Six Months Old

Pippa is now 6 months old!

Pippa at six months!

Our 6-month doctor appointment went well. She is 16 pounds 13 ounces which isn't much bigger than last time but I guess they grow slower at this age so the doctor wasn't concerned. She's also 2' 4" tall. She smiled and flirted with the doctor as much as she could...until she got her shots. This time she got three immunizations and the flu shot. I've never had a flu shot and I guess at this age, they get two. So when I take her back in for her second shot next month I will bring Liam with me and the three of us will have it done. Yuck.

She's eating like a horse! I made some teething biscuits yesterday and she loves them (so do the dogs). We are still able to keep up and make all of her baby food and it appears that "baby food" time is starting to go away now that she can eat pretty much anything, it's all about grinding it up first. I bought her some oatmeal baby cereal - we have only been giving her rice. She had some of that this morning and loved it. I am enjoying all the apples, pears and bananas as much as she is.

Well, she's now sitting up really well on her own so we have pulled out the playpen and we move it around the house. When I'm in the kitchen, I put her in it so she can watch me cook and play. I used to put her into a bouncy seat but she doesn't like that anymore. She's been on her hands and knees a lot and is rocking back and forth but has not mastered the crawl yet. She scoots backward and rotates on her belly to get where she wants to go. A friend at work gave us a walker and she loves it except that every time it moves forward, it scares her. Pretty funny stuff.

More tired than you can imagine

I'll keep trying to upload more videos but for now, this is my favorite new picture. She was taking a nap on a "daddy day" and he snapped this picture of her sleeping, yes sleeping. She napped for two hours like this. Before you comment, yes she was put "back to sleep" and yes we know there should not be blankets in the crib. :-)

Teeth Already!

Pippa turns 25 weeks old today! Almost six months has gone by and I cannot believe it.

She has recently cut two teeth. One came in on Saturday October 8th and the other came in today! They are her bottom two front teeth. I simply cannot get a picture quite yet but I promise (swear on my tooth marked finger) they are there. We had very little indication it was coming already, other than the drool there were no "typical" signs of teething. She does have some random outbursts of pain once or twice a day but the binkie helps.

She is sitting without any support and holding much more still within the last few days. We went to Woodburn yesterday to visit my grandparents who are leaving for California on Friday (snowbirds) and she sat up on her own and played a majority of the day. This weekend we are headed to my mom's house in Long Beach. It's a long drive (2.5 hours) but she hasn't seen her in almost two months! We will be celebrating Liam's 11th birthday a week early there with a little party.

The other interesting stuff is that I recently took a temperament test online through our Kaiser doctor. Check with your doctor about this quiz if you have a baby older than four months. It will help you to determine some main points of your baby's temperament and give you strategies for coping or helping your baby with their natural instincts. For example: Pippa is categorized as an "intense" baby. Meaning she is loud, makes a lot of movement, tends to be less patient etc. What I learned is that intense babies tend to eat a bit more than other babies because they are constantly burning calories even when they sleep because they move around so much. I also learned that touching an intense baby actually stimulates them more than other babies and can lead to more intense reactions. Meaning, if you put Pippa down for a nap, leave her there. I have a tendency to pick her up and cuddle her when she's crying but in reality it's just waking her up more and stimulating her in the wrong ways. So instead I stand by her crib for a moment and help with the binkie if needed then leave her alone. My several trials of this helped her go from a 30 minute nap time to a 2 or 3 hour nap! She's also sleeping much better at night. No random wake periods. We have also determined that if she cries when she wakes up, she's not ready. She always gets up in a good mood. It's been working wonders. It's so hard to just leave her alone but it's best for her.
Another part of that is intense babies don't like to be dressed/bathed/diapered because it inhibits their movement for short periods of time. So instead of doing things quick like I'm used to, I slow down the process and she's enjoying it much more. She doesn't cry when I dress her anymore and I think it's because I give her time to flail her limbs after each movement. It takes some time to get ready for the day but it's worth it to have a happier baby. I'll leave you with the latest picture taken today.

Arms are out because she wants to be picked up, not for balance.

25 weeks old!

Random Things

Just a few random things for this Tuesday afternoon:
1. Pippa is doing fabulous. She slept 12 hours straight Sunday night and 9 hours straight last night. She's happier than ever.
2. We are still eating lots of solids: peas, carrots, bananas, apples and pears. Other than the pears (which she doesn't like) everything has been homemade. She really enjoys fresh bananas. Next up? Broccoli!
3. She is almost 6 months old! I simply cannot believe how fast this time has gone.
4. She's sitting fairly well with support but she's a little wiggle worm. It may be a while before she sits without support.
5. She is log-rolling now. This is how she gets around. She can roll to toys (and animals) as she likes. We put down blankets all over the floors to protect her noggin from the laminate.
6. She's been on her hands and knees several times but most of what she does on her tummy looks like a downward dog position.
7. Nobody can make her laugh like her brother Liam - it's too sweet.

From yellow Civic to Silver Soul - we moved up in the world

So, we traded in my Honda Civic and got a bigger car - a Kia Soul. We love it and the four doors really help in travelling. We now split the driving between our Scion xB and the Soul. I'm still working part time from home and the rest of the time in the office. Every once in a while I think I should put her in daycare and go back full time but then I realize that's just crazy talk. As long as I'm allowed to telecommute, I will.
Liam's 11th birthday is coming up October 21, they grow up way too fast. He's playing the trumpet in the school band and he's in his final year of cub scouts. I'm hoping to get him into track or something as well but I don't want to keep him too busy.

That's about it for us. I'll leave you with a few pictures. I tried to upload another video but it's not working. Maybe soon...

20 weeks old and a drooler

20 weeks - looks like she got caught doing something.

23 weeks - raisin butt

Pippa Update

For some reason, I wrote this last week and forgot to post it. Here you go:

First off, a big THANK YOU to all those who took the time to vote for Pippa in the Portland’s Cutest Baby contest. We certainly felt your love. Pippa did not make it to the top 10 babies but we had a blast getting her picture out there and being one of the top 100 out of over 700 babies.

I took her into the doctor today for a weight checkup. Since our appt. less than two weeks ago she has been eating like a horse. We are now on rice cereal and peas. She LOVES to sit in her high chair and eat. She gets so excited; kicking her legs and opening her mouth super wide. Two weeks ago we took her to the doctor where she weighed 14 pounds 7 ounces – a mere ¾ of a pound more than her 2 month appt. Today, 13 days later, she weighed exactly 16 pounds! She gained more in the last 13 days than in the 2 months prior! Poor baby must have been so hungry! Well, we are moving up in the world now. I plan to continue peas and cereal for at least another week then I’m looking to introduce some more veggies.

This last weekend, Pippa has been working on multiple skills. She has mastered grabbing her feet as well as blowing raspberries. Her favorite is to blow them when she is eating. Food time is okay, babies should be messy but when she is nursing, it makes feeding a bit difficult. She has also perfected rolling over from back to front. Rather than doing this once or twice a week, she’s now rolling several times per day (sometimes per hour) and it’s getting hard to keep track of her. She still does not like to be on her tummy too much and she still gets frustrated when she rolls to her tummy. It’s quite funny – although she doesn’t think so.

So, now that her weight gain is headed in a positive direction, she has been sleeping better as well. She still has a 2:30am detour for about 30 minutes but otherwise she generally sleeps about 10 hours or so. 

Last night we had some fun. She has discovered squealing and other sounds. She amused herself (and me) for hours last night. Here's a video - pardon the dark part where I realized I should turn on the light. 

Update and MORE Voting!

Pippa is still thriving! She's doing so great. Last night she went to bed about 8:30 and woke up briefly for a "binkie check" around 9:30 then slept until 3:30 for food. She woke up to eat again at 6:30 and was down an hour later for her first nap. Things are good.

Liam starts the 5th grade tomorrow! We are prepping around the house and getting ready for "meet your teacher" night at school tonight. It's been a whirlwind couple of days but once school starts everyone can get back into their routine.

On another note, Pippa made it one more round in the Portland's Cutest Baby contest. This is the final round of voting before they reveal the top 10! I'm not sure of her chances for winning but if she could make the top 10, we would be so overjoyed! Here is her personal voting link. If you've already signed up you just need to enter your e-mail and cast your vote. Every single vote counts and you can vote once per day. Thanks in advance to all who are voting/or have voted on her behalf.

Sorry to make this so short. It's going to be a crazy day with work, PTA obligations, school meetings and getting ready for tomorrow...all with a four month old in tow. Have a great week everyone!

Much Better

I don't know how she eats so much!!

The food has worked. On top of nursing, she gets another two ounces (or more) of formula to top her off. She is LOVING this. We also gave her a bit of rice cereal the other day but not since. I only wanted to start one thing at a time. She slept from 9pm - 6am last night. I fed her at 6 and she still sleeping (7am). I know she was probably just as exhausted as we were but it's been a really fun couple of days.
She is definitely thriving on the additional food. She's playing more, laughing a lot more and has more patience when things are quiet. Looking back, she's been kind of whiney for a few weeks but I just chalked it up to growth or changes but now I wonder if it was a sign that she wasn't getting enough food even back then. She is definitely a different baby...but she eats a lot. Sometimes we are feeding her every 1.5 hours and sometimes it's every 4 hours. I think it will start to even out once she has enough and her hunger is more in control.

Thank you all for thinking of us. It was a rough few days but I'm confident that's the issue and now we can move forward. Pictures to come soon...

Four Month Appointment

Today we had Pippa's four month appointment. I was anxious to meet with the doctor today because the last couple of weeks have been pretty rough. The last few days have been worse. Pippa has been crying (colic-like screaming) and inconsolable. Last night she went to bed at 8pm and woke up screaming at 10pm. She was up until 1am then down for about an hour and up about an hour over and over. I am exhausted. It's even worse when Dan is gone working because we can't trade off. Anyway, she has been nursing more at night so my first instinct is that she may be ready for solids.

We got to the doctor and the normal measurements were done. Head is still 97th percentile  (17.24"). Height is down a bit only 91st percentile (25.75") but the shocker was her weight. She was only 14#7oz. that is the 64th percentile! Normally I could care less about that stuff but she has gained less than a pound in two months. Needless to say, we were concerned and wondering what the doctor has to say.

His thoughts are two-fold. The crying could be caused by a bladder infection or extreme hunger. To rule out a bladder infection, we would have to catheterize her. Ouch. So he wants us to practice the "Freedom to Eat Act" for the next couple of days. He believes that her hunger has outgrown my milk supply. I cried. I was devastated. We have done so well (I thought) in feeding and still having milk to store that I never realized I could be underfeeding my baby. So here's the plan: for the next couple of days I will nurse her on both sides until she is done then offer a bottle (we are choosing formula for the time being) of extra milk to see if she takes it. He believes this will solve all the problems. He thinks that she was getting just enough through nursing to satisfy her at that moment then she was hungry within an hour or so and by three hours she was starving. This would prevent her from sleeping through the night and also proper growth. If this is the issue, she will be fine tonight and from now on. He also said that we could start some rice cereal if we want, this would allow us to minimize the amount of formula calories she receives. However, if by Friday, she still has hour+ bouts of inconsolable crying, he wants her back in his office for the catheter. She doesn't have any other signs of a bladder infection (fever, refusing to eat etc.) so we think this might just do it.

After we got home, I hunted down a formula coupon and bought a canister along with some brown rice cereal. Her first feeding she nursed both sides then took one additional ounce of bottle breas tmilk. She slept for an hour after her playtime and woke up happy for the first time in weeks. Our last feeding I tried some formula after nursing and she was NOT having it. So we did more expressed breast milk (2 ounces)...good thing I have a stock pile. I will try to do some formula/expressed milk mix for our next feeding. Since we've been home she's been in a great mood; she's talkative and playful and is sleeping well. I hope it continues into the night.

Interesting enough, with Liam, I dried up at four months and now with Pippa we are having issues as well. Although my supply is good, she just wants more than I have. I wonder too if maybe I'm just not eating enough calories. If I've been so concerned about getting back into shape that I denied my body what it needed to make enough milk. I know that I can go around and around on this but it doesn't matter. We are going to do what it takes to feed and nourish our little girl; formula, breast milk, cereal...whatever it takes.

We would appreciate some positive thoughts our way as well all try and rest a little better this week and hope this helps our little girl get on the growing track again. This is a very tough thing for me to actually talk about so  writing it out has really helped. Thanks everyone for your support and well wishes. We will keep you posted by Friday.

Also...gotta get my plug in there, VOTE for Pippa as Portland's Cutest Baby, the link is in the below post.