7 months old!

The past month has been so busy! Sophia is a crawling machine. There is no amount of baby-proofing that we can do to keep her out of things. She is babbling more and more "mama, dada, lala, baba" - but of course she doesn't know what any of those things means. But it's REALLY cute to hear her "talking". She is also clapping her hands everytime she's happy and excited. She's such a happy baby. She only grumps and /or cries when she's hungry or tired. Other than that, she giggles, smiles and talks constantly. She's one noisy little girl. :-)
We're still working on her sleeping through the night, but she's doing pretty well. She goes to bed about 7 and gets up anytime between 1 and 3. We feed her a little bit and then she sleeps again until between 5 and 7. Hopefully one of these days she'll sleep the whole time.
I feel like she's been doing so much, but mainly it's been getting better at the things she's already been doing. She definitely keeps us on our toes. Here are some pictures of what she's been up to the past month.

Ok, so there were a ton of pictures! I couldn't pick just a few!!

6 months

 Wow. 6 months old. "Everyone" says that once you have kids that time really flies. Well I guess there's a reason that "everyone" says that.  I can't believe how fast the past 6 months have gone. We went to her 6 month apt on Thursday and everything is looking good. She weighs 14lb 15oz (29%) and is 26 inches long (61%). She got 3 shots and only cried for a few minutes. As soon as I was able to pick her up she calmed down.

Just like I feared, Sophia started crawling 2 weeks ago.  5 1/2 months old and she was crawling! Not army crawling, or pushing herself backwards, but honest to goodness crawling forward. It's the most adorable thing to see our little munchkin moving all around. Now that she's been at it for a few weeks she's getting faster and faster.  And today she started pulling herself up onto her knees! She made it up on her feet once and then didn't know what to do once she was up there. Silly girl.

We got the okay from the pediatrician to start solids. (Shh. Don't tell her we already started rice!) But now we're going to start her on vegetables.  We've been told to do all veggies first so that she doesn't get a sweet "tooth", so hopefully she does better than her mommy with eating her veggies. :-)

Daycare is still going really well. She gets really excited when we get there and starts kicking her legs. She smiles when she sees "her" ladies and I feel really good about the care that she's getting. Obviously it's not as good as she'd get at home, but I feel like it's the next best thing.

Here are some pics of what she's been up to this past month.

5 months

It has been a big month for Sophia....

She started daycare on Tuesday, September 7th and it was an emotional day for all of us. I cried pretty much non-stop for the few days before hand, and the entire day she was there.  Luckily, the ladies there are wonderful and didn't mind my phone calls every few hours.  Her 1st day was a little rough, but we expected that.  The past 2 days have been much much better and everyone raves about how friendly and happy she is. Yea Sophia! :-)  I've also done better and haven't cried when dropping her off and have only called twice a day. I will admit though, as soon as I am finished with my afternoon duty, I am out the door and on my way to get her.

Sophia got her first tooth a few weeks ago!!!! She was born with a cyst on her bottom gums, and while it has disappeared, it left her bottom gums a little thicker, so we had no idea she was teething. (Except for the excessive drooling, but we thought it was just a baby thing!) We were shocked when we found a little white dot one morning.  She got her first cold along with her tooth and that was hard on all of us. She could only sleep for a few hours at a time and would wake up coughing and sneezing. We are just now getting back to her sleeping for a little bit longer at a time.

She is now getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. CRAZY! I am SO not ready for her to be on the move. Hopefully she is content with the rocking back and forth for a while...but I know that's not the case. She seems to be very impatient and wants to get into everything!

She likes blowing "raspberries" all. day. long. 

Her new favorite game is peek a boo. Especially when she is just out of the bath and getting ready for bed. She loves when Pat or I will hide behind the bed, poke our head up and yell "Boo!". She gets the biggest grin on her face and starts squealing.  Cutest. Thing. Ever.

She really loves her puppies and they both love her. Lyla will lay by her and Sophia will reach out her hands and pet her.  She also grabs her fur, but I make sure that I help Lyla escape before Soph can get a good handful.  Lyla is so patient and sweet with her.  Riggins on the other hand loves Sophia from afar. haha. He will do walk-by licks on her head, but if she reaches out to touch him he runs away.  We try to put Soph on his back, and it's like a cartoon - his legs start scrambling, but he doesn't go anywhere at first. Then he shoots off running. We don't do it too often, because we don't want him to be scared of her, but we also want him to get used to her touching him.  Here is Sophia loving on Lyla

Sophia loves Skyping with Grandpa and Grandma.

Sophia tried solids for the 1st time this month too! She looooves trying to put the spoon in her mouth all by herself.
I'm not ready for her to grow up so fast, but she's done so much this past month, I'm excited to see what this next month will bring.

4 Months

Well, it's official. We are now in the month that I have to go back to work. ::sheds tears:: But I am enjoying every second (even the screaming ones) until September 7th when we drop her off at daycare.  We are really lucky because my parents are coming down at the end of August and will watch her during my teacher work week. Hopefully by easing into it I won't have such a hard time come September 7th.

Yesterday we went for her 4 month appointment - which meant more shots. She was crying before she even got the shots and stopped a few minutes after, so I guess it wasn't so bad.  Right now she weighs 13lbs 6 1/2 oz. and is 24 1/2 inches long.  she is in the 43% for weight, 58% for height and 39% for head circumference. We're not supposed to start solids until she's 6 months old, but we may start trying rice cereal when she's 5 months of so. We'll see!

~Right now Sophia is a rolling machine.  She knows how to roll from belly to back, but doesn't do it very often. She rolls CONSTANTLY from her back to her belly though and is making it very difficult to change her diapers and clothes! Because she is rolling so much, we deswaddled her while she sleeps.  She's doing well with the deswadling, but she wakes up when she ends up on her stomach and can't figure out how to get back over to her back.
~She keeps trying to sit up by herself. Everytime she is laying down, or in her carseat or swing, she is picking her head up and trying to pull herself up.
~When she's on her stomach she has started trying to scoot herself forward. She can only make it about a foot or 2 - but it's a start.
~She is drooling like crazy. We go through about 3 bibs a day just trying to keep her dry. No more seeing her cute clothes - they're always covered up now. :-(
~She's always putting something in her mouth. Most often it's her hands (and she puts them so far in her mouth she chokes herself!), but it's also toys, blankets, bibs, our hands....pretty much anything she can grab and shove in her mouth.

I know she's doing much more, but I can't think of it right now. Here are a few more pictures of what we've been up to the last month.

3 Months

Time is absolutely flying by and no matter how much I wish, it won't stop! I can't believe she is 3 months old and in just 2 more months I will have to leave her at daycare. It breaks my heart to think about leaving her for most of the day with strangers.  We have chosen a great place; one that we're really comfortable with and know people whose children go there....but it doesn't make it any easier. I wish that our county still offered the chance to take a sabbatical for a year and then come back.  But this stupid economy has taken that away, and if I chose to stay home then I would not have a job to come back to. She and I are covered under my insurance, so I think we will try it for a year and see how it goes. If I absolutely can't stand it, then we can figure out what to do next summer. But the good thing is that she will be around other kiddos her own age, be doing fun art activities that, let's face it, she definitely wouldn't be doing with me (I can barely draw a stick figure!), and I'm sure there are other bonuses too...it might just take me a while to figure them out.  Phew, sorry for the long rant...I never thought it would be so hard...and I still have 2 months to dread it coming.

Anyway, we've had a great beginning to summer. We've already traveled to Pittsburgh, Philly, New Jersey, and York. We have the only child in the universe that HATES the car. Hates to the point that she gets red in the face and screams to the point of choking herself. It is heartwrenching to hear, but we can't figure out how to help her. :-(  We've tried pacifiers (she refuses to take one!), toys, mirrors, even one of us sitting with her, but nothing seems to work. She eventually tires herself out and falls asleep, but it's so sad...and makes for VERY loooong car rides. Other than that, she's a super happy baby and is the love of my life.
Right now she.....
~weighs a little over 12 pounds
~can sit up in her Bumbo chair
~loves being propped up on the couch so she can "watch" baseball with daddy
~coos, gurgles, and talks constantly
~smiles whenever we talk to her
~does great during tummy time - lifts her head really high
~has rolled from tummy to back a few times by accident, but not on purpose yet
~bats at her toys on her play mat and "yells" at them
~loooves the water! She screams anytime she is taken out of the tub or the pool. We have quite the water baby on our hands.

Every day is something new and I love waking up and seeing what she will do next. Here are some pics of our growing girl. :-)

2 Months old

Sophia had her 2 month appointment this morning - complete with her first set of vaccines. :-(  She is doing really well - 11lbs 4 1/2 oz, 22 1/4 inches long. She is in the 66% for height, 63% for weight, and 50% for head circumference. It was awful to hear her scream when she got the vaccines, but she started screaming as soon as her leg was wiped with the alcohol, so I'm hoping that the actual shots didn't hurt her that much. Luckily, Pat was able to come with me and hold my hand so I didn't freak out as much as I expected.

Sophia has also started to grace us with longer stretches of sleep at night. Over the weekend she slept through the night 2 nights in a row! Last night she slept 7 hours - which meant she was up at 4:30am, but that's still a looong stretch of sleep. :-)  She is smiling more and more, but I can never quite catch one on camera.  She is gurgling and cooing and is quite the wiggle worm...I think any day now she will be rolling over!

As for me, I'm still trying to get a handle on housework and cooking while taking care of her. She doesn't really like to be in one place for too long, and if she can't see me she starts to cry. It definitely makes it difficult to get anything done during the day. My plan for maternity leave had been to have a clean house and dinner ready every night....not happening yet! Hopefully I'll get the hang of it before summer is over!

4 weeks already?!

I can't believe I've been a mom for 4 weeks already. (ok, 4 weeks tomorrow, but she's sleeping so I thought I'd take advantage and update.) I can't believe that I'm in charge of this little person! It sounds so cliche, but it's true - I never knew I was capable of loving someone the way I love her. It's so hard to explain, but I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to meet her, and now that she's here, I'm complete. I am so content to just hold her and stare at her - even at 3am when she refuses to go back to sleep. (don't get me wrong, I WANT her to sleep, but even as exhausted as I am, I just sit and stare. haha)
And yes, sleep is definitely something that we want and need more of. She still has her days and nights confused, and nothing we try can convince her otherwise. She is such a good girl though that even when she's awake for hours in the middle of the night, she doesn't cry, she just sits and wants to be held. And you know what? I'll take it. I'm savoring every minute I have at home with my little girl because I know that September will be here way too soon and then I have to hand her over to daycare. (which I cannot even let myself think about because when I do I start to cry!)
Anyway, here are some pictures of sweet Sophia - I can't believe how big she is getting!!!