Damn You, Karma!

All that time I spent thinking, "Thank GOD I don't have twins!" and then Elise gets a foster brother 2 months younger than her. Virtual twins.

Three babies.

There has never before been so much milk or poop, or so many tears in my house.

Or cuteness.

In all fairness, there's a whole lot of cuteness here, now, too.

Bottoms Up!

Today, Elise figured out how to get her legs up underneath of herself during tummy time. She could get her little butt waaaaaaay up in the air. No crawling yet, though. Just frustrated, leg kicking, baby yelling booty wiggling.

Two New Foster Kids

We got two foster kids placed in our home last night. Siblings. Not-quite-2-year-old girl and 2 month old boy. We have 3 kids under 2 years old. Our house is crazyville.

Too tired to say any more right now.

Vitamin D Drops

We've started giving Elise vitamin D drops. Doctors recommend this now for breast fed babies because they think that there isn't enough vitamin D in mommy milk. Our doctor mentioned the drops at Elise's 2 month check up. He and I had a lengthy discussion about it.

Your body makes vitamin D when you go out in the sun. Back in the day, babies probably set around outside a lot while their mothers gathered or tanned animal hides or whatever. But now babies sit around inside while their mommies clean dishes or watch Oprah.

I'm a big believer in "breast is best" so I had a hard time at first believing that my breast milk was anything less than perfect for Elise. BUT, I guess that times have changed and evolution didn't plan for the advent of Netflix or Hulu.

Even still, I live in a sunny place and Elise has fair skin. She is at no risk for rickets. Doctor Cutie-pants confirmed this. What got me convinced that we should do the vitamin D drops is that there are possible long term benefits to having a good amount of vitamin D in infancy. Reduced risk of certain diseases later in life.

SO, vitamin D drops it is, Doc!

Elise hates them. Does her best to spit the liquid out. She'll get used to it, though. The drops smell sweet, like candy. She'll be begging for them before long.

First Batch of Homemade Baby Food!

Elise will be starting solids in about a month and a half. The homemade baby foods that can be frozen keep for about 3 months, so I figure that it's time to start stocking up. I made my first batch last night. Applesauce made with organic gala apples. (Gala apples are a sweeter variety.)

Here's how I made it.

I washed and peeled 4 apples. Then I cut them into little chunks. (Obviously, you don't use the core of the apple.) I put them in a sauce pan with about 1 inch of water in the bottom and brought the apples and water to a boil. Then I reduced the heat to low, covered the sauce pan, and simmered the apples for 10 minutes to make them tender (but not a mushy mess). After that, I scooped the apples out of the water and put them through my hand-crank food grinder (the one that Fresh From Florida Kids sent for free for signing up on their website).

Once the applesauce was done, I put it into the holes of an ice cube tray and put it in the freezer. That's where it is now. Four apples made one ice cube tray full. Magzilla recommended buying some baby food jars for use in the future, and I'm going to look into that.

I tasted the applesauce. It was good! I would serve it as part of an adult dinner.

I'll have to thin the applesauce down for Elise at first. I'll just use breast milk instead of water. The recipe I found said to thin the applesauce with cooking water, but I think that milk will be much more nutritious. And make the flavor more familiar.

I'm not going to start Elise on applesauce when she begins solids, though. I think we're going to start with avocado. You just scoop avocado out of the skin and mash it up. No cooking necessary. So I don't need to prepare that ahead of time. I do think that I'll start eating avocado every once in a while, so the flavor gets into Elise's milk and it's a little more familiar. I've had avocado plenty of times before, but it's not something I eat on a regular basis.

Solids! So exciting!

Rawr!

The past few days, Elise's cute little babbly coos have given way to growls. "Growl" isn't the perfect word to describe what she's doing, but it's as close as I can get to explaining the guttural noises she's been making.

She doesn't growl for any particular reason, it seems. Its not because she's happy or sad or frustrated. She'll just be playing with her toys or looking at my face or getting danced around by Husband and then, "Rrrrrrgggrrrraaarrrnnn."

I guess she's just figuring out how her little voice box works.

Even her growls are cute!

Baby Vision

I read somewhere that by the time they are 4 months old babies can see with 20/60 vision and they are starting to see colors. A whole new world for Baby Elise!

I believe the color thing for sure because Elise is facinated with yellow now. It really catches her eye. Yellow and anything shiny.

Sort Of Sleep Training

Elise was sleeping through the night there for a while, then she started waking up one or two times every night again. I've noticed over the past several weeks that when Elise wakes up in the middle of the night and I offer her the opportunity to nurse, she suckles for a while and then promptly falls back to sleep. I'd started thinking, "She's not eating, she just wants help going back to sleep."

Then I read in a book that by four months old, babies can sleep through the night because they don't need to eat for the up-to-10-hours that they might sleep. This thing I was reading was talking about "sleep training" which advocates that whole "let your baby cry it out" mentality. I'm not for that. I just can't let Elise cry and not try to help her feel better.

BUT

I don't want to "train" Elise to wake up at 2:30 every night, just to have me pick her up and nurse her. Especially if she doesn't need it.

So four nights ago I started an experiment. She usually sleeps from around 8:30 p.m. or so until about 10:30, then she wants to eat. I still let her have her 10:30 feeding. But from 10:30 to around 4:30 a.m. (another time she regularly feeds), I decided that I wouldn't feed her or pick her up out of her bassinet. Six hours. This eliminates her 2:30 a.m. feeding.

I decided that when she wakes up and cries, I would change her diaper, talk to her, touch her, and sing to her, but not pick her up or feed her.

The first two nights, Elise was not happy about the new arrangement. Though, in all fairness, she cried for a while the first night, but once she gave a good, loud fart she was okay. So it might have just been gas.

Elise began to realize that she could comfort herself by sucking on her fingers. And that's what she does now.

She does not seem to miss the 2:30 feeding. She slept just fine the past two nights, without waking up at 2:30. She adapted to the new schedule very quickly. In fact, she got hungry around 9:45 last night and was in her bassinet by 10:00 instead of 10:30.

I hope this sticks! I forgot how nice it is to sleep through the night.

Swaddling Ban

The other night, Elise tried to roll over in her bassinet. She got caught against the side, which fortunately is made of mesh. Her face was pressed into the side, her head was cocked back funny, she was tilted at an angle, and she started screaming. It scared me. And made me very glad that I don't have a bumper or pillow or other fluffy thing along the side of Elise's bed.

So that's it. No more swaddling. Period. I don't want to wake up one morning to see a blanket wrapped around Elise's head. Sometimes she gets her swaddling blanket undone, and now that she rolls around in her bed, I think it's too dangerous to keep swaddling her.

She doesn't sleep as well unswaddled. But she'll just have to get used to it.

I read this thing about SIDS and a study that was done referred to the time that the babies died as their "last sleep," which just about kills me. The first time I read that, my eyes filled with tears.

No more swaddling.

Morning Routine

Elise is falling into a fairly predictable morning routine. Mommy likes this. I read that this would start happening between 3 to 4 months of age, and for the past few weeks now, Elise and I have been developing a schedule.

Elise wakes up between 7:30 and 8:30 every morning. I sing her a wake up song (to the tune of Happy Birthday: "Good morning to you! Good morning to you! Good morning sweet baby, good morning to you!") and she laughs. Elise is very much a morning person.

Then I take her to the potty and I change her diaper, if necessary. I feed her, then we go feed the cats. We listen to the radio while we take care of the kitties. NPR. I figure it might expose her to some new words-- ones that I don't use on a daily basis.

I eat breakfast and then we pick up the cat bowls. I dress Elise and then it's time to potty again. After that, we play. She's just big enough for her bouncer as of a few days ago, so I put her in there for a bit and I also let her play on her mat. We usually read a book and rock in the rocking chair. Then she gets hungry around 10:00.

She's been taking a morning nap starting some time between 10:00 and 11:00-- usually at about 10:30. I used to hold her during her morning nap because she slept best that way, but then I realized that it wasn't a good idea anymore, after the first few months. I couldn't get anything done and I didn't want her used to being held while she slept for fear she'd become dependent on it. I started putting her down in her chair or her swing, so I could keep an eye on her while I did stuff around the house. But now that she's bigger she doesn't sleep quite so heavily and noises can wake her. So I've started putting her in her bassinet in my bedroom. She's still getting used to it. She doesn't sleep as long in the bassinet-- about half an hour compared with an hour in her chair-- but she's old enough to start learning that there is a designated sleep area for her, to be used for both bedtime and naps.

By the time she gets up from her nap, Husband is on his way home for lunch. She's always so happy to see her daddy.

Our mornings are nice. Predictable. Calm. I enjoy that time a lot.

The Bath: 4 Months Later

Elise still likes bath time. She knows how to splash and she tries to move around a lot, which presents a small challenge since she can't sit up completely on her own yet. I have to hold on to one of her shoulders at all times to make sure that she doesn't fall face first into the water.

I still give her a bath twice a week. This has always been our routine. It's usually on Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday. We do it in the morning, while Husband is at work. She doesn't really get dirty yet, so bathing her more often doesn't seem necessary. I think it will just dry out her skin. However, if we use sunscreen, I bathe her that same night. That's the only exception, really.

One weird thing about baby baths is the towels. A lot of them are really thin. I don't get this. We have some thin towels and some thick towels, and I favor the thick ones. Really, you could probably just use an adult bath towel. I can't imagine what difference it would make. Baby bath towels would definitely be something I'd cut out of my budget if I was strapped for baby cash. I wouldn't put them quite on the same level of useless crap as, say, a travel wipes warmer-- but baby bath towels are definitely not a necessity.

They are cute, though, with that little hoodie corner. That's what you're paying for, really. An extra flap of fabric to make a hoodie corner.

That's How She Rolls

Elise did more tummy to back rolls this past weekend. She can't always remember how to do them, though. If she figures it out once, she'll keep doing it. But then the next time I put her down to play, she might have forgotten how to roll. She gets so frustrated on her tummy when she can't remember how to roll over.

She'll figure it out eventually. Then she'll be rolling across the floor to get where she wants to go. Watch out, kitty cats!

Lotus Elise Sighting

We just saw a Lotus Elise drive by! A red one. Pretty cool.

Baby's First Funeral

Elise went to her first funeral yesterday. She did well. Slept through about half of it and was quiet for the rest.

Husband's uncle passed away unexpectedly. Very sad. I didn't know him-- I think I met him just once-- but the service was lovely and from what was said, he sounded like a pretty cool guy. I'm sure I would have liked him if I'd have had the chance to get to know him.

When we first heard the bad news and started making plans to go to the funeral, I worried about what Elise should wear. It's hard enough to find a dress for a 4 month old that isn't pink, let alone trying to find one that's black. But then I read that you aren't supposed to dress babies in black anyway, since they aren't mourning. You just dress them like they're going to church. So we found a little white and brown dress and some white baby shoes.

Hopefully that's the last funeral for a long, long time.

Baby Medicine Cabinet

Before Elise was born, I asked several people what kinds of medicine-cabinet-type things I should get for the baby. I didn't get much in the way of suggestions, probably partly because there aren't a whole lot of things that newborn babies need. But here is a list of what I would tell someone who asked me that question now:

1. Rubbing alcohol, to clean the umbilical cord stump before it falls off

2. Cotton balls or Q-tips, to clean the umbilical cord stump

3. Baby Tylenol (or whatever brand), because EVENTUALLY you will need it, and when you do need it (like after shots) you won't want to make the baby wait while you go get it

4. A rectal thermometer, as this is the best and most accurate way to take a newborn's temperature-- and since fevers can be dangerous for newborns, you want the most accurate reading possible

5. Vaseline, for greasing up the baby butt thermometer (and I think that you use it on circumcised boys to keep the diaper from sticking to the incision, but I don't know for sure)

6. Diaper rash cream, just in case you need it (and you probably will at some point, no matter how vigilant you are with regard to changing diapers)

7. Saline drops for baby's little nosie-- newborns are often congested and you need saline drops to use that nose sucker bulb thingy the right way

8. Lotion-- even though we don't regularly put lotion on Elise, every once in a while she'll have a little spot of dry skin

9. Baby oil, for removing the sticky parts of band aids or medical tape, or for rubbing on your baby's head if she has cradle cap

We also bought a humidifier when Elise was little and was all congested. It seemed to help her when she'd sleep. I don't know if I'd say "You're having a baby? Get a humidifier!" but it's something you'll probably EVENTUALLY end up using.

Also, a first aid kit. Again probably not something you NEED for a newborn, but it sure can't hurt to have it around.

Based on my experience, that stuff ought to get new parents through the first couple of months, anyhow.

The Baby In the Mirror

Elise LOOOOVES seeing herself in the mirror. She smiles and coos and reaches for herself. If she's a little bit fussy, a trip to the mirror cheers her right up. Not full-blown crying. Even Mirror Baby can't fix that. But Mirror Baby temporarily cures Cranky Elise.

I wonder if she knows that she's seeing herself. She doesn't get so excited when she sees other babies in real life. And she knows what I look like. She must realize that she's seeing me in the mirror. Who does she think Mirror Baby is?

I know that scientists do experiments where they'll put a mark of paint on an animal somewhere that can only be seen with a mirror. If the animal tries to clean its own body (instead of trying to clean the animal in the mirror), then they assume that the marked animal realizes that it's looking at a reflection and not another animal. But I don't think that would work on Elise, since she doesn't try to clean herself. Unless the whole reason she keeps putting her hands in her mouth is because she's more like an OCD kitty cat than a teething baby. But I doubt that.

We love Mirror Baby!

2 A.M. Poop

Elise has a new habit. A 2 a.m. poop in her diaper. She's back to waking up at least twice each night, and one of those wake ups is so that I'll change her stinky diaper.

I guess her digestive tract is going through some changes, because her eating habits aren't any different. She's growing! In a couple of months we'll start solid foods and then there will be a whole set of new poopy habits. How exciting!

Dream About My Sister's Baby

I had a dream that I went with my sister to another ultrasound once her baby was bigger. We looked at the monitor and I could see its little face moving in real time, like one of those 4-D ultrasounds.

The baby started wiggling its ears. And I was relieved. I thought, "Oh, GOOD! Thank God it can wiggle its ears!"

My Little Tumbleweed

A few weeks ago Elise rolled from her tummy to her back. She did it, like, 5 times in a row... and hasn't done it since. In the meanwhile, she figured out how go from her back to her tummy like a pro. Back to tummy is supposed to be harder, but she's having trouble with tummy to back.

WELL

She just rolled from her tummy to her back. She looked a little surprised when it happened, but overall, pleased with herself.

Will it be another 3 weeks before she does it again? Or did she really figure it out this time? I'll let you know.

Just Visiting

I went with my sister to her first OBGYN appointment today. Brother-in-law couldn't go. I was a husband stand-in.

My sister is going to the same practice that I went to, and the midwife who delivered Elise saw her today. Yay, reunion. All of the ladies in the office cooed over Elise. Especially the front desk ladies.

Elise was very cranky at the doctor's office. I think that she either 1) realized that she was in a doctor's office and was afraid she'd get some shots like she did yesterday, 2) hated that she wasn't the center of attention, 3) was having teething troubles, or 4) got worried that we were there to put her back where she came from. Or some combination of the above.

Anyway, Sister got an ultrasound done, and there's a blob in there all right. With a teeeeensy little heart beating at the center.

It was a much more relaxed visit than my first visit for Elise. I was bleeding, so they moved my appointment up by a week (I went in at 7 weeks instead of 8 weeks) and I was terrified the whole visit that they'd tell me that I was on my way to miscarrying. Even when they did the ultrasound, I could never really see the heart beating on the monitor so I was barely reassured. Husband said he saw it, so I took his word for it.

But Sister definitely has a little 8 week old baby in her belly. And Elise was one of the first people to meet the little sprout.

4 Month Check Up

4 month doctor's visit. Elise was 24 1/2 inches long (55th percentile) and 13 lbs 4 oz (45th percentile). Healthy as can be. And hitting all of her milestones, according to the piece of paper the nurse gave me to read.

I'm not one to monitor the "your baby should be doing THIS by 4 months" kind of stuff. Every baby is different and unless there is something seriously wrong, I just don't care if Elise is 2 weeks early doing this or 3 weeks late doing that. She's perfect and smart and cool, no matter what some book or website or stranger in the grocery store might have to say.

Now, with foster kids, it's a little bit more important to monitor the milestones because their mom might have been doing drugs while she was pregnant or the kids might have suffered some sort of trauma, and the only way you can know sometimes is to see that the children are behind developmentally. It's sad, but since little babies can't say, "she used to shake me until I'd stop crying" you just have to go with what you can observe about the child. So I'm not saying that these milestones are unimportant.

But since I know that Elise wasn't exposed to anything dangerous while she was in my belly, and since she is the most loved-on, snuggled, and adored baby on the planet, I'm pretty sure that she's developing just fine.

She is a very goo gooorl.

First Time With the Teething Ring

Elise used her teething ring for the first time tonight. She's been very chompy lately. She'll put things in her mouth not just to suck on them but to chomp, too. So I thought I'd give the ol' teething ring a try. See if she likes it.

The one we have goes in the freezer so it's cold. It has lots of different textures all around the ring. Elise liked the cold, which kind of surprised me since she's used to warm breast milk. She turned the ring round and round to try all of the textures. Chomp, chomp, chomp.

She used it for so long that I thought she must be hungry. I tried to feed her. No dice. Not interested in boobie. AND her mouth was freezing cold. I'm just glad that at this point she is willing to differentiate between the teething ring and my nipple. At least she chose to reject my breast instead of chomping on it.

Thank you, whoever invented cold teething rings. You've made Elise a very happy baby.

Boob Hickey

When Elise wakes up in the middle of the night I often feed her lying down. I put her in bed with me and hook her right up. Then I can relax or take a little nap until she's done and it's time to burp her and put her back in her bassinet.

Last night while I was snoozing, I guess she unlatched and then tried to re-latch. I woke up saying, "YEEE-ouch!" because she had missed finding my nipple and was sucking on my skin. HARD.

This morning I noticed a very pronounced hickey right under my nipple where she had been sucking. Burst capillaries and everything.

Thanks a lot, little suckermouth. You bruised Mommy's boobie.

4 Months Old!

I can't BELIEVE Elise is 4 months old!

She does all of this cool stuff that I haven't mentioned yet. Let's see. She can roll from her back onto her belly by rolling in either direction now. At first she always rolled to the left, but now she can roll to the right, too.

She found her feet a little while ago and now she obsessively holds her toes.

When she sees something she wants, she can reach right out and grab it. No more swinging her arms in the general direction and hoping her hand lands where she wants. She has pretty good eye/hand coordination, really.

She loves sitting up or standing up with help. And when she's standing, she'll often take little steps. They're silly looking, like she's walking on the moon-- all slow and exaggerated-- but she always wants to be on the go.

And she can TALK! Ooh, she'll talk your ear off. She can make lots of sounds, but of course she doesn't use those sounds to mean anything yet. One sound that she makes a lot is "goo goorl" to which we have attributed the meaning "good girl." We tell her "good girl" a lot when she uses the potty or turns over or whatever. So we're trying to attach "good girl" to that sound. Maybe it will end up being her first phrase.

I love her so much.

Last Night

Last night I looked at newborn pictures of Elise and cried. She looked so tiny and fragile. There's this picture of her in her swing and the waist strap thing that buckles her in came up so high on her tiny body that it was right under her chin. That's when I lost it. Seeing that picture just about killed me.

Then last night in my sleep one of the characters in my dream was named Beezus Cardboard Valedictorian. I must have been thinking about Jesus Christ Superstar or something. That has nothing to do with the baby, I just didn't want to forget that silly name.

Super Baby

Elise has her own marvelous fashion sense. She was extra super drooly today, so I put a bib on her. I almost never use a bib, but today it seemed warranted. Elise, however, quickly managed to turn it around and wear it as a cape. Which I liked better anyway. High five, Baby Elise!

True Blood

I only made that the title because I saw my first episode of the tv show True Blood the other day. It was alright. Vampire-y.

Anyhow, the hands down worst part of pregnancy for me was the spotting. Oh, the anxiety it caused me! Especially for the first few months, I lived in near-constant fear that I would lose the baby. It was awful. Especially after being incorrectly told that I HAD miscarried, I would have a really hard time of it whenever I would start spotting again.

Well, let me just tell you, I haven't had a period or any kind of post-childbirth bleeding for two months now and it is WONDERFUL! Thank you breastfeeding hormones!

I've got to keep this going. I'll just breastfeed indefinitely. When Elise gets too big, I'll become a wet nurse. I'll suckle piglets.

Eeew.

I read once that back in the old days (whenever that was) wet nurses would suckle piglets when they were between babies so that their milk wouldn't dry up. Is that true? I'm going to go look that up.

Memory: Moving

One of my earliest memories is moving house. I don't know exactly how old I was. My guess is about 3 years old. I have this faint memory of driving up to the house I grew up in. And then I remember my parents lying my little sister onto some kind of mat or blanket on the floor in the front room and telling me to come eat. I was concerned that my sister was sleeping and wasn't awake to eat with us, but my parents told me to let her sleep. That's all I remember.

I think this is my earliest memory because I don't remember living in any other house before that one. I must remember that day because I'm sure that moving to a new house was a big deal to my little brain, so it hung on to that memory.

I wonder what Elise will remember from her toddlerhood.

Family-versary

July 4th last year was the day Elise was made. The day we became a family. So special and wonderful. As we were watching fireworks tonight, I told Elise that that's how my heart feels every time I look at her-- all sparkley and explosive. It's true.

Putting It Into Perspective

My maternal grandfather was one of twelve kids. But some of them died young. At least one sister did-- I think that more than one died before adulthood, though.

Now that I've had a baby, the whole thing kind of blows my mind. 1) TWELVE FREAKIN' KIDS!? My poor great-granny! And 2) how unbelieveably sad it must be to lose children. I'd die. I wouldn't be able to bear it.

Breastfeeding Dream

I had a strange dream the other night. In my dream I was sitting outside with Husband and I was topless. A wind picked up and I got cold all of a sudden. I looked down at my nipples and watched in horror as they got hard and started growing. They grew to be about 6 inches long.

I said to Husband, "I think the baby stretched out my nipples."

The Opposite of Nostalgia

My sister is 6 weeks along now. That's when my morning sickness kicked in, and her morning sickness has kicked in, too. I remember those days.

My mom got really bad morning sickess, I got really bad morning sickness, and it looks like my sister won't be getting off easy, either. I guess it's hereditary somehow. Sorry, Elise.