6 month stats August 24, 2007

Fiona had her 6 month check up and all is good.

The Dr. was again very impressed with how active and alert fiona is and VERY happy to hear that Fiona was now such a happy baby.

She was very impressed that Fiona is already saying “ma ma ma” and “da da da” and told me that that is a 9 month old skill. After a few minutes trying to check her out on the table she finally decided to have me hold fiona on my lap…again she said this is how she has 9 month olds do it…

Fiona showed off her down dog stance…and AGAIN (o.k., I know, I’m bragging but it’s MY blog and I could do what i want to! ), Dr. Larsen said wow…again this is a 9 month old skill!

Fiona weighs in at 17.12 pounds (90%) and 26 1/8″ (75 to 90%)

She gave the o.k. to take her off the zantac…which I had already done a week ago and she agreed….if it seems like fiona is crabby or having any of the old symptoms I can put her back  on it….how nice to be down to just one medicine a day…especially since now she takes that in her bottle or straight from the dropper!! No more sneaking it in or crying fits!

All in all Fi is a very healthy, happy, smart little girl. And again…the word “precocious” was used repeatedly =)

I love her Doctor…i asked her about sleep and to weigh in with her opinion on it. All the books say that by 6 months they should be able to sleep through the night and start falling asleep on their own. We are NO where near that…Fi gets up anywhere from 2 to 5 times a night. Dr. Larsen said that she thinks the books are off. That especially with breast fed babies she thinks they still need to eat during the night…maybe when she’s 9 months or even closer to a year she might be able to make it all the way through without eating. And that babies with working mothers definitely do seem to wake up more and want to spend time with their moms and that there isn’t anything wrong with that as long as I am able to function during the day…that babies should get all the love and
nurturing they want and/or need. She agreed that this sleeping through the night thing is really a cultural thing and that we are one of the only cultures that puts any value on it at this age…everywhere else in the world babies sleep with their parents. She was happy to hear that we co-slept until we took the cue from Fiona to give her her own space and that if given time fiona might give us the clue that she can fall asleep on her own and sleep through the night…to follow her lead on this one…She told us that she just
attended a talk on sleep and that for the first time they are finally thinking about breaking up “sleep training” to go along with the nature of the individual child…not the age or the size…and that everyone pretty much agreed that if your child is in the 10% of highly active children…like Fiona is…that the “cry it out” method would most likely never work. These kids are just way too emotional and way too reactive to actually ever fall asleep that way…that the best thing to do is to respond to their needs. The thought was that these kids do take longer to sleep through the night, but that trying to change that can at times do more harm then good (again as long as the mom is coping well…). She also warned me of the 9 month stage that most babies go through where they wake up and are afraid because mom or dad isn’t there…their brains have developed to that point…and that it’s always hard on parents who have put in a lot of time to get their kids to sleep and now they are starting  from scratch again.

Whew. I know that’s a lot on sleep for any of you that don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it…but it’s a big weight off of my shoulders. I read a lot of books…and though I try and just get little gems of wisdom from these books that fit our family and not take any of them to heart…it starts to get a little confusing and it’s easy to lose your way when all these “experts” are telling you differently. I think we are really lucky to have the pediatrician that we have, it was really good to hear that from her. And though I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for fiona to sleep more then she does…I feel better about letting things ride for a while longer before we “do” anything…I’m coping just fine….I’m sure some people would call me a wimp when it comes to this subject but I feel like this is the right way to go for us for now….ask me again in a year =)

So our next appointment isn’t until 9 months…seems so far away! I can only imagine what she will be able to do by then!

Yes! We have no bananas! August 18, 2007

Today we reached another milestone. The classic blow out….or blow up may be more appropriate. Fiona LOVES bananas and ate a bunch the other day at Grandpa and Grandma’s….bananas can cause a little bit of a back-up in the wee ones so things haven’t been “running smoothly” the last couple of days….we layed off the food all together for a day to see if it would help (flax seed powder next….a great way to get things going!)…well…today literally as we were headed out the door I looked down and *KERPOWEEEE* all over….both of us….required complete wardrobe changes for both of us, a full bath for Fi and a good toweling off for mom. I am SO GLAD that it happened before we left the house!!!!! I had to take a picture. She will hate me for it someday i’m sure =)

On the Other Side August 13, 2007

Babies everywhere. This weekend I went to a baby shower, Sunday I’m going to another, and a friend of Greg’s just announced they’re having a baby (with a due date just a week past fiona’s). All of this baby stuff got me thinking about where I am now in my life with baby, and all I can say is OH MY GOD I AM SO GLAD TO BE ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!

I look at them and I remember the excitement but also this overhanging umbrella of the unknown. Not knowing what (she’ll) be like, look like, sound like. Not knowing what you need, what you have to have and what is hype. Not know how it will feel…being sort of afraid of the pain, afraid that you wouldn’t know what was going on or make it to the hospital in time. Not knowing if you will all be healthy. Not knowing how your life will really change.  Trying to know, trying to learn all you can….but in the end really just taking a step into a land of unknown.

And then there was the first couple of weeks….the first few months. Oi! I was in such shock. My life changed so drastically. I was so tired, so sore. And fiona…I love you to pieces…but man you were a hard baby for the first few months. At eight days being in the emergency room and then the hospital (wow did that take me off guard) a spinal tap? blood? catheters? i.v.s? And back to the ER at 2 months. You cried endlessly and there was nothing we could do to make it better. giving medicine, taking temperatures. Bouncing and Bouncing and BOUNCING. I was so afraid you wouldn’t be a happy child. So worried that this was going to be your personality. So frustrated that I couldn’t make you happy. So afraid to go anywhere with you because you would cry. Dreading the car because you cried from the moment we strapped you into the seat to the moment we got you out of the seat.  I was so unsure of myself, wanting to know the answer…but not having any idea. Wanting to be the mom that knew what was best for my little love but really feeling like I didn’t have a clue what to do.

aaagh. Dare I say. We are past that.

Now you are the happiest smiliest baby of all. You are smart and quick and strong. You wake up laughing and play happily in your car seat on drives. You are constantly in motion but so content being that way. You’re starting to give loves and really play with us. You laugh hilariously at your cats and dog and think making raspberry sounds is the coolest thing in the world. I no longer worry about taking you out in public…you entertain everyone that pays you attention…and they all do. Your beautiful blue eyes take people in and they can’t help but to stop and chat. You are learning faster then we can teach. And sometimes there are whole days that we never bounce!

I no longer worry about the right answer. I know we’ll figure it out.

Oh it feels so good to be on this side of it. I know there will still be plenty of ups and downs and there is a life time of unknowns, but finally I feel like that mom. The one that knows (or at least can pull-off that she does) what’s best for her family, knows what to do in any situation, can smile in the face of a crying baby and still hold a conversation in spite of it.

I wish them all luck and hope they know they have an understanding ear but I would not want to trade places with any of them. whew.

Happy Half a Year August 13, 2007

Wow. What a weekend. There were so many firsts I can’t believe we packed it all in just a couple of days! The first first….Fiona turned 6 months old on Friday. It is amazing that she is a whole half of a year old. We don’t have our Dr.’s appt. for another week so I can’t report stats just yet…but let’s just say she isn’t slacking in the growing the department so i have a feeling she will still be in that “90%” range.

Friday we tried solid foods for the first time. Organic Italian Sweet Potatoes. She REALLY enjoyed the spoon….what was on the end of the spoon? not so interested. She would screw up her face and stare at us like we were being cruel to her and then spit out the offending taste. But the spoon…the spoon is cool. Saturday I think she may have actually ate a little bit….and then on Sunday we tried something new. I know, I know, I’m supposed to wait 3 days….anyway…Sunday we tried Avocado and we LOVED it. Well we like it much better. This time instead of grabbing the spoon before it got near her mouth she opened wide and let me put the food in there. No icky face. And then asked for more. Next on the line up is peas and then I think we’ll venture to the banana. I figure it will be sometime before we’re really up and running in the food department..this is all about experimentation. I got to experiment with making my own baby food…which is honestly ridiculously easy…I’m not going to claim that I will always do it, but for now I already have a freezer full of food for her and it only took me a handful of minutes to do it!

Next on our firsts list: Fiona spent most of the day on saturday alone with daddy! AND IT WENT WELL! I’m so happy and relieved! Fiona is totally a momma’s girl…and if she can’t have momma then she prefers another woman…not real keen on the man scene yet….we’ll see how she feels about that in another 13 years…and though she sees daddy everyday she hasn’t spent much alone time with him…and when she has it’s involved a lot of screaming and crying…and fiona hasn’t been that happy either =) So we decided that since i was going to a baby shower on saturday it would be the perfect time to leave them alone together…and it went really well. Not that I didn’t think they could do it…i mean i know they could…but i was just praying that it would go well because i really want them to bond…people always ask me if it feels good that she always wants me….and honestly it doesn’t. it feels so much better when i see her and her dad together playing happily. now of course greg is leaving for europe for two weeks so there will be some adjusting when he gets back for sure….but we’re on the right path.

3rd First: Greg brought home a jogging stroller on Friday…yes, it is a perk to work at REI….=) He brought me a very nice B.O.B. running stroller…with suspension and everything…i love it! We put the super-cool bunting that Lori bought us for our baby shower in there and Fi is snug as a bug in a rug! I was able to go running with her twice this weekend and it felt so good. It’s just a great feeling to know now that I can go running whenever I want…i don’t need to wait till greg is home and it’s a good time for him….i just need to wait for a good time for fi and i and off we can go. It’s one more step to getting back to the old me…well the quasi-mom-me.

(i’ll post pictures later tonight so check back!)

Mommm-mmmmm—om-ma-ma-ma-ma-mommmm August 5, 2007

Our new trick. Fiona doesn’t know that I’M mom…but she knows she’s making more of a real noise then just goooing-and-cooooing. She loves saying it…so much so that I found her in the middle of the night several times this week up on her hands and knees rocking back and forth repeating her new phrase. “Mommmm-mmmmm-momma-mom”. She is very intent when she says it and really works hard on forming her mouth, then she smiles big afterward. She loves it when we say it back to her and just squeels and rolls in laughter. Like I said….she has in no way connected the new noise with it actually meaning something..especially not with me…but she is very proud of her new trick…and combined with the raspberry she is close to perfecting it’s quite a show!

1149ish Days to go August 5, 2007

This is a very round-about guess….but I figured that it will be somewhere around 1,149 more days I have to work before she goes to Kindergarten. Why Kindergarten? I guess because I never went to Preschool…I don’t even know if they had preschools where I grew up then…but I remember that I was very excited to go to Kindergarten, and I certainly didn’t miss my mom when I went.

So I (we) survived the first week of me being back to work full time. The first couple of days were hard but as always with something new it was mixed with excitement and suspense. Thursday morning I cried.

Wed. and Thurs. are by far the hardest because I take Fiona to greg’s parents house. My limited time at home with her in the morning is filled with grabbing bags and strapping her in her car seat and driving..that adds up to a whole 15 or 20 minutes more that I don’t get to kiss her squooshy little cheeks before I leave. Then there’s the leaving her there and waving good bye. When she’s at home I just give her a little kiss in the middle of play and slip out the door…no big production.

Fiona did really well all week. Monday she put up a fuss for my mom but the rest of the week she was fine. And she seemed fine when I got home from work too. Sleep did not go well all week and I’m sure it was a combination of a lot of things….the new schedule included…and maybe she was wanting to spend more time with me and waking up and staying up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night was her way of getting that. Otherwise it all went pretty well.

I was anxious to see how she would do Fri. through Sun. having me back…and so far it was as smooth as silk. She slipped right back into our routine as if I hadn’t even been gone.

I will say this….yesterday and today I’ve had so much more energy with her then I think I normally do. I am just so excited to get to be with her all day that normally I would be counting the minutes till bed time so that I could get a break but now the day flies by so fast and I can’t believe it’s already over. It is HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD to stay home with a baby day after day.

I am still not sold on full-time…but I will say it went better then I thought.

As for a baby update =) Fiona is moving around like crazy. She does this thing where she get’s up on her feet in down-dog position and then she kind of walks her feet around…she’s close to sitting up her own and she loves to have us hold her hands and walk around. At this rate we may never reach a true full-on crawl…she may just decide that walking is so much better!