Dear Daughter

Dear Darling Angela,

I am glad to see that you are getting such good sleep at night that 4:00am seems like a good time to wake up, but in reality you still have a few more hours left until it's time to get up. Maybe it's that you figured that's when Daddy leaves for work and you want to spend some time with him, and I can appreciate that, as long as Daddy is still home to put you back to sleep.

Also, even though our relationship at this point is based off of only 6 months of being together (nearly 24-7), I can assure you that I will never abandon you, and would appreciate if you could give me the benefit of the doubt on this issue. If I put you down on the floor and walk away, I'm not leaving you forever, I'm probably going to get you a toy or get myself a drink of water so I don't die of dehydration. So, there is no need to scream at the top of your lungs and scrunch your face up. You look much prettier when you don't do that.

Lastly, I know that I'm the coolest Mommy that you've ever known, but I'm really not THAT much fun to be with. It's ok if you take nice long naps like most babies your age. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, so you could assume we might even have MORE fun together if we got to have a nice break once in a while to recharge our batteries.

With Much Love,

Your Mommy

We got it!

Angela managed to roll over from back to tummy today! First she did it on our island after a bath (yikes, we really need to watch her now) as she was trying to grab something out of her reach. Afterwards, we decided to let her continue this on the floor where it was a bit safer. She is getting quite strong these days, a lot of the time when she's on her tummy she's pushing herself backwards and doing the best she can to lift her butt off the floor - not getting too far yet, but she's determined!

The Tether that Binds

So aside from the fact that I exclusively have to personally feed my baby every two hours during the day, we have now entered the realm of baby-mama separation anxiety. A very big part of me enjoys this stage, I know once she's 2-3 years old she's going to diss me to hang out with daddy so I will appreciate this attention as much as I can. However, we've learned that we (I) have approximately less than one hour that we (I) can be away from her before she freaks out and starts crying/screaming unconsolably. Leaving her with daddy on a Saturday morning while I sleep in is one thing, both of us leaving to say, enjoy a nice meal with her in the care of someone else is completely different. We are yet to test the possibility that she might feel more comfortable if someone watched her at our home, every time she's freaked out it's been at someone else's home... so there may be hope.

I guess one could also say that we are in the midst of practicing Attachment Parenting techniques. Bedtime routine usually consists of dimmed lights, some books read and then a combination of nursing, running the shower for background noise, and some rocking and singing of "The Ants Go Marching" (no, not the Dave Matthews song)... usually by the time I get to the tenth ant, she's out for the count - somewhere around 9pm. Sometimes shortly thereafter she'll wake up crying and we pick her up, run the shower and within a few minutes she's back to sleep. By 2:30-3:00am she wakes for a feeding (still in our room, in her crib) and then again by around 4-6:00am and usually after that she's a bit fussier so I'll bring her into bed with me and feed/cuddle/sleep until somewhere hopefully close to 8:00am.

Talk Monster etc

Angela is learning how to make consonant sounds which involves lots of breath & spit being projected out from her lips. She's made a few "dee" sounds but it seems like she's really working on the letter 'B.'

This was at first extremely exciting to us and hilarious at the same time, but now that this little lady has discovered her new talent she does NOT want to stop practicing and it's starting to drive me a little insane.

In addition, she has become increasingly able to lift her upper body into a "push-up" position and twist around, we feel crawling might not be too far away.

Birth - 6 Month Milestones

Weight/Height

Born: 6lbs 14oz 20.25 inches
Discharge: 6lbs 6oz
1 Week Appt 6lbs 9oz
2 Week Appt 7lbs 8oz
1 Month Appt 9lbs 13oz 22.0 inches
2 Month Appt 12lbs 11oz 23.5 inches
4 Month Appt 14lbs 11oz 25.5 inches
6 Month Appt 16lbs 5 oz 27.25 inches

Milestones
October 18th Held Head Up
October 19th First Smile October 26th Slept 4 Hours at night
November 16th Found Hand
November 23rd Slept 6 Hours Straight
December 8th Began Grabbing
December 21st First Giggles, Slept 7 Hours Straight
December 27th Rolled Over from Tummy to Back, Hours Straight
February 24th Sits Up Unsupported

Six Months Go By

Our baby will be six months old this week. Half of a year since she entered into this world and six month until her one year birthday. We have the brains of typical parents to a first child. Everything she does is amazing, we think she is absolutely gorgeous, and that everyone else is just as in love with her as we are.

John has realized that a baby can be a lot more fun that he initially thought. He admits to carrying her around the store when we shop so he can watch people get all excited when Angela shoots huge smiles at them and listen to them tell him how cute she is.

I have realized that I need a break here and there so I can decompress and recharge in order to fully appreciate how precious she is instead of trying to keep her happy, remember to change her diaper/feed her, and get her to sleep. 

 I have lost over 40lbs at this point and I suppose I should be happy with that, but ofcourse I'm thinking about the 20lbs yet to go especially on the days where I'm just too tired to exercise.

                                                    

Independent Woman

Angela has had a busy week. She discovered that she can sit up and has managed the coordination to hold a bottle to her mouth and can even get some milk out of it!                                                 Finally, Angela has joined the Boston Salads sales department and showed off her new polo shirt in support of the family business. As we were taking her picture, she also discovered that our arm chair is a bit uneven and when she throws her back/head into the back cushion she can get the chair to rock!