Santa!

Mike took Sterling to see Santa and get her picture taken. She wasn't thrilled initially, but it worked out ok.

Real crawling

In the past couple of days, Sterling has started doing authentic, belly-off-the-ground crawling nearly all the time. She's actually quite a bit slower crawling this way than she was doing the military crawl.

Christmas Revels

Every year, Mike works on the Christmas Revels. This year, he had a small helper.

She can read!

Well, not quite. But she's learned to turn pages in the book. It's awesome. She will grab the page of a board book and turn it in the right direction. She requires a little assistance (she has trouble getting a hold of just one page and will often just turn to the end of the book), but this is really the first grown-up thing that she's learned to do. I'm very proud.

She is also getting into feeling the books that have textures on the pages.

Thanksgiving with a Tiny Squee

Nappin' with her Doodad

We drove down to Corvallis on Tuesday night see my parents for Thanksgiving. TS slept the whole drive, which was fabulous. However, it did mean that we couldn't stop - if the car stops, she often wakes up. We stayed Tuesday night with my dad and had a leisurely Wednesday hanging out with him. He scrambled eggs for breakfast, which TS always enjoys. She also had some banana. Nothing exciting to report regarding Wednesday's activities except that my dad and I took a small walk and TS napped in the carrier. It was very nice weather for Thanksgiving. Sterling wasn't impressed with dinner that night for some reason. She kept forcefully flinging bites of it on the floor. Salmon? Fah! Onto the floor with you! Carrot? Fah! Banana? Fah! It just wasn't a night for eating.

Wednesday night we headed up to stay with my mother. We built a nest out of couches padded with (many layers of) blankets and TS and I stayed there, while Mike bunked in the guest bedroom. The bed there is a little small to comfortably fit 2+TS. Mike got to sleep in, which was good because he drove back home Thursday night after dinner. Wednesday morning, we had more eggs. TS ate quite an impressive quantity and also enjoyed some banana and avocado.

Sweet potatoes taste best when eaten with
the entire face.

We cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (in the crock pot), steamed broccoli, and had rolls. Everything was excellent and TS enjoyed it a great deal. She was underwhelmed with broccoli (a former favorite), but really got into the turkey. The grownups had pie for dessert.

Turkey is AWESOME!

Friday, I took the baby down to my dad's and we had breakfast (a sort of dutch baby pancake thing). TS skipped breakfast because I thought there was too much butter and sugar in the pancake. She made up for it later that afternoon, consuming half a banana and a quarter of an avocado in her mesh bag. This was after she'd had some turkey and possibly other things as well. She's turning into quite a good eater.

We gave her a bath in the kitchen sink
 on Friday afternoon.

My mother and I watched Avatar in 3-D, with breaks to potty and relocate the baby. She was pretty happy (and safe) in the couch nest. She napped through the beginning of Avatar, which was handy. We took a couple of breaks to do things (laundry, make sandwiches), which was good because it's a ridiculously long movie. We also watched LA Confidential, which was quite good. TS napped through part of it as well.

Fig, it's what's for dinner.

My mother drove us home this morning. We timed it exactly to correspond with the morning nap and the baby slept for nearly all of the 2 hour drive. Good job! We sat down and shared a Harry and David pear after my mother left, which was excellently tasty. Later, TS stole a dried fig (she was standing on the back of the couch and reaching over onto the table where the dried fruit is stored) and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think she ate the whole thing, except for the pieces that were plastered onto her face.

I started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker and chopped up some veggies to go in the turkey carcass soup (we'd boiled the carcass down at my mothers). TS did some excellent jumping in her doorway jumper while I cooked. Now, she's napping in the carrier while we sit in the recliner and blog.

Pulling up

She's pulling up on everything now. This morning, she pulled up on the couch, my recliner, and my legs. Unfortunately, she hasn't mastered the dismount yet.

It's good she's cute...

This morning, as we were doing our usual lay-in-bed-and-nurse-as-long-as-possible-before-getting-up routine, TS bit me on the nipple. I pulled her off, then let her go back on and she bit me *again*. Hard. I stuck my finger in her mouth and said "NO!" She started to cry. Scream, really. It woke Mike up and he said "poor Tiny Squee," thinking she was having teething pain. Poor Tiny Squee? Poor nipple!

She absolutely didn't want to be put down after this episode, so I ate my oatmeal while holding a baby. When it came time for me to leave, she screamed and cried and grabbed me round the neck. It's tough to pry off your screaming baby and leave for work. For a second, I was tempted to call in sick.

We didn't have a good bedtime experience this evening. She was exhausted by 5pm (Mike says she was on a totally wonked-out nap schedule), so I gave her a bath and we read a story and I nursed her to sleep. 23 minutes later, she was up again. I went in and patted and shushed her. Didn't work. I tried to nurse her. Not interested. I picked her up and patted her on the bed. She cried. Finally, I brought her out into the living room and held her in the rocking chair and patted her. She quietly nestled with me for about an hour, then we went back into the bed and I nursed her to sleep a second time. She's been asleep for about 40 minutes now. Putting the baby to bed tonight required two hours of work. It's good she's cute.

Wonder Weeks

The next Wonder Week leap starts at 37 weeks. This leap is learning about categories (like "animal" or "food").

That means that she's scheduled to enter her fussy period about now; she's currently 33 weeks. It says that the babies "may seem cranky, whiny, fidgety, grumpy, bad-tempered, discontented, unmanagable, restless, or impatient." One of the mother quoted in the book calls her baby at this stage "my little leech." This sounds pretty much like TS at this point.

Tooth number two!

Tooth number one is poking out substantially now. And tooth number two is poking out as of today! There's just a little nublet of it poking out, but hopefully we're close to done with teething for a little while.

Today wasn't a great day as far as teething goes. TS was very cranky for a good chunk of the day. She also refused to be put into bed to nap, so I spent several hours with her strapped to my chest asleep in the carrier.

Pulling up

Tiny Squee has started pulling up on her knees pretty regularly. I think she likes the higher point of view. 

 

She's also started pulling up on things to an actual standing position. But often she falls down pretty shortly after she pulls up. Luckily, she hasn't bonked herself on the head yet.

Eating

Learning to drink out of a cup.
It's just water, really.

Sterling went through a period of intensive eating in the last week or so. Several days in a row, she ate an entire banana. That statement should be taken with a grain of salt, though. When she "eats" food, not all of it makes it into her mouth. And even all of the food that makes it into her mouth doesn't actually get swallowed. However, she did eat a pretty substantial amount for a tiny squee of her magnitude.

She has a mesh bag thing that she likes to eat out of as well. I'm not entirely sure what makes it so appealing, but she'll eat a lot when we use it.

Here she's eating quinoa with curried yogurt with mango a pear. The Baby Led Weaning book says that it's ok to give her dairy in the form of yogurt or as milk cooked in things.

Sometimes, we combine our love of food
AND our love of potties!

She's been eating enough that she's started having grown-up solid poops. No more liquid breastmilk poo for this baby, she's moved up to tiny turdlets. Most mornings, she wakes up between 5 and 6am and we head into the bathroom where I put her on her potty seat on the toilet. Often, she'll have a poo (usually she fires off several warning farts in bed, which motivates me to get up). It's nice that the potty project is going well.

De-diapering

I have a ton of baby updates to post, but I've been very busy with working and having a baby. I just wanted a quick update and then I'll try to do a real one later today.

I've sold two batches of diapers in the past couple of days. The Fuzzibunz and Bum Genius diapers are all gone. I think I sold them for roughly the same amount i paid for them, although I can't remember precisely and I didn't remember when I blogged about them before.

6 Fuzzibunz for $40
15 BumGenius for $100 (although two of these I had bought new, so I probably lost money on them)

I have a few more that I'm trying to sell. They don't seem to be terrifically popular.

Sickness

The last couple days, TS hasn't wanted to eat much solid food. I figured it was a phase, probably related to teething, and that it wouldn't last long. Now I'm wondering if her poor tiny tummy has been upset.

Last night, she woke me up at 3am by nursing and then puking voluminously all over herself and me and the bed. She and I got up and I sponged us off and changed our clothes. We moved out to the recliner because I didn't want to lay her back down flat in case she was still "armed". She sort of dozed, but kept waking up.

The dog refused to stay in the bedroom and really wanted to go out into the back yard while we were sitting in the recliner, so I let him out. This proved to be a mistake (foreshadowing).

Finally, I took the baby back into the bedroom and handed her off to her Daddy for the second shift of baby-middle-of-the-night-awake-time. I fell asleep and they headed out into the living room. All was quiet until 5am when I was awakened for the second time by the noise of puking. I cleaned it up and locked the dog in the kitchen in case he was still "armed".

I slept until I heard the baby wake up in the living room, then Mike brought her in to nurse and we got up and went through our normal morning routine. I was tired at work today. And this evening, my stomach is upset. I'm hoping it's just the wine and pizza and that the tiny squee didn't pass some sort of virus on.

The box says it all.

Give that baby a hand!

She's started clapping. I've been trying to get it on video, but it's proving to be very challenging and I wanted to blog about it before it's totally out of date. She's been clapping for about a week now.

She's getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. Every time she does it, my brain sings "it's the pelvic thrust... really drives you insa-a-a-a-ane".

Stuff she's eaten

This morning, TS tried egg for the first time. Our Baby Led Weaning book says that there's not really a danger of her developing egg allergies since she's over 6 months old and there aren't any allergies to egg in the family.

Egg was a hit. So far, she's had:

• Avocado - this was one of her very first foods, but she doesn't seem to really like it anymore. She didn't touch her piece of avocado this morning.
• Roast squash - she likes squash. It's delicata squash and we left the skin on so it's easier to grab.
• Roast sweet potato - also tasty.
• Roast carrot - I think it blends in with the sweet potato and she's not sure which one she's getting. I roasted all three of these things together, so she's eaten a lot of them.
• Egg - totally a novel eating experience. Mike scrambled her an egg this morning and cooked it so it was kind of firm. We cut strips of egg for her and she ate several.
• Broccoli - I have a bag of frozen broccoli florets. It's handy because I can just microwave her a floret. She likes broccoli. She chews all the flowers off.
• Blackberry - extremely tasty. A big hit.
• Watermelon - ditto. 
• Apple - she likes microwaved apple (I haven't managed to roast one for her yet). She also likes to suck on raw, crunchy apples, but she can't manage to get pieces off yet.
• Asian pear - she tried this, but it wasn't cooked so she couldn't get much of it.
• Oatmeal - I gave her a spoonful of my morning oatmeal a few mornings ago. I cook it with raisins and banana, so it has a little flavor. She wasn't too impressed, but I think it might have been the texture. It was hard for her to grab and get into her mouth. She did enjoy smearing it over the high chair tray and her pants.
• Cucumber - she really seems to like raw cucumber. I cut a roughly 2" piece off the end and then cut it into quarters so she has cucumber sticks. I left the skin on so they are easier to grab ahold of. Somewhere I read that raw cucumber is good when babies are teething because it's cool on their gums and a texture that they like to chew on. She's able to chew off the seeds and make some dents in the firmer portion.
• Artichoke - Mike gave her a leaf and she chewed on it for a while. He says she did a pretty good job. He also gave her a little piece of the heart and she at it.
• Steak - I cut a section for her and she gummed on it for a while. Apparently sucking the juices out is good because they get a lot of the iron from it.
• Tomato - This was one of the first things that we found in her diaper.
• Lentils - she sampled, but didn't eat much.

We often give her a bottle of water with her meals, but so far she hasn't seemed very impressed. She likes to play with the bottle, but she's alway seems disappointed when she sucks on the it and it's not milk. 

We also tried giving her coconut milk when we were travelling back from the Treesort and had run out of milk. The lactation consultant said coconut milk would be a good beverage for her because it contains lots of good fats. We mixed the last of her milk with canned coconut milk. She seemed to like it ok, but she spit up voluminously once we got home. I can't prove that the two events are related, but we haven't tried coconut milk again.

Crawling herself to sleep

I am totally asleep.

Something interesting happened tonight and I wanted to record it to see if it's going to be a one-time odd occurrence or perhaps the start of something wonderful. I started bedtime at about 6:45. I gave her a bath (mostly to wash the smooshed sweet potato off her legs), then we put on the night-time diaper. I zipped her into her Magic Sleep Suit which is usually accompanied by a brief fit of crying as she realizes it's time for sleep and she voices her disinclination for such activity. We read 2.5 stories and then we lay down to nurse to sleep. She nursed and nursed. She finished one Lact-aid bag of milk (about 4 oz), so I added a bit more milk and she sucked that down as well (another 1.5 oz). Then I gave her a bottle of milk I'd pumped at work. That's a large meal for a tiny squee. She finally fell asleep, so I got up and walked the dog and watched her on the video monitor. This is what I saw. She didn't seem upset, so I thought I'd just leave her there and see what happened. I watched her crawl in a large circle around the top of the bed. She kept pausing and I kept thinking "maybe she'll fall asleep like that," then she'd start crawling again. When she made it back to roughly this point, she lay down for 20 seconds or so and I thought she was really out. She perked back up for a few more minutes, but didn't move far. Finally, she lay her head down and has fallen totally asleep. As far as I know, she's never fallen asleep on her own like that before.

Oh the things that you'll eat!

TS has become a pro at eating. She gets excited when we put her in the high chair and will immediately grab whatever is put down for her. She's still working on getting it all into her mouth. However, a big part of baby led weaning is that early eating experiences are about the experience more than the actual eating. She's experiencing the feeling of sweet potato squishing between her fingers, of banging squash on the high chair tray, and of watching the dog eat dropped pieces of carrot. All of those are equally as exciting as eating right now. 

It was a big weekend of eating for her. We visited her Meemoo and her Doodad in Corvallis and I wanted to show off her eating prowess. We microwaved her some apple, carrot, and asian pear at Meemoo's. Apple was a big hit. The carrot was a little chewy and the asian pear was still too crunchy. She had an asparagus stalk at Doodad's and then tried watermelon and blackberries for dessert. 

Mike has given her corn cobs several times now. He says she gets angry when he takes them away.

Trying blackberries and watermelon. She enjoyed both of them immensely.

A definite tooth

The tooth is all the way through. She used it to "eat" a quarter of a banana. Much of the banana ended up mashed on the high chair or in the dog via the floor, but she did chew up quite a bit of it and I'm sure she swallowed some too. She seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, perhaps because it was an accommodating texture.

First Tooth! Now, to use it to eat with.

Sterling has been working hard on the teething project and I think one finally broke through today! When I poked at it with my fingernail this afternoon, I scraped something hard instead of just gum. I think she's done it!

In other news, she's now substantially mobile.

She's also started eating solids with a more pronounced vigor than previously displayed. We've been offering her foods for the past few weeks. Usually she'll pick them up and chew on them a bit, but the past couple of times she's really gone at them. I'm not sure if it's a difference in the foods offered. We had previously given her: asparagus, green bean, broccoli, carrot, and a few other things I've forgotten. On Sunday, I roasted up a bunch of sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash with a little olive oil and thyme. Maybe she just likes those veggies better than the previous ones. Regardless of the reason, she got really into eating dinner tonight and last night. I'd estimate that she swallowed at least a couple of teaspoons of food, which is way more than she's eaten before.

Pumpkin Patch

I had gotten a Groupon for the corn maze at Bella Organics Farm. We had to go this weekend because the Groupon was about to expire. Mike and I got there early because I wanted to do a pumpkin photoshoot with the tiny squee. I'm not sure why the pictures are sideways. They were pointed the right direction in iPhoto.

Tiny Squee in a pumpkin hat

And in a flowered headband.

She's just too cute!

Even when she's mad about being in the sun.

"Noooooo, don't leave me in this bin of delicata squash!"

World Milksharing Week

It was World Milksharing Week last week. I meant to post earlier, but somehow was busy, what with it being the first week back at work and all.  Before I had Sterling, I didn't know that milksharing was a thing, much less that there was a whole week where one could celebrate it. If you look closely at the picture of the two nursing women, one of them is using an at-breast supplementing system similar to what I use with Sterling. I really like the fact that the two babies are holding hands. If we assume that the two babies are both getting milk from the blue mother, that makes them "milk siblings". That's not really a thing in our culture, but it still is in many cultures where infant formula isn't readily available and having a wetnurse or milk from another mother can really be the difference between life and death for a baby.

Wikipedia (my favorite source of information) says that "In Islam those who are fed in this way become siblings to the biological children of their wetnurse, provided that they are less than 2 years old. Islamic law (shariah) codifies the relationship between these people, and certain specified relatives, as rada'a; given that a child is breastfed five fulfilling (satisfactory to him) times, once they are adult, they are mahram, meaning that they are not allowed to marry each other, and the rules of modesty known as purdah are relaxed, as with other family members. But, laws of inheritance do not apply in the case of milk siblings." I think that's a pretty neat idea. If we were to follow that, Sterling would have a huge family. Let's count them up.

1. We got fresh (unfrozen) milk for several months from a wonderful woman with a baby girl only 3 weeks older than Sterling. It was really neat to watch the baby grow. It was like a preview of what Sterling would be doing in a few weeks. I saw them twice a week for several months and we spent a lot of time talking. It was nice to establish a relationship beyond just picking up milk. 
2. We picked up milk twice from a woman in Eugene with a baby boy a couple of months older than Sterling. She was the first person to agree with me that S had at tongue and lip tie (she'd had the same issue with her baby). That agreement led me to seek help from one more person, my wonderful Lactation Consultant Melissa Cole.
3. One of my colleagues from work was pregnant at the same time I was with a baby boy. We got into a discussion one day about nursing: I mentioned that I wasn't producing a lot of milk and she mentioned that the last time she was pregnant, she produced way more milk than she needed. When I decided to try donated milk, she was one of the first people I emailed. She's been pumping 4oz of milk for us a day for months now. She and I have gotten to know each other much better since our original discussion and we have a lot in common. I really enjoy getting together with her. 
4. We got milk from someone who lives very nearby and has a baby boy several months older than S. She pumps and donates to different mothers every time she collects about 100oz extra. When I walked into her house with S, her son was sitting in his Bumbo chair eating sweet potatoes and had them all over himself.
5. I picked up a whole bunch of milk from a woman in Vancouver. She was so sweet - we were meeting at Starbucks and I had the wrong one because I'm not familiar with Vancouver. It was about a thousand degrees that day and she drove to meet me (out of her way) at a second Starbucks to give me two full grocery bags full of frozen milk.
6. A woman who is hoping to adopt a baby has given me milk twice. She's induced lactation by taking medication and by pumping extensively. She's worked up from pumping a few drops to pumping about 13oz a day. Her plan is to continue pumping until they call her to tell her that they have a baby for her to adopt. It could be tomorrow or it could be a year from now. That's dedication. She always says she's happy that the milk can be used: she called a milk bank and they wouldn't take it because of the medication she has to take to induce lactation. 
7. When we were in Virginia, we got milk from three different people. The first was a friend who has a baby girl about a year old. I've gotten to see the baby grow up through picture on facebook, but haven't ever met her in person.
8. A work colleague of my mother-in-law's gave us milk before we got there and while we were there, when we started running low. She has a very healthy baby boy a few months older than Sterling. When we went to pick up emergency milk the second time, she was holding him and he looked at us very seriously.
9. I found someone in Sterling, VA through Human Milk 4 Human Babies - Virginia. I don't know whether she has a boy or a girl, but she was willing to share her milk with a baby that she'll never meet.
10. Another friend of mine from work brought over a 5oz bottle of milk that she had pumped (she exclusively pumps and then feeds her baby via a bottle because he finds nursing to be frustrating). It was an amazing gift because up until that point, she hadn't been pumping enough to fully cover his needs and she'd had to supplement with formula. That bottle was one of the first times that she'd produced over his needs for the day. Since then, she's gotten her supply up past his milk needs for the day and has offered to share the excess with Sterling.

This is what breastfeeding looks like for us.

All of these women are fabulous and I appreciate their generosity every day when I'm able to feed my baby on exclusively human milk. She's growing up happy and healthy and amazing. How could she not, when she's getting love from all of these amazing mamas?

Back to work

I had my first day working full time yesterday. It was a day of meetings.

I discovered that I have a window in the door to my office, so I had to quickly cover it with paper so that I'd have somewhere to pump privately. I managed to pump twice, but actually had to skip out of one meeting to do it. Orientation days are not designed with the breastfeeding mother in mind.

I'm excited to be back to work. I love teaching and I think working full-time is going to have a lot of benefits. I did miss my tiny squee by the end of the day, though.

Yesterday was also Mike's first day working full-time as stay-at-home dad. He was quite successful. Two good naps and no one died.

Mobility, we almost has it.

Today, she managed to scoot forward about a foot towards something she really wanted. The "something" was an envelope, which she chewed into a soggy purple wad within a minute of reaching it. She's still better at turning around in circles than she is at moving forward, but I believe good progress was made today.

Teething, big-time

We're in the middle of teething. Sterling has been drooling like a fountain and I can feel lumps in the middle of her bottom gum. She also hasn't been sleeping very well. Since we got home, she's been on a schedule where she goes to bed around 8:00, then wakes up at 1:30am wanting a bottle. After eating, she wakes up again at 4:30 and then really never goes back to sleep. She's been waking up and crying, too, which is unusual. I'm guessing that one of the reasons that she's waking up so frequently is that her teeth are bothering her.

This afternoon, I could actually see the whitish outline of tiny teeth on her bottom gum. These two teeth have to show up in the next day or so. I just can't imagine them taking much longer. Hopefully the disposition of the TS will improve as well. She was a total crankypants today and then only took two little naps.

I think several things are combining to create her nasty disposition of today. She's teething, she's ready for another developmental leap, and I think she's also having her 6-month growth spurt. Poor Tiny Squee.

Busy Month!

September was our month of travelling.

First, we went to Garibaldi, OR for two days. Garibaldi is on the Tillamook bay. I had a groupon for two nights (Sun-Thurs) motel there and this was our last chance to use it because I start working full-time at the end of September. The groupon came with free rental of a crab trap and a bottle of wine.

We got full use of our crab trap rental. I had thought that we woud go walk on the beach and do a little touring. What we did was try to catch crabs. We caught three eventually: 2 Dungeness and 1 red rock crab. Red rock crabs are an invasive species and you can keep any that you catch; only male Dungeness crabs over 5 3/4" can be taken. All of them were tasty. We cooked them at the hotel and ate two of them for lunch. The third we brought home (cooked) and ate later. Sterling was the smallest crab hunter we saw.

Last year, before I even got pregnant, we had made plans to go to the Out N About Treesort. We had reservations for the Peacock's Perch treehouse. We were back from Garibaldi for one full day before we left again for the Treesort. I hadn't fully thought through the idea of taking a Tiny Squee to the Treesort when I made the reservation. It's 5 hours away, which is a lot for a baby who is in a carseat-hating phase. We did successfully make it there and back, and a good time was had by all. Something else to consider: when you put a baby to bed at 8pm in a treehouse, someone has to stay with her. Early bedtimes for me.

Anna, Chelsea, Lisa, Sterling, and Mike at the Treesort

Mike up in our treehouse

Anna, intrepid baby-watcher

TS of the pointy hat

Less than 24 hours after arriving home from the Treesort, we headed off to VA to visit with TS's grand and great-grandparents. We had direct flights, which was awesome. There's no way that I'm going to do connecting flights with the baby until she's much older. It was a fast trip; only about as long as to the Treesort. TS slept for 2 hours on the first flight and 2.5 hours on the second flight. Apparently planes make her nap. She was very well behaved for the rest of the time we were in the air as well.

We visited her Namau's school. TS was very popular with teachers and students alike.

We visited Chocolate World in Hershey, PA. We flew up on top of the building to be photographed with the sign.

Sterling with her GranNamau and Pop-pop

Sterling with her Grumpa

Namau and TS

GranNamau and TS

TS flying after visiting the Art of Video Games exhibit at the American Art and Portrait Museum in Washington, DC

Everyone loved her and she had an excellent time. We brought home many more toys than we brought out with us, so she will be well entertained for a long time to come. I have to go unpack, but my toybox isn't big enough any more.

15-19 Wonder Week

We're finally out of this (bigtime) developmental leap. During this one, she learned to perceive events in sequences. That means she can do things that require more than one action. She can also understand the different actions or events involved in activities.

BODY CONTROL

• Starts moving virtually every part of her body as soon as she is put on the floor. (she's always been an excellent wiggler)
• Rolls over from his back onto her tummy.
• Rolls over from his tummy onto her back. (I think she can do this, but she doesn't do it nearly as often as from back to tummy)
• Is able to fully stretch his arms when lying on her tummy.
• Lifts her bottom and attempts to push off; does not succeed.
• Raises himself onto her hands and feet when lying on her tummy, then tries to move forward; does not succeed.
• Attempts to crawl; manages to slide forward and backward. (often turns herself in a circle)
• Supports herself with forearms, and raises upper half of her body.
• Sits up straight (all by herself) when leaning against you.
• Attempts to sit up straight when she's by herself and briefly succeeds by leaning on her forearms and bringing her head forward.
• Remains upright in high chair with cushions for support.
• Enjoys moving her mouth - puckers her lips in a variety of ways, sticks her tongue out.

GRABBING, TOUCHING, AND FEELING

• Succeeds in grabbing objects.
• Grabs things with either hand.
• Is able to grab an object with either hand if it comes into contact with the object, even if she is not looking at it. (I think she can do this)
•  Is able to pass objects between hands.
• Sticks your hand in her mouth.
• Touches or sticks her hands in your mouth as you talk.
• Sticks objects in his mouth to feel and bite them. (EVERYTHING)
• Is able to pull a cloth from his face by himself, slowly at first.
• Recognizes a toy or other familiar object, even if it is partially covered by something; will soon give up unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the toy.
• Tries shaking a plaything.
• Tries banging a plaything on a tabletop. (on her highchair tray)
• Deliberately throws a plaything on the floor.
• Tries grabbing things just out of reach.
• Tries to play with an activity center.
• Understands the purpose of a particular toy; for example, he will dial his toy telephone.
• Studies objects closely; he is especially interested in minute details of toys, hands, and mouths.

WATCHING

• Stares in fascination at repetitive activities, such as jumping up and down, slicing bread, or brushing hair.
• Stares in fascination at the movements of your lips and tongue when you are talking.
• Searches for you and is able to turn around to do this.
• Looks for a plaything that is partially hidden.
• Reacts to his own reflection in mirror; he is either scared or laughs.
• Holds a book in her hands and stares at pictures.

LISTENING

• Listens intently to sounds coming from your lips.
• Responds to her own name.
• Is now able to distinguish one particular sound in a medley of different sounds, so responds to his own name even if there are background noises.
• Genuinely understands one or more words; for example, he looks at his teddy bear if asked "Where's your teddy bear?" (won't respond correctly if the toy is not in its usual place)
• Will respond appropriately to an approving or scolding voice.
• Recognizes the opening bars of a song.

TALKING

• Makes new sounds, using her lips and tongue: ffft-ffft-ffft, vvvvv, zzzzz, sssss, brrrr, arrr, rrr, grrrr, prrrr. This rrr is known as the "lip r." Your baby may particularly like to do this with food in her mouth!
• Uses consonants: d, b, l, m
• Babbles. Utters first "words": mommom, dada, abba, hadahada, baba, tata
• Makes noises when yawning and is aware of these noises.

BODY LANGUAGE

• Stetches her arms out to be picked up.
• Smacks her lips when hungry; waves arms and legs.
• Opens his mouth and moves his face towards food and drink.
• "Spits" when she's had enough to eat.
• Pushes the bottle or breast away when she has had enough.
• Turns away from the feeding of her own accord when full.

OTHER SKILLS

• May exaggerate his actions; for example, when you respond to his coughing, he will cough again, then laugh.
• Gets grumpy when becoming impatient.
• Screams if he fails to do what she seems to be trying to do.
• Has one special cuddly toy, such as a blanket.

Magic Sleep Suit

So one of the ladies in my mom's group posted that she'd bought one of these sleep suits. She'd read about it on a blog (which she also posted and which I also read). She said it was working great, so I searched Craigslist and found one for $20. I picked it up yesterday and washed it this morning.

We have the pink one.

First off, the sucker takes a long time to dry! It's a layer of fleece on the outside, then some sort of foam, then a cotton layer inside. The fleece dried really quickly (was totally dry when I took it out of the dryer), but the cotton was still very wet. I turned it inside-out and hung it to dry for most of today.

I have the 6-9 month suit. Seemed like a good idea since Sterling is almost 6 months (and that was the one that the person on Craigslist had)... but the lower weight limit for the suit is 18lbs. Sterling is swimming in it. Her little feet don't poke out the bottom of the leg holes. At least she'll be able to wear it for a while.

Sterling was cranky this evening due to lack of sleep. I nursed her to sleep, then tried to pop her off the boob, and she woke up. I nursed her to sleep again, tried to pop her off, and she woke up again. I decided that I might as well give the sleep suit a try. She was exhausted, could hardly hold her eyes open, but refused to go to sleep. I stuck her in the suit and gave her the new wubbanub giraffe pacifier that came in the mail yesterday. She suck-suck-sucked and fell right to sleep. After a few minutes, she woke up because she'd lost her binky. I stuck it back in, she suck-suck-sucked, and fell asleep again.

I am a wubbanub giraffe pacifier. Aren't I cute?

She was in bed by 9 and has been asleep since the second round of suck-suck-suck-sleeping. I'm calling it a success so far. Typically, she wakes up about ever 45 minutes.

She looks really cute in her new suit. It makes her look like Maggie Simpson in her snowsuit. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow when it's lighter in the bedroom.

Carrots

Yesterday, we gave Sterling a cooked round of carrot (cut in half into two semi-circles so she wouldn't choke on it). She actually appeared to swallow about 1/4 of a carrot.

Today, Mike found it in her diaper. Apparently her carrot digestive processes don't quite work yet.

Bedtime Fail

Today's sleeping didn't go well. Two 30 minute naps in the car only. She was exhausted by dinner and I decided to move bedtime forwards to 7:30 and we were in bed before 8. Then, she wouldn't fall asleep. And wouldn't fall asleep. And wouldn't fall asleep. She started crying and fussing, didn't want to nurse, wouldn't go to sleep. She wanted her gums rubbed hard; I think she might be starting to teeth seriously.

Finally, I fed her a last little bit of milk, she agreed to nurse and conked out in the rocking chair while being held at about 9:30. I laid her in the bed and she's now fast asleep. 

On another positive note, I sold another set of diapers. I had brought up more bins of diapers from the basement and found the rest of my Econobum covers. I also sold two extra wetbags I had from the coop. $50 bonus.

Bedtime, day 3

Sterling took two 30 minute naps today. By the end of the day, she was a cranky wreck. I decided to put her to bed at 8:00. We took a bath, which involved some good splashing, then read two books. We turned on the night-night music and did some nursing and she's finally asleep. Nursing to sleep is a habit that we'll eventually need to break, but I'm hoping that as she becomes more accustomed to her bedtime routine, we can get her away from it. If not, I'll just put her to bed by nursing her until she's 3. Hopefully not.

The books say that she needs to learn to put herself to sleep. I'm still working on that one. One thing at a time - we're getting a set bedtime (8:00 right now, moving towards 7:00 after we have the routine set) and a bedtime routine. Then I'll work on getting her to fall asleep without nursing her to sleep.

Diapers sold!

I'm starting to get rid of some of the excess accumulated diapers. So far, I've sold:
-5 newborn Kushies AIOs - $20 (and traded for 3 covers: 1 with elephants and 2 BG Flips, all of which I like)
-gDiapers - $100 (I was looking back at old blog posts and I think I only paid $50, which rocks)
-Econobums - $80 (I got them on some sort of mega sale, so I think I may have also made money here)

This is good because I've already bought *more* diapers through a co-op. They were very cheap and I've gotten some already that I really like. I'm not sure how much I'll like the others, but if I don't end up liking them I'll sell them brand new. They're pocket diapers and I feel like S has gotten a rash from some of the other pockets that we have (BumGenius and FuzzyBunz) when we use them frequently.

Sleeping like a baby

Sterling is in a no-napping phase, which made me decide that we need to start getting some sleep routines going to help her figure out when she's supposed to sleep. Tonight was my first real attempt. Mike gave her a bath, then I read her a story (which wasn't too popular, although she did try to eat the book briefly), then I turned the light off and turned on her new sleep music on my old iPhone. I nursed her until she was very sleepy, then tried to pop her off the boob. Nuh-uh. I let her latch back on, waited again, popped her off, nuh-uh. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat again, but this time when I popped her off I moved back away from her. She settled right down and is now napping in the bed. The goal was to get her to sleep in the cosleeper, but I think the bed is a good compromise.

It got me thinking about all the time I've spent sleeping with Sterling so far in her life.

When she was just born, I was petrified that she was going to stop breathing. I spent the first night thinking that one of us (me or Mike) should be awake with her the whole time. We ended up both falling asleep and then sleeping for like 6 hours because my nursing alarm didn't wake me up enough. She slept that night mostly on my chest, I think.

She seemed to sleep better when she was partly upright, back when she was a tiny newborn. I spent a number of nights on the couch propped up with pillows with her on my chest at her favorite angle. I did that in the bed as well. I would prop myself partly up with pillows so that her head was higher than her feet when she was asleep on my chest. I never rolled over and tipped her off.

I've always been a side-sleeper. I don't sleep well on my back normally, so I started rolling her off my chest to sleep on my arm when we would wake up to nurse the first time. She didn't seem to mind.

I slept several nights with her on my chest sleeping in the recliner. We would leave the overhead LED Christmas lights on, which makes it bright enough to see. It was really a convenient way to sleep before I learned to nurse laying on my side. All I had to do was sit the recliner up, I didn't have to mess with pillows behind me and a boppy under the baby and a pillow under my elbow to keep her in position.

Sometimes Mike wanted to sleep with her. He'd lay on the couch and lay her sideways across his chest. Early on, I was very afraid that he would roll onto her or that she would slide down and suffocate in the couch cushions. When he fell asleep with her like that, I would lay awake on the other couch and wait for her to make a noise so I could go retrieve her and give her a nurse. He never squished her and I eventually got over it.

It's amazing how fuzzy and faded these memories are already. I put it down to sleep deprivation, even though Sterling has always been a pretty good night sleeper. The newborn days just sort of blend together into a big fuzzy mishmash of baby stuff.

Tiny Toes

I meant to post a while back when Sterling discovered her toes. I didn't quite get to it. She can now get them into her mouth when she's not wearing a diaper (cloth diapers are pretty bulky and prevent her from wiggling as freely as she might like).

Belated 4 month pictures

I've been taking pictures every month because I have these month stickers. I've been a little slow getting the 4 month pictures done. I finally managed to do it today. Cutest baby ever.