Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

Wow, I haven’t done an update on sweet baby M since she was six months old! Some kind of mother I am! LOL

Now that she is 13.5 months old, let’s catch up on a few things…

M was an early crawler (like all of the kids around here). She was up on her hands and knees at six months and zooming around not long after that. Walking came at 11 months, and now she’s running (which is pretty funny to see, actually).

She never really liked puréed foods, so we used a baby led weaning approach to food introduction. She started solids about 7 months and by 8 months was eating most anything she wanted. She still hates to be fed with a spoon.

She finally started sleeping through the night between 10 and 11 months.

She started out a little hesitantly with words, but now her vocabulary is growing by the week. She said Da-da for months, but that was about it. Labor Day weekend she finally started saying Mama. She also says “di-di” (bye bye) while waving (often with something over her shoulder like a bag) and “eeee” while reaching when she wants something to eat. Her very first word was “this” followed shortly by “that”.

M thinks sign language is hilarious. We’ve tried for months (since she was probably 7 months old) to introduce basic signs (more, please, thank you, all done, drink, eat, amen), but anytime we sign to her she just laughs. She has been known to sign “more” on occasion but not regularly.

M loves her blankie, her thumb, and her Little People. She will sit in her bedroom floor for 10 minutes playing with the dollhouse and castle.

She also loves her siblings. She wants to be involved in whatever they are doing, and if any of them is laying on the floor she will lay down on them or sit on them.

M is a precious, adorable, fun baby girl. We love her to pieces, and I don’t know what life would be like without her. We love you, baby M! You are the cutest, sweetest baby in the world!

sorry for the blurry pictures. they were all taken with my phone, and we know how that goes with a child constantly in motion.

Today is the fourth, so I should be posting my July FOUR, but I don’t have one. So, here’s baby M decked in red, white, and blue (sporting a dress I made this weekend (with much help from my mother) and a lovely Applecheeks diaper).

And a special Fourth of July thanks to all the men and women who have fought and are fighting for our freedom. Especially my favorite Air Force surgeon!

Our fourth was very low key. We hung out at home all day and celebrated with our traditional July 4th meal…tacos. Maybe one day we’ll see fireworks again, but not today.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

I have been terrible about posting regular updates on Baby M. She has left behind her newborn/young infant ways and is embracing her new found freedoms as a “regular baby” as older babies are known around here.

M is sitting on her own, scooting forward and backward, and getting up onto her hands/knees and rocking. Her first tooth broke through this weekend. It’s amazing how quickly she is growing!

Baby M loves her brother and sisters. She will laugh for E more freely than anyone else, she watches J very intently, and while she is cautious of S (with good reason) she still loves for S to play with her.

M’s favorite toys are her Sophie the Giraffe teether and her Skip Hop owl. She chews on everything she can get in her mouth, and drools everywhere.

She is enamored with her Daddy and big brother. If either of them is in the room and within her line of vision she can’t focus on anything else. Sometimes Daddy has to leave the room so M can focus enough to eat.

We’ve given her a few tastes of food, and she isn’t sure what to think. The picture below is after a couple of bites of applesauce. (sorry it’s blurred, she was moving around)

At the doctor Friday she weighed 17 pounds and was 26 inches long. 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. She’s a chunkster.

Her rash that I thought was yeast related turns out to be eczema/contact dermatitis. Hopefully we can keep it at bay with coconut oil and natural soap. I’m relieved it wasn’t yeast related, though, because I wasn’t looking forward to the treatments involved with getting rid of the yeast.

Overall, she is doing excellent. She’s been off of her prevacid since Friday night, and while she’s done pretty well, we have had a couple of bouts of projectile spit up. She doesn’t seem to be in pain (no screaming, writhing, etc), so we’ll see how the week goes.

She is much more content now that she is getting older. She will usually sit happily in the floor or the exersaucer for 20 minutes or so, and sometimes longer if the big kids are around to entertain her.

M is a very social baby. If we are all in a room she is happy, if she notices that everyone has moved on she is immediately upset. She lights up when someone talks to her, and she sometimes does this excited rocking thing (in your arms) like she just can’t contain her excitement.

It’s been an interesting six months around here, but we wouldn’t trade her for anything.

We love you Baby M, and are so glad God gave you to our family!

Believe it or not, my baby girl is two months old already! And while two months doesn’t sound like long, it feels like she’s been with us always. As tough as these two months have been, they have also been filled with blessing. Happy two months, precious baby M!

I am two months old now, and I…

…want to be held. All the time if I had my way.
…spit up like crazy (meaning puddles of the stuff).
…don’t like to go to sleep (but sleep pretty well once down at night).
…visit the doc on Friday. We’ll get stats and likely a script for prevacid.
…am beginning to outgrow my 0-3 months size clothes.
…started smiling about 3 weeks ago.
…have just discovered my hands and, boy, do they taste good!
…am getting to be a little fountain of drool.
…like to be worn (most of the time).
…have quite a fiery temper.
…am growing quite fond of my paci.
…have very good head control.
…rolled over for the first time yesterday morning!
…am doted on and smothered with love by my three siblings.

Baby M

Born August 15 at 2:46 p.m.
Weight 8 lbs. 11 oz.
Length 19.5 inches

(This post was back-dated since I can’t be relied upon to post in a timely manner.)

Today I am officially the most pregnant I’ve ever been.

When I hit 36 weeks or so, people began asking if I thought she would come early. Based on the progression of my children’s gestation, we’re right about where I thought we would be. E was 39 weeks, J was 39 weeks 4 days, S was 40 weeks 3 days. When they hear this, people almost always ask, “don’t later babies usually come earlier?” Well, maybe statistically, but not around here.

I go back to the doctor this afternoon (unless Baby M surprises us in the next few hours) and we’ll see if we’re making progress toward the big day. Doc wants to induce next week (at 41 weeks) if she isn’t here yet. I’m not wild about scheduling an induction since I would like to avoid pitocin, but we’re to the point where conventional medicine says it’s time for baby to be born (don’t get me started…unfortunately, we live in an area that is unfriendly to midwives, birthing centers, etc).

All I can do is rely on God to know what is best and trust that whatever happens is in his hands.

Either way, I’m ready to meet this baby girl!

I can count the number of weeks until we meet baby girl on one hand. It’s a significantly lower number than the number of weeks since I last posted here. This is both encouraging – because it is so stinking HOT here right now – and a bit frightening – because we still have much we would like to accomplish before her arrival.

I don’t, however, find myself anxious. Maybe it’s because we have so much else going on that I don’t think about it much. Maybe it’s because God is pouring his peace into me moment by moment. Maybe it’s because I don’t feel the pressure of having everything “perfect” for her arrival like I did with the first (and even the second). Maybe it’s just because I’m so tired from life with a Kindergartner, preschooler, and toddler (not to mention the heat). Whatever it is, it is good.

I’ve tried to spend the last few weeks doing things with the kids, getting some schooling done, and trying to stay cool. But now that we’re down to three and a half weeks until the due date I’m beginning to realize that there are some things that need to be done. Such as diapers; we don’t have any small disposables and her cloth stash isn’t ready to wear. Such as car seat installation; we have the seat in the car, but right now there isn’t a seat available to install it into. Such as a place for her to sleep; we have a couple of options, but still need to do some work for her to have “her own space”. Such as clothes; they are all in the attic, but they need to be brought down, sorted through, and washed. Nothing major. All things that will get done. But definitely things that need attention.

I figure no matter what is or isn’t done, she will come when it’s her time to enter this world. And, quite frankly, she won’t know what “should” be ready for her.

Matt and I have always said we work best on a deadline. Let’s see how much we get done.