2009 in Review

I wanted to do a 2009 meme and found this one on a few blogs, so here goes:

What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Gave birth!

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't think I made any...and I don't really plan to make any this year. I know a lot of people view the beginning of the year as a new start, but if I didn't want to make a change on 12/31, why 1/1?

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Oh yeah. Five close friends (one newly close b/c of her having her baby) had FIVE boys between May 29th and August 21st.

Did anyone close to you die?
No, but my BFF from college's father passed in late May.

What countries did you spend time in this year?
USA

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A good night's sleep.
Better communication with DH
Peace of mind. I stress too much.

What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 29, 2009--the day my life changed forever
I would say the day that we found out we were having a girl, but I couldn't tell you that exact date, but it must not be etched...lol

What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Duh. :) Surviving giving birth. Exclusively breastfeeding my baby girl for over 5 months (and still going strong). Loving one little person more than I could ever have imagined.

What was your biggest failure?
Losing touch with a lot of people.
Not being a support system for my best friends when they need me.

Did you suffer any serious injury or illness?
Besides being sliced open to extract a baby? Nope.

What was the best thing you bought?
Our new car or our new camera. I can't decide.

Whose behavior merited celebration?
My DH. He's been a rock for me through the last five months. He's been a bigger support system than I could ever have imagined he would be, both physically and emotionally.

Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?
My own sometimes. I feel guilty for not enjoying every second with my baby and for having times of resenting her.

Where did most of your money go?
Baby junk, including daycare

Compared to this time last year, are you,
a) happier or sadder? a little sadder, I think. Well, I wouldn't say sad--just more stressed out. I was blissfully happy about having a baby this time last year and now I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.
b) thinner or fatter? Sadly, I think a bit fatter. Still need to lose about 30 pounds of baby weight to get to my pre-pregnancy size. Nervous to cut calories because I'm very scared about my milk production and this possibly impending 6 month supply dip.
c) richer or poorer? Poorer in money, richer in love (yes, you can puke now). Paying for daycare each month is pretty draining financially.

What did you get really, really excited about?
Baby, baby, baby!

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Gone out to eat with DH before baby came. :)

Did you fall in love in 2009?
Every time I see my husband kiss, hug, hold, snuggle, or play with my daughter, I fall in love all over again.

How many one-night stands?
Nope--I've got the same routine overnight every single night...and I can assure you that it doesn't include anything romantic (although there is one person who is playing with my bo.obs)

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Don't think so. I do my best not to hate people.

What was the best book you read?
I don't remember...how sad is that? I know I liked some Book Club books, but I am struggling to remember life before baby!

What did you want and not get?
A vaginal delivery

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
We went out to Mongolian BBQ while my parents watched the baby, then came home and watched the OSU vs. Indiana football game. I turned 28.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being able to be a SAHM.

Who did you miss?
The baby in my belly some days :)

Who was the best new person you met?
Any of the Nesties that I'd never met before IRL--I love finally putting faces to the names and voices on the board. Also, the LCs, nurses, and PCAs that I interacted with at the hospital--they were such a blessing!

Tell us a valuable life lesson(s) you learned in 2009.
Sleep when the baby sleeps. :)
Your best friends will understand when you detatch from the world for awhile and will still be there waiting when you emerge again.

What sums up this year? (a word, a quote... ?)
Baby! She is my world.

Five Months Old

I can't believe she's already five months old.

Baby girl has such a wonderful temperment. She's quick with a smile to anyone she meets. She loves people, especially ones that will let her stick their fingers in her mouth.

She's chewing on everything these days. Anything she comes into contact with goes directly into her mouth. Even once she tastes something and isn't a fan, it'll go right back into the mouth. All of her stuffed animals are pretty crusty now because of all the drool. Along these lines, she also tried to nurse on stuff ed animals with noses--they must look like nip.ples.

She's a total champ at rolling from belly to back. She isn't a huge fan of being on her belly (although she'll sleep there if we let her for naps), so she'll almost immediately roll onto her back. Within the last week she's started rolling onto her sides from her back, so I don't think it'll be too long before she's rolling from back to belly.

She will be sleeping in a Pack.n.Play at the sitter's beginning today, as she's started getting up on her hands and feet in the bassinet!

In the last week she's started throwing her upper body backward to see what's behind her (or just for fun sometimes). It's silly and she always laughs as she does it.

She can sit in a tripod position for awhile, but inevitably will get excited or want to see what's behind her (see above) and will go toppling over. She's getting better and better at sitting, though, and last night she did sit for about a minute without having any hands on the ground or on anything else. Of course, she got excited about her animal she was chewing on and went falling to the side.

Baby girl still loves to stand up whenever possible. We haven't seen any improvement in her ability to stand--for the last few months she's been able to stand holding only your fingers and much prefers to be in this position than sitting or laying down.

She gets giggling sometimes and it is the most adorable thing! The thing that will get her giggling most often is quickly moving your face toward hers. This also includes fake sneezing (something about the head movement). She loves it!

She loves playing in her Exer.saucer and is getting better and better at entertaining herself with a toy. She has recently decided she isn't a huge fan of her Bum.bo, though, and has started arching her back to try to escape from it after sitting there for a couple of minutes.

Her sleeping is less than optimal and we're working on trying to find a fix for that. She previously slept very well when swaddled, but that doesn't hold true anymore. She's also awake every 3 hours, but eats well when awake, so I don't think we'll work on discouraging that anytime soon. She fights sleep like crazy, which makes naps and bedtime fairly painful. When we catch her before she gets overtired, though, she did a lot better, so we're working on being extra attentive to her drowsy cues and catching her before she gets overtired. She naps best on her belly, but we aren't letting her try that overnight until she can get herself there.

She was never a child who stared at her hands in amazement. It just seemed that all of a sudden she started using them. She's now a pro and will grab most things and also passes them from one hand to the other. Since her grasping reflex is gone, she does lose her grip at times--typically over the edge of her Bum.bo or Exer.saucer, which then leads to her leaning over the edge, trying to see where it went. She also will grab the binky out of her mouth and toss it (we think this is still mostly unintentional). She's also grabbing at her feet, but still hasn't pulled them up to put them her in mouth. Rather, she'll typically bend her upper body down to try to get them in her mouth.

Her digestive system seems to always be changing. Most recently (as in just in the last 3 days) she has started pooping more regularly again. Until now, she'd only been going every week or so, which resulted in a huge blowout. However, the poops she's been having have been fairly rough on her--on 12/27 she started making gasping noises, scaring the heck out of Mommy and Daddy. We eventually figured out that it was related to her pooping and that she was totally happy during it, so she wasn't in distress. So scary, though. We're not sure if the change is because of the things I have eaten over the holidays or just because she's growing--probably a combination of the two.

I think that's about it. This little lady is such a joy to be around until bedtime. Even when she's past when she should've gone to sleep, she's a giggly, happy little girl...until you try to put her to sleep. But we love her to pieces and can't imagine life without her. She's loving and sweet and always smiling. Can't wait to see what this next month brings!

Tooth

Not much time to write, but wanted to get this out there so I don't forget it for later.

Wednesday, December 16th, we discovered a little sharp white thing poking out of the baby's gums. It seems to be a tooth. It came through without much fussiness or anything. The sitter (in her infinite wisdom) says that when the drool is stringier, that's an indication that a tooth is on the way. Well, hers now stretches a couple of feet. The tooth has since disappeared again, but it looks like her gums are a bit swollen around there, so I'm guessing it'll come through sometime... She is now chewing on everything she can get in her mouth with her favorite chew toy being Grandma B's fingers.

Good thing I invested in a teething toy for her: HERE I can't wait for it to arrive!

Answering Mandy's Question

This question comes from Mandy, a new mommy herself (her little one is just 12 days older than mine!) who is working crazy hours...I have no idea how she does it!

How many kids do you want? How far apart would you like them to be? What would you like, i.e. all girls, one of each, one girl and the rest boys, etc.? (I know you can't choose that, but I'm wondering what you envision as ideal.)

We've been going back and forth of this recently. I would like either 2 or 3 kids. If we could afford (both with money and time) to give them all the things that we want (a LOT of help with college, allowing them to take whatever lessons they want, giving help with homework, spending time with them), I'd say 3. But with working for the state, the financial stuff just tends to get in the way. For now we'll say three, though.

I always assumed we'd have them about 2-3 years apart. I think I'd like to start trying when E is 18 months or so--I'd like them a little closer together than 3 years. Of course, it may not happen right away again, which is another reason I want to start trying early and then if we do get pregnant the first time, I'd be fine with having them 2 years and 3 months apart.

As for the genders, I would, honestly, rather have a bunch of girls. Just not a big fan of little boys (not baby boys...little boys once they get to be 5 or so). That said, DH REALLY wants a boy. And now that we've found out we're about to get two more nieces (we already have one...no boys on DH's side at all and I'm an only child, so we won't have any nieces or nephews at all on my side), it would be really neat to give my father in law a grandson. So if #2 could be a boy, that'd be great. Then #3 can be a girl without freaking DH out too terribly much :)

Answering Trisha's Question

I've determined a winner of the giveaway, but am not going to reveal the winner just yet--I'm going to answer everyone else's questions first...so if I answer your question, you didn't win (well, you didn't win the giveaway...you won in learning something about me, though!)


This question came from Trisha, the social media saavy mommy of Delaney:

How has your social life changed after the baby?

What social life? Really... I swore that after the baby arrived I would still do the same things I did before--Book Club, girls' dinners, spending a weekend with friends out of town...but in reality, I don't do any of them anymore. They all seem so insignificant next to spending time with my little girl. I know for my own sanity I need to make an effort to get out, but being a working mom, it's REALLY hard to do that during the week. After missing her all day long, I have a hard time setting aside more time to spend away from her.

That said, I've gotten closer to my friends who have little ones about E's age. I see one of them very regularly and spent time with her and her little boy, Baby D, while we were both on maternity leave. I've also reconnected via email and Face.book with a couple of college friends who have had babies recently.

I am happy to report, however, that we were able to successfully host our annual Christmas party this past weekend. It's small, mind you (just two other couples--and one of those couples is the parents of Baby D that I mentioned above), but it felt like such an accomplishment. Yes, I had to give up a little control of the food (DH and our friends did some cooking while I was feeding E), but overall it turned out well. We still had good food and got to spend time with our friends. The night ended earlier than normal, two of us had to take time out to feed our children, there was a bit of kid noise, but I think it's just the way the party is evolving. I can't wait until next year when the little ones are mobile!

I'm going to make an effort to get out of the house...someday. I'm just happy to know my friends will be there for me once I decide to come out of hiding. For now, though, I'm just enjoying every second I get with E. She's such a joy and I don't want to miss a minute more than I already have to because of work.

I haven't forgotten

I haven't forgotten at all about your questions and my giveaway, I'm just distracted with a puking baby.

Four month appointment was yesterday (also got family photos done beforehand). According to the doctor, she's perfect. :)

Stats:
Weight: 13 lbs 14 oz (just over 50th percentile)
Length: 23 7/8 inches (just under 50th percentile)
Head: somewhere around 41 cm, I think--around 60th percentile

The doctor laughed when I told him that lots of people keep telling me how teeny baby is. He said she's perfect. We also got the clearance to start cereals (starting with barley or oatmeal since she's only pooing once a week or so--apparently rice can really back baby up). Not sure when we'll start that.

Anyway, after the appointment, we went to the mall. Baby was very well-behaved, but kept spitting up on DH's shirt (she was in the front carrier). She was happy and just took in all the people and commotion. She passed out in the car on the way home, so we ran a few more errands (DH ran into the stores while I drove in circles to keep baby sleeping). Once awake again, she started spitting up more.

I called the nurse to explain what was happening. She wanted to know if it was vomiting or just spitting up (vomit apparently is more forceful...but I have no idea what this is). She told us to try giving her some Pedia.lyte to see if she can keep that down. We were going to try this, but she kept down a lot more of her next feeding, so we decided maybe she was feeling better. She had a good night--was her normal happy self and all...just spitting up much more than usual.

DH was so concerned about it that he slept in the rocking chair until she woke for her first feeding just in case she choked at some point in the night. It was so sweet. She was fine, of course :)

This morning, though, she started spitting up/vomiting quite a bit again. We decided to take her to the sitter's anyway, but as we put her in her coat, she did it again. That's when we decided to keep her home. DH has her this morning and is trying to give her the Pedia.lyte (she refused it the first time). She's still happy and playful and not getting dehydrated, so we're trying not to worry too much and are hoping it's just a reaction to a vaccine or something. I'm heading home around noon to trade out (DH has a 1:00 meeting) and hoping she's feeling much better by the time I get there.