grace than I did. We said many prayers of thanksgiving for how great she was on the trip.

I'll probably be adding a few more posts with tips and lessons learned and such, but for now, I'll just say - if you're thinking about taking a family vacation ,just do it! It will be different than you expected and often not easy, but making those memories together as a family is priceless.

One evening, I was frustrated and tired and trying to feed her sweet potatoes mixed with oatmeal sitting in the car. Then suddenly, I realized, that instead of struggling with her at home, I was having this experience while watching the sun set over the Grand Canyon. I mean you can't beat that. I breastfed her in all sorts of new and interesting locations, learned how to change diapers in the car on my lap, and put the stroller through its paces.

And Arizona is such a beautiful place. From cacti growing in Phoenix to snow-capped mountains to the painted dessert to the Grand Canyon, as DH likes to say, "That God can sure paint a picture." It's too bad our little girl won't remember this vacation, but we'll be sure to tell her about it and show her the pictures.

My Grandma

So, I was planning on getting to this with my "Overwhelmed" post, but Sophia woke up and I never got there.

My Grandma is 90 years old. She is an amazing woman. She has lived all over, including joining the Army in the middle of World War II and then just deciding to go to Alaska to get a job when she got out of the service. She has an adventurous spirit and she has had a profound influence on my life. She moved to Alabama when my brother and I were young because my brother has some significant disabilities and she wanted to be there to help my mom. A lot of times, that help involved spending time with me.

Anyway, her health is in serious decline. She developed macular degeneration many years ago and when it got to the point where she was more blind than not, she really couldn't live on her own anymore. She now rotates among my mother and her two sisters. She's been down this way staying with my mom since January and stayed with me last week while my mom was gone. It was tough. It was wonderful to spend time with her, but it was also hard to take care of her and Sophia. And then I felt guilty for feeling overwhelmed by it all.

Plus, every time I see her, I realize that she's getting weaker and weaker and needs more and more help. She talks a lot about dying now. I think she really thought that she would come down and meet Sophia and die while she was here. She's almost disappointed that she has to go back to New Jersey next week, when she usually is excited to move. Part of that is that she adores our little girl. She just ate up her time with us, though she lamented that she couldn't help me take care of her. I could see her disappointment when she would try to hold her, but was shaking too much and it just upset them both.

Losing her is going to be really tough when it happens and it makes me sad that Sophia will not get to know her like I did. I've started a project with the family of recording her stories so that we can compile them one day. I hate seeing her struggle so much and so weak. But I am so grateful that her mind is still as sharp as ever and that she can still share the things that are most important.