Today marks the first day of the second trimester! The first one has been pretty rough for me, at least compared to how it went with the girls – all day nausea, food aversions like you wouldn’t believe, headaches, exhaustion, etc. The nausea’s intensity has definitely waned, but it’s still there. Let’s hope the word gets out that the second trimester is here.
We had an appointment on Tuesday with our amazing OB, and everything looks great. The baby had a strong heartbeat and there was a nice amount of uterine growth. On Wednesday, we had the scan and bloodwork done for the nuchal translucency, and the scan was awesome! In just 4 weeks, the baby grew from a little blobby looking thing to a tiny little BABY, with arms, legs, hands, feet, a little mouth that opened and closed… Even the third time around, it’s thrilling to see. The measurements suggest a very low risk of Down Syndrome (though we need to bloodwork results to get a better sense), and the baby was only measuring 2 days ahead, which is tiny, given our history with big babies. The other exciting news is that both the tech and the doctor felt fairly confident that we are going to have a boy.
A BOY!
It’s not definite yet, of course, but Lex and I both thought we saw the boy parts, even before the tech gave us her opinion. I don’t think anyone will be more excited than Anya, who has insisted that this baby is going to be a boy even before we were pregnant, because, as she says, “I need a brother. I already have a sister!”
Filed under: doctor,symptoms — by Lauren on August 8th, 2010 @ 8:18 pm
We’re a quarter of the way there already, and I can’t say I’m sad it’s going somewhat quickly. This first trimester seems considerably more rough than it was when I was pregnant with Anya and Sierra. I’m nauseous from morning to bedtime and unbelievably tired. I’m having major aversions to pretty much all food. This is the first time I’ve had a summer first trimester, and I don’t think this crazy heat has been helping much.
I’ve had two appointments with the doctor so far. The first was unplanned – I started having some increasing pain on my right side the day before I hit 7 weeks and they had me come in to be checked, but thankfully the scan showed that everything was fine and the working theory is that the pain is being caused by pressure on scar tissue from my appendectomy. My next appointment was my first “official” prenatal appointment with a full exam. Everything looks wonderful (see above scan). The baby has a strong heartbeat and was already measuring a full week ahead. No weight gain for me yet.
We told our parents the good news, but are still waiting a few more weeks to tell the rest of our family and our friends. We also told Anya and Sierra. Anya understands and is very excited, although she is convinced that we are having a boy because she “already has a sister” and therefore we MUST be giving her a brother this time. Sierra will tell you there’s a baby in my belly (and she likes to give it kisses, but she was already obsessed with giving my belly button kisses) and that she’s going to be a big sister, but does she understand? Not so much.
Sierra turned one (ONE!!!) on December 6th. That’s right, one! I haven’t quite come to terms with it yet.
She had her 1-year well check on December 8th – 19 lbs, 6 oz, 28 1/2 inches long, and a head circumference of 18 1/2 inches. The nurse didn’t give me the percentiles, but I asked Dr. Internet, who said she’s in the 19th percentile for weight, 25th for height, and 81st for head circumference. That’s small for a baby of mine! (Well, small, except for her big head. Must be all that hair!) I was very surprised about that. She’s got tiny feet – barely a size 2 1/2 – just like me. She’s fitting nicely in her size 4 diapers and 9-12 months wardrobe. I hope she grows a bit soon; I have all these cute 12-18 months winter clothes from Anya, and I don’t want the cold weather to pass without her getting the chance to wear them! She had 7 teeth on her first birthday. Her 8th finally broke through the gums a few days later, and tonight I discovered that she’s cutting at least one, possibly two, molars.
The doctor said Sierra is in excellent health. He commented that her verbal skills seem advanced for her age, and then he asked if we felt she and Anya had different temperaments. I thought that was an odd question at first, until I said that Sierra is certainly, um, strong-willed. He said that he didn’t want to be the one to say it, but… Yeah. That’s definitely our Sierra. She’s had strong opinions about the world since birth (Pacifier? Bottle? I THINK NOT!) and she will make sure you know it.
Sierra is still not a big fan of eating much of the time. There are a few things she really likes (grapes, cheese, most proteins, pizza), but even then she often doesn’t eat much, and just because she ate something happily yesterday does not mean she isn’t going to throw it on the floor today (I am SO not a fan of that particular behavior, and UGH! She can be so obnoxious about it. Now she does it while yelling, “NO!”).
We introduced whole milk two weeks before her birthday, and she is learning to like it, though she’d rather drink water. I also began the weaning process by eliminating her morning nursing session. My hope is to have her down to twice a day (before bed and first thing in the morning) by the time she’s 14 months, but that would require her to sleep through the night on a regular basis. A girl can dream! Some nights we get a good stretch, maybe 11-5, and a few times she even slept through the night, but some nights remain difficult.
Since last month, Sierra completely mastered pulling up, getting back down again, pushing her toys around, and rescuing herself instead of getting stuck in a corner, plus she’s gotten much braver about standing independently. She’ll push herself up to standing on pretty much anything (toys, my leg, a laptop) except the floor, and she can hold it for at least 10-15 seconds. She even took her first steps on her birthday! I don’t expect she’ll be walking for at least another month or two, but she’s getting a little closer each day.
Sierra’s still our little chatterbox. She’s talking a lot now, and she also tries to repeat just about everything. Not all of it would be understandable to someone who doesn’t know her and some things are word attempts instead of real words – like yesterday, I realized she was trying to say balloon, only she pronounced it “boppy” – but she’s getting better and adding a word or two daily. Some of the things she says really clearly are ”Mommy, Daddy, up, doggie, more, baby, cheese, tickle, tushy, keys, hi, eat, happy, bye-bye, NO…” Less clear but still consistent are “bath, milk, Anya, sister, duck, woof woof, quack, one, want, all done, bubbles, pop, Dora, backpack, touch, peepee, hooray, boom boom, I love you, puzzle, catch…” She uses about 10-15 signs regularly as well, including “please” and “I love you” – two of my favorites – and picks new ones up quickly. ”More” is her catchall sign.
Other stuff – she’s a total snuggle bunny. Sierra crawls over to me and puts her head down on my lap or shoulder, and she gives big kisses, complete with a MWAAAAH sound effect. I LOVE that. Also, she can identify a bunch of body parts, including her toes, eyes, hair, nose, mouth, teeth, belly, and tush. When I read her one of her pre-bedtime books – Baby Faces – she will respond to certain pages with the same things that I do (so when I say the baby is hungry, she signs/says “eat”; when I say that baby is dirty, she says, “ewwww”; for that baby is crying, she goes “wah wah” and does a crying hand motion; etc.). She knows all the motions for “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Shake Your Sillies Out,” and she tries to do “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” She’s also developed a recent love for the “Happy Birthday” song.
Sierra loves putting objects into and taking them out of anything she can, dogs, coloring, toy cars, baby dolls, phones (especially Lex’s iPhone), playing with clothes (she puts them on her head, it’s so funny), and all things musical. She also loves anything she shouldn’t have or shouldn’t be doing. I’ve called her an imp in several posts already, but it’s so true:
That’s what I get for leaving the tissue box within reach:
Mini-Motzart:
The girl loves trouble. Luckily, we love her. How could we not?
Video time, hooray! Here’s a few, with clips from the last 5-6 weeks.
Sierra playing with her toy cookie jar. She’s about 11 1/2 months here:
Playing in the playroom. This was after her first birthday:
This one’s just a mix of clips from the last several weeks. She’s talking more (and more clearly) now, but of course never when I have the camera ready:
Sierra turned 11 months old on November 6th. I had to take her to the doctor this past Monday (double ear infection, poor baby), so we got a bonus weigh-in – 19 lbs, 4 oz fully clothed. Dr. Internet says that’s actually only in the mid-20′s for percentile, which I found odd. She doesn’t seem tiny to me! She’s still in 9-12 months clothes, size 4 diapers, and size 2 shoes.
This month Sierra mastered pulling up and cruising, and loves to grab onto anything and everything she can to stand. The only problem is that she hasn’t quite figured out how to sit down again, so if she feels like she can’t do it, she’ll yell until someone comes to rescue her. The same goes for her push toy – she loves to walk laps across the playroom, but only knows how to go forward, so I’ll hear her shrieking and discover her stuck in a corner. She doesn’t stand on her own yet. It seems like she’s fully capable of doing so, but as soon as she realizes that I’ve let go of her, she lunges for me or drops to her tush. The only place she’s brave enough to try is in the bathroom outside of the tub. I don’t know what it is about the tub, but it must inspire her, because that was the first place she pulled herself up successfully, and now when she’s standing looking into the tub, she’ll let go for a few seconds and then clap her hands to cheer herself on. Ugh, she likes to climb, too, but thankfully (for my nerves) she’s not very good at it yet. She’s constantly trying to get a leg up into the bathtub or onto her LeapFrog table, and last week she got three-quarters of the way up onto Anya’s table in her room. I caught her trying to do it again the next day:
She’s talking more now, though I doubt anyone other than me or Lex would understand her. At last, she calls me “Mama” or “Mommy” most of the time. Sierra’s working hard on saying Anya (sounds like “Ahdah,” but that’s an improvement over calling her “Dada”). Other words we hear her trying to say include all done, milk, doggie (still one of her favorites!), Daddy, baby, diaper, cracker, ducky, quack quack, woof woof, more, hi, water, apple, up… She tries to repeat back a lot of what is said to her, and even when she doesn’t get close, she’s still matching the number of syllables. She signs really well and clearly understands that she can use signing to communicate. Yesterday at lunch, she noticed the sandwich I had ready for her and decided she’d had enough time tossing her veggies on the floor; she wanted that sandwich and she wanted it RIGHT AWAY. She signed EAT EAT EAT, shrieked, and tried her hardest to grab the sandwich. It was kind of cool to see. I’ll have to try to get some video of her signing soon.
Sierra can correctly identify her head and nose, and sometimes her eyes, tongue, and belly. She does some of the hand-motions for “Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and still enjoys “Open, Shut Them” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” In general, she loves music and bops or claps along. She points up when asked where up is, and if you ask her to go shluffy/night-night/to sleep, she does this:
Dogs are a major obsession for Sierra. Friends of ours gave Anya a stuffed animal pug toy, and Sierra often requests (er, insists) that we take it with us whenever we leave the house. She cuddles with it and kisses it. I’d like to transition that love to a different toy because it’s not the most baby safe doll, and if she loves it that much, it would be nice to let her sleep with it. I found a Spot doll in her room and so far, she’s a big fan of that one, too. Any semi-realistic-looking dog gets her so excited, and if we happen to see a real one somewhere, it’s all I can do to keep her from jumping out of my arms. She even picks out the dog piece of one of our puzzles every single time, exclaiming, “Dawdie!” or “Dawgie!”
Imitation has become a big part of Sierra’s play. It makes it fun to play with her, because she studies what we do and then tries it out herself. If you blow on her face, she cracks up and then tries to blow on your face. The other day I was dropping some links into a slinky while sitting with her on the floor, and she then picked one up and did exactly the same thing. Even better, the next day she crawled over to the same toys and repeated the activity, only this time without watching me do it first. She likes to pretend to feed a doll or comb her own hair, but her favorite activity is to copy whatever Anya is doing.
I enjoy this age very much, not only because Sierra is learning a ton of new things each day, but also because her personality is really starting to emerge, and as she gains more skills and becomes more independent, I can see her as a person and not just a baby. She makes decisions and sets goals for herself, then takes steps to achieve those goals. Granted, her goals are things like “Get the Elmo doll that is on the other side of the room,” but you know what I mean. She thinks about things, remembers things… I wish I could hear what goes on in her mind.
Sierra is such a love. She gives hugs by laying her head on whatever part of you she can reach while saying, “Awwww” (and when she climbs up onto Anya to give her hugs, I all but melt into a puddle of mush). She also tries to give kisses by popping her lips, but more often than not she ends up spitting on the object of her affection. That said, she’s also got a major impish side. She loves to shake her head “no” when asked to do something. She tosses her food on the floor and then looks up with a grin to see what we’re going to do about it, or yanks out her hair bow and hands it to me with a giggle – and she kind of needs that bow:
One of her favorite games is to be chased, so she’ll make a beeline for an open door, and if no one comes after her, she stops in the doorway and calls to you until you go get her, at which point she cracks up and tries to crawl away as fast as she can.
I’d love to say she eats like a champ and sleeps through the night. I’d also love to win the lottery. A girl can dream. Her eating is getting better, but she’s not so into the veggies. She prefers cheese, grapes, and anything that’s a protein, but as for quantity, there are days when she eats two grapes and calls it a meal. On a good night, Sierra will go to bed around 7:30 and then wake up around 1 am to be fed and again at 5 am, at which point she usually ends up in our bed. There are many nights where she wakes up more often than this, though.
What would any update be without a video? Here’s Sierra not eating, “feeding” her baby doll, learning to walk with her walker toy (she’s much better at it now), and telling us how old she will soon be:
Filed under: Anya,Sierra,doctor — by Lauren on October 21st, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
Anya had her well check with the pediatrician today. She weighed 32 lbs and was measured to be 36.5 inches tall. I’d kind of like a second opinion on the height, though. I think she might be a little taller than that. She did not quite understand how to stand up against the wall so the nurse could measure her. At school, they measured her to be 38 inches. I’d guess she’s somewhere in between those two heights.
(I should have mentioned in her update: At age 3, Anya is wearing size 7 1/2 shoes, shirts ranging from 2T to 4T depending on the brand, and still 24 months pants, which continue to fall off her tush on a regular basis.)
The appointment went well. I think this particular doctor is so good with little kids. She was feeling a little skittish at first, but he got her to warm up fairly quickly and she got through the whole exam without any tears. He said she’s in excellent health and commented on her being particularly articulate. No shots for her, hooray! Sierra did get her booster flu shot, in her arm rather than her leg at my request. She cried for approximately a millisecond. I also sat her on the scale, just to see, and she weighed 19 1/2 lbs fully clothed.
Sweet and mischievous Sierra turned 9 months old on September 6th! She had her well check yesterday morning, and the doctor says everything looks and sounds great. She got three shots, including her first flu shot, with no tears for the one in the arm, but some tears for the two in her legs. She was measured at 18 lbs, 10 oz and 27 1/2 inches, which puts her in the 50th percentile for both weight and height. Her head measured in the 90th percentile, which Lex and I both found amusing. Maybe it’s all that hair:
She’s still wearing size 4 diapers and 9 months clothes.
I’ve got a bunch of videos to post so I’ll try to keep the narrative under control (but who am I kidding, right?). Over this past month, Sierra completely mastered finger foods. She likes fruit, carbs, and proteins; veggies, not so much. She’ll try just about anything, but if she doesn’t like it, it gets spit out immediately and then protested quite loudly. When she’s had enough or gets bored, she’ll start dropping food on the floor bit by bit, then looks up to see what I think about that. Such an imp! She does something similar with the foam mat we have in the playroom. She inches over to the edge and pulls up a piece of the border, then turns around with this devilish little grin to show me exactly what she’s done, and if I catch her in the act and tell her to stop, she thinks it’s even funnier.
Over the last few days, Sierra’s finally made some progress towards crawling! She’ll now take a couple of “steps” toward something that’s nearby if she wants it, but if what she wants is too far away, she gives up and looks for something closer or sits back up again. My one question for her doctor today was whether we needed to be concerned that she doesn’t roll from her back to her belly (she did it twice around her 6 month birthday and then never did it again) and we were assured we do not. The girl would love to be able to pull herself up to standing, but she’s not quite there yet.
Starting to crawl:
Trying to crawl to Daddy:
“Dada” is undoubtedly Sierra’s first real word, and yes, I am jealous. The squeal of delight that accompanies “Dada!” when she sees Lex…sigh, and then of course she only babbles “mamama” when she’s annoyed about something! Eh, I shouldn’t complain, I suppose, since she generally wants me to hold her over anyone else, and will actually cling to my shirt if someone tries to take her out of my arms. Sometimes it seems like she’s saying (or at least trying to say) some other words, including duck, quack quack, and others, including those mentioned last month. Also, a new obsession for her is clicking her tongue. She signs “all done” really well, and her other signs are coming along nicely. She claps along to “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and raises her arms for “So big!” when we ask her “How big is Sierra?” (See the “Crawling to Daddy” video!) I forgot to mention last month that she shakes her head “No” – especially when she wants to refuse food – and looks for Lex if you ask her, “Where’s Daddy?”
Shaking her head no:
Her sleeping sucks. Period. I’ve royally screwed it up and I don’t know to fix it. Her naps are way too short, and she’s up several times a night. The fact that she doesn’t sleep through the night doesn’t bother me so much. There’s lots of disagreement about how often a breastfed baby her age should want to nurse at night, depending on who you ask. What bugs me is that she can’t fall asleep unless nursed, the only exception being the times when she falls asleep in the car. I know it’s my fault. Early on I made a lot of mistakes by doing what was easy in the moment, and now she’s dependent on me to help her get to sleep. I don’t want to let her cry. Aside from my feeling that it is not a particularly compassionate way to teach a baby to sleep (and YES, I know we chose to let Anya cry and she turned out just fine, but I never felt good about it), I don’t think it’s fair to “punish” Sierra because I didn’t teach her how to go to sleep herself the right way when she was a younger baby. If someone is going to have to do some work for her to learn how to soothe herself, it should be me and not her. I hope we find a solution, I really do. I am open to any and all suggestions.
Despite the lack of sleep, she’s still my little sweetie. She leans in with her forehead if I ask for a kiss, cuddles up next to my shoulder when she needs some snuggles, and giggles plenty. She loves to play, especially with Anya, and has figured out how to work some of her toys.
Sierra turned 7 months old on July 6th. This time I really did have to delay writing her update due to moving, but now that we are as settled as possible at my parents’ house, here it is! I haven’t weighed or measured her yet, but I’m sure she’s over 17 lbs, probably closer to 17 1/2 lbs. She fits into 6-9 months clothes quite nicely, and she’s still rocking the size 4 diapers. Her second bottom tooth made its appearance a few days after the first one, and the top two will probably start poking through very soon; her gums are white and very puffy.
No crawling here yet! Sierra continues to turn herself from side to side and she’s certainly trying very hard to propel herself forwards, but most of the time her efforts send her backwards:
She’s definitely getting frustrated, so I kind of hope she’ll work it out soon. Perhaps if she spent more time on her belly, she’d get a bit more practice, but Sierra prefers to sit or stand whenever she can. I still put the Boppy behind her when she sits to catch her when she gets too excited and topples backward, but it’s becoming more and more pointless – she bounces up and down so much that she can move herself several feet away. This afternoon I had left her sitting in my parents’ living room while I made dinner, and when I checked on her after a few minutes, she was two feet away, facing the opposite direction, and quite pleased with herself. She’s also trying very hard to pull herself up to standing, and though she very nearly succeeded during her last bath at our old house, she isn’t quite there yet.
I’ve just read through Sierra’s (late) 6 month update, and much is the same. She’s still a big Mommy’s girl, and now she reaches out for me, especially if someone else is holding her and she wants me to take her back. She’s got the grabbiest hands ever. You can’t leave anything within her reach without her trying to get it, but she still doesn’t put anything in her mouth herself, even food. I’m still offering her baby food, but there is no question that Sierra wants to eat what we are eating. Last night I tried in vain to get her to eat baby carrots for about a half hour. She was more than cooperative when I offered her some of my veggie burger, however, and this afternoon she very much enjoyed eating the carrots out of the eggroll I had with my lunch. Also, the girl LOVES Cheerios, and thankfully she no longer gags on table food – and she stopped drooling like a faucet every time she ate even the tiniest piece of food. She doesn’t eat that much overall, but what she does eat seems to be helping a bit with the explosive diapers. Her last 5 poops haven’t leaked! We did get in to see the pediatric GI at the end of June, and he felt that she probably has a mild allergy to something I eat, that she’ll outgrow it by her first birthday, and that we don’t need to expend any energy trying to figure out what it is.
Sierra continues to love the sound of her own voice, shrieking and screaming plenty just because it’s fun. She’s not babbling yet beyond repeated vowel sounds, but she’s signing a little more and absolutely waving again. I think she signs “more” and I know she understands it, only I’m pretty sure she strongly associates it with food. At least twice now we have been playing with toys and when I asked her if she wanted more, she promptly bent over and tried to eat what was in my hand. So silly!
I’d love to report that Sierra is sleeping through the night, but it would be a lie. She spends the early part of the evening in her bed, and then ends up with me and Lex sometime in between midnight and 2 am. I generally wake up in the morning (almost always at 6:30 am, give or take 10 minutes) because she’s touching my face or whacking my forehead. She thinks this is funny; I’m not sure I agree.
I am so sorry your six months update is two weeks late. Can I blame the demands of packing up an entire house for the delay (even though Daddy is doing much more work than I am)?
Love,
Mommy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sweet little Sierra is already 6 months old! That’s HALF a YEAR. Wow. She had her checkup a few weeks ago – 16 lbs, 5 oz, and 26 1/2 inches. I switched her over to her 6-9 months clothes about a month ago. She probably could have continued to wear her 3-6 months things a little longer, but I have a much better summer selection in the larger size. For reasons I don’t quite understand, she is now wearing a SIZE 4 diaper! How is that possible? Anya was bigger than Sierra at the same age, and Anya didn’t start wearing size 4 until she was fourteen months!
So much can happen in two weeks; I feel like Sierra is barely the same baby she was when she actually turned six months old. For example:
At six months, Sierra wasn’t at all mobile. Now, she is pushing herself backwards (not quite intentionally) and spinning herself in circles (definitely intentionally), and she’s at least thinking about trying to crawl. She finally rolled from her back to her belly a few days after her six month birthday, but she’s only done it a few times since then.
At six months, Sierra was sleeping in our room, often in our bed, and waking every two hours or more. Since then, we moved her to her crib – which was extremely bittersweet for me – and each night is getting a little better. Last night she slept from 8:2o pm until 2 am without waking up! She still ends up in our bed sometime around 4 am, but we’re okay with that. I kind of look forward to it. Oh, and she’s been sleeping on her belly for the last week or so.
At six months, Sierra wasn’t eating much of anything solid, aside from gnawing on cucumbers or apple slices. In the last week, she’s become a bit more open to eating baby food. She doesn’t eat much – maybe two teaspoons or so. She doesn’t open her mouth very wide, almost using the spoon like a straw, but she’s still getting something and has seemed to like everything she’s been offered so far except bananas. It does seem that she would REALLY prefer to eat table food, but she gags on almost everything except puffed rice cereal, so she’s going to have to be a bit more patient.
At six months, Sierra was toothless, but two days ago she cut her first tooth!
Some things are still the same. Sierra still loves to clap her hands, and waving is making a comeback. I’m fairly certain she signs “milk” now and sometimes it seems like she’s trying to sign “more” (but it looks like clapping so it’s hard to tell). She still doesn’t put anything in her mouth other than her hands. We asked the doctor about that at her appointment, and he said that while it’s not typical, it’s nothing to cause concern. She certainly loves to grab anything within her reach and shake it, bang it, crumple it – whatever seems fun!
She also adores jumping, whether it’s in her jumper or on my lap. And let’s not forget shrieking! There’s been no change in that. She doesn’t really babble yet – we get a consonant here and there, but mostly we hear a lot of shrieks, Mmmmms, Has, and another favorite sound – Bpfffft!
Here’s a few clips of Sierra over the last month:
Sierra’s been in a bit of a Mommy phase lately. She starts to cry if we’re in the same room and someone else is holding her, but usually if she can’t see me, she’s fine. Lex, I really hope you believe me when I tell you not to take it personally. You know she’s going to end up a Daddy’s girl like Anya anyway. I think Sierra looks A LOT like Lex:
TMI About Poop Section: Last thing – and Lex and I disagree about this – Sierra’s has some tummy issues. Basically, she consistently has explosive, giant, pure liquid poops that leak right through the liner of every diaper we try. Part of moving her up to size 4 was because I needed a bigger diaper to contain the mess (although they do fit her better anyway and frankly, they still don’t contain it unless I change her the second after she poops). This was my main concern at her six month appointment, and the doctor – our favorite in the practice – felt that what I described was in the range of normal for a breastfed baby. After giving it a few days more thought, I decided I really don’t think it’s normal and we brought her back for a second opinion with another doctor in the practice, this time with a diaper to illustrate the problem. He also isn’t particularly concerned, but he suggested that we bring her to a pediatric gastroenterologist to rule out any real problems and mainly to put my mind at ease.
Unlike Anya, who also had this problem at this age due to a colitis medication I started taking then, Sierra has had this issue on and off since birth, but without an obvious correlation to the medication (which I began taking again when she was about two months old). Thankfully, also unlike Anya, Sierra has not lost any weight. I think part of what contributes to how explosive it all is is that Sierra generally only goes once a day, sometimes skipping a day, even skipping THREE days. I know that the pattern itself is normal, but I have a hard time believing that I just have to accept that every poop-filled diaper is going to leak because of how liquidy her poops are. I spend the day dreading the inevitable deluge, especially when she holds it in until the evening. At least when she goes in the morning I don’t spend the day waiting for it; I can put her in clothes without thinking about how easily I’ll be able to get them off of her in a public place if they end up covered in poop. I can’t imagine taking her in the pool this summer – no swim diaper is going to contain that mess. In my gut, I don’t think that this is normal, but if the pediatric GI tells me it is, I will believe him – but I don’t have to like it! Her appointment is scheduled for the first week in August, though we’re on the cancellation list and may end up being seen sooner.
Sierra turned four months old today! She had her well check this morning – 25 1/2 inches long (90th percentile) and 14 lbs, 1.5 oz (60th percentile). I chuckled when the nurse said that she was thin because of the difference in the percentiles; no one looking at our little chunky monkey would call her skinny! The doctor said she’s very healthy and commented that she is beautiful. She got four shots and an oral vaccine, and did much better with them this time than at her two month appointment; she only cried a tiny bit and had almost no reaction afterward. (On a side note, Anya got the last of her baby vaccines today and she was extremely brave – she cried for under five seconds!)
In this past month, Sierra has mastered rolling from her belly to her back, but only to her left. She’s making a concerted effort to roll from her back to her belly, but I think it will be a little while before she figures it out. She started laughing a few weeks ago (boy, do I eat that up!). We’re starting to see her attempt to reach out for things, but it’s hard for her, since it requires actually taking her hands out of her mouth for more than a second. When she’s on her play mat, she likes to play with her toys with both her hands and her feet:
I like that video because you can kind of see her inner struggle about hands in the mouth vs. hands on the toys.
Sierra still isn’t sleeping all that well at night, but the last two nights I got her to sleep without nursing her, so that’s certainly a step in the right direction. She tends to sleep about a 4 hour stretch, but after that she’ll rouse to nurse every 1-2 hours. During the day she usually nurses every 3 hours, though sometimes she gets hungry after 2 hours. We’ve been swaddling her with one arm completely out for a while now. She kind of reminds me of the Statue of Liberty, wrapped up like that. I’ve tried putting her to sleep with both arms out a few times and it hasn’t gone well, so we’ll continue with the one arm swaddle for a bit more.
We haven’t introduced solids yet and will probably wait until Sierra is six months old, like we did with Anya. I don’t think that Sierra is quite ready yet, anyway. She isn’t showing that much interest in our food, and her tongue thrust reflex is still pretty strong. However, she’s gotten MUCH better at taking her vitamins – no more screaming and not as much spitting. In fact, in the last few days she’s been opening her mouth eagerly for them and trying to suck them out of the dropper.
We finished up the last of our size 2 diapers this morning, so Sierra is now officially in size 3 diapers (or size 2-3; we have a few of those left). She’s filling out her 3-6 months clothes quite nicely, though I think she may need to graduate to 6-9 months onesies soon. Like Anya, Sierra is more torso than leg.
We’ve begun to see her little personality emerge. Let’s just say the girl enjoys attention (and makes it known if she doesn’t think she is receiving enough). Lucky for her, we like giving it to her! I think we’ll keep her.
Day Two of being a temporarily single mom of 2 kids and a dog is just about to end (is it Friday yet?). It hasn’t been as terrible as I’d feared. I mean, the middle of the day is the same as any day during the work week; it’s just the morning and dinner through bedtime that are a tad challenging.
Yesterday I was proud of myself for getting the house (relatively) clean and cooking both lunch and dinner from scratch (something I often do anyway, but with Lex there for the extra support). I like to cook when Lex has to travel for work; I experiment with recipes he probably wouldn’t eat. Today, however, I ordered pizza for dinner. Why? Well, Anya was napping at last, so I tried to take advantage of the time and clean up the kitchen. Sierra, of course, decided she MUST be held at that time. Realizing I was not going to get anything done that way, I got her set up in the Moby and resumed washing the dishes. Everything was going along swimmingly – she was happy, I only had a few bottles left – when suddenly my foot was very warm and wet. I looked down and discovered I was now standing in a giant pool of baby poop, and it was still coming. I couldn’t even fathom HOW it had happened (turns out it exploded out the side). I now had to get Sierra out of the Moby, preferably without getting anymore poop on me or her, and remove my befouled sock, and then get her over to the changing table to clean her up. Miraculously, the poop managed to miss her onesie, which made things easier – no chance of getting anything in her hair. Once I got her taken care of, I started dealing with both of our poop-covered pants and socks before starting the now necessary load of laundry I had intended to put off until tomorrow morning. Midway through rinsing the clothes, I remembered that I had to clean up the kitchen floor, and that’s when Anya woke up crying hysterically. Dealt with that, got the clothes finished up, started the laundry, and then sat down, exhausted. It was already 4:45 pm, and I didn’t see how I was ever going to get those bean taquitos I had planned to make done by 5:30 pm. Hooray for $7.99 large pie Tuesdays at Mezza Luna.
I’m sure I’ll laugh at that story one day. Twenty-nine years later, my parents laugh at the time my diaper exploded on my dad’s watch and he called frantically to my mom, who discovered him holding me over the kitchen sink, poop running down his arms.
On a much less amusing note, I’m taking Sierra to the doctor in the morning. When I changed her diaper this evening, there was blood in her stool. I did not freak out; I stayed pretty calm, actually – surprising for me, especially given my family’s IBD history. I spoke with the doctor on call, and he agreed that IBD is not very likely since she has no other symptoms and onset at this age is extremely rare. She does need to be seen, though, to rule out other causes (an infection, a milk protein allergy, etc.). Hopefully it turns out to be nothing.
No shots for her, hooray! Sierra did get her booster flu shot, in her arm rather than her leg at my request. She cried for approximately a millisecond. I also sat her on the scale, just to see, and she weighed 19 1/2 lbs fully clothed.
