Happy Holidays everyone!
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Last night, for the first time ever, Z went to sleep in her crib!
Our usual method of putting her to sleep has been me nursing her to sleep in our bed and Joe then moves her into her crib where she sleeps the rest of the night.
For the last couple of nights she's been really restless. She would nurse, but instead of calming down and falling asleep when she was clearly tired, she would get up and wander around the bedroom.
The first night Joe took her and walked her around in the carrier for an hour and a half before she finally fell asleep.
When she started doing it again last night, I just went 'screw it' and I put her into her crib. She was fine when I put her in, but when I left her alone in the room, she did not like it at all. She cried, but didn't descend into full blown freak out, so Joe and I just kept an ear out and left her to her own devices. She settled down to occasionally whimpering (except when Joe stuck his head into her room to see how she was doing and she lost it a bit), and within an hour, she was asleep!
I'll probably still try to nurse her to sleep at night, but it's so nice to know this option is available.
In other news, we got a new stroller!
It's the City mini stroller from Baby Jogger and we love it!
We've been looking around for a new stroller for a couple of months now. The old stroller doesn't have a 5 point harness, only a lap belt so it was really easy for her to get out of it. When she started standing in it while we were out for walks we knew it was time for an upgrade.
When she got some cash for her birthday, we knew what it was going towards.
After a couple of visits to Toys R Us (where we could never find a salesperson to help- very frustrating) and Zellers (we even got a rain check for a pretty good stroller that was on sale for $50 off but it never seemed to be in stock), last week we went all the way across town to Macklem's. We looked at a couple of them, including a Jeep one with a built in speaker system for the child! but in the end we went with the city mini. Joe had the last say in what we bought since he is the one taking her around all day in it and he really liked the way it manouveres and how it folds up. The one downer, we didn't realize it didn't come with the parent console, so after we put it together we had to go out and buy the cupholder for Joe.
Our usual method of putting her to sleep has been me nursing her to sleep in our bed and Joe then moves her into her crib where she sleeps the rest of the night.
For the last couple of nights she's been really restless. She would nurse, but instead of calming down and falling asleep when she was clearly tired, she would get up and wander around the bedroom.
The first night Joe took her and walked her around in the carrier for an hour and a half before she finally fell asleep.
When she started doing it again last night, I just went 'screw it' and I put her into her crib. She was fine when I put her in, but when I left her alone in the room, she did not like it at all. She cried, but didn't descend into full blown freak out, so Joe and I just kept an ear out and left her to her own devices. She settled down to occasionally whimpering (except when Joe stuck his head into her room to see how she was doing and she lost it a bit), and within an hour, she was asleep!
I'll probably still try to nurse her to sleep at night, but it's so nice to know this option is available.
In other news, we got a new stroller!
It's the City mini stroller from Baby Jogger and we love it!
We've been looking around for a new stroller for a couple of months now. The old stroller doesn't have a 5 point harness, only a lap belt so it was really easy for her to get out of it. When she started standing in it while we were out for walks we knew it was time for an upgrade.
When she got some cash for her birthday, we knew what it was going towards.
After a couple of visits to Toys R Us (where we could never find a salesperson to help- very frustrating) and Zellers (we even got a rain check for a pretty good stroller that was on sale for $50 off but it never seemed to be in stock), last week we went all the way across town to Macklem's. We looked at a couple of them, including a Jeep one with a built in speaker system for the child! but in the end we went with the city mini. Joe had the last say in what we bought since he is the one taking her around all day in it and he really liked the way it manouveres and how it folds up. The one downer, we didn't realize it didn't come with the parent console, so after we put it together we had to go out and buy the cupholder for Joe.
Friday, 3 October 2008
what we did on our summer vacation
Well that was a longer than expected break.
So much to catch up on! We had quite the eventful summer. The best I'll be able to manage today is a quick overview - with lots of pictures!
We went to the cottage for a couple of weeks
where we spent as much time as possible in the water!
We went to the park a lot!
She now loves the swing after being terrified of it for a couple of weeks. She also loves going down the slide with her dad.
She learned to walk!!
She's really steady now and can even run without holding on to anything, but she still likes the security of holding someone's hand.
We went to the Ex.
where we saw some animals including one also named Zoe
We packed the house up
and moved!
She had her first birthday
Where yummy cake was consumed!
Since then it's been all unpacking and trying to organize our new place. It's a bit of a challenge because I'm back at work now. So we only have a couple of hours every night and the weekends. Joe does as much as he can during the day, but he's now looking after her while I work so that puts a bit of a crimp in things.
She and Joe have been getting along swimmingly during the day together though. So much so that she barely misses me. When I get home, she lunges at me in order to nurse, but after that, she wanders away to play amongst the boxes quite happily. I'm in two minds about this. I'm really happy that she adjusted so easily to my being away all day, but of course, it's a bit of an ego crusher as well.
One upside to being back at work though is lots more Z free computer time! so expect more frequent updates.
Here's one more bounus shot of my little rockstar!
So much to catch up on! We had quite the eventful summer. The best I'll be able to manage today is a quick overview - with lots of pictures!
We went to the cottage for a couple of weeks
where we spent as much time as possible in the water!
We went to the park a lot!
She now loves the swing after being terrified of it for a couple of weeks. She also loves going down the slide with her dad.
She learned to walk!!
She's really steady now and can even run without holding on to anything, but she still likes the security of holding someone's hand.
We went to the Ex.
where we saw some animals including one also named Zoe
We packed the house up
and moved!
She had her first birthday
Where yummy cake was consumed!
Since then it's been all unpacking and trying to organize our new place. It's a bit of a challenge because I'm back at work now. So we only have a couple of hours every night and the weekends. Joe does as much as he can during the day, but he's now looking after her while I work so that puts a bit of a crimp in things.
She and Joe have been getting along swimmingly during the day together though. So much so that she barely misses me. When I get home, she lunges at me in order to nurse, but after that, she wanders away to play amongst the boxes quite happily. I'm in two minds about this. I'm really happy that she adjusted so easily to my being away all day, but of course, it's a bit of an ego crusher as well.
One upside to being back at work though is lots more Z free computer time! so expect more frequent updates.
Here's one more bounus shot of my little rockstar!
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Well, we had a bit of drama today. I popped over to my parents house before going to the doctor today to see how my mom was doing. (She also had a doctor's appointment yesterday and today.) I hadn't been there more than a couple of minutes when my dad took a look at Z and started freaking out, saying she had measles. My parents are CP24 junkies and the recent measles outbreak was very much on their mind.
After he more or less kicked me out of the house we went to the doctor's office 3 hours early for the appointment. They weren't thrilled to see me, but I didn't know what else to do. I had already called one of my sisters and she talked me down from the panic that my father had instilled in me.
When the doctor finally saw me she did a couple checks and finally announced that she was pretty sure it wasn't measles but only roseola and sent us off home.
If she gets worse, I'm to return to the doctor immediately but the doctor doesn't think we have anything to worry about. It doesn't stop me from worrying just a little bit though.
Oh, and thank goodness the ear infection never came to pass.
After he more or less kicked me out of the house we went to the doctor's office 3 hours early for the appointment. They weren't thrilled to see me, but I didn't know what else to do. I had already called one of my sisters and she talked me down from the panic that my father had instilled in me.
When the doctor finally saw me she did a couple checks and finally announced that she was pretty sure it wasn't measles but only roseola and sent us off home.
If she gets worse, I'm to return to the doctor immediately but the doctor doesn't think we have anything to worry about. It doesn't stop me from worrying just a little bit though.
Oh, and thank goodness the ear infection never came to pass.
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
I'm not sure, but I think the 9 month sleep regression has arrived. The last 3 nights she hasn't slept more than 2 or 3 hours in one stretch. And of course she has to be nursed back to sleep every time so I'm a bit punchy these days.
To complicate matters, she also has had a fever for the last day or so making her extra clingy and cranky. I'm actually getting a bit worried about the fever (and stuffy nose). The baby tempra drops work for a bit, but she seems so hot! There may be a doctor's visit in our immediate future.
In better news, it seems she really has that crawling thing down finally. Of course she just crawls so she can get to something to pull herself up to a standing position. She loves standing and will do it whenever she can. She's getting really good at it too. She gets faster at it every day.
In other things she does now that she didn't do 2 weeks ago - waving and high fives. Neither is really consistent yet, and she gets a look of 'you people are a bit crazy' when she does the high five, but she knows what to do when people hold up their hand or wave to her. She was even playing patty-cake with her dad yesterday! She was also grabbing his hands and making him clap.
Ok, we've got an 11:30 appointment with the doctor, so off we go. More later!
To complicate matters, she also has had a fever for the last day or so making her extra clingy and cranky. I'm actually getting a bit worried about the fever (and stuffy nose). The baby tempra drops work for a bit, but she seems so hot! There may be a doctor's visit in our immediate future.
In better news, it seems she really has that crawling thing down finally. Of course she just crawls so she can get to something to pull herself up to a standing position. She loves standing and will do it whenever she can. She's getting really good at it too. She gets faster at it every day.
In other things she does now that she didn't do 2 weeks ago - waving and high fives. Neither is really consistent yet, and she gets a look of 'you people are a bit crazy' when she does the high five, but she knows what to do when people hold up their hand or wave to her. She was even playing patty-cake with her dad yesterday! She was also grabbing his hands and making him clap.
Ok, we've got an 11:30 appointment with the doctor, so off we go. More later!
Monday, 5 May 2008
Yesterday afternoon Joe and I went to the movies. Without Z. This was by far the longest we had ever left her wth a babysitter. It was a really strange feeling to not have her with us, but it was good.
My sister says Z handled it as well as could be expected. She napped, she cried, but by the time I called to say we were on our way home, I could hear her playing with her toys in the background.
(btw, Iron Man is really good!)
My sister says Z handled it as well as could be expected. She napped, she cried, but by the time I called to say we were on our way home, I could hear her playing with her toys in the background.
(btw, Iron Man is really good!)
Friday, 2 May 2008
What is it with people this week? Twice this week, I've had total random strangers come up to Zoë and start touching her up! She was in the carrier both times so they also had to invade my personal space to get to her. Once was on the subway with a seemingly normal young woman (whose boyfriend was very polite and did not touch my baby even though he was urged to by his girlfriend). The other time was in a MacDonalds with a borderline crazy person. (I know, what did I expect, going into the MacD's?) Both times I had to resist the incredibly strong urge to shield Z with my body and scream 'STOP TOUCHING MY BABY!' This was WAY worse than the people touching my stomach when I was pregnant. Those people were usually content with a quick rub and then they were gone. These people just want to hang around and talk to me for however long I'm trapped with them, all the while touching my baby!
Ok, sorry about that. Just had to get it off my chest.
As for the little one, her newest thing is clapping. A couple of Saturdays ago I took her for a sleepover at her aunt's house, and as Joe says, I took her away and she couldn't clap and brought her back and that was all she wanted to do! She does it fairly randomly - or at least Joe and I can't seem to figure out what makes her want to clap, but she will do it when we do in a sort of call and response thing. Unfortunately when other people start clapping and cheering around her, she gets really upset. It happened at a recent baby shower and again at a book launch, we had to remove her from the scene because she wouldn't stop crying when people cheered.
Something else that she does that took me a while to figure out. She shakes her head, also seemingly randomly. It was weird for me because I don't shake my head 'no' very often, so I didn't know where she could have picked it up from. In fact, she doesn't do it to indicate 'no'. I finally realized that the only time I shake my head even vaguely like that is when we dance!
On the crawling front, I think she's had a bit of a breakthrough in the last couple of days. She's started to really put the hand and leg movements together so she's actually getting real forward movement. She still hates being on her stomach though. She'd much rather be standing. If Joe or I are lying beside her, she will use us to pull herself up to a standing position. And Joe loves to hold her steady while she walks around the living room.
She's also doing really well with the swimming. She rarely complains when I dunk her head under. The other day, we got there a bit early so she was dressed and ready to go before the previous class was over. She started to fuss and I was worried that she was going to be a problem in the pool, but it turned out she was just impatient. As soon as we got into the pool, she was happy as a clam!
And one thing on the food front. I tried her on yogurt but I noticed she was spitting up a lot more for a couple hours after. Does anyone know if this just means she's not ready for milk products or if it's normal for yogurt or if it's something I should talk to the doctor about? It's the first adverse reaction to a food she's had (that I've noticed) so I'm not sure how concerned I should be.
Ok, some pics. Weeks 33 and 34 and her first trip down to Harbourfront
Ok, sorry about that. Just had to get it off my chest.
As for the little one, her newest thing is clapping. A couple of Saturdays ago I took her for a sleepover at her aunt's house, and as Joe says, I took her away and she couldn't clap and brought her back and that was all she wanted to do! She does it fairly randomly - or at least Joe and I can't seem to figure out what makes her want to clap, but she will do it when we do in a sort of call and response thing. Unfortunately when other people start clapping and cheering around her, she gets really upset. It happened at a recent baby shower and again at a book launch, we had to remove her from the scene because she wouldn't stop crying when people cheered.
Something else that she does that took me a while to figure out. She shakes her head, also seemingly randomly. It was weird for me because I don't shake my head 'no' very often, so I didn't know where she could have picked it up from. In fact, she doesn't do it to indicate 'no'. I finally realized that the only time I shake my head even vaguely like that is when we dance!
On the crawling front, I think she's had a bit of a breakthrough in the last couple of days. She's started to really put the hand and leg movements together so she's actually getting real forward movement. She still hates being on her stomach though. She'd much rather be standing. If Joe or I are lying beside her, she will use us to pull herself up to a standing position. And Joe loves to hold her steady while she walks around the living room.
She's also doing really well with the swimming. She rarely complains when I dunk her head under. The other day, we got there a bit early so she was dressed and ready to go before the previous class was over. She started to fuss and I was worried that she was going to be a problem in the pool, but it turned out she was just impatient. As soon as we got into the pool, she was happy as a clam!
And one thing on the food front. I tried her on yogurt but I noticed she was spitting up a lot more for a couple hours after. Does anyone know if this just means she's not ready for milk products or if it's normal for yogurt or if it's something I should talk to the doctor about? It's the first adverse reaction to a food she's had (that I've noticed) so I'm not sure how concerned I should be.
Ok, some pics. Weeks 33 and 34 and her first trip down to Harbourfront
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
At our weekly visit to my parents place on Friday she was uncharacteristically cranky. When she wasn't crying, she was either eating or sleeping. My dad also made the observation that she wasn't automatically putting everything in her mouth. He made the prediction that she would cut a tooth by Sunday. Well, he was wrong, but only by 2 days. I was just feeding her some banana and felt something in her mouth that wasn't there yesterday. Sure enough one of her bottom teeth has made an appearance!
Monday, 14 April 2008
I want to talk about food today.
I've been dutifully feeding her mashed up steamed vegetables, stewed and raw fruits and the usual suspects of cereals (boy does she not like those!). She also gets the occasional arrowroot cookie and she had yogurt for the first time today.
My question is, when do I get to feed her real food? You know, the stuff that I eat - ground up of course.
Is there an order I should introduce meats?
Can I cook stuff for her in oil?
Joe and I have no real food allergies, do we still have to keep to that 3 or more days between introducing new foods rule?
I'm having trouble picturing how to go from steamed sweet potato to, say, lasagne.
Any insight will be appreciated.
Further on the food topic, I bought one of the best things last week. I know Craftygrrrl uses one and Rocketbride also mentioned it, so after a small choking scare, I went out and got one of these:
All the parents I know with kids older than five are amazed.
I can now give her an apple slice or cookie and not have to keep an eye on how much of it is missing or constanly sweep her mouth for the large chunks she's broken off.
I also got some foam tiles for her to play on now that she likes to be on the floor more. I had been searching for some for weeks now, but either they were hideously expensive at the kids stores or my local hardware stores didn't carry them.
I was getting resigned to not getting any when I went and checked out my local Dollarama. These are smaller (approx 1 foot square) than the ones I was seeing in the boutique stores, and part of me is afraid that they're a lot more toxic as well. But hey, they were $1 each! I got 12 of them. They don't cover that much ground, but then, neither does she right now.
If we didn't have 3 pukey cats I probably wouldn't bother, but between that and the fact that she's bouncing her head off the floor regularly these days, I figure it's a good investment.
We've got weeks 30, 31 and 32 shots. You can see the tiles in these shots.
I've been dutifully feeding her mashed up steamed vegetables, stewed and raw fruits and the usual suspects of cereals (boy does she not like those!). She also gets the occasional arrowroot cookie and she had yogurt for the first time today.
My question is, when do I get to feed her real food? You know, the stuff that I eat - ground up of course.
Is there an order I should introduce meats?
Can I cook stuff for her in oil?
Joe and I have no real food allergies, do we still have to keep to that 3 or more days between introducing new foods rule?
I'm having trouble picturing how to go from steamed sweet potato to, say, lasagne.
Any insight will be appreciated.
Further on the food topic, I bought one of the best things last week. I know Craftygrrrl uses one and Rocketbride also mentioned it, so after a small choking scare, I went out and got one of these:
All the parents I know with kids older than five are amazed.
I can now give her an apple slice or cookie and not have to keep an eye on how much of it is missing or constanly sweep her mouth for the large chunks she's broken off.
I also got some foam tiles for her to play on now that she likes to be on the floor more. I had been searching for some for weeks now, but either they were hideously expensive at the kids stores or my local hardware stores didn't carry them.
I was getting resigned to not getting any when I went and checked out my local Dollarama. These are smaller (approx 1 foot square) than the ones I was seeing in the boutique stores, and part of me is afraid that they're a lot more toxic as well. But hey, they were $1 each! I got 12 of them. They don't cover that much ground, but then, neither does she right now.
If we didn't have 3 pukey cats I probably wouldn't bother, but between that and the fact that she's bouncing her head off the floor regularly these days, I figure it's a good investment.
We've got weeks 30, 31 and 32 shots. You can see the tiles in these shots.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
7 months today!
I've been having really mushy feelings all day today about being a mother. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I have been. Part of the reason why I waited so long to have a baby is that I just didn't want to be a mother. I love babies and the kids they grow up to be and I have a lot of fun with my mass of nephews and nieces, but I was always glad to see the back of them when the parents came to take them away.
I guess it's true that it's different with your own child. Despite the hard work, I am really having fun with her. It's great to see her playing and figuring out stuff (Right now she's flipping plastic tabs on her excersaucer, something she couldn't do 2 months ago.) And she loves our daily walks. She is so interested in everything around her I love taking her to new places just to see her so wide-eyed. I'm really lucky that she's such a great kid and that I can take the whole year off to be with her and see her grow like this.
hm, what else was there?
Oh yes, She went swimming for the first time last night!
I couldn't see her face for most of it, but Joe says she had what I call her experimenting look on her face the entire time. I think that means she liked it. She didn't complain once. Not even when I dunked her face in the water by mistake a couple of times, or when she started to turn a bit blue from the cold. I had to take her out after 20 minutes because her lips were starting to turn blue and she was starting to shiver. Hopefully she can stay the entire 30 minutes next week!
Also on the plus side, she's back to only waking up once during the night! That means I can get 2 good chunks of at least 4 hours of sleep a night. I am enjoying it while I can because apparently the 9 month sleep regression is a doozy. I'm loving Ask Moxie, but sometime she scares me. I know it's better to be prepared for insane baby behaviour, but part of me would love to just live in ignorance for a while.
Oh, and I almost forgot! Joe and I took the infant and child CPR course on the weekend. I'll probably be going to my brother-in-law's cottage in Georgian Bay (and I mean in Georgian Bay - an island that's a 20 minute boat ride away from Parry Sound) this summer, and since it is so isolated I wanted to be prepared for anything.
At first we thought we were going to be the only ones taking it, but at the last minute a few more people showed up including the parents of a 2 year old and the grandparents. We got to talking to them and it seems that they are taking it because their son is prone to siezures when he gets a fever.
The whole thing was a bit sobering but in all, very reassuring. I feel a lot more confident about taking her places off the beaten track now.
here's week 29:
and an extra in her goth dress from Grandma and Grandpa!
I've been having really mushy feelings all day today about being a mother. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I have been. Part of the reason why I waited so long to have a baby is that I just didn't want to be a mother. I love babies and the kids they grow up to be and I have a lot of fun with my mass of nephews and nieces, but I was always glad to see the back of them when the parents came to take them away.
I guess it's true that it's different with your own child. Despite the hard work, I am really having fun with her. It's great to see her playing and figuring out stuff (Right now she's flipping plastic tabs on her excersaucer, something she couldn't do 2 months ago.) And she loves our daily walks. She is so interested in everything around her I love taking her to new places just to see her so wide-eyed. I'm really lucky that she's such a great kid and that I can take the whole year off to be with her and see her grow like this.
hm, what else was there?
Oh yes, She went swimming for the first time last night!
I couldn't see her face for most of it, but Joe says she had what I call her experimenting look on her face the entire time. I think that means she liked it. She didn't complain once. Not even when I dunked her face in the water by mistake a couple of times, or when she started to turn a bit blue from the cold. I had to take her out after 20 minutes because her lips were starting to turn blue and she was starting to shiver. Hopefully she can stay the entire 30 minutes next week!
Also on the plus side, she's back to only waking up once during the night! That means I can get 2 good chunks of at least 4 hours of sleep a night. I am enjoying it while I can because apparently the 9 month sleep regression is a doozy. I'm loving Ask Moxie, but sometime she scares me. I know it's better to be prepared for insane baby behaviour, but part of me would love to just live in ignorance for a while.
Oh, and I almost forgot! Joe and I took the infant and child CPR course on the weekend. I'll probably be going to my brother-in-law's cottage in Georgian Bay (and I mean in Georgian Bay - an island that's a 20 minute boat ride away from Parry Sound) this summer, and since it is so isolated I wanted to be prepared for anything.
At first we thought we were going to be the only ones taking it, but at the last minute a few more people showed up including the parents of a 2 year old and the grandparents. We got to talking to them and it seems that they are taking it because their son is prone to siezures when he gets a fever.
The whole thing was a bit sobering but in all, very reassuring. I feel a lot more confident about taking her places off the beaten track now.
here's week 29:
and an extra in her goth dress from Grandma and Grandpa!
Thursday, 20 March 2008
This is what happens when I don't blog in a while. So much has happened in the last few weeks with the little one that it will take a long post to catch up!
Starting with 3 weeks ago (!), we started her on solid food! She had her first taste of sweet potato and then a couple of days later she had some congee that my mom had made. My mom was so excited about the whole solid food thing (I suspect, partially because she still thinks I don't have enough milk to sustain a growing baby - contrary to the evidence.) that she also went out and got some arrowroot cookies for Z. She has also had squash (which was from my mom's garden) and carrot. We'll be branching out to apple and peas soon. She only has solid food once a day right now, usually in the evening but that will be expanding soon. She really likes the veggies but will generally only eat the rice when I mix it in with the veggies. I think it is too bland for her.
here she is with her first meal of sweet potato
Of course one of the down sides of having her eating solids is that when we are eating and she isn't, she gets a bit upset. This more than anything else is making me anxious to get to the point where she's eating what we're eating.
Those cookies though. If I want to distract her from a meltdown, all I have to do is hold a cookie in front of her and she calms down immediately. I've used it to good effect in restaurants already. And since she's big enough to sit in high chairs in restaurants, going out to eat with her is a lot easier.
Something else that has made going out a little easier is the Ergo carrier that I just bought. It's the same idea as the mei tai, but it's a bit more structured and it has buckles instead of just being tied. I lasted as long as I could with my mom's mei tai, but it was really starting to hurt my back. I will still use it because it is so much more convenient to stuff in a bag, but I don't think I will be using it for our big afternoon walks anymore. The Ergo distributes the weight a bit more evenly so there is less on my shoulders and more on my hips. Also Joe is really comfortable using it. I bought it a week ago and Joe has already used it 4 times. The only problem I have with it is that she can't face out in it, (there's the answer to your question Sandi) but she's not accustomed to it so it doesn't bother her. She's used to looking at things over my shoulder.
Monday was her 6 month checkup (she was 6mos 3 weeks) and everything was peachy until the needles of course. She weighed 15 and a half pounds which means she jumped percentiles. She was in the 10th but is now closer to the 25th. As for her height the doctor said she was off the charts, but I think she measured wrong. She got 77 cm or 30 inches, but I just measured her and it's more like 71cm (28inches). Still in the 90's though. As my sister said, she seems tall, but not freakishly so.
In other weight news, I also had my checkup and it seems I am 145lbs. I've been over 150lbs for probably over 8 years, so this is kind momentous for me. Joe is now a believer in my radical "baby as weight loss program" idea.
In the last big news of the month, she is making great progress on the crawling front! A couple of nights ago, we went to bed as usual but she was really restless. She would nurse for a bit then try to roll over (she was surrounded by pillows to keep her from shimmying off the bed and the pillows were hampering her usual rolling action). When she finally managed it she gave me such a big, self satisfied grin, it was hilarious. But she wasn't through. She then got her butt up and started lurching forward. She's never really done this while she was awake so I let her go for it. When she started to get some real forward movement happening I had to call Joe in so he could see it. When he came in the room, she did her lurching forward movement and looked up and gave him another huge self satisfied smile. And she would keep doing that - inch forward and smile at her dad. We ended up playing with her for about an hour on the bed until she got really tired and her crawling turned more into just rolling to get to places.
The next morning, I put her down to see if she could keep going, but she got really frustrated when she started mostly going backwards. It is so hard to see her get so frustrated. I want to help her out, but I know she just has to figure this one out all by herself.
I've got week 26 and 28. I misplaced the camera for week 27. Oh well.
Starting with 3 weeks ago (!), we started her on solid food! She had her first taste of sweet potato and then a couple of days later she had some congee that my mom had made. My mom was so excited about the whole solid food thing (I suspect, partially because she still thinks I don't have enough milk to sustain a growing baby - contrary to the evidence.) that she also went out and got some arrowroot cookies for Z. She has also had squash (which was from my mom's garden) and carrot. We'll be branching out to apple and peas soon. She only has solid food once a day right now, usually in the evening but that will be expanding soon. She really likes the veggies but will generally only eat the rice when I mix it in with the veggies. I think it is too bland for her.
here she is with her first meal of sweet potato
Of course one of the down sides of having her eating solids is that when we are eating and she isn't, she gets a bit upset. This more than anything else is making me anxious to get to the point where she's eating what we're eating.
Those cookies though. If I want to distract her from a meltdown, all I have to do is hold a cookie in front of her and she calms down immediately. I've used it to good effect in restaurants already. And since she's big enough to sit in high chairs in restaurants, going out to eat with her is a lot easier.
Something else that has made going out a little easier is the Ergo carrier that I just bought. It's the same idea as the mei tai, but it's a bit more structured and it has buckles instead of just being tied. I lasted as long as I could with my mom's mei tai, but it was really starting to hurt my back. I will still use it because it is so much more convenient to stuff in a bag, but I don't think I will be using it for our big afternoon walks anymore. The Ergo distributes the weight a bit more evenly so there is less on my shoulders and more on my hips. Also Joe is really comfortable using it. I bought it a week ago and Joe has already used it 4 times. The only problem I have with it is that she can't face out in it, (there's the answer to your question Sandi) but she's not accustomed to it so it doesn't bother her. She's used to looking at things over my shoulder.
Monday was her 6 month checkup (she was 6mos 3 weeks) and everything was peachy until the needles of course. She weighed 15 and a half pounds which means she jumped percentiles. She was in the 10th but is now closer to the 25th. As for her height the doctor said she was off the charts, but I think she measured wrong. She got 77 cm or 30 inches, but I just measured her and it's more like 71cm (28inches). Still in the 90's though. As my sister said, she seems tall, but not freakishly so.
In other weight news, I also had my checkup and it seems I am 145lbs. I've been over 150lbs for probably over 8 years, so this is kind momentous for me. Joe is now a believer in my radical "baby as weight loss program" idea.
In the last big news of the month, she is making great progress on the crawling front! A couple of nights ago, we went to bed as usual but she was really restless. She would nurse for a bit then try to roll over (she was surrounded by pillows to keep her from shimmying off the bed and the pillows were hampering her usual rolling action). When she finally managed it she gave me such a big, self satisfied grin, it was hilarious. But she wasn't through. She then got her butt up and started lurching forward. She's never really done this while she was awake so I let her go for it. When she started to get some real forward movement happening I had to call Joe in so he could see it. When he came in the room, she did her lurching forward movement and looked up and gave him another huge self satisfied smile. And she would keep doing that - inch forward and smile at her dad. We ended up playing with her for about an hour on the bed until she got really tired and her crawling turned more into just rolling to get to places.
The next morning, I put her down to see if she could keep going, but she got really frustrated when she started mostly going backwards. It is so hard to see her get so frustrated. I want to help her out, but I know she just has to figure this one out all by herself.
I've got week 26 and 28. I misplaced the camera for week 27. Oh well.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Look who can sit unsupported! She's still a bit unsteady, but getting better every day.
I think she's getting ready for another developmental spurt too. Craftygrrrl pointed me to a great blog- Ask Moxie that had a link to the book The Wonder Weeks. It's about how, at certain weeks, babies are working out stuff in preparation for cognitive and physical advancements. Unfortunately, while they are working everything out, their sleep patterns get screwed up. (as if I wasn't having enough trouble already!) There's a big one at around 26 weeks. And right on cue, the last few nights she's been waking up every couple of hours. Yesterday, Joe came in to bed around 4am and found her trying to crawl in her sleep. After a few minutes of it, she woke herself up and wouldn't sleep for an hour. And this morning around 4:30, she started to cry in her sleep which also eventually woke her up. She didn't get back to sleep until about 8am. It's 9:30 and she's still asleep in the sling. I think she's also got a small cold. She's been sniffing like crazy the last couple of days.
At least it isn't like last week. A week ago, she woke in the middle of the night. I started feeding her when I realized that she was really warm. She usually runs a little hot, but this seemed different. We took her temperature and it was higher than normal. Not scary out of control (it was high 38C/low 39C), but enough to concern us seeing that this was our first experience with a fever. A long wait on the telehealth line later we were reassured that it was merely a low grade fever and were told we should just wait it out and not give her any tempra (too late) because the fever was probably trying to fight something and as long as it stayed below 40C it was fine (for a day or two at least). She and I spent the next day cuddling on the couch watching one of our favourite video stores burn down. At least that distracted me from the thought that the fever was burning away valuable brain cells and she was never going to be the same. Thankfully, by bedtime on Wednesday, she was back to her old self, giggling while her dad fluffed the pillows and covered her with the sheets.
Here are the week 24 and week 25 shots.
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Man, I just don't know where the days are going. I've been meaning to post for quite a while now, but for some reason, I just can never squeeze in the time to do it. The only thing I can offer is that she has been especially clingy these last couple of weeks. I think she's going through a bout of separation anxiety. It really kicked in about 3 weeks ago. We left her with my niece for about an hour and apparently she started crying halfway through the hour. Since then she starts screaming when we are out of her sight and if she had her way, one of us would always be holding her. She is getting better though. I went for dim sum with my parents and one of my sisters on Monday and she actually let herself be held and taken around by my sister, for a little while at least.
I guess the other reason I haven't posted lately is because we've been going out quite a bit. One of the things we've been going to is the Carry Me Close meetings on Tuesdays. They've been great. I've gotten some great tips on how to use my mei tai and I've learned that the scarf I've had for the last 20 years was probably originally meant to double as a baby carrier. Who knew? I also tried on the Moby wrap today and quite liked it. I'm thinking about going out on Thursday afternoon to buy some material to make my own.
We've also had some firsts. She sat unsupported a couple of weeks ago. It was so cool. I had her sitting leaning against me at the library. She was playing with a toy that had wheels, so every once in a while she would push it and it would roll further away from her and she would lean forward to grab it again. The toy kept rolling further from her and she kept leaning for it. Then I realized that I wasn't actually supporting her anymore and she had stopped reaching for the toy and was just sitting there leaning on her hands. I backed away from her and she stayed like that for quite some time. I've been trying to get a picture of it, but she doesn't like to just sit there leaning on her hands, she always wants to reach out or sit up straighter which means she inevitably falls over before I can get the camera.
The other thing that she has started doing is saying Dada. She hasn't connected it with Joe yet, but that doesn't make him less excited.
As for the sleeping, Stephanie had a thought that we were possibly missing our window of opportunity and that if we tried putting her to sleep before she started yawning at 8:30 that might be enough to get her to stay down. Unfortunately it didn't work. She would sleep for half an hour or so and then wake up full of beans. So we're back to going in around 10pm. I figure, this way at least she's not rarin' to go at some ungodly hour like 5am. Of course it hasn't quite worked out perfectly. She's been waking herself up in the middle of the night by rolling onto her stomach. I don't know if she's awake when she rolls or if she rolls in her sleep, but the upshot of it is that she'll hang out on her stomach for a couple of minutes before she completely loses it and nothing will calm her down except being back on the breast.
We have week 22 and 23 pictures today. Man is she getting big! And also I finally got a shot of her in the mei tai.
I guess the other reason I haven't posted lately is because we've been going out quite a bit. One of the things we've been going to is the Carry Me Close meetings on Tuesdays. They've been great. I've gotten some great tips on how to use my mei tai and I've learned that the scarf I've had for the last 20 years was probably originally meant to double as a baby carrier. Who knew? I also tried on the Moby wrap today and quite liked it. I'm thinking about going out on Thursday afternoon to buy some material to make my own.
We've also had some firsts. She sat unsupported a couple of weeks ago. It was so cool. I had her sitting leaning against me at the library. She was playing with a toy that had wheels, so every once in a while she would push it and it would roll further away from her and she would lean forward to grab it again. The toy kept rolling further from her and she kept leaning for it. Then I realized that I wasn't actually supporting her anymore and she had stopped reaching for the toy and was just sitting there leaning on her hands. I backed away from her and she stayed like that for quite some time. I've been trying to get a picture of it, but she doesn't like to just sit there leaning on her hands, she always wants to reach out or sit up straighter which means she inevitably falls over before I can get the camera.
The other thing that she has started doing is saying Dada. She hasn't connected it with Joe yet, but that doesn't make him less excited.
As for the sleeping, Stephanie had a thought that we were possibly missing our window of opportunity and that if we tried putting her to sleep before she started yawning at 8:30 that might be enough to get her to stay down. Unfortunately it didn't work. She would sleep for half an hour or so and then wake up full of beans. So we're back to going in around 10pm. I figure, this way at least she's not rarin' to go at some ungodly hour like 5am. Of course it hasn't quite worked out perfectly. She's been waking herself up in the middle of the night by rolling onto her stomach. I don't know if she's awake when she rolls or if she rolls in her sleep, but the upshot of it is that she'll hang out on her stomach for a couple of minutes before she completely loses it and nothing will calm her down except being back on the breast.
We have week 22 and 23 pictures today. Man is she getting big! And also I finally got a shot of her in the mei tai.
Sunday, 3 February 2008
She just passed the 5 month mark yesterday and I'm starting to think about the routines that we have and haven't gotten into. I'm especially worried about bedtimes.
Our current routine is for the two of us to go into bed about 10pm and we lie in bed together, maybe I read her a book, but mostly feeding, until she goes to sleep around midnight (and usually I fall asleep too) and a bit later Joe comes in and moves her to the crib where she'll usually sleep for the rest of the night. (It used to be straight through until about 8am, but lately she's been getting up around 3 or 4 for another feed).
I'm thinking of moving our going to bed time to around 9pm and getting it less dependent on being on my breast, but I just don't know how to go about doing that last part!
Sometimes, if she's really groggy, we can put her into her crib and walk away, but this is really rare. Usually, if we put her in her crib awake, she will lie there for a few minutes playing with her feet or what have you, but then she will start to cry and nothing but picking her up will stop it.
Any ideas?
here's the week 21 shot as well as one of Zoë doing physically what her mom only does metaphorically
Our current routine is for the two of us to go into bed about 10pm and we lie in bed together, maybe I read her a book, but mostly feeding, until she goes to sleep around midnight (and usually I fall asleep too) and a bit later Joe comes in and moves her to the crib where she'll usually sleep for the rest of the night. (It used to be straight through until about 8am, but lately she's been getting up around 3 or 4 for another feed).
I'm thinking of moving our going to bed time to around 9pm and getting it less dependent on being on my breast, but I just don't know how to go about doing that last part!
Sometimes, if she's really groggy, we can put her into her crib and walk away, but this is really rare. Usually, if we put her in her crib awake, she will lie there for a few minutes playing with her feet or what have you, but then she will start to cry and nothing but picking her up will stop it.
Any ideas?
here's the week 21 shot as well as one of Zoë doing physically what her mom only does metaphorically
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Last week while the router was down, I got an award!
Not an artist was sweet enough to give me this*:
I'm now supposed to “Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.”
So my ten are:
1. Joe
2. Not an Artist
3. My Sensitive Girl Hole
4. CraftyGrrrl
5. Oh Baby!
6. Rocketbride
7. Sock Crazy
8. Naked Knit Girl
9. Knit, Stitch, Click
10. saoilsinn
(*technically it was linked to my livejournal account)
Not an artist was sweet enough to give me this*:
I'm now supposed to “Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.”
So my ten are:
1. Joe
2. Not an Artist
3. My Sensitive Girl Hole
4. CraftyGrrrl
5. Oh Baby!
6. Rocketbride
7. Sock Crazy
8. Naked Knit Girl
9. Knit, Stitch, Click
10. saoilsinn
(*technically it was linked to my livejournal account)
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Haven't written in a while! First we all got sick, then the router went down. (But then Joe fixed it. My hero!)
We made it through her first cold pretty well. This was something I had been fearing, but because of the breastfeeding, she only got a bit snotty. Joe and I fared a lot worse. And of course, out of the three of us, I am the one that's still feeling it.
First, her doctor's appointment. She had her 4 month checkup at the beginning of the month. She weighed in at 12lb 5oz, so she's on the same growth rate as before, and she was 26 inches long. The needles were just as traumatic this time,if not more. She wasn't hungry this time, so she didn't want to breastfeed while it was being done. Instead she was looking right at the doctor. When she got the first shot, the look of shock and betrayal on her face before she started screaming was just heartbreaking.
It'a weird how much she's changed in the last little while. Everyone has been commenting on it when they see her. She's a lot less newbornish, and really starting to show more character. A couple of days ago she was playing with Joe and she laughed for no reason that we could figure out. Joe wasn't doing anything that would cue her to laugh, she just found something funny. Then again today, we were all watching Family Guy and twice, she spontaneously laughed at something on the tv with no prompting from us. It's nice to know that she has a sense of humour. We were positive we were going to end up with a sullen child.
She's getting the hang of Peek-A-Boo. She loves it when Joe plays it with her, but when I play it with her, I notice she gets a really worried look on her face. I'm usually holding her when she plays with Joe so I don't know if she looks worried with him too, but I think she gets concerned that I won't come back.
She's also a lot more comfortable on her stomach. She can hold her head and shoulders up no problem. When we go to the library for storytime she really watches the older babies crawling around and tries to figure out what they are doing. She doesn't quite have it yet, but she's trying!
It's really neat seeing her develop. And it seems to be happening in such a huge burst. In the last month her hand eye co-ordination has really improved (she's no longer sticking things into her eye instead of her mouth), she's started noticing and interacting with her environment (the cats are starting to be scared of her!), She's babbling a LOT more, and her sleeping/nap schedule has started to become very regular.
Ok, enough of this. I'll try to be less boring next time.
I've got week 17, 18, 19 and 20 pictures. I forgot to take the week 17 one on the blanket so instead, it's her first time in her excersaucer.
We made it through her first cold pretty well. This was something I had been fearing, but because of the breastfeeding, she only got a bit snotty. Joe and I fared a lot worse. And of course, out of the three of us, I am the one that's still feeling it.
First, her doctor's appointment. She had her 4 month checkup at the beginning of the month. She weighed in at 12lb 5oz, so she's on the same growth rate as before, and she was 26 inches long. The needles were just as traumatic this time,if not more. She wasn't hungry this time, so she didn't want to breastfeed while it was being done. Instead she was looking right at the doctor. When she got the first shot, the look of shock and betrayal on her face before she started screaming was just heartbreaking.
It'a weird how much she's changed in the last little while. Everyone has been commenting on it when they see her. She's a lot less newbornish, and really starting to show more character. A couple of days ago she was playing with Joe and she laughed for no reason that we could figure out. Joe wasn't doing anything that would cue her to laugh, she just found something funny. Then again today, we were all watching Family Guy and twice, she spontaneously laughed at something on the tv with no prompting from us. It's nice to know that she has a sense of humour. We were positive we were going to end up with a sullen child.
She's getting the hang of Peek-A-Boo. She loves it when Joe plays it with her, but when I play it with her, I notice she gets a really worried look on her face. I'm usually holding her when she plays with Joe so I don't know if she looks worried with him too, but I think she gets concerned that I won't come back.
She's also a lot more comfortable on her stomach. She can hold her head and shoulders up no problem. When we go to the library for storytime she really watches the older babies crawling around and tries to figure out what they are doing. She doesn't quite have it yet, but she's trying!
It's really neat seeing her develop. And it seems to be happening in such a huge burst. In the last month her hand eye co-ordination has really improved (she's no longer sticking things into her eye instead of her mouth), she's started noticing and interacting with her environment (the cats are starting to be scared of her!), She's babbling a LOT more, and her sleeping/nap schedule has started to become very regular.
Ok, enough of this. I'll try to be less boring next time.
I've got week 17, 18, 19 and 20 pictures. I forgot to take the week 17 one on the blanket so instead, it's her first time in her excersaucer.
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Today is a big day here for two reasons. It's Zoë's 4 month birthday and it's also the anniversary of the day I realized I was pregnant.
I remember it well. It had been an interesting December for us last year. Joe was having a bad month and was feeling pretty down and I had spent the entire month either feeling like I was coming down with a cold or getting drunk at various holiday get togethers. It wasn't until the night of the first that I realized I hadn't gotten my period yet and it had been due about 5 days earlier. So I dug out the second pregnancy test of a two pack I had bought earlier in the year thinking: I'll do the test first thing in the morning. That should trigger my period like it always does.
So in the middle of getting ready to go back to work the next day, I dutifully peed on the stick. The test result showed up pretty quickly but I waited the full 5 minutes or so to make sure it didn't change. Then, not quite believing what was happening, I went into the bedroom and woke up Joe. I shoved the test at him and asked him what it meant. he very groggily said 'How should I know? Where's the box?' I gave it to him, he read the instructions and said 'It means you're pregnant.' He later told me that he was pretty pissed off at the time to be woken up after only a couple of hours of sleep - he generally sleeps from 4 or 5am to about noon- to tell me something that was self evident. But he was too out of it to realize exactly what it was he was telling me.
I spent the rest of the day in a bit of a daze. Poor Joe though, once he realized what was going on he couldn't get back to sleep and apparently kept having anxiety attacks because he didn't know how to register the child for kindergarten.
ok, enough of that nostalgia stuff.
Zoë had a great Christmas and got her sleeping schedule screwed up for a week. She got lots of clothes and a couple of small toys. Of course she had no clue what was going on and I enjoyed that because I know next year she will be insane!
pictures this time - week 16 and opening presents!
I remember it well. It had been an interesting December for us last year. Joe was having a bad month and was feeling pretty down and I had spent the entire month either feeling like I was coming down with a cold or getting drunk at various holiday get togethers. It wasn't until the night of the first that I realized I hadn't gotten my period yet and it had been due about 5 days earlier. So I dug out the second pregnancy test of a two pack I had bought earlier in the year thinking: I'll do the test first thing in the morning. That should trigger my period like it always does.
So in the middle of getting ready to go back to work the next day, I dutifully peed on the stick. The test result showed up pretty quickly but I waited the full 5 minutes or so to make sure it didn't change. Then, not quite believing what was happening, I went into the bedroom and woke up Joe. I shoved the test at him and asked him what it meant. he very groggily said 'How should I know? Where's the box?' I gave it to him, he read the instructions and said 'It means you're pregnant.' He later told me that he was pretty pissed off at the time to be woken up after only a couple of hours of sleep - he generally sleeps from 4 or 5am to about noon- to tell me something that was self evident. But he was too out of it to realize exactly what it was he was telling me.
I spent the rest of the day in a bit of a daze. Poor Joe though, once he realized what was going on he couldn't get back to sleep and apparently kept having anxiety attacks because he didn't know how to register the child for kindergarten.
ok, enough of that nostalgia stuff.
Zoë had a great Christmas and got her sleeping schedule screwed up for a week. She got lots of clothes and a couple of small toys. Of course she had no clue what was going on and I enjoyed that because I know next year she will be insane!
pictures this time - week 16 and opening presents!
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