9 Months In, 9 Months Out...

I wonder why the nine months of pregnancy felt so much different than the nine months of motherhood... aside from the obvious. While I really did enjoy my pregnancy, in hindsight it feels like I was pregnant for a long, long time when I compare it to the nine months we've had with Kate. The nine months since she has joined us has flown by.

In Babies R Us today, I was buying Kate's new carseat (since she has grown out of the infant seat) and a mom was commenting on how cute Kate was... she asked how old, and I told her nine months. She went on to tell me about her 3-month old and that her mom tells her that they should not always hold the baby so much so she won't get spoiled, blah-blah-blah. It made me kind of sad... I wanted to yell, "hold her"! Hold her for as long as you can! Because soon she'll be squiggling and squirming and trying to explore the world around her and cuddles will be fewer. Just sayin'.

As I finished my purchase and wished her a good day, she noticed the carseat in out cart. "Oh, she gets a big girl carseat now!" Yep... that made me kinda sad too.

Taking the nine month monkey pic was an adventure. Most of them turned out like this:

We did manage to at least get this one, to show the comparison:


I've become slightly obsessed with remembering the little things... we're all so focused on 'milestones', that I think sometimes the little things get lost. I took Kate to the park last week for her first time on the swing- she loved it! She giggled every time I pushed her, then she'd come back, I'd tickle her feet and she'd squeal with laughter. It was too precious.

Another 'little thing' was last Sunday. She woke up earlier than usual and seemed just as happy as could be. She had her bottle, we played for a while, watched some Baby Einstein "First Signs" for a while... then time came for her oatmeal and fruit. She started yawning in her highchair before I ever had her food ready, and was visibly getting tired. A fun Kate fact: her comfort habit is pulling her hair. Not hard... just kind of like you might twirl your hair through your fingers. So I step over to the counter to grab her cup, turn back around, and sticky-oatmeal-applesauce fingers are running through her sweet, just bathed the night before hair. I almost wanted to be frustrated, because she'd need to have a bath before church now, but I had to laugh. Look at this face...

Makes it look like she has an abundance of hair, hehe. Using a little product always adds volume, right? So, we took a quick bath and she took a fantastic nap before church.

After church, we headed up to Torrance to visit my mom and grandpa. Kate is the light of their lives these days. She has so many people who love her.

I think she has made my grandpa so much more positive in his attitude recently. In May, he broke his neck and has been fitted in a halo for over 3 months now... I don't think I'd be very positive, but he is hanging in there like a trooper and I just know Kate has so much to do with that. Poor guy... he looks like he's been through the ringer, but he is being so upbeat about it. Plus, he can tell all the ladies he was in a motorcycle accident, or something cool like that ;-) That will make up for the fact he hasn't had a haircut in months!


Yep. I love my family.

Happy Half Birthday!

On Sunday Kate hit the 6 month mark! We're half way to her first birthday and I can't believe how quickly time is passing. She has changed so much! Between 5 months and 6 months and good crop of hair has appeared on her head and I swear there is a little more there every day! So cute and fluffy!

Here is the 6 month monkey pic:


A couple of weekends ago, we made a trip out to the desert for one night. She did great and went in the pool for the first time... its hard to say whether she liked it or not. She didn't seem to *not* like it, but wasn't too sure about it (but this picture makes it look like she was unhappy- she really wasn't).



It only took 6 months, but I think I am finally getting into the swing of motherhood. It all works out now (most of the time) and I am learning to relax and enjoy Kate more, rather than worrying all the time. She gets more and more fun all the time- I just want to sit on the floor and play with her and teach her all day!

Eating is fun now... she really digs oatmeal and now we're starting to add veggies and fruits. Right now we're on carrots- makes for some wacky colored diapers, that is for sure! The faces she makes when trying something new are classic! I would post pictures, but we've been slow on picture taking since my Rebel XT is out of commission right now (huge bummer...).

Soon she will be moving all over the place (she already propels herself across the room by rolling over and over and over...) and I am going to be exhausted, but we are so excited about all of the wonderful things to come.

I was really awakened to how blessed we are when I read that the girl who runs a website I frequent (mom4life.com) lost her baby boy at 37 weeks. They discovered that he no longer had a heartbeat and she had to deliver her sweet angel, only to bury him days later. For someone I don't even know, her story haunted me. It tore at my heart and I thought about it a lot. It isn't fair. But her faith in God is awe-inspiring. She trusts in God's will and is being so faithful. I admire that. It opened my eyes to hear her story, and it made me all the more thankful for the beautiful baby girl napping in the room next to me. I don't know how I could be so blessed, but I am thankful.

In other news, my grandpa took a pretty nasty fall last Monday. He fractured a vertebrae in his neck and has been fitted with a 'halo' (one of those metal things they screw into your head). He'll be in that for 3 months. If you read this, please take a minute to lift him up in prayer, that he would remain in good spirits and that he would not encounter any setbacks that would keep him from returning to life as usual fairly soon. Thanks! Kat wants her great-grandpa to be able to come down and visit again!

5 Months!

April 18th marked 5 months of life for our little lady! Cuter than ever, she is quickly outgrowing her monkey! For the 5 month picture, poor Monkey's little green flower is missing from his body... one morning, as Kat wrestled Monkey in her crib, she pulled the flower right off! I could stitch it back on easily enough, but it is likely she'll just pull it off again, and I wouldn't want her to choke on it (since everything goes in the mouth these days).

It's hard to believe we're coming up on 6 months... for some reason it seems like 6 months is a big milestone. My 'mini-goal' for nursing was to make it to 6 months then decide from there whether to continue or to wean... I haven't made up my mind yet. I know the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends a year, and it is way cheaper than formula (free, in fact... I don't charge per ounce), but we'll see. Maybe we'll go until she has teeth. Maybe we'll go a year. I don't know yet. Some days I am ready to give up... other days I love that personal time I have with her. It's a toss up right now.

The highchair got put together today... I put her in it for a minute and she wasn't quite sure. We've tried cereal a couple of times now, but she seemed not so excited. So we waited another week and tried again this morning. She was a little more enthusiastic, so perhaps I'll start giving her a little every morning to get her in the routine, then see whether to start adding in other foods. I'm not in a rush, but I want to do it the right way. I just had her on my lap this morning, instead of trying to add the highchair into the mix. I think she needs to be a little more comfortable with the idea of the food before we do the chair. Solid food experiences are funny... check out the look we got the last time we gave her cereal!


She's growing and changing all the time and is so much fun... what an adventure!

Freedom!

Kat is officially done with the swaddling business- completely! Now that she is sleeping without swaddling, we have come across a bit of a concern for me: she flips over onto her belly! Everyone now makes such a big deal about putting baby down to sleep on their back to prevents SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Supposedly, they are safe to sleep on their bellies once they're strong enough to flip over... but it still keeps me up at night! I know it is ridiculous and that many, many people were put to sleep on their bellies and lived (my whole generation grew up sleeping on their bellies), but now that they make such a big deal about it, I find myself in Kat's room at 3:00am staring at her to see if she is actually breathing. Sometimes I have to stand there and stare for a good 10 minutes, just to be sure. Crazy!

However, now that she has discovered the beauty of tummy sleep, she is sleeping through the night consistently. Woo hoo!

She turned 4-months this week and she is just more beautiful than ever! She laughs, coos, plays independently and is changing so quickly. Look how big she is now compared to her monkey!


Easter is on Sunday (the earliest I've ever experienced it) and you know she is going to look adorable in her frilly little dress! In the meantime, I had to be the crazy mom and put bunny ears on her... but holy moly, she is so cute!




So that's what we've been up to... sleeping on our bellies and wearing bunny ears! Fun!

3 Months Old!

It is hard to believe that at this time three months ago, I was laying in bed at Hoag Hospital, staring at this perfect little baby that had just made her entrance into the world... I was ecstatic, sore, tired, scared, joyous, overwhelmed and mystified by everything the future now held.

Holding my daughter was surreal. I was scared- I didn't know anything about newborns. I was scared to hold her, carry her, change her bathe her... it was all so foreign.

Now, only 3 months later, it seems like she has always been a part of our family. All of the aforementioned tasks are second nature. Getting up in the middle of the night is no longer a new, exhausting schedule- it is just what I do. What did we ever do without her? She is the greatest joy in this world. Her smile makes everything okay. Her laugh wipes away every crappy part of my day. Watching Matt swoon over her erases 25 years of not having a father of my own. She is nothing less than a perfect blessing that God has surely graced us with.

Today we took her to see her great-grand aunt Virginia (Aunt Gin). Though it breaks my heart that due to the evil disease known as Dementia, Aunt Gin didn't know who I was, let alone who Kathryn was, it comforts me to know that they did meet, even if only briefly before Aunt Gin fell back asleep. I don't know how much longer it will be before Aunt Gin enters into eternal life, but I know that when she does, she will be able to appreciate Kathryn more when she is there than she can while she is still here.

It is getting to be past my usual bedtime (rather early now that sleep is so precious), and I'm fading quickly. Off to bed I go... I'm guessing I have 2-3 hours before my sweet girl is up and so am I! To leave on a happy note, here are some 3 month pictures!

2 Months Old!

This little girl is getting so big! It is funny- we are with her and see her everyday, so we don't notice her change in size as much! Wow- what a growing girl!



We've had two nights now where Kate has "slept through the night". Before I was a parent, the term "sleeping through the night" was something much different than it is to me now. When parents would talk about their babies sleeping through the night, I assumed that they meant sleeping from 8pm to 8am. Sounded great! I've come to learn; however, that sleeping through the night is more like 9pm to 5:30am. I don't think I've ever been so excited to get to sleep *only* until 5:30am. The difference between waking up at 12:30, then 2:30, then 4:30, then 6:30; and then getting to sleep from 10pm to 5:30am is better than you can even begin to imagine. She hasn't given us (and when I say "us" I actually mean "me"... Matt sleeps peacefully through the 2:30am feeding) another one of those beautiful nights in a while, though. She'll come around.

I'm trying to wean her (and myself, let's be honest) off the swing. I don't mind putting her it in to calm her down and get her drowsy, but I'd like to start getting her used to her crib. She has taken one 45 minute nap in there. That is it. Looking back, it cracks me up that when I ordered the crib, I was so nervous it wouldn't be here by the time I delivered... but it made it in plenty of time. And yet, here it is 2 months into Kat's life, and she has only slept in it one time.

We got her a little seat called a "Bumbo" and she loves it! We don't leave her in it for too long yet, since she is still building head & neck strength, but she does great in it for short periods of time!


Kate had her first boat ride this past Saturday, when we rented a patio boat on Mission Viejo lake and went out with Chris Baldwin and his girlfriend, Carly. It was such a beautiful day (only in So. Cal!) and I forsee Kat being a houseboat driver of the next generation. Ok, maybe not, but you never know.


I think that is it for now... many more Kat tales to come!

One month old!

Kate turned one month on the 18th and she couldn't be more phenomenal! She is growing so fast and already weighs 10lbs. 9oz. as of the 19th! Big girl! She is starting to sleep for longer stretches at night which is pretty much amazing... last night she slept from about 10pm until almost 4am! That is six hours of sleepy bliss for me. I actually ended up having to unwrap her swaddle to get her to start waking up because I needed to feed her... I was in some pain from going so long without feeding her.

After I fed her last night, it was about 4:30am and I just didn't want to put her down. She was all cuddled up on my chest, sound asleep, and my brain started going. I realized how blessed I am. With my daughter on my chest and my husband asleep next to me, I felt like everything was right with the world. What a wonderful little family I have! I got a little choked up... I'll admit it. Eventually I put her back down and she slept for another 4 hours... amazing!

The first month has been such a period of learning. Nursing is finally something I can enjoy- instead of crying and hating every minute of it. I thought women were liars when they said "it gets better," but it really does. I never knew how many diapers a newborn baby could go through. Holy crap! No pun intended... Seriously, I change her wet pants before I feed her, then she poops in the clean diaper, then I change her again and it isn't long before we hear her let loose again. I read, while I was pregnant, that a breastfed baby should have a dirty diaper for every feeding... but I guess I just didn't realize how often that was. Dang! Supposedly she will start pooping less now that she is one month old. We'll see!

She has started smiling and it is the best thing in the world! She only does it in response to seeing someone else smile right now... I guess that is how their brains work, but it is amazing! She is going to be such a charmer. Look out, Daddy! The other night she giggled in her sleep and I just about melted into a puddle of goo right there. It was the cutest thing ever!

Matt is probably the greatest dad in the world. For real. He adores her so much and it makes my heart all fuzzy and warm. I really value that, since my dad wasn't around for me. I have a whole new love and respect for Matt that I can't really explain... there is nothing like seeing your husband become a dad.

I am so excited for Christmas- our first Christmas as a family of three! This little girl is going to be SO spoiled... I can already tell. It is so special to my mom and my grandpa, too, to have a new little one at Christmas time. Especially for my grandpa, since with all the scares we've had with his health, we never knew if he'd get to see this day. He tells me everytime he holds her how happy he is that he got to be here to see her. It is so special to me, too. I hope she will know how much he adores her.

Ok, now that I have made myself cry, I will use the rest of this time that she is sleeping to eat some breakfast and pick up around the house. Many more stories to come!