Happy 4 Months to Amelia!

The date says that it's been four months, so it must be true.

Here is the series, Amelia with Spoon. These were taken yesterday, and she had a fever, stuffy nose, and cough. You can kind of see it in her face.

She hugs her spoon tenderly.

She wears her spoon as a hat.

She shares her spoon.

And here she is today, feeling much better but still a little under the weather. She's still very camera shy, so she immediately stopped doing all the interesting playing things she was doing once I started taking pictures. But at least here you can see her pulling on one of the toys. :-P

Tonight, assuming she's feeling reasonably well, we're going to start sleep training with the Ferber Method. Right now, she can't get herself to sleep or put herself back to sleep. So I'm still getting up with her 5-6 times a night, and that just isn't okay. I'll post a quick update at the end of next week about how that's succeeding (or not (think positive!)).

An Overdue Update

Quick post while my little kraken sleeps! I have a couple of pictures that I've wanted to share, but didn't want to become a baby oversharer on Facebook.

Can I just say how excited I am that Amelia is going to have a cousin the same age as her? Can't wait to meet Sandy! Ernesto's sister, Haiquis, is also pregnant and is due this April. Ernesto's sister-in-law gave birth to another daughter (Juana Maria) about a month after Amelia was born, so she's going to have a nice little cousin cohort.

First off, it is some yellow outside my house. If the sun were shining, the yellow would be even crazier.

Her first time taking naps in her own crib! It's going really well, and I'm excited that we're starting down the road of transitioning her into her nursery. Now, if she would wake up less than three or four times a night, I would make the shift to sleeping there during the night....

She woke up very happy! (Definitely did not happen this way subsequent times.)

She really loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar you gave her, Ben and Jaime! It's delicious. We have about five books, and we read through them all twice a day. 

Climbing the stairs on her way to bed.

Fun with tummy time. She can roll from front to back, though not consistently, and now she's enjoying attempting to roll from back to front. Sometimes she just prefers to lie there with her fingers in her mouth, though. I can't wait until you guys get to meet her. She doesn't like when I have the camera out, and so all of her adorable faces disappear as soon as I grab it, so I don't have any pictures of her being her expressive self.

Quick with pics

Fast update attempt. I really should be working on school work that needs to be done tomorrow, but...this this seems more important. :-P

So for the last two to three weeks, Amelia has decided that she's not going to sleep longer than an hour and a half at once during the night. Around 2 or 3am, she decides she's not going to fall back to sleep at all in her little co-sleeper bassinet, so I just bring her in to bed with me and she sleeps in my arms. I'm sure I'm making lots of bad habits, but right now I prefer making bad habits and letting myself get some sleep.  I'm considering saying screw it to putting her to sleep on her back, because she seems to sleep much better on her stomach (has only happened during naps with me sitting beside her, so far). However, having her sleep in my arms in bed with all those blankets in the vicinityseems much more dangerous. So if I'm already endangering my daughter's life, why not do it slightly less dangerously? She's got a good, strong neck, can roll over, and a strong urge to survive.

We went to the pediatrician, and she weighed ten pounds, four ounces. She's generally awesome.  Aw...my attempt to write this has failed. The kraken has awoken! Guess the stomach's not that great for sleeping....

Ernesto knows how to parent.

At Wildlife Prairie State Park. Amelia appreciated all the animals she "saw." It was actually pretty cool; all the animals were native to Illinois (though we were on a little farm example, here), so there were bison, elk, cougars, wolves, etc. And there was a lovely little butterfly garden.

Her favorite position. She'll sleep like that for hours.

Starved Rock State Park. Amelia was actually alert to cry at the beautiful views.

Amelia climbing. She wasn't very amused, but at least Ernesto was.

At the art fair down by Peoria's riverfront.

2 Months, 2 Days

Cesar joined us for a week, and we had a very brief afternoon in Chicago on our way to take Miladys to the airport.

There's a small lake in our neighborhood (called Lake of the Woods). We gave Amelia her first taste of the water. As you can see, she loved it.

Still at the lake, thus the shirtlessness. I thought they looked pretty similar in this picture.

You're clean, but are you smell test clean?

Silly.

Anne Marie and Connor came out for a visit!! We had so much fun, and Amelia charmed us all. And then their car broke down for the second time that trip. :(

Ernesto and I went for a walk on a rail trail. What a handsome, baby-wearing man. It's hard to go anywhere very far, because Amelia screams in the car. She doesn't fall asleep, either, her crying seems to keep her awake. So going for a walk on this nearby trail was a compromise to going to a state park an hour and a half away.

Mostly pictures. 5 Weeks!

Well, I already spilled my most interesting news this week when you guys lovingly drunk-dialed me, which is that Ernesto and I sold my Honda Civic.  It's surprising to me how easy it is to sell a car. At least Sam and Jennie will be hearing it for the first time. Now I have the much more fun task of picking out and finding a new (used) car.  As I told someone to tell everyone, I'm actually thinking of the Honda Fit.  Supposed to drive well, have versatile cargo space, good mpg, and it meets my most important requirement of having four doors.  Plus, I don't know why, but I've wanted a hatchback for quite a while.

Miladys is holding Amelia while I write this. I might not be doing many updates after she leaves. :-P

And now, lots of pictures.

What do you do when you can't get your daughter to stop crying? Just hang out with her.

She loves "standing" up/

Her first reaction to my face disappearing behind the camera.

A hint of her cute smiles.

A pretty representative picture of what she looks like when awake and not crying.

A Month Already

Ernesto and I are masters of diaper rash. Once it showed up on Amelia, we re-worked our diapering routine.  I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that if this girl gets diaper rash again, it will be because god personally decided to smite her.

She's a month old!  That's crazy.  That means that we're two weeks away from being within a pacifier-permissible age, two weeks away from my milk supply being well established enough to pump, and two weeks away from my postnatal appointment with the OB/GYN.  Pretty much, 6 weeks is the best number of weeks ever.

The only new development with Amelia is that she has a period of three hours or so that she cries inconsolably every evening. It starts almost precisely at 5, and ends around 8.  She cries inconsolably at other times, too, but not with this regularity of timing. It sucks.

Did I ever mention that the day we got back from the hospital, I also got my admissions letter to the counseling program at Bradley (a small university here in town)?  Plus a little bit of financial assistance. Classes start at the end of the month.  They're in the evenings, so Ernesto will watch Amelia while I'm gone. Thus my interest in beginning to pump. I'm excited to be on the path towards a career that I'm qualified for.

I don't have many new photos, but here she is in the capable hands of her abuelita.

Three Weeks Old

We've made it to three weeks without killing Amelia.  Given my track record with plants, I deserve a gold star.  Or maybe Ernesto does.  

Amelia is a natural at tummy time. Her very first time, she not only tolerated it but enjoyed it for ten minutes. She's normally a free range baby, just sitting around in a diaper (who needs clothes?), but we also give her some naked butt time every once in a while. 

Watching Amelia watch the world is like looking at someone tripping on acid.  Her eyes get so buggy and freaked-out looking.  She just can't believe what she's seeing.  "What are these shadows??!"

My least favorite thing to hear someone say to me when Amelia is crying is, "What happened?" What do you mean what happened?  We were sitting here, and then she started crying.  That's what happened.

We went to a Natural Family Planning picnic, which was entertaining because there were many more children than adults.

Natural Family Planning picnic

This Sunday, Ernesto, Miladys, and I enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon at a local winery. I have no taste in wine, so I can neither be horrified nor appreciate what they're serving. I suspect that rather than missing out, my lack of taste is an advantage. Ernesto and I visited this winery last summer, when we were engaged.  The location is really nice.  They serve lunch for a few hours, so you can sit outside eating, and then wander around among the vineyard afterwards. It was amusing to me to return the next year, not only married but with a little daughter.

Amelia's got the chest nap down.  Ernesto uses little feet anchors.

 

Visitors

Anne Marie and Grandma Callahan came for a visit, which was awesome.  They arrived the Tuesday before last and stayed until Saturday.  We were very much a posse of ladies out and about on the town.  We went for walks, got our hair cut, and got pedicures together.  Grandma was a hoot at the nail salon, and also a big hit with all the staff, who called her 'Grandma' and wanted her advice on how to live a long and healthy life. 

Peeps!  I have my webcam back on my computer, and have allowed Skype to start itself again, so I am probably pretty available for calling.  My only caution is that I breastfeed around the house, so if there's no one in camera view when I

answer, I'm probably hiding just out of sight. 

In the cute dress that Auntie Anne Marie brought

Also, Amelia had her first submersed bath, which was such a big hit that she fell asleep in the water.  She loves everything about it except getting out, which is when she starts screaming at the top of her tiny lungs.

Chilling in her nice, warm bath

Walking along Grandview Ave, overlooking the Illinois River

Out on the town!

First bath with Dad.  This is going to be a good daddy-daughter task.

After Anne Marie and Grandma left, Miladys arrived that evening.  She's a little bit like Anne Niblock, in that she's always busy cooking or cleaning, and doesn't know how to sit down and do nothing.  Thus, our house at the moment is cleaner than when we first moved in.

With her very loving Abuelita.

Very tired, and with a cold that I'll probably give to Amelia.

Too Many Pictures of Amelia's First Week

Amelia was sort of bundled up in all those hospital photos.  She is, however, more of a free range baby.  She just chills out in her diaper.

Tried swaddling last night, and she woke up half as many times for feedings.  No more than three hours went by at the longest (don't worry, not starving her!), but as a result, I am very well rested and she was very hungry all morning.

Not looking forward to when she stops sleeping so much.

Good news: I had been worried I wasn't going to be very interested in Amelia, but it turns out that when your body manufactures a tiny person and pushes that tiny person out, you don't really have a choice.  I'm so relieved!

I also think that she is amazing.  Even though she's only six and a half pounds, she has so much muscle tone that she can hold her head up and support her own body weight on her legs when held up.  Her umbilical cord stump fell off on only her third day (glad I don't have to tip-toe around that).  She's peed and pooed like a champ, helping me to not worry about how breastfeeding is going.  And although Ernesto thinks she cries a lot, she's really relatively chill, so far.

I just spoke to Anne Marie on the phone, and she informed me that I don't need to worry about you guys feeling overwhelmed by too many pictures.  I tried to pick a selection that were not all her lying around with the same expression on her face.

Funny Face

Funny Face

Tongue

                       

Those Huggies diapers she's wearing suck.

Chilling after work

                      
Anne Marie and Grandma Callahan are arriving in about...one hour or so.  So next week will be even more interesting! =-O