The lasts

An article has been circulating on Facebook by a mommy blogger and the topic is not forgetting to live in the moment. Often parents get so focused on the next baby milestone that we look forward and forget to look around at what is going on now. This leads to overlooking what may well be the baby's lasts: last nap taken on mom's or dad's chest, last night spent in a swaddle, last night with a pacifier, last anything.

So, it made me think of all the sweet little things that happened in the past few months or are happening now that I don't want to forget.

• Back when I was still on maternity leave, my mom would still spend a few mornings a week with Cameron. When she would bring him home for nap time, he would always run in the door and ask me "Norah's awake?" (Because he knows that when she's sleeping he's supposed to use quiet footsteps in the house.)
• Cameron is very loving with Norah 98% of the time. He says stuff like "Hi Norah!", "Good morning my sweet girl," "That's my baby sister Norah, I love her," and "Awww, she's so cute!" The other 2% of the time he's telling her something like "No Norah, that's my truck! Don't touch it!" But then he'll also say something like "I'll go get you a soft toy." So maybe it's like 99%/1%. :)
• Norah is still eating once per night, usually between 2-3 a.m. In the past month or so, after feeding her at that hour, I would lay her down to re-swaddle her and she would just make the most content little sighs and babbling sounds. So sweet!
• I adore the few moments I share with Norah before putting her down to sleep, whether it's at night or for a nap. When truly tired, she is so content to lay her head down on my shoulder and let me rock her for a few minutes. I get to kiss her forehead and nuzzle her nose as she lays there looking at me. 
• Cameron likes to play with words and sounds lately. One of his favorites is to change the endings of our names and quite frequently he will say mommy, daddy, Cammy, Norry. 
• Cameron also has become quite the singer lately. ABCs, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Thomas songs, and lots more. He'll request songs for us to sing and then sing along. He even dances while singing sometimes, or just while listening to music. He bobs his head and taps his feet to the beat. So adorable. Even if the song is Ozzy's "Crazy Train" played in Dada's car, it's still adorable.

I'm sure there are a lot more that I'm not accounting for at the moment, but I'm going to try to be better about documenting them (really!).

7 months

Norah is talking a lot these days; she enjoys cooing, babbling, and chatting us up. And I, for one, love to listen. (She says a lot more "da"s than "ma"s, but I don't hold it against her.)

We are also officially done with the swaddle now that she is able to roll over while still in it. We ditched the swaddle in favor of sleepsacks much earlier for Cameron, around 4 months I believe, but with Norah we have been trying to transition for months now. She will just drift off so much more peacefully when all wrapped up tight! Often I would try to put her down for the night in a sleepsack only to give up on it just to get her to fall asleep already. But now there's no going back. Hopefully it'll just be a few rough(er) nights and she'll be over the transition.

6 months

Recent stats:

Weight: 16 lb 7 oz (70th%)
Height: 26.25 inches (50th%)
Head circumference: still 70th%

At her checkup she got 3 shots and this time she handled them like a champ. No screaming; a few cries but was over it within minutes.

She's rapidly outgrowing her 3-6 month clothing and her size 2 diapers. I don't know why the jump to the next size clothing is hitting me harder, but seeing little 9s on the inside of the onesies makes me realize just how quickly time is passing. Even faster with the second kid!

Teething already?!

Yep, at not even 6 months, Norah has her bottom two front teeth coming in. I didn't expect it so soon, but there they are. I tried to get a picture, but she didn't cooperate.

We tried a little bit of rice cereal, but she wasn't really a fan.

Testing the waters

Norah's 6-month checkup is approaching, and I was very curious to find out if she would share her brother's allergy to dairy. I wanted to be able to discuss options at the checkup if in fact she did react similarly, so this weekend we gave her some formula.

NO hives, NO redness, NO reaction! I'm elated!!!

**happy dance**

5 months

4 months

Recent stats:

Weight: 13 lb 14 oz (70th%)
Height: 24.5 inches (50th%)
Head circumference: don't remember measurement, but remains 70th%

Did you notice? My baby has a mohawk. :)

3 months

Happy Mother's Day!

We headed out to meet with the extended family today. It's so wonderful to see my kids (plural!? still kinda amazes me) interacting with all the relatives. 

I love my family, both little and big. I'm a lucky girl!

Smiles and frowns

She's all smiles these days...

unless Sophie is around.

I thought all babies loved Sophie!?

Her own crib

This past weekend we moved the crib out of Cameron's room and into Norah's room now that Cairo no longer needs the room for his recovery. (He is up and about, had the pins removed last week on April 10th...seems to be doing well though he does still limp around. Cameron still insists that he has a cast, but it's really just his shaved area where the fur hasn't grown back completely.)

So far we've had 3 successful naps in the crib! I rock her a bit (swaddled) and put her down drowsy; she's doing remarkably well at putting herself to sleep, which I'm grateful for.

Nighttime sleep is going well too. She will now consistently give us a 6-hour stretch at the beginning of the night (usually starts between 8-9pm), and then it's back to 3-4 hours. Last night we even got 8 hours out of her thanks to a few replacements of the pacifier in the mouth!

Moving on up

Norah is no longer a newborn. (Sniff!) She's now in size 1 diapers and has moved up to 0-3 month clothes.

Last night we got a 6-hour stretch of sleep out of her, but she is most often giving us 4-hour stretches at night before she's hungry again. Now I just need to figure out how to adjust my sleep schedule to match hers! (If only that were possible, right?)

So I have to say that I will definitely miss the squishiness of holding a newborn all the time, but I will not miss the sleep deprivation. I don't even want to think about what it will be like to go back to work feeling like this. Ugh. ::pushing that thought out of my head for a few more months::

6-week stats

Weight: 10 lb 8 oz (70th%)
Height: 21.5 inches (50th%)
Head circumference: 15 inches (70th%)

She's a growing girl, healthy and doing well. Typically babies at the 6-week visit will get one shot, and then another shot at 8 weeks. But I talked about it with our pedi and we decided to do both today so she wouldn't have to come back until 2 months.

So she got 2 shots and I have never in my life heard such an ear-piercing little scream. It was awful! :( She got all red in the face (but no tears) and just screamed until I nursed her. Yikes. At least I know she's never been in pain like that before! I sure do hope future vaccinations aren't quite so traumatic for her. Fortunately, she slept a lot after the appointment and was only a little grumpy when she woke up later.

1 month

2-week stats

Norah made her first trip to the pedi's office when she was 1 week old. We learned that though she had lost about 5% of her body weight after birth, she was already gaining weight well and was up to 7 lb 3 oz. We got the all clear to not wake her up at night to feed (which I wasn't doing anyway since she was waking regularly enough on her own) since she had already surpassed her birth weight. Hooray for that, because I remember the torture of setting my alarm and trying to wake a sleepy Cameron in the middle of the night just to eat. I am so glad we didn't have to repeat that process!

It wasn't until this 2-week visit that we learned how she was growing in other ways:

Weight: 8 lb (25th%)
Height: 20 inches (30th%)
And I don't remember her exact head circumference, but we were told it was in the 50th%.

A little big for her proportionally, but not big like Cameron. :)

Welcoming Norah Kathleen

Our little lady arrived today at 5:29 p.m.. She weighed 6 lb 15 oz and was 18.5 inches long. I'm so in love with my tiny peanut.

Welcome baby girl! We can't wait to get to know you.