It’s November already?

I can’t believe how fast time flies by with Annie out here in the world. I can’t believe she is 5 1/2 months old. She is such a little person. We have moved on to eating now. Our little girl loves food! She sees the spoon coming and opens her mouth and leans over to get at it faster. We have also been doing some baby led weaning. Pretty much she gets to try whatever we are eating. She loves chicken and bread and pancakes. Baked potatoes are good… any other way not so much. Green beans were good, carrots not quite as good. We have also done pureed sweet potato, she ate it but not with as much enthusiasm as her cereal. So far she has been willing to try anything put in front of her and I hope that is a good sign and she continues to enjoy food.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Annie had two costumes ( and three other themed outfits – have I mentioned I go a little nuts dressing this kid?) One was a pea pod. Scoopy has called her sweat pea since the day she was born, so it was fitting. The other was a giraffe. This one was a hand me down that I loved. By the end of two days of dressing up Annie was very happy to see halloween come and go.

out at the pumpkin patch

 

unhappy little giraffe who just wants to go home and put on comfy jammies

 

Mommy... can we be done with pictures now?

5 months old today

I cannot believe our little Annie Grace is already 5 months old.  She is developing into such a sweet little person. She loves to watch the cats and talk to Rylee the dog all the time. She has a lovely little excited scream which she will do over and over. My heart melts everytime she wakes up from a nap in my arms and greets me with a big smile like she is saying ” hi… I am so happy to see you here!”

She got her ears pierced on Columbus day. We picked a day when Scoop was off work so I didn’t have to be the bad mommy who held her down. She hated being restrained, but didn’t fuss for the actual piercing itsself, and has been a champ about them ever since.

She loves to stand up ( being held) and stomp her feet on your lap. I call her baby godzilla. She would like to be upright all the time now. She has sat a couple of times unsupported for a short while, but gets frustrated when she falls over.

And there is still nothing sweeter than her little breath on my neck when she snuggles in for cuddles.

Happy 5 month birthday little princess. Your mommies love you.

my "I'm happy to see you" smile

I'm a little moo cow

see my pretty new sparklies?

4 months old… teething is unhappiness

Annie is working on getting teeth. This is not a fun process. I am glad in a way you go through it before you remember it, but it seems unfair to put someone so little through so much when they don’t understand why they hurt , or that it will go away, or that mommy can’t fix everything.

Along with the teeth, Annie developed a double ear infection on Tuesday.  We were at lunch with a friend and her baby ( one of the “grace” babies. Four baby girls, including mine, born in 3 months with the middle name Grace)  Annie started inconsolable crying and pulling at her left ear midway though lunch. After lunch I took her to the pediatrician. By that time Annie was asleep after crying in the car all the way there. When the doc came in to examine her, Annie was all smily and cute and happy. I think the doc thought I was one of those overreacting moms. She told me I would get a prescription, but not to fill it for a couple of days to see if the ear cleared up on its own. Then as she was about to leave the room, the screaming and ear pulling started again. The doc said if she could find her ear and pull on it already at 4 months she was in a lot of pain and to fill the script right away. See… sometimes mommy instinct is right. So now we are experiencing the first round of antibiotics and the lovely poopy side effects of them. Hopefully my little munchkin will be all better soon.

even sick I am still cute!

 

mommy keeps putting big bows on my head. *Sigh*

4 months today

I can’t believe my baby is already 4 months old. Her stats today… 15lb 3oz ( 85th %) 24 1/2 ” ( 50th %) and head was 16 ( 65% I think). I always wonder about the percentiles, cause I don’t think she looks out of proportion. The doctor picked her up to move her from her back to her tummy during the exam and commented how solid she is compared to how she looks. There was another baby in the office with the same birthday who was sooo much smaller in body and bigger in head. Oh well. I think Annie is perfect as she is.

She is getting so much more active now. About a day after I posted about her almost rolling over she successfully flipped herself over.now she is quite the pro at it. This means she will no longer stay on her back. She has always hated it and now she figures she can do something about it. Makes for some more restless nights for mom checking to make sure she is breathing, but I figure we will do that until she is 30.  seriously… when do you stop that. I have to check everytime she gets too quiet, especially in the car. I guess all the news articles about babies dying sleeping in their carseats got to me.

We also did shots today. I think shots are to torture mommy. I can’t stand to have this baby cry. Bad as they were at the time, it was worse when we got home. She went to lay down for her nap and rolled onto her side and hence the spot on her leg where she got the shots. This brought on sudden intense wailing. I felt soooo bad. Lots of extra cuddles for Miss Annie ensued.

In the afternoon we have taken to sitting on the deck after the sun moves off and we have nice shade and a cool breeze. She loves to watch the wind in the trees. We talk about trees and grass and clouds and sky. I will miss those moments when the weather turns too much colder. She is also now really watching the dogs and cats. She will attempt to touch the cats, but not the dogs yet. She likes to sit in her exersaucer because then she is eye to eye with them and with me as I sit on the floor next to her. I want to know who comes up with the music for those things. Very annoying . I think even Annie gets tired of it.

No new pictures today cause I forgot the cable to upload from my camera. I will post more of them soon though.

The state of things

Working nights with Scoop working days is hard. Really hard.  Yesterday I got a total of 4 hours of sleep. This is broken into to two hour intervals 10 hours apart. Tonight at work I am a walking zombie. I would eat your brain but I am jsut too tired to put out the effort. Oh well. In 3 years she’ll start preschool and I can sleep then.

On the plus side… this Sunday is the Irish Feis at our local fairgrounds. There is a piper band competition that we are hoping to catch. Yup we are wierd that way. I am just hoping Annies dress with the shamrocks still fits her. I would love to see the irish dance competition, but it is at 8:45 in the morning and on a Sunday that is waaaayyyy to early for me when I have to go to work at 11pm.

So now I will leave you with pictures of why it is all worth the no sleep zombieness

In my party dress all ready to party!

Yup… I know I am cute!

a new schedule

Scoopy went back to work yesterday and Annie and I settled in for a long first day of it being just us at home during the day. I would love to say it all went smoothly…but it didn’t. Started as soon as Scoop left us in the parking lot. She was happy and cuddly and giggling then BAM screaming and tears. Poor baby.

I am actually suprised that I didn’t know her daytime routine better. Naptime was a mess. I couldn’t get her down, then I couldn’t get her to stay down.

We did have our good times too. She played on her playmat for a good long while in the morning, both on her back and on her tummy. She is not really rolling over yet. While on the floor she is much more interested in movement. She turns in circles and scoots all over the place, but no real rolling. She can get from back almost to tummy, but doesn’t even attempt belly to back. Belly is for scootching. I think at this rate she may crawl before she rolls. We attempted to put her exersaucer together too – but discovered we were missing a piece so that is on hold til the company sends it to us. I can’t wait to play with that with her. It has some pretty cool looking toys on it. We had lots of cuddles and stories and songs, but never did get to go on our walk.

Last evening was chiropractor appointments for all three of us. Annie keeps everyone at the office entertained. She likes being adjusted and is a very good girl for it. It is a huge improvement over the harness the peds office wanted her to be put it. Her hips have been perfect since her adjustments.

Well today will be day two. I only got a total of about 4 hours sleep in the last 2 days so we will see how it goes. I am hoping good long naps for both Annie and I.

Rylee watching me play

comments from the week

Twice this week I was told by people that they believe Annie has an old soul. I think so too. Ever since she was born she has a way of just watching you, taking in everything around her. Sometimes I watch her and think she looks so at peace with where she is in the world.

Of course she does have her wild side too. This week she has learned to “talk” loudly. She has babbled for a long time, but now she figured out how to put some lung power behind it. And that kid has lungs. Scoopy said to her this week that if she ends up on broadway someday we get tickets, and if she ends up at the opry then she has to introduce us to Reba and Martina. Heh… both work in my world.

In my personal world it has been a bit of a hard week. I am not loving my post baby body. I had someone say to be today they thought I looked thinner when I was pregnant. Hm. Guess I need to start working on that. I knew I had problems because I had to go up another size in jeans. Being I have struggled with weight issues most of my life this has been a blow to me. My plan is to throw Annie in the ergo next week after Scoop goes back to work and walk as much as possible.

I am dreading Scoopy going back to work. It has been so nice to not have to worry about being tired and watching the baby. I haven’t really been getting much sleep the last couple of weeks so I am hoping to be sort of conditioned to it.  I am also going to miss having her around. I really do love my wife and spending time with her, it just feels like we don’t get a whole lot of that when we are both working. I guess that it makes me appreciate the time we do have more.

Guess that is enough babbling. I will leave you with pics of the cuteness… ( cause I know that’s what everyone wants anyway)

Hanging in my bumbo

Hmmm… me thinks mommy is into pink. What do you think?

3 months

How did we get here already?

Love those baby blues!

Yayyy! It’s my quarter year birthday!!!!

Annie , Mommy and Kiona. 

Happy 3 month bday baby girl. I love you!

My baby is 12 weeks today!

This is the week a year ago where we lost our first baby and started the attempt that resulted in Annie. I can’t believe how lucky we are. And she was such a good baby today. She was fussing when I got home from work, so I took her to bed with me and we nursed and dozed together as a family until nearly 10 am. I am loving the morning snuggle times when I get home. It gives me something to look forward to while I am dealing with idiot doctors int he middle of the night. Coming home to see Annie and her Mama all cuddled together is the best sight in the world.

We didn’t intend to co-sleep when we started out. It was just easy in the beginning to have her there with us so we didn’t have to get up to check on her and feed her. Now it has turned into habit.  She spends part of her night in her pack and play next to the bed and part of the night in bed with us. We all seem to get more sleep that way.

 She was happy in her carseat and watched rain dripping outside the window in the car while running errands. She let me breastfeed her while walking around in Kohls under her cover with no problems. This was a first for us… walking and eating. She noshed, then feel asleep while I picked out cute clothes for her.

For all the days I worry I am not good enough or worthy enough to be mom to such a special little baby, days like today make it feel right.

A picture of my baby girl this morning hanging in her glider with her bear.

Okay….

So I am not managing to catch up on the blog. So I think I will just do a few photo highlights of the first 10 weeks and then start fresh from there.

So here we go…

Bonding at 2 days old in the hospital.

A kiss from Mama.

In the hospital we learned things were not going to be easy with this little girl. From night one she cried for over two hours straight at night. So from 3 am til 5 we would be up pacing with her in the room. Since we got little sleep we napped however we could during the day

Soon it was going home day and we got loaded into the car seat for the first time.

Slept the whole way home, even during the stop for Mama to run into the grocery store to pick us up something for dinner.

The cats and dogs weren’t too sure of what to make of annie at first, but soon they realized she was just a hairless puppy or kitty and it was all well and good. ( Now Kiona is one of Annies best friends)

Next will be on to life at home.