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.

An important anniversary

This weekend it will have been one year since we found out we were pregnant. It was during halftime of the OSU vs. M*ch*g*n game, which just happens to be tomorrow.

I can't believe it's been a year. So much has changed. So much hasn't. I can't believe I've been through a pregnancy and had my little one here for almost four months now in this short year. Where is the time going? I really hope it doesn't keep going so quickly, but have a feeling that it will. I try to enjoy every single moment because I know that every phase we go through will pass sooner than later.

Wow. It's hard to believe how much life change we've been through in one year.

PS--I've had some great questions already posted and am excited to start answering them. If you haven't submitted a question, please do so for a chance to win a really fantastic prize! :)

Ask me anything...and a giveaway

I'm playing a game that I've seen on other blogs...ask me anything. In the comments for this post, you can ask me anything. I may choose to be a bit vague so I don't reveal *too* much information (mostly names), but I will answer any question that is asked of me.

As enticement to participate, I will be giving a special prize to a random person who asks a question to me. I haven't determined what it is yet, but I promise it'll be something that you'll like :)

Yes, this is bribery. But I'm tired of seeing that there are a bunch of people reading and not knowing who is around! Don't be shy!!! The deadline to ask me questions is next Thursday, Thanksgiving (November 26th). I'll answer the questions in future blog posts.

Posts in my head

I don't have nearly as much time to blog as I would like, which leads to me writing blog posts in my head. You can (hopefully) look forward to posts titled things like:

Beautiful
What I Want
Mommy's Guilt
Developmental Update
My Christmas Wishlist

I'm sure there are more. And I might end up posting something special for my 300th post (which is the next one). We'll see.

But I'm still here. Still trucking along, trying to redefine who I am now without completely losing myself, but while encompassing my new role as a mommy. It's a struggle and has led to some frustration and sadness. But through it all, I still love my little girl more than I ever could have imagined.

Memoirs from Maternity Leave

I wanted to get this post written before those glorious twelve weeks have left my mind forever. I do hope they never do, though, as they were wonderful and I want to remember my first three months with my little girl. Was it all rainbows and flowers? No, of course not. But in retrospect I'm realizing that I was so blessed to be able to spend that time with my little girl.

Every day I watched The Price Is Right, What Not to Wear, and ER. Many days I'd also watch Dr. Oz. When you've got a newborn, all they really do it sleep and eat...there just isn't much interaction there. So while feeding and snuggling, what else is there to do? I'd DVR these shows so I could turn them on and watch without commercials. I also watched some movies and lots of other random shows.

Toward the end of leave (just when it was getting fun and we were falling into a routine), we would wake up around 6 or 7, DD would eat, then she'd go back to sleep. Many days I'd just snuggle her in my bed and we'd sleep together there for a couple of hours. I miss our snuggle time more than words can say. We would start out chest to chest on our sides and end up with both of us on our backs, her head supported on my arm. When she started to squirm, many times I would open my eyes to see her looking over at me, wide-eyed and happy to see Mommy so close. Magic.

We also loved taking walks together. Of course it was getting chilly by the time I came back to work, but when it was warmer (but not too warm!) I'd load her up into her stroller and we'd walk the neighborhood. Some days she'd snooze, some days she'd just look around. One day we even walked down to UDF and Mommy bought some chips and a hot dog, as that seemed to be the only way I could eat since she was sleeping on me if she was sleeping.

We also got to visit with two of my mommy friends who had little ones: Sarah and her baby boy D (born 3 weeks 1 day after our baby girl) and get up eight and her own baby boy D (born 12 days before baby girl). I'd hoped to do it a bit more, but it was wonderful as it was. We got to compare notes, woes, and even shed a few tears. They were a great support system when things were tough emotionally. I even got to witness the elder of the baby D's roll over for the first time!

Sure, I felt trapped by having her sleep on me most days, but looking back, I wish I could have that all over again. I would let her sleep on me all day every day to be able to spend that much time with her again.

It's Official

I do believe, even after last night, that I can declare that we have a baby who sleeps through the night! She's been sleeping for at least 5 hours in one stretch for quite awhile now, but we have made it a week now with only two nights of waking in the middle of the night. At most, she's slept 10 hours and at the minimum, 8.

Last Saturday night she woke up after only about 5 hours, but she slept a bit more during the day than she does at daycare.

Yesterday she woke after about 6 1/2 hours, but she had wiggled her fist out of her swaddle and was sucking on it and woke herself with that. That's just a problem with a faulty swaddling :) Of course now whenever she wakes in the middle of the night, though, she thinks it's morning and wants to play. So last night DH spent almost an hour rocking her back to sleep.

I was previously a firm believer in that whole sleep begets sleep concept, but now that she's at a sitter's and only sleeping a little bit there (maybe 3 hours total in the 9 1/2 hours she's there?) she's sleeping like crazy at home. I think it also has to do with the fact that she's a bit older and doesn't get overtired quite as easily, which is SO nice. In the first few months if she slept as little during the day as she's sleeping now, she would be a screaming mess in the evenings. Now she just passes out after eating.

Our nighttime routine has changed a bit since she's started daycare as well. We now get home around 5:30 and she usually snoozes in her carseat for about 20 minutes. When she wakes up, she eats, then we play and hang out. If she seems extra tired, we'll let her take a 20 minute lap, unswaddled. Then she'll get up, play a bit more, eat, then pass out for the night. We haven't even really had time for massages, books, or anything. She's just so tired from all the excitement of the sitter's.

As much as all this sleeping is nice, we both really miss our little girl.

She did it!

Last night (Oct. 27th), baby girl rolled over on her own!!! Mommy, Daddy, and she were laying on the floor. She lifted her head up and started to lean. All of sudden, she just rolled over onto her back!!!!

I have some more philosophical posts to write, but no time....but I had to write this down. We couldn't be more proud!!!

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho

And off to work I went.

Today was rough. But at least I was distracted by seeing my coworkers and showing off pictures of my beautiful baby. Tomorrow has the possibility to be even worse.

I worked 6 hours--8-2:30 (with a half hour lunch....sort of). The drop off was pretty painful. I couldn't believe I left my baby in someone else's arms. Ugh.

Pumped three times--8:30, 11:30, and 1:30. Got 5 oz. at 8:30, but only 5 oz. combined between the other two feedings. Very frustrating.

Picked up just after 3:00. The sitter and baby were snoozing together in the rocking chair--precious! I will say I was a bit disappointed by how little detail we received about how much she slept and ate and when, though. It felt like she didn't want to tell us how much she cried. We knew she would cry and, honestly, I wouldn't be phased by that. She did eat 14 oz., which scares me when I realize I need to pump enough to keep up with that. I'll just have to be pumping over the weekends and in the evenings, too, I suppose. I'm hoping, too, that the sitter didn't just pump her full of food because she was upset. Baby normally only eats twice in the time she was there today.

Hopefully she's just getting used to the way the baby is and it will all get into a better routine next week. And hopefully tomorrow isn't harder--I'll have less to concentrate on at work and I'll be more anxious about pumping enough to meet her needs (which, of course, could decrease my output...can you say vicious cycle?).

The return

In all of my wildest dreams about my last day of maternity leave, I would never have imagined sitting downstairs with a baby who won't go back to sleep at 5:30 a.m. with spit up down the front of me. DH took the day off to spend with us. I thought we'd all nap together, go take a walk (it's supposed to be beautiful today), and just spend time with our baby before we abandon her (my feeling) with a stranger (again, the way I feel about it).

Every time I begin to think about returning to work, I break down sobbing. I am dreading it more than I've ever dreaded anything before in my life. I don't want to leave her. Of course, there's lots of things that no one wants to do as adults, but we have to suck it up and do it. So I'll be sucking it up, but I won't like it.

First Overnight Trip

Saturday we made a trip to DH's parents' house to spend the night. Both the drive up and back were fairly uneventful--it took the baby about 20 minutes to fall asleep, slept for about 30-40 minutes, then she was awake for the remaining 40 minutes or so. If DH hadn't been in the backseat to entertain and pop in a binky when necessary, it could have been ugly.

Of course the weird location threw off the baby's sleeping. Her sleeping hours had been on the decline anyhow (8 1/2 hours one night, then 7, then 6, then Saturday night we got 5 1/2 and last night another 5 1/2). We still did her bedtime routine, but didn't rock her until she was fully asleep. Of course that meant she woke up in the playpen unhappy. I picked her up and she snuggled in and fell asleep. I just laid on the daybed with her to get her into a sound sleep, then she slept those 5 1/2 hours for us in the playpen. She got up to eat, then didn't want to go back to sleep. DH hung out with her for an hour and she fell asleep, then woke up. I went in and picked her up and she promptly fell asleep on my shoulder. We then slept together on the daybed for two hours. Whatever you have to do, right?

Generally, the trip was a good one, though. I was paranoid about germs the whole time. Asked DH's cousin to wash her hands before holding the baby.

She also, of course, needed to eat at dinnertime on Saturday, so I fed her while everyone else ate. *sigh* I suppose it's a hazard of a breastfeeding mom, though.

We were all very glad to be home and back into our own routines yesterday, though!!!

Baby Poop?

I will never be able to look at the fall leaves the same again. On our drive back from out of town this weekend, DH and I were looking at the leaves and how pretty the colors were. Then we both remembered that our pedi told us that baby poop can be any color that you find on leaves. We looked at the trees, remembering the different colored diapers we had changed.

Sleeping Progress!

I didn't want to jinx us by posting yesterday, but at 10 weeks of age, the night of October 7th, DD slept through the night!!!

This was written yesterday (Thursday):

This child never ceases to amaze me!

She napped well yesterday morning, took a restless nap (but still a good length) early afternoon (both on me or grandma), then only took two half hour naps from 2:30 until 8. She wasn't overly cranky, but had her moments.

At 7:30, I looked up baby massage and had DH do a pretty lengthy one (ended up doing it 1 1/2 times since she seemed to really like it). Paused the TV, turned off the lights besides a lamp on dim. We then put her in her sleeper and I read her a book (well, most of one). I then popped in her binky and rocked her to sleep (took about a half an hour, as she fought it for awhile--she fell asleep at 8:30). We sat in the chair until 9:30, to be sure she was in a deep sleep, then DH put her in her crib. She stirred a bit, but went right back to sleep. Next thing I knew, it was 4:00 and she was making noises in her sleep. I laid there waiting for her to wake up and finally fell back asleep. She didn't wake until 5:00!

I also gave her gas drops at 4 p.m. and then at her 6:30 p.m. feeding. Not sure if they helped, but we're going to keep trying. I forgot to give them to her at her 5 a.m. feeding, though.

She was up for a bit after eating (had one big spit-up--might have been b/c I was so engorged that she got the milk fairly forcefully), but generally fell back asleep pretty easily. She's been sleeping since then and still is at 9:30 (edited to add: she woke up at 9:45).

I hope this is the start of something good...and that she isn't getting sick. I'm also hoping that I can replicate this with her snoozing in the swing some. I don't think I can really have her napping on me all day long. Even if it just happens once for now, I know it CAN happen!

-----
Yesterday I tried to replicate the day and did so fairly well (and she did do some snoozing in the swing). We did a bath after her last short evening nap (maybe this is going to be her normal?), then moved onto a massage (she didn't like it for too long), then rocking with a pacifier. She pooped after 15 minutes of soothing (started at 9:20), which meant we needed to start over again. She fell into a good sleep around 10. At 11, DH put her down and she slept until 5:15. Yay for over 7 hours of sleep!!!

I hope this is the beginning of something good. I also hope we can vary the day a bit and still get the same results...we'll find out this weekend, as I think we may be taking a trip out of town.

Normalcy

Tonight I regained a bit of normalcy. I put on makeup for the first time since baby was born (prior to her birth I wore it every day unless we were just laying around the house). I kept my hair down for the first time since baby was born (and it had been awhile before that, too, I think). DH and I went out to dinner in a restaurant for the first time since baby was born. We still haven't gotten brave enough to try to take baby to a restaurant, so it was the first time at all. Spent time with DH without a baby around for the first time since she was born. If she's sleeping now and we're awake, she's typically sleeping on us, while when she sleeps in her crib we're either sleeping or DH isn't here.

It was weird. And not normal at all. But it's nice, too. I've missed my husband (and, really, still do). I felt really guilty that I didn't really stress too much about leaving the baby or being away from her. Maybe because I have been so overwhelmed and stressed being *with* her that it was nice to get a break. Also, she was with my parents, who I knew would do just fine with her. DH promised he was stressed enough about leaving her for the both of us, though.

Or not

Making her warm didn't seem to do a darn thing for her yesterday. Of course, it probably didn't help that she didn't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time (did this twice) between 12:15 p.m. and 1 a.m. She finally fell asleep with Daddy on the couch. He brought her upstairs at 4 a.m. to eat, then I put her down. She slept (fairly restlessly) until 9 a.m. Yes, it was nice to sleep in, but what a rough evening! Not sure what to do with her now. Am starting to think those two good nights of sleep might have been because we had vaccines on Tuesday...can we get more of those???

Two Months Old

I'm a few days late on this one, but finally have some time at the computer to write it up!

At two months old, baby:

• Holds her head up (unless she's tired--then she slouches forward a bit)
• Supports her weight on her legs for at least 10-15 seconds
• Stands flat-footed
• Smiles big toothless grins in response to smiles
• Nurses 10 minutes to a side 6-8 times per day
• Spits up a few times a day
• Poops anywhere between twice and five times a day
• Gets the hiccups one or two times a day
• Has very thin hair except underneath the nub on the back of her head
• Rubs off the hair on the back of her nub
• Follows objects (especially her favorite ducky toy) almost 180 degrees (limited a bit by the torticollis)
• Pushes off with her legs when laying on her tummy, but ends up just skidding along her face
• Sleeps in her new (hand-me-down from a friend) papasan swing during the afternoons
• Still loves sleeping on Mommy or Daddy
• Is struggling to find a good sleep routine and fights sleep at night
• Has the most beautiful dark brown eyes that still have a bit of a ring of blue around them
• Has gorgeous, long eyelashes
• Holds her toys if you put them in her hand
• Plays with her tongue almost constantly
• Has started chewing on her tongue
• Tongues your shoulder as you hold her
• Will latch onto a finger, a cheek--anything, really
• Loves being around people--even the doctor
• Is starting to reach for toys
• Is calmed by being outside, feeling the sun and the breeze
• Sucks on her fists anytime she isn't eating or sleeping

Even though her lack of sleeping can be very frustrating, we are in love with this beautiful little girl and can't wait to see what the future months bring!