4 month pictures

As promised, here are the pictures I should have posted in the last blog.

This was from our walk at the Davis Arboretum

We had to wait until she was fed and happy to take them

She's still a little out of it

If I let her, this is what she would do all day.  Nothing beats mommy-fingers!

Up close

In her moby wrap, getting ready to finish our walk

This is how we check the mail everyday.  She loves her shades.

Just hanging out

Thank you, thank you very much

4 months old!

Lots of smiles

With Daddy on Father's Day

Big laughs for Daddy

Daddy love

This is Gabby and her BFF Phoebe at our friends' house.  Phoebe is actually 5 weeks younger than Gabby.  My baby is tiny!

You can tell whose mom is off to the side here!

Birthday girls:  Phoebe's sister Charlotte (3) and the homeowner Samantha (2)

She loves her new bouncer

But not as much as she loves her Daddy

 I'm hoping to get some video of her rolling over soon--she can now do belly to back as well as back to belly!  Until next time!

4 months or 19 weeks

Sorry for the lack of update--I've been teaching 2 University of Phoenix classes for the very first time, and I swear it's more than twice the work of teaching just 1!  I've enjoyed being busy, but with all the grading and posting on top of keeping up with an increasingly awake 4 month old, I don't have a ton of time to update the blog!

That being said, Gabby had her 4 month appointment on Monday, and she's officially gained 1.5 lbs since starting formula supplementation!  I knew she'd gained about that much, since I'd continued weighing her on the scale at home, but it was really nice to have official confirmation.  She still only in the 3rd percentile, but it's way better than not even being on the chart!  She was also 24.5 inches long (somewhere between 10th and 25th percentile), and her head was 39.5 cm (under 5th percentile).  She actually eats quite a lot of formula--basically 2 oz in her 2nd and 3rd feedings, 3 oz in her 4th feeding, and back to 2 oz in her last feeding (but only because I give her the other 2 in expressed milk).  The doctor said we can start her on solids pretty much any time we want, kicking it off with rice cereal and the stage 1 baby food.  We're probably going to wait another couple of weeks to let her settle into the formula a bit more, but we do plan on starting when she's around 5 months old.  The doctor says that'll help with her weight gain too.  He wants her in the 25th percentile by her 6 month appointment, and we've got a ways to go to get there!

Gabby handled her shots like a pro.  She cried a tiny little bit, but stopped quickly.  She was very tired and clingy the next day, but by Wednesday, she was back to her old happy self.  I was actually really happy with her being so tired--she slept 13 hours Monday night into Tuesday (I felt like a whole new person!), and then took two 2.5 hour naps on Tuesday!  She also didn't need to eat on Tuesday night (although she needed a paci at 3:00 am and again at 5:30, so I didn't get to sleep through the night like I did on Monday).  However, I was back to being up with her last night for about an hour when she ate and then stayed awake for much longer after getting done.  She has been sleeping for long periods, and not getting up nearly as often since we started formula.  The flip side of that is that she's been quite a bit gassier.  When she was just nursing, I could get away with not burping her at all and it would just work itself out.  Now with the formula, if we don't burp her, she doesn't sleep!  Brian found that out the hard way one night--he started trying to get her down for the night at 8:00, and she wouldn't go to sleep until 9:30 after having one huge poo.  Poor guy, but I was just glad it was one poopy diaper I didn't have to change!

I promise to post pictures as soon as I get them off of the camera!

Supplementing

So it turns out I was right to be worried about Gabby's weight!  I was weighing her pretty regularly after her bath, and realized that after a week and a half of weighing, she wasn't gaining any weight.  Brian and I looked up her weight and age on the growth curve, and she was not even on the chart (like well below 5th percentile).  I called the doctor today, and he had me bring her in for a weigh-in at their office.  She officially weighed in at 10 lbs even, which is well below the 11.5 lbs she should be to stay on her growth curve (the 10th percentile).  So now we're supplementing 2 oz of formula after each feeding. 

I do have mixed feelings about this.  Breastfeeding was such a bonding experience, and it was really cool to be the sole provider of food for Gabby.  I still get to breastfeed, but now after that is done, she'll get her formula.  I've done this for 2 feedings now today, and it's wicked obvious that she really needs those extra calories.  She sucks that bottle right on down!  Honestly, I could probably give her more, and she would eat that as well, but we want to make sure she's still getting some breast milk.  The doctor thinks she was getting enough volume, but not enough fat.  So basically she had enough calories to develop mentally, but not enough to put some meat on her bones.  I'm switching to whole milk (yeah, that's going to take some getting used to!) to see if that helps some, but frankly, it probably won't.  I'm going to keep up with the breastfeeding as long as I can with the supplementation, and it's going to be another challenge adjusting to the new feeding.  I've tried feeding her the formula an hour after she eats, but that means I'm basically feeding her once an hour, and it makes it really hard to go anywhere with her at all (although the bottle will make it so much easier to be mobile).  So I'm going to try feeding directly after the boob, hoping that she still has room in her belly for the formula.  It's going to be a challenge, but Gabby and I are up for it!

So keep us in your thoughts, as we try to pack on 0.5 lbs before her 4 month appointment in 2 weeks!

16 weeks

Time is flying again!  We're 3 and a half months in, and doing fine!  My Mothers Day present from Brian was a video camera, so expect to see more videos of the cute things I observe her doing every day.

I have to say that is the best thing about being home with her all the time--I get to see her milestones myself (give me this one, working moms--it's so hard to find positives when you really want to work but can't freaking get hired anywhere!).  This week she definitely discovered her feet.  She's not grabbing them quite yet, but she was using them to kick at her toys on her activity mat.

I did warn you about the videos--this one was actually done with my regular camera, since I couldn't find the video camera in time.

She also spends a lot of time now studying her feet when she's sitting on my lap, and I know it's just a matter of time before they find their way into her mouth.  Speaking of mouths, she still hasn't quite figured out how to get her toys to her mouth consistently.  She gets it every once in a while, but then doesn't really repeat the action.  She is able to get both hands to her mouth, and whenever she gets a hold of my hand, it goes straight there as well.  She's so close to figuring it out with her toys.  I thought for sure she was going to be a lefty, since at first that was the only hand that grabbed things and that she sucked on, but now she spends equal time with each, and maybe even more with righty.  I guess it really is too early to tell!

One of her other cute new games it to play in front of the mirrored closet door in our bedroom.  This started when I would put her on her tummy in front of the mirror when I needed to get things done upstairs.  She quickly discovered that there was a baby who lived in the mirror, and that baby was pretty cool.  Then she noticed that baby's mommy who looks suspiciously like her mommy.  And occasionally, when she's really lucky, there's a black kitty who comes through that looks very much like Zoe.  And occasionally Zoe gets a bit too friendly!

And here's one where Zoe isn't washing her head (I did warn you about the videos, remember!):

One slightly less positive thing is that I am a bit worried about her weight gain.  I post regularly to a Facebook group, and one post recently was a poll on how much your baby weighed.  Gabby was easily in the bottom 3 of over 100 babies, and many of the babies who weighed more were younger than she is.  I bought a baby/toddler scale from Amazon and have been weighing her every couple of days.  She's holding steady at 10 lbs, give or take a couple of oz (that seems to depend on diapers and if she's just eaten).  Everyone says she looks really healthy, and is very proportionate (not super long and skinny, but rather short and skinny).  Plus, she's certainly eating enough and making the requisite number of diapers as a response.  She's a very happy baby, and extremely alert when awake, so I probably shouldn't be so worried, but I am a mom and that's apparently my job now!  She doesn't have her 4 month appointment until June 18, so I guess I just get to worry until then!  I'm pretty sure the pediatrician is going to say she's OK, but still suggest starting rice cereal then to get her weight up a bit.  That's fine with me--I'll do whatever I need to do to make sure she's healthy!

One other annoying, although somewhat cute, thing she does is fight her naps tooth and nail.  She seems to get tired around an hour and a half after she wakes up from her previous nap, but she really fights going down again hard.  We have a routine in which I swaddle her with one arm out, then put a paci in and bounce her for a few minutes until her eyes are closing and then lay her down in her Pack N Play.

Like so

Usually, once she's lying down she'll stay down for at least 1 sleep cycle, but she really fights to stay awake while I'm bouncing her.  She usually starts crying when I put her in the swaddle, and she really won't stop until she falls asleep.  She really reminds me of my sister (hi Amy!)--Amy would always fight hard to stay awake too, and we figured it was because she didn't want to miss anything.  If we get out of the swaddle routine, I really have trouble with her.  For instance, we met my friend Susan and her son Jackson at a park for lunch and a concert the other day, and Gabby just would not go to sleep.  She was obviously very tired (and it was well past her naptime), but she fought so hard to stay up, because we were outside and there were so many things to see!  She eventually crashed while eating, and I was able to put her down for 30 minutes or so.

Proof

She gave me a pretty long nap after we got home, but she was really tired from missing the first one, and fought to go down for that one!  It's cute when I think about it, or talk about it with someone else, but really not so cute while it's happening!

On the job front, nothing new at all.  I have a UOP class going right now, and another starting June 5 and July 24.  I'm really grateful for them--it helps to be able to interact with grown-ups for a couple of hours a day!  I am also thankful for the Facebook group--they are a great group of women, and really understanding about my freakouts.  I actually posted there that I was worried about Gabby's weight, and everyone who responded was really encouraging.  I'm so lucky to have them!!  It's also been great to have my friend Stephanie on maternity leave for these past few months, and Susan being home a lot as well.  Additionally, one of the moms from the Facebook group lives in Sacramento, and I've been able to meet up with her as well.  This is the only way I'm staying sane right now.

We're actually doing a penpal exchange with the Facebook group.  I haven't gotten a very good picture of the first gift (an adorable yellow outfit with a huge bee on the butt), but we got a second gift today:

Why yes, that IS a Star Wars burp cloth, wipes box and a tiny Darth Vader toy

I love these ladies!  In addition, the mom in Sacramento, Elisabeth, made Gabby this bib:

Don't mind the tired eyes--it was naptime

She's also wearing it in the above photo.  It's so cute!

And to end, yet another video of my favoritest baby in the world, and the cool new sounds she makes.  It was shot in the kitchen, so please excuse the sound of the fan from the stove in the background.

3 months

So this is a bit late, since she's actually now 3 months and 1.5 weeks, but the Gabster has made it to 3 months!  That's a personal best for Brian and me!

3 months old on a plane!

Warning:  this is a block of text.  The pictures are at the end of the blog, and if you want to there, I won't blame you!

She's picked up some new skills in the past month.  She has definitely discovered her hands, and can entertain herself for 15 minutes just studying them, turning them over and clutching and unclutching them.  She loves to grab onto her knees and other objects and looking at how her hands appear when they're holding onto things.  She now regularly grabs onto her Wubbanub (a stuffed animal attached to her pacifier) and tosses it around (which makes her mad, since she rips it out of her mouth to toss it!).  She's so close to grabbing onto other objects, but still doesn't quite have the skills to grab at what she aims for.  She swings her hands towards objects, but mostly she ends up grabbing my hands.  She is starting to be more interested in toys (even if she can't grab them), and will study them while I hold them in front of her.  She still loves the TV, and has now carried that love to the remote control.  She spends a good amount of time studying the buttons and trying to grab it.  She's so funny when she's really intent on something--she really wants to get her mouth on it, but hasn't figured out that she can use her hands to get it there, so she just opens her mouth really wide and hopes I put the toy in.  It's like watching a baby bird!  She's certainly very good at getting her hands into her mouth, and when she starts grabbing objects, I'm sure they'll follow.

She's also a drooling machine now, and we just keep a bib on her at all times so we can at least keep her onesie from getting soaked.  I keep looking at her gums to make sure she's not cutting a tooth, especially since our friend's little girl cut her first one at 2 months!  So far no teeth!  I can see where they're going to come in though, which is scary enough for now!

I've also finally gotten her on a schedule.  For the first 2 months, I was basically letting her run the show.  Then I found a blog online (Bloggin' About Babies) that gave some loose guidelines for nap times.  It basically says that children Gabby's age can really only stay awake for 1.5 hours at a stretch before needing a nap.  I started to pay more attention to her crankiness, and realized that Gabby was following that pattern almost exactly.  Anywhere from 1 hour 20 min and 1.5 hours, she would start fussing a lot, and nothing I did would get her to calm down.  So now, when she starts fussing, I swaddle her, put in a paci, and rock and bounce her for a few minutes before putting her in her Pack N Play for a nap.  She's so much happier now, and so am I!  It's easier to plan my day when I know about when she's going to go down for a nap.  So just for my future reference when I'm reading this when she graduates high school (hi me!) here's her schedule:

7:00ish wake up, eats and plays
8:30ish back down for a half an hour nap.  Sometimes this happens in the stroller while mommy walks
9:00ish up again, eats and plays
10:30ish morning nap, this time 45 minutes-1.5 hours
1:00ish up again, eats and plays
2:30ish afternoon nap, again 45 minutes-1.5 hours
3:30ish up again, eats and plays
4:30ish sometimes does down for another nap.  She may not if she's slept a lot on the first stretches.
6:30ish witching hour.  Poor Brian; he only gets happy Gabby on the weekends.
7:30ish bedtime
*Note:  This only works when we're at home.  If we're staying somewhere else, it all breaks down!

This will all get adjusted as she gets older and stays up for longer periods of time (and hopefully drops those first and last naps).  I also will say that I have to keep an eye on her at the 40-50 minute mark of her nap.  If I don't put her paci back in around that time, she wakes up for good.  Basically, that's about the length of her sleep cycle, and she's still having some problems transitioning from one cycle to another during the day.  At night, she's all good.

Speaking of nights, she's starting to sleep in some fairly long stretches.  Her first stretch is usually 6-7 hours, and then she gives me either another 6 hour stretch, or two 3 hour stretches.  This weekend, we were in San Francisco overnight for the wedding of 2 of our dear friends (congrats, Robbie and Judy!), and she slept from 9:30-7:30, and only got up then because I thought my boobs were going to explode so I woke her up!  Her Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Joe were watching her while we were at the wedding, and fed her at 7:00 (like I do) and then again at 9:30 (because she woke up hungry), and she stayed asleep all night after that second feeding.  This was what I was trying to accomplish with the "dream feeds" I tried a few weeks ago, but it never really worked out.  Now that she's older, I think I'll try those again!  Brian wondered if maybe she doesn't get enough at the 7:00 feeding (she does usually zonk out on the boob, and my supply is lower at night than in the morning), and the top off fills her up enough to keep her asleep.  I fed her last night before I went to bed at 9:45 (it was a late night Saturday!), and had to get up at 3:30 to give her a paci, but she didn't want to be fed until 5:30.  I really hope this keeps up!

OK, so now the fun part of the post.  We spent the time over Mothers Day weekend visiting my family in St Louis, and we had such a good time!  Gabby was actually pretty good on the 4 (!) planes.  She got cranky around when she was supposed to be sleeping, but we were able to keep her pretty quiet otherwise.  I think the other people on the plane really appreciated how quiet she is--some poor 20-something guy sat next to us on 1 leg, and after we landed he said that she was a really good baby and how lucky we were.  Her crankiest leg we fortunately had a great grandmother next to us who was very understanding.  Frontier was a great airline--the flight attendants were very nice, we got family boarding, and there were changing tables in the bathrooms.  Overall, it was a much better experience flying with her than we thought it would be.

And now for pictures from our trip:

There's a buffalo ranch near my parents' house, and we took a tour while there.  Here are Gabby and I in the mule.  She slept through the entire tour!

The owner actually took us in the pasture with the buffalo.  Fortunately, they didn't seem too bothered by us.  And yes, that's a cow on the left.  She apparently wandered in one day and never left.

The llamas that apparently will kick coyotes if they come in.  Basically, a living security system.

We also got to visit with my college friends Stephanie and Lisa.  Here's Stephanie with Gabby.

This is Lia, Lisa's daughter, who is 17 months.  She's the spitting image of her daddy, Derek.

Stephanie, Lia, Lisa, Gabby and me.

Grandpa Pechenino and Gabby enjoying a moment.

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Stoehr.  I left out the ones with the dog in them.

4 generations of Dempsey/Stoehr/Pechenino/Romo women!

Second cousins!  Matt and Gabby.

With Great Grandma Pechenino

4 generations on the Pechenino side too (plus Josie).

And without Josie.

We had a great time talking all day.

Gabby heading for a nap on Grandma Pechenino.

"I'm shocked!"

Laughing at Mommy's tongue.

Saying hi to Daddy.

I still have no news on the teaching job front, but have started my University of Phoenix class again, so at least I have something to do!  I've also apparently cleared another hurdle with them, and I am starting 1 class before another one is done.  That'll definitely be a new challenge, but I'm looking forward to it! 

So congratulations to our newly weds Robbie and Judy, thanks to Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Joe for flying up, and to Grandma and Grandpa Romo for watching cousins Audrey and Olivia this weekend so we could have fun at the wedding.  The wedding was beautiful, and we love the bride and groom :)

And tomorrow is our second wedding anniversary :)

Rolling over

I managed to get a video of Gabby rolling over today, and thought I'd just share it now rather than wait for my next blog post:

I watch this and can't believe how big she is getting, and how much more she can do now!  And I know it'll only get more unbelievable as time goes on!

11 weeks

As I promised in my last post (and you can see above), I bought her a better-fitting hat, and she looks so cute in it!  She doesn't seem to mind wearing a hat, and actually likes that it keeps the sun out of her eyes when we're outside.  I also bought her some sunglasses, but they are a wee bit too big still.

My baby is way cooler than I am.

I've noticed over the past 2 weeks a really big increase in her motor skills.  First and foremost (and what is affecting us the most right now) is the fact that she is rolling from her back to her stomach in her crib while swaddled.  I noticed on Monday morning this past week that she was on her stomach when she woke up in the morning.  The same thing happened on Tuesday morning.

I put her on her back, and she was like this when I came in to check on her.

The rule for babies, of course, is that they sleep on their backs for as long as possible.  Well, Gabby has decided that 10.5 weeks was long enough!  Those nights, by the way, she slept from 10:00-7:00 straight through.  It was amazing.  But I walked in on Tuesday to this:

Nobody puts baby in a corner; she gets there all by herself!

We tried for a couple more nights to just put her on her back, but she would flip in the 5 minutes between putting her down and checking on her.  We finally just gave up and put her on her stomach to sleep.  I really blame the naptimes--she'll only sleep off of me if she's on her belly in the Pack N Play.  I figured naps are no big deal, since she sleeps in the family room with me (and the TV blaring to get her used to noise during the day) and I keep a pretty close eye on her.  We didn't really want her on her belly so soon at night, but she's definitely got a mind of her own!

All of this would be no big deal--she sleeps on her belly, so what?--however, the second part of the baby-on-her-back rule is that once they start flipping over, you really can't swaddle them anymore, due to the fact that they need to have their arms free to push themselves up in case they get into trouble.  This is a huge problem, since swaddling is what keeps her arms out of her face and allows her to stay asleep longer.  It's not that her arms wake her up, but more once she is awake (which happens at the end of her sleep cycles as it does for everyone) her arms are so distracting that she can't go back to sleep.  We tried to swaddle her with her arms out, and that lasted all of an hour.  We've moved to swaddling her very loosely, allowing her to have her arms if she wants them.  This works as long as she is calm at night and doesn't manage to get her arms out (she'll give me from 8:00-2:00, then wake up at 6:00 and finally be up for the day at 9:00), but if she gets her hands by her face (like last night) she's up at midnight, 3:30, 6:00, and for the day at 7:30. I really don't know what to do--I don't want her to suffocate, but this lack of sleep is killing me!  I can't ask Brian to help during the week, since he has to get up and work all day, but I'm so wasted during the day that I'm completely useless (and very short-tempered)!  Napping during the day is impossible, since she only sleeps for half hour stretches at a time once I get her off my chest.  I know eventually she'll get more control over her arms and they'll stop being such huge distractions, but I'm not positive I'll survive the sleep deprivation until that happens!

On the more positive growth/development side, Gabby's really starting to interact with her world.  She's moving her arms in more purposeful ways, and tries to grab onto things (and completely misses, but she's trying)!  She did manage to grab onto her paci earlier today, but it may have been a fluke.  She loves to sit and stand, and when she's in her carseat or bouncer, tries to sit herself up straighter.  She has definitely discovered her hands, feet and legs, and studies them very intently, as well as my hands and clothes.  Nursing is a bit of a challenge sometimes, since she gets distracted by the way her hands look against my clothes and skin.  I often remind her to focus and eat!  She also never needs help holding her head upright, but I do have to keep 2 hands on her while carrying her because she's started to launch herself to one side or the other to get a better look at things.  Makes carrying anything in addition to her a challenge.  She's also finally showing interest in her mobile on the swing, and spent a ton of time a few days ago in the swing just staring at it and talking to the animals.

The zebra is her favorite, but the others will due when it's out of sight

She's also talking quite a bit more now, making a wide variety of noises at different volumes.  When she's on Daddy's lap at night (and when he's changing her to go to bed) she just talks and talks to him.  She doesn't talk as much to me, but if I sing to her, she'll make a lot of noise to accompany me.  Or maybe she's trying to drown me out!  It's also getting harder to entertain her.  She seems to get bored very easily, and I'm hard-pressed to come up with things to keep her busy during the day.  She's been a bit more independent as far as entertaining herself, which basically means she'll sit in a bouncer or lie on her playmat for 10 whole minutes before insisting I pick her up.  According to the book I bought on the recommendation of my friend (The Wonder Weeks), she's going to be entering a new mental development stage soon, which means she'll be back to irritability.  There's a chance that the sleeping problems she's having now are related to this spurt.  It also may explain the every 2 hour nursing we have going on during the day again.

As far as how I'm doing, not so hot.  I received a group e-mail from Solano Community College which said that the Fall 2012 schedule was online.  I went to see what class I'd been assigned, and I wasn't on there!  That's right, instead of telling me directly that I didn't have a class, I had to learn via the class schedule.  I e-mailed the dean, and she told me that while they really like me, they just couldn't get me a class.  She said I'd be amongst the first scheduled if extra classes come around.  In spring.  OK, I thought, that's a set back, but I still have ARC.  I even e-mailed them with my new e-mail address since my ARC one was deactivated.  Initially, there was an organic chemistry lab available that would have been perfect--Tues/Thurs from 2-5.  Labs are great, since there's virtually no prep work, and minimal grading.  However, a week after dangling this class in front of me, I got an e-mail saying that a full time faculty had decided to take the class!  I was afraid this would happen--I'd take a semester off of teaching, the colleges would find a replacement, and I wouldn't be asked back to teach.  It's not like the unions can be helpful here either--they are very anti-adjunct.  There is an off chance that I could get a call from another college to teach a class, but the odds of that become less likely as time goes on.  I'm actually really depressed about this--I am not cut out to be a stay at home mom, and I was really hoping to have a definite end point of the "maternity" leave I'm on.  I know I should just be grateful that we are able financially to let me stay home, and enjoy getting to see all of the milestones of Gabby's development in person rather than hearing about them from a daycare provider, but it's hard to see that when I have absolutely no adult interaction besides Brian.  I do have my University of Phoenix class, but an online class is very much different from interacting with students in person.  I have signed up for my local mom's club, but my natural shyness is preventing me from going to any of the events.  It's just really hard for me to overcome my nature and put myself out there!

On a more positive note, the tempranillo wine we're making is coming along quite well.  I took it off the oak this past weekend while Brian's parents were here to watch Gabby, and it's tasting young, but much better than before the oak.  I am pretty excited to see how it's going to turn out.

To end, here are some more pictures of my sweet little girl:

Blowing some bubbles at her bouncer

Modeling her new hat with Daddy

I hope the next post isn't so much of a downer, and that I have more pictures!  Until then, goodbye!