9 month tess and merry christmas!

well, it's christmas eve, and several days past tess's 9 month birthday, but i've been busy living life instead of writing about it! i do apologize for my lack of posting, but between baby, family, and work, i just don't have a lot of time for me - since blogging is pretty much something i do for myself, though i appreciate that you all partake in the reading :-) but that's ok, i wouldn't have it any other way right now.

sweet baby girl is getting so old so fast! she had her 9 month pediatrician appointment this week, and her doctor, dr. mann, basically told us she's a genius (which we already knew). she's way above average for all of her developmental milestones and, in his words, "one of the most social 9 month olds i've seen in a long time." yep, that's my kid!

she loves pulling up on anything and everything. she looks like a rock climber, looking for her next hold and pulling herself along every obstacle. she lets go with one hand, then the other, standing for a few seconds on her own before falling on her bottom. [behind her baby gate prison]

she eats tons of solid foods, including most all fruits, veggis, and starches, chicken, turkey, and beans, and now some dairy like cheese and yogurt. she's still breastfeeding in the morning and evening, but she drinks bottles of formula during the daytime. she's sleeping through the night, with few middle-of-the-night awakenings, and goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up around 5:45 but will snuggle in the bed for an hour or so nursing, cuddling, giggling, and playing with mom and dad. i love it. it makes me so sad when i have to get up early for work and can't take advantage of snuggle time, but i recognize how blessed i am to get that time with her most days.
tess loves playing with toys, reading books (especially books that play sounds or songs), being tickled, singing the "eensy weensy spider", making faces, squealing and shrieking with joy, meeting new people, waving, clapping, and dancing with mommy or daddy. she says the words mama and dada and knows what several other words mean including no, hungry, and eat. she can pick up little pieces of food with her fingertips and get it into her mouth. she CAN use a sippy cup and hold a bottle for herself, but prefers for mom and dad to do it. she LOVES bathtime, and she does ok for naps. naps have been a challenge her whole life, but as i type, she has been sleeping for almost 2 hours, the longest morning nap i think she's ever taken in her crib! she's moved into a convertible carseat - in "cowmooflauge" print, and we hoped it would help her enjoy car rides more... it sort of does, maybe. i think she's more comfortable in it, but as long as she's rear-facing, i think she'll be unhappy in the car. which, according to dr. mann, will probably be until she's about 18 months due to her weight.

and on that note, 9 month turtle stats!
height - 26.25 in (10th percentile)
weight - 16 lbs 5.5 oz (15th percentile)*
head circumference - 43.5 cm (45th percentile... for her huge brain)
*she hasn't gained much weight since her 6 month visit, which both surprised and concerned me, but dr. mann said it's ok because she is still fine for her height/weight ratio, and she must have been using most of her energy to grow tall instead of wide. still though, i'm going to be pumping her full of formula and food to make sure i'm not starving my poor baby! ...and also to get her in the front-facing weight range as early as possible!!!

these days we have a more normal-ish schedule, definitely for bedtime and wake up time, but her first nap is usually somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30, she eats solids 3x/day, and her second nap is usually around 1:30 or 2:30. occasionally there's a quick third snooze around 4ish, but not every day, and usually that one is in the car traveling somewhere. other than that, we spend our time playing, hugging, dancing, and going places (usually like wal-mart for exciting things like dish detergent). i'm working 2-3 days a week - monday, saturday, and every other wednesday or thursday, so i'm up to 20-30 hour a week at work (which i think i already explained before), which i enjoy. unfortunately, during the weeks that i work 30 hours, the house usually ends up a wreck, and that's embarassing, but what 'ya gonna do??

the only two areas tess seems to be behind in are her teeth - still none showing, though the doctor said when they start, she'll probably get lots all at once, because they're all right there; the other being hair. i don't think she's officially "behind" per se... but i would love to clip a little hair thing in there (no huge bows please, but a little one would be sweet!), but alas, her strawberry locks are probably 2 cm at longest!

[tess helped decorate!]
[and helped pick out and bring home her first tree!]

alright, well the turtle has awakened, and i must get back to the christmas eve festivities! have a blessed christmas weekend!

"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

8 months of tess!

wow, can you believe it's been over 8 months since my sweet girl made her grand debut?? i can't! she turned 8 months on the 20th of this month, but i've picked up more work shifts and haven't had much time for blogging (or much picture taking! oh no!), or anything really - my house is a wreck, laundry undone, dishes in the sink, and sewing projects untouched since before halloween! eep! [above pic is tess at madeline's birthday party]
but baby girl continues to grow and change and develop! she's already crawling, pulling to standing, trying to balance while standing on her own, and walking across the room if you hold her hands. she's so advanced ;-)

[the progression of a stand]

she's now sleeping in her own crib in her own room upstairs (thank goodness for video monitors!). as of this week, she's going down to sleep on her own when we put her in there, and for the most part without many tears. she is able to soothe herself in the middle of the night, and most of the time, we're only having to go comfort her once during the night, and not even having to nurse then. the night before last, she went the WHOLE night, from 8:44 until about 5:15 without a peep! of course i woke up at 4:30 freaking out that she hadn't woken up yet, but i hear that's pretty normal. hehe. most nights, andrew goes to pat her back to sleep the one time she wakes up because when i go up there, she wants to nurse, so it's been working pretty well to have him go up, and then if she won't go back to sleep in a few mins, i'll feed her. however, at 8 months, she should be able to go all night without eating, so i haven't had to do middle of the night feedings for about a week. i'm so proud of tess the turtle!

naps are still a struggle, more so now that the crib is down so low. she hasn't yet figured out how to put herself asleep for a nap, so she usually nurses to sleep, and then trying to put her all the way down in the crib wakes her up. we're working on it, but it leads to many napless or short nap days.

[tess sitting with her new friend, vanessa]

she's also begun her separation anxiety phase, and gets upset when mom leaves and with change of routine, like when i work more than just mondays. now, i'm working mondays, all day saturday every week, and one more day (usually wed or thurs) every other week, so she has a rough time the weeks that i work 3 days, but my good friend elisa offered some helpful advice and empathy about difficult transitions, and i feel confident tess will do just fine. i'm very tentatively thinking of moving her to daycare once she's a year old, hopefully for a m/w/f sort of schedule. i think that would allow me to work 30 hours a week (and maybe back to every other sat? or just sat mornings? for 35 hours) and give her some good socialization with kids her age and other caretakers. we'll have to see how the money works out on that one, but i think it'd be a good compromise for everybody.

tess now eats 2-3 solid meals a day, but i think she still gets most of her nutrition from nursing and the occasional formula bottle (when mom's not around and neither is pumped breastmilk).

[i love big-girl food!]

we've tried the sippy cup for juice a few times with meals, but she doesn't really understand it and prefers to chew on the soft tip like a teething toy (spilling juice), but she DOES understand drinking from a glass, and tries to drink from EVERY glass mommy and daddy have, so she has had water that way before. not sure how this will translate over time, but i'm sure we'll find something that works, probably trying different cups, and once she's weaned i'm sure it won't be an issue. for food, i still make *some* but not much, and she eats a lot of fruits straight from the fruit itself, but we love ella's organic kitchen baby food because it's just the fruit (or veggie) pureed up with nothing added, not even water, and they taste GREAT! they make strange combos like broccoli, parsnip, pear, and prune (or something), which sound terrible, but taste yummy! so she's been exposed to lots of different foods and flavors. we've yet to start meat, but i have to research when/how "they" recommend that anyway. the american academy of pediatrics now recommends that mothers breastfeed until age 2, but we'll have to see about that.

tess also makes funny faces, sweet noises, and shrieks with joy - usually at inappropriate times. so we've decided taking her to a fancy french restaurant at this point is out, but she's so cute when she does it that i have a hard time not smiling and laughing... even last night when we were out at a restaurant - bad mommy!

and right now she's being so cute that i can't keep typing and must go hang out with her!

[at madeline's party, with mommy and my party hat!]

last minute stats:
weight - about 20 lbs, we think
height - per andrew's measuring tape, about 26.5 in

we have no idea how that measures up against the "percentiles" but i know she's just perfect!

turtle funnies!

ok two funny tess stories, really quick (like if i twittered, i believe these might be tweets).

last night, tess woke up several times during the night. the last time, it was about 7 am. she usually sleeps till 8 or 8:30, and i was exhausted, so i was going to let daddy handle this one, when the crying girl - who hasn't said any words AT ALL in like two months (i even double checked with the doctor the other day to make sure it wasn't a problem) - says, "aaahhhmaaaahh!" i turned to andrew incredulously, "did she just say mama?" he said it sounded kinda like it, and then, like clockwork, she says, "MAAAMAAAAAAA!" CLEAR AS DAY. no doubt about it. andrew laughed and said, "yep, that was definitely mama." HOORAYYYY! and also... crap! how can you let daddy take this one when she calls your name?? it was mama duty again. at least she's adorable :-)

second funny - this morning, i had gotten in the shower (since andrew was still home, and i don't know when i last showered! eep!), and i encouraged andrew to try setting tess on the potty when they got out of bed. well, he begrudgingly brought her in and set her on the little potty. no pee. he encouraged, i encouraged from the shower, and he gave up and picked her up. i looked out from behind the shower curtain just in time to see a 3 inch poo hanging off her bum, and andrew about to stick his arm in it! "THERE'S POOP HANGING OFF HER BUTT!" i nearly shouted. andrew had her back on that potty so fast, and we were all laughing and shocked. poor tess looked a little scared, so i hope we didn't scare her from using the toilet, but holy poo! poop in the potty?! at 7 months?! my child is a prodigy. hehehe :-) i know she isn't *really* potty trained, but seriously, how cool is that??

and yes, i took a picture, but no, i won't be posting it... unless you want it!

rashes, and diapers, and potties, oh my!

we went in to the doctor's office today (to an appointment i almost missed because i was having so much fun chatting on the phone with christin!) to check out a bit of a diaper rash, that apparently could be caused by... our well water?! ugh, this never ends with the water! so we'll have to see if that is actually the cause or not. we got a prescription for "magic butt paste" - yes, that is what it says on the prescription pad, so we may go get that and see if it works... or we may not, since the rash was mostly gone by the time we got to the appointment. it's like your car, never makes the noise when you're at the mechanic!

but anyway, the diaper rash looked sort of like a yeast infection (on the skin, not an internal one), so we followed dr.google's recommendation and used the lotrimin af on there twice a day for a few weeks. i figured this was ok since it's what they had me use when they thought i had a yeast infection on my breast, and it was ok, but i don't know that it did anything - either time. with tess's rash, we tried lots of things, no disposables at nana's house, using disposables in case it was the cloth, using the lotrimin, and the most recent recommendation by nurse jennifer, going nakey-butt all day yesterday and using just water to wash. that was a blast! i'm serious, it was so adorable to see her little naked butt crawling all over the floor all day.

i laid towels down so i wouldn't have to shampoo the whole floor, and we had a great time. we had several bird baths in the sink to rise the diaper area, not using soap, and she even took a nap with no diaper on. the interesting thing about that was that she didn't pee in the crib! so, i thought, i should sit her over the potty when i pick her up and see if she pees in there. well, when i tried to hold my sleepy little girl over the big person toilet, she got confused and started to cry, so i decided i'd just hold her while i used the rest room and i'd try again when she was more awake. well, as soon as i sat down and peed, she peed... all over me... and the toilet... and the bathroom floor! it was hilarious. i had to strip down, and we both took a bath!

at the end of the night, her diaper area, which had been open to the world all day, looked WORSE than before! i decided i'd take her in to the doctor. first thing this morning, before even getting out of bed, i made an appointment. however, last night i had an idea to try having her use her own potty after waking up from sleeping, especially if she's not peeing [much] in her sleep. so i got her very own little potty, and this morning, first thing, i walked her straight to the bathroom and undid her little diaper, and set her on her tiny potty. i said, "ok, go pee-pee!" AND SHE DID!!! right in her tiny little potty! [image from her post-nap pee this afternoon!]
it was the sweetest, cutest thing i've seen (relating to a bodily function). so perhaps we'll try doing this after naps just for fun. don't worry, i'm not deluded and somehow thinking my 7 month old is "potty trained", but it's fun, and why not get a jump start?

so as i took her to the changing table to put on a diaper... the rash was GONE. but i kept the appointment, because i knew if i canceled it, the rash would come back, and i'd be mad. so, we went in, and she weighed in (with clothes on) at a whopping 17 lbs! what a big girl! and we got the prescription for magic butt paste. :-)

hallelujah, the election crap is over! ...for now.

i rarely get political on here, or even much in person, but i just have to say a few things. this election was ugly, as most of them are, and i'm glad it's finished now. the repercussions will be with us for the next two years, and that may or may not be a good thing. i believe hatefulness is never helpful, and although my views are opposite of many of my friends and even family, i don't feel like either being hateful or being silent is the right thing. so today, i'm puttin' it out there. like it or leave it, this is how i feel.

i love our president. i think he is intelligent, well-spoken, and has done incredible things for this country that we've been crying out for. i think his many positive advancements have been overshadowed by a struggling economy, which, if you have read any of my blog, you also know has affected us greatly. however, i don't believe the economy is his fault, nor do i believe that with some magic wand or god-like finger he can instantly restore america to economic prosperity. i believe thinking like that is ignorant, especially given any understanding of economics.

that said, i am resolved to be optimistic with the republican wins because i believe that once we've voted and we've gotten people elected, we need to do the best we can to succeed regardless of the results. plus, who knows, maybe they'll cut my taxes! who can't appreciate that :-P

and for the record, i am not a democrat. i am not a republican. not a libertarian or a green party or a teaparty member. i am an independent, and i vote for and support those whose ideologies best match up with mine.

what a waste of a day!

our day started off ok, but tess the turtle was a little cranky for the second day in a row. this morning, she got really mad at the wooden spoon, i can only assume, because it would not do what she wanted it to in regards to her teething. she would put it up to her mouth, stop, and throw a tantrum. like full on, legs kicking, face red, spoon-throwing, screamingfacebeforenoisecomesout tantrum. then she would pick it up and start the cycle again. needless to say, i took it away and gave her some tylenol. it seemed to work ok, but she remained a bit on the fussy side all day.

so we decided to venture out, so that we could explore more than mommy's cooking utensils. we drove into raleigh to visit dad, but he was busy working, and tess had fallen asleep in the car, so we drove to the horse complex to watch the show there, buuuuut they were the crazy horses (saddlebreds, morgans, and roadster show) - nothing wrong with them, just not my cup of tea, so i continued driving. i decided that since it was 3:30 i'd just venture towards durham and find something out there to do for an hour or so before rush hour.

however, right when i made it to the point of no return - aka harrison ave - i saw that 40 east was a parking lot already. not to be daunted, i exited onto harrison with plans to cut through to chapel hill road and come in the back door, so to speak, of raleigh. i was ignoring the fact that i have never EVER successfully navigated cary on my own... and i still never have. as i was confidently trailblazing through the concentrated area of relocated yankees, i got a call from jennifer inviting me to her house. excellent. now i had plans! if only i could FIND HER HOUSE...

so i did actually find chapel hill road, and we deduced that i should turn right. wrong. i should have turned left. by the time i realized this, i was well into morrisville and on my way to apex. so, i thought, i will drive through apex to fuquay, and on to jennifers! no worries! of course now tess was waking up and fussing.

and somehow, i brilliantly missed wherever it was that 54 ran into 55 in apex, and i passed 540, and i blazed right on into durham. oh for the love. never fear, i said to myself. at least i know durham. and i do. of course it's all i can do to keep tess from flat out wailing at this point, but we made it safely to southpoint before a complete meltdown of either mommy or baby. yahoo! the day is saved! not.

so then i called andrew and texted jennifer and let them know the plan. i would just stay put, safely in durham. does that sound ironic? not if you grew up there, like i did. i wear neutral gang colors. anyway, andrew said he'd get off work early, a little before 5, and meet me at the rockfish. yum! so around 5, i went to the rockfish, got a table outside in the sun, sat with my daughter, got a side salad, and waited. and waited. and waited. and... you get the picture. i waited for andrew, and as i did so, i ate my salad, being careful to pick out the sticker that had fallen off of the avocado and on to a piece of lettuce. there was no avocado in my salad. then i waited for the waiter to come back. he never did. so i went inside and asked the bartender to send him out sometime. by this point, andrew had called to tell me that now HE was stuck in traffic. great. so when my fantastic waiter returned, i ordered dessert. bread pudding, to be exact, to eat while i was waiting on andrew to get in. and i waited for 20 mins. i believe they were actually waiting on the yeast to rise to make the bread, to let it get stale, to make the pudding. i was actually getting my stuff together and tess in the stroller and about to drop cash on the table and just leave, when the waiter returned with my dessert. i told him that i wasn't going to be able to eat it and was having a hard time getting service. he left with the promise of the bill. but what returned was the manager, who comped everything (a $6 total), and boxed my bread pudding. andrew had called again at this point to let me know he was still stuck, due to a vehicle fire on the side of the road, and would be in town... sometime.

SO at least, i thought, i can just take the quick 5 minute drive to my parents' house. i would take the back roads to avoid the disaster that was 40, and be done with this fiasco in no time. wrong again. i spent 10 mins just waiting for people, who also took my "shortcut" to turn left at a stop sign. 27 cars, 12 mins, and much crying (from the turtle) later, i made it safely into my parents' neighborhood.

to wrap the story up, andrew and i got into one car, left my parents' house around 8, stopped for take out, made it home by around 9:30, and watched grey's anatomy on hulu. it didn't end so bad, but holy moly what a day. i swear i probably wasted 15 gallons of gas driving nowhere and doing nothing! yeesh!

7 months!

holy cow, can you believe it's been 7 months (and 1 day) since my sweet, sweet baby tess was born?? for some reason, 7 months seems SOOO OLD! maybe because it's now older than half a year? i have no idea, but wow!

i've been trying to write this post for 5 days now, and life keeps getting in the way, but we got the coolest 7-month-iversary present on saturday (when she was technically 7 months and 3 days) - baby girl started crawling! she looks like an inch-worm, and she still prefers that you just pick her up and put her close to whatever she wanted, but i'm so excited that she's made this milestone! we tried to get a video, but she started fussing during it, so i'll wait till we have a better one. the funniest thing is that the one thing that motivated her to actually crawl wasn't mommy or daddy, or even something really cool like the dog... it was my coffee mug! some days only coffee can motivate me to move too! like mother like daughter, i guess.

other fun facts about the 7 month turtle:
-she loves sweet foods like oatmeal, prunes, peaches, apples, and squash, and has tepid (at best) feelings towards veggis like carrots, green peas, and green beans.
-she loves chewing on things. some of her favorites include any fruit mommy is eating, her pink pleather mary-janes, and her new rubber giraffe that nana bought her.
-she picked out her first baby doll at the store. it has long blonde hair and a pink dress. she cried and was afraid of most of the other ones, especially the freaky ones that move giggle creepily when you walk by.
-she has begun yelling and shrieking in response to excitement - at parties, to mommy, daddy, nana, and grandpa, and it's so loud it'll hurt your ears.
-she is becoming more selective about who she will go to and be content with in groups. she prefers people she knows and those who are interesting to look at but not too in-your-face.
-she hasn't been babbling much in a while, which makes mommy nervous, but all the other experienced mothers out there are telling me it's because she's working on so many physical milestones (like crawling!) and trying to pull up and walk.
-she can sit up well on her own now, and doesn't seem to notice when she tips over and SLAMS herself into the floor. it freaks mommy out!
-she loves music and pianos/keyboards, so we've gotten her one of those to play with.
-she has a book called "whose nose is that?" which she loves, because it has noses of animals which you lift to reveal the whole animal. her favorites are the puppy, pig, horse, duck, and cat.
-she loves textures, so she enjoys books like "tails" with different textured animal tails, and a new one we got her with textures around town (like a brick, a sidewalk, a tree, etc.) she also loves looking at and touching different carpets and the wicker laundry baskets.
-she is wearing clothing anywhere between 3-12 months, depending on the brand, but most of them are in the 6-9 month range.
-i have no idea how much she weighs or how tall she is now, other than to say she seems HUUUUGE to me!


getting into a daily schedule and nightly sleep schedule has been challenging this month. we start getting pretty established, and then mommy goes to work and that messes it all up. she usually likes to nap in the morning sometime between 10 and 11:30am and then again between 2-4:30pm, and occasionally she'll take another one during dinner, but that usually messes up the night time if she does.

she has a nightly bedtime routine that starts with a solid food meal around 7:30, followed by a bath (usually by daddy), a last nursing, and then she goes down into her co-sleeper around 8:30 or 9. recently, we're trying to wean her off night nursings so she'll sleep longer, but it hasn't been going too smoothly. i hear it takes a little, but two nights in a row she woke up at 1:30am and wanted to stay awake until 3am. also, each night before i go to work, she doesn't want to sleep at all. so sunday night, i got less than 3 hours of sleep because tess and i didn't get to bed (and sleep) until after 3am, and i'm supposed to get up at 5:45am. i slept through my alarm and was 30 mins late for work. hopefully soon this sleeping thing will get worked out. we're trying to have andrew comfort her during the night now, because when i'm near her, all she wants to do is nurse herself to sleep, and she refuses to just be patted back to sleep by me, but she'll do it for andrew. i know we just have to stick with it, but i'd really love to sleep for more than 3 hours straight during the night!

we have also started using formula occasionally, when we're out and about, because it's easier than always nursing or keeping breast milk frozen or cool. it also makes me feel a little better because i'm not doing any iron supplements with her (don't really thing she needs them), but the formula has iron added, so she's getting some that way. however, that doesn't seem to agree with her digestive system so well, because recently she's gone from pooping once or twice a day to much MUCH less frequently. eek! we keep loading her up with prunes, but i may have to find out if there's anything else we can do, as she seems quite uncomfortable at times.

well, she's awake now, so i must go play! ... and clean the house, and do laundry, and make lunch, etc, etc, etc.