Rolling Over!

By Friday night, the 26th... we're ALL sick. So we're just laying around and watching new movies. Maia is lying on her back on the ottoman (which she loves to do) and reaching for her toes (which she also loves to do). With her arms toward her toes, she leans to the side, and - quick as a wink! - she's over on her tummy doing push ups! We flip her over onto her back again... and she performs the same feat a few times. I put her on the floor to see if she will repeat this, and she's over it. She just grins at me. So today, we tried it again. It took her a while to get herself going when on a harder, flatter surface... But once she got it, I could hardly get the video up and rolling before she'd roll over.

Maia's First Christmas

Maia came down with a horrible cold during the night, and I was up with her every few hours to suction her out just so she could breathe. We ended up finishing up the wee hours asleep together, tummy to tummy with me sitting up on the love seat with my feet on the ottoman to keep her upright so her nasal passages didn't swell so much. We got up at about 7:30 to open presents. Her adorable Christmas Sweater... which she didn't end up wearing for long. And yes, she's licking the paper here, while showing off her plumber's crack. That's my girl! So here's the great story for this Christmas. Ray was opening this gift: (tell me that's not a perfect onesie for our daughter to have? Notice the KISS font?) Anyway. He had passed Maia back to me, from where she had been sitting on his chest. He looked down at his shirt (then gray) and it was covered by a trail of yellow poo. Oh boy, diaper blow-out! Not only had she gotten daddy's shirt, she got my pants and the back of her sweater too. So we took a break from all the gift opening to change all three of us, and burn through a LOT of wipes! So after we changed, we finally got around to getting this pic. And Ray is on the phone with everyone at Aunt Tara's house. Maia received this beautiful blanket, hand crocheted for her by Aunt Tara After all that unwrapping and pooping and all that other stuf... Maia was plumb tuckered out!

Christmas Eve

I've got LOTS of pics, and a fair amount of updating to do... I'm going to chunk these into days. We are so blessed! Look at all these presents! I think we will change how we do this next year. But in the mean time... she found the wrapping paper fascinating! We spent the afternoon and evening at my parents' house. Andrew made a FANTASTIC prime rib roast and we enjoyed our dinner very much! Maia sat in a high chair for the first time, but she was much too little for it, so we had to boost her up and surround her with towels. She did okay in it for about 20 minutes until she had enough. Maia opened some of her presents on Aunt Kathleen's lap. The paper was tasty! And she was all smiles and giggles while playing with Emily and Lydia

So Stinkin' Cute!

So I set her in her bouncy-buzzy seat. She hasn't spent much time in it in a while, having moved on to some other toys. But she decided she wasn't interested in laying back and playing with the toys. I turned my back, and she was leaning forward and tipping herself out of it!

Cuddling up for a long winter's nap

It's been snowing, snowing and snowing some more. On Friday I backed out of our driveway, and looked at the road conditions and SERIOUSLY contemplated just pulling back into the driveway and calling in. Still not convinced that I shouldn't have. Should have stayed in and done this: Instead, I picked up Maia at 12:45 and we had half a snow day together (which was LOVELY). She's making good progress in her napping... she can now be put down for naps when sleepy but not sleeping and she will settle down for a nap on her own with just her momma bear womb sounds and her monkey. She has done this consistently throughout the weekend. She will also wake up quietly, make a little noise, and wait patiently until I come to get her. If I don't come for a while, she's okay with that too. She's usually reaching for that momma bear. Saturday was better - time for plows and sunshine. So we headed out to the mall to wrap up the Christmas shopping (which we almost did... but ran out of time because of the slowness of the processes). Lydia got lots of grins and giggles out of her. And Maia sat on Santa's lap (and did great). Her big cousin Lydia (who is 6) declined to speak to Santa or have her picture taken. Today - it's another snow day. Another day to stay inside and cuddle!

It's late... So here are some photos and videos!

LAUGHING! Finally!

4 Months Old!

So we met a new doc (Dr. Mike) at the pediatric practice and really liked him.  He was, in fact, my first choice, but unfortunately his practice is full. They wouldn't let me choose him as Maia's PCP.  He also loved Maia... but alas.  It was not meant to be!

 

Anyway... so she's growing well.  That delayed growth spurt seems to have done the trick, so here's where we are now:

Weight: 13 lbs, 12 oz... 55th percentile

Height: 24 3/4"... 70th percentile

Head Circumfrence: 16 3/8... 85th percentile (she's got that big Ashley noggin!)

 

It is my opinion that Maia is doing well with her current feeding regimen, and I am not feeling the need to introduce solids to her quite yet, and was hoping to wait until between 5 and 6 months.  Dr. Mike concurred and cited AAP guidelines to support my intentions, but does want us to start solids before she actually turns 6 months old.  I'm very comfortable with that.

 

Also, he nicely gave me a little statistic to help me feel (1%) better about having Maia in daycare:

Although kids in daycare tend to have 12 illness a year (as opposed to the 6 a year for kids who stay at home), they also tend to have a lower incidence of allergies and asthma, since their immune systems are so busy.

 

Anyway.  That's the update for now.  We do have pics and videos to upload... but we've been rather busy (and when not busy - EXHAUSTED!).  We'll hopefully get them up soon. 

 

 

Christmas Dilemma

Just read this online (actually, it's the idea of the same woman posted below...) How to manage Christmas gifts: Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. I love that!

Sooo cute!!

This very talented mother of seven (!) makes these beautiful things for babies and more. I just had to share! This is a new business venture for her, so I'm trying to spread the word. This is her daughter modeling... How fun are girls!

Developing every day!

Right before I went back to work, Maia started figuring out how to pull out her pacifier... and sometimes she was able to put it back in. Joy! She's been working on her grabbing skills for a few weeks now. This isn't her best work, but you get the idea. She loves to sit up in the bumbo chair at daycare. They say she seems so proud of herself when she does. We are sooo close to laughter. She's getting better at imitating, and her vocal range is growing. Along with the hands, she's getting other gross motor skills going, and she's getting her legs moving in different ways, those muscles she needs to start crawling. Oh, and Go Rangers! by the way... She did this much of the morning while we were decorating the tree (which she watched in fascination). By the time I got it together to get the camera, she was pretty tired out. Hence the whining. But you get the idea. I think we're in trouble... this girl wants to be On The Move!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for so many things this year: A healthy pregnancy; a smooth delivery; our great teamwork; a happy, healthy baby who brings us joy every day; each other (we learned a lot about each other this year!); a home we love; good jobs; a good daycare; our loving families; our supportive friends; all of you; and so So SO much more! We hosted Thanksgiving Dinner this year. It was my intention to take pics of the day, but I didn't manage to pull that off. So it's just our pics of Maia in the morning while we were getting ready. I'll help serve! I know what to do with these! On Thanksgiving Eve, we played a little 75 with Kathleen and Andrew. Maia hung out in her pajamas... And checked out Uncle Andrew's hand...

Getting bundled up...

Now that it's so cold, Maia gets all bundled up in her snuggly car carrier cover before we go to daycare.

Thumb Sucking

Maia has been getting more adept at thumb sucking, and, if necessary multiple fingers.

Play Time

Early Morning Pics

Maia is usually in such a great mood first thing in the morning, we took a couple moments to take a few pics. She's so cuddly in her fleece sleep sack!

Monkey Time

I think most parents find there is a toy or gear item that saves their sanity in that it helps calm their baby like nothing else. For us right now, it is this Fisher Price Waterfall Soother. Put Maia in front of this when she is crying or fussy (those times when all other comfort measures have failed) and she calms right down. We call it "giving her Monkey Time." She LOVES the Monkey! . She also has this Monkey Mirror in the car. She loves to talk to it on our way to daycare.

First week at daycare, and alas! The first cold!

No pics today. The power supply for the laptop died, so I am posting from my Treo. Maia and I each survived my first full week back to work, and Maia's first week at daycare. They said she did great. Pretty much no crying for at least the first few days. They say she's very good natured (which I thought too!) I was fortunate enough to be able to go see and feed her on two lunch breaks. That was really nice for me... helped break up the day into more managable segments of time away from her. She has had to adjust to a lot more activity around her (she is the youngest by several months, all the other babies are mobile). They can't allow the kids to sleep in the swings or bouncers, and she commonly wakes when you move her to her crib. As such, I think she'd sleep a lot later in the morning if we let her. Her first few evenings after daycare left her very sleepy. But we've got a good schedule now that allows me to feed her twice, pump once and get us both ready for the day and out the door in just under two hours in the morning. And I've learned what to ask the daycare staff for in terms of her feeding schedule, so I can do as much of it myself as possible. Now that I spend so little time with her, those feeding times become even sweeter and more precious than they were before. Despite the added benefit of nursing, however, she still managed to contract her first cold. We had to debate sending her to daycare on Friday, she was so stuffy. But, no fever, no yellow or green nasal discharge... So we sent her. And despite not being able to breathe clearly, she has been in a good mood, although with slightly less energy. Oh well. All the more reason to stay at home and cuddle her. Neither Ray nor I even got out of our pajamas yesterday. Of course, we both (especially Ray, who had to work an overnight shift) were pretty sleep deprived. As for Maia's development, she has been continuing to get better at sucking her thumb, and has less need for her paci. She is pushing herself up with her arms while on tummy time. While on her back, she is lifting her legs straight up in the air and rolling to her side. Daycare staff have remarked at how strong she is (which we knew, she was so good at holding her head up from the day she was born), they put her in a Bumbo chair and she did pretty well. When she slumped over, she was able to sit herself back straight up. Good ab workout!

Back To Work

So I headed back to work on Thursday the 6th. My mother took care of Maia on Thursday and Friday. She did well, although where she had usually taken about 3 1/2 ounces when she took a bottle, she started slamming down 5 ounces. I'm thinking that 3 month growth spurt might be headed our way. I, on the other hand, did fine at work (more or less) but could hardly stand it once I got home. I felt like, okay those two days were all well and good... but that's about enough. I'd prefer not to leave her anymore. She is growing quickly, as children do... and she has been successfully sucking her thumb for a couple weeks now. On Wednesday, she actually managed to pull out her paci, and put it back in. I figure it's a fluke, I don't think she realizes she's doing it... but she did it several times that day, and has done it once or twice since. Still no laugh, but her vocal repertoire is growing. There are now delighted squeals and "Heh!" sounds. Here are a couple videos from this evening.

Obvious...

Can you tell I'm trying to make the most of my last days home with Maia? My little Michelin girl... She was a bit too tired to enjoy this first experience with leaves. I took her back in and she fell asleep within minutes. Daddy took this one last night. Maia loves John Mayer! Outside of that... Maia accompanied me to the polls this morning, where I voted in this historical election. We also had two interesting proposals on the ballots here: One for the use of medical marijuana, and the other for embryonic stem cell research. All sorts of things that could change our future!

Photo Shoot

Since I'll be heading back to work soon, I thought I'd get LOTS of pics to tide us all over for a while. Also - since it's an absolutely spring-like day outside(69° in November!), I was excited to be able to dress her in some of her summery clothes that I thought she wouldn't get a chance to wear. Yay! Peek-a-boo! Enjoy!