Who ME?

Yesterday, Greta looked right at me and said, "Mama."

Okay, so maybe she's not really calling me that, but when she says it, it sounds JUST like she's referring to me.

I always thought that babies who said, "Mama" while babbling were doing it more repeatedly. It's always described as "Oh, they were just babbling -- you know . . . Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma . . ."

But this feels different than what they describe. I know that it's still just babbling but it really sounds like she's saying Mama. Yes, it's repeated, but it's like this, "Ma-Ma . . . Ma-Ma . . ." And she does the slightly-longer-first-syllable-slightly-shorter-second-syllable thing too. (Not sure if I can explain that properly, but if you imagine someone flatly saying the syllable "Ma" twice in a row, it sounds different than when someone actually says "Mama," right?)

AAAHHH! So insanely cute!

The best part is when she looks right at me while she does it. Yesterday she was playing on her belly and then she'd push up on her arms really tall and look right at me and say "Ma-Ma . . . Ma-Ma . . ." and smile.

Today she would pull off from nursing and I'd sit her upright and, again, she'd look straight at me and say, "Ma-Ma . . . Ma-Ma" and grin all slyly.

But I shouldn't get my hopes up that she attaches any meaning whatsoever. Because in all likelihood, as cute as this is, it isn't even going to last much longer. It's just going to be like the "Hi" thing from when she was around 3.5 months. She did it constantly for like a week or two and it sounded like the PERFECT little sweet "Hi!" and it made me insanely happy. And then she just sort of stopped. I was kind of sad when my baby just suddenly stopped greeting me.  And then the peek-a-boo thing. She did it incessantly for a little while, and then just kind of stopped taking an interest. And then now there's this "Mama" thing. Which she'll probably carry on for a week or so and I will become so attached to the idea of my baby calling my name. And then she'll stop and I'll think she doesn't love me anymore.

So yeah. Trying to walk the line between taking joy in this sweet new thing of hers and trying not to take it personally.

7 Months!

Time is flying by. Greta is already 1 week past her 7 month birthday.

The major updates are that she is a baby on the move. Case in point: I plunked her down on a soft blanket to have her usual floor time maybe 5 minutes ago and she's already scooting around on the hard floor a few feet from where she was placed.

You may remember that on her 6 month birthday, she rolled over from back to front twice in one day.  It was new and different. Now, if I put her down on the floor, I can pretty much be guaranteed that she will have rolled over at least 5 or 6 times within 10 minutes or so. And when she's not rolling, she's reaching and scooting and pivoting and occasionally even doing tiny push-ups onto her toes and arms. No official crawling yet, but she's working on trying to get up on her hands and knees.

She's a persistent baby. If a toy rolls away from her, she works hard to get herself over to it. She grunts and sighs and reaches and tries to use other objects that are within her reach to "lasso" the desired object into her reach. I get tired just watching her.

And watch her we must. Yesterday I laid out a blanket and set her down on it to chill with some toys while I went into the kitchen to start some food for lunch. She still moves fairly slowly and so it has generally worked to leave the room for a minute or two and then come back and check on her. Well, when I came back into the room to check on her, she looked like this:

 

Yes, that's my baby, tangled up in the blanket that I'd carefully laid out and set her upon, playing with a plastic bag. Not my proudest "responsible parenting" moment.

I think because she isn't fast, it's easy to assume that she won't get into stuff. But she's a stealthy baby. She will very quietly get herself into trouble.

At the end of this month, Greta also took her first airplane ride.

Greta on the plane. 

We went to Chicago to visit family and family friends. Greta met her cousin Cora for the first time.

Cora with Michelle -- 7 weeks of adorable.

She also wore matching aunt/niece outfits (sometimes inadvertently) on several occasions.

The trip was a success. We visited with several family friends. We road-tripped to Peoria to see my grandfather and uncle. We visited another uncle, aunt and cousin. It was very busy, I was completely drained without my partner in parenting, and Greta got way off her sleep schedule. But it was incredibly rewarding to see her meeting so many wonderful family and near-family members. 

Although flying with an infant was easier than I'd expected, being out of town and off-schedule with an infant was much harder than I'd expected. I am happy that we won't be doing it again for awhile, as much as I want to see all these wonderful people again soon. 

Other than the mobility, Greta hasn't changed all that much from last month. I think she's focusing all her growing energy into her new activity level. She isn't really any more vocal than she was before, and she's maintained the same levels of focus -- it's just that now she's focusing not on just touching things, but actively reaching them, grabbing them, using them to hit other objects, etc. She continues to be very social and with her stronger core, she will more actively lean towards people in order to listen in on their conversations, smile or laugh. She's become squirmier -- something that I noticed in particular when comparing her to her newborn cousin. Suddenly my baby was the maniac in the room!

She's working on sitting up. If placed in the corner of a couch or armchair, she will put her hands on the arm and back of the seat and sit upright. If she is supported by Ben's legs on her sides, she can sit up on her own fairly well. It's usually falling to the side -- rather than back or forward -- that prevents her from being able to sit completely unsupported. 

Physically, she feels much more robust. This was a change that I noticed shortly after we started solids with her and has continued since then.  All month long, I've been feeling like my baby has suddenly gotten huge. I was surprised when I took her for a weight check and she'd gained less than a pound since last month (although the previous months he'd only gained 3 ounces, so I guess I shouldn't be too dismayed). I feel like it's all muscle, though! Strong, active baby!

6 Months

We are overdue for an update! Greta's 6 month birthday was over a week and a half ago and she's changing so much these days she feels well on her way to 7 months old. Before I forget what happened between months 5 and 6, I'd better write her six month update!

She's getting bigger, but slowly. She's pretty well on-track when it comes to clothing (she outgrew her 3-6 month clothes around her 6 month birthday), but her measurements seem to be slowing down a bit. At her 6 month checkup she measured 25.25" in length and 13 lbs 11 oz in weight. This puts here in the 24th and 9th percentiles, respectively. She carries more of her height in a long torso, which explains why she's still outgrowing her clothing "on-target" despite being on the small side overall.

Even though she's comparatively quite small, it feels like she's getting bigger all the time.

I have heard often of parents mistakenly thinking that a baby has outgrown his/her infant car seat if  the child's feet reach the end of the seat. If Greta is in the bottom quartile for height, I can't imagine how quickly some parents must give up the infant seat unnecessarily. We still love ours!

There are three main (and major!) changes that have happened since her 5 month update.

Food
As mentioned in a previous post, Greta's first solid food was on Labor Day. We started with brown rice cereal and added squash a few days later. Since then we've been introducing something new every few days. So far (as of 9/28 at 6 months, 10 days old) she's had the following:

Grains
Brown Rice Cereal
Oatmeal Cereal

Fruits
Pears
Peaches
Bananas

Culinary Vegetables
Squash
Peas

Botanical Vegetables
Carrots
Sweet Potato

She's generally a really "good eater." We were at Ben's parents' house today and they were shocked at how much she was eating. (She seems to spit out a lot in my opinion, but I guess I don't really have any points of reference.) The only thing she hasn't seemed to like is the peas. We'll try those again when she's a bit older. To be honest, I don't really blame her. The texture of the pureed peas is much more . . . gross. I'm guessing we'll have better luck when we try them as a finger food.

Rolling
The second major development is that she's rolling a lot more now. It happened for the first time back in the fourth month, I think. Then toward the end of the 5th month, she started rolling here and there. It would always be a total surprise, though. Most of the time she'd look very much like she was going to roll, but then she wouldn't.

Fake Out -- A time when Great looked very much like she was going to roll, but did not. 

Then, at other times, I'd look down at my computer and up at her again and she'd have rolled over.

The first time she rolled from back to tummy was like this. I described it with some pictures in my Sept. 8 post. At first after that I thought she wasn't able to do it on her own -- that she'd pulled herself using the bar and it would be awhile before she could do it without grabbing onto something. But shortly after that, she started doing it here and there -- perhaps once a day from tummy to back and every other day from back to tummy (on average, of course -- it's not like she had a schedule). That stage lasted about a week.

Then on her six month birthday, she went all out.

She rolled over from tummy to back twice in one day. And acted like it was no big thing.

And ever since then it's like she leaped forward in her mobility. She will casually roll onto her belly and play for a bit, then roll onto her back for a bit, etc. While I can't say that I'm surprised by it anymore, I am still really impressed when I see her roll -- and shocked at how relaxed she is about it. The other day, I even saw her roll twice in succession (as in she rolled from back to tummy to back as though it was one move). We haven't seen her roll in order to get places yet, but I think that's coming soon.

Right now, her rolling seems to be mostly in the pursuit of toys, in which she has taken a more active interest.

She still enjoys examining them, but she picks them up herself now and passes them from hand to hand, rather than having them hang above her the way that she did when she was a four-month-old. It's weird how subtly some things change (the way that she plays, for example) versus the things that seem to change by leaps and bounds (like this whole rolling thing).

Peek-A-Boo
Speaking of things happening quickly. Greta has started playing her first game. About a week before her 6 month birthday, she started playing peek-a-boo with us. I was on the phone at the time and Ben got my attention to show me that she was playing peek-a-boo with him. She was holding a small blanket over her face and then pulling it down after being asked, "Where's Greta?"

This was a huge shock to me, as I could probably count on one hand the number of times that I had played peek-a-book with her. And I think they were all probably way back when she was 4 months old or younger. As I learned, Ben's parents had been playing some peek-a-boo with her more recently, but to our knowledge this was the first time she'd ever initiated it herself.

Building our suspense on the first evening she played peek-a-boo with us. 

It. Was. Awesome.

We captured it on video, but we don't want to post video here. If you know us in real life, just send Arden an email and we'll send you the link.

I can totally understand why this never gets old when you're the kid's parent. I was so excited to interact with her in this new way. There were so many characteristics that were conveyed through that game that I hadn't seen from my baby until that point -- humor, language, timing, communication. She seems to be experimenting with how long to wait before pulling the cloth away (and smiles more when she builds our suspense with an extra beat or two).

Interestingly, in the days that followed, I learned that although she seemed perfectly capable of grasping the concept of the game if she initiated it herself, she wouldn't play it if you put the cloth over her face. I found that if I handed the cloth to her, she'd put it over her face and play. But if I put it over her face, she'd just lie there, uncontrollably wiggling and giggling in anticipation of you taking it off of her. It was hilarious! At first, I thought that she didn't know that she could take it off if she wasn't the one that put it there. Later, though, I noticed that she'd sometimes do that to herself -- she'd put the cloth over her face and then if she let go, it was like she'd forget that she'd put it there. She'd know it was there (hence all the giggling), but no matter how many times you'd ask, "Where's Greta?" she wouldn't seem to know that she can take it off for the "big reveal."

Last Saturday was particularly amusing. Ben and I were getting ready to leave and Greta was playing on the floor. I was in the dining room folding laundry when I heard the familiar sound of her excited giggles. I went in to find her wiggling and giggling with the cloth on her face -- as though she was just waiting to surprise an unsuspecting parent.  

This is golden. Any second, they're going to come in here all "Where's Greta?" And they'll be so confused, but I'll be right here under their noses. Oh, this is gonna be so good!  

I have to say, she's actually pretty successful with the humor.  I'm laughing!

So many new things!

I think one of my favorite things about solids is that it's like there's a new milestone every 4 days -- and Mama and Papa get to decide when it happens. First time eating pears? Yes, I think we'll do that today!

After the brown rice cereal on Labor Day, we progressed to butternut squash on Thursday and then today it was pears. She had what seemed to be teething pain not too long after the pears, but then while I was standing her up on my lap, she made her "I'm pooping" face and so I think it was stomach upset. When we changed her diaper, we were shocked to see a fully-formed stool. She's never had a poop that could be described as anything approaching "solid" before. I had no idea that after only one week of a few tablespoons a day of solids, things could change so quickly!

Speaking of milestones that we had no control over, Greta rolled from back to front today. She was on her back playing in her gym and just hanging out, stretching on her side and pulling on the arches above her gym.

She was making funny faces at me while she arched her back and stretched, so I tried to capture a picture and this was what I got. 

Ben and I were just chatting while she was hanging out. Ben was on his computer and my view of her was blocked by the coffee table, so I was just checking on her now and then. A few minutes later, I looked over at her and saw her like this:

So Proud!

She really did look amazingly proud. And then she just hung out in tummy time for awhile and smiled at us and looked around back and forth between us as we ooh'd and aaah'd over her hard work.

Yay, baby! Big Day!

Big Day

Today, to commemorate the struggles and successes of labor unions throughout history, Greta ate 4 teaspoons of brown rice cereal.

She's five and a half months today and we decided this past week that we were ready for her to start solids. I'd always assumed that we'd wait until six months, as per the guidance of the WHO, but she just seemed really ready. Also, my supply dropped quite a bit in the last month since I've been back at work, and I've been worried that I can't pump enough for her. Best to get some extra calories in her, since she's already a pretty small kid!

Sure enough, she seemed pretty  ready. She opened her mouth eagerly, grabbed the spoon and held it in her mouth, and made little "mmmm!" noises. Yes, a lot of it still ended up on her chin and the bib, but to be honest I think she consumed 80-90% of what we gave her.

And once we were done she proceeded to have a mini-meltdown. Mama and Papa had teased her with just a small amount of food and now she was SO sad. As soon as I got her nursing, she ate hungrily, which was a relief because I'd worried she wouldn't be hungry. We'll have to experiment with timing milk vs. solids. This time it definitely didn't decrease her intake of breastmilk (which is good), but in the future when she's eating more (we gave her a third of a "serving" this time) we may need to give her solids after nursing, or at other times of day. Right now, she typically is willing to nurse right after a nap, no matter how long it's been since she nursed last. So maybe giving her solids right before a nap would ensure that she'd be hungry for milk after the nap regardless of how much was still in her tummy?

This is a whole new world for us! Any advice is appreciated!

Does "Gender Neutral" even exist?

When I was pregnant with Greta, we chose not to find out the sex of our baby before she was born. We specifically purchased "gender neutral" clothing and requested the same. We purchased a brown car seat with pretty blue accents and the baby's nursery was decked out in a woodland theme.

We don't regret any of those choices. Since her birth, we have been gifted or lent many "girl" items which we've been happy to receive, and we've even purchased a few ourselves. But by and large, we're very happy that the majority of our baby clothing, decor, and gear is considered gender neutral. We hope to have a second kid someday and it feels so wasteful to not be able to reuse as much as possible. Especially since they'd probably share a room. 

In practice, however, "gender neutral" doesn't seem to be a real thing. People just assume she's a boy. When out for a walk, Greta gets lots of attention, and nearly everyone who talks to her or about her, refers to her as a boy. They do this repeatedly -- it's not just that the "he" slipped out initially, but then they ask to make sure. This really surprised me, as I don't consider many of her "boy" items to be terribly boyish -- especially not the ones where this assumption has come up.  A grey onesie with a giraffe on it? A pair of multi-colored overalls? A yellow hoodie with bunny ears? A cute little monster sleeper? A plain white onesie? Are these things really that manly? 

I find myself sometimes wondering whether I should buy some hairbows to dress her in -- just to make it a little clearer. But then I remember that it's not that I want people to identify her as a girl, it's just that I don't want them to assume she's a boy. 

I think it's perfectly acceptable to say, "How cute! Is your baby a boy or a girl?" I understand that some people might feel awkward about asking, so in that case the reasonable alternative, in my mind, is for someone to say, "How cute! What's your baby's name?" and let the name do the explaining (although in the case of Greta, it sometimes still doesn't read as a girl name to people who aren't familiar with it, as Ben found one time). In most cases, asking the baby's name will get you all the info you need to continue with appropriate pronouns and avoid awkward phrasing, and if it doesn't, you can either coo a bit more and then move along in the conversation (or on your way, in the case of stopping someone in the street), or ask, "I've never heard that name -- is it a boy name or a girl name?" 

But for some reason, few people do this. They tend to just immediately jump to, "What a cute little guy! How old is he?" 

Is it just that parents of girls dress them so girly that even when a baby is dressed in just a plain white onesie, the assumption is that the baby is a boy? Does a lack of clear "girl" indicators mean that a child must be a boy? Do people subconsciously default to boy rather than girl because they think it would be more offensive to mistake a boy for a girl? 

As you may remember, we were in a car accident at the beginning of July which necessitated a new car seat. When trying to purchase a replacement from Amazon on short notice, the only two colors available in a jiffy were black and "Violet Spring" (a pink and purple combo). My first instinct was the black, as it was gender neutral like our old brown one. But it looked SO hot. And the Violet Spring was beautiful. Just also kinda girly. 

It went against our "Gender Neutral for Big Baby Gear that Could Be Saved for a Second Child" goals, but we decided to go for the Violet Spring anyway. Who knew if we'd even have a son down the road, or even a second child at all? And maybe some cool new super-safe carseat would have come out by then and we would be tempted to buy a different one anyway. And it would certainly make it clear that our current child was a girl and maybe we'd buy a replacement seat cover if we had a boy later on (their blue color is GORGEOUS and would have been my first choice if it had been available on short notice). Or maybe we'd just deal with a little gender confusion in the first year of life. We're already dealing with it with Greta . . . 

So we bought the Violet Spring and it arrived and it was beautiful and we're very happy. 

And people still think she's a boy. 

Yes, that's right, on multiple occasions while she has been sitting in the pink and purple seat, someone has referred to her with a male pronoun. 

Greta in her car seat, looking so manly. 

Seriously? Well at least we don't have to worry if we have a boy. He will totally rock this car seat. 

First Cousin!

Greta's first cousin was born yesterday.

Clara Ashley Neary

It all happened so fast! My mom was supposed to be arriving to visit with my sister today, but they changed plans so that she arrived on Thursday. Thursday evening, I chatted with them via FaceTime and my mom said that she'd arrived that afternoon and decided to take a nap straightaway. I told them how excited I was that Michelle would be having a baby so soon, and Michelle said, "Yeah, I dunno . . . maybe, maybe not " and remarked on how she'd been off of work for nearly a week and the baby still hadn't arrived.

That night at 11pm, Greta was crying and fussing. I woke up to go tend to her and saw that I'd received a text message at 10pm saying that Michelle's water had broken. I responded and she said that her contractions had started right away and were 3-4 minutes apart and asked if she should go to the hospital. I told her it was really her discretion -- for some people, 4 minutes apart is the "go signal" to go to the hospital, for others (like me), labor can continue like that for hours still.

I got another text from her saying that she was going to the hospital. Then I went back to sleep.

In the morning, I was wondering how long she'd be in labor and how things were going. When I checked my email, I saw that I had several emails from my mom with titles like, "Grandma and the Girls" and "She has arrived." The earliest of these had a time stamp of 2:13am! At 10pm her water had broken (which was her first sign of labor) and at 2:13am, I was receiving photos of her breastfeeding!

For an entire day, I marveled at how fast her labor had gone and kept telling people about her amazing, 4-hour-from-start-to-finish labor and delivery. And then, just now, I realized that it was actually only 3 hours. Because her water broke at 10pm my time, but it was 11pm her time. And the reason that my mom was able to send photos of my sister at 2:13am, when the baby was born at 2:14am was that the photos must have been sent at 3:13am their time. Which means that her labor went from a little before 11pm to 2:14am her time. About 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Ben and I would be lying if we said we weren't jealous. I think I still have a little PTSD over my own labor experience. And she didn't even have morning sickness! Man, somebody's gotta bottle that whole BFP-to-delivery experience and sell it!

We're insanely happy for them and so excited for our little niece! I can't wait to meet her!