adventures in baby feeding

well, i had some moments of bravery this weekend and it was quite the adventure. we tried avocado on friday, which after about 10 minutes she gagged on it. not sure if it was the avocado per se, but something made her gag. she didn't seem to dislike it. then sunday we tried some mashed red potato from my potato salad. the potato went down ok, but she spit up all night afterward, so she either didn't like the potato, or something i ate. i took pictures sunday, though i think her green mouth would have been more interesting. we may try more avocado today, or maybe some banana. the doctor suggested feeding the same thing a few days in a row, but i can't seem to be able to commit to that. maybe i should.

we got a sippy cup too, but i'm not sure that's going all that well. it has handles and a soft spout, so the design is an ideal transition from the bottle. i put some water into it and gave it to nissa. i helped her out and she got the mechanics of it, but when that water got in her mouth, she made the most disgusted face. i assumed it may be a disappointment with the water, so i tried some breastmilk yesterday. she made a comparable (though less intense) face. i tried a sip myself and it tasted like bile. . . completely grossed me out. i'm not sure what's going on there, but i spilled it out. i'll keep trying the water once in a while, i think. i tried offering her my water bottle, but that just meant the whole top of the bottle being in her mouth and water pouring down the front of her. i tried with a shot glass, but while she didn't make the disgusted face like with the sippy, she didn't get much swallowed- which is the goal.

more shots :(

so yesterday was nissa's 6 month check up. she weighed in at 14lbs 10oz (with diaper, so probably a few oz less) and measured up at 25in. our little girl is growing so much! plus, she's met all the milestones the doctor asked about (rolling both ways, sitting up with assistance, grasping with her hands, babbling, etc) so she passed with flying colors. then came the shots. nissa was fine till then. but, fortunately the doctor administered them both quickly, so the extra traumatic part went fast. then we walked over to the mirror and nissa was all giggles (some sobs, but mostly giggles). thank goodness she still can get distracted with that cute baby in the mirror!

unfortunately the rest of the day she was sleepy, hungry and cranky. she'd go from quiet to bawling out of nowhere throughout the rest of the day, so i guess the shots were getting to her. at least there's no more for 6 months. unless the doc gets that missing vax in. . . stupid pharmaceutical companies not keeping my doc's office stocked!!

so wiley already

my daughter is one of the most amusing people i know. when she got up yesterday, she'd pause nursing to stick her tongue out at me. when i was taking her weekly picture, she sang to me the entire time "da da da da da." yesterday afternoon when i was trying to change her diaper on the floor, she wouldn't stop rolling onto her stomach and trying to get away. last night, when adam went to check in on her before coming to bed, she woke up and started crying. he picked her up twice, but the third time he just left the room and no sooner did he close the door did she stop crying. how does someone that little know to be that clever?



nissa tried that with me yesterday in the garden. i was hoping to plant some veggies that we bought from the store, but if i got more than three feet away, she started crying. i got 2 out of 6 tomato plants in, so that's something. part of me knows that everything takes longer with nissa around, but another part of me wants to just get stuff done already. i'm a "do-er" and it pains me to have so much to do around the house. i'm trying to just take it slow and relax, but it's challenging. i just need to focus on how much i love spending time with nissa and remember stuff will get done when it gets done.

SIX months?!?!?!?

where has the time gone? my little baby girl is 6 months already. at first, all the major fun milestones seemed so far away because they didn't happen till 6 months- but now here we are! solids, crawling, first words, oh my!

well, it's not going too fast, at least. she's very mobile on her own: she rolls front and back and manages to scoot short distances to put things into her mouth. yesterday, in the jumperoo and exersaucer she bounced and bounced. i took her feet out of the sleeper and the extra traction from bare feet really helped. i think she's starting to get the hang of the idea that she can have an impact on her world and she can move herself around. it's really neat to watch.

we're waiting to meet with the doctor on thursday to talk about solids. i've tried giving her random things along the way, with little success. my most recent attempt was some mashed apple from an apple pie. i put some on my finger and put it in her mouth and she just kind of puckered and squinted- like someone eating a lemon. in hindsight i wonder if she would have the same reaction if i offered the food on a spoon. . . that she was reacting to my finger tasting weird, not the food itself. oh well. next time.

nissa likes to sing, but no real words yet. it almost sounded like she said "gig" yesterday. it was that much more amusing because she was wearing her "future rock star" sleeper. she almost seemed to imitate me a little too (so far i've been the one imitating her). but i can say she's understanding words a little. the only words i know she knows are "sit up"- when she's on her back (usually on the changing table) i'll grab her hands and say "sit up" and she'll scrunch her face and her torso and pull herself up. it's cute to see the effort she puts forth, but amazing to think she's starting to understand things on her own. so smart!

the funniest thing right now is that nissa has discovered her tongue. she sticks it out like gene simmons. . . and then some. yesterday, when adam was holding her, she'd stick it out every time she saw me (since i usually walk around to do stuff while adam holds her). she's really into her tongue and moving it all different ways. i think it may be a sign that she's getting ready to eat food. . .? in the mean time, it's hilarious to watch and i'm trying to get some good pictures of it. here she is in her high chair:



gibson's right under her cleaning up. she had pulled one of her clever "lean over to spit up" moves- so the arm and footrest all have spit up on them (and the floor too). who knew just how handy a dog could be when you have a baby?

hooray ring

so i noticed yesterday that my nissa-ring was fitting kind of loose, so i changed fingers. but, that put it on my left index finger and i've noticed i really don't like having the ring there. so last night, i pulled out my wedding rings and my band fits! well, with a little encouragement it fits, but not too snug either.

the scale hasn't budged, but the pants and ring are a good sign of things reorganizing in favor of me being slimmer. i'll take it!

first mother's day!

i have to say being a mom on mother's day is pretty gosh darn cool. i got some happy wishes from random employees, then even a carnation when i stopped for coffee. though the coffee stop was a mixed blessing, since i'm pretty sure by the shakes i got that it wasn't decaf like i asked for. when you go for over a year without caffeine, your body tends to notice.

but the caffeine boost came in handy while cleaning the house and otherwise getting ready for company. nissa and i made cards for the grandmas (both our hands were black!) and while she napped, i got the house ready. adam came home in time to make burgers and grill veggies for dinner. he even brought home some flowers! they were beautiful!

one of the best gifts was aaron and adam finishing up the installation on the dishwasher. turns out the technician was a bit creative on his interpretation of our current set up and it wasn't THAT far off. it took a bit longer than planned when the electric was set up for hard-wiring and we had an outlet, but nothing the old dishwasher's cord couldn't fix.

i only hope i can make father's day as much of a treat for adam. . .

rollin' rollin' rollin'

so, last night, i finally got to see it for myself. kinda. i laid nissa on the floor on her back on a blanket and went to put her diapers in the dryer. when i came back, she was 95% rolled over onto her tummy. she did a breakdancing move kicking her feet up, then managed to get her arm out from under her and was 100% over. when i came back i asked adam, "did you do this?" cuz he tried to pull that on me before. but he didn't and i'm so excited. adam swears she's been rolling back to tummy for a while now, and now i believe him. not that i doubted him necessarily, it's just good to see it with my own eyes. well, see the evidence that it happened at least. in short order she rolled back onto her back, but it was still really neat to see.

we went to see rick, lisa and sarah on tuesday to make them dinner. it was a bit of an adventure getting out there because we got a later start than we had intended because we were waiting for the dishwasher to be delivered and installed. too bad they came at 4:15 (the latest possible time) only to not be able to install it due to our water connections not being up to code. grrrr. when things don't get finished when we plan for them, they tend not to get finished for a while. i really hope this is an exception to that rule, but i'm not hopeful. let's see how long that new dishwasher sits on the back porch. . . ugh.

anyways, in honor of the fake-y holiday cinco de mayo (celebrating a minor mexican battle success), we made chicken tacos, red rice, beans, virgin strawberry margaritas and a stab at churros y chocolate. everything was great, in my humble opinion, except for the churros. . . i tried to take prepared crescent roll dough and sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon, but i WAY overcooked them, so they were a slightly burnt and too dry conveyance for eating the chocolate. mmmm chocolate. i used sweetened condensed milk and it was soooo good. we had a good visit and accomplished the goals we had come for: distract and feed rick and lisa and leave their kitchen the way we found it (despite the adventurous cooking). rick and lisa are doing such a great job, but still kinda doubting themselves, so we tried hard to remind them to focus on the little victories. there was a lot of comparing notes, but mostly assuring rick and lisa that it does get easier, but there are always challenges, even with an easy going kid like nissa.

like the last few nights nissa has been waking up after sleeping 2 or 3 hours. she cries and cries, but with some quality daddy time, gets soothed back to sleep. last night was the first night it woke me up. i feel terribly guilty that it doesn't wake me up, but very grateful to adam for being such an awesome daddy and taking care of it so well. i'm frustrated that we don't know what's causing her sleeping to be disrupted; adam and i will have to brainstorm tonight on it.

so i was looking at pictures i took at rick's (all of nissa, embarrassingly enough) and was struck by the one expression that bares a striking resemblance to a picture i took recently. . .



so, part of the reason we only took pictures of nissa is because we spent the majority of our time cooking and cleaning (we made a bit of a mess). sarah also spent a lot of the time feeding and sleeping in her bassinet, so there weren't many photo ops. i'm not complaining, because that's her job to do those things, just justifying the complete lack of photos of the new comer(adam gave me grief already).
regular
resemblance

she's back. . .

the proverbial aunt flo is back. it's kinda funny because my grandma's name was flo (florence). anyways, the beast is back after over a year's hiatus. i feel mortal again, which i guess is a good thing. it's good to know all systems are functioning well after nissa. terrible way to start a monday, though.

sarah grace went home on saturday and although she's giving her mom a hard time with nursing, she's hanging in there ok. mom and dad are a little worse for wear, but about what's expected at this point in the game. once everyone gets used to the new arrangements, things will be a lot easier for everyone. though watching rick and lisa, i've noticed motherhood has imparted some selective amnesia on the experience. it's only been a few months, but already the struggles and sleepless nights are kind of a blur and don't really seem that bad. i want to say i vaguely remember being more frazzled than i talk about, but now i'm not too sure. here's rick in action:


sarah is really cute. she likes to stick her tongue out a lot, and here she is in grandma's arms:


we went over to their house last night and while sarah was in her bassinet, nissa was on grandpa's lap totally checking out sarah. my camera wasn't in hand to capture the moment, but i'm glad i looked when i did, because i saw that little glimmer of curiosity in her face as she looked down on the baby. babies always love looking at babies, but earlier nissa smiled at the baby on the bumbo box. this was more of an investigation look. babies are way too fascinating! an amusing thing i noticed is that nissa seems to be less of a fan of wrigley than gibson. gibson she smiles at and reaches out to "pet" him, while wrigley she seems to tolerate being around, but isn't all that excited about it.

among many other generous things, grandma and grandpa brought up some teethers for nissa that she has grown quite fond of. the books say kids her age aren't supposed to be able to hold onto things for very long, but nissa grips these things with gusto and barely lets go. well, until she gets in the mood to drop it, then you spend the next 10 minutes picking up her teether, pretty much until you decide you're tired of bending over. here she is enjoying the frog teether:


i almost forgot to write down nissa's reaction to pita! lately, everything is going into nissa's mouth: her hands, feet, socks, burp cloth, teethers, bumbo, high chair, anyone else's fingers she can manage, etc. so it's no surprise when a bit of food gets the drool treatment too. the other day i was carrying her over my right arm and had a piece of pita in my hand, container of hummus in the other hand. she folded herself in half and chomped my pita! she just sucked on it for a few seconds, then i took it out of her mouth. i tore off that piece and set it on the table, which gibson promptly stole away. we had tried giving her a pretzel a while ago, but she wasn't all that impressed. i also offered a piece of corn tortilla once, but my friend rocio hypothesized that since sucking on it didn't yield the same results as sucking on mom or a bottle, she didn't like it. there may be something to that. more recently, i tore off another piece of pita (a wheat one this time) and gave it to her to chew on. she gnawed on it a little while, but lost interest quickly, so i took it back. after a few seconds, blech- she pushed out the little soggy bits she had chewed off from her mouth with her tongue, so they slowly crept down her chin. very similar to tom hanks in "big" when he tries caviar.

my new NIECE!!

so, i've been an aunt for a while now. . . adam's brother has 2 awesome kids that we love to hang out with. but there's something extra special about my own brother being a dad. i kinda like it. i'm really looking forward to struggling with the ups and downs of parenthood with rick, learning from each other and becoming closer in a new and different way in our adult lives.

so, sarah grace joined us on the outside at 12:08 am on wednesday, 4/29/08. she was 8lbs 6oz and 21.5 inches long. like her cousin, she was very comfy on the inside and only came out after mommy had surgery. bummer, i know, but another happy, healthy baby has joined the family and in the end, no one cares how. the scar isn't glamorous, but isn't horrendous either, so it's something i can live with, anyway.



she's so cute and tiny and fragile. the craziest thing is to see sarah and nissa next to each other. they are a mere 23 weeks apart in age, but already nissa is so much different from sarah (with whom she was very similar, when she first came out). because it happens gradually over time, i almost forgot how quiet and still nissa used to be as a newborn. now, she wiggles, giggles, grabs and screams. meanwhile, sarah gets cradled by her daddy, content as could be, only fussing for a diaper change or food. both mommy and baby are starting to get the hang of nursing.

it's just so cool. i love it.

on a side note, i've discovered the coolest bus driver in the city. if i'm running late (leaving about 7:15am) and catch the right bus, he's there with a smile, a "good morning" and "thank you" for every fare collected. he's happy without going overboard, with a genuine good nature. if only everyone (or more people) could be like this bus driver, the world would be a much better place. i'm so grateful to see him first thing in the morning. . . he really brightens my day.