Reality

Like all new moms, I embarked on this journey with all sorts of ideals and resolves--for example, "Television?! Not for my baby! Heavens no! Music, and books, and pattycake and peek-a-boo, but no TV!" Reality: the DVD I told myself I'd just play once or twice now gets played once or twice A DAY, and when I pick up the TV remote, Abby breaks into a huge grin and turns to face the TV before I've even turned it on.

*sigh*

Oh well. Win some, lose some. At least it's praise music and not soap operas.

Sleep, beautiful sleep

Seven straight hours! Yesss! Thursday night Abby and I went to bed at 11 and I fed her before she went down, and when she woke up to eat again at 12:30 I thought, "Oh man, here we go." At 2:30 she started squirming, but I gave her back her paci and she went back to sleep and, thankfully, so did I. Next thing I know, it's 7:30 in the morning! So even though I woke up once in the middle of the night, I'm counting this as sleeping through the night. Woohoo! Unfortunately she didn't do it last night, but that's okay. She had squash twice Thursday, so I'm wondering if it somehow fills her more than one serving of squash and one green beans. Today she's getting two squash servings as well as green beans, so who knows, maybe we'll get another solid night. Here's to hoping...

Pictorial Update

Pictorial is the word I'm looking for, right?

Here's her first bite of green beans. Obviously not a big hit. Dan couldn't even bring himself to watch; he felt truly awful for "putting her through this." I managed to get three bites into her, and the next day, four. On the third day I tried a new tactic: instead of apologizing the whole time ("I know it's icky, honey, I'm so sorry!"), I cheered her through them ("Oooh! Yummy! Green beans are soooo good! Yay!" *lots of clapping and lip smacking). She ate the entire bowlful!

Poor kid. I really did feel pretty bad. She actually gagged at one point. Truly her father's daughter.

Where's my dictionary...

Is "blah" a word? If so, Abby has officially spoken her first word--over and over and over. :)

Six Month Stats

Wednesday was Abby's 6 month birthday, and on Thursday we went to the doctor for her well-baby check up (which, if you ask me, are pretty pointless). Her new stats are: 26 and 3/4 inches tall (an inch and a quarter more than her 4 month measurement) and 16 lbs, 14 oz. (up from an even 15 back in April).

She's developed all sorts of new tricks. Just yesterday she began sticking out her tongue to be cute (along with a devilish smile that just makes me laugh), and then she'll blow a raspberry (or whatever you want to call it). Last week we got her an activity center, and she loves it. Rather than being the kind where the kid sits in the center and is surrounded by stuff, this one has a "hub" with all the stuff and a seat tethered to the outside with wheels on the bottom--the kid sits in the seat and can then walk around the activity hub. Up until yesterday she would just kind of lean and let her body's weight pull her around, but then yesterday (precicely at the same time that I'm telling a visiting friend that she doesn't actually walk in the seat) she started walking--yes, actually walking--around the hub on her little tiptoes. Priceless! Her two favorite toys on the hub are the five key piano (she'll bang on them and just laugh) and a rubber toucan that has this nice bulbous head for her to chew on. It's the first thing she goes for when we set her in the seat. (Ah, teething.)

So far no crawling, although she's kind of close. She gets one knee up, but doesn't get that she needs to get the other knee under her. She does, however, push herself up off her elbows now, so that's an improvement.

The doctor said she's a good two weeks away from having any teeth come through, which sucks, but at least she's not in pain every single day. Yesterday she was fine, and so far today has been a good day, too.

Dan's new game with Abby (for some reason she doesn't like it nearly as much when I try it) is to play peek-a-boo, although we discovered the other day that you don't actually have to hide, just look at her and say, "Peek-a-boo!" in a fun voice and she'll laugh just as hard.

Oh yeah, she also loves screeching now. Swell.

Poor Baby

Teething once again rears its ugly head, and today it brought a fever with it. :( Poor Abby had to suffer through her mom's cluelessness for the entire morning until I realized she wasn't just hot because of the weather. She is scheduled for her six month check up tomorrow and is supposed to get her next Hib shot, so I guess we'll be rescheduling the shot for a later date, since you're not supposed to immunize kids with fevers. But can you believe it: six months?! Talk about time flying.

Coming soon: photos of her first bite of green beans. (Oh, the drama!)

Our Little Angel's First Angel's Game!

It turned out to be a bit of a lousy night, but even so, Abby was adorable! We only made it through the end of the 5th inning; Dan had suffered another migraine that afternoon and was really knocked out from the pain shot the doctor gave him two hours before we left, and Abby wasn't as wowed by the vast expanse of green before us as I'd hoped she'd be and wanted me to walk around the pavilion with her the whole time. Quite the bummer, since we had first row seats in "Vlad's Pad"--the right outfield section where Vladimir Guerrero fields, and Abby and I were both wearing his number, too!--and it was a beautiful night to watch a game. But oh well. They ended up losing 3-4 to the Royals, so it would have been depressing anyway.
They've got girlie pink Angels-wear, but hello, their colors are red and blue, not pink! So, to make sure it was obvious Abby was a girl, I bought some red ribbon and some clip-on flowers for her to wear with her Angels jumper. My sewing machine has a decorative stitch that looks like baseball stitching, so I sewed that on in white. She got so many ooh's and aww's at the ballpark. Everywhere we went, you'd hear people near us say, "Oh my gosh! Look at that cute baby! That's so adorable!" And of course Abby was in fine form, smiling at everyone and making her happy noises (which unfortunately sound like she's choking--she does this gasping intake of air and squeaks like an asthmatic)--at least, she was making the happy noises once I started walking around with her. Before that it was just crying, which I'm sure the two beer-guzzling guys next to me were really thrilled about, and hence the reason I ended up walking around. So now we know for next time: aisle seats and good walking shoes.

Abby in the water

We took Abby swimming in my parents' spa the other night, her first time in her bathing suit and in a body of water bigger than her little bath tub. She handled it okay, although she'd had her fill after about 15 minutes. I'm thinking about getting her into some baby swim classes this summer.


Here's Abby with her Aunt Kelli, my brother's wife. isn't the bathing suit darling?


She was a bit stunned by the whole water thing until she realized she had something to chew. Then she was happy. Story of her life.

These next ones are from her first bath tub bath. we've been giving her sponge baths and cleaning her hair over the sink up until now because I was nervous about the bath seat thing, but we finally did it, and...


...at first she was happy...


...and then not so much. Oh well. She'll get used to it eventually, right?

Here they come...

Well, yesterday was interesting, if by interesting one means hellish. After starting the day out fine, albeit with an awful lot of demand for eating (7:15, 8:45, 9:30). We got home a little before 10 from our walk, and she starts fussing like she wants to eat AGAIN. Well, I'd decided to start pumping during the day since she eats so much better from a bottle, so I made a bottle for her, and the minute it it touched her mouth, she started crying. Then she started screaming. i'd never seen her cry that violently; she was choking she was crying so hard. I tried the tummy drops, even though she didn't seem gassy, then I tried the Orajel. She screamed even harder (didn't think that was possible), but then two minutes later she stopped crying and pretty much collapsed into sleep in my arms. She slept for 45 minutes, then woke up an absolute angel, smiling and talking and laughing at everything. Total Jekyll & Hyde. Then she started fussing to eat (so I thought) again, and same thing happened: made a bottle, tried to feed her, starts screaming. This time for forty minutes. It was awful; she looked like she was in so much pain. Tried the Orajel again and that didn't work; gave her a frozen washcloth and that DID work for a little while, but then, for some reason, it stopped working, and she was back to screaming again. Cried herself to sleep, and was still even crying in her sleep a little bit--just broke my heart. Only slept for about an hour, but when she woke up, she was Angel Baby again. This time I gave her two teething tablets that everyone around here swears by, and then a dose of Tylenol (which I keep forgetting about; when I remembered we had it I felt horrible for not giving it to her sooner and making her suffer), and she was wonderful for the rest of the day. Didn't eat again until 3:00, oddly--5.5 hours of no food doesn't usually fly for her. I gave her another dose of everything at 9:30 before we went to bed and we didn't have any problems, and now I'm just crossing my fingers for today.

So I guess this means we're officially teething.

I was really freaked out for a while there, since everyone always says they get "fussy" when they're teething. This was light years and nine galaxies away from "fussy." And how many teeth do they get? I can't imagine her having to go through that for all of them! Someone please tell me certain teeth hurt more than others!

In unrelated news, Dan had her in her swing last night while I tutored, and the swing has a litle fish mobile that spins above it, and he started hitting the fish with his head as they came by and saying, "Bonk!" Abby laughed harder than we've ever seen her laugh. Isn't it silly the things that they find outrageously funny?

Coming soon: photos of Abby's first bath in a bathtub (with a not-to-be-missed unhappy Abby picture) and her first Jacuzzi experiece!

Photos

Look closely at her eyes--you can see the reflection of the backyard and Dan taking the photo!

That little mind is always going, even in her sleep!

Four generations: My mom (Leslie, her mom (Helen, a.k.a Nana), Little Miss Cutie-Pie, and me, taken on Easter.

Spring Cleaning

I went through Abby's clothes this week to weed out all the stuff she doesn't fit into anymore. I'm so sad. She's got some of the most adorable outfits, but she's growing so fast and has so many 0-3 outfits she only got to wear some of them once or twice. The outfit I put her in today looked like it would still fit, but the pants (pink corduroy! So cute!) are just too tight now. She can still wear the top, which has these little pink flowers embroidered all over it (Dan and I are both suckers for embroidery). But even the shirt is a little on the short side. Anyway, now there's this pile of clothes at the bottom of her closet that are waiting to be boxed up, and depending on what we have next, we may never see them on a baby again! Deressing! I've decided that, if we don't have a girl the second time around, I'm going to take all Abby's cute outfits and sew them into a quilt. Lorelei did that on "Gilmore Girls" with all Rory's baby clothes, and I thought that was such an adorable idea. Although I may save some of them for her memory box--my mom had some of my baby dresses when I was a kid, and they fit my Cabbage Patch doll perfectly. :)

Tidbits:
Abby's next to me on the couch at the moment, and she's figured out how to shove things away from her, but then gets annoyed when she can't reach them amymore.

I was on hold with the gas company and the oldie, "I Will Follow Him" came on, so I was singing along with it and she thought it was hilarious.

Dan bought her a toy remote control that has all these buttons that make TV-related noises, and she uses her feet to grab it and hit the buttons. Well, I don't think the button-hitting is intentional; she just kicks at the thing and occasionally her heel hits something.

Dan also bought her a small stuffed classic tigger from Target, and she actually kind of plays with it. What's cute, though, is when you hold it in front of her and she dives for his nose--with her mouth.

Updates

I'm appalled at my lack of blogging lately; please forgive me. Some updates:

-Her new nickname: velocaraptor baby. She's got this new screech that is truly ear-splitting. I'm pretty sure only dogs hear her at some point.

-Roly-poly: She's got the back-to-tummy rolling thing down pretty well--in fact, she did it on command at mom and dad's place the other night. Usually gets annoyed once she's flipped; however, yesterday she actually hung out on her tummy and played for awhile. Yay!

-Teething? I think so. She nearly bruised my finger chewing on it last night, and when I gave her a frozen washcloth she really went to town on it. In fact, lat night was probably the worst night she's had so far in her short little life. Just screaming and so very unhappy. Broke our hearts. :( We keep slapping on the Baby Orajel but she doesn't seem to like it--I'm not sure if it's the numbness she hates or the feeling of us rubbing our fingers on her sore gums. We finally gave her baby Tylenol and that took care of things. What's weird, though, is that it seems to come and go--she was fine the rest of the night, slept like an angel, and is perfectly happy this morning. I thought teething made them unhappy all the time. Guess I have some research to do.

-Solids! We gave her rice cereal for the first time last week and she gobbled it up. I put some in a bottle for her before bed, hoping it'll make her sleep longer, but so far it hasn't made a difference. Not sure if I'm not giving her enough or if the whole solids = sleeping thing is a myth--I read something to that effect in one of my many parenting magazines.

-Sitting up on her own! Well, she can't get into the sitting position on her own, but if we sit her up she will stay that way for a good long time. we surround her with pillows for the occasional fall, but really she does quite well.

So that's Abby in a nutshell. Nearly 5 months old; I just can't believe it. One more month and we can put sunscreen on her, and then it's off to the pool we'll go! Oh, te photos we'll take...

YUM.

So today we tried rice cereal. Wow. SOMEONE was ready for real food! She was lapping at the spoon like a dog; it was hilarious. Honestly, though, she was wolfing it down. Afterwards we gave her a bath, and by 15 minutes later she was completely konked out. Great photos to come.

My First Mother's Day

I was so proud to be able to stand up in church today when they honored all the moms. I'm a MOM--that's still so weird to me!

Abby did her first real rolling one night this past week--three times in a row! We kept missing it; she was on the floor, and Dan and I were both in the middle of things, and we'd look down and she was on her tummy. We flipped her over, watched for a while, became convinced she was content on her back, and then, when we weren't looking, there she'd go again. The third time we persevered and were rewarded with yet another flip which we saw from beginning to end. We tried for a fourth for the camera, but by that time she was over it for the night.

Tonight we became convinced of two things: she's teething, and she's ready for solids. All day she was fussy and out of sorts--I thought it was from the nap she missed (and then waking up after half an hour--right at the beginning of our dinner at Ruth's Chris, of course), but after the way she gnawed our fingers later on, and the way she sucked down 5 ounces of formula less than two hours after eating this evening, I think it's safe to say we're on the cusp of teeth and rice cereal. Tomorrow we're starting the cereal--guess there's not much we can do about the teething other than break out the teething rings and frozen washcloths.

We did some Mother's Day photos in the backyard. My mom bought Abby this great dress that was on major clearance at Nordstrom's; it came with a hat that was way too big and a coat that was adorable and totally Jackie O, but it was too warm today to wear it. :(

Happy Four Month Birthday, Abby!

Four months ago today. Unbelievable! Sure doesn't feel that way, although I honestly can't tell you if it feels like it's been longer or shorter. :) She had her four month appointment today--15 pounds (80th percentile) and 25.5 inches long (90th percentile). She also got her first shot today, and she did pretty well. Screamed like she's never screamed before when she got poked, but she calmed down fairly quickly after I started nursing her.

We got her a bouncer--one of those stand-up things that lets her jump. Boy, does she love that! Goes absolutely nuts. She's also getting better on her stomach, which is a relief--and a surprise, given we hardly ever put her on her stomach. And it's so cool to see her moving her feet now like she's trying to walk; we stand her up on the counter in the bathroom so she can look at herself in the mirror, and she marches in place. So cute!

The one bummer about all this growing up is that she's nearly grown out of her infant carseat (according to the manufacturer's size restrictions, anyway). That thing is sooo handy! It snaps in and out of the base, so that you don't have to keep screwing around with seat belts and such. But the next size up doesn't do that--it's not meant to come out of the car, which means you have to take the baby out of the seat to get them out of the car. Really sucks when they're asleep--right now we just bring the whole seat up to her room and put it in the crib. Not anymore. :( I think we'll keep the infant carrier in the trunk, though, until she really just doesn't fit at ALL, because it fits so nicely in the stroller and gives her a place to sit in restaurants and stuff. (She's still not quite big enough for a high chair.)

And speaking of growing, she completely fits her six month pajamas; no more room to grow in them. How is this possible?!

Hoppy Easter!

Ah, the fun that can be had with fuzzy bunny ears.

Updates!

Yikes, it's been awhile since I posted. Sorry about that. Here are the current stats on Bugsy, a.k.a Abigail Joy:

~ While she still does the bobble-head thing occasionally, her neck is really strong, and she will hold her head up steadily for quite a while.

~ She has spotted her feet, but seems a bit wary of them still--hasn't tried chewing on them yet, although that would require her removing her fist from her mouth first, and heaven knows that doesn't happen often.

~ Standing is her new favorite thing to do. No, not on her own--although she's so strong and steady we've actually let go once or twice for a second and she's held herself up--but she'll really get mad if you try to make her sit and she's not done standing yet. None of that stand-collapse-stand-collapse stuff, either; she'll only fold once every couple minutes.

~ Baby crunches! She's trying so hard to sit up, and she's almost halfway there. She'll get her head and shoulders up off the floor and hold them up for 15 seconds or so before laying back down.

~ Tummy time has been basically nonexistent since she screamed bloody murder whenever we tried it, but on Friday Aunt Kelli tried a new technique to help keep her chest elevated and she seemed to enjoy it. She even did a couple baby push-ups in that position, too, so I suspect a couple more weeks of this and we'll see some rolling action.

~ Talking, talking, talking! And wow, is she loud. While (finally!) assembling her crib the other night, she was making so much noise I couldn't concentrate on the (incredibly convoluted) instructions. Her new bouncy seat has a mirror over her head, and she'll stare up at herself and carry on conversations for ages. Dan and I just sit and laugh; it's so cute!

~ Tiny bald spot on the back of her head, but other than that she's maintained it all, and the back is getting so long! You can make a very tiny ponytail with the hair that falls over her neck.

Pictures to come soon--this afternoon, I hope!

-Alison

So cute.

"Baby, baby, open your mouf!" Tha's our nephew Simon being our little helper and doing binky patrol. He'd sit next to Abby and just wait for her to spit it out so he could put it back in. Too cute!

Handsy Morrow

Well, she's found her hands! Her left specifically, which has become her new fvorite chew toy and eye rubber. She crams that fist in her mouth and gnaws like mad, and the few times she's managed to get just her thumb in there (usually it's clamped tightly in her fist) she hasn't been too impressed. Given the fact that her pacifiers all have nipples much bigger than her thumb, I guess that's not surprising. And she rubs her eye with such vehemence I'm afraid she's going to shove her cornea right off. I wonder if she'll be left-handed like me, since that seems to be the one she favors right now. My mom is left-handed, too, maybe Abby will keep up the trend.

Yawn

In the immortal words of The Barenaked Ladies:

"Who needs sleep?
Well, you're never gonna get it.
Who needs sleep?
Tell me, who's that for?!"

Remember how Abby had that great eight hour stretch of sleep last week? Well, apparently she used up all her sleepiness then, because she's been back to eating every 2.5 hours (sometimes just 2) in the middle of the night for the last 4 nights. I know I really have nothing to complain about, because this is just what babies do and in everything else she's so incredibly easy, but still, this isn't what I'm used to--she was so good with those 5 and 6 hour stretches! Where did they go?! And if she was totally chowing down every time, that would be fine, but she goes for five minutes if I'm lucky and then falls back asleep. I think she's using me more as a pacifier than a food source. I've read about something called the Miracle Blanket on babycenter.com, and I think I'm goig to look into getting one--everyone who posts about it on my birth club board there absolutely loves it and says their baby started sleeping through the night the first time they used it. It's a special swaddling blanket that holds them really securely, and since she wiggles out of regular blanket swaddles now, I think we need something like that. Because, when you wake up not knowing why you're lying down because you were so sure you were still nursing, you know you need more sleep. :)