Bittersweet Three Months

It's been a busy past couple weeks, for good and for bad.

First, we went to visit my cousins Emily and Sara (and their 5-month-old babies and 3 and 4 year old girls) in Indiana since Emily missed meeting Amelie at our last family reunion due to illness.  The drive there was a little harsh, since Amelie did NOT want to sit in her carseat after an hour of the 4 hour drive, so we stopped every 45 minutes or so to swing her in random parking lots along the way, but we finally arrived in fairly good time, considering.  Sara's hometown was having it's annual holiday celebration, so it was a great time to go - we took the kids to the parade downtown, and then met Santa:

  

Somehow we forgot to get a picture of all three babies together - but I think that may have been because one was always taking a nap at any given time.

While there, I learned some new things from my cousin mommies:

• Some babies don't poop every time they eat, in fact, some don't even poop every day.  Wow.  Imagine all the savings on wipes and dipes!  Good thing we have the cloth dipes.
• Baths are a great way to relax babies before bedtime.  
• Kid sisters, as opposed to parents, often get the biggest smiles/laughs from babies. 
• Most moms can feel their milk let down and describe it as a tingling sensation.  I have never felt this.  Odd.  

A week later, we had planned a trip to Miami, Florida awhile ago, to visit Dorian's last living grandparent, his paternal grandmother, Leah Baum.  Amelie is her first and only great-grandchild and we wanted to introduce them as soon as possible.  We scheduled our flights for the week of December 11th.  3 days before we were scheduled to leave, Dorian received a call that his boobie, Leah, had suffered a heart attack, but was stabilized and in the hospital, but scheduled to be released within a few days.  We considering leaving early, but she was recovering, and we couldn't take Amelie to visit her in the hospital, and besides, I had to attend an annual Medicaid CLE, that I ironically missed last year when I attended the funeral for Dorian's other grandmother, Beatrice, in NYC.

Anyway, we left as planned, and Amelie handled her first flight with flying colors, sleeping the entire first half of the 2.5 hour direct flight, and playing with a toy the last half. I nursed her on our descent to prevent her ears from hurting, and it must have worked, since she didn't fuss one bit.  We arrived to 70 degree weather, and Amelie loved not having to wear much more than a diaper for the first time in her short life.

However, the day Leah was to be released from the hospital (so Amelie could meet her!) she suffered a stroke :(  Luckily, Dorian's parents and sister were in town as well (to see Leah and Amelie simultaneously) and everyone was able to visit her in the hospital and say their goodbyes before she passed the following Thursday at the age of 90.

Leah Baum - March 5, 1921 - December 15, 2011

So it was a bittersweet week, seeing family members, but losing one as well.  I could go on about Boobie Lea, but Dorian has asked me not to dwell on it....so if you know him, please no cards or flowers (at his request).   In the meantime, Amelie, oblivious, began to talk a lot, making ooooohs and ahhhhhs, with some consonant sounds mixed in, for up to 20 minutes at a time, even when sucking her thumb.  G-ma Lynne taught her to play peek-a-boo, and Dorian discovered her joy of being lifted over his head, to which she responded by opening her mouth into a huge grin.  I also discovered Amelie's love of a real bath, in a tub, in which I was able to submerse her head and hold her on her back in the water while she grinned and splashed with her feet. I so hope we have the funds to get a tub at our house someday soon.

We returned to Ohio to 30 degree weather, and me with a cold from lack of sleep and/or the germy airplane. I am still trying to avoid getting Amelie sick by washing my hands before each time I touch her, and boiling my pump parts after every use.  We were afraid she might be fighting it off since she's been pulling at her ears, and sleeping up to 14 hours straight, but after a quick visit to the pedi last night, she has a clean bill of health - no fever, nothing but wax in her ears, and weighing 12 lbs, 8 oz!  Perhaps she has discovered her ears or has some residual plane pressure, but it's clearly not bothering her beyond pulling on them.

Now that she's finally 3 months old, it was time for me to begin crib training her at night (according to everyone who heard that I still nursed her in bed with us at night) so as an experiment, we began a routine of bath, books, bed by 8 pm on Saturday night, and wouldn't you know it - she slept until 4 am, requiring me to pump, and then after eating, she slept until 7:30!  Guess this was either perfect timing or overdue, regardless, I'm thrilled it is going so well so far.  I shouldn't jinx us though, it's possible she's just really sleepy from fighting off a cold, but at least it's getting her comfortable with her crib and nursery.  

Things she has also learned in the past three weeks:

• how to play with toys by grabbing and manipulating with her hands;
• how to put everything into her mouth;
• her name- she responds by smiling at us when we say it;
• how to use her jumparoo (loves it! see infra pictures)

Photo dump since I'm too busy to organize during this holiday week....speaking of, Happy Hanukkah!

 

 

Happy Three Months, Sweet Pea!

Thanksgiving et al.

Long time no bloggin'!  Here's a quick recap of the past two weeks, not in chronological order:

Thanksgiving
We ate turkey with family!  Shocking, I know.  Only, we did it with two different parents in the same day.  First, with grandma Chris and grandpa Ron at noon.  We had to get a quick pic before BugBat's outfit was inevitably changed :

I made an appetizer-shish-kabob-turkey-tail-type-cute-thing that I discovered on Pinterest.  Yay, pinterest! It was clearly delicious. I spent an entire 30 seconds cutting out the turkey head and taping it to a gourd.  You can probably tell how artistically talented I am.

Grandpa Ron and Cousin Carlie were baby-whisperers during dinner, and put BugBat to sleep, but don't worry, she wasn't drugged, despite the LiveStrong bib ;)

Then we went to Papaw Bill's house for 4:00 dinner, who also kept BugBat happy during dinner and let us eat uninterrupted for once (note the changed outfit):

Cousin Ella enjoyed BugBat as well, and the room nearly exploded with cuteness:

About Mom

Before Thanksgiving, I was finally closing in on my pre-pregnancy weight, nearly breaking into the 120's again.....

...but after Thanksgiving, not so close. I can't complain though, considering the weight loss must be completely credited to breastfeeding - it's practically liposuction at 500-600 calories a day!  Plus, I'm pumping all the extra I can not only for BugBat's daycare, but to donate to preemie babies since there is a big shortage going around.  I have to have at least 300 oz. to make it worth donating though, so it will take a bit longer - so far I think we have about 80 extra oz. stored, but we're quickly running out of freezer space haha.  I'll have to smuggle some over to a family freezer sometime.  Moving on....

BugBat's current Likes

• Sucking her thumb - sometimes too much, she will suck it when she's hungry instead of asking to nurse, so I have to guesstimate when she's due to eat, and offer her a snack, in which she eagerly partakes. 
• Sitting - she can sit up almost unsupported now, and she loves it.  She'll look around and study the new view, and insists (by crying if on our shoulder) on being carried in a sitting position now; observe:

• BugBat also loves touching things, after discovering how to use her hand.  I still suspect she is left-handed like her Great-Grandpa Sitterley was (Kermit).....observe - video taken while waiting for her two-month shots at the pedi's office:

• Bouncing while walking is still a favorite activity, as she always wants to be in motion like her parents. This can be exhausting at 2 am though.
• The mobile above her crib is fascinating and will keep her intrigued while mom or dad gets ready in the morning, or for bed at night.
• She has begun to be more vocal, practicing her conversation with us, and getting annoyed if we don't respond appropriately:

• Kicking is a common past time, especially during diaper changes, or when we are trying to put some pants on her.  She particularly enjoys kicking whichever leg we just put into her pants while trying to get the other leg in the other side, thereby taking the first leg out of her pants.  Maybe she just likes being ornery. 
• The cheep-cheepy dance.  It cannot be explained, but it works:

• Baths (and touching the rubber ducky):

• Finally, she has taken to playing with her food.  Note that she is not eating solids yet....yes, that means that part of her new appreciation of touching things includes her mommy, while nursing. Sometimes it takes all my will power not to giggle and disturb her.  

BugBat's current Dislikes

• Diaper changes during the nighttime.  I admit, getting wiped with a cold wet cloth can't be fun, but it's got to be better than continuing to sleep in a dirty dipey. 
• Being tired.  This happens quiet often considering she takes 4-5 naps a day, yet she'll fight going to sleep by screaming louder and louder until she finally conks out for a sound slumber. For everyone's sake, there will not be a video of this. 

Cloth Diapering

So far, a success!  Apparently we've only had one major leak (at the family care, oops! Sorry, Miss Steph!), but otherwise, everything is going smoothly, and everything is washing completely out with no stains or smells, despite using an older washer.  My only complaint is that the BumGenius 4.0 are substantially bulkier than sposies, but that's to be expected, especially for an all-in-one that grows with the baby.  Luckily, we have several 6 month outfits that fit over it just fine.  Her first fluffy butt:

Trying to take "Portraits" at home

I recently received a promotion at work - yay?!  Yes, it's a good thing, but the problem is that now I no longer have a reliable salary - my draw is based on feast or famine at the firm.  Now I receive a percentage of whatever is left over after all overhead is paid, which is neither reliable in amount nor timing.  It could be  1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or even more, before I see another paycheck after December 31st of this year.  Scary, since we are still paying student loans, car payments, mortgage, etc.....but I guess no risk, no reward, right?  So we are hoarding whatever money we can now, until we can save up a better cushion, so to speak.  

This relates to pictures in that we had previously planned to take 3-month portraits of our little sweet pea using a local photographer that we like, but we are pushing it back to the 6-month pictures now, to play it a bit safer financially. Since we still wanted to document our babe's progress, we tried setting up our own home studio and posing her ourselves.  Chaos may or may not have ensued. 

We thought she would fit inside this stocking, but underestimated how big she has already grown. 

Now she just looks like a chubby, flailing mermaid.

So we tried laying it on her instead.....

She didn't like that idea.  See "kicking" supra. 

Looking cute and smiling here, but also showing her *ahem* bloomers.

What's with all the flashing lights, guys?

DO NOT LIKE!

Ok, different outfit, different attitude?

Nope.

Help, I'm falling over!    She actually did roll down the slope here, resulting in delayed reaction sobbing for about 6 minutes haha.....oops!

Recovered and smiling for the only time in 20 more minutes of pictures.

Wait, I have flowers on my outfit.....how interesting......

Screw it, we'll go to Sears for $5

Ta-da!  Coming to a holiday card to you soon.

 Then we get home from our Sears session, and she and Atticus-cat are all:

Yes, the cat is actually licking the back of her head here.

But no caterpillar toy can ever be as yummy as a thumb!

 Goodnight!