Merry Christmas!

Notable quote

Our cat and dog were in the same room sleeping. This never happens, so I ran and got the video camera to capture the moment. Ruger, the dog, does not like cameras and I didn't know this included video cameras too. As soon as I turned it on, he went running out of the room. I told Rick I didn't know what his problem was. Rick looks at me and says, "Ruger's been hunting with me and he knows what happens when something gets pointed at them."

Not sure who's had more milk and cookies

8 months old

21 pounds 6 ounces and 28 1/2 inches at Sophia's 8 month check-up.

First tooth!!

I have yet to see this mysterious tooth that seemed to pop up out of nowhere, but I can sure feel it. And that split-second look I did get at Sophia's gums shows another trailing not too far behind!

Happy Thanksgiving

Love Bugs

It took me longer than anticipated to report a happy Thanksgiving. I'm now recovering from a cold that Sophia caught from either Love Bug #1 (Amanda) or Love Bug #2 (Alyssa). Those little girls looove their cousin Sophia so much, they can't get close enough to her. Which is sweet, and I am so grateful there is no jealousy of the new addition to share Grandma's attention. So why are they Love Bugs? Well Amanda is in school now so basically she's a walking petri dish. She does really well washing her hands but, well, she's a kid and that's just that. Now Alyssa, she's a Love Bug because the kid just loves to bug. She definitely takes after my side of the family, with that devilish twinkle in her eye. I think we attempted to get Sophia down for a nap at least 4 times, each time the effort foiled by Alyssa. Here's a picture of my love bugs with Sophia!

7 months old

We're changing things up around here

It's been a big weekend of changes! Sophia is now out of her baby carrier and in her new stationary car seat. This triggered additional changes. For the first time, she sat in the grocery cart, which opened up a whole new world of things to try to grab. We went out for breakfast and she sat in the highchair like a big girl at a restaurant. And because she's sitting up so well now, we tried the swing at the park--so much fun!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is my favorite "holiday" and I love dressing up. I was so excited to dress Sophia up this year. It was something I was looking forward to for months. I got her costume online 2 months ago. I tried it on her last month. She hated it. I mean, she really hated it. So I've been trying to get her used to it, to no avail. She just has no tolerance for it. So let this be one of my many lessons that I just can't have control over things 100% of the time. But I am determined of course, so I continue to torture my poor child for the sake of Halloween. Hopefully this does not mean that she'll despise Halloween (or me) because of it.

So for now, at least I still have my other "kid" to help celebrate Halloween. He's a great sport and a hunk, a hunk of burning love!

Thank you grandma

I'd like to give a little shout out to my mom, who was a tremendous help this last weekend. We had a lot of activity, including a costume party and then a funeral for a dear family friend. It was hectic and my mom really came through. Sophia might even prefer her grandma over me now, but I'm working on getting back in Sophia's good graces.

Pumpkin patch

Picture a warm fall day with a crisp breeze. We stroll lazily along the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkin. I stop and admire all the Halloween accoutrements hanging on various displays, pointing out which ones would be a great addition to our home decorations. A bluegrass band is playing in the courtyard and we walk over to hang out and talk to the local town folk. After a while, we pick out perfect photo opportunities for Sophia's first trip to the pumpkin patch. The afternoon ends with a stop at the booth for some hot apple cider.

Now erase that story from your head. Here's what really happened...

Rick gets home from golf early enough to finally go to the pumpkin patch. I've been nagging him for the last week about coming with Sophia and I. The place is packed and he's complaining about some guy that is taking way too long loading up his pumpkins and his kids. We finally get the parking spot and unload Sophia and the stroller. He says, "OK where are the pumpkins? I'll just follow you." We spot the pumpkin patch and make a bee line past all the really cute Halloween stuff and plop Sophia down in front of the pumpkins. I make a bunch of noise and try to get her to smile, as Rick rolls his eyes and says, "Oh boy, here we go." I get a few acceptable shots and then a nice lady asks if we wanted a family shot. Great! Then I tell Rick I want a shot of him and Sophia. He is patient enough for me to quickly snap a few and then we pick up 3 pumpkins and off we go. I'd say the trip lasted maybe 10 minutes tops. Oh, there was a bluegrass band playing somewhere but we were too busy rushing to see anything.

Playing around with my new photo editing tool

Trying to do some artsy stuff. I liked how this one turned out.

Sharing a few things

It's been a while since I've updated on milestones or little things Sophia has been doing. She's in such a fun stage.

• She loves to suck face. Ha! Seriously, she likes to try to suck on my chin, her daddy's nose, etc. I've had a hickey on my forearm and my neck from her. Did I mention that she's fully weaned now? Maybe residual side effect from missing the boobie?
• She's sitting up! She gets frustrated if I put her down on her back to play now. I should know better; she wants to sit up like a big girl.
• She knows her name. Or maybe I'd like to think she knows her name. When I say her name she looks at me. This has proved to be valuable when I'm trying to feed a moving target. I just say, "Sophia!" and she looks up long enough to put the spoon full of food in her mouth.
• She's in the 90th percentile for height and weight. Her thighs are so chubby that I can only put her in stretchy pants. Any other type of pant (jeans, etc.) don't fit, even 12 month size.

Here's the family watching the Blue Angels in SF last weekend.

Happy 6 month un-birthday!

18 pounds 14 1/2 ounces and 27 inches in length at Sophia's 6 month check-up.

Sleep tight, nighty night

I've been afraid to write about this, least I jinx myself. However, I really do have to share what a great sleeper Sophia has been. She's always been really good about going to sleep. From early on all I had to do was wrap her up in a half-swaddle and lay her down and she'd go to sleep with little or no fussing.
Recently I was getting frustrated that she would wake up every 3-4 hours during the night. Not too big of a deal really, I would nurse her and she'd go right back to sleep. But her Dr. had told me she should be sleeping through the night by this age, so that bothered me. Then it dawned on me. Maybe she is waking up because we were making noise in our sleep. She was still in our room, sleeping in her Pack 'n Play because I was too lazy to move her into her own room due to waking up to nurse.
So I put my laziness aside to tackle the big move to her crib. I figured it might take a few nights or so to suffer but it would be the best for us all. So last week I moved the night time routine to her room--PJs, books, nurse, swaddle, burp, turn out the light. I set her down in her crib, whispered, "sleep tight, nighty night" and she laid there smiling at me. I turned around, closed the door and turned on her monitor in the family room. I didn't hear a peep. We went to bed and then I turned on the monitor in our bedroom. Didn't hear a peep. I started to wonder if the monitor was broken. 8 hours later, and countless times during the night waking up to silence, I finally give in to my curiosity (and at this point, just plain fear) and go into her room to see if she's still alive. There she was, sound asleep. At least someone got a good night sleep that night.
Since that night, each consecutive night it's been the same routine with the same results. Last night she slept 10 hours. See why I've been so hush-hush in writing this? I just know I'm jinxing something, but I'm too proud not to share.

5 months old

It's all about consistency

In this case, it’s all about the consistency of food. I’ve introduced Sophia to rice cereal. According to the directions, one should start out the first feedings with a very soupy consistency. Well, she liked it but didn’t really love it. I thought maybe it was just the cereal in general but have since experimented consistently, for the last week. So I cut back on the liquid and it turns out that she loves it! I mean lip smacking, impaling herself onto the spoon kind of good. But it has to be thick. Granted, it’s easier to get on the spoon, but the stuff is like rubber cement when trying to clean it up.

Sophia's playground (aka our family room)

I can remember specific conversations with my family and friends on the subject of baby entertainment. I was vehement on not turning our living space into a cluttered playground of monstrosities and toys to stumble over, trip on, move out of the way to pass by, or in other words, GET IN THE WAY of my organized space. I think what I would say was, "It's a baby! How many toys does a baby need??" In my head I had devised stations where the baby would play, mostly in her room. I would hide the toys in the baskets, or in the trunk table that was functional yet aesthetic. No one would really know I had a baby that defined my living space.

Enter my world now. The swing that I am in love with, I stub my toe on pretty much every evening. The Einstein gym is used by Sophia during the day and apparently the cat likes to "work out" with the toys at night; the blocks and rings litter the floor each morning. Now I'd like to introduce you to our new addition to the family room: the Jumperoo! As if things couldn't get bigger and more obnoxious. So yes, I've eaten my words. These things have taken over my once uncluttered, functional space. However, I have to admit that I've redefined the meaning of functional in my head. Currently it's anything that makes Sophia happy, and entertained. I guess I'll deal with figuring out where to hide the stuff when we get around to having people over for dinner. Oh yeah, that would be when I have time to make dinner for a dinner party! OK, so my world is changing. I'm no longer in charge of it like I used to be. And I have a feeling this is only the beginning.

Sophia rolls over!

We've been looking forward to this moment for weeks, it seems. Sophia had mastered the side roll and was so close to rolling over for a few days now. She just hadn't figured out how to un-wedge her arm from underneath her. And today, she got it all figured out! Can you tell how happy I am in the video? One more step closer to mobility. Watch out!

4 months old

15 pounds, 6 1/2 ounces, and 25 inches at Sophia's 4 month check-up.

1 year ago today

I found out I was pregnant with Sophia 1 year ago today. This was the barely visible positive pregnancy test I took a picture of last year. I still have the test (and the next 10 or so tests I continued to take just to make sure I was still pregnant) in my bathroom drawer!

Aug 5, 2007 HPT

Sophia sucks her thumb

Good fat

Everyone knows a healthy baby is a chubby baby. I never realized the pressure I would have, to make sure I had a healthy baby. It started a few days after Sophia was born. She dropped from 8.3 pounds to 7.9 pounds, and I was freaking out that I would have to supplement the breast milk with formula. After a few doctors visits to make sure she was turning the corner, she really started putting on the weight. I stopped being so frantic about how much milk she was getting, but was still concerned about my baby having enough rolls.
In the beginning, everyone said she looked a lot like Rick. Even Rick said she she took after him, meaning she was skinny. Haha. Well in the past few weeks, people are now saying Sophia is starting to look like me. I can't help but laugh and say it's because she is finally filling out and now she has chubby cheeks and fat rolls, just like her mommy.
Sophia, when you read this in your teenage years, while you are inevitably worrying about your weight--no matter how skinny you are--just know that there was a time when we worried about putting fat on your little body.

3 months old

13 pounds, 23 and 3/4 inches at Sophia's 3 month check-up.

About making dinner...

I've been trying to get back to making decent dinners. I'd say the lack of any interest in food--let alone time to eat food-- has put the "making dinner" part of this blog on the back burner (pun intended).
So the week before last, I actually planned a menu and bought groceries to support that menu. I started out simple, taco salad. That went well, hard to screw up ground beef and prepackaged taco seasoning. Throw in some lettuce, black beans, avocado, tomatoes, green onions, celery, carrots, and ranch dressing and it was a pretty good meal.
I felt like I was getting my cooking mojo back, so next was rotisserie chicken with Pappy's seasoning, and roasted root vegetables. Well, the chicken didn't cook all the way so I had to pop it back into the oven to finish and then it ended up overcooked. Minor setback, slight wound to my new found confidence.
But I trek on to the grand finale of the week: rack of lamb with creamed spinach. Now this would have actually turned out beautiful. The crust was amazing, the temperature perfectly medium rare. However, the lamb was so incredibly marbled with fat, that it made it impossible to enjoy. I was so upset! If you've bought rack of lamb pre-frenched at your local grocery store, you would know that a rack of lamb is pretty darn expensive.
Well, 2 out of 3 meals not ending up the best was enough to give me this past week off. Not to mention the heat wave we had did not promote running any household appliance, let alone an oven or stove. So we had smoothies for dinner. Now it's cooling down and I'm starting to get nervous about this week's menu. Do I even dare try again, or just stick with the basics for awhile?

Oh Swing, how I miss you

Yesterday, in the middle of the heat wave, in our non air conditioned house, Sophia's cradle swing stopped working. This swing is my saving grace during the big nap time. The big nap is usually from 10AM-12. She will not sleep very soundly elsewhere. The swing needs to rock for at least 30 min. and then she can just sleep from there on out. Well, before the 30 min. time period, the swing swang (swung?) it's last swing. I tried everything to revive it: batteries, reset, shake it, kick it, etc. Dead. So of course I jetted to Target to find a replacement. And that's when the frugal me set in and I thought maybe I could get a portable swing anyway, and it's way cheaper. Well, that swing just ain't cutting it. Sure, it swings. But this doesn't swing like our poor little cradle swing, sitting in a dismantled heap in the corner. So this afternoon I called the manufacturer and we are getting the replacement swing sent to us within a week!! So until then, forgive me if I don't leave the house much. I'll be either struggling to get Sophia to nap in her crib, or sitting in the rocking chair with her. Either method will result in 30 min. naps spread out through the day. This swing can't come soon enough!!


Dear beloved Swing, circa May 2008

My Little Yankee Doodle Sweetheart

Like mother like daughter, Sophia was life of the 4th of July party this weekend. She's taken over the reins though. I'm no longer that much fun! She was being such a little ham and such a little charmer to everyone that held her.

She has so many cute outfits and dresses right now. I'm trying to make sure she wears them all before she grows out of them! So I get her really dressed up to go to the grocery store these days. Well, at least one of us looks like they should be out in public.

Sophia is growing up before my eyes. She loves to smile and giggle. She is also learning to self-soothe by sucking on her two middle fingers. And she's sleeping 6 hour stretches at night!

Does it really happen overnight?

My little newborn is no longer a newborn. I thought I had a few more weeks. I thought I'd see subtle changes, gradually, over time. I woke up this morning and Sophia seemed a little heavier.
Her head no longer had that loose skin wrinkled look. Her cry was throaty and louder--almost demanding, no longer soft and pleading. I changed her diaper and realized her chubby thighs have more rolls and the diaper bites into her fleshy hips. I still have tons of stage 1 diapers, and now I need stage 2?!

I went to put on her onesie that just fit last week and I had a hard time fitting it over her head. I tossed it into her growing pile of clothes that no longer fit. How can it be that overnight, my little baby sprouted into a little girl?

Poop happens

I have this little painted tile that reads "Poop Happens" hanging over Sophia's changing table. It was a gift from Erin, and I thought it was really cute. Never thought I'd get the full meaning of the statement, but now I totally get it.

It seems that Sophia likes to do her business at the most opportune times, usually when we are out and about. I am slightly germaphobic, so I hate using those changing tables in the public restrooms, but I'm getting over it.

The other day we were at Bed Bath and Beyond and the usual signs occurred--red face, grunting, lots of tooting...and thar she blows! A huge blowout. OK, so I gave my stuff to a clerk to hold and rolled her to the bathroom. I start to lift her out of her carseat and notice the poo dripping down her leg and off her toes. I also realize that I'm touching something wet on her back and assumed it was a little sweat (we were in the middle of a heat wave). Well, it turns out the poo went up her back too. And because I'm a new mom and not fully prepared, I pulled a rookie move and forgot to pack an extra outfit for her. I also only had about 15 wipes to use, when I really needed 50. Heck, I really needed to just dump her in the bath but that neither here nor there at this point. So I stripped her and started cleaning. it took so long that the sensor lights turned off. I sat there in partial darkness until, thank god, a woman walked in. I finished cleaning Sophia and created some sort of wrap outfit from her swaddle blanket, strapped her back into her poopy car seat and got out of there.

So we get home and I give her a nice bath, get her dressed and fed and put her in her swing to take a nap. I walk away to put her bath up and put all the poo'd on stuff in the wash. Sophia starts to cry. Wouldn't you know she just did a repeat of the earlier business in her swing? Round 2 of strip, clean, bath, dress and laundry. Where does this child store all the poo? I ended up taking a shower myself after that.

Yes, poop does happen.

Never underestimate the power of pretty bows...and pink

This is especially for my sister in-law, who I would tease relentlessly about putting these enormous bows on my niece, Amanda's head. I hate bows. But here I am in a little bit of a pickle. I have a daughter, and I have bows. I also don't particularly like pastel pink. So now I have a daughter and tons of soft pink, and well, bows. So Dione, these pictures are for you because I know you'd get a kick out of them. I'm sorry I made fun of you and Amanda. Karma is really something, isn't it?

Catching up

I have tons of stuff to tell you about, unfortunately I just don't have the time. Yeah, I know you've heard this excuse before. I'm even sick of giving it. So here's a brief recap of the last 2 months I've been neglecting you. I promise to try harder. Honest, I do.

1st week

7 pounds, 9 ounces and 19 inches long at her first check-up.

• Sophia ate non-stop. At least every hour I was nursing her. I was in so much pain from the nursing, I didn't even think twice about the c-section incision. Nursing was important though, we needed to get her weight back up.
• I only left the house to take Sophia to her appointments. It seemed as though the world was moving way too fast, and Sophia and I were in slow motion.
• We had lots of visitors, it was a blur. Thanks to all the generous guests, Sophia expanded her wardrobe tenfold.
• I didn't sleep much. Sophia slept a lot...on me.
  

1st month

9 pounds, 12 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long at her 1 month check-up.

• We started to venture out of the house! We actually went to a few parties.
• Sophia started to open her eyes. I don't think she opened her eyes until she was 1 month old--well, at least that's how it seemed.
• Baths became a little easier to master. In fact, Sophia loves her bath time.
• Sleep deprivation was really kicking in. Getting up 3 or 4 times a night to nurse was taking its toll, but she was worth it!
• Sophia started to smile. It melts my heart.
• We took two trips this month, one to grandma's house and our first trip to the coast with daddy.

2nd month

11 pounds, 5 ounces and 23 inches long at her 2 month check-up.

• We are really starting to venture out now. We went to pick cherries in Brentwood and we went to the A's game. But we take little trips every day, mostly to Target or the grocery store.
• Sophia is getting into a routine. She nurses every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night, which means I only need to get up one time during the night to nurse!
• She's really becoming alert. She's playing with her toys and has private conversations with them. She's pulling on my hair now.
• She had her first round of shots. I don't know who shed more tears. I do know she screamed louder...I had to bite my tongue to keep from doing that.

Dazed and confused

Wow it's been almost 2 months since Sophia was born and it feels like I'm finally waking up from this bleary-eyed wakeful sleep. Things are getting easier and our little girl is really growing up! Still not at the point where I have more than 5 minutes to do anything else but "mother" so I thought I'd drop in to say hi and post a picture of Sophia smiling!

First photo shoot

Since I didn't get any good pictures of Sophia in her coming home outfit, I attempted to take some after the fact.

Birth story

We went to the hospital for a scheduled c-section because Sophia was breech and was expected to be over 10 pounds in weight.

At 6:00 AM we checked in and they put us in a pre-op room to monitor me and the baby, and get an IV started. I hate needles and never had an IV before so I was pretty anxious about that. Of course it took 2 tries to get the IV started, after blowing out the vein in my right hand. Rick and my mom were in the room and we hung out and tried to make light of the situation. Shortly after, the anesthesiologist came in to describe the spinal block and my Dr. came in to explain the c-section again.

At 7:30 AM I walked from the pre-op room to the operating room. At this point I was no longer feeling nervous, just anxious to meet our baby girl. I hardly felt the numbing needle from the anesthesiologist, and just felt some pressure from the spinal block. Within seconds, a warm sensation traveled down my legs and I was numb. They put a catheter in and started scrubbing the incision sight. They gave me some oxygen and I was ready to go. The anesthesiologist asked if I could feel anything and I said no, and he said, "good because they've already started." I told them to get Rick. Rick came in in full on surgical attire and sat down next to me.

Less than 5 minutes later, the Dr. yelled "surf's up!" as my amniotic fluid gushed all over the floor. Turns out the reason I was measuring so big was due to the amount of amniotic fluid and not the size of the baby. Seconds later, they announced they have the feet out, so Rick stood up and started taking pictures.

Sophia was born at 7:54 AM, to Lynard Skynard's Sweet Home Alabama playing on surround sound in the OR. She didn't breathe right away, so they gave her some oxygen and about 10 seconds later I heard the sweet sound of her wailing. It took about 10 minutes for them to bring her to me and we were able to look at her for a minute before they brought her back to check her out some more.

At 8:15 AM I was able to hold her and nurse her for the first time. She took to it like a champ. We spent about 45 minutes in the recovery room as a family, and then Rick and the nurse took Sophia to the nursery for her first bath and foot prints. They stopped by the waiting room on the way to the nursery so that Rick's family and my mom and Amy could see her.

They didn't have a room available right away, so we were brought back to the pre-op room. Everyone was able to come into the room and see us. At 12 PM we finally got into our post partum room for our 3 day stay.

Sophia's first week

We've had a pretty busy week here, but managed to get some pictures...

Welcome Sophia Lee

Born Wednesday, April 9 2008, 7:54 AM

Weight 8 pounds, 3 ounces

Height 19 inches

Absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way (yes, I'm completely biased). We are all recovering well and getting to know our brand new daughter.

I'm going to miss my womb-mate

About 24 hours from now and we'll get to meet our baby! After all this time of guessing what she looks like, who's features she'll have, how big she'll be, what her personality will be like, etc. and so forth--it now just seems completely surreal that I have a baby inside me and she is coming out tomorrow. Craziness.
My womb-mate was just served her 24 hour eviction notice. I told her to start packing up over breakfast of Eggo waffles and syrup, which I know she loves because it really gets her motor running in the morning.
I'm really going to miss the close quarters we've shared for the last 9+ months. It's been, to put it in a really sappy way, magical. So here's my top 3 list of what I'll miss most about my little incubated tenant:

1. Daily pep talks on growing and thriving, which she apparently took quite literally since she's measuring so large.
2. Feeling all her movements and hiccups and trying to guess what part of her body is moving, especially waking up and feeling her wake up too, slowly tickling and then stretching and then the full blown rolling and kicking.
3. Knowing I have her with me 24/7 safe and sound and snuggly, not worrying too much about if I'm doing the right thing and if I'm a good mommy. She's pretty easy to take care of right now.

Pre-labor

I've been having quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions in the last few days. Last night was a record for me, and although it's not the real deal, it's been nice to get an idea of what labor might be like. Yeah, call me nuts but I really want to experience labor, and if I have to have the c-section then this will have to somewhat satisfy my curiosity. I have my weekly Dr. appointment with the on-call Dr. tomorrow because my Dr. doesn't get back from vacation until Mon. I'm interested to see of there's been any changes, and still holding out his baby may decide to turn around. Whatever happens, I'm getting really excited to finally meet this baby!

Changing direction a little bit, I want to share some things that I never realized I'd appreciate until poof--gone. Of course, there are probably tons of things through life that are deeper and more meaningful than this following list. Even in a few months I'm sure I'll forget these were important to me at this time. However, the last nine months have produced a lot of change with my body and I hope to get back the old me eventually.

If I get my body back close to where it once was...

• I will never call myself fat again. I can't believe I was so skinny, actually.
• I will never brag that I can bend over and flatten my hands to the ground, beyond touching my toes. Right now I'm lucky to bend over to the point my hands extend the reach of my knees.
• I will be thankful to change positions in bed, blissfully asleep and unaware my body can move with such ease.
• I will fully appreciate my bladder and it's capacity to store more than an ounce of fluid.
• I will run a little bit harder and jump a little bit higher.

38 weeks

Change of plans

I'm not one for surprises, of any kind. I was prepared for most of the labor and delivery surprises that I've read about and felt pretty confident that I'd let this baby decide how that was going to go. Now that's a lot for me, because I can be a little bit of a control freak. However, it was not in my plans for this baby to "have my poor sense of direction" as Rick says. So the baby is breech, butt down and head up. Wrong direction for a normal delivery to take place. And due to her enormous size, apparently the chances of her turning on her own are slim. I am still holding out that she turns because Rick and I are typically on the lower odds scale of life. Nothing ever comes easy for us, why should this be any different, right?

Back to her weight, I measured 5 weeks ahead of a normal size baby. The Dr. could be up to a pound off, but it's looking like she's exceeding the 9 lb estimate. So even if she does decide to flip around and head in the right direction, I might still be faced with the fact that this baby just won't fit out of the birth canal.

We have a c-section scheduled for next week, so if things continue the way they are, we'll get to see this baby sooner than expected! Although I am not happy about the change of plans regarding a c-section, I am very happy to start our family and hold this little stubborn miracle growing inside me, waiting to come out. But maybe she could be less dramatic on her exit, and do her parents a favor and just head in the right direction??

Wrapping things up

Although not officially 100% complete on all the baby preparedness, I have to say I'm 99.99% there. My checklist has a few lingering items, but nothing major. Whew! The past two nights I have been half sleeping, going through all my lists in my head to make sure I got everything I need, or reminding myself to write down things I still need to get. It's exhausting!

I start to see my Dr. every week now, to see how things are progressing. I feel a little bit like a watched pot, not quit ready to boil.

36 weeks