6 month stats

She didn't have her 6 month appointment until she was 6 1/2 months (and yes, the extra two weeks count). But her stats have dropped a bit. Guess she's leveling out.
Weight: 17.6lbs. 67th percentile.
Height: 26 inches. 75th percentile.
Head size: 44cm. 78th percentile.

This appointment was probably the most brutal. She was a mess as soon as she had to lie down on the crinkly paper. It's never been an issue before. Then they subjected her to some vision test where they put probes on her head. She was not a fan, but passed with flying colors. Then she was subjected to the doctors exam, more laying down on the table. It got very loud in that cramped little space. This was all even before the shots!! She got 3 shots this time and was a wreck. It took me much longer to calm her down. Part of it, I think, is that this room had no window, so I didn't have much to distract her with. The past two times she was able to look at cars and such and calmed down within 2 minutes. I took her straight home where she proceeded to just meltdown all night. Nothing could make her happy. Usually when she's on her changing table and mad I try to sing her a song to chill her out. It was beyond that. I just let her scream until I put her to bed. It was bad. She had a fever the next day too. Got up to 101.9! Poor thing. She recovered and was her usual self the next day.

6 months!

I can't believe it's been 6 months already. We're halfway till her 1st birthday. That's just nuts! I haven't blogged since 4 months and SO much has changed. She's rolling over both ways, which is a lifesaver at night. She's able to scoot around 360 degrees on the ground. She's sitting up! She's getting up on all 4's, getting on her knees. It's only a matter of time before she's crawling! She's getting more chatty. Hasn't quite mastered any words, but so far we have "baba". We're not sure who that is. She's also quite grabby; grabbing toys, grabbing my drink, grabbing for Christmas ornaments. She's also in a discovering and smacking phase. She loves to play with our lips, nose and eyes and she smacks just about everything. She finally mastered eating solids. It's a great thing that she prefers veggies over fruit. So far she loves squash, carrots and green beans. Hates bananas...for now.

Sleep continues to be an issue, but is gradually improving everyday. We're working hard core on some sleep training to help our sanity. For Avery's 6 month birthday we took her to see Santa. She did great! She was fascinated by his beard, which was real. She managed to crack a couple smiles for the camera. I was worried because she had just finished a long photo shoot and was so tired and cranky.

She hasn't had her 6 month appointment yet, but I'm guessing she's still in the 75th percentile. She's pretty solid and has grown out of all of her 3 month clothes.

We can't believe it's been 6 months, but we fall more and more in love with her everyday. No matter how frustrated we get, her smile just melts our heart and makes everything better. I can't believe how fast she's growing. However, I am looking forward to the next 6 months :)

4 month stats

I took Avery to the doctor yesterday for her 4 month appointment. The doctor commented how she was the happiest baby she had seen in a long time. That made me feel good. She was chatty and trying to eat the paper that was on the table. She took her shots like a pro! Cried for a couple minutes, but who wouldn't. After getting her Bugs Bunny band aids and a bottle, she was good to go! Slept through the night too! Score!
Here are her stats:
Weight: 15lbs which puts her in the 75th percentile.
Height: 25" which puts her in the 73th percentile. She gets that from her daddy.
Head size: 42.5cm which keeps her in the 85th percentile. This is from mommy, of course.

Overall she is a healthy and happy baby. She has to go get an ultrasound on her hip tomorrow. Her cousin Aly had hip dysplasia and she has "uneven buttfolds" which is sometimes a sign. She doesn't think there is anything wrong but wants to get an ultrasound just to double check.

All she wants to do is stand, stand!

My daughter is in a hurry to grow up. Only 4 months old and she already wants to be defiant. Doesn’t she know she’s supposed to be little for a lot longer? She’s not content sitting or lying, she wants to stand…all the time. While this makes her tired and helps her sleep at night, I don’t mind it that much. Girl has got some strong legs! Also, she’s always grunting trying to pull herself up. How dare she try to sit up by herself! . I aid her at times, let her sit in my lap or sometimes will put her on the glider while I put away laundry. She’ll hold herself up pretty well, but it’s amusing and sad at the same time to see her slowly lean over and then face plant into whatever is next to her. Most of the time she’s not phased by this. Most of the time. She gets frustrated that she’s not bigger, not able to do it right. The girl could care less about eating food though!!

Over the past couple weeks I’ve been trying to introduce rice cereal. Trying being the optimal word. The first time I tried I was all excited. I read and re-read the directions on the back of the box. Bought her little bowls and little plastic covered spoons to help. Got her a bib. Mixed it up so it was nice and sludgy for her liking. I set her in her bumbo, got the bib all situated. I appointed Jason as the cameraman for this “monumental first”! I give her the first bite, and…she’s staring at her feet. Then I see a bit of rice cereal dribble out of her mouth onto her bib. Hmm, maybe I didn’t get it far enough in her mouth. I scoop off her face and give her another bite. Stares at her feet, food falls out again. I blow in her face to wake her up a little bit. That does the trick, although the food still falls out. Appears she’s lacking the tongue control to actually keep it in. Sad! I cleaned it up and decided I would give it a week.

A week later, same thing. We’re waiting another week. In the meantime I’ve been trying to make more meals at home and sit her in her Bumbo on the table so she can see us eating with utensils.

This past month I feel like she’s been doing a ton of growing. Not in the way the lady at the pool says, “She’s really getting…” then proceeds to motion blowing out her cheeks like a balloon. NICE! While I think she’s around the 14lb mark, she looks proportional and is getting increasingly adorable.

She’s a roller. She’s mastered the art of going belly to back and back to belly. Just not at the same time. She started belly to back, which I got the very first one on video. Yay mommy! Then randomly one day she did back to belly. She’s so proud of herself that she can do back to belly that she doesn’t remember how to return to her back. One day I had to flip her around about 8 times because she’d roll to her tummy then get mad because the girl does not like her tummy time! She likes to practice in the night too. I think daddy has had to rescue her from her belly at 4am a few times.

She’s becoming more of a personality. She has her certain routines. Her daycare calls her “a very predictable baby”, which I assume is a compliment. Usually her night routine is bottle, bath, bottle. She’ll eat about 4oz, take her bath, then polish another 4oz and then go to sleep. Last night after her bath I go to give her the next 4 oz and she started fussing. Ok, sometimes she’s particular about where she takes her bottle. So I put her in her crib and started to give her the bottle. Fussy. Ok, I gave her the plug. She takes it then rolls to her side and goes to sleep. “Thanks mom, bye!” she said. I stood there for a minute, waited for her to move or roll back and say “just kidding!” but no! I said to myself, “Fine then!” and left. Of course she wakes up at 10 to get the rest of that bottle and then some.

She’s sleeping a bit more. We had a great week last week. She slept until 6:30 for a majority of the days. Jason had been doing the night shifts so there were a few times where he was all worried and would check on her at 4am. This week he hasn’t had to get up to check on her because she’s been waking up at 4 and will only go back down when fed. Growth spurt again? I hope so. Sleeping through the night was a glorious thing we can’t wait to get back to.

She laughs. There’s been only a handful of instances, but she has been belly laughing. It almost made me cry when I heard it the first time. I was playing w/ her and blowing raspberries on her feet and she let out the biggest squeal followed by a belly laugh. I was so happy, and my cameraman was close by with his iPhone to document it all. I’ve since pulled out all the tricks in the book to get that belly laugh back. I’ve only heard it one other time.

She likes singing. Zippity-do-dah: It’s her favorite song right now. I started singing it because she has zippers in her jammies and sleep sack, so I would sing it as I was zipping it. That was the second time I heard the belly laugh. SO FRIGGIN’ CUTE!! But she can be mad as can be, and I start singing that song, and she gets a big ol’ smile on her face and coo’s a whole bunch. Maybe it’s because she knows her mom will go to many lengths to get her to smile and laugh.

She likes hair. Maybe she’s just jealous because hers is all cool and spikey right now. Maybe she’s jealous of mom’s fro and really wants one some day. Sorry kid, you might not have a choice in the matter. But man, that girl has a kung-fu grip! On the nape of my neck, everyday that girl has the master grip that the Jaws of Life can’t break free! Owie! Go easy on mommy!

She loves clothes. She must because she’s wearing several outfits a day. Maybe I need to start drooling or yacking on my clothes so I can expand my wardrobe. “Hunny, I don’t have enough clothes to keep up with my yack demand, I must shop!” Heck, that’s my excuse with her because I’m sick of doing laundry every two days. That girl is WELL stocked! Everytime I lay something on her to see if it’ll fit, she grabs it and puts it in her mouth.

Which leads me to…

She’s teething. Can’t wait to see the pearly whites. Jason is hoping that the bottom few, which usually come in first, will act as a trough for her drool and keep it in her mouth a bit more. One could hope. She tries to put everything in her mouth: burp cloths, toys, her fingers, heck…her whole fist, my hair, etc. We’ve had to put a pause on the super flying baby because of the endless amount of times we’ve been slimed.

She likes TV. Occasionally when I come home I’ll turn on the news and put her on her playmate in front of the TV. I have her facing me though so I can keep a good eye on her. With all her scooting and rolling about, she manages to turn herself around a full 180 degrees and will just lie there and watch TV. Maybe I need to stick her in front of some “My Baby Can Read” so my laziness will be her genius.

She likes to cook. Now, if she actually could…that skill would come in handy! Until then, she is limited to watching mom skillfully attempt to make a marvelous, or quick microwave meal, one handed because she insists on watching all of the action. I might try Baby Bjorning her, but I’m worried about her little hands getting stuck in something hot. I think she’d be mesmerized though that it might not be a problem .

She likes to pull on her parents heart-strings. Her 4 month appointment is on Monday the 11th. Jason and I were talking about it last night and I said how I was sad because she has to get more shots. We both started getting misty eyed thinking about it! I asked him, “Do you want to come to the doctor with me and see our child get stabbed?!” He didn’t appreciate the analogy. I HATE shots. SO sad. She did pretty well with them last time, only cried for about a minute. Hopefully she’ll fair as well.

She’s growing. Stay tuned for stats next week! I’m thinking that head size is off
the charts now! 

3 months

I'm a bit delayed in getting the 3 month blog out, but we've been kind of busy. In getting back from Oregon, we enjoyed our last week together before I had to go to work. We kept it busy by going to Farmer's Market, play dates and an attempt at the beach. We also met Jason for a mid-day lunch and a couple last shopping trips. I also enjoyed having Avery in bed with me in the mornings because I knew that would also be coming to an end. Labor Day we had dinner at my sister's, which we had realized we had only been there one time over the summer. Quite sad when we used to go over there weekly. Aly and Jake got a kick out of seeing "baby Avery".

On Labor Day night I put Avery to bed. I was rocking her and feeding her and started bawling. Why? I was going to work the next day. I mean, it was like streaming down my face bawling. I really didn't want to go back to work but it wasn't really an option for us. It was so sweet because while Avery was eating and I was crying, she grabbed onto my finger and held tight like saying, "It's ok Mommy". It made me feel a bit better. I know she would be in good hands.

I started work. Waking up at 5:30 is not ideal. I don't get to really see her in the morning unless she wakes up. I like to go peek on her and see her smile in her sleep. It's so cute. The first week I was blessed in that I only had to work 4 hours. With the change of schedule, I was gone before lunchtime! It was so weird! Now this week I'm on my normal 7-3:30 schedule.

Entrusting others to watch your child full-time has been interesting to deal with. The first couple of days they would report that she did great and tell me about their daily activities. Then on Thursday/Friday they'd make comments like, "She's doing SO much better!" I'd think to myself...was she doing bad?! They never really said so. They also made a comment about her being big for her age which kind of bugged me. Oh well. I'm also hoping that by her being in daycare that she might get on a more consistent nap schedule. So far she's only sleeping between 30-50 minutes at a time. Hopefully they'll get a bit longer once she settles into being comfortable there. I still don't like that I can't be with her most of the time. I really missed her today :(.

As far as stats, I won't have them until 4-months. I'm thinking she's about 13lbs now. She's grown out of her 0-3 month clothes and fits in 3M clothes...some she is still swimming in though. She's happily cooing away, talking to us all of the time, she's taking close to 6oz bottles, she's becoming more interactive. She just rolled over from tummy to back on 9/10. I was very excited to get it on video :). She's very strong! She can hold her head up without any problems. She often stands on my lap and can support her weight pretty well. I also think she's teething a bit. She often gets fussy w/ her pacifier, spits it out, but wants it back to be soothed. It's a sad cycle to go through. Hopefully she can find some comfort.

Things to look forward to:
- rolling over back to tummy
- visit from Papa Richard
- riding in the new jogger stroller
- 4 month appointment!

Oregon

This past weekend we went up to Yachats, Oregon for a family reunion on Jason's side of the family. None of the family had met Avery yet so we were all looking forward to it. We purposely chose a flight that left at 6am because it was one of very few that had a direct flight into Portland. Avery looked as us weird when we woke her up at 4am to leave. She was happily compliant and took her bottle as we took off. She slept for most of the trip, which was convenient since it was her naptime anyway. We then braved the 3 hour drive to Yachats. I felt bad that we had her in the car for so long. Again, she slept most of the way and was a trooper. We tried to take breaks for food, stretching her legs and cooling her down before getting back on the road.

When we got to Yachats, it seemed like she was the star of the weekend. There was no shortage in arms that wanted to hold her. She got to meet her grandma and great grandparents for the first time.



She also got to experience her first rain and visit to the aquarium.



On Sunday Jason wanted me to go kayaking with him. I suited up in a wetsuit and braved the chilly water. We set out in the river and paddled towards the ocean. Once out there, Jason was like, "Did you see we caught that wave?". Seriously? I missed it? I saw waves that were a bit further out and suggested that we go out and around and try to get one of those waves so I could actually tell that we caught a wave. He goes along w/ my idea and I find the wave I'd like to catch. Problem is...a kayak doesn't turn around as fast as a boogeyboard. Needless to say, the wave hit us sideways and pitched me out into the chilly water. Brr. I managed to climb back in but then we noticed that Jason's Uncle Mark had also overturned his boat, losing his glasses and his hat. In order to look for them, he didn't pay attention to the fact that his boat washed away. We paddled to go get the boat. By then my hands were so numb that they hurt and I couldn't bend them. I was hoping that I hadn't banged and hurt them because they hurt so bad. Jason's other uncle waded out to us, let me switch boats into the one person boat, he took the 2-person and Jason helped drag me to shore. My hands hurt so bad that I couldn't even paddle. Once we got to shore, I walked the rest of the way back (which I couldn't feel my feet either...probably a good thing) and Jason paddled the rest of the way back to our cabin. We went straight into the hot shower to thaw myself off. It actually took several days for my fingers to feel normal again.

The return trip wasn't as lovely as the trip there. Avery was up way past her bedtime and was way overstimulated by the lights and noise of the airplane. It took her a while to settle down. Once she was asleep we layed her on the seat between us (Alaska let us have the whole row!). She stayed asleep for about 45 minutes then was up and crying again. I felt so bad for the people around us because I didn't want to be one of "those" parents. Luckily we were surrounded by a bunch of older adoring ladies who just looked at us and smiled. When I mouthed "so sorry!" to them, they were like..."she's so cute! no worries!". Luckily she fell back asleep and I didn't dare let go of her after that.

All in all it was a great trip. The family loved her and she loved being around them too!

Brain fart

Every so often, I'll be driving or in the shower etc, and something brilliant pops into my head. Doesn't happen very often...but something I think "That would be cool to write in my blog". I get down to write and it's like I flatline. I think of witty, thought provoking things to say...then I get a chance to write it..."what was I thinking of again"? I have no idea. I think this is the symptom of being a new mom that will stay much longer than the pounds I gained. If so, I'm not a fan. I used to be an intelligent person with things to say!! Now I'm like, "huh"? It's embarassing trying to struggle in finding words that used to be everyday words. I'm not a fan. I'm a bit worried about it since I'm returning to work on Tuesday and it requires me to put thought and action when making decisions. Hopefully it's something that will come back over time.

That's another subject...going back to work. I'm NOT looking forward to it for many reasons. I've been home for 4 months, and let me say...I could get used to this. While I don't want to be a full-time SAHM, I was hoping to find something part-time. I like the fact that Avery will be able to socialize around other babies and people...but I love being around her everyday. I love seeing her cute face in the morning as it is the smileiest part of her day. Jason will be taking her to daycare in the morning so I will miss that. I will also miss pulling her into bed with me in the morning and sleeping a few more hours. I'll miss our afternoon walks, going to the park, meeting up with friends and taking naps in the afternoon together. Granted, I know I can do some of these things on the weekend, but it's just not the same. For those that work with me...be nice to me next week as I'll probably be a wreck!