Annabelle stopped sleeping through the night. For a mommy and daddy who really love their sleep this has been a rough trip. At Annabelle’s 4 month well baby check our pediatrician told us it would be fine to start solid foods since she is a formula fed baby. If your baby is exclusively breastfed they recommend waiting until six months. It is yet another reason why formula is sub-par to breastmilk.

So John and I mixed the runny rice cereal, we got out our video camera, we strapped her into her chair, we tied on the biggest bib we could find and shoveled the cereal into our baby’s mouth. She didn’t not like it, but her tongue, doing as four month old tongues do, pushed most of it back out again.  As reccomended by our pediatrician, we continued the treacherous, and messy battle for a week.  Annabelle got better, but most of the cereal ended up on us, on her, and on her bib.

So at the week mark we decided to try carrots. I bought a two pack of Gerber Stage one Carrots and shoveled them in. The reception was much more enthusiastic, but if I thought the cereal was everywhere, the carrots were a whole new ball game. I scrubbed carrots off of my child in places I didn’t know carrots could go…

She was doing better, but still not great. I decided to perservere and chopped, boiled and pureed my own carrots this time. I dug out the seemingly useless tiny tupperwares and meticulously measured out carrot alotments. After the six day mark I moved on to bananas.

It was when my daughter wore more bananas than ingested (sweet, yummy, amazing bananas everywhere but in her tummy) that we slowed way down for another week.

And one day when our hungry daughter turned her head at her bottle, I pulled out some carrots, mixed up some cereal and she ate, enthusiastically, voraciously, and at least 3/4 of the prepared food ended up inside of her. Granted, I’m still swabbing carrot crusties out of her nose, and this is a couple of baths later… and yesterday she ate a freshly mashed banana and loved it.

I feel much less like I’m forcing her to ingest food she isn’t ready for and much more like I’m experiencing solid foods at my daughter’s pace.

As a side note, I’m learning how to make homemade babyfood (I’ve mentioned this before).

I invite you to check out wholesomebabyfood.com if you are interested, you can look up recipes by age, or food type. It also has lots of information on storage, one of the best introduction schedules that I’ve seen and a good FAQ.

Today I’m going to make some mashed sweet potatos for Annabelle and some baked sweet potato fries for John and myself.

Today was a rough day on the Annabelle front- she started spitting the formula back up. I think I’m going to relent and call the doctor tomorrow. I feel badly because it really takes it out of her, and it’s hard to watch a constantly hungry baby.

Her new favorite obsessions include trying to suck on our fingers and Lily. She will look at our dog, just sitting there, and laugh her heart out. Lily is unsure of it all, but Annabelle is clearly in love with her puppy. I fear she’ll skip “momma” and “daddy” as her first words and go straight to “Lily”, or “Puppy” or “Doggy”… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’m come to the realization that I’m quite obsessed with my child. It’s really hard not to spend vast amounts of time pondering her cuteness, intelligence, or personality. I can’t help but feeling like my baby is indeed the best baby in the world. It takes constant self-reminders that most parents feel that way about their babies, and that I shouldn’t think that way too much.

I can also spend great deals of time dressing her. I enjoy mixing and matching her clothing for what I feel is the best possible wardrobe. My justification for this is that soon she will be dressing herself, less than fashionably, and as not to squash her creative self expression, let her.

The baby is getting big- real big. No longer is she the frail newborn asleep in my arms, baby burrito style, she wiggles, coos, yells, cries, and in general is not afraid nor unwilling to express herself. She’s a little person.

It is wonderful.

Annabelle has been spitting up a lot. I think we need to switch the formula we use. It makes me feel even worse about ceasing breastfeeding. That’s the thing about being a parent, it’s one guilt trip after another. I can understand now why parents feel so free to guilt their teenagers.

My life is a flurry of whether to vaccinate, when to vaccinate, how to vaccinate, solids or no? When? Which ones first? Diapers? cloth? disposable? the cheap ones or the expensive ones? Cry it out? No? Sleep? When? Schedules? Naps? How long? What time? Spitting up? How much? Why? Burping? Where? Shoulder? Tummy? Tummy time? How long? Where at? Which toys? How many toys? Rolling over?

Sometimes it makes my head want to burst. I mean, these are not intellectual challenges, but nobody feels more strongly about these questions than every single parent, and man, people are very very set in how to do all of these things. It is often difficult to make sense of the varying points of view, and it’s scary when it seems like following your instincts isn’t working. Then you get these “I’m a terrible mommy complexes”. I often find myself taking a deep breath and reminding myself that my baby is happy, healthy, and perfectly well-adjusted and that I am taking perfectly good care of her.

And it’s amazing how beautiful and wonderful and how amazingly perfect she really is. (I swore I’d never be that parent). I am convinced there is some evolutionary thing that makes you feel that way about your own baby. How else would you deal with the spit up, the poop, the crying, the early wake up calls? Just when I feel like I’m at my wits end, without fail, she smiles at me or just looks so flippin’ cute my heart melts away.

So three months and one week in of being a mother- I haven’t messed up yet. My daughter appears to be doing very well. I’ve maintained my sanity and have earned a whole new level of patience. There have been relatively few tears on both of our parts. My house is arranged, clean and organized. I still cook meals. I am a wicked multi-tasker and have mastered the art of one handed typing.

So today was the big day for Annabelle’s first round of vaccinations. Ay- it wasn’t so bad. She was a lot less upset than I thought she would be.  She cried a little but then I picked her up and the doctor gave her the oral rotavirus vaccine which is really sweet and tasty and she was perfectly happy after that. Though, she has been really really fussy since her appointment, but that could be her lack of good sleep.

She weighed 11 lbs 13 and a half oz. She was 22 and three quarters inches long. So she is in the 75th percentile for height and weight. The doctor said she looks awesome, is healthy and beautiful. So YEAY!

Annabelle is now in her crib as we speak and we are listening to her on the baby monitor. Mostly I’m hearing whales from her “Sleep Sheep”. We are actively trying to transition her into her crib instead of sleeping in our room. It’s pretty challenging since we aren’t willing to let her Cry it Out.

My new favorite thing is the Moby Wrap. By far, it is the best baby carrier yet. It is comfortable and Annabelle seems to love it. John has taken a liking to the Baby Bjorn.

John and I are trying to do some reorganization of our house. We have a long list of projects we are going to start whittling away at over the next couple of weeks. Among them, child proofing, thankyou notes, and some serious rearranging.

That’s the scoop from our neck of the woods!

In the spirit of keeping up with our new year’s resolution of posting more I have a couple of things.

We had a great Holiday in Nebraska. We really enjoyed seeing all of our friends and family and introducing Annabelle to everybody.  Annabelle is certainly a very loved little girl and John and I are both very thankful for that. We appreciated everybody’s hospitality and willingness to tend to Annabelle’s needs.

Annabelle recently got a new baby swing. It has been a savior. Annabelle is willing to spend quite a bit of time there, and also enjoys sleeping in her swing. It is a papasan style so she is able to lay down in it, rather than sit up.  So my sincere gratitude to Fisher Price for creating such a thing.

It makes nature sounds and has a mobile, and you can also turn the seat in three different directions, which she really seems to love.

Annabelle is two months old, and this week we will be seeing her pediatrician and starting her vaccinations. I’m a little nervous- I’m not sure if she is going to cry more, or if I am.

We are enjoying some really nice weather in Durham.  We’ve been able to take Annabelle on walks with Lily two days in a row with temperatures somewhere in the sixties. Yesterday there was even sun. I’m still having a hard time believing that it is January!

I hope everybody is enjoying the new year and sticking with those resolutions!

I would just like to put it out there-

Annabelle Simone Owens slept from 1 am until 10 am.

9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

9 hours!

Annabelle seems to be eating a lot lately. I need to double check my baby development books but she’ll easily eat four ounces a crack, and if she doesn’t get them (say we only offer her three ounces…) she will not rest until she has consumed her fill. And on that note…

Yesterday when I was carrying her inside in her carseat, the whole bundle felt heavy! Dare I say my little darling is gaining some serious weight? I hesitate because we have her one month checkup tomorrow, and it will be sad, and a little disheartening if they say she isn’t gaining weight, or still not gaining quickly enough.

So keep your fingers crossed that my little mouse, is indeed becoming more mighty.

This is an idea I got from another person’s blog. He wrote a letter to his son at the end of every month. I think it’s a neat idea, and I thought I’d try it out.

Dear Annabelle,

It seems unreal that you have been in the big wide world for an entire month. It has been amazing to get to know you in person after having you inside of me for nine long months. You have really changed over the course of this month.

You have started moving your head around, and you can focus on a moving object. You have begun smiling and overall you are much more awake and alert. You started out as this teeny tiny sleepy little bundle who only really cried or made noise when you were hungry or if you had a belly ache.

Your favorite place to sleep is in bed snuggled next to your dad or me. We try to have you sleep in your cradle, but sometimes you insist otherwise. You love to look in the mirror at your own reflection, or at somebody else’s face. You also like looking at the pictures hanging above the bed. They are bright colors on a dark background. You still like to be wrapped tight (burrito style) in your blankets when you are fussy, but otherwise enjoy having your arms free to wave around.

At first you didn’t gain weight very quickly, but now you seem to be catching up. Your clothes are snugger and I think we are nearly ready for the next size of diapers. All of that eating is really starting to pay off.

This is turning out to be quite an adventure- and at first taking care of you was really scary. You seemed so fragile! I wasn’t always sure why you were crying or even what to do with you. I think I’m starting to get the hang of your wants and needs. Things like changing your clothes and giving you a bath are not nearly as nerve-wracking as they were before.

I love you my little Mighty Mouse and I’m very excited for our next month together.

Love,

Mom

Annabelle was not particularly fond of bathtime. Granted, bathtime was her laid out on a towel being wiped down with a washcloth and a bowl of warm water. Despite our best efforts to keep her covered while being bathed she wiggles a lot and inevitably she would wriggle the covers off.

However, once put in the bathtub, Annabelle had a change of heart. She now enjoys her bathtimes profusely. This has made bathtime less traumatic for all involved parties, because she has a nice squeal and isn’t afraid to use it.

Here is a tub photo for all of you who haven’t seen her yet.