Our growing girl August 11, 2009

Vacation December 25, 2009

Hello, and Merry Christmas to all you in the blogosphere! David is off work until January 4, so we’ll be taking a break from the blog to spend time visiting with extended family and enhancing our little family of three.

A new post will be up with pictures from Christmas and New Years on January 5. Who knows what all Abigail will be up to by then!

See you in 2010!

20 weeks… December 22, 2009

Christmas is nearly here—as is David’s super long break from work. He’s working a half day today and is then off for nearly two weeks. We have been looking forward to this for so long!

Not sure how many of you comment or read the comments on each post, but my pal Kacie mentioned that she thought I could embed videos in the blog for free via YouTube. She was right! I don’t want to go all video crazy and post five a week or anything (although I probably film that many or more each week), but I’m thinking maybe one per post. Remember that pouty lip thing that Abigail does that I have never been able to catch on camera? Well, I got it, finally.
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So happy to have been shown a way to do this for free!
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I have a few random comments before our weekly recap. At some point last week, I put Abigail down for a nap while David was home. He and I went in together to get her up when it was time to eat, and she had scooted herself from one end of the crib to the other (she’s a tummy sleeper), and her feet were pushing through the crib slats. Strong, but silly, girl. She hasn’t done it since.

Also, she’s really been into textures recently. Whether it’s rubbing David’s beard, or my shirt, or a stuffed animal, she’s all about touching different textured things. It might finally be time for the Pat the Bunny book! I love that book, but the binding is so fragile. Wish it came in board-book form!
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Fishhooking herself while playing with her teething links.
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This past week, I was definitely sick, but finally kicked the cold to the curb on Saturday. Remember that crazy weather I mentioned? Well, on Tuesday, it was 75 and sunny. Then it got cold, then rainy, then colder, then mild. It’s back to cold again. Make up your mind, mother nature! I’m determined not to get sick again this season despite the elements. It’s just no fun! Thankfully, Abigail didn’t catch anything from me, nor did David. Hallelujah for being cautious.

With the weather getting cooler—albeit not consistently cooler, but whatever—Abigail’s little cheeks get chapped quite often during our runs. Even on days in the apartment with the dry air (despite the humidifier’s efforts), her face dries out and gets red. We had been using Aquaphor (a vaseline-based moisturizer) to remedy the situation until last Wednesday. I was waiting in line at the post office—which is what you do there this time of year—and made friends with the lady behind me. Afterall, we knew we’d be in line for quite some time; why not shoot the breeze with your neighbor? Anyhow, she said that her daughter used to get rashes and dry skin on her face, and she used Bag Balm to fix it. She’s from Alaska, so she knows all about dry, cold air.

For those of you that already clicked on the Bag Balm link above, you’re probably wondering, “what the heck is that stuff? The website is all about cows!” Yup. It was originally created in the late 1800’s for use on chaffed cow udders. Now it’s used for all sorts of stuff and can be found with the other moisturizers in your local Walgreen’s. Anyhow, we used it, and it worked. As an added bonus, it makes my hands super soft. We’ll never go back!

Abigail’s been fascinated by mirrors for a few weeks now, but I kept forgetting to document it with a picture. David and I love to watch her grin and coo at her reflection. Too cute!
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“Walking” up the mirror
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On Wednesday, I was hired for another freelance editing job. I keep meaning to post an entry about this, and I will—hopefully this week—but here’s the skinny. I’m trying to get back in to the freelance editing scene, and it’s a field in which word-of-mouth is your best advertising. If you or someone you know needs an editor (technical or otherwise), please let me know. I’ve edited the content and formatting of everything from theses and dissertations to technical documents and a novel. I love doing it and hope to make it more than just a sporadic source of income. More detailed blog about this coming soon.

I’m tired of making this claim, but we think, as of Thursday, the teething is for real. Abigail was super fussy and chewing on everything. I rubbed my finger along her gums and came across a hard nub on the bottom in the middle. Since then, she’s been super cuddly, will go to town on a cold, rolled-up wash cloth or frozen teething ring, and will fuss in pain at odd times (e.g., while eating). I wore her around in the K’tan most of the afternoon, and rather than look around like she normally does, she just laid against me quietly. Poor baby. All she wants for Christmas is a bottom tooth…
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The nub is just to the left of where her finger is on the bottom. She was just chomping away here.
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That night, we had my running partner, Lyndsay, and her husband, Toshimi over for dinner with their daughter, Ellie. We had fun watching our babies “interact” as much as they can at this stage and took a few shots in front of the Christmas tree.
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Ellie is nine months old and is super cute. Abigail was up past her bedtime and teething—hence the glazed staring.
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The whole group
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The Itoh’s left straight from our house that night to drive to D.C. and check out where they’re moving to next. They got caught in that massive snow storm; no fun! I mean, of course it would be awesome to see some snow as David and I are in withdrawal, but getting caught in it with a baby would not be my choice of a way to spend a day.

Instead of snow on Friday, we got rain—loads and loads of rain. David had to be out in it all day and was soaked by the time he got home! Within 15 minutes, though, he was showered and ready to go to date night. Amy came over to watch Abigail, and we treated ourselves to Bonefish Grill. It was delicious, and it felt great to be able to stay out past 7pm. And of course, it’s reassuring that other people can do Abigail’s bedtime routine without it messing up her night sleep. Hurray!

On Saturday, Abigail got to go to her first party; Madison’s first birthday party. It was a cute monkey theme since Chuck and Carrie gave her the “monkey” nickname. We didn’t stay all that long as we hit nap time only 45 minutes into the party, but we went all the same and had a good time. There were a bunch of kiddos there; the oldest was seven and the youngest was Abigail. She enjoyed watching the other kids and practicing her sitting up on the floor. I look forward to the time when she’ll be able to play with the other kids!
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The birthday girl is in the background in polka dots. Abigail was checking out the ball popper toy to the left. She can pretty much hold her own sitting up, but I was afraid she’d fall right when I went to take the picture; that’s why I’m holing her middle finger—as though that would do anything if she fell. Heh.
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“Thanks for holding my hand and everything, but I’m fine.”
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David got home a little early from work on Saturday (4:30pm), and we started talking about Abigail’s night-time sleep. As I’ve mentioned before, she’ll go to bed at 7pm and sleep until 5am, eat, and then have a tough time getting back to sleep. I reached out to several different online forums for mama’s (and Facebook) for advice. The resounding recommendation was to try a dreamfeed to see if Abigail would sleep until 7am.

We opted to try the dreamfeed Saturday night. For those who aren’t aware, a dreamfeed occurs 2-4 hours after you put your baby to bed. Essentially, you feed them in their sleep. David picked Abigail up, placed her on the boppy, and I nursed her all while she was in between asleep and awake. Then back into the bed she went. She slept until 6:15am! The next day, until 5:45am. Same with today. At 5:45am, we give her a pacifier and let her go back to sleep until 6:45am/7am, and that’s worked well so far. We’re thinking she just got into the habit of waking up around 5/5:15 and is keeping it up. Time to break that!

On Sunday, we made our next pseudo big (size-wise) baby purchase: an exersaucer. We’ve been working with Abigail on grabbing for things, per the doctor’s orders, and thought an exersaucer would give her even more practice. It was the first baby thing David has assembled since July or so. Fun times!
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Assembly time. This exersaucer is pretty neat because it collapses for easy storage and travel. Woo!
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Watching Daddy work
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I think she likes it! She’s still getting the hang of things, but seems to enjoy herself while in there.
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Yesterday, I went on a 4.5 run with Lyndsay and Ellie, but had to use our normal stroller. Our jogger was in the Sonata which David took to work. Arg! Let’s just say there’s a huge difference between the two strollers. It felt like we were running a much longer distance. I won’t make that mistake again.
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Just before setting out. It was just a bit chilly. Brr!
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Just after finishing. Ellie was super curious about Abigail’s huge head (she’s got two hats on), and Abigail was wondering where her socks went (fell off mid run and were tossed in the car moments before this photo).
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Last night, we had our second date night in less than four days (loving it!) when Caleb and Sara came over to watch Abigail. We headed out to Richmond Hill (almost that far out) to try Houlihan’s. We’d eaten there while in Pittsburgh and loved it, but thought that was the only one. Nope. It’s a chain! Anyhow, dinner was fabulous, and I got to wear some of my new Jewels by Park Lane jewelry that I got from Amy Smith. I didn’t take a picture, but it felt so, so good to be dressed all snazzy with new jewelry!

That’s all for now. Abigail’s napping, and I need to squeeze in a shower before David gets home (only working a half day today)! Merry Christmas to you all!

19 weeks…$60 for video posting? December 15, 2009

A coolish, rainy week was had by the southeast. Except for the random bursts of 70s and sunny. Due to the cataclysmic shifts in weather over just a few days and my semi lousy sleep due to other things, I caught a cold. It’s my first time being sick since before getting married (nearly three years), and I’m out of practice.

Not to mention it’s a whole new story being a new mom—a nursing new mom, at that. So, as soon as I started feeling icky, I called the lactation folks at Candler and got the glorious news that I can take basic cold medication (Tylenol Cold & Sinus), but I have to nearly triple my fluid intake in order to maintain my milk supply (cold meds dry up your runny nose, but also threaten your milk). Additional suggestions? Take a hot bath, drink hot tea, rest when you can, etc.

I’ve been doing all of that and hope to be all healed up soon! I’m tired of not being able to kiss my baby’s face or coo at her up close. Not to mention not being able to kiss my husband. No fun!

Before I launch into our week’s recap, I just want to let you know that I hope to be posting videos soon. I looked at embedding video files into our weekly blog, but in order to do that, I’d have to pay a $59.95 yearly fee. No thanks. Instead, I’ll be posting videos to our (newly created) YouTube account and linking to said videos here. Keep an eye out; it should be fun!
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This is precisely why we always have a bib on our daughter and never dress her in cute things. I put her in this outfit just long enough to take a picture, and the moment I held up the camera, she decided to give me back some of her previous meal. Thanks, dear.
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So, Abigail (and I) recovered from her traumatic doctor experience last week—mainly the X-ray bit—and was back to normal by Friday. We heard from her pediatrician on Thursday that Abigail’s hips are just fine. The radiologist told us as much on Tuesday, but it was nice to hear it from the doctor too. One thing that concerned Dr. Mozer in our well-visit, though, was that Abigail wasn’t really grabbing for toys. If we handed her something, she’d grip it, but she wouldn’t look at a toy and reach for it.

He encouraged us to start working with her on that. Seems like we just had too much energy focused on her sitting up and rolling over that we lapsed on the whole grabbing-bit. She’s doing much better with that now—especially after I bought her a set of teething links. She seems to be a big fan.
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These were $1.25. Works for me!
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On Wednesday, David and I went in to the YMCA for our yearly health screening—a free service offered to members. Our YMCA has partnered with Candler Hospital to make it possible. It’s nice to be copay free as far as that goes! More than anything, I want to see if all my numbers are back to normal now that Abigail’s been born. Pregnancy does some interesting stuff to your body besides just growing a baby and adding 20+ pounds to your frame. Stay tuned as we wait for results.

In the past week, Abigail dropped her sixth feeding again and added it back in. We’re not really sure what that’s all about, but are just going with the flow. I remember from Babywise that babies sleep 10-12 hours at night meaning that some kiddos are only 10-hour babies. That might be Abigail. She goes to bed right at 7pm and wakes up at 5am nearly every day. I feed her at 5am and put her back down, but recently, she’s been talking in her crib until 6am or so before going back to sleep.

On Friday, David and I decided to get her up when she woke up at 5am and just see how she did throughout the day. She took significantly longer naps, and by 5:30pm that night, she totally fell apart. Usually she’s fine being held by other people, but when the Winfrey’s came over for dinner and tried to hold her, Abigail totally broke down. We ended up putting her to bed at 6:30pm. So yeah, not too sure what the best move is. Maybe she’ll go longer at night when she moves to just two naps a day. At least she sleeps soundly through the night!
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Our happy girl!
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Saturday, Abigail and I decided to surprise David at work during his lunch break. It was partly because I wanted to see him, but partly because I wanted him to take Abigail for 30 minutes so I could nap in the car. My cold was coming on, and I was feeling pretty worn out. It was a yucky, rainy day, and when we got to the job site, David opted to just come home to allow me to get some rest. He’s incredible!

He drew me a HOT lavender bubble bath (took me a good five minutes to get totally in) with candles around the rim of the tub and made hot tea. This remedy was suggested by Peter from Brighter Day. It essentially mimics a fever by raising your body temp and encourages your body to sweat out the virus (if you have some viral…I wasn’t sure at that point whether I did or not). Anyhow, once I got out of the tub and rehydrated, I felt a bit better.

David went back to work on Sunday for another half day because of the rain (hurray!). Once he got home, we went out and bought a small stocking for Abigail. It’s as soft as her baby blankets! Getting it allowed us to finish our Christmas decorating.
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Hanging Abigail’s stocking on the garland will have to do for this year. We miss having a mantle!
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David put up the snowy wrapping paper behind our sconces.
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Abigail has been keeping her hands in or near her mouth for over a month now, but has begun to figure out fun things she can do with said hands and her mouth. She’ll often fishhook herself and make crazy noises while doing so. She even figured out how to totally interlock her fingers.
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Interlocked fingers AND a fishhook. Too funny!
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In more fun news, I just signed up for a half marathon (13.1 miles) in February! I’ll be training with Lyndsay, and we hope to finish at a quick pace. It’ll be so cool to run a half only six months after having Abigail. It’ll allow me to prove to myself that I’m really back and in shape. I’ll keep you all posted on the training. It’ll be interesting to see how Lyndsay and I do since we’ll train with strollers (30-40lbs of resistance) but run the race without them.

In closing, some photos for your viewing pleasure.
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This was our backup halloween costume if the Tigger one didn’t work out. A butterfly!
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Too cute!
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My two favorite people!

18 weeks…gnaw, gnaw, gnaw December 8, 2009

Before starting this week’s blog, here’s a photo from the girls night I had right before writing last week’s entry. Lyndsay, Carrie, and I had a great time and look forward to our next night out!
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Right before diving into our chocolate dessert fondue!
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Also, I forgot to mention that on Thanksgiving, we made an ornament with Abigail for our Christmas tree commemorating her first Thanksgiving. It took several tries to get her hand traced, but we think it turned out pretty cute:
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Looks like a turkey to me!
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Alright, so this week…Abigail entered into her fifth month of life by celebrating her four-month birthday. Woo! It’s incredible how even though the days can seem really long at times, the weeks are flying by.

After an awesome Thanksgiving break with David off for five days, we got the news that he won’t have another day off until December 23 or 24. Whoa! So to my mama friends in Savannah: let’s plan lots of runs and play groups and picnics and whatever else to keep me busy these next 2.5 weeks. Here’s to hoping time continues to move quickly through David’s busy season.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Abigail had dropped down to five meals a day. Well, in the past week, she added back in that sixth one. We haven’t fed her anything aside from breast milk since day one, so it might be time for rice cereal. I’ll check with the pediatrician today and see. We’re in no rush to add complexity to her meal times. Nursing is way too convenient to rush to add things to it! We’ll keep you posted.

Abigail is definitely wanting to be more mobile, but isn’t sure how to go about it. She’ll shimmy down and almost out of her bouncy seat and throws her weight around in the Bumbo; she nearly flipped it over a few days ago. And she’s so close to rolling around freely. She tries so hard to do it and can usually get halfway, but then needs a little encouragement and a gentle push to finish it off whether from back to tummy or tummy to back. She has even woken herself up by trying to roll during naps. Practice, practice, practice! Hope she grasps this skill soon.

On Wednesday, the weather was icky—cold and rainy. Abigail and I stayed inside most of the day and worked on Christmas cards. And might I say that I’m really impressed with the US postal service. I dropped off our Christmas cards on Saturday two hours after the “last pickup” of the day, but somehow, some friends received them yesterday! Go USPS!

Thursday was play group time over at Erin’s house, and we had a really great turnout. Abigail practiced sitting up most of the time we were there. She’s the youngest of the group and seems to enjoy watching all the other kids roll, crawl, and walk. Maybe she’ll get some ideas!
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Sitting up by Andrew. She was able to keep herself up for quite some time! She’s getting better every day.
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On Saturday, we did our very first family 5K race by competing in the Savannah Bridge Run. The weather wasn’t the best (40’s and raining), but we bundled Abigail up in lots of layers, covered the stroller, and set out to do our best! We were amazed at the number of walkers in the race. I have no problem with people choosing to walk, but goodness, start at the BACK! We had to maneuver our stroller around walkers for the first half of the race. Anyhow, we finished in under 30 minutes which works for us. Can’t wait until our next one!
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Before the race. We rigged up a couple of stroller sun-covers to create a rain shield for Abigail.
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Cozy and ready to ride!
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I drove David straight to work after the race, and once home, Abigail crashed for a nice nap. We kept the rest of the day low-key with lots of stretching. George brought David home from work and came in to visit for a few minutes. He hadn’t seen Abigail in a month or two—oh how much changes in that span of time!
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She had quite the grip on his pocket!
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There’s something she’s started doing when she’s unhappy, and she did it while George was holding her (she wanted Daddy). She’ll stick out her lower lip really far and furrow her brow. It’s hilarious! I have yet to be able to catch it on camera, but here’s the closest I’ve gotten to capturing it:

You can’t really get a sense of it here. Anyhow, she did it when my parents were in town too. They can vouch!
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On Sunday, we finished up our Christmas decorating and bought a Christmas tree. It’s smaller than the trees we’ve had in previous years, but I think we both like it better. Besides being fun to look at, our tree makes the apartment smell awesomely fresh!
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So excited about the Christmas tree shopping to come!
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Gnawing on my finger while meandering through the trees. She’ll gnaw on anything put close to her mouth. And yes, I bought a new baby k’tan. The other one fits David better than me. I needed a size down. The green color is fun too!
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She no longer lays back when we put her in her car seat. She’s always wanting to lean forward and sit up.
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Happy about sitting up, apparently.
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Tying the tree down for our short trip home.
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Abigail “helping” with the ornaments. She’s holding her “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament—a baby in a  pea pod. Cute!
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After an awesome day of Christmas fun, we went to bed. For the first time in my life, I slept with ear plugs because of our inconsiderate upstairs and downstairs neighbors. We are so over apartment living. It’s ironic that though this is the nicest apartment we’ve lived in thus far, it’s been our worst living experience. We’ll be out of here soon! Praise the Lord for that one! Oh, and the ear plugs worked GREAT! It’s just that only one of us can be wearing them, else we won’t hear Abigail OR our alarms. Heh.

Sunday night, my parents came into town to celebrate Dad’s birthday and to hang out with our little family. Mom, Dad, and I went on a stroll through downtown Savannah on Monday afternoon and snapped some cute pictures in front of the Marshall House’s Christmas tree (the B&B where they stayed).
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It’s nice that Abigail is getting the hang of smiling for the camera!
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That night, Mom and Dad watched Abigail so that David and I could have our weekly date night. We went back to our old tradition of Atlanta Bread Company and Coldstone. Delicious!

Today was Abigail’s four-month check-up at the pediatrician. Everything is looking grand! She’s up to 16lbs 12oz, is 25″ long, and has a 17″ head. So that’s 97-99th percentile for everything. Grow baby, grow!
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Waiting for the doctor.
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Dr. Mozer did encourage us to start her on rice cereal sometime in the next four weeks, and we look forward to doing so. Time to buy some rubber-tipped spoons and cereal. Any suggestions on brands of rice cereal? Just go with Gerber? Oatmeal or whole wheat or what? Why are there so many options!?

Oh, and still no teeth or teething. I think we’re just going to stop speculating and be happy whenever they come in. At least for now, we don’t have to worry about brushing her teeth everyday. One less thing on our to-do list!

Abigail got her second round of shots and handled them really well. I did better this time too. No tears!

The tears fell all over the place, though, after the appointment. I had to take Abigail to the imaging center to get an X-ray of her hips. Dr. Mozer wanted to rule out hip dysplasia because the roll she has on one thigh is more pronounced than on the other—common in babies with hip dysplasia. Thankfully, the X-ray showed she’s a-okay, but the X-raying process was brutal. She had just gotten shots in both thighs, and the radiologist’s assistant had to pin down Abigail’s legs to get the X-rays. Poor baby was on that table for 10 minutes screaming.

Now, Abigail never flat-out screams—especially in pain. I had no idea how to handle that when I couldn’t comfort her. And when they finished, it took quite a few minutes to calm us both down. Glad we’ve got that behind us!

Here’s to hoping the next few weeks breeze by since David has just under two weeks off for Christmas. 2010 is right around the corner, and I can’t believe it!

17 weeks…Thankful for so much December 1, 2009

What a full week we had!

For starters, unless we’re going mad (which is entirely possible), Abigail is teething for sure. We only assumed she was teething before because she drooled a lot and we thought we saw white spots on her gums. Well, the drooling increased 10-fold in the past week as she soaks through a bib every hour or so; her fussiness has increased; and her hands really only leave her mouth if something else is going in (i.e. pacifier, teether, etc) for her to chew on.

If we don’t see a tooth in the next week or so, then perhaps she’s just picking up new habits and skills. Heh. Who knows? We’ll keep you posted.
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Goofing around on her play mat
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Getting excited about a gift from her Grandma Schwartz (Christmas pajamas!)
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Right after waking up on Wednesday morning. Practicing sitting up in the boppy.
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David only had to work until Wednesday afternoon last week and got Thursday through Monday off for Thanksgiving. What a welcome break it was. We soaked up every moment of family time that we could.

On Thanksgiving day, we headed up to Columbia to see my Dad’s side of the family. They have a huge gathering each Thanksgiving filled with great people and a ton of delicious food. I searched earlier in the week for one of the “Baby’s First Thanksgiving” onesies, but alas. All sold out wherever I went. That’s what I get for waiting until the last minute. Instead, I bought an orange fleece jumper, brown leggings, and a brown onesie w/orange, pink, white, and red polka dots. The outfit looked Thanksgiving-y enough for me!
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The bear hat was on because the room was a little chilly for Abigail’s (nearly) bald head.
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Abigail had the best time with her Great-Granddaddy Schwartz. He kept her smiling all through our lunch.
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Isn’t she a cute little centerpiece? Too bad her socks kept falling off (who has found baby socks that stay on? What brand are they? Any tips or advice are welcome!)
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In total, we were in the car a little over six hours Thanksgiving day, and Abigail was a real trooper. She missed out on both of her long naps, but was able to get a few 30-45 minute cat naps here and there in the car. That night, she surprised us by sleeping great! We figured that messing up her naps would interfere with her night sleep, but not the case this time.

On Friday, David got up at 3am and braved the day-after-Thanksgiving-sale crowds to head to Best Buy and find a new TV. There was nothing really wrong with our other TV except the fact that it weighed around 75 pounds and was HUGE (27″ screen, but one of the old rear-projection deals). It’s not exactly the most thrilling thing to move according to David. I’ve never had to lift it, thankfully. Anyhow, David was able to find an awesome LG flat screen TV for a great price, and it weighs in at 30 pounds. Yee haw!
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.David with our new TV. Hurray for an upgrade!
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Daddy-baby workout after moving the old TV. David was doing push-ups over Abigail, and she got a kick out of it!
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A little later that morning, I went running with Lyndsay and Ellie—4.5 miles. Woo hoo! It feels great to be getting back into the swing of things with running. On Saturday, David and I have our first race together since Abigail was born: the Savannah bridge run. We’ll be pushing Abigail in her jogging stroller which will make things interesting. If you’ve never tried running with a jogging stroller, you should. It looks easy, but it adds a whole new dimension to the run. It’s tough!
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Our attempt at a family photo Friday evening during a walk.
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On Saturday, we made a last-minute decision to drive up to Charleston. We met up with our friends Kirby and Meredith (and a group of other Clemson folks) to watch the (dreadfully embarrassing) Clemson/USC football game. We watched it at the Kickin’ Chicken and figured Abigail would be fine with the noise and might even be able to nap through it. Wrong! After Clemson scored in the first 20 seconds of the game, people were hooting and hollering, clapping and cheering, and Abigail was terrified. I have never seen her scared like that. Yikes!

David and I took her out to the car and took turns holding her in the back seat so that she could nap a bit. Once she was rested, we brought her back in, and the noise level was much lower. If you saw the game, you know why. So sad.

Anyhow, it was really great to spend time with friends and cheer on Clemson with other Clemson fans. What fun is a football game without a bunch of friends around to watch it with, eh?
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Me, Meredith, and Abigail
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Kirby, David, and Abigail. Abigail later fell asleep while Kirby held her. Too cute!
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Sunday was a low-key family day during which we started baking for our little family Thanksgiving. David and I made sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and the apple pie with plans to take care of the turkey, bread, and other fixings on Monday. The rest of our time was spent hanging out.
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All ready for a family walk!
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David and Abigail by our backyard marsh.
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Family photo by the marsh.
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Sitting up on Daddy.
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On Monday, we prepped and cooked the turkey and rolls, ate our Thanksgiving meal, relaxed, and took a Christmas picture for our cards.
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David adding seasonings to the turkey.
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Our spread (minus the bread). Cranberry sauce, apple pie, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and our seven-pound bird. Mmm!
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Later Monday evening, I went out for a girl’s night at The Melting Pot with Carrie and Lyndsay. Tons of fun! I would have included pictures, but I just got home 30 minutes ago as I’m writing this and need to get to bed. Have a great week, and happy December!

16 weeks…Dropping a nap? November 24, 2009

As if Abigail’s weeks weren’t already flying by, we’re entering the holiday season which—at least for us—whizzes by super fast each year. When all is said and done, it’ll be January in a flash, and Abigail will be five months old. Wow.

So in the past week, we’ve had some fun developments. Abigail is down from 20-25 minute nursing sessions to 8-15 minute ones (yay for efficiency!); when she hears a noise, she’ll look around until she finds its source; she rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time last night—in super slow motion; and as of Sunday, she’s dropped her evening nap. I’ll talk more about that later.

First, a PSA: perhaps this is rather repetitive, but why on earth are most mom-baby events during the morning when most babies are napping? Sheesh. I’ve sort of started to play hookie with my moms groups since they tend to meet between 9-10am and instead, I set up times later in the day to meet up with moms within those groups. It seems like the best time for Abigail and I is from around 10am until 12pm. She only takes a 30 minute nap or so between her 10am and 1pm meals, so it’s a perfect window to hang out with pals. So yeah, let’s adjust those meeting times, mom groups! Thanks!
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“Please don’t wake me up from my morning nap. I’m too precious!”
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On Tuesday, Abigail and I opted to surprise David at work during his lunch break. We’ve done it once before, but I have the feeling it’ll never get old for me or David (or all the guys he works with). His break is 30 minutes, and I made sure he soaked up all the Abigail time he could—even if that meant other people couldn’t hold her. Heh. David wouldn’t have given her up anyway.
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Lounging in Daddy’s office
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I opted to skip MOPS on Wednesday because of Abigail’s morning nap (it’s usually 1.5 hours or more) and ended up going running with Carrie and Madison. Earlier Wednesday morning, I’d already run 2.5 miles at the gym and added another 2 miles with Carrie. I thought nothing of it until later that afternoon. Attention nursing mamas that work out or plan to work out: make sure you eat extra calories if you work out more than normal on a given day. Whoa nelly. I spent the afternoon dizzy and queasy and couldn’t figure out why until after eating dinner and feeling better. I had wondered what it would be like to feel icky and still have to be an energetic mom…it’s tough. Never again, folks, if I can help it!

Also on Wednesday, I was able to return our extra size 1 diapers; always keep your receipts! I returned what I had receipts for and donated the rest. It’ll be interesting to see how long Abigail stays in the size 2 diapers we’ve got stockpiled. Hopefully for at least a month or two!

We ventued out to the Lake Mayer play group on Thursday and had a pretty good time. I certainly don’t want to rush things, but I am looking forward to when Abigail can crawl around and interact with the other babies! She was able to sit up quite a while during the group and check everyone our from afar.

One of the moms I met through that play group, Lyndsay, is a big runner. I think I might have finally found a running partner! Lyndsay’s daughter, Ellie, is now seven months old and absolutely adorable. They met up with Abigail and me at Daffin Park last Friday for a mid-morning run. Not sure exactly how many miles we logged, but somewhere around 3-4. It was still pretty chilly out, so I had Abigail all bundled. Too cute not to take a picture or two:
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Awake or asleep behind those shades?
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Rather bright-eyed, I’d say!
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Later on Friday, we made another big step as parents: we had sitters come over in the evening while we went out. They had to do Abigail’s entire bedtime routine and put her down. It was the first time anyone else had done it, and I was quite nervous. I filled up the entire front of sheet of notebook paper—college ruled, of course—with all the specifics of what we do with Abigail each night. Our pals, Travis and Ashley, did a wonderful job, and Abigail slept her normal 10+ hours that night. It’s so great to know that Abigail can handle someone else doing her bedtime routine! Our freedom as parents continues to grow little by little.

So while we had sitters, we headed over to Chuck and Carrie’s house for their annual pre-Thanksgiving dinner. There were 10 or so other couples that came, and most brought their kiddos. At one point, David and I mentioned to each other that it would have been fun to bring Abigail, but then we reminded ourselves that she would need to be in bed by 7:30pm. Without her with us, we were able to hang out until 8:30pm before heading back. It’s funny how early David and I both get sleepy nowadays!

David had the weekend off again and spent a Daddy-daughter Saturday morning with Abigail at Home Depot and Target. He wore her in the Baby K’tan sling facing out so she could see everything. David said that at Home Depot, he got eyed by the women in the store as they exclaimed, “oh how cute!” But in Target, no one batted an eye. Ha! I guess it’s because you rarely see a little baby in a home improvement store—especially in a sling on her Daddy! While David was gone, I used that precious alone time to knock out some Christmas gifts (and clean, and do laundry, and catch up on emails…heh). It’s incredible how productive you can be as a mom when you are given a small block of baby-free time!
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About to walk to the mailbox. Loving the bright colors!
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On Sunday, we headed back to LifeBridge church and left Abigail in the nursery. Even though we’ve had a couple of negative nursery experiences, we’re trying to just stick with it. We’ve got to be able to focus during the worship service, and it’s tough to do that with a baby in tow.

Anyhow, when we picked Abigail up, the nursery workers said she didn’t sleep at all. That meant she had been up for two hours already. Now, all babies are different, but the two-hour mark has been Abigail’s crashing point where her body usually just gives up and goes to sleep regardless of where she is. Not the case on Sunday. We decided to experiment and keep her up until the 2.5 hour mark, put her down for a 30 minute nap, and go about the day with her next meal at 1pm.
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During that long span of waketime
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She stayed up fine, went down for her nap fine, and woke up 30 minutes later on-the-dot. I fed her, changed her, and the three of us hung out until putting her down at 2pm for her afternoon nap. After 2.5 hours of sleep (what on earth!?) we got her up at 4:30pm so that she could see our friends that were over (Chris and Jamie—due in February!) and so that she could eat. Once Chris and Jamie left, it was 5:45pm. Abigail had been up a little over an hour, but on a normal day, she would have just been getting up from her evening nap about 15 minutes later. We decided to experiment again and skip her evening nap.

She started getting pretty fussy around 6:15, so I went ahead and gave her a bath then fed her at 6:45pm. She was out at 7pm and slept until 6:30am Monday morning.

It will be interesting to see if this is a new trend or just a bout of extreme fatigue!

On Monday, I pulled down our Christmas boxes, but no decorations will go up until after Thanksgiving. I just wanted to see how many cards we bought last year during after-Christmas sales to see what I might need to get in the next couple of weeks. We’re pretty well stocked, so it’s time to start pulling together our annual Christmas letter. I’m not quite sure what all to write, though, since most everyone we’ll be sending one to reads this blog. You’re all up to date on us!

But yes, the holidays are upon us, and as exciting as this time of year is, David and I are a bit anxious. We’ll be traveling a little bit with Abigail and are dreading throwing her off her schedule. Here’s to hoping we can maintain it despite our travels!

In closing, two photos to compare. Abigail’s wearing the same outfit in both, but on the left, she’s three weeks old; on the right, she’s 15 weeks old. Incredible how fast she’s growing!

15 weeks…gastrointestinal yuck! November 17, 2009

The weeks keep getting more and more fun as Abigail grows and learns new things. No monumental changes this week, but she’s smiling much more frequently and giggling when a smile just doesn’t capture all of her happiness. It’s so sweet to watch. Her smile will get bigger and bigger until she just bursts into a giggle. Love it!
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Pre-giggle. We love her smile!
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Remember that chocolate cake with peanut butter icing? Well, not sure if it was the specific culprit, but Abigail was a gassy and poopy mess Tuesday-Friday last week (that’s how long the cake and ice cream lasted). We weren’t sure what the issue was until we finished the cake Friday night, and she was back to normal Saturday. It’s hard to always remember that since I’m breastfeeding, what I eat, Abigail—to some extent—eats too. I hope she doesn’t have a chocolate aversion!

Moving right along…the hand sucking and hand clasping has continued, but now she’ll get a couple of fingers (or as many as four) in her mouth and suck away. She hasn’t quite figured out how to do it voluntarily; she’ll just have her fist shoved against her mouth, and a finger or two will sort of slip in. Not sure if she’ll be a finger sucker or not. Here’s to hoping she’s just exploring her hands!
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Munch, munch, munch…
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On Tuesday, I was finally able to meet up with my MOMS club big sister, Renee’, for lunch. Her daughter, Isabella, is almost 2.5 years old and is absolutely adorable! I’m looking forward to Abigail being that age (mainly for the ease of communication and ability to play more) but am savoring every moment of the present. I know I’ll miss it. Heck, I already miss when she was teeny tiny and would fall asleep cozy on my chest. She’ll still do that on me and on David, but she’s sort of all over us sprawled out.

Anyhow, on the way to lunch, I was pushing Abigail in the jogging stroller. I’ve only used it a few times now, but plan to get into running with her in that stroller instead of our normal travel-system one. It was pretty hard to turn the stroller, so I checked it out. The tires were low, but I thought that there was something wrong with the pivoting front wheel—maybe it was locked or something. I loosened what I thought was the position lock for the wheel, but I was actually unfastening the wheel from the stroller. Oops. I figured that out when I went to bump up on a curb. I pushed down on the handles to pop the front tire up over the curb, and when I lowered the front of the stroller, the metal frame where the wheel used to be hit the cement. The wheel had fallen off.

It was all rather funny to me once I realized that it was a simple fix. What bummed me out is that a couple walking down the sidewalk (no one else was around on this back road) saw it happen, walked by looking at me and even said, “that sucks” without offering to help. Shame on you people! I mean, I was able to fix it, but it still would have been nice to have someone offer. Ah well. All is better now, and my embarrassment quota is filled for a bit.

Once upon a time, rainy days were some of my favorite days ever. Now, not so much. A rainy day means no afternoon stroller walks around the YMCA or the apartment complex. My walking place on a rainy day is the mall, but it’s 20+ minutes away. Regardless, Wednesday was a rainy day, and Abigail and I hung out inside all day. We definitely needed the rain, but man was it hard to be alert and energetic when it was so dark outside and when I knew David would be working late.

Enough moping. We had our fun times, for sure! Especially when our pregnant pals came over again that afternoon to chat baby with me and play with Abigail. She’s 12.5 weeks along and so ready for things to move along. I can remember feeling like I was going to burst inside with my desire to start looking pregnant already and to feel the baby move, etc. Then, of course, when you really start showing, your tummy grows at an alarming rate and you want it to slow down a bit. And then when the baby starts moving, it often gets hiccups. Then it’s like “ok, enough already, baby. Settle down in there!” We’re such fickle beings, we are.

Thursday morning was pretty funny—in a way that only parents will really appreciate, I think. I put Abigail down for her morning nap (normally 1.5-2 hours at the most), but she woke up fussing after 45 minutes. It wasn’t horrible crying, just fussing. You know the type of noise I mean. Anyhow, I let her fuss for a few minutes, and she went back to sleep. Then woke up a few minutes later, fussed a few minutes, and went back to bed. She’s great at settling herself these days, but little did I know why exactly she was fussing.

On Thursday, cake and ice cream was still being fed into my system. I went to wake Abigail up at the two-hour mark and found out that she had apparently felt a little tummy sick mid-nap. Destroyed that outfit! She was all smiles and sunshine when I woke her up—despite her soiled state. I took a picture to document this, but will spare you the nastiness.

We had a play group later on that day. It’s so fun to see Abigail staring down the other babies. I wonder what she’s pondering when she looks at them. No telling! All the staring must have worn her out because her afternoon nap was marvelously long!

David had Saturday and Sunday off again. It looks like this might be a trend for a while, and for that, we’re all so thankful! The annual Savannah Children’s Book Festival was on Saturday, and we met up with Chuck, Carrie and Madison to check out the events. Most everything was more geared toward 3-4 year olds and up, but we still had a great time. We spread out two big blankets and had a picnic amidst the crowd (an estimated 25,000 people were there).

The weather was perfect for such an event, and we had a great time enjoying the sunshine and breeze. We even got to listen to “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” read by the author herself. Pretty neato!
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Hanging out on Daddy’s shoulders. It was a Clemson game day too, if you didn’t notice.
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Quick family shot. Abigail was more interested in looking at Madison than at the camera. Ah well!
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We later walked up from Forsyth Park to Gap to buy some much-needed clothing for both David and I. Abigail’s set for the time being, and we only shop clearance stuff for her anyway. David was able to pick up a few new shirts and a pair of chinos while I got all new non-t-shirt tops. I’ve been living in t-shirts since Abigail was born because of spit-up or drool or whatever. It was nice to get some dressier shirts!

On Sunday, Abigail went down late for her morning nap, so David stayed home with her while I went to church. This Sunday was Operation Christmas Child day, and after the service, we packed shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, hygiene products, etc that will be delivered to needy kids around the world. Pretty neat program if you’re looking for a way to donate your time or money this holiday season.

After a delicious lunch with some pals from church (thanks Travis and Ashley!), we had a family afternoon complete with a fun stroller walk around the apartment complex and lots of Daddy-daughter time.
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David put the baby legs on her arms, along with socks. “It’s opposites day, Abigail! Your hands are feet!”
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Happy to be sitting up on Daddy.
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Monday was pretty uneventful, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun. Like I said earlier, every day gets more fun as Abigail learns more. We have our tough days, but the good ones definitely outweigh the not-so-good ones.
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Sitting up in the crib in the boppy. To all the moms-to-be, a boppy pillow is one of those essential purchases. Add it to the list!
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Coming up this week, we’ve got a MOPS meeting, the Lake Mayer play group, Tradewinds, a Clemson game, hang out time with another of our pregnant couple friends, and more. We sure do love to keep busy around here!

**Random note: read any good books lately? I’ve finished all the books I’ve been given or have bought and am looking to start some more. Any suggestions welcome!**

14 weeks… “Look ma! No hands!” November 10, 2009

I tend to start writing each week’s blog post over the weekend. This weekend, though, we were celebrating David’s 26th birthday. No time for blogging until this morning. All you eager beavers may have been slightly disappointed, but I trust you’ll find this post worth the wait!

After about a week of scouring eBay, Facebook and Craig’s List, we finally landed ourselves a Bumbo seat. It only cost us $15 (instead of the retail cost of $40), and Abigail seems to be a fan. It’s a good thing we didn’t spend all that much on it because by the end of the weekend, she was doing pretty well sitting up without it.
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This was taken last Monday, 11/2. First day with the bumbo.
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This was taken last night, 11/9. She stayed upright like that for a few minutes. She’d sat up in David’s lap before, but never for longer than 15-30 seconds at the most.
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So we decided to see how she did without Daddy’s lap. Still pretty good! Our little tripod. Amazingly enough, this all happened during her fussy time (post bath, pre bedtime meal), hence the pacifier.
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Definitely glad we didn’t pay full price for that bumbo seat since it looks like we won’t be needing it all that much longer (outside of maybe using it as a highchair/booster seat at restaurants). Can’t believe she’s doing so well sitting up already. It seems like she learns something new every week. And she started the sitting up/tripod thing just in time for David’s birthday—a pretty cool birthday present if I do say so myself.

Another thing she began last week? Eating her hands. All. Day. Long. We were wondering if she’d ever realize that she had control over those things, and it looks like she’s getting there. Apparently they’re tasty. Just this morning, I put her back in her crib after she woke up early, and she cooed and sucked on her hands for an hour without falling asleep for a second. That’s a first.
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Munching away while in her swing. This was last Tuesday, but as of late, she’ll try to devour both hands at once.
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On Wednesday, I went on a stroller walk with Joanne—a neighbor in our apartment complex. Her little boy, Graham, is about three weeks behind Abigail and is such a cutie. Both babies slept most of the 3-mile walk—abnormal for Abigail these days; she prefers her crib it seems. Anyhow, the weather has finally started to cool off, so we had a gorgeous day for walking around the YMCA’s trail. Sunny and breezy in the 70s. Beautiful!

While feeding Abigail around 4:00pm that afternoon, my mind wandered. I mean really, ladies, you can only gaze into your baby’s eyes for so long until you start planning out the next part of your day in your head while nursing—or catch a quick nap. Anyhow, I knew I had friends coming over in about 45 minutes and was planning out what I needed to do before they arrived: finish feeding Abigail, straighten up the den, make a pitcher of lemonade, change Abigail’s dia—wait. It was then I realized she hadn’t pooped in over 24 hours. She must have heard my thoughts and while eating, made up for those 24 hours in one movement of the bowels. My word. Another outfit thrown in the trash.

**Commercial  Break: New and expecting parents: do not spend much money on clothes. It’s just silly. You’ll end up saving some soiled garments by the use of Shout or a Tide-to-go pen, but some messes are just beyond repair. I don’t fret when I know I spent like $1 for the onesie she was wearing. Just a bit of advice.

It was then that I admitted that she’s outgrown size 1 diapers. Ugh! I now have somewhere around 200-250 size 1 diapers that she’ll never get a chance to dirty. Good thing I saved my receipts. I’ll return what I can and donate the rest. Size 2, here we come!

Wednesday night, we had some friends over—the company I mentioned earlier—who just found out that they’re pregnant. I’ll keep their names off of here since I’m not sure if they’re keeping it a secret from anyone. Regardless, they came over to talk baby with me. It was a blast! She is planning on a natural labor and delivery and wanted to hear about my experience. Those who have gone through a natural birth would agree with me, I think, when I say that it’s an incredible thing to relive. I love sharing that story—especially when it helps to clear away the myths surrounding it. They’re coming back over this week for more. Too fun!

On Thursday, Abigail and I headed back to the Lake Mayer play group and had a wonderful time. Before leaving, though, I strapped Abigail into her car seat and watched as she coughed and shot milk out of her nose. Another first!

Back to the play group…the weather was gorgeous again, and Abigail seemed to enjoy more of her time this week. She had some great tummy time and even rolled over at one point. It’s fun to see her and the other babies interact. I’m sure she’s wanting to be as mobile as the others!
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Abigail and Ellie (6-7 months…can’t remember!) hanging out.
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On Friday, after another day of only one poop (Thursday), she made up for it all day long. Thanks, darling. Anyone else run into that? Does it have anything to do with growth spurts? I read somewhere that if they’re in a growth spurt, they won’t fill their diapers as much because they’re using most of what goes in their body to grow. Truth in that?

Anyway, it was a weird day and night. After five days of sleeping from 7:30pm-6:30/7:00am, she woke up twice Friday night and early Saturday morning to eat. She hasn’t done that in weeks and weeks. She woke up twice on Saturday night too, but settled herself back down by the time we decided to go in and check on her. I’m starting to wonder if she’s napping too much during the day thus affecting her night sleep. She usually takes a total of 4-5 hours of naps. Maybe we should scale that back…or put her to bed later. Parenthood is so much trial and error, isn’t it?

On Saturday morning, Abigail woke up in a super mood. Maybe she just knew that we’d be starting Daddy’s birthday celebration weekend that day. Who knows?
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Yes, this photo was staged. She’s kneeling and balancing against the rail. Anyhow, she rarely smiles at the camera. She’d rather stare at it. So, she was smiling here before I held up the interesting shiny gray thing.
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David and I aren’t big on getting each other presents—partly because of the pressure involved and partly because our top love languages are quality time and words of affirmation. When we found out that David had the weekend before his birthday off work, I asked him to decide what he wanted to do. He chose to go to the National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Saturday morning with Abigail and to the Melting Pot Saturday night with just me. And he requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing—but we’ll get to that later.

So off we went on Saturday to check out the NWR. It’s a huge natural refuge for all sorts of birds, fish, and alligators in addition to more Spanish moss than you’d ever thought could land in one place. I packed a picnic lunch for us, but due to the large amounts of gnats, we just ate on the trunk of the car. Sadly, the NWR wasn’t the best place to bring Abigail at this age, so David made a note to check it out later sans baby.
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David checking out the plant life. Abigail was passed out in our K’tan by this point.
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The road ahead of us while picnic-ing on the trunk of the car.
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Later that afternoon, we dropped Abigail off with Kevin and Sherry Landfried (Kevin is David’s boss) so that we could head out to the Melting Pot for dinner. And what an incredible fondue dinner it was! If you’ve never been there, go. It’s that simple.
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Before the feast! So happy to have a really nice dinner date. A shift from our normal Jersey Mike’s date night!
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Midway through our meal I thought to take a picture. Mmm! We did the “Big Night Out” four-course meal—cheese fondue (with bread, apples and veggies to dip), salad, a surf and turf entree (lobster tail, shrimp, filet, chicken, sausage, strip steak, ravioli, potatoes, mushrooms, and broccoli) to dip in our coq a vin fondue marinade…then…
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…chocolate fondue for dessert! That’s the yin-yang fondue—white and dark chocolate. Delish!
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When we got back to pick up Abigail, the Landfried’s reported that she’d been great. It’s amazing how much we new parents worry about leaving our baby with someone else only to find out that the baby was totally fine. Dating each other is definitely more important than any hangups we have with leaving Abigail with sitters. Thank you, Kevin and Sherry!

Sunday was a laid back day as we tried to digest the massive amount of food we had for dinner the night before. Abigail finally got back on her nap schedule after a few days off, and we got to just have fun as a family. We met up with Jason and Amy Smith (met Amy through MOPS) that afternoon. It’s so nice to spend time with other parents of preschoolers. We all speak the same language!
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Smiling on Daddy’s shoulders. Too bad she’s too short for her smile to show!
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On Monday, David opted to take the day off of work (first time he’s taken a personal day since we moved to Savannah) so that he could have a day to himself. I suggested this idea weeks ago, but he debated until Sunday night. Anyhow, he opted to sleep in a bit, go back to the NWR, spend nearly two hours at the gym, and eat a yummy dinner made by moi complete with that cake we talked about earlier.
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 Smiling at Daddy before dinner.
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Too bad this is the only picture I got of dinner. I made breaded ranch chicken with broccoli potato supreme on the side (believe it or not, it looked exactly like the picture—woo)! So tasty! David complimented his meal with some of our Biltmore Estate wine.
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Birthday boy with the birthday cake. My first attempt at making homemade icing. It tasted amazing, but was a pain to spread! Any suggestions from other folks that have done this before? I used this peanut butter icing recipe and actually used more milk than it called for to make it a little more spreadable. To no avail!
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It tasted great regardless of its patchy appearance!
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We ended the night by starting to watch, The Legend of 1900. But with all movies as of late, we resigned to watching it over the course of this entire week as we have time.

Coming up this week, lunch with my big sister from the MOMS club (had to reschedule), my first run with the jogging stroller at Daffin Park, another Lake Mayer play group, and dinner with Carrie and Chuck (and little Madison). Should be fun!

Abigail’s close ups November 3, 2009

Jana Candler of Jana Candler Photography took some amazing pictures of Abigail while we were in Greenville not too long ago. Check them out, and be sure to watch the slideshow at the bottom of that link. Jana does incredible work!
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13 weeks…DST and Halloween November 3, 2009

Abigail will be three months old tomorrow. We’ve learned so much about her so far but know that there’s a ton more to absorb and observe. She’s constantly changing and learning new things. She melts our hearts!

As for today, she’s thirteen weeks old, and this past week was pretty awesome. The laughing has continued, but only in short spurts. At least now David’s heard it too; I have a witness!

On Tuesday, Abigail and I headed out to a play group in Georgetown with other pre-walkers. There were a couple of babies right around Abigail’s age, so the other mamas and I set up a communal tummy time area for all three babies to check each other out. It was pretty funny to watch, honestly.
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Dash (8 weeks) is in the green, Mackenzie (4.5 months) is in the pink pants, and Abigail’s on the Clemson blanket. Dash was giving Abigail the stare down. Or maybe he just knows a pretty girl when he sees one!
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After having date night in last week because of David’s work schedule, we chatted about how much we both missed the gym. We used to work out together 4-5 times a week whether going running around the islands or strength training at the YMCA, and as of late, it’s been sporadic at most that we work out at all. I’ve been doing what I can at the apartment during Abigail’s naps, but it doesn’t equate to sweating it out on a regular basis.

Starting Wednesday of last week, David and I have been alternating gym mornings. We go at 4:20am, and I know that sounds like torture, but as you’ll see later in this post, we’re getting plenty of sleep beforehand. It feels so great to be back in more of a routine, and while we know that Abigail could change her sleeping patterns at any moment and throw us off, we’re enjoying the consistency for now.

Wednesday also marked another MOPS meeting—my favorite one to date. Peter from Brighter Day Foods came to speak on health and wellness. He was a veritable encyclopedia of information about supplements, pro-biotics, vitamins, extracts…you name it!

A couple of interesting tips I took away: to calm down hyper kids, feed them nuts (especially pecans) or give them an epsom salt bath. Both methods infuse them with magnesium, a natural calmer. Also, Vitamin D should be one of your best friends. For kids too! Kids should take 400IU for every 25 pounds (adults need 5,000IU a day). Yes, you can get Vitamin D from the sun, but you need 30-45 minutes of sun exposure to as much skin as possible in the winter to get your needed amount. Supplements help! David and I are now on the Vitamin D train.

Anyhow, if you’re in to natural remedies to ailments, boosting your immune system homeopathically, and finding creative ways to feed your kids healthily (and more!) his store’s website has an online resources section that’s super helpful. Big fan!

So the nap drama continued last week. Abigail would wake from naps 30 minutes after going down. I couldn’t figure it out! She would have great wake time for 1.5-2 hours, go down, and then get right back up. I did a little poking around and found a wonderful resource for other mamas implementing Babywise with their kids: Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. The author has used Babywise methods for all three of her kids with great success and created an online directory of sorts to answer pretty much any question you may have.

While reading through, I found info on waking from naps early. The suggested fix? Put the baby down 15 minutes earlier and see if the nap length changes. Find the optimal amount of waketime for your baby and stick with it. So I followed the directions but put Abigail down 30 minutes early (after one hour of wake time). She slept 1.5 hours. I tried it again with her next nap. Same thing. Breakthrough!

Naps have been awesome for nearly a week now. Out of fear that sleeping too much during the day will keep her up at night, I give her a long morning nap (1.5 hours), run errands during her next nap time so that she just dozes in the car on and off, a long afternoon nap (1.5 hours), and her usual short evening nap (30-40 minutes—it’s always been this short). So far, so good.

On Thursday, I headed out with Abigail to a new play group at Lake Mayer. It was a lot of fun to meet other moms of babies under one year old. Abigail was the youngest by about three months, but I enjoyed seeing where she’ll likely be in three months—into everything!
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The group. Can you spot Abigail? Lounging in the shade.
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After a lovely time at the play group, I thought it’d be a great idea to pick up a pumpkin—two days before Halloween. Oops. Mission failed. I did find a little orange gourd at Publix for $0.99 and figured I can call it an “Abigail-sized pumpkin.” David and I were hoping to carve a pumpkin in such a way that we could stick Abigail in it with her legs poking out of the front. Ah well.

Friday, I made my weekly trip to Tradewinds to meet up with other MOPS moms. Lucy’s daughter, Kaleigh, was the only really mobile baby there and went from carrier to carrier greeting the other babies. Too cute.
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This was a few minutes before Kaleigh grabbed Abigail’s feet and squeezed while trying to stand up. Abigail was none too pleased.
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We had yet another awesome weekend as David didn’t have to work Saturday or Sunday. What a blessing! We made the best of it by heading out to Outland Island Wildlife Center with Chuck, Carrie, and Madison on Saturday afternoon for Hoots and Howls—their special Halloween event. While walking around, we got to see a couple of cougars, some red foxes, and a huge assortment of birds (from hawks and eagles to cranes and owls). At the end, we got an up-close look at a Barred Owl:
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The owl’s name is WaHooHoo—it’s a Native American term for owls. Too bad Abigail opted to check out the owl handler instead of looking straight ahead. Great photo of David and the owl, though!
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Right before leaving Oatland Island, David gave Abigail an early driving lesson:
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So glad we don’t have to worry about her driving anytime soon! And yes, the car was firmly in park.
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That night, we opted to go to FBCI’s “Trunk or Treat.” We’d never been to one before, but it’ll be something we’ll likely do in the next few years if we aren’t in a neighborhood with trick or treating. Basically, people decorated the trunks of their cars, dressed up, and handed out candy. All the cars were parked on a field behind the church—well lit and secure. We saw a bunch of our pals, but only stayed about 30 minutes since Abigail was fading fast.
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Getting Tigger all suited up!
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Hooray for consignment sale costumes! And yes, I’m sticking my tongue out—whatever it takes to make her smile!
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Ready to go—outfit completed with her orange candy bag. Another little creative venture. I have them occasionally. This time it was compliments of the MOPS meeting; they supplied all the tools.
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At trunk or treat. Abigail was ready for a nap, but at least she looked toward the camera!
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Halloween night marked the beginning of daylight savings time. I used to always look forward to gaining an hour of sleep, but neither David nor I had any idea of what it would do to Abigail. We had been wanting her to get to bed earlier at night, so we decided to use DST to our advantage. She had been on an 8am-8pm schedule (first meal at 8am, last at 8pm), but with DST, we planned to move her smoothly to a 7am-7pm schedule.

Success! She slept 10 hours and 10 minutes on Saturday night waking up at 5:50am for her random early morning meal. Went back down until we woke her up for her first meal at 7am. On Sunday, we put her down at 7:30pm, and she slept until 6:15am! I opted to go ahead and feed her as though it was 7am which meant only five meals instead of six. I’ll be sure to update with how that went. Not sure if she’ll end up waking up in the middle of the night to get that sixth meal or not. Hopefully not!

In closing, here are a couple of pictures of our stretch monster. When we wake her up, she’ll stretch and stretch and stretch for nearly five minutes straight. It’s hilarious!
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Right after waking up.
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Right after a feeding. Guess she’s got to get limber after laying in one position so long?

12 weeks…and a babbling brook October 27, 2009

Another fun week for the books!

After two nights of randomly waking up in the middle of the night and self-soothing, Abigail’s back to sleeping 8-9 hours, waking up to eat, and going back down for two more hours. We’ll start working on getting rid of that early morning feeding next week after we see what Daylight Savings does to her schedule. Oh boy!

We had a great date night this week getting take-out from Basil’s and eating at the apartment while the Winfrey’s hung out with Abigail. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of parents having a night away from their kid(s) to have quality time with each other and uninterrupted conversation. It’s amazing how relaxed you can be with each other when you don’t have to worry about keeping the baby entertained or asleep. Remember, you were with your spouse before the baby showed up, and you’ll be together when the baby’s grown and gone. Put time into your relationship now!

Well, Abigail’s gotten really great at following us across a room and giving the stare-down to anything in her sight range. Most recently, she’s gotten into the mirror on her playmat. Looking at it made something click in her head. We only thought that Abigail was babbling before. Now, she’s going crazy with it—30-45 minutes straight at a time. Too funny!
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Following Daddy’s hand while looking stylish in her hodge-podge outfit!
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On Thursday, I got my hair cut with Abigail hanging out alongside. She started babbling when we got there and hadn’t stopped an hour later when we were heading out. She kept it up while we were at Target a little while later to the amusement of quite a few other shoppers. Sound sure does carry in that store. Hilarious!

Before the haircut, we went to storytime back at the Wilmington Island library. Much smaller and much calmer than our Bull Street experience a couple of weeks ago. Yikes! I took a quick picture of the room and of Miss Katherine (our new storytime leader).
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Too bad Miss Katherine doesn’t look all that happy here. Oh well! There were about 10 kids to the left of this picture on the smiley face rug. A nice-sized group, I think.
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At 4:30am Friday morning, the three of us left Savannah to head up to Greenville for the weekend. Why so early? Because Abigail sleeps when it’s dark out. Hurray!

We made a stop in Columbia on our way up to visit with Blythe and her brand new baby boy, Hendrix. It was pretty funny to compare Abigail and Hendrix—two and a half months apart. Hendrix was 6lb 15oz, and Abigail was somewhere around 14.5lb. What a difference nearly eight pounds makes!
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We had a great time visiting! Blythe and I have known each other since we were itty bitty babies too. Pretty amazing that we’ve come full circle and now have babies of our own.
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We got to Greenville a little while later and hung out with my parents for most of the day. It’s so neat seeing them fall into their roles as grandparents. Although it’s still weird to refer to them as “Grandma and Grandpa” when talking to Abigail. “We’re going to see Grandma and Grandpa Schwartz, Abigail! Aren’t you excited?” I’m sure we’ll get used to it at some point.
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Abigail smiling at her Grandpa
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That afternoon, we got a real treat. Jana Candler (www.janacandlerphoto.com) did a photo shoot of Abigail and got some family shots too. Abigail was pretty cooperative considering we woke her up from a nap to take the photos, and we cannot wait to see how they turn out. Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to post a link as soon as the images are online! Thank you, Jana!

My Mom’s parents came over for dinner and to meet their third great-granddaughter. It was pretty neat to see them interacting with Abigail—especially when Granddaddy McGee pulled out his Kermit puppet!
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Fun with Kermit the frog!
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Four generations—Abigail’s about two seconds from a nap in this picture
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On Saturday, we initiated Abigail into our annual apple picking tradition at SkyTop Orchard in Flat Rock, NC. We had a beautiful fall day, lovely fall colors, but no apples. The orchard was still open, but all of the trees were bare. Usually this particular orchard is full of apples until mid November, but no such luck this year. Regardless, we had a great time walking the orchard and bought a couple of bags of apples along with a half gallon of apple cider. Delicious! We also stopped by the Biltmore Mansion’s gift shop (didn’t want to pay the $55 per person to get through the gate) to pick up a couple of bottles of wine. Can’t wait to open those!
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Family photo at the orchard. It was in the low 60’s with 15mph wind. Sunny and beautiful!
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I love, love, LOVE this photo of David and Abigail. She’s so happy in the sling on Daddy!
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Abigail flying through the trees!
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Funny thing is, she’ll likely be standing on her own by that sign next year. How cool!
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On the way home, Abigail slept a little bit, but for the most part, she chatted up a storm. That and blew a ton of bubbles. Anyone else’s baby blowing bubbles all the time? Normally we’re on hand to wipe them away, but for the first half of the drive, we were both up front while Abigail cruised in the back. We heard the bubble noise going on and on. Eventually, I went to the back to check on her…
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Yes, that’s a long strand of bubbles—complimented by a pretty interesting expression. She never ceases to amuse us, that’s for sure.
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Once we got back from North Carolina, we watched the first half of the Clemson game (GO TIGERS!) and headed over to Zack and Kristen Taylor’s to watch the second half and get all caught up. Their place is awesome. It makes us want to be in a house that much more! They came over to my parents’ house to meet Abigail. So fun to see them interacting with her! Unfortunately, we didn’t think to take a picture. Arg…

On Sunday, we went to NewSpring Church. As always, it felt great to be back there and made us wish we lived closer so we could be members again. We’ll have to wait on God’s timing. Anyhow, on the way to church, Abigail blabbed and blabbed and blabbed. She makes some pretty funny faces whiles she’s figuring out how her mouth and tongue and voice all work together.
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She sucks in her bottom lip all the time now. Not sure what that’s all about.
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Saying something like “ahhouhhheeouuhhooo.”
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While at NewSpring, we experienced a first—Abigail’s first nursery trip. If we had to pick any place for her to go to a nursery, NewSpring is at the top of the list! It was a little weird to drop her off with strangers, but she did great and napped while there. Later in the day when we went to change her diaper, we found a big “Changed with KidSpring love!” sticker on the diaper she was wearing. Too cute.
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I snapped a quick picture after we picked her up. This was the birth through six-month area.
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We got to see quite a few familiar faces as well—Ben and Patsy Glunt (Patsy did my wedding makeup), John and Shelley McGuirt (I babysat for their precious kids when they were babies…now they’re so big!), Jen Hall and her mom, and Odie and Erin Woods. The Woods have been some really awesome mentors for us. We met them while NewSpring was still meeting at Anderson College’s campus when David and I were just dating. They mentored us as we got engaged and married, and now as we’ve become parents. We didn’t get to see their kids (Cutter and Daisy), but we know they’re super cute and growing way too quickly!
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We love these guys. They were working in the second and third grade kids room. NewSpring really knows how to do church for kids. There was a stage on the side where they have a worship service and plenty of activities to keep them busy afterward. Too neat!
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After church we ate lunch with my parents and got back on the road. Just around five hours later, we were in Savannah and couldn’t have been happier to be home. Abigail always gets a little off schedule when we’re traveling, so it’s a relief for everyone when we’re back!

Monday was rather uneventful except for the fact that Abigail laughed! At least, that’s absolutely what I heard. I have no witnesses other than myself, but I was goofing around with her when her smile got bigger and bigger and bigger (like she was about to explode with happiness) and out came the cutest little noise I think I’d ever heard. She did it two separate times, but not since. Can’t wait until it happens again!

We’re looking forward to Halloween this weekend when our little girl gets all dressed up as Tigger. It’s the closest thing to a Clemson tiger we could think of, and the costume was on sale. Wahoo!

In closing, a rather funny picture. Abigail is a great sleeper and doesn’t move all that much once she’s asleep. This is what she looked like after a nap last week when she slept on her hands. It looked like she’d be slapped around or that her hands were hot irons or something. She wasn’t crying in this picture, just scrunching up her face because of the bright overhead light.
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11 weeks…Always be prepared October 20, 2009

This week wasn’t too terribly eventful, but we did do some stuff and have some fun along the way.

Abigail gets into babbling fits a few times a day, and while we know that one day we’ll be wishing she had an “off” button, for now we’re doing anything possibly to coax those fun noises out of her tiny little mouth. Her preferred locations for conversations? On the changing table, while getting dried off after a bath, and in her bouncy seat with her beloved stuffed animals.
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Mid-babble and mid-flail, hence the blurred photo
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She’s still occasionally rolling over, but we’re pretty sure it’s still sort of by accident since she does it so sporadically. When she does land on her back, we cheer, and she looks a bit stunned. Then she sees our smiles, and all is right with the world.

For date night this week, we took Abigail with us to Jersey Mike’s subs. It was pretty fun to have her right there with us flashing her beautiful gummy smile whenever we glanced her way. That’s not how we’ll do date night normally, but once or twice a month, it’s nice to go out to eat with her.

Any other SAHM’s out there notice that most all mom-baby activities happen during morning nap time? I feel like most every event I want to go to with Abigail is right around 10am. She eats at 8am, has 1.5 to 2 hours of waketime, then naps. Maybe when she drops a nap it’ll be the morning one. Who knows?

MOPS is one of those things that goes through nap time (9:30-11:15am), and Abigail hardly slept while we were there. Luckily she took a fabulous 2-hour afternoon nap allowing me to curl up with a new book, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code author). Great fictional thriller! I finished it within the day. Yikes!
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Random carrier smiles. She was smiling at me, but it’s hard to get a straight-on picture of her smiling; the camera distracts her. So I held it out to the side.
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Thursday and Friday were pretty low key as we had a bunch of rain storms come through. Abigail and I did head over to Tradewinds to meet up with some MOPS moms Friday morning, but spent the rest of the day inside playing/napping.

David had the weekend off, though, and we made the most of it. Saturday morning, we headed over to the Greek Festival downtown. The last time I ate Greek food was…yeah, I can’t remember. It was pretty tasty though, considering. We split a “combo” plate of food, and our favorite part was the spicy meatball dish. Can’t remember the name. Sorry!
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Family photo while in line for food.
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Abigail sort of hung out in the sling during the Greek festivities. They had musicians and dancers and vendors—oh my! All in all, a fun time.

Saturday afternoon, I went by the lactation consultants’ office at Candler Hospital to pick up a breastpump. I had been using a Medela hand pump, but was never really a fan. It cost somewhere around $40 and wasn’t all that efficient. The pump that I’m renting from the hospital retails for $1,600. Whoa nelly! There’s a huge difference between the two, let me tell you. I’m wanting to stock up the freezer so that we don’t have to worry about having food for Abigail on date nights or ::gasp:: our first overnight away from her. Haven’t planned that trip yet, but we’re looking forward to it. Maybe for our three-year wedding anniversary in February!

On Saturday and Sunday we did something that we hadn’t done since before Abigail was born—rented and watched movies. Granted,  it took nearly 6 hours to watch 3 hours of movies (watched during her naps), but it was still worth it. We checked out Duplicity (Clive Owen and Julia Roberts) and New in Town (Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick, Jr.) and loved ‘em both. It’s amusing how something so simple becomes a luxury post-baby!

Yesterday, I met up with some MOMS Club moms at the mall to hang out and let the kiddos play. There’s a softplay playground area near JCPenny where all the mobile kids can run and jump and climb and scream and whatever else they feel like doing while the moms hang out.
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The softplay area at the mall. A little while after this picture was taken, there were 15+ kiddos romping around!
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Abigail decided to fill a diaper as soon as we got there. I figured I should go ahead and change her so that she didn’t have to sit in that mess for the next couple of hours. While changing her, she opted to go again, and it went all over her and her outfit.

Here’s how the title of the blog ties in. I always have a super stocked diaper bag for incidents just like this. But alas! Somehow, after Ohio, I completely forgot to put a spare outfit back into the bag. So post-diaper change, I had a naked baby—aside from her diaper, a pair of socks and a hat. If it were a normal (hot) Savannah day, I wouldn’t have had any issues with her half-clothed state, but it was chilly today. Being in a mall, I strapped her up in my sling and headed to the clearance rack at Baby Gap. Five minutes and $2.99 later, she was cozy in a new long-sleeved onesie. Maybe she soiled herself in order to get some new clothes? Clever girl!
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Snuggled up and ready to go after our Baby Gap trip
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As far as sleeping goes, Abigail did something neat Sunday night. She went down at 8:40pm, and woke up at 3:15am. Why is that neat? Well, we opted to let her fuss just to see, and a few minutes later, she put herself back to sleep and slept until 6:00am. Woo hoo! It’s encouraging to know that she can self-soothe in the middle of the night if needed. Hopefully she’ll be back to sleeping straight-through again soon.

Coming up this week? Lunch date with my big sister (MOMS Club sets you up with a mentor mom/big sister) downtown, storytime at the library (missed last week because of nap), and a trip to Greenville to see my family, introduce Abigail to her other set of great-grandparents, and to go apple picking in Hendersonville. Cannot wait!

10 weeks…And some firsts October 13, 2009

Reached a few fun milestones this past week—first shots, first plane ride, first time sleeping somewhere other than home, and several others. Read on for the scoop!

We learned this past week that once you set a bedtime routine/schedule with your baby, never stray from it if you can avoid it. Abigail rarely eats from a bottle, so it takes a fair amount of prodding to get her to really eat a full meal that way. On Tuesday for date night, she gave the Winfrey’s a hard time when dinner rolled around and didn’t eat much of her bottle at all. That equalled a hungry, hungry and tired baby at 9:00pm when she normally is full and ready to go to sleep. The night that followed was zero fun. For the first time ever, she was up four times in one night. Never again, folks. She’ll be gulping down that bottle next week! She’s got to learn somehow.

The rest of the week was made up of great sleeping nights—back to 8- to 9-hour stretches, waking for a feeding, and back down for 2 to 3 hours. So glad to be back in that groove!

On Wednesday, Abigail had her 2-month check-up. This consisted of the usual stats-update: 14lb 2oz (she’s moved up to the 99th percentile! Grow baby, grow!), 23.5″ long , with a 16″ head. She’s moving on up, folks! In addition, she got three vaccine-shots and one vaccine syrup for rotavirus. Abigail did better with her shots than I did as I’ve never ever heard her yell out in pain. I had my back turned to her at that moment so that she could only see the nurse and so that I could be the “rescuer” after the shots; I definitely started to cry. At least I know she won’t remember them at all!

The syrup-based vaccine was supposed to be the “treat” after her shots. Quite the opposite! She didn’t like it at all—it’s supposedly sugary in flavor—and began to gag and cough shortly after the nurse squeezed it in her mouth. The gagging continued for minutes. Yes, minutes. Saliva was steadily flowing out of her mouth as she gagged and occasionally coughed. A few minutes later, while over my shoulder, she christened the floor (we were in the newly constructed wing of the pediatrician’s practice) with her entire breakfast and whatever was left of that syrup. Poor baby. It took another 20 minutes in the car and in the Target parking lot to work up the rest of whatever it was. It’s almost like she got worked up and some of the syrup went down the wrong “pipe.”

She’s all better now, though. A progression, in photos:
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She had no idea what was coming…just hanging out on the exam table
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In the car after shots. In dire need of a nap!
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At home on the changing table. “Shots? What shots? I have these nifty Tasmanian Devil band-aids!”
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On Thursday, Carrie and I went with our little girls to check out the Bull Street library’s story time. Yikes! There had to have been 20 to 30 kids there with their moms. Whoa nelly! Abigail just sat in her carrier with wide eyes the whole time—likely based on the absurd noise level. We’ll be sticking to the Wilmington Island library’s story time from now on. It’s much more intimate and lower-volume. Whew!

Also, when I mentioned that Abigail’s pushing up like a pro, I meant that now everytime she’s on her tummy, she pushes up as far as she possibly can. She used to hate tummy time, but now that she’s so adept at getting her head off the floor, she’s not too upset when we flip her over to her tummy.
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Notice the lovely drool spot on the sheets!
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When she’s really going for it, her legs fly up like in the picture above. Too funny!
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Friday was a real treat. I started out at Tradewinds with the MOPS moms and got to share my exciting “sleeping-through-the-night” news. Yee haw! Later, Kristy was in town and met up with me and Carrie for lunch over at Carrie’s place. It was so great to see Kristy as she and Travis are living up in Chapel Hill, NC while he works a one-year fellowship in radiology. She had some smiley time with Abigail before naptime. And right before I left, Carrie gave me Madison’s Bebe Pod to try out with Abigail. Too much fun!
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The last time Kristy saw Abigail, she was 9-days old! A lot has changed since then!
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Trying out the Bebe Pod (like a Bumbo seat)…not too sure…
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…ok! Maybe this is fun afterall!
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The real big set of firsts came in the form of a pseudo spontaneous trip up to Columbus, OH to visit with David’s parents, grandmother and brother. David’s mom, Karon, was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months ago and had surgery last Tuesday to take care of the situation. We opted to head up north to give her some fun distractions during her recovery. What a blast!

That said, we had to take Abigail on a plane. Our pediatrician wouldn’t say that we could or shouldn’t go; instead, he mentioned that he’d be, “extremelyhesitant” to take a two-month-old on a plane. So would we, normally. But we really wanted to be with family and support Karon in her recovery. We took every precaution we could think of from having sani-wipes in the diaper bag and keeping Abigail in a sling to keeping Abigail under my nursing cover and having her suck on something during takeoff and landing to help with the pressure on her ears.

Stressful? The first leg was. I fed Abigail during takeoff—bad idea, apparently. While laying on the boppy and eating, she spat up everything she’d eaten so far—all over her left side, my tummy and lap, and the boppy. Oops! We didn’t make that mistake again. For every other takeoff and landing, she got her pacifier! Outside of that incident, though, Abigail did great. She slept some, ate some, and relaxed for the rest of the time. Taking a 6am, Saturday morning, flight out of Savannah was a great way to get this trip off the ground. Abigail’s a lot calmer in the morning hours than the afternoon/evening.
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Burp time with Dad
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Family photo! Where’s the baby?
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Lounging under the nursing cover (thanks, Mary! LOVE it!) on the Boppy. Props to David for rocking the floral nursing cover.
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Once in Ohio, we had a great time with family. Abigail had a tough day on Saturday—due in no small part to all the new sensations she experienced on the plane—but was able to sleep through the night that night. We were thrilled that she did so well sleeping in a new place in something other than her crib.
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All smiles with Grandma Mertens
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Meeting Great-Grandma Harley
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It was a ton of fun to see David’s family interacting with our little girl—the first grandchild for his parents and the first great-grandchild on his side of the family. How neat! We hung out at the house for a good portion of our time there, but also ventured out for a stroller walk in Three Creeks Park and checked out the Columbus Curling Club’s open house. Second only to the time with family, David and I were super thrilled about the beautiful weather (and changing leaves)! It stayed in the 50s-60s during the day with zero humidity; it was 90 the day we left Savannah. Oh how we miss the northern fall temps!

Other fun news from Ohio? Abigail rolled over a few times while we were there. Accidentally? Perhaps. But at least she’s doing it! From tummy to back.
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Grandpa Mertens and Uncle Kevin in the back. Great-grandma Harley and Abigail in the middle. David and Grandma Mertens up front.
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We flew back out on Monday morning and spent the rest of the day doing laundry, getting settled, and working to get Abigail happy again. Remember that bad day I mentioned she had on Saturday? She had it again Monday. Perhaps something to do with her ears on the plane or something. Who knows? We know she’ll be back on track in no time, though!

Other fun photos from our weekend:
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We love all her fun expressions!
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Bundled up for a brisk stroller walk
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Back at the house. Ok, ok. I guess she does look a little like David!
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Oh how we miss the fall color show!
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Talk/play time with mom in the car
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Trying out her baby legs for the first time. Too cute!

9 weeks…it’s sleepy time October 5, 2009

We have a two-month old—exciting!

Not sure if it’s too early to call, but Abigail has now slept 7+ hours at night for a full week. She’ll eat at 8:00pm, go down for bed at 9:00pm, sleep until 4:30am, eat, then sleep until 8:00am. Those times fluctuate by about 15-30 minutes, but for the most part, Abigail stays true to that. We couldn’t be more excited! Now if we can just figure out how to get her to skip that 4:30am feeding…

*UPDATE* I wrote the majority of this blog entry Sunday night. We put her to bed at 8:30pm that night, and she slept until 6:00am Monday morning! Then on Monday night, she went down at 8:45pm, slept until 3:00am, ate, then slept until 6:15am. Perhaps her sleep patterns are regulating?

Also, she’s down from eight feedings a day to six. Definitely still growing like a weed, though. David and I can’t wait to get her stats Wednesday at her two-month check-up. We’ve both made guesses about her weight, length, and head size. As much as I’m looking forward to that check-up, I’m dreading it too; Abigail gets three lovely shots in her thighs. I can finally understand what my parents meant by, “This is going to hurt me more than you.” Abigail will forget the pain associated with her shots (honestly; who of you can remember getting shots?), but I doubt I’ll ever forget what it was like to see her go through it. So no, I’m not looking forward to that part of the doctor’s visit. Prayers appreciated!

Abigail had been in a fairly consistent napping pattern, but as the days went on last week, her naps got shorter and shorter with her night sleep staying the same. On Sunday, we tried darkening her room by hanging a blanket over the window. Those shortened naps lengthened right back out. We’ll just have to see if that continues.

This past week was a lot of fun—partly due to all the activities and partly due to the increased sleep we’ve been getting.

We had another successful date night with George and Princess watching Abigail on Tuesday. David and I hung out at Jersey Mike’s for a while, got dessert/coffee at Tradewinds, and then came back to the apartment to hang out sans baby before heading back to pick our little one up. The Winfrey’s are so great with her; we consider ourselves extremely blessed to have friends willing to watch after her once a week—and enjoy it so much!

On Wednesday, Carrie and Madison came over for lunch. The weather was amazing, so after they headed out, Abigail and I went for a nice long stroll around our apartment complex in the cool sun. It’s so exciting that fall is finally starting to come to Savannah. It’s not totally here yet as the past few days have been in the upper 80’s, but at least fall is on its way.

While out strolling, I tried to put some cute baby sunglasses and a hat on Abigail to keep the sun out of her eyes so I could have her stroller canopy pulled back, but she wasn’t a fan of either. By the end of the week, we broke her into the hat as you’ll see later, but the sunglasses (which velcro together behind her head) are still a no go. We’ll just have to keep trying!

Speaking of those fall-like temps, we’ve had Abigail dressed up in footed sleepers for bedtime since last Wednesday. It’s so nice not having to cover her up in a blanket in the crib to keep her warm. We might have to start doing that when winter comes to town, but we’ve got another few months before that happens. The footed sleepers are ridiculously cute on her now that they fit a little better. Maybe I’m a bit biased…

Went to the gym with Princess on Tuesday and Thursday last week and am still really enjoying our workouts. I wish I could keep them up, but with Abigail waking up to eat at 4:30am (which is when Princess and I were meeting at the gym), I’d rather be home to feed her than keep pumping so that David can do it. Plus, he has to be getting ready for work (or sleeping) during that feeding time. As soon as Abigail’s sleeping straight through the night, though, I’ll be back at the Y in the early mornings!

The beautiful weather continued on Thursday, and I met up with Mary and Sati; Carrie and Madison at Daffin Park for a morning stroll.
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Enjoying the crisp morning air
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We talked about all things baby, and I loved hearing that Sati is another 95th percentile baby like our dear Abigail. Yay for miracle grow!

Sometime that afternoon, Abigail fell in love. With a stuffed banana and stuffed hippo. Later on, she decided that she also fancied a stuffed monkey and giraffe. While those guys had been hanging in her face for a few days, she only “discovered them” on Thursday. She stared at that banana for a good 10 minutes before starting to coo and smile at it.
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Yay for Mr. Banana! Next on her list: batting at him. Maybe this week?
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Tummy time is becoming old-hat to Abigail—or at least it seems that way. She pushes up like a pro. Now if only she’d start rolling over more consistently! That would make things a little more interesting.
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At least she tolerates some tummy time now. She used to fuss anytime we put her down on her tummy!
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Pushing up on Daddy. She’ll only lay down against our shoulders if she’s tired. Otherwise, she’s all about showing off her strength!
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On Friday, I went to the weekly coffee meet up with MOPS before picking up my race packet for Saturday’s race. Once I got home, I eagerly awaited the arrival of my mom. She got to town around 1:30pm to stay for the weekend and give David and I some alone time. Much appreciated!

After a tasty poppyseed chicken dinner (thanks, Mom!), David and I took a sunset stroll around our complex and out to the boardwalk. We stayed out as long as the biting gnats would allow!

On Saturday, we had a lazy morning with Abigail since David was off work—hurray for that! Mom came over to watch Abigail, and David and I headed downtown to grab lunch at Roly Poly, check out the Oktoberfest activities on River Street, and splurge on some Leopold’s ice cream. What a fun date day! While downtown, we saw a ton of other babies in their strollers or in slings and missed Abigail immensely. It’s so funny that you want time away from your child, but as soon as you get it, you want to be back with her.

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In one of the squares downtown after lunch. High of 87 that day if you didn’t notice. Go away, summer!
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Later that evening, I ran my first 5K since Race for the Cure in April. I had no idea what to expect as I hadn’t run more than 1-2 miles since Abigail was born, but I did well—finished in around 26 minutes!
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Just before the race started. Abigail really enjoyed the sights and sounds—not napping a wink while we were downtown.
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Looking cute on Daddy’s shoulder. That hat didn’t fit when we took her to the beach a few weeks ago. Now it’s just about perfect. That head’s growing super fast!
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On Sunday, my grandparents, dad, and brother came down to join us and mom in hanging out with Abigail. Grandma and Granddaddy hadn’t met her yet and hadn’t held an infant since my brother was born. Both facts made for a fun couple of hours. It was so sweet to see Abigail interacting with them!
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Hanging out with great-grandma Schwartz while wearing a bow from a gift she received.
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Grinning up at the great-grandparents
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Four generations
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Monday was a rainy day, but we’ve been needing one of those for a while—no complaints. Well, maybe one tiny complaint…why must mosquitoes breed right after a rainstorm? It felt so nice out after the rain stopped, so I decided to go on a walk around the YMCA with Abigail in the stroller. Five minutes and three mosquito bites later (on me, not her, thank goodness) we were back in the car on our way home. Better luck next time!

8 weeks…Standing tall—with a little support, of course September 29, 2009

Another week and another slew of new things for David, Abigail, and me to learn—top of the list: patience. Patience has always been the fruit of the spirit that stays somewhat withered in my life. I’ve worked on it, sure, but never have I had to work on it daily. I’m so thankful for the maturity Abigail’s bringing out in me—patience-wise. Whether it’s being patient while putting her down for a nap, or during a feeding when she feels a little more like playing than eating, or when changing her third blown-out diaper in as many hours, I’m slowly coming around!

Notable advancements? Abigail’s been putting her full weight on her feet for a little over a week when we hold her in a standing position. It’s really neat to see her all stretched out like that; it gives a small glimpse as to what she’ll look like walking around. Can’t get ahead of ourselves, though!
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In addition, we haven’t confirmed this with the pediatrician yet, but we’re pretty sure Abigail is already teething and has been for about two weeks. What!? She’s a drool factory and will get pretty fussy at times—the only thing that soothes her? Chewing on our fingers or on her pacifier. And just Sunday night, David said that he thought he felt something in her gums while Abigail was gnawing—there are even a couple of white spots. Slow down, Abigail! I don’t know if we’re ready for teeth yet!

And finally, she’s rolling over more frequently from tummy to back and moves all over the place in her crib. She’s an active sleeper for sure! Tummy time is really paying off as she’s gained a lot more head control in the past couple of weeks. Her only problem is when we’re holding her upright and she looks down at something, her head falls forward, and it’s pretty much stuck there. She’ll throw her whole body back in an effort to get it up, though. Fun to watch! Once she’s got total head control, we’re going to buy a Bumbo seat. Should make things a little easier.

We’ve had an interesting week with sleeping, but are proud to say that Abigail is moving more towards consistency. Yipee! Babywise had it right with the sequence of daily events for a baby—feed time, wake time, then sleep time. She naps so much better after being kept awake for an hour to and hour and a half. She also sleeps better at night that way.

Currently, she’s in a holding pattern with her nights where she’ll sleep 5-6 hours, feed, then sleep another 3-4. She can go up to 7 hours at night without food (at least, that’s her longest stretch). No complaints, of course, as we’re loving this extra sleep! We’re starting to experiment, though, to find a way for her to go straight through for 8-10 hours. Stay tuned for updates.

UPDATE: Monday night, we put Abigail down at 9:15pm, and she slept until we woke her up at 4:15am. Fed her, then she went right back to sleep until her next meal at 7:15am. Seven hours! We won’t wake her up tomorrow morning and see how long she goes.

MOPS was back on last Wednesday (it’s an every-other-week deal), and I really enjoyed it. I nursed Abigail about halfway through the meeting, then burped her. Now, when you normally are alone while burping your baby, you don’t really notice how loud the little one’s burps are. Abigail’s are pretty monstrous at times apparently, because she picked a quiet moment in the meeting to let one rip. I was in the back of the room, so of course, all heads whipped around. Heads all belonging to other moms, of course, so all smiling. Too funny!

On Thursday, I checked out a new (to me) event at the local library—story time. Abigail slept through the first half of it or so, but was super intrigued by the latter portion while she was awake. There were around 10 moms (and one dad!) there with their kiddos, and Miss A (can’t remember her name…arg) animatedly read children’s books—making them interactive as much as possible. We also sang songs—most of which had hand motions or required parent-kid interaction. Too bad Abigail can’t clap yet or sing along, but soon enough. We’ll definitely be going back, and I’ll have to take a picture or two of the super colorful room where it takes place.

After story time, it was off to Target to pick up a few random things that we needed. My shopping was finished in less than 10 minutes, but I kept pushing Abigail around as she seemed to LOVE the bright lights, colors, and new sounds. Only eight weeks old and already knows the best places to shop!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until we tried to go to sleep. We got new neighbors upstairs a few weeks ago, and they’ve been pretty noisy during the day—stomping sounds, mostly. The volume picked up a couple of times at night over the past week, and David went up to ask them to keep it down. I tried to just brush most of it off, but when Abigail was asleep and I wasn’t at 1:00am Friday morning, I was finished. Complaint was filed the next day, and it’s been pretty peaceful since. Thank goodness!

Friday began Abigail’s cooing. So. Much. Fun. I could listen to her little noises all day long, and I do! She started at the MOMS Club brunch Friday morning and has kept it up ever since—not non-stop, but when she’s alert and content. I think having 20+ kids running around her at the brunch gave her the courage to make some noise too! She’s also starting to check out things hanging overhead. Silly us, we never hung anything above her (other than her lamb mobile) to look at until recently, so she’s still sort of figuring it out. She gives anything hanging over her head a stare down, but hasn’t started batting yet. Soon enough!
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David had to work on Saturday, so I filled up the day as much as possible starting with a two-mile stroller run with Carrie and Madison. Abigail was asleep when it was time to head to the YMCA, so I picked her up, changed her diaper AND outfit in an effort to wake her, but to no avail. She continued to sleep through the car ride and the stroller run. She hasn’t done that since she was just a week old or so.

I planned to drive out to Georgetown to watch the Clemson game with my friend Mary (from my mom’s meetup group), her husband, Ramesh, and their daughter, Sati. Before leaving, I was feeding Abigail, and David got home—hours early. So exciting! We went out to Georgetown as a family to cheer on our Tigers. Too bad they lost…but we still had fun.
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Sunday is the day of rest, right? And rest we did—as much as possible. That meant sleeping while Abigail slept until mid morning, then napping later in the day. Bliss! We kept the rest of the day really low-key and focused on getting pictures of Abigail and spending time as a family.
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Non-Abigail related news?

1. The Grey’s Anatomy premiere was Thursday night, and I’m so happy it’s back on! I could only watch the first hour before having to feed Abigail and put her down, but thanks to Hulu.com, I watched the rest first thing Friday morning. Missing George, but glad Izzy made it!

2. We had to have our computer totally rebuilt last week. We’ve been having PC issues that make those “I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC” commercials eerily true. Maybe we need a Mac? Anyhow, our PC is still under warranty (SO glad my Dad encouraged me to get the extended warranty when I bought the computer back in January 2007), so our hard drive, motherboard, and memory were all replaced for free. Some of the issues still remain, though. Time to go to the local repair shop to sort out the remaining bugs. Here’s to hoping everything will be resolved by our next blog post! 

3. I’m back to working out in the wee hours of the morning with Princess. Thanks for toughing it out at 4:30am, girl!

4. I went to a Park Lane Jewelry fashion show last night with Amy Smith (from MOPS). It’s weird to go out without Abigail, but I love that David is so good with her; he’s a natural and isn’t intimidated by really anything Abigail throws at him. Go David!

A few more photos for good measure:
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