Stats

Heather at 2 months and 1 day:

10 lb, 0 oz
22 1/2" long
37 cm head circumference

Still has cradle cap (bad mommy!), but is otherwise in great shape

Loved the apparently tasty oral vaccine
Cried (though not any louder than I've heard before) and turned red during 3 shots

Was happy to eat afterward and collapsed with sleep in my arms on the way to the car

Was fussy in the evening because she missed her afternoon nap, but finally had an evening nap on daddy and slept fine after a midnight snack

**************************

Today Heather met my coworkers and they all think she's beautiful. The receptionist called all of the females in the office to come meet her soon after we arrived. After she did a little fussing, several men showed up to say hi, too. We also visited the owner of the coffee shop in my building and the yarn shop across the street. It was a fun outing.

Tomorrow is another playdate with Max and Marcus. If her afternoon nap pattern continues, I should be able to get some knitting done while she sleeps. :-)

2 months, 2/3rds and Easter

I wasn't going to post until I had taken pictures of recent finished knitting to post, but that's one thing I never got to this weekend. So maybe that will make my next post...

Heather turned 2 months old yesterday. Since I've never really know a 8 week old baby before, it is hard to know if anything we see is part of Heather's personality or just typical baby stuff. The good news is that she finally seems to be accepting of her need for sleep. For nearly a week, she's slept 6-7 hours in a row overnight and for the past few days she's taken a significant nap in the afternoon, with catnaps between other feedings. She's also become much more alert - looking and toys and faces - and she seems to enjoy when R and I talk to her. I even read her a book the other night, although her interest seemed to be in my voice and not in the pages of the book. We're also beginning to hear sounds other than just crying. Some happy noises and some sounds of frustration that are not really cries.

Sadly, I'm 2/3rds of the way through my maternity leave. I'm not dreading going back to work, but I am going to miss the time that I've had with Heather. And now that she's napping, I'm going to miss the time to get things done around here. Also, R and I are going to have to fight over her in the evenings after work...at the moment, R gets her as much as he wants in the evening since I've had her all day. :-)

We had a nice visit with my parents over the weekend. Having the help enabled me to get some very overdue cleaning done, do some knitting, and get caught up on the processing of Heather's gifts. (That in itself is practically a full time job!) I have more thank you notes to write again, but I hope to bang those out in the next couple of days.

We had a very nice time on Heather's first Easter with R's family and my parents. R's aunt hosted Easter dinner and there was a pretty good turnout. It was nice for Heather to meet more of her family and I always enjoy the opportunity to get out of the house. (I'm trying not to be bitter about the cold weather that has kept us indoors for the past week!)

This afternoon is Heather's next pediatrician appointment and her first round of shots. Not looking forward to the shots, but I'm guessing that they will be more traumatic for me than for her. :-)

The photo shows the last time she'll wear this particular newborn sized outfit. The first time she wore it I had to hike up the pants like an old man.

Hair

I think Heather's hair is coming in. A week or two ago, the top of her scalp was totally bald, and now the same area looks like she got a buzz cut. The hair on the back and sides is about the same as it was at birth...so maybe that stuff is permanent and is going to start growing when the rest catches up? It will be interesting to see.

Last night I went with Amanda to see "Sweet Charity" starring Molly Ringwald. Overall it was a fine show. The plot was thin, but the Neil Simon comedy was funny. Oscar's clausterphobia bit in the elevator made me laugh so hard that I cried. Kudos to Guy Adkins for his fine work. The dancing was also very cool. Much of the choreography was very 60's, but there were also pugilist and marching band styles as well. My biggest gripe with the show was the costumes. Every character wore the same costume for the entire show, despite the passage of time. As if the audience is too dumb to keep track of the characters unless they wear the same thing the whole time. For those who are curious, Molly was fine. She did what she needed to do but she didn't blow me away.

Just one show left on the subscription. AlterBoyz in May.

Busy, fun weekend

First, the Harlot. Heather and I were running a little later than planned, but Amanda had been kind enough to save us a seat in the third row and within minutes all the ladies near us were cooing over Heather's cuteness. Can't blame them. :-)

With Heather in the baby bjorn, I was able to knit while we waited for the event to start and for about the first 15 minutes of the speech. But it was a bit tiring to knit without resting my arms on the bjorn, so I didn't knit beyond that.

Stephanie was wonderful. She seemed to be a little nervous at first, but she relaxed within a few minutes when it became clear that we all thought she was funny and engaging as always. (I've read about 30 pages of the book so far, and it's great, too!) I think she spoke for about an hour, and given that Heather was asleep the whole time I would have been happy for her to speak for another hour. I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while!

Heather and I had been assigned to Group C for signatures, but Stephanie requested that those with kid be allowed to jump ahead in line. Since Heather was still asleep, I didn't butt my way to the front, but we did join Group A. Of course, just as we got to the head of the line for our turn, Heather woke up. So Stephanie and I didn't have too long to chat because I knew Heather would want to eat pronto. We did get our picture taken (I'm holding Heather's knitting needles :-) I don't usually stand in profile for pictures...that was for Heather's benefit!)

While Amanda was in line, Heather ate. And then the three of us spent some time talking with Julia and Amanda got some Heather time. Even after a diaper change, Heather continued to be fussy, and that was what prompted Stephanie to come over and demonstrate the Harlot-patented "calming butt pat". It works fabulously well, and though Amanda had a little difficulty with the rhythm at first, but I can tell you that Amanda successfully calmed Heather the following afternoon with her new knowledge. :-) Overall, a wonderful evening, and Heather and I are honored to be mentioned in Stephanie's post about the event.

(Although, I admit, I'm a little intimidated to bring up the content around here. My Harlot teaser post garnered a record number of comments and it leads me to believe that quite a few people probably lurked over here from the Stephanie's link and my comments. Hopefully I can rise to the occasion!)

Saturday was fun as well. R, Heather and I attended Marcus' first birthday party. It was a fun afternoon and Heather's first party. It's great that she has a few older friends who can let us (and eventually her) know what toys are most fun. :-)

Heather and Max:

Marcus, with his parents, after eating his cake:

Heather with her Dad:
I'm a few rows away from started the Clapotis decreases. If I don't have it finished by the weekend, I'll finish it over the weekend. :-)

Now I'm off to read other accounts of these fun events!

Touched by the Harlot

This is just a teaser until I have time for a real recap of the fabulous time Heather and I had last night. :-)

ETA...

To piggyback on my last post, I should add that I'm thrilled to have the stroller. Not having it has constantly been in the back of my mind. There were only a couple of times that I could have used it before we got it, but it felt like this big *thing* we were missing. There are still a couple of small things we'll need in the next few months, but nothing that feels like such a big hole like the stroller did.

Secondly, I forgot to mention something very important about Heather. Within the past few days, she has seemed to become much more aware of her surroundings. The toys on the playmat hold more interest and the toy bar on the bouncy seat (as well as making the bouncy seat bounce) can keep her entertained while I shower. And it finally feels like she's looking at us and responding to what we have to say to her.

Oh, and the sleepiness on the playmat was just a catnap. By the time I went to the bathroom, she was awake. So I'm still due for that nap...

The harlot, the stroller and the back

I'm going to go with list format to make it easier on me. :-)

1 - R was out of town Tuesday night. Even with a visit from a friend (and her adorable son) and leaving the house twice to run errands, it was a long day. Heather only slept in the bjorn and the car, so I barely got to put her down at all while we were home. She wasn't fussy for the most part, but it is very tiring.

2 - She spent part of Tuesday night in bed with me because it was just easier and there was plenty of room without R there. Also, I woke up at 6am with some return of back pain, so it was easier to have her close and not have to get her in and out of the crib. 24 hours of motrin, some rest and a couple of hot showers had my muscles back to normal by Thursday morning.

3 - Wednesday we had a playdate, although at Heather's age it was primarily for me since she couldn't take advantage of all of Marcus' great toys or the swings at the park. But we did go get her stroller. Very cool.

4 - Wednesday night we were invited to dinner at a neighbor's house. They cooed over Heather and I enjoyed their 4 month old kitten. ;-)

5 - Wednesday night was an awful night. Heather mostly refused to sleep. So Thursday we rested in the morning and took our inaugural walk in the neighborhood in the afternoon. Very nice to have the stroller so I can get some exercise. My only complaint so far is that the cup holder isn't very good. Although given the state of sidewalks in our neighborhood, I don't know that I could really use it even if worked better. I held my coffee while we walked, and it continued to splash out of the top even when it was half empty.

6 - Heather and I are going to see The Yarn Harlot tonight! Woo hoo! Must go finish my hat...

7 - The episode of "Ellen" that is on today is the February 9th episode. So the first time this show aired I was just coming out of the anesthesia from my c-section.

8 - Heather just fell asleep on her playmat. Pardon me while I hit the couch for a snooze myself!

*sigh*

I'll make a better post later, but at the moment I'm tired. Heather allowed me a grand total of 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. And that's not counting all of the times that I put her down, slept for 10-15 minutes and then woke up to her crying. I have no idea why she wouldn't go or stay asleep.

She seems to be asleep in her bouncy seat at the moment...so my planned post will have to wait while I try to grab a little snooze myself.

Power

I forgot one important tidbit in yesterday's post. Heather's strength continues to amaze me. I realize that she has little control over what she's doing at this point, but her actions are still impressive.

Several times, when I've come to get her out of the crib, I've found that she had a unique way of getting unswaddled. Instead of the very simple kicking off of the blanket, she has scooted herself out of the top of it, leaving the blanket in it's initial location. Twice she has also turned herself perpendicular to her original angle and once I found her on her side.

Most impressively, one morning she rolled herself from her back to her stomach while I was watching. Though once she got onto her stomach she seemed annoyed that she was lying on one of her arms so she couldn't easily move from that position.

Once she learns how to control all the power she has, we're in trouble.

My specific focus

Much of the reason that I haven't posted for the past few days is that I would continue posting about Heather's sleep habits on a day by day basis. This is a habit I really need to break. Not only is it probably painfully boring for the majority of my readers, but it's potentially embarassing for Heather when she gets older. :-)

Let's just say that I still think Heather's in the midst of her growth spurt, but she is sleeping well enough that I haven't felt the need to nap for the past few days.

I'm happy to report that until more presents come, I am caught up on thank you notes. Since the shower, I've gone through 80 of them and I need to buy more. Heather is just too popular. It's interesting that such great things (weddings, babies) result in the writing of many, many thank yous.

Not much to report from the past week, since we haven't had any visits since Sunday. Heather and I had to postpone the only plans we had because the car needed to go in for a little service. It's back now, and hopefully won't need to return to the dealer for a long, long time.

R's parents are coming to visit tomorrow and one of my coworkers may stop by on Sunday. Sunday is also supposed to be a lovely spring day, so I hope that a walk around the neighborhood will work for us. Next week, we have visitors coming Tuesday afternoon and we have a playdate on Wednesday. On Friday, we're going to see The Yarn Harlot speak on her latest book tour and on Saturday we have a 1st birthday party to attend. There is a lot to look forward to!

Or not...

I promise not to bore you all with a play by play of Heather's sleep every night, because as soon as I try to predict it, it changes again.

After 24 hours of eating every two hours and never napping for longer than 30 minutes, Heather slept for 6 hours straight! I put her down at 11:30 after a feeding that took an hour because she kept falling asleep. She wasn't out when I put her down, but she was groggy. I heard some noises at 4:30, but she didn't cry until 5:30am. Incredible!

According to the baby books, sleeping for 6 hours straight is considered "sleeping through the night". If it happens on a more regular basis I'll let you know if it really feels like she's sleeping through the night. Until I'm a little more "caught up" on sleep, it's hard to tell.

But I have no qualms with getting 7 hours of sleep last night *and* I being showered by noon. :-)

Clapotis is going well. I'm in the straight section already, although I didn't do all of the increase sections in the pattern because I have a bigger gauge and I don't want it to be huge.

It's sunny and 55 degrees outside. I might take Heather for a short walk after she eats...maybe to the coffeeshop...we'll see. :-)

Yep.

I jinxed it. After her 11:30pm feeding last night, Heather had NO interest in sleep. She was fighting it with every fiber of her being and the only option I was left with was to let her fall asleep on my chest on the couch after I fed her again at 1:30.

And I'm pretty sure the growth spurt is underway. She's eaten every two hours almost on the dot since 4am. I managed to get her to sleep twice during the day, but in both cases she woke up after 20-30 minutes.

I'll get my shower after we eat dinner I guess...

There is a reason she is so darn cute. :-)

Sleep Jinx?

I hate to even post this, for fear that it will end any day now...especially since Heather is due for a growth spurt soon...

We've had four good nights in a row. Last night was especially lovely. We put Heather down around 10:30 and she slept until 3:30am! A new record. Over the past four nights, I've been able to put her down in her crib (or pack'n'play) after each feeding and she had settled down to sleep. Even when she wasn't already asleep when I put her down. And each time, she has slept at least 2 hours and at least once a night she has slept over 3 hours.

I've also discovered over the course of the past few days that both riding in the car and the baby bjorn have a tranquilizing effect on Heather. On Friday, Heather, Rebecca and I went to Babies'R Us and Eat'n'Park. In both places she was nearly silent thanks to the bjorn and the car seat. The outing was surprisingly easy, especially with Rebecca's help. And it was lovely to go to a restaurant. :-)

On Saturday, Heather and I went to a friend's baby shower. Once again, the drive put a fussy baby to sleep and she stayed asleep in the car seat through the introductions, lunch and one of the games. And after she ate, she went back to sleep until just before we left for home. (Alas, I neglected to photograph the washcloths that I made as a part of the gift. I used sugar'n'cream cotton and this pattern. I made one using five colors and then a solid version in each of those five colors.)

Today, Heather and I went to Home Depot with Erin to look at paint colors for Erin's new home. The car ride wasn't long enough to soothe her, but the baby bjorn put her right to sleep.

Overall, it was great to have Rebecca here for a few days. Great to see her and have her meet Heather. It was also reassuring to have a pediatrician watch me for a few days and not see that we're doing anything really wrong...not that I thought we were, but it's still nice. :-)

And the Clapotis is begun.

Clapotis is next

I'll be back to post more soon about Heather's first shopping trip, a friend's shower, my best friend's visit and possible improvements to Heather's sleep schedule that are likely to disappear next week when she hits her next growth spurt.

The reason I'm posting is that I know what my next knitting project is now that I have finished knitting baby shower presents. Heather and I need another Clapotis. The one I have is wool and it isn't washable. I found today that it is a nice wrap for discretely breastfeeding in public. But not only do I not want Heather to spit up on it...it's also too hot. If she's too hot while she's eating she just falls asleep and the feedings take longer.

I think I have some hand-painted cotton in the stash that will do nicely. We'll see how long it takes to knit...

Trust your instincts

I was thinking that the Newborn size diapers were looking small, but I was hoping to use as many of them as we could before switching to size 1. Especially since the Newborn size claim to fit up to 10lb and Heather can't even be up to 8 1/2lb yet.

Two stained t-shirts later and we have switched to Size 1.

Anyone need 160 newborn sized diapers?

Not as planned

I'm totally aware of the fact that my life can't really be "planned" right now. I can't even plan to do anything before 1pm and guarantee that I can be showered by that point in the day. So don't take the title to mean that I had unrealistic expectations. (I just saw a funny episode of Bringing Home Baby where Dad had expectations that he could go play hockey the night that baby came home from the hospital because she would be sleeping during the game according to her "schedule" - LOL!)

The only reason that I had any expectations for the weekend was because my parents were here for a visit. So I assumed that I'd be able to get a little extra sleep and a few small projects (and some knitting) accomplished while other people were holding Heather. The kink in the plan was my back. It kicked into severe pain on Thursday night, a few hours after my parents arrival. Thanks to the bottle of EBM in the fridge I was able to stay prone until Heather's 4:30am feeding and I felt better in the morning. Unfortunately, some of the pain returned on Friday night, so I took it easy on Saturday and barely left the couch all day Sunday. By Monday afternoon my back felt normal again. So none of the little projects I had hoped to work on got done. Oh well. Not the end of the world, it just wasn't as fun of a weekend as I had anticipated. Being in pain is not fun.

I was able to get in to see the doctor yesterday, and the diagnosis is that carrying Heather messed up my back. My lower spine is arched out and my posture has changed. There is no easy fix, just preventative measures to keep my back muscles loose and happy. Stretches, massage, lifting with my legs and core strengthening exercises once I'm up for exercise (birth ball becomes exercise ball). The doctor also described what R can do to mitigate the pain if it returns.

I did manage to get myself almost caught up on thank you notes, three to go until more presents arrive. Also, the pain was minimal on Saturday, so I got to use my tickets to see "Doubt" while Heather hung out with her grandparents.

And I should mention two other recent visits. Annie and Marcus came last week to see us. It's hard to believe that Marcus is almost a year old. (Heather has been invited to her first birthday party!) Today's visit was from Cara and Max. I can't believe how much Max has changed since I saw him less than 2 months ago! He is much more like a little boy than a baby and he's sitting up on his own like a pro. Considering how much he wants to be standing, I'm sure he will be as soon as his legs will cooperate.

The only milestone I can think of at the moment is that we'll probably be transitioning to bigger diapers soon. We haven't had any major problems yet, but the waistband looks stretched out when I go to change her, so I think we're getting there.

Milestones

Sunday I left the house without Heather. It's the furthest I've been from her...well...since she was conceived. :-) I went to the grocery store while R's parents were visiting us. It was strange to be out and in a strange way it was a reminder that I'm not pregnant anymore. I'm sure that sounds strange, but it was the first time I was out and about since she was born and I was surprised at how conscious I was of not being pregnant anymore.

It was also the first time I had driven the car since my little accident. I managed to back the car into the garage when I returned, but I admit that I did it very slowly and it made me a little nervous. No problems, but I was thinking about the accident the whole time I was parking.

A few milestones today, too. I managed to get a shower without anyone else here to watch Heather. She fell asleep in the sling while I was eating breakfast. I transitioned her to the bouncy seat in the bathroom and I showered while she slept. She woke up just as I finished getting dressed. :-)

I'm also one pound below my pre-pregnancy weight and I'm currently wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans! Gotta love breastfeeding.

I'm hoping for a milestone or two this weekend as well. The temperatures are supposed to be in the 50s!

A couple new photos

There are more at gallery.trovish.org as well.

Saturday night we had an excellent night. Heather slept 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours between feedings and only required about 20 minutes of rocking after a few feedings. Last night was less restful, but still not bad. She was never fussy, she was just very alert after her 1:30 meal. But since I was rested from the night before I was able to get a little reading done while I rocked her. :-)

I still need to photograph the log cabin blanket...

Sleep is a Wonderful Thing

I'm concerned that yesterday's post was a bit too negative. Being tired led me to focus only on the difficulties of the past week and not any of the nice changes that I've seen. My impression is that Heather had quite a few more "quiet, alert" periods throughout the week, which are enjoyable even during a period of sleep deprivation. We are anxious for her to be more responsive to outside stimuli, but she is still pretty cute to stare at even when you don't know what is causing her various facial expressions.

With R's help during Heather's "alert" periods overnight, I got a couple more hours of sleep than the past few nights and I feel better today. We also had a nice visit from three of my knitting friends, which improved my mood as well. :-) Tomorrow will include a possible visit from Heather's PA grandparents and a possible short trip for me to my knitting group. (It's only 5 minutes from home - so it will just depend on how things pan out around here.)

Long Week

My "Strange and Amazing" post seems even more amazing after the week we've had. All of a sudden, Heather seems uninterested in sleeping in either the crib or the pack'n'play. She can fall asleep on one of us and be in a deep sleep, and if we put her down she wakes up anywhere from 5-60 minutes after being put down. And that's even if she clearly needs sleep.

Not only is it difficult to deal with the sudden dearth of sleep, but the change also came at the point when R went back to work and night duty became all mine. The short term solution this week was for her and I to sleep together on the couch, but even last night that wasn't good enough as she was awake for 3 hours following her midnight feeding and I had difficulty settling her down for any significant naps this afternoon. The first time she fell asleep on me, I put her in the P'n'P after a bit because I needed food. She lasted about 30 minutes. The next time I let her sleep on me, but she still only slept for 2 hours and woke up in a foul mood.

We need to start trying to swaddle her for sleep in the hopes that if she can't move she'll have more difficulty waking herself up. The thing that makes it difficult is figuring out when to do the swaddling, because she really dislikes it when she's awake enough to know what's going on.

I'm hopeful that the recent changes are just the result of a growth spurt and it will pass soon. The other possibility (based on other observations and things I've read) is that she's having a mild case of reflux. As a pre-emptive measure, I've decided to stop eating the most likely foods that could cause her discomfort. It unfortunately means that some of the dairy products in the refrigerator will go bad unless the friends who are coming to visit tomorrow want to take some of them home...

The log cabin blanket is finished and blocking. I also finished the bib (a shower gift) except for the buttons and started a washcloth (another shower gift). I also need to see if the booties and mittens I started in January have any chance of fitting Heather. Though the only real goal for the weekend is to get caught up on thank you notes while R is around to help with Heather - because I can't get them done during the week when she isn't napping in the P'n'P.

There is a knitting GTG on Sunday and it is at a friend's house only 5 minutes from our house. I'd like to go for a little while (I haven't left the house since the 16th), and whether Heather comes with me depends on how much sleep we both get between now and then. Of course, if she doesn't come with me I won't be able to stay as long because I haven't pumped any milk yet.