Wednesday, August 24, 2011

8 weeks old, Miss Personality









Our baby girl is already 8 weeks old.  Hard to believe, but she's growing like a weed and becoming more smily and personable by the day.  Now that I've stopped eating dairy, she's not miserable with gas pains or spitting up constantly.  She still spits up, but not in the copious amounts she was.  I'll try to reintroduce dairy at about 3 months old to see if she'll tolerate it, but for right now, it's a small price to pay for a happy, pain free baby.

She is responding with huge smiles to her mommy, daddy, and brother.  Her eyes are bright and she's completely interested in everything going on around her.  She's able to roll onto her sides and can lift her head to about 45 degrees when laying on her tummy, but she hates it.  I try to give her tummy time daily, but it has to be in short spurts because she gets so mad, possibly due to her stomach problems, it may be painful.  She's sleeping about 6 hours straight at this time and waking up only once or twice a night to eat, which is nice for me.  Maybe she'll sleep through the night before a year and a half, which is when Peyton finally started doing it.  She's ahead of the norm in her development, but not nearly as far ahead as her brother was, but I have a feeling she'll be a much earlier talker.  She tries to hard to communicate already, imitating sounds you make and vocalizing a lot when she's happy.  She also sucks to sooth and the pacifier may soon be a thing of the past now that she's discovered her thumb.  It'll be easier once she has more control of her hands and fingers, right now it's kind of luck when she gets it in there and gets really mad when she can't.  

We've been camping with her twice now, once at 7500 feet for one night and once at over 10,000 feet for two nights.  She does great as long as she's kept warm.  She's also getting well travelled.  We spent a day in Copper for Daddy's Warrior Dash, and are going to Steamboat this weekend.  Next week we will be going to visit Linnea in San Diego so she'll get to go on her first plane ride.  

Yesterday she went to her 8 week appointment and weighed in at 10 lbs 9 oz (best guess because she was so wiggly on the scale they were having a hard time getting a reading) and is 23 inches long.  That puts her at 80% on the height curve, which I find weird and 35% on the weight.  She's a chunky little thing, so I'm not sure that's right.  The doctor's office just started using Ipads and I don't think they quite know what they are doing yet.  She had her first shots and did well with actually getting the shots, but had a really bad reaction to the dTaP later on in the day, screaming bloody murder and projectile vomiting in the bathroom at Buffalo Wild Wings.  I hate that shot, Peyton didn't respond well to his first one either.  Once she slept it off she's been absolutely fine today.  It was no easier to deal with the second time around.  It's so hard to see your baby miserable.  She loves the bath, though, so we got in when we got home from dinner and she was happy as a clam.  She will definitely be a water lover.

I forgot how fast they grow...can't wait to see what she's doing next month.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

First camping trip





Sierra got to go on her first camping trip at 6 weeks old.  Peyton had to wait until he was almost 3 months.  She did fabulous.  Of course it helped that we now have experience with camping with a baby whereas it was trial and error with Peyton.  It also helped that Sierra is good at nursing just about anywhere, she's not distracted by every little thing like Peyton was, so having a well fed baby instead of one on a nursing strike was also a plus.  It also helped that our tent is like a small house, unlike the backpacking tent we had when we camped with her brother for the first time.  Cosleeping, flexibility, and bringing the bouncy seat and white noise sheep were key to the success.  Mommy slept in a sleeping bag with her so she wouldn't be cold in the chilly Colorado night.  Even though we were only at 7500 feet, it still got pretty cold.  Pack and Plays are not for camping in Colorado with an infant, they need your body heat.  She only nursed once all night long she was so snug with her mommy.  She slept through everything, including Peyton's crying spell in the middle of the night.  She didn't get one bite from a black fly, unlike the rest of us.  She was completely mesmerized by her crazy brother and Daddy wrestling in the tent.  Wide eyes and alert, she just soaked it all in.  Overall, we rated the trip an 8, and nothing that went wrong had anything to do with having a little baby with us.  We can't wait to do it again.