New Talents

Sterling has started blowing a lot of spit bubbles. The quantity of drool is increasing as well. I'm hoping that this doesn't mean that she's going to start teething early. I'm not sure I can handle nursing a 3-month-old with teeth.

She's at the very start of grabbing at things. She's put her hand up on her bottle a couple of times, but hasn't really grabbed it. She'll bat at toys when she's laying on her play gym. She's getting better at inserting various parts of her hand into her mouth.

She's much better at tracking things with her eyes. She will turn her head to follow something that she's interested in looking at (like a person's face).

Last night, we slept almost 6 hours in a row! The morning wasn't as much of a success though. Sterling woke up at about 5:30 to nurse. At that point, I noticed that the dog was making very suspicious gurgling noises. I pretended I didn't hear him, but he started whining to go out at 6. When I got back inside, the baby was awake, so I got her up, changed her diaper, and moved her into her swing so I could make her up a bottle. She promptly fell asleep, so there's a bottle warming and no baby to drink it right now.

I wish it was safe to put babies to sleep on their tummies. I put her down that way while I brushed my teeth the other night and she looked so much happier than splayed out on her back.

2 Month Well-Baby Appointment

Sterling is totally healthy. The Dr says that her congestion and snuffling is probably caused by reflux, but that it's normal in babies and that hers isn't bad enough to be concerned about. In my googling on the subject, I learned that it's good to keep babies with reflux more upright when they eat (I've started feeding her bottles in an almost sitting position) and to keep them upright for 20 or so minutes after eating. Both of those things seem to help with the snuffling. The thing that seems to help the best is not giving her formula. Breast milk really reduces the congestion, so I think there's also an allergy or sensitivity component to the snuffling as well.

She got the rest of her 2 months shots today, having gotten the DTaP shot before we went to CA. Turns out that one was by far the worst. The tetanus is apparently the one that makes the muscle really sore. She spent that night holding her leg still and sleeping in my lap. She'd startle, jerk her leg, it would hurt, and she'd wake up crying. I'd rock and nurse her back to sleep, then she'd do it again a half hour later. It was a long evening. For these two shots, she cried at the doctor's office, but has been pretty much fine at home. She's perhaps slightly more fussy than usual, but not nearly as painful as she was last time. Today she got her rotavirus vaccine (an oral one), pneumococcal, and hepatitis B.

Funny!

I'm almost positive that Sterling laughed for the first time last night. Then, this morning when we were changing her (ginormous, messy, poopy) diaper, she did it again! I'm excited. Baby laughing!

Likes and Dislikes - Week 8

Things Sterling Likes:

Still popular from the last edition of Things Sterling Likes are:

-being carried in the Moby wrap (she usually falls asleep)


-her swing

-eating - she sometimes downs 4 ounces at a time now.

-eating while being carried in the Moby wrap.

New entries:

-wiggling on her play mat


-making cooing noises

-baths - we cover her with a washcloth and pour warm water on it to keep her nice and toasty. They're starting to become more of a necessity because she gets sticky from milk / formula in her neck creases.

-traveling - she's been on several trips now. This was her first plane trip. She did some excellent eating while traveling.

-riding in her car seat either while in the car (as long as the car is moving) or while the car seat is mounted in her BOB stroller. The only problem is keeping the sun off of her.

Things Sterling Hates:
-not eating
-shots
-gas pains

Increasing our Baby Investment

Nearly 2 months ago, we started out with 20 inches and 7 lb 3oz of baby. Our quantity of baby depreciated to 6 lb 2oz. Since then, amount of baby has been on the upswing, with a pronounced increase in value recently. As of yesterday evening, we possess 10lb 5oz (165 oz) and 22.9 inches of baby. This is a 43% increase in the overall quantity of baby and a 68% increase from the lowest baby value!

It's always gratifying to see an increase in investments.

Visit to Granny's

We took Sterling on her first plane trip down to CA to visit her Great-Grandmother. She slept through the entire first flight, which was awesome. I was worried about her ears getting plugged up because she's been congested recently, but it didn't end up being a problem.

Granny was very excited to meet her great-granddaughter. Sterling was pretty excited too.

 

My mother was also down visiting, which was great. Sterling got to spend some time with her grandmother too.

Sterling slept in the bassinet that my brother and I slept in as babies. I'm not sure if my mother also slept there when she was little.

 It was pretty neat to have four generations of women in my family together in one place.

Wiggling

Sterling has become an expert wiggler. She's also really getting into interacting with things on her play mat. She likes to kick the hanging elephant because it makes noise. Today, she discovered that if she kicks the support beam thing, she could get the monkey to move. This was exciting because the monkey was hanging near her head. She also batted at it a couple of times with her hand and then tried to catch it in her mouth.