Smooth Sailing

In the past few weeks Angela has found her feet and despite not rolling over in either direction, she still enjoys tossing her legs into the air and twisting around - after a little bit this actually gets her moving around the floor. She has also become much more consistent with her night sleeping & luckily has been very good about going down for bed... but it seems every 2 months or so the rules change so we'll see what the future holds. However for now, I generally only need 6-7 hours of sleep per night so if I go to bed with her around 9:30 and wake up at 4:30 I have trouble getting back to sleep. I guess I've finally reached the point where I don't actually have to go to bed at the same time as her!

4 Month Check up

Despite sleeping 7 hours straight last night Angela was cranky this morning because she didn't get much sleep once she woke up. Luckily she took a nice little nap before it was time to go to the doctor's office. Currently she is 25.5 inches and 14lbs 11oz (90% for length and 75th for weight). She did get two more shots and I did the smart thing this time and gave her the tylenol when I got home instead of waiting for her to get super cranky (per the dr's suggestion). He has left it up to us to decide whether or not to start feeding her baby cereal, personally I don't think she's ready for it and will wait atleast another month, I'm thinking. I have given her carrots to suck and taste so she can gain a sense that there is more than just milk out there. At first she normally makes of a face of "what the heck is this?!" but then decides she likes it and will vigorously lick it and even muster up enough coordination to hold the carrot in her mouth.

Angela also had her first baby play date, not too much playing together, more just of Leah pointing at her and watching. However Leah did give some super hugs and even a very delicate kiss on the nose.

Who's on the phone?

New Winter Outfit

So Angela is getting a bit too big for her 6 month bunting and the 6-9 month one I had ordered from Macys was too big, I exchanged it for a 3-6 size and it was still too big and thus difficult to get her into the carseat with it on which definitely upsets her. So I figured, hey no big deal, I'll take a trip to the Carter's store down the street and get a new fleece one. Yes well the world of baby clothing stores is apparently no different from the adult clothing store world. They had clearanced all their winter clothes and brought in all the summer clothes. How the heck do I know what size this baby is going to be this summer? Needless to say they didn't have a single outerwear outfit for her. We headed to Kohl's (which anyone is a fool to buy anything there that isn't on sale because the whole store is always "on sale") where we had the same scenario, except this time I was lucky enough to find a single 9 month fleece outerwear. Granted, right now she's dressed up as a reindeer, but I really don't give a hoot - it's warm, it fits her, and I don't think too many people are going to notice that there are reindeer antlers on the top of her hoodie. We used it to take her to church this evening. Normally we sit in the back, but I figured let's try sitting up front where she can see everything. She did excellent except for the fact that we cut it close to her next feeding (we went grocery shopping just before church and didn't have time to nurse) and she got a bit fussy toward the end. She loves to stare at people ... and being a baby lots of people stare at her so it's a good source of entertainment for her.

Uh... uh... almost!

Angela really isnt trying to roll over, she's more of a squirmer and likes to toss her legs in the air and move around. John is trying to encourage her to crawl (a tad bit on the early side but it's more for fun), she lies on her belly and watches him crawl around her and occasionally she'll shimmy her little legs like she's trying.

The growth spurt seems to be over. She's back to being a one-sided feeder, and my personal favorite - a fan of pulling off frequently while she eats which results in the following.

Not to mention how much gets on me or the sofa. Breastfeeding is really the bomb though, I always nurse Angela if she's fussy and right before bed and she falls asleep every time, I can't imagine having to wake up in the night and make a bottle. It's actually pretty funny because John's alarm can go off, he can get up and get ready for work and it doesn't wake me up, but if I hear Angela sucking on her fingers it wakes me up - I guess those mother's ears have kicked in for sure. I feel sad for all those babies that are fed formula and deal with upset stomachs and constipation and can't nurse to comfort themselves.

Angela has a dr's appt next Tuesday and I'm excited to see how much she's grown. Some of these 6 month outfits are starting to get snug and after the multitude of gifts she's received I have a vast selection of 9 month clothes. It is kind of sad though when people buy her a bunch of clothes (especially if they're just 'ok') because I feel obligated to use them and buy less clothes for her that I really want to see her in. I exchanged a couple outfits this past weekend (for the first time someone actually bought her something she already had in the same size) and I got diddilly squat from Macys for them. I really do hope that I have another girl down the line so I can reuse all these clothes, some of them that she never wore or maybe got a chance to wear once or twice.

Angela's Christening

Having a baby has definitely taught us to not plan for a good day,especially when there is a big event with the focus being the baby. I was prepared for a meltdown in the church but most likely at the reception. John & I had already discussed that we would not be passing Angela around and only the two of us would hold her. Turns out Angela had her own gameplan subconsciously decided as well - a smart girl.

This was a quicky baptism to my delight, no mass just the ceremony. Angela was awake and alert the whole time, sitting on our laps in peace & quiet like never before. She paid very close attention to the priest and followed him with her head as he walked back and forth. When it was our turn to have the water poured on her head the priest asked the family & friends of Angela to stand up. Well, that was pretty much 90% of the people in attendance. The Boyles, the Tassinaris, my family, John's family, John's extended family, and all of John's friends. I think in total we had over 40 people there, it was crazy. Our side took the entire left side of the church, it was like a wedding. Anyway, when the priest went to pour the water, he used a real sized pitcher of water to do it, and with his enthusiasm poured water not just down the back of her head but completely in her face. Amazingly she took it like a champ and didn't utter a sound. Afterwards we took pictures and then the family descended upon her. This was my concern, especially because the other side of John's family that had not yet seen her are extremely enthusiastic people. However, to my amazement rather than freak out Angela pulled a sneaky move. Almost like she was drunk, her eye lids got extremely heavy, her head started weaving back and forth and she passed out right on John's shoulder. After the holidays she must have learned big crowd?, I'll just go to sleep. Thank goodness. It worked like a charm.

At the reception she was awake long enough for me to feed & change her diaper, she socialized for a few minutes and passed out again and slept while we ate. She woke up after dinner for about 20 minutes and then after we showed her around to half the tables, she once again fell asleep. She didn't wake up again until everyone was gone, was fed and then we were in the car! A complete success, that I could not have imagined turning out any better.

In all her babylicious glory

Feeding every 2 hours will pack on the pounds, as pictured. I just love those marshmallow arms, thunder thighs and snack-packing hampster cheeks. I cannot help but kiss those sweet cheeks all of the time. I had her laughing today (she doesn't laugh every day yet) with what I call "eat you like corn" where I hold her horizontal and nibble on her belly with great excitement. We both get a kick out of this, and anyone witness to it.

We have estimated that she weighs about 15 pounds now (by using our home scale); after multiple poop blow outs through the back of the diaper we decided that she is onto the size two diapers.

I believe we may be onto the next growth spurt as well. Sunday into Monday she slept from 11pm - 10:30 am, waking only to feed, but then last night after going down at 11, she was up at 12:30, 2:30,6:30, and 8:30 and feeding about every 1.5 hours during the day. Normally she only feeds on one side for barely even 5 minutes - if I try to get her to nurse on the other side she pulls back and make this face of "ugh, that's gross" and wants nothing to do with me. Today she's been feeding on both sides and could eat forever.
I myself, have officially begun my quest to lose the multitude of pounds I packed on last year. My goal is to try to break a sweat atleast every day using my workout videos or my kickboxing class (which starts tomorrow and is going to absolutely destroy me). I've always wanted to be in super awesome butt kicking shape - lets see if I can stay on course and get close to that.

This Thursday will actually be the 1 year mark from when I found out I was pregnant.