Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Dear Natalie,

Six months ago today, you came into this world in what turned out to be a surprisingly laid-back childbirth. Maybe the tranquility in the room where you took your first breath influenced your relaxed attitude. Or maybe it's just your fine, fabulous genes that created your calm disposition. Either way, you are truly a sweet and easygoing baby girl, and that has made our job as your parents a very, very enjoyable one.

You are beginning to sit up on your own, and though you still require quite a bit of assistance, we can tell that you are close to sitting independently. You're able to balance when you move front to back, but it's when you teeter off to the side that you end up falling over. It frustrates you a little bit because you want to sit up and play with your toys, so we pick you back up and help you keep your balance.

You tried rice cereal a couple of weeks ago. We had planned on making it from scratch, but since your daycare uses Earth's Best rice cereal, we decided it would be a good idea to use that at home, too. You don't seem to care for it much. You usually "blow raspberries" and spray us with the cereal! But you open your mouth when the spoon gets near and you eat a little bit of the cereal. Today your Dad made a green pea puree for you and we fed you some of that. You weren't all too excited about it, but you didn't spray us with it either. We'll try again tomorrow! We're so excited about making veggies and fruits for you to eat and experiment with, and we hope that eventually you'll enjoy them as much as we enjoy feeding them to you.

We took you to the doctor today for your six-month checkup. You weigh 14 lbs 8 oz, which puts you in the 25th percentile for weight. This is great because you had fallen to the 5th - 10th percentile at your last visits, so it's wonderful to see that you're gaining weight and growing as a healthy baby should be. You also had to get some vaccinations today and you cried just a little bit, but overall you did a fantastic job.

Your daycare teachers still gush about you every day. They love you and treat you as if you were their own child, and that makes your Mom and Dad very happy! We have our first parent/teacher conference next week, and as I was adding your name to the signup sheet, your teacher Natalyn told me, "You already know everything Natalie does is perfection." That's love, my dear!

My first Mother's Day is two days away and I'm so proud to be your mama. You were fearfully and wonderfully made, and I love you very much!

Love,
Tu Mama

Here's a picture from your doctor appointment today:


Here's a picture of you with your teachers Reenita and Natalyn:



This is your first time eating green peas:




And this is you and your mama at Easter:

Fun Saturday!

We've had a beautiful Saturday here in Atlanta! We spent some time in the yard this morning, then came in to try feeding Natalie some rice cereal. We've done this before - the first two attempts were quite unsuccessful and she showed improvement the third time, meaning that she might have possibly swallowed a teeny, tiny bit of the cereal. This time was no different, but even though she's not exactly "eating" the cereal, we're still having a fun time trying to feed it to her :-). Here's a video I took at today's feeding:



We also enjoyed the day by taking a walk around our neighborhood, and we made a stop at Knight Park which is just down the street from our house. Natalie was strapped to Jeremy in the Baby Bjorn, which she just absolutely loves, and they sat on a swing at the playground. Our baby girl sure did look happy!

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!