Rice, Rice, Baby

playing with a spoon

Kate had her first experience with rice cereal this weekend. It was 1 Tbs of cereal mixed with 2 oz of milk; a little more than recommended but it was what I had ready, and I didn't want to waste any milk. It was basically the consistency of milk, it didn't seem thickened at all, but since it was her first time it needed to be pretty liquidy.

two spoons are better than one

A lot of the milk/cereal ended up on her pajamas, and it took 15+ minutes, but Kate seemed to enjoy eating from the spoon. At first she wasn't too sure, but by the end she was opening her mouth for the spoon and acting like I couldn't feed her fast enough (which was probably true, do you know how hard it is to move a spoon of milk through the flailing arms of an infant?).

Overall it was a success. Happy baby = happy mommy.

4 Months

My four month maternity leave is coming to an end. I love that I had all summer with my baby girl, and really don't know how other moms do it- going back to work 6 weeks (or sooner!) after having a baby. It's going to be hard, but thankfully she loves my mom and does really well there during the day. I'll also be closer to her at my new school so I'll have more time in the morning and afternoon with her.

Our big girl is now 15 lbs 3 oz. We'll be starting cereal soon and have already had her 'joining' us at dinner in her high chair with a spoon to play with. She's now 25 1/4 inches long- too long for 3 month one-pieces/sleepers, though she's not quite chubby enough for 6 months.

Highlights:
 She has rolled over a couple times from her tummy, and a few more from her back. She is also is holding her head up/ pushing her self up when she is on her tummy. She'll scoot around, too, so I'm sure she'll be crawling before we know it.
When she babbles, she likes to say 'ah-goo ah-goo' and I respond by singing "I am the Walrus" by the Beatles (goo goo ca choo). She has also taken to shrieking. Whether she is excited, playing with her toys, or just babbling she gets an ascending, really high pitched 'ahh'. It's cute, for now.

You may have noticed I didn't post a 3 months post, I'm only posting for the months we have Dr's appointments so I can update stats and milestones. But I am taking a picture every month- I'm keeping her monthly photos on Flickr.

Beach Baby

I love that I have the summers off. I love going to the beach. What I love even more is that my parents have a condo at the beach. I have taken Kate down a few times already and look forward to many more trips. She is OK at the beach, on the sand and near the water.

 What is really fun, though, is swimming in the pool. She loves it.

Learning How to be a Better Teacher

Even though I have completed my Master's degree, and was recently re-certified with my Advanced Professional Certificate, I am still taking classes. Well one class anyway.

A few of my old teammates and I all signed up for this class together so we could better keep in touch over the summer and beginning of the school year. Since all 4 of us will be teaching at different schools this year, that was my primary reason for singing up.

I am currently in the middle of "Studying Skillful Teaching' which is helping me re-examine my teaching practices, planning, and beliefs. I had heard it was a horrendous class ans was super hard, but I am actually enjoying it. Our instructor is great, and that truly makes the difference of 'participating because I have to' and 'wanting to go, learn, and participate'.


Also, this was my test run for leaving Kate with my mom while I went to work. I dropped her off around 7 and was on my way by 7:30.  It was hard leaving her the first day and I thought she was in the car with me (but was so quiet she must have fallen asleep) on the second day. She also drank all the milk I left for her and needed the emergency formula on the second day. Overall she was happy, ate and napped well, and I actually liked getting out of the house and doing something work related for a few hours. I'm still going to enjoy my summer with Kate, but maybe going back to work won't be so bad after all.

beach baby

Father's Day

I didn't know what I would be getting Adam for his first father's day. For mother's day I got flowers and a pint of ice cream (a few days early- the flowers died before mother's day and there was something wrong with the ice cream- like it melted then re-froze before I even peeled off the plastic liner under the lid). So I knew Adam wasn't going to expect anything really big or expensive. I was going to make a shutterfly book since i had a free promo code- but I don't have enough pictures to make it worth it- maybe next year)
I finally decided on something that had been floating around pinterest for a while.

A Salt-Dough keepsake of Kate's foot.

*not Kate's foot*

I had heard of salt dough ornaments before, but never tried to make any. The recipe is from here, though I needed to add more water.

I wanted to make an impression of her hand, but being 2 months old Kate's hand is basically in a permanent fist. So I went with her foot. Which was much harder to do than I thought. Push too hard- squished blobby toes that look like she is swollen (or has hobbit feet). Push lightly- no clear impression.
When I finally got it right, I put it into the toaster oven. I found out my toaster oven will only cook for 2hrs at a time, so I needed to go back and add another hour to the baking time.

 I painted the inside and added her name and the year. Adam declared it 'cute' and can take it into work.

We spent the day at my parents' and Kate did pretty well with her naps. My only request was to have a picture taken of us all together.

 Happy Father's Day!

2 Months

Really? Another month has gone by?

My big girl is now12 lbs 3 oz and 23 1/4 " long.

Highlight of the month: more cooing and babbling. It's so cute to watch her 'talk' to me, my family, and her toys. She's also almost rolling over. She's gotten as far as one arm and both legs over, but her other arm got stuck. Adam gives her 2-3 more weeks before she is fully rolling over.

We've also just started a sort of sleep training. I couldn't take her 20 minute naps and wanting to eat every 2 hrs. So I've been watching for her sleepy cues- which are usually about an hour-1.5 hours after she wakes up. I guess I didn't realize how much babies sleep. So far we have been able to get her to nap for an hour (on average) and she's eating every 2-3 hours.  She's not sleeping through the night consistently yet, but she has stretched out her nighttime feedings (and dropped one) so I only have to get up once in the middle of the night/early morning.

I can't believe that if I had her at a different point in the school year I would already be back to work. She's still so little, how would I leave her all day? I'm really lucky that she came at the perfect time of  the year.


Oh baby girl, you're getting so big.

Snugli Kate

Sometimes I just want to be able to clean the kitchen or swiffer the floor but Kate doesn't want to be put down. This is where baby wearing comes in. I got the Moby wrap after it was recommended by almost everyone. The problem, though, is that Kate doesn't really like it. When She's awake she wants to look around. That means she moves her head from the 'correct' spot and puts it right in the center of my chest.

Because the Moby is made of a stretchy jersey type fabric I didn't feel safe wearing her that way. And when I tried another position Kate stretched her legs out, not staying in the fetal position, making carrying her that way even worse.

Then I remembered my sister gave me her Snugli carrier. A little harder to get Kate in and out of, but she was able to look around and I didn't feel like she was going to fall out. I even was able to carry her grocery shopping (a quick 15 minute trip in Trader Joe's) and she did so well.

I know there's been some controversy over this type of carrier (like the Baby Bjorn) for causing hip problems. I've looked into it and have found conflicting information. Some sources say the carries will cause hip dysplasia, others say it's perfectly fine and won't harm baby's hips, and still more say wearing it for short periods of time are fine, but longer than 20 minutes can harm baby. So I will just stick to wearing her this way around the house or for quick errands by myself (If I'm with someone else I keep her in the stroller).


I guess I could opt to buy a 'better' carrier (like the Ergo) that hold the baby in a sitting position, but at over $100 I'm not so sure. Who knows, maybe Kate will like the Moby when she's a little bigger?

Well I Never!

I'm linking up for (my first) Toddle Along Tuesday with Growing Up Geeky. This week's topic: Things you thought you'd never do.






Having a degree in Early Childhood Education means I learned a lot about babies from birth - 8 years. Of course, all of this knowledge is clinical information, research based best practices for development. Having this 'knowledge' kind of skewed my perception of raising an baby. I don't think I've said there were things I'd never do, but there are things I 'should' or 'shouldn't' do that I've had to use my own parental judgement on.

Babies should sleep on their backs. Ok, I know this. The Pediatrician tells me this. It is even printed on her sleepsack 'back is best'. I do put Kate to sleep on her back, but I also put her to sleep on her stomach. She looks so comfortable scrunched up in her little ball and if I try to put her on her back she will likely wake up. But, I do know the risks so I only let her sleep on her tummy during the day when I'm awake and close enough to hear her.

Pacifiers can cause problems with baby's teeth. I didn't want to use a pacifier so I didn't register for any. But after seeing my nephew suffer from reflux and be soothed by a paci, I knew how helpful it could be. So I decided that if Kate needed one, I would use it. My sister got us the gumdrop pacifiers after Kate was born. I'll tell you, after 3 hours of Kate attached to my boobs, knowing she is just tired and wants to comfort nurse to fall asleep, the paci is very helpful.

Babies should sleep in their own bed/room. I never really understood co-sleeping. I always thought it was best for babies to get used to their own room from day 1. Kate has been sleeping in her pack-n-play in her room since we brought her home. And since she sleeps pretty well at night it's easy to get up and go to her when she's hungry. But since I had a c-section, I was pretty much confined to our bed for the first weeks home. Kate stayed in the bed with me for most of the day. I was so nice to be able to nurse lying down and to just have her next to me as she napped. I now totally understand why many people co-sleep.

Kate, asleep in my bed, with the paci

So I guess those were some things I thought I wouldn't do with my child but in the past 5 weeks I have been learning what works for Kate, and that is the important thing.

One Month

Seriously, where did the past month go? I feel like I just brought her home a few days ago.

Highlight of the month (aside from actually having her): She smiled at me. I swear it wasn't gas. I put her in the swing, she looked at me, I said "Hi, pretty girl" and she smiled at me and cooed. And she did it again! It's amazing how in just a month she went from hardly opening her eyes to finally making eye contact and finally reciprocating a smile. She is finally communicating in a way other than crying or sucking on her fist (when she's hungry).

Stats: Kate was 8lbs 2oz and 21" at birth. Now she is a whopping 10lbs.

I'm going to take her growing pictures in the glider with the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I also want to go the YHL route and take monthly pics on fun fabric. Hopefully after a year I will be able to turn the different fabric into a blanket for her.

I know I'm biased because I'm her mother, but Kate is one seriously cute baby. I can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Grover and Kate

I was nervous about how Grover would react to a new baby in the house. A couple weeks before she was born he decided to start pooping and peeing on the carpet and in his play tunnel in the basement. We didn't know if something freaked him out in the laundry room (where is litter box is) or if he could tell something was about to change. Thankfully after moving his litter out of the laundry room he hasn't had anymore incidences.

But we still wondered how this cat, who thinks he owns the house, would handle another small creature.

He thinks he owns the house, and obviously the play space was to be his too

After delivering Kate, Adam took her hat home to let Grover sniff it and get used to the smell. Then when we brought her home, we left her in the carseat in the middle of the room and let Grover come up to her and sniff her.

For the first couple days he wanted nothing to do with her. He didn't act meanly or anything, he just avoided her. He spent most of the time sleeping on our bed, and I tried to keep Kate out of our bedroom so he wouldn't feel intimidated.

Within a couple more days Grover has 'loosened up' a bit. If I have Kate in bed, he has no problem sleeping at my feet or walking by her to look out the window.

I'm so happy he hasn't freaked out and think the slow transition and introduction helped him adjust well.

How did you introduce your pets to a new baby (or a new pet)?

How does this happen?

I have been blessed with a child who sleeps (on average) for 3-4 hours at a time. This makes night feedings tolerable.
I woke up today before 8, Kate wasn't up yet, so I decided to peek in on her.

This is her  typical sleep position (yup with her arms up above her head and everything):

This is what I saw:

There she was, squished in a ball in a completely different spot then I remember putting her in.
She will usually kick out of her blanket, or scoot a couple inches toward the center of the pack n play, but this is the first time she completely changed positions.

How does a 2 weeks old squirm so much that she moves across her bed?

41 Weeks

Exactly 1 week past my due date we welcomed Kate into our lives.

It was a shock when the doctor told me it was a girl- we were all expecting it to be a boy. Even my mom was saying 'Come on, Alec' as I was in labor. But now that she's here I wouldn't trade her for anything.

So at 2am Monday morning I woke up with contractions and we were on our way to the hospital an hour later. I labored all day and ended up delivering by cesarean at 11pm.

She has made the transition from the hospital to home, sleeping in her room for hours and eating well. Family have been stopping by all week, I think my mom has seen us every day, and we have already been to the pediatrician. Now that the weather is warming up again, I can't wait to get cleared to take her out for walks and get out of the house more. But for now I'm enjoying my time at home.

So was your prediction right? Did you think we were having a girl?