About the little one, 20 weeks

I would like to start posting more, mostly for historical reference.  Yes, I do see myself forgetting when she did what and when, and hmm wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look back.  So this post is mostly for that.

I oscillate between wanting to talk about her all the time, to wanting to talk/write/think about something (anything) non-baby related.   I think moms now have it a little easier than in the past for this one particular point.  The internet makes it easier to converse with the outside world, even with a minimal amount of time during the day.  Of course it’s not face-to-face, and it does nothing for cabin fever, but it helps.

Right, so back to the baby I adore!

Sleeping

For the last 2 weeks at least, sleep has been more uninterrupted than not.  All of last week she would go to bed around 8:30 or 9 p.m. and then wake up at 4 a.m., almost like she had a mini alarm clock tucked inside her crib.  While 4 is slightly better than 2 or 3 in the way-too-early in the morning, it’s really not by much.  You can’t realistically get up at 4 a.m. (nor would you want to).  So most often she will eat and go back to bed, but sometimes this is a longer process, and it’s really not good for mama and papa’s sleep.  Last night she woke up at 4?, took a pacifier and went back to sleep until around 7.  Seven never felt so good.

We’re working this week on moving her bedtime to 8 p.m. sharp because a.) she’s tired by then and b.) we like having the time to clean up and be just the two of us.

Eating

She’s eating about less often now, maybe 5 times?  a day, and the usual amount is around 165 ml.  Sometimes she leaves 40 ml, sometimes she can do closer to 200 ml.  (We don’t measure by ounces but I think it’s between 5 and 7).   No solid foods yet, maybe in another month. We need to get a good baby food book because there seems to be about 25 different opinions on what/when/how for making and feeding a baby “real” food.  Anyone have suggestions?

Baby A is still spitting up pretty regularly.  It’s less than before but it’s still something we watch out for all the time.  She’s teething now and chewing on everything she gets her hands on.  Drool wears  slightly nicer than spit-up since it’s clear..

Playing

The original physical therapy sessions we have been taking for her one-side preference (from birth) was continued this month for another 10 sessions.  The doctor thinks she looks great and doesn’t have problems there now (yay!) but would like to make sure she gains strength in her arms and stomach muscles evenly and on time.  I’m pretty sure at this point it’s more of a follow-up than a real concern, but I’m happy for the extra attention and care.   She doesn’t cry quite so much now during the exercises we “practice”, so I’m not feeling so much the baby-torturer in training like I did in the first few months!

For about the 3 weeks she’s been turning over from her back to her belly, and she does this almost every time we lay her down.  She’s grown more fond of her tummy time lately, which is a good step towards crawling, but when she gets tired she still cannot roll herself to her back (yet), so she just starts complaining very loudly.

Everyone comments baby A is very alert.  She was born with her eyes wide open and hasn’t changed since.  I also get many passing comments that she’s big or tall, and quite a few surprises when I told people she was 4 months old.  She’s wearing 6-9 month clothes now and even some of the 12 month stuff fits well enough to wear.  This is pretty normal from what I’ve heard, but it makes planning ahead difficult.

Personality wise, she’s a “good” or an easy baby.  She’s rarely grumpy without a cause,  not overly sensitive to stimuli, and will let new people hold her without any crying.  She doesn’t cry when we change her clothes (unless it’s her winter suit which constricts her movement), and she smiles all the time.   Finding ways to make her laugh is more difficult, so if I find something she thinks is funny, I stop and save it for when papa comes home so we can both see her laugh.

We walked to the doctor’s this morning for an 8 a.m. appointment.  She got her third and last vaccinations until she is 1 year-old.  She weighed in at 7.3 kg or 16.09 lbs, and was pretty brave with those needles!

January 11, 2010

Oh where to begin?

I’ve had so many things that I’ve thought about writing about in the past few weeks but geez, it’s not easy to find time.  I have time during the day, but not so many minutes consecutively, the past week anyway.  And I’ve been cleaning and doing extra vacation laundry along with the usual baby routine.

The usual baby routine is a bit misleading to say because well, if something happens for 3 days in a row, it seems like a new routine, but the truth is, things change really fast regarding what she doing, how she reacts, what she is interested in.  Some things stay the same – the usual routine does involve D and I feeding, entertaining, playing, and giggling with her, and alternately, trying to do none of the above when she wakes us up at 2:30 a.m.

We had a great Christmas at home.  It was low key and fun.  Then we went and had a great time with D’s parents in France.  We were in the 15ème arrondissement of Paris, near Gare Montparnasse.  It’s mostly residential there, and we mostly stayed in and visited, and ate, and rested.  We searched around until we found a nice grocery and a good place to buy bread (baguettes!!).  The apartment was awesome – two bedrooms, two baths.. clean, big kitchen..  The only thing I can think of to add would be a bigger tv and a hot tub.

It’s been cold around here, and snowing, and not warming up at all.  Which I’m fairly sure is abnormal for this part of Germany.  I’m fairly sure it’s abnormal because I didn’t see anything like this in the last two years (not much reference I know), but also because they really aren’t cleaning the streets here, or the sidewalks.  I had to push the stroller through 3 inches of smooshy, dirty snow most of the way to baby A’s doctor’s appointment this afternoon.  Yech!  And I forgot my gloves (brilliant!).

Our little sack of potatoes was exactly 7.00 kg today (or 15.4 lbs) and turned 4 months old yesterday – go Baby A!  She also woke up at 3 a.m. last night when I coughed and didn’t go back to sleep for the next 2 hours. Yay-ehh..

I’m throwing this theme-less post up because it’s late and I’m tired.  Pictures next time! Happy 2010!