Nora at a year!

I give up: She’s a year.  She’s going to grow up and I can’t keep her a baby. Hmmpph.  Luckily she is doing lots of new fun things and extremely entertaining to hang out with.  Time to embrace toddlerhood—a time of amazing cuteness as well amazing irrationality.

Personality: Lots of personality!  She has strong opinions, is very curious, loves people and attention, likes to perform and be silly.  Usually a total charmer.

She has also been going to childcare 1 day a week for the last month and so far it has gone great.  I cannot believe how easy it was for her to just fit right in.  When I get there in the afternoon she is happy to see me, but doesn’t act overly relieved—like she has been anxious or worried.  She says hi and then is off to keep playing and exploring.  She loves all the kids size things they have to climb on and play with.

Physical: Apparently, even though she seems small to me, she is still another big baby!  (Just not nearly as big as her brother.)  She was 23 pounds 7 ounces and 301/2 inches, both 95th percentile.

Still wispy strawberry blond hair and multi colored eyes.  I love her red gold hair but know it might not stay such a unique color.  It definitely has curls so no question about that!  Her eyes might be going brown, but right now they are greenish greyish brownish—very pretty!

She is really moving these days.  She LOVES to climb.  Most of this past month has been spent climbing on brother’s desk in the living room.  She actually can climb up and get back down, and turn herself around all over the place, and sit on it…I probably shouldn’t let her do it, but it is all she wants to do a lot of the time and she hasn’t fallen yet.  She has been going up the stairs for months, and figured out how to go down this month.  It was amazing to watch how carefully she thought about it and how determined she was to figure it out.  (To be clear-she is only allowed on the stairs when an adult is watching.)

Walking didn’t seem to matter as much to her until very recently.  A couple weeks ago she started standing up by herself—like just in the middle of the floor,standing up and then putting her hands over her head.  On her birthday she took her first unassisted step (I was the only one who saw it and not everyone believes me).  Now a week and a half later she is taking about 4 or 5 steps at a time.  It i

“Talking:”   Maybe I can take talking out of quotes?  ‘Cause this girl talks!  I still can’t believe it.  She has all kinds of works: “mama,” “dada,” “nurnur” (nurse), “nighnigh” (night, night), “bubu” (brother), “nana” (bananna), “bubu” (baby—sounds pretty much the same as brother), “tea” (kitty), “eye” (hi), “mo” (more).  These are the words that she uses in context, without prompting.  She will repeat all sorts of sounds/words. I find it all very amazing.  She loves to mimic whatever sounds or words someone is saying.  

Eating habits: Generally into eating all sorts of things these days.  By far her favorite thing is fruit—especially berries and bananas.  She will try almost any thing we are having now—pad thai was a hit the other night.  She is way less picky then her brother (who isn’t really very picky), but I know that’s just the age.  7 is a lot more complicated.  But it is fun to see her eat cooked onions and squash that Joseph will only choke down when forced to do so.

Lately she seems more into nursing…still hoping she tapers off in the next year on her own…of course I might never get to do this again, so maybe I don’t want to stop…

Sleep: Kind of crap.  BOOOOOOO!  Actually last night was better-so maybe there is a little hope?  Sad when two wakings a night is “good.”  She has been waking 3 times many nights and a couple nights she even had a really hard time going back to sleep.  Not fun at all.  I do not deal well with lack of sleep.  I trying really hard to put her in bed drowsy, but not asleep, and to let her cry a bit when necessary. 

Naps have also been harder.  Sometimes she doesn’t go right to sleep.  I have been very spoiled by her pretty awesome napping.  I think she might be trying to go from 2 to 1 naps a day, but her favorite is her morning nap…

I am thinking the best thing I can do is stop talking to everyone who has kids who have slept through the night since they came home from the hospital.  To be my friend you need to understand the torture of completely unpredtiable and long term sleep deprivation!

Cute/Funny Habits: Putting her hands up in the air to celebrate everything, blowing kisses, rubbing her ear when tired, pointing at everything,

Nicknames: Noranator, Norastein, Babystein, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle, Noni Smiggles, Squeakers, Shmucky, Stinkstein

Likes: People!!!  Attention! CLIMBING! music, and singing, smooches, brother, hiding behind doors, smiling, books, other babies, pointing at things, riding on toy cars, anything with wheels, going to childcare…

Dislikes: Being constrained (carseat, stroller, highchair), not getting to do or have what she wants, being tired…

I have always said the ages 1-2 are particularly challenging because they are so physical, but not very reasonable.  Still true.  I am totally one of those people who thinks infants are easier.  I really miss my sleepy baby who I could take anywhere with relative ease.  But it is exciting that she is becoming her own person.  She has wants and needs, a schedule, happy times and crabby times, get’s into mischief…and that’s all part of being a person!

This is my last monthly update.  Glad to have these to look back on.  Thanks for reading!

She is getting so OLD

I can’t believe Nora is now a big 7 month old!

• Teeth—Her first tooth finally came through last week, followed a couple days later by another.  They are sharp and she makes the funniest faces as she gets used to these new things in her mouth.
• Mimicking—this is the most exciting development for me.  For the last week or so I have had a feeling that she is starting to mimic certain actions.  For some reason this makes her seem like so much more of a little human to me.  The first time I noticed this was when I was signing her “Twinkle, Twinkle” and making the motions for stars.  She stared at her hands and seemed to be trying to open and close them like I was doing with mine.  Now I also think that she is waving at people, and others seem to agree.  This new “trick” get’s a lot of attention, though it is of course sporadic and often delayed.
• Eating—she is a definite eater now.  She has regular meals (breakfast almost always, then lunch and/or dinner).  She loves trying new things, feeding herself, and the whole experience.  Going along with this:
• Messes—lots of them.
• Planning—I have to think of her when meal planning and grocery shopping now.  For some reason this seems like a major milestone.
• Moving—she isn’t officially crawling (and I still think that is a ways off), but she moves.  She rolls, turns, and scoots a bit.  Often backwards.  She sticks her butt in the air and scoots the tinniest bit at a time.
• Pincher/dexterity—she can pick up the tiny, tiniest little thing (which means I really have to watch out for little stones, etc…) and she almost always spoon feeds herself (ie I put the puree on a spoon, hand it to her or set it in front of her, and she puts it in her mouth).
• Library—I checked out the first book ever for Nora.  Smile.

Always growing and changing!

Nora at 6 months

Personality: Happy girl (almost all the time).  By far the most common thing people comment on is how smiley she is.  I just love her happy-go-lucky personality.  She loves to smile, laugh, and giggle.  I think it is hilarious how even if she is tired or getting crabby and you smile at her she usually just has to smile back.  I love how she seeks people out to smile at—if someone walks past her she is usually going to smile at them and they usually then feel the need to smile back and often come chat. 

People very often also comment, “that baby never cries!”  Well, she’s tricking of course: she does cry.  She wouldn’t be part of this family if she didn’t have some fire!  She is most apt to cry at night time—if she is tired and I am not around she can be very, very crabby.  And sometimes if she isn’t sleeping well she has to cry a bit in her crib ;-(  She also cries when I am getting ready to nurse because she isn’t getting what she wants fast enough.  Makes being discrete a bit hard!

Physical: She’s a happy chubby girl. She was 19.6 pounds at her 6 month appt. (around 80th percentile I believe), 26 1/2  inches long (60th percentile though I think that might be a little off—her legs definitely grow out of everything), and  17 3/8 inches  head circumference.  Lots of chub and folds.

I’m not going to even talk about her eyes.  They just look like a muddle of all different colors to me right now.  I love watching her hair fill in verrrrrrrryyyyy slowly.  Looks curly and light-ish reddish. 

Her skin is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  much better!!!!  We finally made it to the allergist. We started with the skin pricks.  It seems she is allergic to cats (which makes a lot of sense in retrospect) and possibly to milk and eggs.  Since it was ambiguous whether she was allergic to milk and eggs the allergist sent us to the hospital for blood testing.  This was a horrible flop.  They (2 different phlebotomists at Fletcher Allen) tried three times and could not get her blood.  It was so horrible.  Anyways… the allergist did give me lots of tips on how to treat her skin better and between her tips and keeping the cat away and milk and eggs out of my diet, it healed up almost all the way very quickly.  I am now introducing milk and eggs back into my diet to see what that does. But it is nice to see her without such horrible eczema.

She is a pretty stable sitter (though I don’t give her a ton of practice since our floor is cement).  She is not a huge mover though.  She doesn’t seem terribly close to crawling.  She is super at being on her tummy and turns herself well—she will play around on the floor or in her crib for good chunks of time.  She is just starting to stick her butt up in the air a little—almost in crawling position, so maybe some progress…I don’t think she is going to hit her moving milestones as early as Joseph—but I think she might talk more!

Eating habits: She is really eating now and it is so fun. I just give her little bits, but of lots of different things.  I am doing all different ways of giving her food—store bought purees, finger foods, and various foods in her silicon feeder thingy (thanks for all the inspiration Meredith!).  After we drop Joseph off at school every day we have a leisurely breakfast together.  I undress Nora completely so she can really go to town.  She usually has pieces of banana or avocado and a puree—sometimes with cereal mixed in.  I feed her some on a spoon, but mostly let her get it all over.  She actually is starting to really spoon feed herself!  Then I stick her in the sink and wash her off.

She sits in her highchair during all her meals now, which means I get to eat with both hands!  I am now giving her food for one other meal a day as well.  I am enjoying trying hard to give her a healthy variety and enjoy giving her tastes of what we are having.  Bean soup was a big hit (again inspired by Meredith)! 

She still nurses about every three hours—sometimes a little longer in between but not much.

Also, she has no problem taking bottles, which is awesome.  I’ve worked a couple days here and there and had some meetings and such, and it is wonderful to know she can eat.  She has no problem if I leave during the day, much harder if Brad has to put her to sleep for the night.

Sleep: Better!  Not great, but better.  She usually wakes 3 times, which is a bit much for this age, but she just nurses and goes back to sleep.  She goes to sleep pretty easily at about 7-7:30, nurses at around 11, 2, and 4 and then wakes for the day about 6:30. She is usually in her crib in her room all night, though sometimes in our bed or her rock n play.  I’m still debating sleep training, but haven’t really bit he bullet yet.  Sometimes nights are worse, but usually not too bad.  But I promised myself I would do everything I possibly could to instill self-soothing and good sleep habits in this child…so, undecided.

Days are usually pretty good: she naps about 9 for about an hour and a half, then around 1 for an hour.  Sometimes she still takes a third nap, sometimes not, though she still seems to need it.  I still am staying home a lot since she sleeps better and is so happy, but she does ok when we are off schedule too.

Nicknames: Babystein, Norastein, Noranator, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle, Noni (Brad’s the nickname guy clearly)

Mom stuff:  Not too much.  I just love 6 months!  It is a great age.  And she’s a pretty great babe.  Luckily everyone is healthy this month!  Oh, I am on a big healthy eating and exercising kick which has been awesome.  I love trying out new recipes and foods and have even finally lost a few pounds. 

Nora at 5 Months

(Technically 4.5 months here, but close enough)

Personality:  She is a charmer, no doubt about it.  I don’t think anyone can resist her awesome smile.  She is so funny—she usually smiles at absolutely everyone.  Like some total random person walks by at the grocery store not even really paying any attention to the baby and she gives them a big smile.  Then they usually do a little double take and have to come chat with her (and me) for a bit.

She also loves to “chat” and makes sounds such as “ma ma” and “da da” all the time.  It is very adorable!  She also discovered coughing and sometimes does it to get attention.  She also has started squealing and uses it in the same manner, which can be a bit much.  She tends to squeal more then she cries…

Physical: Almost everyone comments on her size—all the same “you must not feed that baby” comments I got with Joseph.  We had to bring her in to the doctors a couple days ago and she was almost 19 pounds, 18.13 I believe.  She has so much chub all her creases and folds collect moisture and get irritated. 

As soon as I said I thought her eyes might stay blue, she proved me wrong.  They—somewhat sadly for me—seem to be changing now.  They are more grey then blue now, with green and brown.  I really have no idea how they are going to end up.  She has a tiny bit more hair and it is bound to be curly—it tends to frizz up already.  Sometimes it looks light red to me!

Her skin is still a total mess.  This week we visit the allergist to see if they have any answers.  Fighting the excema feels like a losing war…

She can roll and move quite a bit, but doesn’t always feel like it.  Plus we tend to be on the go so much she probably doesn’t get enouph time to practice.  But, in the right mood, she can move quite far just by rolling.  Every once in awhile she starts to get her butt in the air a little bit—preparing for crawling.  She is very close to sitting; she can sit on her own for probably half a minute or so before tumbling.  She also is constantly doing little “crunches” when put in a reclined position (she has been doing this for quite some time).  

Her dexterity and control over her movements is probably what has changed the most this month.  She can reach for anything she wants, she picks things up and moves them around in her fingers.  This means she is much more dangerous—I have to be careful what is near her because she is going to check it all out!

Eating habits: Still loves to eat.  A lot. I doubt that will change.  Still nurses every 2-3 hours day and night.  Kind of wish she would slow down a bit, but don’t see it happening.  I also backed off solid foods.  She had a little here and there, then one weekend she ate a lot more and it really seemed to effect her digestion.  I am also kind of interested in incorporating some of this new idea of “baby lead weaning” but don’t really know much about it (want to share some info. Meredith?).  We are also seeing an allergist this week.

Nora did take a couple bottles when she stayed with grandma once this month (while I worked at the library).  Pumping for the day was a huge pain, but she didn’t appear to have any problem with it.

Sleep: A tad bit better.  She is waking 3-4 times a night, but that’s way better then the like 8 times.   She starts out in the crib, sometimes spends some time in her Rock’n Play and often ends up in bed with us at some point in the early morning. Her daytime schedule has also become pretty consistent—she typically naps at about 9, 12, and 4 in her crib if we are home or in the car.  The nap in the middle of the day is the longest 1-2 hours, the other two are about 45 minutes.  I love having a good schedule, however I have also discovered it is challenging since I tend to plan lots of outings and activities and they are all at different times.  So currently I am working on how to balance the getting out and about with maintaining her best nap schedule.  Plus I hope to try and improve her night times and am considering some sleep training. 

 Nicknames: Noranator, Baby, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle, Noni

Mom stuff: I think I am starting to settle into the whole parent-of-two-stay-at-home-mom-again thing.  A job opportunity came up and, after lots of thought, I ended up deciding not to go for it.  I am still on the look out for something eventually, but am really appreciating the opportunity to be home for now.  Especially given all the sickness hitting us this winter.  First Joseph’s step, now Nora has the flu.  It’s been horrible and very scary for me, but she is getting better quick.  I am rethinking the extent to which I have toted Nora around, both because of her sleep schedule and illness. Up to this point I kind of thought to myself that I could do all the same things despite being pregnant or having a baby.  But, maybe I now need to be a bit more responsible and not drag Nora everywhere…primarily I am thinking about going into Joseph’s school.  I have brought her tons and love spending time at the school, but maybe it’s not the best place for her.  We will see!  Oh I also had a bought with a clogged duct which was very unpleasant and my first major nursing problem.  It did clear up quickly tough.

Nora: 4 months

Personality:  Still mostly happy, and very charming with her ever ready smile.  Soo soo charming!  Still mostly easy going and up for all the turmoil and coming and goings of our lives.  But not always!  Every once in a while now she is mad and doesn’t want to go along with what we are doing.  She was inconsolable at hockey once and someone else had to do Joseph’s skates.  She screamed the whole way home from Lincoln the other day.  So, she can get the crabbies and have strong opinions, just like the rest of us.  But not much!  Mostly she is happy.  She has the absolute best laughs and giggles and is totally ticklish all ready! 

Physical:   We had our 4 month appointment Monday and I had been predicting 19 pounds.  I was shocked that she was only 16 pounds 13.5 ounces.  Seriously that sounded so small to me (Joseph was 21 pounds 12 ounces at his 4 month appointment).  Of course she is another big baby, just not as big as her brother.  85th percentile for weight,  25 3/4 inches long (60th percentile), and 17 inches head circumference (95th percentile).  She has tons of chub—so much so I have to work hard to clean all her creases and try and air them out. 

Still steely blue eyes (much like mine) and I now think there is a possibility that they will stay bluefish.  It is very clear now that she has blond nearly invisible eyelashes like me (I always hoped if I had a girl she would have Joseph’s lushes dark lashes, but nope).  Her hair is still pretty much peach fuzz.

I grease her up with eucerin and baby oil every day which is VERY greasy.  Her skin seems slightly better in most places, but one cheek got very bad this week.  She started batting at her cheeks all the time and somehow rubbed it so raw that it got infected.  So she is now, sadly, on her first antibiotic. 

This past month she started rolling back to front all the time—but then after a bit she gets mad because she has forgotten how to roll front to back.  She can certainly squirm herself into different positions (it still shocks me thought to leave her in one place and then find her a different place).  She is also very interested in toys and can pick things up and is starting to manipulate toys. It is just amazing how fast things change.

Eating habits:   Nurse, nurse, nurse!  She loves to eat.  She eats about every 2-3 hours all day and night.  She’s a hungry girl.  She also seems pretty ready for solid foods.  On Christmas Brad gave her squash and she appeared to love it—diving for the spoon with open mouth like a little bird.  Since then he has been giving her a bit of food almost every day.  She seems to prefer squash—kind of rejected applesauce. We will probably do more soon.  I haven’t tried a bottle again, but probably will at some point, though I am not very optimistic about how that will go.  She does suck down her medicine out of the syringe (which smells totally gross to me) so I have the crazy idea today that maybe, if really necessary she would take milk out of the syringe?  I also have been considering giving her formula in a bottle every once in awhile.  That would take away all the pressure of pumping and stressing about whether the milk might go to waste.  Haven’t decided if this is a good idea or not.

Sleep:  Pretty much down the drain lately.  I am at the point where I don’t really know how much she is waking and she often ends up in bed with us.  I felt so on top of things before and loved the predictability and the SLEEP.  From 0-3 months she was so regular: about 5 hours of sleep then 2 wakings.  But no more.  I guess there is just a lot going on at this age and she is processing it all, plus growing bigger and bigger.  My best guess is that she is just sticking to eating every 2-3 hours all night long.  She goes down for bed at 7:30 and wakes for the day between 6 and 7—that has always stayed the same.  I think she is waking 3-4 times, and lately it seems to be calming down a bit.  She is falling asleep again easier and more often in her own space (usually her Rock N’ Play).

During the day she only wants to be awake only 1-2 hours before napping again.  She has been pretty regular about this in the morning for quite awhile.  I just love watching her fall asleep!  She does have a bit of a tendency to stay awake if there is a lot of action, even though she is tired, BUT it doesn’t really seem to come at a high cost, the way it did for Joseph. Lately she really seems to be settling into a solid three naps a day pattern, though I don’t think she is staying asleep as long as would be best for her (she naps for about an hour).

Further confusing things is the fact that I am trying to “transition” her to her crib.  We finally got the crib mattress about two weekends ago and then just started using it a week ago.  It’s a big change for her.  Currently she is taking most of her naps in the crib and starting the night in it, but it doesn’t really last long at night. 

Nicknames: Bunky baby, Noranator, Baby, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle

Mom stuff: I think admitting to myself and others that I was struggling a bit was a huge help!  This month has been better, and now with the holidays past I am really feeling relieved.  Of course getting a little more sleep has helped too.  I probably would feel even better if I would just go to bed early with Nora, but I can’t seem to get myself to do that. It is also a huge relief that Brad has finally finished with his seven days a week work schedule—for most of the fall he was working what seemed like non-stop.  I haven’t lost any more weight, but am hoping to get serious about eating healthy with the new year.  I am also attempting to really get the house in order, including all the random totes that haven’t been unpacked from the move yet.  We also had a bout of sickness lately that was stressful—first I got a bad sore throat and felt like road kill, then Nora got her skin infection and passed it on to Joseph, then Joseph got my sore throat which turned into strep for him.  He was hit hard-probably the most sick he has ever been-besides the very sore throat he was throwing up, developed a rash all over his body, a fever of up to 102.4, and pretty much was a pile of drooling mush on the couch.  Anyways, we made it through the sub zero temps and horrible roads to the Dr.’s today and he is on the mend.

Nora: 3 Months

Personality:  Nora is still a happy, pleasant baby.  She loves, loves, loves to smile.  At everyone!  When we pick Joseph up at school every afternoon she usually just sits there and smiles at every single person who walks by.  They all adore her.  She will now let you know if she is unhappy, but it doesn’t usually last too long. She also laughs now which is so adorable—definitely one of my favorite milestones!  It started as a little back of the throat extended “ehhhh” sound that is clearly her attempt at a laugh.  Then midway through the month she added some real giggles!  Usually they occur if you smile and laugh at her.

Also, as in the above pictures she is getting pretty attached to her giraffe and often falls asleep while cuddling it.

Physical: Yep.  Another huge child.  She is very, very chunky and has folds everywhere.  She seems to get bigger everyday.  She is probably about 15 pounds or so.  I’m a little sensitive about this as the first thing EVERYONE comments on is her size—same exact thing that happened with Joseph.

Still hardly any hair and still grey/blue eyes, but they might have brown in them?  Her belly button seems to have finally healed.  Her skin is still a mess—eczema, rashes if her skin touches any material it doesn’t like, some cradle cap, and redness in all her numerous folds and very irritated under her chin where moisture from her constant drooling get trapped.  Joseph always had skin issues so I haven’t worried about it too much.  I tried going diary free for two weeks and saw no difference. Nora’s dr. however thinks it is bad enough that she is referring us for allergy testing in Burlington so I will probably give that a try and see how it goes (though I am not looking forward to having her blood drawn).

She continues to seem quite strong for her age.  Her size and strength combine to make everyone think she is much older then she is (same as Joseph!).  She can hold her head up during tummy time quite well if she wants to.  Usually she just rolls over though.  She is just starting to grab and kind of play with toys.  Joseph was actually the first to see her reach for toys—on her play mat that she loves from “auntie” Jenn!

Eating habits: Still nursing almost every two hours a day, then about a 5 hour stretch at night, then back to every two hours.  It really would be encouraging if she would start stretching out the time between eatings, but I don’t see any sign of that happening.  Towards the beginning of this month I tried extending the time between feedings which worked fine during the day, but then she started waking more at night!  So I went right back to about every two hours during the day because I would much prefer that. 

She is also still an amazingly efficient nurser—just a minute or two is almost all she ever eats.  I pumped once and got two bottles in no time (clearly that is another reason why she doesn’t have to nurse for long).  She did not love the bottles though…I was finally able to persuade her to drink them but had to nurse first to calm her down.  I haven’t tried again, and really should.  I do feel that I waited to long on the bottles and am skeptical that she will ever take them. It is not necessary since I am not working right now, but it would be nice to know that this is an option (say, so mom could get a little break?).  I am going to work one day next week at the library but am bringing her with me.

I am also getting A LOT of advice to start solids soon—since she is huge, interested, and trending towards waking more at night.  My dr. even said that Nora seems ready, but she recommended I wait until after the allergy testing. 

Sleep: Usually still pretty good, but not as consistent.  The beginning of the month she woke a bit more, but then that settled down.  Then she got a cold which seemed to cause more wakings.  then that settled down again (2 wakings a night is good for us!).  Now—we are actually a week and half past 3 months—it all seems to have gone to crap….hopefully it will settle down though.  I NEED MY SLEEP and for some reason I am not very good at taking naps any more (something I did a lot when Joseph was a baby). 

Nicknames: Bunky baby, Noni, Noranator, Baby, Zibby, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle

Mom stuff: Ughh.  Right now I am feeling a bit stressed.  A lot of it has to due with stuff totally unrelated to baby and it pisses me off that I have to deal with annoying crap when I just want to play with my kiddos and enjoy them!  Honestly, even before a big issue came up last week I could tell my stress was building.  Probably it is partly just too much going on and partly hormones/post-partum anxiety or something. Not too fun.  I can also now see that all of our changes are really effecting Joseph—which was of course very expected, but still makes me a bit sad and worried.  He’s always been very sensitive but I can see that he is not dealing with his emotions as well as he might right now.  He is still amazing with his sister which is a blessing.  I am pretty sure I had some mild post-partum depression with Joseph so it is not surprising that this is an issue this time around.  Admitting it to myself a couple weeks ago actually seemed to help a bit and I am making every effort to prioritize and ask for help.

Thanks for reading.  I write these for many reasons: to preserve the memories, to note the good and the bad, to share with others and even to maybe get advice—so feel free to share!

Nora: 1 month

Ahhh—1 month already??  How can it be?

A week late—but so cute.  The smile!  The chub!

Personality:  She continues to be a laid back, happy little girl.  For the most part.  As she has gotten older we have seen a little bit more fussiness and demandingness come out, but just a little.  This past weekend I took the two kiddos to Maine BY MY SELF.  I still can’t believe I did it, but it was totally made possible by Nora’s flexible nature.  She barely fussed at all. 

Physical:  She is chunking up much like her brother, though maybe not quite as quickly.  At her one month appointment a couple days ago she was 11 lbs 2 ozs and 23 1/4 inches.  She also seems to suffer many of the same skin ailments and sensitivities as the rest of her family: she often gets baby acne and she now has eczema too.  Boo.  But, best of all, she totally smiles!!!  It is such a beautiful smile and we see it so much now.  To be honest, she has been smiling since she was very young and it even seemed like social smiles—as in she looks right at you and gives a big huge grin.  However, all the books say that is not possible.  Anyways, lately she has been giving everyone lots of smiles and I’ve received lots of confirmation it’s not “just gas.”  Very exciting!

Eating habits:  She loves to eat!  But she still is a VERY efficient eater.  One of the so-called “hoovers” (as in the hoover vacuum, because she eats so much so quickly).  Every once in a while she spits up a huge amount, which was concerning me a bit, but the dr. said not to worry and it hasn’t happened in the last two weeks again…The dr. has also really encouraged me to keep right on nursing her as much as she would like.  She also continues to love her paci.  We sometimes try a bit to cut back on it, but haven’t had much luck.  If she doesn’t have it she tries to suck on her hands and fingers but ends up gaging herself.   Obviously she’s gaining awesome and we enjoy nursing, so that is what matters!

Sleep:  Her sleeping isn’t as amazing as it once was, but still pretty decent.  She wakes 2-3 times at night and usually goes back to sleep easily.  During the day she loves to sleep in the car (hence the easy trip to Maine).  She almost always falls asleep in the car, which includes bring Joseph to school and picking him up.  She also loves to sleep in her bouncy seat and swing.  Every once in awhile her tummy seems to bother her and make it hard for her to fall asleep, then she gets a bit mad.  But even her mad isn’t very mad!

Nicknames: Noranator, Sissy, Baby, Zibby, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle, Nora B.

Mom stuff:  Healing pretty well—better then I expected!  I can’t believe how normal I feel and how quickly.  Unfortunately the weight is not magically melting off my body—I still have 12 pounds to hit my pre-pregnancy weight.  But I’m not too worried; in fact I feel awesome!  I vaguely plan to join weight watchers or something in the future… But I am just so happy with how well we have transitioned to a family of 4.  I love our new house and our new family, Joseph is enjoying school and sports and friends, and it has been the most gorgeous fall!