5 months... really? (Composed on 8/22. Posted on 9/3)

How could it be any better than it was a month ago? But it is. Life with Charlotte is amazing. She's more wonderful every day as she develops into her own little person. And here we are, five months after the miraculous night she was born.

Her accomplishments this month-

Last night, on 8/21/2010, her left big toe finally made it into her mouth. She pulled it in with great focus and intensity, then seemed surprised to find it between her lips.

She maintains a seated position for about 5 seconds before toppling in an apparently random direction.

She rolls at will in any direction, at any time, but hasn't yet realized it as a means of locomotion.

We tried rice cereal, then I thought better of it and stopped feeding it to her. We'll revisit "solid" foods a week or two before her 6-month pedi appointment so I won't be lying to the Doc when I say she eats. Frighteningly, that's less than 5 weeks away.

She talks and sings and laughs most of the time. When she's feeling grouchy, she grunts and screws her face into a scowl. She looks and sounds so serious that it's hard not to laugh.

We made our daycare decision and she starts "school" on 8/31. We've been lucky to have a college-aged niece babysit two days each week since I returned to work in May, but she goes back to school next week. I'll devote another post to the daycare issue and my employment situation.

Charlotte wears anything with a '6' in the size... 3-6mos, 6mos, 6-9mos, 6-12mos. So, I guess, according to clothing manufacturers she's the size of a 6-month-old. She feels so big in my arms, but looks so small when someone else holds her.

Breastfeeding is still going well. In addition to meeting her needs, I put about 50 ounces in the freezer each week. We bought a chest freezer in June because my milk was taking over our kitchen freezer, and it'll store longer in a deep-freeze. I haven't worked out a real plan yet for how or when we'll wean, but it's something we need to do before we can launch Project Sibling. First, I should take an inventory since I really have no idea how much milk is in there. Charlotte consistently eats five times a day, and take 5-8 ounces by bottle when with a sitter, so she needs maybe 30-35oz per day?

Some photos... with her caterpillar, which she just about matches in length.

Sleeping. This isn't her usual pose, but it was too cute not to document.

Sitting, like a big girl (added well after the post was composed. She now sits for about a minute, if she feels like it).

Every day is new

She seems to discover something new, and master something she just started doing a moment ago, every day.

She rolled over for the first time (that I witnessed) on Tuesday, July 13th. By the 19th, she'd figured out how to get both arms out from under her chest when she landed on her belly. By the 22nd, she was a rolling-over pro... front-to-back, back-to-front, any direction. Now she's figured out how to scoot all over the place with a combination of rolling over and drawing her knees up under herself to lunge forward. Crawling is definitely on the horizon. We're fast-tracking the plan to replace carpet with wood floors in the living room so she won't get rug burns (and I just don't believe carpets are ever really clean).

Cereal went from get-this-wierd-stuff-outta-my-mouth (7/31) to more-faster-more in just 6 days. She loves to grab the spoon and put it in her mouth herself. In fact, she ate so much cereal today that she went nearly six hours between daytime feedings and I had to wake her up to keep her on-track for a normal bedtime.

She's developed her own eating and sleeping routine, which suspiciously resembles the one I read about in some parenting book. During the day, she eats every 4 hours and takes two long naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. She still gets up to feed once or twice each night (usually once). I'd rather nurse than pump in the middle of the night, so that's perfect. She slept through the night after getting her 4-month vaccinations and my chest was sore for three days. Engorgement ain't fun.

She sings back to me when I sing to her before naps and bedtime. I've tweaked the lyrics to several songs. Has anyone else noticed how scary "Rock-a-Bye Baby" is?

She loves to read, even books with very few pictures. When she's fussy, the sitting and listening seems to calm her.

She's completely into 6-month and 6-9 months clothes now, which means she's outgrown almost all of the gift-clothes we received at the shower and right after she was born. I get to shop for her now, so we're seeing a lot more colors in her closet. It was painfully pink for a while.

At 4 months plus one day, she weighed in at 13 pounds 4 ounces and measured 25 inches tall. That's 6 inches and nearly 6 pounds' growth in 4 months. Totally normal, and totally incredible. When she sits in my lap, I can hardly believe she was once so much smaller. She's consistently around the 40th percentile for weight and 75th for height, but she's definitely not without cute baby fat rolls.

She's been facing forward in the Bjorn for about 3 weeks now, except when she's sleepy and wants to doze with her face nestled into my chest.

Her toes will find their way into her mouth any minute now.

And now some photos...

4 months!!

I won't even say it... FOUR MONTHS! Wow.



I've been a mom for one third of a year already, and I've loved every minute of it, except the ones I spend at work, away from my baby. My winning lottery ticket hasn't magically appeared in my pocket yet, so I'm working 2 1/2 days each week, and fleshing out the rest of my paycheck by working from home and exhausting my vacation time. I think I've worked it just right so that when my niece/#1 babysitter goes back to college, my vacation time will run out and I'll be forced to make some big changes. No, that wasn' completely intentional. I don't want to go back to working full time, and I'm not sure we can afford to reduce my hours (and paycheck), but I'm in denial and will worry about that another day.



Because today, Charlotte is FOUR MONTHS OLD!

365 days ago...

... I was recovering from ER and unable to sleep, faced with the decision to freeze-all as strongly recommended by my RE and several other professionals out of concern for severe OHSS, or go ahead with a 3-day transfer. The result of that decision is sleeping peacefully in her crib right now, 102 days old. I wouldn't change a thing.

I'm beginning to consider doing it again. Could lightning strike twice?

three months, plus a little

Wow. I can't say it enough, but I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing it... time is FLYING by. Charlotte turned three months old 9 days ago. She continues to grow and learn at an incredible pace. Here are a few of her major accomplishments this month...

** She slept through the night exactly twice; the nights before and immediately after my brother's wedding. She hasn't come close to repeating that feat since then.

** Most nights, she wakes just once between 8pm and 6am. She nurses for 10-15 minutes and immediately goes back to sleep. I usually go downstairs and pump the other side for 10 minutes before going back to bed myself, but all-told, that means I'm up for only about 30 minutes each night.

** She loves to be read to and her favorite book now is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Sometimes, she asks me to read it to her 2 or 3 times in a row by fussing when I close the book and reach toward the shelf to put it away. I, of course, oblige.

** All of a sudden, in just the last week or so (so technically in her fourth month), she's been making prolonged eye contact with me. Then she smiles and "talks." I love it and can't get enough. She'd made eye contact before, but now it lasts and lasts.

** We heard her first belly laugh on 5/31, and while she has giggled a lot since then, we haven't gotten another belly laugh yet.

** Charlotte has learned to spin. I put her down for a nap or at bedtime with her head to the right, where she can look in a mirror or stare at her stuffed caterpillar while falling asleep. She rolls onto her side, then back, then side, then back,... and manages to spin 180-degrees so that she wakes up head to the left. I ask why she's sleeping upside-down and she just laughs at me.

** She's no longer mesmerized by her sailboat mobile, but clouds visible through the skylight are fascinating.

** We've dropped the swaddle. I'd tried to stop swaddling before, but she would flail as she fell asleep and startle herself awake. Sometimes, both her arms would suddenly fly up as if she were falling backwards and she'd awaken in a panic. So, we'd swaddle her, but she'd wriggle and squirm until one fist worked its way up just enough to reach her mouth. Then she'd cry because her arm was stuck, and probably pretty uncomfortable. Swaddled, she'd fall asleep. Unswaddled, she'd stay asleep (but how to get her to sleep?). Finally, it just got too hot to wrap her up. The last nighttime swaddle was 6/18 (the first time she slept through the night; we had hotel a/c). Her last nap-time swaddle was a week or so before that.

** She's been sleeping in her big-girl crib for at least a month now. Even before she learned to spin, she rolled back and forth a lot, rocking the whole bassinet and bumping into the side walls. The darned thing squeaked, and would wake her up.

** She's achingly close to rolling over from back to front. She hates tummy time, so we're a little behind on the front-to-back progress. I suspect she'll catch up when she starts rolling onto her tummy by herself.

** Charlotte knows her hands and can reach for and touch things intentionally, as opposed to haphazardly bumping into things while flailing her arms. She hasn't developed any dexterity yet, so grasping with her fingers is still kind of random, but she definitely puts her hands where she wants them.

** She started off the month eating about every two hours, between 1.5 and 2.5 ounces per feeding when given by bottle (I asked the babysitter to keep track). She now eats every 2.75 hours or so in the morning, every 3-3.5 hours in the afternoon and consistently downs 4 ounces at each meal. Once I buy bigger bottles, I'll try 4.5 or 5 ounces and see how she does, but for now she seems sated with the 4 ounce meals. At the breast, a full meal usually consists of 12-15 minutes on one side and then 5 minutes on the other. I have no idea how much milk that translates into. I could make an appointment with the lactation consultant to have Charlotte weighed before and after a feeding to determine how much she consumes, but since she's happy and growing, I see no need for it. How's that for zen parenting?

** We went to the beach last week, and survived. Neither of us got a sunburn, and my pop-up tent only collapsed while I was sitting under it, never on Charlotte alone. I'll have to get that fixed before this weekend... the Third is the big holiday in our house and we traditionally spend the day at the beach, then grill at a friend's cottage and return to the beach for bonfires and fireworks (amateur ones) after dark. It's loads of fun, and I want Charlotte to grow up with fond memories of her July Thirds spent with our dearest friends and their kids... who will be Charlotte's oldest friends one day, too.

** Charlotte has outgrown her witching hour, which used to run from 5:30 until she fell asleep around 8 or 9 or 10. It coincided too well with C's return from work each night, and he was almost taking it personally. Now, she gets fussy at bedtime and resists going down for the night, but usually falls asleep with 4 minutes of being placed in her crib.

I probably have more 3rd month updates, but I have to get some work done. So, I leave you with some endearing photos...

With her caterpillar "yardstick"-

Too big for the bassinet-

"Talking" to her caterpillar before faling asleep-And last but not least, her new sunglasses for the beach-

a few firsts before the 3-month mark

We had another momentous weekend. It seems that Charlotte likes to combine her firsts with other big events, like family weddings. She started skipping one of her two nighttime feedings over the weekend of a cousin's wedding at the end of May. This past weekend, she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT just before my brother's wedding. And by STTN, I mean ALL night. I put her down at 8:00 and had to wake her at 6:45 so we could all get ready for the wedding. Maybe the bath after her 6:15 meal did the trick. Or maybe it was the 7:45 "snack" that I gave her. Either way, I was ill-prepared and kept waking to check to make sure she hadn't somehow scooted off the bed or smothered in a pillow (strategically placed far from her, but where it could hopefully keep her from falling off the bed).

Then she did it again the following night... down for the night at 8:00, and awake (smiling) at 5:15. We're an early-morning household, so 5:15 is a perfectly acceptable wake-up time.

As happy as sleeping all night makes me, we got an even more joyous first on Saturday evening. LAUGHTER! Not just coo's and aah's with a big grin. No, this was a true belly laugh. No repeat performance yet, but you can bet I'll try to catch it on film the next time I have the chance. It's the most beautiful sound I have ever heard, and we're calling it her Father's Day present to C.

All this just days before reaching the ripe old age of three months. It's as if someone told her she should be able to do these things by the time she starts her 4th month, so she decided to tackle them just in time.

almost 11 weeks- where did the time go?

Charlotte attended her first wedding (just part of the reception, after dinner) last weekend and got to stay in a five star hotel. She seemed to enjoy the hotel and was an absolute angel, charming the socks off everyone and tossing smiles around like Mardi Gras beads.

She has almost settled into having just one nighttime feeding, which is heavenly when it happens. Some nights, though, she falls back on her every-three-hours routine leaving me foggy-headed for a day or two from complete lack of sleep. She's decided to eat every two hours during the day to make up for it.

Last night was one of those 3-hour feeding schedules, and I find myself unable to string any additional thoughts together into a coherent post. Will you settle for another dose of cuteness?

Here she is at 1 month with her caterpillar (she likes to stare at it's smiling face while she falls asleep)- Neglectful Mommy forgot to snap a similar photo at 2 months.

And here's a smile...