Can you believe it?? Our little girl, whose birth is still so fresh in my mind, is already three months old. Here are some recent photos, from our church's dinner/auction fundraiser this past weekend.
I'll write more later...it's very late but I had to post today...happy three-month birthday, Penelope!
We celebrated Penelope on Sunday with many of our family and friends as she was welcomed into the UU community! It was a beautiful ceremony (click on the photostream at the left for all of the photos) and our little daughter is turning into quite a ham! Just as the congregation named her, she turned and faced the crowd! She did quite well during the ceremony, waiting until after she was named and dedicated until she asked to be fed.
It was so wonderful to have so many of our family members and friends over on Sunday, in particular, Penelope's great-grandmother, Maxine. She flew all the way from Texas to meet Penelope and attend her dedication. She has met all of her great-grandparents now! Here she is with her great-grandma:
As you can see, she is getting so big! Her personality continues to develop, as well...she makes us laugh more and more! Particularly, and this is perhaps somewhat mean, but when she gets mad! Just on Sunday, she was getting so angry that she began to stomp her feet...a real tantrum! It was so cute! I am sure I might not call her tantrums "cute" much longer but nonetheless...it was terribly funny. She is also talking her head off these days...she is rarely quiet when she is awake or not eating. Especially on the changing table, she tells us all about everything...we indeed have a very social little girl.
Her sleep is also starting to regulate...I rarely have to wake up more than once with her during the night. Last night, I managed to get to sleep at 10 PM and she only woke me up at 2 AM, until about 6 AM, that is. She does seem to be a morning person...no matter what, she seems to like to be awake by about 7 AM. That's fine by me...as long as she takes a nap at some point, which varies from day to day. Right now, she is napping in her swing--something she hasn't done in quite awhile. We just roll with the punches...every day seems to be a new adventure.
Can you believe that Penelope will be three months old next week?
Our sweet Penelope is nearly two months old...unbelievable! We are in constant states of awe; she changes and grows so quickly! Here are some recent photos of our little gal! Here she is playing in her activity gym, with Grizzly keeping a watchful eye on her:
She is just now getting big and strong enough to sit in her Bumbo chair! We have a tray for it, on which we'll soon be able to place toys and whatnot...when she begins to grab and hold things! Look at how big she looks sitting in the chair:
We continue to adjust to life with our daughter. Every moment with her is a precious gift, even though sometimes, at the moment, it seems so hard! Lately she has been terribly fussy, I think she is going through a growth spurt. She isn't sleeping as well as she was a couple of weeks ago and she generally seems more stressed, again more than a couple of weeks ago. With that said, she continues to eat well and our adventures in breastfeeding continue! It has become so much easier but I still cannot say we have it down...we still struggle. I am also trying to resume some of my pre-Penelope activities--namely school. I have begun to use a Maya Wrap (introduced by Karin and Jennifer from church...thank you, gals!) to sling her up so she can be near me and I can have my hands free to type or whatever else. It has worked pretty well...just like everything else, I am hopeful we will get better at that, as well!
I am still pretty darn exhausted, even though Penelope tends to sleep in good chunks at night. I have also made myself nap during the day with her a couple of times a week, although it is sometimes so difficult to seemingly "give up" that time to sleep when I have schoolwork, housework, laundry, etc. to do. I have let go of a lot of my neat-freak stuff but boy has it been difficult!
Life continues to be exciting, exhausting and fun, that is for sure. We'll see what this week brings!
Update: The video embed stopped working for some reason so I have embedded it again. Hopefully this one will stick. Also, we've added a photostream link to our flickr account with all of our pictures of Ellie. If you click on any of the photos, flickr will open in a new window so you can see the full size pictures.
Hey everyone! Little Ellie is starting to smile, but they are usually only fleeting moments and hard to catch on camera. However, last week at the doctor's (9lbs-3oz, 23.5"), she literally had a smiling fit and I managed to catch it in a little movie with my camera. I haven't tried to embed a video before, so if this works you should see it below.
Penelope is another week older!
Just thought I'd share another pic of her...in her favorite napping spot...her swing! She just snores away the day there...until I wake her up to breastfeed.
She changes so much from day to day, week to week...it is remarkable! I'll make sure to post another photo of her next week, after her 6-week appointment with the pediatrician!
Our little girl turned one month old yesterday! Here is a great shot of her from her birthday!
One quick note! We went to the pediatrician on Friday for a weight check (remember her feeding issues) and our little girl is not so little anymore! She weighed in at exactly 8 pounds! We go back in two weeks...at her current rate of growth, we figure she'll be about 10 pounds by then! Hard to believe that she was 5 pounds, 4 ounces only three weeks ago...
Whew! I frankly don't know where to begin with this post...while it has been only four weeks since Penelope was born, our lives have changed so completely! I think what Doug said a few days before Christmas, when we realized we hadn't bought a single Christmas gift, pretty much sums up our priorities now: we have everything we need now. We don't need any "thing--" we have the ultimate gift--our precious little daughter. I can't even imagine wanting anything after having her...not that I required too many material/luxury things before the little gal was born...but nothing compares to her. I think, as long as we can witness the healthy and happy growth of our little girl, we are the richest, most privileged folks on the planet.
With that said, I am so appreciative of all of the "things" we received from folks in preparation for Penelope's arrival! We sped through so many of the diapers we received and she is already beginning to outgrow some of the clothes she received! Having a swing to put her in so I can go to the bathroom or just take a quick break is wonderful and we took a very pleasant walk the other day with her in the baby wrap! I (we) are also so appreciative to those who have made us dinners and have come over to help organize, clean, or just hold the baby while I eat lunch! Now that Doug is back to work full-time, I am so appreciative of the help we have received...I can't thank everyone enough.
I am sneaking in the writing of this post during one of Penelope's naps. I know, I should be sleeping too but it is so hard to do so when I need to eat or pay bills or whatever! When P is awake, she is pretty much on the boob all of the time--which of course is where she should be at this point--but that doesn't lend itself to too much "me" time! Now, believe me, I expected almost all "me" time to disappear forever after Penelope was born but sometimes even moms need showers and a tooth-flossing (and to reach out to other adults even in only via this blog).
It's amazing that Penelope will be four weeks old tomorrow! In one sense, I cannot imagine life without her--has she only been with us (on the outside) for four weeks?!?!? In another, I still look at her in complete amazement: she is OUR daughter?!? She is that being who grew in my belly for nine months!?! Needless to say, the last four weeks have been nothing short of earth-shattering for us...pretty stressful but more incredible and rewarding with every passing day...
So I should probably tell you about the girl herself, eh? Well, she is amazing, beautiful and hilarious! Sure, challenging too but only in a couple of aspects: breastfeeding and evening fussiness. Other than that, she's a dream baby. She loves to be changed and swaddled. She also loves to eat...something that has come on recently because at first, neither she nor I could figure out how to get her fed. Consequently, she lost A LOT of weight and our pediatrician got us "finger-feeding" her (Doug's job...excellent bonding time). Finger-feeding is supplementing her with breastmilk through a feeding tube on the end of Doug's finger that she can suck from to get the milk. Our pediatrician does not recommend giving babies the bottle before six weeks so the finger-feeding is a compromise--we needed to supplement but didn't even want to risk nipple confusion. So, with the finger-feeding, P began to build up her strength and learn to latch...and now she breastfeeds almost exclusively. We'll probably transition from finger-feeding to bottle around six weeks not because she necessarily still needs the supplement but because Daddy enjoys feeding her and I know she enjoys it, too.
She has put on about 7 ounces above her birthweight (as of last Thursday) and has grown about an inch. Her head is definitely bigger and she is getting a double-chin! She is pretty demanding when she wants to eat but is equally curious about her surroundings; she is so darn aware and you can almost see her brain functioning more and more every day. She recognized our voices immediately...straight out of the oven she knew who Mom and Dad were. That was the most profound experience of my life--seeing her for the first time and the nurse placing her on my chest. Tracy actually has a small video of that moment and I am so glad for that!!
Speaking of her, she is beginning to wake up so I need to bring this to a close! I'll try to get back on soon with another update!
