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

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.