Five Months Old

Natalie is FIVE months old! She gets cuter every day, and each day it's impossible to think she could be any cuter than she already is :-). She had her weight check at the doctor's office on Tuesday. She's gained 20 ounces in the last month - so she's now 12 lbs 13 oz! Giving her an extra 3 ounces of milk a day really helped her pack on the pounds. She seems to want 6 ounce bottles at every meal now (she was getting two 5 oz bottles and three 6 oz bottles), so she'll definitely continue to gain weight with that kind of appetite!

She is really thriving at daycare, and this week her teacher Renita left me a voicemail AND called Jeremy to tell us both what a wonderful day Natalie was having. She said Natalie was on the older infant side of the room (where the crawlers and walkers are), sitting in a Bumbo chair in Spanish class and trying to clap her hands! She also said she'd been trying to hold her bottle, so they wanted us to bring some of the handles for the Born Free bottles so she could grab onto them. It was such a sweet call from her teacher, who sounded so proud of our daughter that my heart could have just burst. We also enjoy reading the comments her teachers write in her daily journal, like the ones below (she's already a star student as you can see):



Yesterday Jeremy and Natalie spent the day together, and we met for lunch with some of our former coworkers and Jeremy's good friends. Natalie was the perfect baby, sitting happily (and quietly) in my lap while we waited for our food. When they put my plate down and she stuck her hand in it, we decided to put her in her car seat while we ate ;-). She quietly hung out and played with Cookie Monster until we left. It was our first outing to a restaurant with her and we were really pleased at how well she did!

Last night I had my first solo outing since Natalie's arrival. I came home from work a little bit early and spent some time with her before she went to bed, then I met some girls for dinner in Midtown. It was so nice to get out for some time among adults!

Here are some pictures taken post-bath time last night:




How do you like those pink bunny slippers? Ha! So cute.

20 Weeks Old

Our little Natalie is 20 weeks old. She has officially found her feet - and today I caught her with her toes in her mouth! I can't believe she can fold herself in half like that. It reminds me of her ultrasound picture where she had her foot in her mouth.

She's still sleeping great at night; now she goes to bed at 6pm (if not a few minutes earlier) and sleeps until I wake her up at 7am. It's pretty amazing. We know there will be times when she stops sleeping so well (like the teething days), so we're definitely enjoying this while it lasts.

She's gone back and forth between sucking on her thumb on her left hand to sucking on her fingers on her right hand. Now she's back to sucking on her left thumb. We can tell when she's sleepy because she'll turn her head to the left and stick that little thumb in her mouth.

We're guessing her next milestone will be sitting up - though she doesn't seem close to doing that yet. She still loves tummy time and loves to roll over. Usually if we put her down on her back, she'll roll over to her tummy to play.

She has added a new sound to her repertoire - a happy screech! It's pretty funny. Sometimes when she gets excited she'll let out a big screech of joy. Last weekend we started taking walks carrying her in her Baby Bjorn, and she loves it! She'll coo and screech as we walk the roads of our little 'hood.



Here's a recent picture of her in an adorable outfit from her Aunt D, bib from our friend Erika (made by Erika herself!), and cow toy from Brooke & Sean, courtesy of the Peach Bowl:

Four Months Old!

Our sweet little nugget is four months old today! She had her four-month checkup with her doctor last Thursday and she got a clean bill of health. She has grown two inches since her last appointment on January 6th, but has only gained one pound. She weighs 11 lbs 9 oz and is 25.5 inches long. Her doc suggested feeding her an extra ounce of milk three times a day, so she's now getting three 6-ounce bottles at daycare. We'll take her back for a weight check in April to be sure the extra milk is putting some weight on her.

She still sleeps fabulously at night - she falls asleep around 6:30pm and I wake her up at 7am during the week. On the weekends she sleeps from 6:30 to 8:30 or sometimes even 9:30. She takes after her daddy in this regard ;-).

Her favorite new trick is to blow spit bubbles. Some days she starts right when she wakes up in the morning and continues throughout the day! Most of you probably saw this video on Facebook, but it's too funny not to post here too:



Her hair is getting longer and is long enough to clip a little bow in. Right now it's a light brown color with maybe a little Auburn coloring in it too. I snapped this cute picture last week:

15 Weeks

Natalie is three and a half months old now and is sleeping really well every night (last night she slept 14.5 hours!), playing with toys, and being an all-around happy baby! She's also no longer being swaddled for naps, which happened much more quickly and naturally than I thought it would. One day she fussed as I swaddled her, so I just unswaddled her and put her in a sleep sack instead. She slept like a champ, so we didn't turn back.

Here's a video from today of the little gal playing with her Kerry the Fairy toy:



Her daycare teachers still fawn over her, always telling us how she's so advanced and that we're blessed to have such a good baby. Jeremy says they probably say this to everyone, but I choose to believe it ;-). One lady in particular always tells us that she'll be crawling early. I think it's because of the way she constantly moves and kicks her little legs. She was laying on her back on the floor earlier and scooting herself around the blanket by pushing off of her heels!

Three Months Old!

Natalie is THREE months old! It's amazing how much she's grown and changed. I just watched her "exercise" video that I took when she was about two weeks old, and she looked so different. Her arms and legs were so skinny and she was just a tiny little spastic nugget. Now at three months old, she has filled out nicely and moves (at least at times) with purpose. Her head is fairly steady now and today she actually sat in her Bumbo chair! This picture was taken today:



In *very* exciting news, Natalie has begun sleeping through the night! Four nights last week, she slept from about 8pm to 7am without waking to eat. The first time this happened, I woke up in pure shock when Jeremy's alarm went off at 5:30am. I couldn't believe that Natalie had slept all night or even that I had slept all night! It was bliss to get eight consecutive hours of sleep, and especially four nights in a row! I hope she'll keep this up.

We were also very happy to see her play with a toy for the first time today! I put a toy key ring in her hand and she held on to it and tried to get it into her mouth. She succeeded at least once, and luckily I have video footage of this:



Today she surprised us by rolling over from her back to her tummy - we didn't think she'd do this until she's about six months old, but she decided to do it on her three-month birthday. She did it seven or eight times today. The downside to this is that if they see her do it at daycare, they become legally required to stop swaddling her for naps, which could be quite disastrous.

She's started wearing her awesome bumGenius diapers now while she's at home. We love them! I'm so glad that Jeremy and I both wanted to use cloth diapers, and I'm very glad his friends Ben and Desiree introduced us to bumGenius. These little diapers are cute and functional, as well as economical and environmentally friendly. The best part is that we can use them for future babies, so there will be very little disposable diaper purchasing in our future. Here's Natalie modeling her bumGenius (and showing off her chubby thighs):



Daycare at FIO is going really well. We really like and trust Natalie's teacher, Patrice. She's a sweet and fun lady who Natalie seems to adore, so that makes me a happy mama! I'm already a breezy mom who drops her off with a smile... who knew it would happen so fast? :-) That's not to say that I don't miss her a LOT, because I definitely do. I think about her all the time and watch her on FIO's web cam whenever I get a chance. But it is wonderful to know that she's being well cared for and loved at FIO. And Patrice told me that everyone who holds Natalie says that she makes them want to have a baby! Ha!

First Day at Daycare

Today was Natalie's first day at daycare and my first day back to work. This day has been dreaded since before Natalie was born, with the dread creeping further and further into my psyche as we quickly (all too quickly) approached it. If I was a drivers ed teacher and had passenger seat brakes, I would have slammed them on last week to slow things down a bit, but alas, here we are. And I'm happy to say that we made it, though it was not without tears. I cried on the way to the daycare, then cried again as we walked to her room, then cried again when I kissed her goodbye, then cried off-and-on all the way to work. The teachers and staff consoled me and assured me that every mom reacts the same way when dropping off their sweet bundle for the first time. In fact, I was told that it would be perfectly normal to cry every day this week, and then next week I would probably feel better.

Luckily, Natalie's teachers are very sweet ladies. When Patrice talked to Natalie for the first time, Natalie smiled up at her with her sweet flirty smile, and that made some of my sad feelings disappear. Then they put her in the swing and as she contentedly swooshed back and forth, more of my blues melted away. Then they put her on the play mat for tummy time and she looked just as comfortable as she does at home, so my heart lightened a little more. I'm still not totally tear-free, but I will get there. Each day will get easier and eventually, though it's still hard to totally believe, I'll be one of the breezy moms who drop their babies off with a smile.

Here's a photo of Natalie and Patrice:

Natalie the Flirt

Due to the Southeastern SnowIceMaggedon 2011, Jeremy worked from the safety and comforts home all week. His desk is in the living room, right next to Natalie's swing. Every time she was in her swing and he was at his desk she tried her best to get his attention. She cooed and she gooed, she smiled and laughed, she gurgled and blew bubbles. So intent was she on getting him to look her way, she even resorted to fake-crying at one point. She was determined to distract him from work and get him to pay attention to her! When her efforts paid off and she got a glance from her daddy, she'd smile and squirm in obvious delight. It was the funniest thing!

Natalie the Flirt is 10 weeks old today. Her personality continues to blossom and she's becoming a really fun baby! She's started to grab things more often. Sometimes when I'm changing her outfit, I'll think that it's snagged on something and I'll look down to find it in her clenched fist. I'm thinking she'll start grabbing onto toys and stuffed animals soon, but she hasn't done that yet. She really doesn't pay much attention to her toys except to watch them as I puppet them in front of her, but I don't think it'll be long before her legions of toys start getting some love and attention.