Sunday, January 15, 2012
Now with pictures
Yesterday I conned Todd into helping me get some belated 6-month portraits of Aerin. Just pretend these were included with the last post.
Friday, January 13, 2012
6 Months
Weight: 17 pounds
Height: 28.5 inches (above the 99th percentile, folks, while Micah holds steady in the 50th)
Head Circumference: 42.5 cm
As of December 21, Aerin is six months old. Today, she's been with us for 206 days. The time is sliding by faster than I can keep up. One minute I was holding a wrinkled, sleepy newborn, the next a happy little roly-poly howler monkey. Some days I feel just completely bewildered by the whole thing.
Round about the middle of December, Aerin sprouted her two bottom teeth. This was followed by several days of misery as they finished cutting through, but now she's back to all smiles. She's also started biting when she nurses. She keeps it up, I guarantee baby's first word will be "SONOFABITCHowowowletgoletgoletgoGETITOFF."
Last Wednesday morning, I decided to try her on some cereal again. Unlike a month ago, this time she practically climbed up out of the seat trying to get to the spoon. Since then, she's been wolfing down two to three solid meals each day. So far we've tried rice, oatmeal, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, cinnamon, and prunes. I'm pretty sure she packed on another couple pounds in just the last week. My back says so anyway.
At Christmas and New Year's, Aerin was sitting propped up in corner of the sofa. The next Tuesday, she started sitting up unsupported at daycare. By Saturday, this was happening:
She still doesn't roll over, but she's done with lying down anyway. The play gym is no longer acceptable entertainment. She wants to be UP and DOING. Micah has recently learned several important lessons on putting down treasured items within the baby's reach. And girl can snag an unattended cell phone, remote control, or baby monitor in the blink of an eye.
She's still sleeping through the night. I'm almost afraid to put that out there, but it's true. Since six weeks, she's slept nearly every night from 9:30 until 6 or 7. In the last three days, we've managed to get her down by 8:45 each night; I go in at 7 AM and wake her up. I freely admit this is NOT due to anything we did or didn't do. I'm sure if she was my first baby, I'd be obnoxiously smug about it, but she's not and I know better. She sleeps because she is an awesome baby. Period. I also freely acknowledge it could change at any moment. The baby giveth and she taketh away.
Half a year old. Rock on, little girl.
Height: 28.5 inches (above the 99th percentile, folks, while Micah holds steady in the 50th)
Head Circumference: 42.5 cm
As of December 21, Aerin is six months old. Today, she's been with us for 206 days. The time is sliding by faster than I can keep up. One minute I was holding a wrinkled, sleepy newborn, the next a happy little roly-poly howler monkey. Some days I feel just completely bewildered by the whole thing.
Round about the middle of December, Aerin sprouted her two bottom teeth. This was followed by several days of misery as they finished cutting through, but now she's back to all smiles. She's also started biting when she nurses. She keeps it up, I guarantee baby's first word will be "SONOFABITCHowowowletgoletgoletgoGETITOFF."
Last Wednesday morning, I decided to try her on some cereal again. Unlike a month ago, this time she practically climbed up out of the seat trying to get to the spoon. Since then, she's been wolfing down two to three solid meals each day. So far we've tried rice, oatmeal, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, cinnamon, and prunes. I'm pretty sure she packed on another couple pounds in just the last week. My back says so anyway.
At Christmas and New Year's, Aerin was sitting propped up in corner of the sofa. The next Tuesday, she started sitting up unsupported at daycare. By Saturday, this was happening:
She still doesn't roll over, but she's done with lying down anyway. The play gym is no longer acceptable entertainment. She wants to be UP and DOING. Micah has recently learned several important lessons on putting down treasured items within the baby's reach. And girl can snag an unattended cell phone, remote control, or baby monitor in the blink of an eye.
She's still sleeping through the night. I'm almost afraid to put that out there, but it's true. Since six weeks, she's slept nearly every night from 9:30 until 6 or 7. In the last three days, we've managed to get her down by 8:45 each night; I go in at 7 AM and wake her up. I freely admit this is NOT due to anything we did or didn't do. I'm sure if she was my first baby, I'd be obnoxiously smug about it, but she's not and I know better. She sleeps because she is an awesome baby. Period. I also freely acknowledge it could change at any moment. The baby giveth and she taketh away.
Half a year old. Rock on, little girl.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Christmas Roundup
Aw, crap. It happened again.
I swear I just blinked and POOF there went the entire month of December. I don't even know, man.
So! Christmas!
We made a big deal out of Christmas lights this year. We went out several times just to see decorations around our town. For myself, I am generally opposed to inflatables and other holiday tchotchkes on the lawn, but we sure had fun finding them in other yards. Then one night, we saw a light-up crane. The next weekend, we had to buy one. I'm concerned it may be a gateway to a blow-up reindeer the size of the house, but it was Micah's favorite decoration EVER.
Late one Thursday evening, we made an impromptu trip to see the Galaxy of Lights at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. Although he seemed underwhelmed at the time, Micah enjoyed it enough to ask about it repeatedly for the several weeks. Of particular interest were all the lighted planes, helicopters, and rockets on the way in.
Then there were the daycare Christmas programs. Aerin tried to eat the jingle bells and succeeded in eating the tissue paper. Micah, despite having loudly practiced every song for weeks on end, refused to sing and instead kept running over to hide next to us.
This year, we hosted Todd's mother's family for their annual get together, and we hosted Christmas for my parents (my granddad was supposed to come too, but got sick at the last minute). Since we had guests, we decorated a lot this year. And I loved it.
And Christmas Eve...oh, I can't even tell you how special it was. After bathtime, we watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Snowman. Micah was actually laughing out loud, he loved it so much. When that was over, we scattered reindeer food in the back yard and carefully selected cookies for Santa. Todd read The Polar Express and I read The Christmas Story and Silent Night. Then all of us sang Silent Night together and we took Micah up to bed. I can't describe what exactly made it so perfect, but it was.
I never expected how much I would enjoy being the parent of a small child at Christmas.
Of course, then we spent the next THREE HOURS assembling toys. Another thing I never expected? How much WORK it is being the parent of a small child at Christmas.
All Micah asked for from Santa was a pretty castle (his words) and cars for its parking lot. And Santa delivered.
Santa also included an un-asked-for train set. We tried to tell Micah the engine would go around the track on its own, but he wanted to push it.
Among a whole list of awesome gifts, there was also the play kitchen from Papa and Melissa. I'm expecting many, many years of play out of this one.
Oh, and my Aunt Anne sent Aerin a Santa suit. Behold!
It was strange to be the ones hosting Christmas and putting together toys for Christmas morning, but it was also a lot of fun. Give us a couple of years to recover, and we'll be ready to do it again.
I swear I just blinked and POOF there went the entire month of December. I don't even know, man.
So! Christmas!
We made a big deal out of Christmas lights this year. We went out several times just to see decorations around our town. For myself, I am generally opposed to inflatables and other holiday tchotchkes on the lawn, but we sure had fun finding them in other yards. Then one night, we saw a light-up crane. The next weekend, we had to buy one. I'm concerned it may be a gateway to a blow-up reindeer the size of the house, but it was Micah's favorite decoration EVER.
Late one Thursday evening, we made an impromptu trip to see the Galaxy of Lights at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. Although he seemed underwhelmed at the time, Micah enjoyed it enough to ask about it repeatedly for the several weeks. Of particular interest were all the lighted planes, helicopters, and rockets on the way in.
Then there were the daycare Christmas programs. Aerin tried to eat the jingle bells and succeeded in eating the tissue paper. Micah, despite having loudly practiced every song for weeks on end, refused to sing and instead kept running over to hide next to us.
This year, we hosted Todd's mother's family for their annual get together, and we hosted Christmas for my parents (my granddad was supposed to come too, but got sick at the last minute). Since we had guests, we decorated a lot this year. And I loved it.
And Christmas Eve...oh, I can't even tell you how special it was. After bathtime, we watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Snowman. Micah was actually laughing out loud, he loved it so much. When that was over, we scattered reindeer food in the back yard and carefully selected cookies for Santa. Todd read The Polar Express and I read The Christmas Story and Silent Night. Then all of us sang Silent Night together and we took Micah up to bed. I can't describe what exactly made it so perfect, but it was.
I never expected how much I would enjoy being the parent of a small child at Christmas.
Of course, then we spent the next THREE HOURS assembling toys. Another thing I never expected? How much WORK it is being the parent of a small child at Christmas.
All Micah asked for from Santa was a pretty castle (his words) and cars for its parking lot. And Santa delivered.
Santa also included an un-asked-for train set. We tried to tell Micah the engine would go around the track on its own, but he wanted to push it.
Among a whole list of awesome gifts, there was also the play kitchen from Papa and Melissa. I'm expecting many, many years of play out of this one.
Oh, and my Aunt Anne sent Aerin a Santa suit. Behold!
It was strange to be the ones hosting Christmas and putting together toys for Christmas morning, but it was also a lot of fun. Give us a couple of years to recover, and we'll be ready to do it again.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tell me all about it
This started out as a Very Bad Week, although it seems to be ending better than it started. In the meantime, here is Aerin, finally feeling better after her bout of RSV.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
5 Months
Weight: 16 pounds, 8 ounces
Length: 27 inches
Head Circumference: 40.5 cm
With this last month, I think we've graduated from bulleted lists to describe current circumstances. She's made the transition from baby loaf to an actual interactive little person, thereby confirming my hypothesis that babies get pretty awesome at around 5 months.
She still hates tummy time with the fire of a thousand suns. She starts out okay, with her head up, looking around. But five minutes later, she plants her face directly on the floor, refuses to lift it or turn it to either side, and screams into the mat. If we don't pick her up immediately, girl will continue to scream for the next 20 minutes, even if you're holding her and profusely apologizing. Clearly, she got the Nestor gene when it comes to holding a grudge.
Her eyes have really started to change over to a darker grayish-brown. I've said all along I thought they'd end up brown, and so far, it looks like I might be right. Her hair has finally started growing in. It's still a dark brown, with just a few lighter highlights. For the moment, it's staying short and just filling in, but maybe it will start getting longer here soon.
She's starting to really play with different sounds. For a while it was loudly talking to ceiling fans and toys, but now we've graduated to the patented pterodactyl shriek. Todd finally got the mobile Amy handed down to us working, so we set that up on her crib and she loves to chatter at it. When she's excited, she sticks her arms straight out and waves them in circles and shrieks with happiness. Whenever Todd or I enter her field of view, she starts kicking her legs and waving her arms, all with a giant gummy grin and happy chirps. At 3 in the morning, we've both been known to grumble at her to stop being so gawdayum cute.
Speaking of, this last month saw the return of occasional night waking. Around the start of November, she hit a growth spurt and suddenly we were trying to remember how we ever survived on only five hours of sleep. In response, I tried her a few times on a bit of cereal, just to see if maybe she was ready for solids. Turns out, no. She's a milk girl for the foreseeable future. Also, rice cereal mixed with breastmilk, air-cooled, then sprayed directly into your open mouth is pretty nasty. Just sayin'.
This month I also marked my first-ever experience with pumping on-the-go. I had to travel to Cherokee, Alabama for a job, which is only a four-hour round trip plus three hours of field time, but still well past when I'd need to pump. Which is how I found myself sitting in a Dollar General parking lot hooking up bottles and tubes under a nursing cover, while curious passersby double-taked on their way to and from their cars. I parked in the back, where I thought traffic would be light, but it turns out that's a very desirable location for your average Dollar General patron. Anyway, it wasn't the most comfortable experience in the world, but it was easy enough. The main issue was keeping the milk cool and cleaning the pump parts afterwards, both of which require a bit of extra planning, but are perfectly doable. It's nice to know that I can still travel to jobsites if I need to. Although, next time I'm stopping in a church parking lot.
On the daycare front, things are going pretty well. We’ve got a good schedule down, I'm having no problems keeping up with the demand for milk, and I'm still able to go over every day to nurse her at lunch. As of last Wednesday, Aerin's main caretaker, Ms. Altman, left to stay home with her own grandchildren. She was there back when Micah was an infant, and I specifically asked that Aerin be placed in the room knowing Ms. Altman would be one of her caretakers. It's sad, and more than a little jarring, but I think her replacement will be fine.
Of course, we won't know until Aerin goes back to daycare, which she won't for a while because last Wednesday, just as were arriving in Atlanta, Aerin came down with a rip-roaring case of RSV. She started out coughing a bit, then she started getting congested, then she stopped eating, and then suddenly she was having trouble breathing. I took her to the doctor yesterday morning where she got a breathing treatment and a diagnosis of RSV, a double ear infection, and an eye infection. They sent me home with a nebulizer to do breathing treatments at home, an antibiotic for her ears, and drops for her eyes. Apparently RSV symptoms can last for up to three weeks, but she should be able to return to daycare once she no longer needs the breathing treatments. After only a few hours, we could already see a huge improvement in her comfort level, but we're still having a lot of trouble getting her to swallow her meds. She's a bit like a cat, in that as soon as you squirt the stuff into the back of the mouth, they start hacking and spitting, and next thing you know, you've got medicine and spit all over your face and your arms are clawed to bits. Actually, it's easier to give medicine to cats, because I don't feel bad about sitting on them and prying their jaws open with my fingers.
Oh, and she's also teething. At her five-month checkup on the 17th, the doc confirmed that the white spot we've been seeing on her bottom right gum is in fact a tooth. The amount of drool has been ungodly and she chews on everything in sight, but it doesn't look too swollen or red and she's not complaining too much yet. So there's that.
I think that kind of covers where she's at lately. There's always something new going on, and I'm trying to document most of it somehow. I'd like to work on putting more up here, since I've found I really enjoy going back and reading my archives about Micah. Of course, that requires time, and if there's one thing we seem to be missing these days...
Length: 27 inches
Head Circumference: 40.5 cm
With this last month, I think we've graduated from bulleted lists to describe current circumstances. She's made the transition from baby loaf to an actual interactive little person, thereby confirming my hypothesis that babies get pretty awesome at around 5 months.
She still hates tummy time with the fire of a thousand suns. She starts out okay, with her head up, looking around. But five minutes later, she plants her face directly on the floor, refuses to lift it or turn it to either side, and screams into the mat. If we don't pick her up immediately, girl will continue to scream for the next 20 minutes, even if you're holding her and profusely apologizing. Clearly, she got the Nestor gene when it comes to holding a grudge.
Her eyes have really started to change over to a darker grayish-brown. I've said all along I thought they'd end up brown, and so far, it looks like I might be right. Her hair has finally started growing in. It's still a dark brown, with just a few lighter highlights. For the moment, it's staying short and just filling in, but maybe it will start getting longer here soon.
She's starting to really play with different sounds. For a while it was loudly talking to ceiling fans and toys, but now we've graduated to the patented pterodactyl shriek. Todd finally got the mobile Amy handed down to us working, so we set that up on her crib and she loves to chatter at it. When she's excited, she sticks her arms straight out and waves them in circles and shrieks with happiness. Whenever Todd or I enter her field of view, she starts kicking her legs and waving her arms, all with a giant gummy grin and happy chirps. At 3 in the morning, we've both been known to grumble at her to stop being so gawdayum cute.
Speaking of, this last month saw the return of occasional night waking. Around the start of November, she hit a growth spurt and suddenly we were trying to remember how we ever survived on only five hours of sleep. In response, I tried her a few times on a bit of cereal, just to see if maybe she was ready for solids. Turns out, no. She's a milk girl for the foreseeable future. Also, rice cereal mixed with breastmilk, air-cooled, then sprayed directly into your open mouth is pretty nasty. Just sayin'.
This month I also marked my first-ever experience with pumping on-the-go. I had to travel to Cherokee, Alabama for a job, which is only a four-hour round trip plus three hours of field time, but still well past when I'd need to pump. Which is how I found myself sitting in a Dollar General parking lot hooking up bottles and tubes under a nursing cover, while curious passersby double-taked on their way to and from their cars. I parked in the back, where I thought traffic would be light, but it turns out that's a very desirable location for your average Dollar General patron. Anyway, it wasn't the most comfortable experience in the world, but it was easy enough. The main issue was keeping the milk cool and cleaning the pump parts afterwards, both of which require a bit of extra planning, but are perfectly doable. It's nice to know that I can still travel to jobsites if I need to. Although, next time I'm stopping in a church parking lot.
On the daycare front, things are going pretty well. We’ve got a good schedule down, I'm having no problems keeping up with the demand for milk, and I'm still able to go over every day to nurse her at lunch. As of last Wednesday, Aerin's main caretaker, Ms. Altman, left to stay home with her own grandchildren. She was there back when Micah was an infant, and I specifically asked that Aerin be placed in the room knowing Ms. Altman would be one of her caretakers. It's sad, and more than a little jarring, but I think her replacement will be fine.
Of course, we won't know until Aerin goes back to daycare, which she won't for a while because last Wednesday, just as were arriving in Atlanta, Aerin came down with a rip-roaring case of RSV. She started out coughing a bit, then she started getting congested, then she stopped eating, and then suddenly she was having trouble breathing. I took her to the doctor yesterday morning where she got a breathing treatment and a diagnosis of RSV, a double ear infection, and an eye infection. They sent me home with a nebulizer to do breathing treatments at home, an antibiotic for her ears, and drops for her eyes. Apparently RSV symptoms can last for up to three weeks, but she should be able to return to daycare once she no longer needs the breathing treatments. After only a few hours, we could already see a huge improvement in her comfort level, but we're still having a lot of trouble getting her to swallow her meds. She's a bit like a cat, in that as soon as you squirt the stuff into the back of the mouth, they start hacking and spitting, and next thing you know, you've got medicine and spit all over your face and your arms are clawed to bits. Actually, it's easier to give medicine to cats, because I don't feel bad about sitting on them and prying their jaws open with my fingers.
Oh, and she's also teething. At her five-month checkup on the 17th, the doc confirmed that the white spot we've been seeing on her bottom right gum is in fact a tooth. The amount of drool has been ungodly and she chews on everything in sight, but it doesn't look too swollen or red and she's not complaining too much yet. So there's that.
I think that kind of covers where she's at lately. There's always something new going on, and I'm trying to document most of it somehow. I'd like to work on putting more up here, since I've found I really enjoy going back and reading my archives about Micah. Of course, that requires time, and if there's one thing we seem to be missing these days...
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