Age: 32 Weeks

This week I am 32 weeks old.  I've been much too busy to get this picture posted in a timely manner!  I've been moving and shaking like you wouldn't believe.  I can crawl!  Backward and forward and I can reverse into a sitting position.  From there, if I'm close to something sturdy (or not so sturdy) I can even pull myself up!  It's been quite a week with all of this motor learning.  Plus, mom and dad think I might (fingers crossed) be getting a tooth soon.  Either that, or I've just decided to be extra irritable lately.  Who knows!  See you all next week.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

Before I forget the small stuff..the good small stuff, I want to document a little bit.  The big stretch Cece gives when she wakes up and the look on her face when she does so.  The intensity in her brow when she's concentrating on something.  The huge grin she gives when she sees my face.  Sleep smiles.  And so many, many more.

Baby Proof

I read a book called "Free Range Kids" a few months ago and it made all the difference in the world when it came to looking at our house with an objective eye.  There is an entire industry now devoted to protecting our babies, toddlers, and children from bumps and bruises.  We can't bubble wrap them!!  But those in the biz would have you believe that even if you can't bubble wrap your baby, you can bubble wrap every sharp edge in your home.  Well, I won't do it!  Cecelia's going to learn her limits by testing them.  We got a gate for the top of the steps and that's about it.  I've put pillows around the sharp edges of our fireplce and a bath towel around the corners at the base of our tv stand.  We've moved the coffee table out of the center of the room when Cece's moving and shaking.  I've moved all of the items that would normally be under the sink to over and vice versa, so everything at her level can be pulled out and played with, and explored...as it should be.  Likewise, we give Cecelia things to play with that she's going to try and grab anyway.  We hope to set up Cece's environment to encourage learning and healthy exploration.  She won't be unsupervised, but we'll let her fall and pick herself up.  We won't be jumping to prevent her from falling.  Did you know they sell baby knee pads?  Lest your baby's knees get scuffed as they learn to crawl - that's the whole point of knees.  And baby bottoms have extra padding for a reason.  Baby's are meant to be a little wobbly.  Let them live and learn and love it all along.

Forward Motion

Cece is making progress like crazy!  She gets her butt and middle off the floor now and gets on all fours.  She still moves backward more often than forward, but she's starting to get the right idea.  She also pulls up to her knees or standing!  This kid is a phenom!  It seems like she's never quite satisfied.  As soon as she was rolling, she wanted to sit up.  Once she could sit up, she wanted to move.  It never stops.  She is one determined little bugger.  I've recently seen other babies who aren't at the same place developmentally, but who would want to be!?!  Others seem much more content with their current abilities, but Cece always seems so frustrated - I wonder how this will manifest later in life.  It can't be a sign of much that will be good for me...she'll never give up though, and that's a good trait...right?

Age: 31 Weeks

Hi Folks!  Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!  I'm wearing some new (to me) hand me down duds from my friend, Dalana - thanks Dalana and Janina!  I'm really starting to scoot about lately.  I like to scoot on my behind, I like to lunge forward and pull up on things, or people.  I scooch backwards and I can navigate around in this fashion, but I seem to be frustrated that I'm not moving forward.  I'll get myself all wedged under things, like the pack and play, the crib, and the couch.  Don't worry, mom and dad rescue me every time, but they try to let me figure things out as much as possible.  I've also, just yesterday, begun to express any displeasure with food (only potatoes so far) by making raspberries which creates quite the messy spray.  I've also started experimenting with raspberries at other times of day too.  I'm sure my mom will upload a video soon of this phenomenon.  I'll see you all next week!

My Funny Valentine

My husband is awesome!  I want to take the time today to blog about his awesome-ness.  No, he didn't hack into my blog and start posting this...it's really me :).  Jeff is a thoughtful guy.  We make a good team and parenthood has presented its own set of challenges to our juggling act, but I think we make it work quite well.  Jeff is supportive of me in all my decisions as it regards to parenting...and life.  He is good about finding the positive and reminding me to keep things in perspective.  He helps me to tune out others who are critical and focus back on what's really important.  He is a great help at home and we each have our strengths and weaknesses.  Fortunately they complement each other well.  I feel lucky that we found each other at just the right time.  Our paths had crossed many times over the years and only once we were both at a place in our lives where we could move forward together did fate truly bring us together.  I feel lucky as a wife, but also as a mother.  Jeff adores his daughter and I know that she will always know and recognize love.  Happy Valentine's Day!

#2

While we're on the topic of poo (again, if you're not interested in reading about such matters, don't)...those of you asking, who was on the topic of poo?  Read yesterday's post.  And for those of you wondering why does Ellen keep posting about things like poo, while this may not seem all that relevant, for my new mama friends it may be helpful to learn from our experiences in this realm, so hold on to your hat.  And, I do plan to delete any potentially embarrassing to my then teenage daughter and her first boyfriend posts.  Bathtub photos will be nothing to this kid with content like this out there on the internet.  But I digress.  So, one of my all time concerns was adding solid foods to Cece's diet, because with that would come the addition of solid food poo to our repertoire.  For those of you who are unaware, the poo of exclusively breastfed babies smells good and has a lovely consistency.  And those of you who doubt that, believe me that I'm not biased when I say her bf poo smelled like roses.  Well, fresh baked bread to some in this house.  Jeff actually woke up one morning, walked into her room after a particularly potent poo and asked if I had baked bread.  I had not.  We were also fortunate in that by the time Cece was 2 months or so, she started to consolidate her poo-ing.  It is not unusual for a breastfed baby to go quite some time without passing poo because the milk is so nutrient dense that the body is using most of it and creating little "waste", so we didn't have much to clean up before the change over.  Once anything besides breastmilk is introduced to the gut (of the baby) the consistency is compromised, to say the least.  So, when Cece started rice cereal the consistency and smell started to change.  Here's where planning comes in handy.  Elimination Communication is a practice that just made sense to me from the time I first heard of it, but I also had an ulterior motive - poop.  If I could circumvent poop, real poop, real food poop ending up in a diaper by it going directly in the toilet - well voila.  Win win situation if you ask me.  So, even though before solid foods, we were pretty successful at catching pees, but not poos, after solids foods, there is definite straining involved and she seems to be aware of where the poo should go.  I can count on one hand the number of "dirty" diapers we've had.  Wet, yes, but dirty, not so much.  And when there is a dirty diaper, the poo is solid enough (but not too solid, i.e. constipated poo) to knock right off into the toilet before putting the diaper in the bag to be washed.  Therefore, we still have no smelliness lingering as a result of dirty diapers.  Also, when Cece was constipated, with the practice of EC it was easy for me to diagnose the problem.  I think that if she was pooping in diapers, I wouldn't have realized so quickly what was bothering her and why, but with EC, I could tell immediately what was happening and make the necessary changes to help things along.  I never thought I'd think so much about the bodily functions of the human body until I had a baby.  Early on, when Cece started consolidating poos and I was worried until I read more information about it, I found myself starting to tell a single friend all about this phenomenon, caught myself and thought...she doesn't want to know this.  I should keep this to myself.  And now, here it is for all to read...by choice.

Backed Up

Last Thursday, we experienced Cecelia's first problem with plumbing.  So, if you don't want to know about that kind of thing, don't continue to read this post.  She was having trouble passing her poo and was screaming just to make sure I knew that she was NOT. HAPPY.  But as the saying goes when you gotta go, you gotta go, and there's only one way out.  So, we tried to persist, and then I tried to help, and boy was that a bad idea!  I had my first real new mom scare where I was certain we'd need to go to an ER to get this problem addressed.  I called the doctor and waited to hear back, and waited, and waited.  Did I mention the screaming?  Well, actually, in between pushing bouts, she was fine and dandy and happy, but when it hurt...it hurt.  So, we were advised to cut certain things out for the time being and increase others.  We had given her prune/apple infant juice, but I had cut it with water.  The doctor indicated that it should not be cut with water, b/c the sugar is what helps to get things going.  Rice cereal, most babies first food, is probably what bound her up.  We introduced this first, and then when she was up to fruits, I cut it out.  Then I decided she could continue to have the cereal with fruit until it was used up.  Because, if you don't know this about me, I hate to waste things.  Apples, another part of the BRAT (no, I'm not calling my daughter names) diet was something else I decided should be cut out and potatoes.  I tried to introduce potatoes on Wednesday and she was just not into that...mashed potatoes, yum, but I digress.  Now, she barely touched those potatoes, but I couldn't be sure what had caused this.  So, in my drastic mind frame, I cut out all solids, deciding to soften those insides up and then reintroduce things one at a time again, but not really waiting in between to re-accustom her body and give it time to pass whatever was blocking her up.  Breastmilk has a natural laxative effect on the body, so exclusively breastfed babies are never constipated...introduce solid food and it can be a rude awakening indeed.  So, on the other end of things...no pun intended, she is in the clear and things are flowing again as they should.  The next food on her menu would have been bananas but we waited a few days to introduce that because it's the B in the BRAT diet.  Oh, the BRAT diet was something I first heard of watching John and Kate + 8.  B=Bananas, R=Rice, A=Apples, and T=Toast.  These are the foods you should feed a baby/child who is experiencing loose stool, so when the opposite is true, as it was for us, it's a good idea to do the opposite, i.e. cut those foods out, and try others specifically p foods - prunes, pears, peaches, etc.  But not potatoes.  It was also suggested that I drink prune juice since it passes through to baby through the milk.  Yuck...but I did it...for her.  Anyway, back to food.  So, since pears were good and she'd already had those, she drank juice and ate pears for the first two days or so, then we brought carrots back, then a new food: butternut squash (which she loved), apples (as I read that apple juice/sauce was good...differing info, but either way, she'd have to have it again some time) and I got whole wheat oatmeal cereal instead of rice cereal.  This morning she had bananas and it did NOT have a binding effect, so here's to poo!

Age: 30 Weeks

I am 30 weeks old today!  This past weekend, we had our biggest snow storm in the Philadelphia area in quite some time.  And, partly because Aunt Sheila's roommate Jacki thought mom and dad wouldn't do this, they tossed me out in the snow.  Check it out.  Good thing I have that snow suit, huh?

And there's another storm on the way.  It is coming this afternoon and should give us another 12-20" of snow in this area.  Wow - I'll never forget my first winter!  Also, a new friend arrived on Friday night.  I can't wait to go and visit my new buddy, Brian.  He came just in time for all the snow.

Time is Not on My Side

So, I had a hunch yesterday and confirmed it this morning. Elizabeth Pantley lays out a very nice chart with average expectations for children at specific ages. It has how many naps, a total length of day time sleep among those naps, how long for night time sleep and there's another chart with the maximum amounts of time spent awake to avoid a build up of homeostatic pressure leading to a melt down. So, ok - in theory. For 6 months, the number of naps is 2 with 3-4 hours total spent napping in the day time. 10-11 hours of night time sleep and 2-3 hours max awake time at a shot. Buuut, that doesn't work out to 24 hours...let me explain. OK - for example, this morning, Cecelia woke up at 5:30 AM. Which is fine. Sort of. Say, she's awake for 3 hours. 8:30 Nap...til (again, max) 10:30. Awake for another 3 hours. 1:30-3:30. So we've had our 2 naps. Another 3 hours and it's 6:30 leading to our 11 hours of sleep (uh, huh) and we're back to 5:30. Perfect...but that's not the norm. There's a range, so let's go with the lower end of that range. Wake up at 5:30, 2 hours awake - 7:30, 1.5 hour nap, 9:00, 2 hours - 11:00, 1.5 hour nap, 12:30, (2 naps done), 2 hours and that takes us to 2:00! Shall we put her to sleep for the night at 2? Only to wake up at midnight...for the day! So, some days our naps are great and fall into line just fine...and some days are...not.

Ticklish

Yesterday, I spent (the majority of) the day in bed because I was not feeling well. But, I had a very fun companion. We took naps together and toward the end of the day had this tickle-fest interchange. Enjoy!

eTrade Baby Mail

Kid Dictionary: Giggle Today

Game Changer

Cecelia's changed the rules once again.  Before she needed to be curled up, facing out, and bouncing all over the place (in arms) to fall asleep.  Then, she continued to sleep if kept in the same position.  Next up, she would fall asleep, and continue to do so if in her swing.  Next came the car seat love - falling asleep while in the car became a new fave.  Of hers and mine.  Car rides became MUCH more enjoyable than when Cecelia would scream the entire time.   This sleeping deal was an incredible improvement.  Anywho, then Cecelia started to reject the swing, arching her back (even if she was sleeping) when she was being lowered into the swing.  Oh, and prior that that, she changed her position so that she no longer preferred to sleep lying down, cradled in arms, but rather upright and facing into a shoulder she could snuggle.  And, in just these past few days, she's decided she will nap in her crib.  And for periods of time greater than ten minutes.  Sometimes.  Yesterday, she wouldn't fall asleep in the car though, and that was frustrating.  Yesterday wasn't our best day.  But, she's napping now and that's what counts.  Just a clarifying note - all of these nap/sleep thoughts are not for my benefit.  Though, what's for Cece's benefit is for everyone's benefit.  We want her to get optimal sleep for her health and happiness.  And again, her health and happiness is ours too.

Age: 29 Weeks

Hello!  I'm 29 Weeks old today.  I've been eating up a storm lately.  So far, I've eaten rice cereal, carrots, apples, tofu, pears, and...rutabaga.  My first taste of rutabaga was mixed with carrots and I gobbled it up. Mom attributed this to the fact that it was mixed with carrots, but the next night when I had rutabaga all by itself, I loved it just as much.  If not more.  Who knew?  Rutabaga.  I went to visit some friends this week, including my buddy, Ava, who just turned one.  Mom and dad can't wait for my first birthday party (well, they can because that will mean I'm getting bigger, which is both exciting and a little sad...).  Well, that's all for now folks - see you next week!  

American Baby: Advice, Then & Now

American Baby: Advice, Then & Now

What's your favorite bit of advice from this slideshow??