Weekly Update

Sorry for the late post!

Sweet baby L turned 5 months old this week. I can't belive how fast it's going.

This week was interesting. Sweet baby L, who has never been a really fussy baby, spent Thursday and Friday in my arms, refusing to sleep and crying all morning. I really just couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong, except that she's been teething on and off for what seems like years. This was followed by a weekend of eating six ounce bottles every three to four hours and some really good sleeping, so I really think that we're smack in the middle of a growth spurt. It was some good real in-the-trenches parenting experience. I think I called Brad in tears a couple of times just for a little solidarity. It seems like one of those rite of passage things for a new mom. Everyone has a story about sitting on the edge of the bathtub, completely overwhelmed and just crying. By Friday afternoon, I was a bit worried that this was going to become my life, but of course, as soon as Brad got home, she was smiling and happy and ready to play and has been pretty much that way ever since.





Sweet baby L is just turning into a real baby (rather than a newborn). This week she started really enjoying her tummy time, and stayed on her tummy for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. She's figured out that it's a lot easier to get things in your mouth on your tummy where you can get a really good look at them. She also discovered her feet this week. She'd stare at them from time to time, but this week she really got interested. She loves holding on to them, and has gotten them into her mouth a couple of times.





She's watching tv in that last one. I have many mommy friends who told me their 4-6 month olds watched a lot of tv because the pictures are interesting, but then lost interest. I hope I'm not creating a couch potato!

We continued solids this week. Daddy got his first opportunity to feed sweet baby L (his first time feeding solids to a baby ever).





Sweet baby L had peas a couple of times this week, and tried oatmeal since she didn't seem to be crazy about the rice cereal. She is an oatmeal girl. She was happier with that, and then happier still when I mixed the peas in. Just tonight she tried pears, which must have been tart because she kept making that face like she'd had a lemon with one eye closed, but she seemed to like them for a few bites. She also tried some sweet potatoes this evening. This week I'm going to start making my own baby food and I'll let you know how it goes!





We didn't get out and about much this week, but Sunday was a big highlight for us. Our Sunday school class has had a tradition of having a big meal out every year and Sunday was that meal. It was a very relaxing and wonderful time. Every year there's a new baby at the table, and this year it was L. She had the best time just watching everyone, but got tuckered out about halfway through and spent the rest of the night sleeping in my arms. We're so blessed to have these people in our lives. We love them and wish we could get together every week!






I hope that everyone has a good week. I have a couple of posts that I'll post soon about my new crafty hobby. See you soon!

Weekly Update

Happy Monday, everyone! This week went by fast. Sweet baby L had her very first snow, and might get another soon. I love the snow so I'm hoping for lots of it!

It seems like everyday sweet baby L is getting more interested in her world. She's really reacting to things around her now. She's always "talking" and smiling to us and any other objects in her sight, she's grabbing whatever she can reach and she's watching everything we do with a lot of interest. It's an incredible thing to watch her figure these things out.

It is very cute to watch her interact with her toys. She'll talk to anything that she sees, which is very adorable, and nothing is safe within her reach. I think sweet baby L's favorite thing to do with toys is...









...eat them!

Sweet baby L did enjoy sitting up on her own this week. On Wednesday she sat up on her own. She can sit with her hands on the ground, but as soon as she lifts one up to grab something, she splats. The downside is that now she'd much rather sit up, so we end up sitting with me holding onto her so that she doesn't whack her head. I'm sure that there is plenty of head-whacking in her future with crawling, etc., but I'd really like to put it off as long as possible.

On Sunday, sweet baby L was baptized. It was very meaningful to stand up in the front with our daughter and hand her over to God. One thing I love about our church is that the pastors always walk the infants around the congregation and say a few words about what baptism is and what it means. Sam, the pastor who baptized sweet baby L, talked about how her baptism signifies how God is working in her life, even before she can choose to follow him or even know he exists. Brad and I promised to raise her to know God's love and to help her faith grow. We intend to keep that promise.

She did really well. She didn't cry or spit up on Sam. Which I was very happy about.







We did duck out shortly after she was baptized, though. She was just a little too chatty for church. :-)

Just today I went to the doctor. She asked me about L and how she was doing and was she sleeping through the night. I said no, she's still getting up twice. She suggested that we start rice cereal. We bought the rice cereal a couple of weeks ago when the doctor gave us the go ahead, but just hadn't done it yet. We tried it this evening and if all goes well, I may be adding it to her 11:00 bottle to help her get through the night. I just can't wait to sleep through the night again.



At first she seemed interested.



She took her first bite. Lucky for us, she'll stick anything in her mouth at this point, so it wasn't hard to convince her to take a bite.



Of course, most of it came out, but some did stay in!



I'm not sure she's 100% into it. She kept making faces that seemed to say, this is really gross, but in between bites would act like I was being way too slow shoveling it in. In a couple of weeks we can even start vegetables, and if this rice cereal is the ticket to sleeping...I'm all for it!

Here's a video of the fun. It's not great quality, but hopefully you can get the idea:



We'll see how she likes it tomorrow.

I think the most amazing thing about parenting is just how spontaneous it all is. I know that sounds silly, but it's true. I try to be informed about what milestones sweet baby L ought to be reaching and what things are normal for her age. I tend to look for those things. The thing that honestly shocks and surprises me are all of the things I don't expect, but that she does all the same. For example, I always knew that babies would chatter, but it's so funny to watch her talk to objects. It's just so fun to watch her explore her world and see that she actually sees the things in it now. It's hard to even put down exactly what I mean. I'm just awestruck. She's an amazing little girl.

I mentioned last week that our landlord was selling our house. Luckily, he's selling it for much more than anyone will ever pay for it in this market, so it looks like we're staying put for now. We'll keep you posted if anything develops.

Have a wonderful week everyone and we'll see you on Monday if not before!

Snow Day!

We woke up from our morning nap to find snow on the ground!



Sweet baby L loved sitting in the exersaucer and watching the snow. It's the big fluffy kind that sticks and just looks beautiful. The trees behind our house look so lovely.



Hopefully it'll stay around a bit. Happy snow day!

Weekly Update

Hello! I'm trying something new this week by uploading the photos through picasa, instead of going through flickr. I'm going to see how it works out to decide how I'd like to do this in the future, but thought I'd warn you just in case things look different. :o)

Our sleeping has been so much better this week. We're still not on a schedule, really, but she does seem to be taking one nap sometime during the morning, one nap sometime during the afternoon and then going to bed a bit earlier than she used to. It definitely helps to have some sort of routine, and when mama gets more sleep, the world just seems better.




At sweet baby L's four month well visit the doctor told us that the back of her head was a bit flat. Nothing to worry about, but just something to watch and to work on by keeping up with lots of tummy time. Sweet baby L hates tummy time. She actually likes it for a couple of minutes, when she's interested in Freddy, but she gets tired of it pretty fast.

Her new thing this week is scooting. She's not really scooting as much as stretching and wiggling and those two things happen to scoot her across the floor a couple of inches. I've been laying her toys out in front of her just a bit, so that she has to "scoot" to get them. She likes this for the few minutes she'll tolerate, and it's funny to watch. She's starting to really want to get her knees under her during tummy time. She'll basically face plant into the floor, and then pull those legs up and dig in to the floor with her feet. This doesn't actually get her very far, mostly her knees just slip out from underneath her, but it is really amazing to watch her try to figure this out. Amazing, and adorable!



While she's pulling those knees up, she wiggles out of her clothes. My finger is the bottom of her actual foot in her pajamas.



Sweet baby L loves tv. I'm not really sure that I should admit this, but she'll stay on her tummy a long time if she just gets the chance to watch a little tv (so I'm already bribing her with tv at four months? ugh!). We're trying to limit the amount the tv is on while she's awake, because she really will just watch it. Brad's excited because she seems to just love football.



She can be distracted by mama having her tummy time with the camera.




She can even be convinced to smile when she's on her back! My goodness she's growing so fast!

This week is going to be exciting for us. Last week I started feeling like we never leave the house, but this week we have something everyday, including MOPS and a group for babies just L's age. We'll let you know how it goes. This week will also be sweet baby L's baptism. We'll have lots of photos from that.

The other big news in our life came as a bit of a shock. Our landlord emailed this week to inform us that he's selling our house. We're not sure what we'll be doing to handle that situation, but I think it will end up being very good for us. We'll keep you in the loop.

See you soon!

Juno

I have always felt a bit skeptical when I see movies or tv shows, etc, on topics that I'm passionate about (religion, adoption, etc). I usually leave the theatre feeling as though the movie didn't do the topic justice, or worse, depicted it in a way that I felt was wrong, either because the movie ignored the facts or, in some cases, flat out mocked the topic. So I haven't seen any of the recent "adoption" themed movies (August Rush, Martian Child, Juno, etc.), simply because I wonder about the realistic portrayal of adoption in these films. Adoption is a sacred, solemn, very sad and joyful event and as much as I would love a movie to capture that, it seems that most fall short.

In all fairness, neither August Rush nor Martian Child were of much appeal to me, but Juno looks to be the sort of movie I usually enjoy (indie, cute, hand drawn credits at the beginning, etc). I have been debating whether or not to see it since it first came out (poor Lisa has heard me lament this several times). I've read online reviews (and I only found one about the movie from an adoption triad member's perspective) and I've read spoilers trying to decide whether or not this movie would be worth hiring a babysitter to see. (There seem to be very few resources on the web for this sort of research, although adoptive families magazine does have a few articles on some recent children's movies to skip or to see). My gut tells me to be leary of this movie, but my gut is wrong a lot of the time (it tells me to eat a lot more than it should).

Lucky for me, I received this article in my inbox this morning.

FYI... RESOLVE is The National Infertility Association and contains great resources for all aspects of infertility, as well as a few resources for infertiles exploring the adoption option. The article is written to prospective adopters as a target audience.

Here is a quote from the article:

"While this sort of blanket denial of the emotions of relinquishment in adoption
can at times be a realistic birthparent scenario, the fact that no adults in
this adoption—Juno’s parents, the prospective adoptive parents or the adoption
lawyer—urged her to seek counseling and really consider the gravity of the
decision she is making is another place where the film takes a blatant detour
from the reality of responsible adoption practice. To her fictional
credit, Juno’s stepmother does at least once offer her some counsel regarding
her actions, letting her know that her jaunts to the prospective adoptive
parent’s house to hang out are not appropriate. That is where any
realistic assistance to this pregnant teen and her huge decision to relinquish
her child ends...

A responsible approach on the part of the writers and
producers of this film would have been to include some sort of disclaimer
following the film, at least acknowledging its fictional portrayal of adoption
practice and urging those interested in adoption, future parents of both the
“birth” and “adoptive” ilk, to consult a qualified adoption professional.
As a cinematic experience Juno is funny, heart wrenching, and well acted, but
prospective adoptive parents should go in to it with the knowledge that it’s
portrayal of adoption practice is largely inaccurate, and should be prepared to
have their emotional heart strings, often already frayed by infertility and
disappointment, further tugged on."

So, that all being said... I'm still not sure whether or not I'm going to see the film, but I do feel much better knowing what I am getting into. It's sad to me that adoption is rarely, if ever, depicted realistically in the media, but perhaps that will change as time goes on. Adoption has come a long way in recent history (although it still has a long way to go, but that is a different post), so the media is bound to catch up sometime... I hope.

Weekly Update

It was a big week! We had sweet baby L's four month well baby doctor's visit on Thursday. She's grown more than I had imagined. She's tipping the scales at 16 lbs even, and is 25" long and her head is a respectable 16.5" around. She's not only doubled her birthweight, she's working on tripling it! Developmentally she's right on track for her age. The doctor was impressed at how strong she is. Her vaccines went well, although she wasn't very happy about getting them. She ran a bit of a fever on Friday, but seems to be doing fine now. (although I noticed her pulling her ear this evening. I hope that we're not headed toward our first ear infection.)

The teething thing seems to be something that comes and goes...

Now...for what you really wanted to see...PHOTOS!



Okay...that's really cute right? I was cleaning up today and noticed the small, medium and extra tiny shoes. I love tiny baby shoes.





It's a new week so we've got new sleep issues to work through. We started the week going strong in a new routine and everyone sleeping well. This week, sweet baby L is smack in the middle of some kind of sleep regression (normal for her age, I'm told). She's been a really good sleeper since she was born, never sleeping through the night, but taking regular naps, etc. Even at the beginning of the week she would only be awake for an hour before she wanted to go down for another nap.

Starting on Saturday, sweet baby L began having a hard time napping. Her naps have been very sporadic lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours! Even when I think she's absolutely exhausted, she resists going down for her naps with any less than a couple of hours of awake time between. I think that she's transitioning to a 2 nap per day schedule. I think we all just hope that it gets worked out soon!

I am enjoying the extra snuggle time I'm getting. I really can't complain there.



Sweet baby L has really really gotten good at grabbing this week. Nothing is safe within her reach. She's discovered my hair and my glasses as fun things to hold onto. She will hold onto anything she can reach, including her pant legs!

She's still not rolling all the way over, although she's gotten very good at rolling straight to her side. She continues to "talk," giggle and smile.





I suppose the thing that surprises me most about this week is sweet baby L's new love for toys. We've always shown her things in the past, but this week she's really started playing with them. This toy, Freddy the Firefly, is by far her favorite. She will automatically go straight for him when she's playing on the floor and he keeps her happy and busy in her carseat or even at church (although, we discovered, he's way to loud for church). It is just remarkable to me to watch her actually play with a toy. She holds him and turns him around and mouths him. Only a couple of weeks ago she wasn't even that interested in toys, and now she's learned what to actually do with them. It is really amazing to watch. It's sort of unbelievable how quickly she's picking all of this up (or really how quickly time is zooming by).

I did always imagine that she'd have a cute and cuddly lovey, something pretty and soft, maybe a lamb or her bunny. I'm beginning to wonder if Freddy is fast becoming her lovey. It's funny how that works, isn't it?



I took sweet baby L's once a month bunny photos today. At first Freddy was still in sight, so she was staring at him as if to tell me, uh...what's the bunny for, can I have Freddy back?



So I hid Freddy behind my back (thank goodness for that whole no object permanence thing), and I even got a smile, even though her mouth got covered.



and then... she was tired. I should tell you that she was exhausted but held on for another hour after this photo was taken. :0)

See you later this week!

Happy New Year!!!!!

Okay, I'm a day late on my weekly update. I have no excuse. Well, I have several, but I'll let them go. :-)

This was a great week for us. It was sad when Grandma went home on Thursday. Brad dropped her off at the airport early that morning and said our goodbyes. We'll be happy when she comes back for another visit.

Sweet baby L went through a pattern of sleeplessness earlier in the week. She just basically went on strike around Christmas Eve. She stopped eating more than two ounces at a time, stopped sleeping for more than two hours at a time, and started drooling even more than she normally does. I even noticed her bottom gums were getting white, but in true "when you think they're going to do something they do something else" fashion, the teething has cleared up and she's saving it for sometime later on.



Depsite the not sleeping at the beginning of the week, we're settling into the best routine we've ever had (I know how it goes, you think you've got a schedule and next week it'll change). Sweet baby L is taking great naps during the day, getting up twice to eat after she's gone to bed (and only one of those is actually while we're sleeping), and going down in her crib for naps and for bedtime by herself (she would only nap in the swing previously). I have to say that the current trend in sleeping has made me very very happy and very very well rested.





Thursday evening we went to the Festival of Lights. I've heard such great things about it, it's free, and lights are sweet baby L's favorite Christmas decoration. She loved looking at the lights and we got to try out some of the settings on our camera for night photos.





Sweet baby L had fallen asleep on the way to the festival, so even though she woke up when we put her in her stoller, she was very still and just letting it all soak in. It was so amazing to watch her stare at all of those lights and enjoy herself. It was a great time and I'm sure we'll go again next year.



We got to see our friends Darius, Sherrie and baby K again. Sweet baby L and K laid on the floor and just stared at one another. I think this is the first time that L has really "checked out" another baby like this, she looked at him for a long time trying to figure him out. They spoke a little "baby" to one another and had a good time being cute.



I think that Brad has enjoyed his time at home, and I really have to. It has been so nice to have him here during the day. I think I've gotten to used to it and I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow when I can't sleep in or shower when the mood strikes me. Sweet baby L will help me get back into our regular routine.

This week has really been anything but normal with all of the activity going on, but we've managed to relax a lot more than usual and enjoy each other's company. Sweet baby L has hit a lot of milestones this week (especially nice since Brad is home to see things). She's almost rolling over. She'll get her legs up and go almost over and roll back onto her back. She's been grabbing her feet and rocking back and forth on her back, which is awfully cute. She's started grabbing objects (on purpose) and even spent one morning transferring objects back and forth from hand to hand. Woohooo!

We've started signing with her. Grandma got some videos for sweet baby L to help us get started. We've already learned a lot. I'll try to get some photos of that to post soon.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a happy new year!