For the last few weeks, Cordelia's favorite thing in the world is to stand up on us while on the bed and reach for our reading lamps. We have two lights, basically lightbulbs on stalks coming out of the wall. Well, Cordelia can grab them. She can hold one with both of her hands or grab one light in each hand. Then she squeals and gurgles and makes this happy little cough. One time, she was so happy, her whole body gave a shiver of joy. Jason and I melted. It is the funniest, cutest thing to watch. Sometimes she spies them from across the room and gets excited just thinking about grabbing them.
At 5 months, Cordelia has also become super aware of the cats. She gets excited when she sees them across the room and starts waving her arms and making her happy sounds. She likes to pet them too. She seems to get more excited about Willow, even though LBC approaches her far more often. But Willow has been putting up with her well enough. Last week, she was crying during tummy time on the floor and Willow walked up to her as if to say, "Stop making all that noise!" Cordelia started staring at Willow and sure enough, stopped her crying!
((Uh oh, started to write this and didn't get posted. Moving on....))
On Sunday, Cordelia learned to bounce. For ages she has been incredibly good at locking her legs while standing. Lately, she has started bobbing up and down and I call her the boogie butt. But on Sunday, we sat outside on the balcony and watched a man mowing the lawn below our apartment. And she was jumping up and down with excitement looking at him. She jumped and boinged in my lap so much that when I lay her down on our bed, she passed out in the middle of reaching towards her blankie. Now all she wants to do is bounce!!!!! Maybe I should get her one of those jumperoo things.
On Sunday night, Cordelia would not stop fussing! She could not go to sleep, even though she had tons of milk and lots of comfort. We had to hold her like the whole time and it was such a rough night. We were properly zombified. I was feeling a bit down, but then I read some blog post that turned up on my Facebook that morning about how a mom always nursed her baby to sleep and thought it much better than both of them being up for hours fussing and crying. And the nights when it didn't work.... the "Dark Times".... that was when her baby was going through a growth spurt or about to pop out some teeth. That made me reflect that that was exactly what C was going through.
That afternoon, Auntie Donica had to watch C for a couple of hours and when I picked her up, she was covered in drool. We talked about teething and I felt around in Cordelia's mouth. I'd started feeling a lump in her gums a few days before. And even on the phone Jason had said he thought he could see the outline of teeth that day. Well, Donica said she thought that it had broken through. I felt again...... and oh my goodness, that's a tooth! She had cut her first tooth!!!!!! No wonder the little baby couldn't sleep at night.... the tooth was on it's way. It's Thursday now, and I'd say the second one is just about up too. WOW! They feel just a little bit rough, sharp, and hard but aren't big enough to be an issue for breastfeeding yet.
And today, Cordelia is 6 months old. I gave a presentation at school and she came with Daddy. Then we went home and had a bath. I watched a video where a dad filmed one second of his baby's life every day for the first year. It reminds me of the #dailybaby that Jason does. And it had me bawling my eyes out. She's growing up so fast, changing so much, and it just keeps going and going. I gotta remember to savor it, to write it all down, to be able to look back when all the little moments that light her up and make us laugh are gone into the void. Like Jason tossing her lion rattle Alex up in the air and her laughing hysterically. Or how I will be nursing her on the couch and she will hear Jason in the kitchen and pull her head away to look for him. Or how she buries her face in my shoulder and pushes her head against my chin SO HARD with all her strength. Or how cute she is when she is naked on the changing table and draws her knees up and puts her toes in her mouth. Just the cute shape and her yummy baby skin and her bright eyes looking about. Oh the exquisite baby-ness of her. Half a year in our lives and it's still just the very beginning.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
5 Months In
It feels like a long time since I posted! There are a lot of things that I've missed!
One of the main events was a visit from my family! Mom Mom and Grandpa and Auntie Rebecca all came up for a weekend at the end of October. I wrote them an email, formally inviting them. We are going to see them for Thanksgiving, but even by then she will have grown and changed so much. I'm glad they got to see her... this was only the second time since she was born! Cordelia had a blast and they all had a great time making her laugh and be silly and getting covered in drool. My parents really liked getting to see Cordelia playing with the baby toys that had once been mine. My mom had saved all these neat Johnson and Johnson developmental toys from the 1980s and some of them a really great and so engaging.
My mom and Rebecca cooked up some delicious soup and also a huge pan of roasted vegetables, all with farmer's market ingredients. We had left overs for almost the whole week--- awesome! We also went out to breakfast at the Original Pancake house, which was incredibly delicious as always.
I have been having continuing duct issues, no fun. TMI, beware.... Things were clearly backing up from a little white dot on the nipple, so this time I poked it with a sterilized needle, basically the only thing from the internet I hadn't tried. That worked to get things flowing again at least. And it didn't hurt either, which is what I was worried about. But things didn't completely clear up, so around Halloween I decided to just take the stupid antibiotics I got from my doctor's visit. I did pretty well trying to remember to take 4 pills a day, but there were still at least two days I was short on. Today is my last day of them and I haven't had a plugged duct the whole time I've been on them. Connection?????? So did they clear up some infection or am I simply having a good streak? I have no. f-ing. clue. We'll see what happens this next week now that I'll have finished them. I still have that white dot... it is practically painless unless I put a lot of pressure on it, and milk is able to flow through. So I'm going to leave it alone; just trying to put lanolin on it regularly.
For Halloween, Cordelia tried on various costumes, but her final choice was the Very Hungry Caterpillar. We got a knit hat from Etsy... super cute. She wore her green tutu that Stephanie made her. She looked sooo adorable. We did not trick or treat, maybe next year!!
As I mentioned above, drool. Cordelia has been drooling like mad. We think she is trying to cut some bottom teeth. Sometimes we put a bib on her, she just gets so soggy. Or she will need outfit changes because of the wetness. She has been waking up in the night fussing too. I had been thinking it's her teeth, but now I am starting to think it is just waking and not knowing how to go back to sleep. So, about two weeks ago, we have started cosleeping. She will start the night in her bed, but when she wakes up I will just put her between us for snuggles and so that she can nom on our of our fingers for relief. The benefit is that I don't have to get all the way up to feed her-- most of the time she can go back to sleep after her first waking. If she wakes a second time I usually will have to feed her. If I try and put her back in her bed after sleeping with up, she always wake up almost immediately after or during the transfer. After a night feeding, I usually try to put her back in her bed and she can sleep there a little while.
Cosleeeping is frowned upon for various reasons... You could squish your baby, blankets could suffocate her, not firm enough mattress, inreased SIDS risk, lots of warnings. But in the middle of the night, when you have to get up for work in a matter of hours, snuggling down with your warm little baby in bed so you all can get some sleep.... you just end up doing it and you know why everyone else has done it too. When she's bigger she can learn to put herself to sleep and work on sleeping through the night.
I also was very upset on Friday, due to the dreaded comparing of babies. I was talking with some other moms about Cordelia's waking and admitted to being on the computer or sometimes watching TV while up in the night. (ok I don't usually watch tv, but definitely I'm on the laptop because other wise I'm bored). The other moms where like, wait, how old is she, 5 months?! Just feed her for like 10-15 mins, don't turn on any lights and then go back to sleep! This made me feel bad. Cordelia usually nurses for 30-50 minutes at night. They said she was comfort nursing. They meant it in a nice way, like I should be getting some more sleep. But instead I felt sad, like I'm doing something wrong. But I know every baby is different and you have to do what works for you (see cosleeping!). I thought about it some more and I think Cordelia always nurses for at least 30 minutes. She is not a fast eater. And maybe she is comfort nursing. How can I deny her, when I will be away from her all day? I talked with my mom and she said that we would still eat that long at 5 months and reminded me she won't be doing this for forever.
One of the main events was a visit from my family! Mom Mom and Grandpa and Auntie Rebecca all came up for a weekend at the end of October. I wrote them an email, formally inviting them. We are going to see them for Thanksgiving, but even by then she will have grown and changed so much. I'm glad they got to see her... this was only the second time since she was born! Cordelia had a blast and they all had a great time making her laugh and be silly and getting covered in drool. My parents really liked getting to see Cordelia playing with the baby toys that had once been mine. My mom had saved all these neat Johnson and Johnson developmental toys from the 1980s and some of them a really great and so engaging.
My mom and Rebecca cooked up some delicious soup and also a huge pan of roasted vegetables, all with farmer's market ingredients. We had left overs for almost the whole week--- awesome! We also went out to breakfast at the Original Pancake house, which was incredibly delicious as always.
I have been having continuing duct issues, no fun. TMI, beware.... Things were clearly backing up from a little white dot on the nipple, so this time I poked it with a sterilized needle, basically the only thing from the internet I hadn't tried. That worked to get things flowing again at least. And it didn't hurt either, which is what I was worried about. But things didn't completely clear up, so around Halloween I decided to just take the stupid antibiotics I got from my doctor's visit. I did pretty well trying to remember to take 4 pills a day, but there were still at least two days I was short on. Today is my last day of them and I haven't had a plugged duct the whole time I've been on them. Connection?????? So did they clear up some infection or am I simply having a good streak? I have no. f-ing. clue. We'll see what happens this next week now that I'll have finished them. I still have that white dot... it is practically painless unless I put a lot of pressure on it, and milk is able to flow through. So I'm going to leave it alone; just trying to put lanolin on it regularly.
For Halloween, Cordelia tried on various costumes, but her final choice was the Very Hungry Caterpillar. We got a knit hat from Etsy... super cute. She wore her green tutu that Stephanie made her. She looked sooo adorable. We did not trick or treat, maybe next year!!
As I mentioned above, drool. Cordelia has been drooling like mad. We think she is trying to cut some bottom teeth. Sometimes we put a bib on her, she just gets so soggy. Or she will need outfit changes because of the wetness. She has been waking up in the night fussing too. I had been thinking it's her teeth, but now I am starting to think it is just waking and not knowing how to go back to sleep. So, about two weeks ago, we have started cosleeping. She will start the night in her bed, but when she wakes up I will just put her between us for snuggles and so that she can nom on our of our fingers for relief. The benefit is that I don't have to get all the way up to feed her-- most of the time she can go back to sleep after her first waking. If she wakes a second time I usually will have to feed her. If I try and put her back in her bed after sleeping with up, she always wake up almost immediately after or during the transfer. After a night feeding, I usually try to put her back in her bed and she can sleep there a little while.
Cosleeeping is frowned upon for various reasons... You could squish your baby, blankets could suffocate her, not firm enough mattress, inreased SIDS risk, lots of warnings. But in the middle of the night, when you have to get up for work in a matter of hours, snuggling down with your warm little baby in bed so you all can get some sleep.... you just end up doing it and you know why everyone else has done it too. When she's bigger she can learn to put herself to sleep and work on sleeping through the night.
I also was very upset on Friday, due to the dreaded comparing of babies. I was talking with some other moms about Cordelia's waking and admitted to being on the computer or sometimes watching TV while up in the night. (ok I don't usually watch tv, but definitely I'm on the laptop because other wise I'm bored). The other moms where like, wait, how old is she, 5 months?! Just feed her for like 10-15 mins, don't turn on any lights and then go back to sleep! This made me feel bad. Cordelia usually nurses for 30-50 minutes at night. They said she was comfort nursing. They meant it in a nice way, like I should be getting some more sleep. But instead I felt sad, like I'm doing something wrong. But I know every baby is different and you have to do what works for you (see cosleeping!). I thought about it some more and I think Cordelia always nurses for at least 30 minutes. She is not a fast eater. And maybe she is comfort nursing. How can I deny her, when I will be away from her all day? I talked with my mom and she said that we would still eat that long at 5 months and reminded me she won't be doing this for forever.
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