Four Months!

Late late late! We have been so busy with work and getting ready for Abby's first Christmas. Here is her four month update!  We had better luck this month taking photos on a Saturday morning instead of a workday evening.  Abby doesn't want to sit still, and she kicks and wiggles when she smiles which make iPhone pictures difficult... (The real camera was MIA.)  She is also getting easily distracted these days if someone or some dog comes into the room while we're playing, eating, or in this case, photo shoot-ing.  But, we did our best!

How many? 4 months! ~18.5 weeks today

Recent Stats?  We just had our four month check up.  Abby did great.  She was so calm that even the nurses asked if she's always like that.  While she was sitting there on her Dad's lap, I noticed for the first time how she really has control over her head now and also how plump she is getting.  Anyway... to the stats!  Big girl weighs in at 14 lbs 7 oz, and is now 60 percentile for weight.  She is 25.5 inches long and 90 percentile for length.  She's also 60 percentile for head circumference if you care.

Clothes size? We're going strong in 3 month size, although some of the 3 month footies are getting to be too short.  My Mom grabbed a 9 month size sleeper out of the closet by accident and it actually FIT her, albeit a bit baggy.  We're probably going to start transitioning to 3-6 and 6 month soon.

Diaper size?  Still in size 1 although this new realization that she weighs 14+ pounds tells me that it's time for us to move up.  That and she's had a couple blow outs lately, which is usually your telltale sign that it's time.

Feeding?  This baby is on the best schedule.  Every 3 hours.  Eat, play, sleep.  Done and done.  4 ounces 6 times a day. 1.5-2 hour naps. We have been given the green light by our doctor to start solid foods! This is crazy to me.  How are we here already?! She also said Abby is beginning TEETHING. WHAT?!  I plan to ease into rice cereal over the next month or two.  I'm not exactly in a rush.  But Abby is still taking an interest in what we are eating so I think she will be ready.

In process of grabbing at my sticker

Sleeping?  Our little trap baby is also a great sleeper.  She goes down every night around 8 and wakes up around 5 (which is when we get up for work.  I know what you are thinking.)  Lately she has been waking up once per night for a feeding.  If this is the dreaded 4 month sleep regression, I'll take it. We also officially transitioned into her bedroom/the crib.  Such a big girl :(  I still have the pack n play set up next to my bed... just in case... :(

Yelling, kicking, etc.

Personality? Very easy going.  Calm and quiet- likes to take in her surroundings.  She loves to watch the animals.  She particularly likes Doc. She thinks her Dad is hysterical.  I can't really get her to laugh too often but she does laugh at him. She did her first belly laugh the other day, but I guess that counts for the 5 month update since this one is late ;)

Milestones? (Update on this section: basically I google "X Month Milestones" and write down all the ones she has accomplished.  This is for me to look back on, perhaps with subsequent babies.  I'm not too concerned about her hitting every single milestone, being late, early, or skipping one altogether.)
Rolled over both ways, but doesn't really care about rolling often
Can hold up head 90 degrees when on stomach, when helped into propped up position *still hates TT
Can hold/let go of an object, can pick it back up depending on what it is and where it fell
Holds head up when sitting
Laughs out loud (sometimes). I haven't figured out how to get her laughing yet.
Makes tons of eye contact, recognizes us, recognizes the bottle, etc.
Voices her displeasure if we do something she doesn't like (put her down, take the bottle away, etc)
Coos/"chatters"/gurgles/M/B consonants

Fun pictures from our Fourth month:

Oh, hey! Didn't see you there.

This is my blue monkey. It's my favorite toy.

Sooooo sick of Mom taking pictures of me.

Up to no good

With my Grandmothers

Being silly in my blanket with my paci and Taggie

Me and Mom

Me and Santa <3 xoxoxox I've been a good girl!!!!!

Abby's Birthmark

Some of you may have noticed a birthmark on Abby's right arm. It's a dark colored mole and it's fairly good sized.  She was born with it; although it was much lighter 17 weeks ago.  It has since gotten darker. I joke that the melanin meant for her eyes all went into this mole, hence the blue eyes still ;)

The doctor is keeping an eye on it, however she has told me over and over again that it's just a birth mark and it will grow with her. Nothing to worry about.

Plus, how cool is it that when someone asks her what time it is she can legitimately look at her wrist and respond, "Half past my freckle!"??

Happy Wednesday,

The Internet isn't Real Life!

Just a friendly reminder that not everything you see on the internet is real.  Those people that seem to have it all together?  They don't.  That Mom (me), who posts cute smiley pictures of her baby all the time? Don't worry. She didn't get that smiley picture on the first try!  Although it totally helps to have a smiley baby who is in a smiley mood....  Here are some outtakes from Sunday's little photo shoot:

Lemme stick my tongue out

You didn't think I'd make this easy did you?

BUT MY HAND TASTES SO GOOD

Seriously Mom?

Thank goodness for the iPhone which can take picture after picture....

Hope you are all getting excited for Christmas!!!!

~SG

Breast Feeding, the Final Chapter

I wrote this such a long time ago and I never hit publish.  But after talking to some friends this weekend who ALSO had a hard time BFing, I decided it was important to share my story because before our various complications, none of us were aware of the different problems new moms face when it comes to nursing.  I think we are all so focused on what the labor and delivery is going to be like that we gloss over the chapter about nursing.  So here's the rest of my story. And remember, no matter how you feed your baby, the bottom line is that you are feeding your baby!! 

Ahh let's see.  Where did I leave off?  I believe I was just getting into some kind of rhythm with pumping and feeding.  Which was working, for a little while.

We finally bit the bullet and got Abby's tongue tie clipped (around 8-9 weeks I believe).  We should have done it immediately when she was born.  Looking back, I regret this and I think our breast feeding relationship could have lasted longer had we done this sooner.  I think it could have also been less traumatic for Abby.  Although, I hardly call 20 minutes of crying "traumatic".  We went to a really good ENT in the area.  He took a look at her mouth, had Joey hold her on his lap, and after trying to catch her wiggly tongue (again- taking a younger baby would have been better), snip snip and it was done.  She cried her eyes out but honestly she cried harder when she got her shots.  She was really just pissed that somebody was holding gauze in her mouth.  Once the bleeding stopped (5-10 mins I'd say) she was passed out in her carseat and we went home.  We expected her to have pain when she woke up.  She didn't even notice.  It healed SUPER quick and she can stick her tongue out so far now!

Once the tongue tie was fixed, breast feeding was no longer painful.  WHY did I wait so long to do this?!  Because it was no longer painful, I started to nurse more and pump less.  And any time you switch up what you are doing, your body gets confused and you can get sick.  Which I did.  I got mastitis, AGAIN.  This time, I had a really bad infection.  I had a very high fever that made me nauseous, chills, severe pain, etc.  I had to call my doctor to get antibiotics in the middle of the night on a weekend.  I was told to keep nursing because the infected milk ducts needed to be cleared.  I tried EVERYTHING to clear them, to no avail.  I went back to exclusive nursing for an entire week. Looking back, I'm really glad I did that because it gave me one last chance to try it.

I went to my doctor for a follow up after a week of antibiotics, exclusive nursing and worrying about a lump that I found.  They sent me to the hospital to a radiologist for an ultrasound on my breast to make sure the lump wasn't anything to be concerned about.  It wasn't, and I have since been back for a follow up just in case. Talk about a terrifying experience, though.

With less than two weeks to go until I went back to work, I made the extremely difficult and emotional decision to stop breast feeding.  I cried A LOT, I went back and forth, I wondered if I was doing the right thing, the wrong thing, if I was wasting a perfectly good supply of milk, etc.  I was planning on gradually stopping but after skipping a couple nursing sessions in a row, I decided I was quitting cold turkey like my doctors had advised.  I'm glad I didn't know that my last nursing session was going to be my last one ever.

Quitting cold turkey with a good supply is the most painful thing I've ever experienced.  I think it hurt less to birth a child than it did in that first 24 hours.  I couldn't sleep.  I couldn't even lay down.  For about 4 days I had really bad pain. After that it just gradually hurt less and less.

I don't really want to think about or talk about my decision to stop that much because it was a really painful thing for me to accept.  I always said I would give it the old college try and I did.  The first time we gave her a bottle with formula mixed in it she was 11 weeks old.  I made Joey give it to her because I just couldn't bear to do it.  Guess what? She totally survived.  When she was 14 weeks, we started on 100% formula.  I was all nervous about it but she didn't even blink when we gave her a "test bottle".  I honestly don't think she cares.  This baby is so ridiculously easy going, which has in turn made my decision SO much easier to swallow.

I had to make this decision for my own health.  Happy mom, happy baby.  And I was not happy.  Breast feeding was consuming me.  It was all I could think about.  I couldn't get through a single day without having some kind of issue or worry.  I am hopeful, though, that I will have the opportunity to breast feed again and that next time I will be better prepared with all that I have learned.

~SG

First Turkey Day!

There are going to be many posts like this.... "Abigail's First ____".

Today's post is about her first Thanksgiving!  While she didn't eat turkey or pumpkin pie, she did get to wear a super cute outfit and I had a little photo shoot where she told our family members and closest friends that she is thankful for them.  Here's a little bit of that:

This turkey onesie was a lot cuter before I washed it and had to iron it afterwards.

 

After Thanksgiving, we did the traditional trip to The Property.  It was Abby's first trip, and our first road trip with Abby AND the dogs.  Luckily everyone survived, even after Chloe got car sick and I threatened to tie her to the roof.  Some usual Property antics ensued, Joey got to go hunting, and the only down side was even though we left on Saturday we got stuck in some return traffic on 95N.

"Hunting the front field"

Fire surfing. The new cool thing.

Bundled up!

We also took the chance to get a few family photos during the holiday. 

It's hard to get a baby to look at a camera... 

"Dad... stop singing."

We topped off the weekend by decorating the house for Christmas.  Abby hung the first ornament. We bought this "Baby's First Christmas" ornament when I was 16 weeks pregnant on our Disney World Vacation. We had just found out that our ornament should be PINK! :)

She looks thrilled.

This week, my Mom is here to play Daycare.  She and Abby are clearly BFF:

I'm excited to get into the holiday spirit.  Even though Abby has no clue what is going on (other than she loves staring at the lights on the Christmas village and the Christmas tree....), it's still exciting to go through the holidays with a baby in the house!  We're going to try to get a picture with Santa, so look forward to hearing about how that goes ;)

I'll be back REALLY soon with her 4 month update too.  I can't even believe that!

Here's a couple more smileys just for good measure.....

Happy Hump Day!

~SG