Holiday Pics

Definitely my two favorite holiday pictures so far. But, believe me, there will be many, many more.

Health Update Plus Thanksgiving Plans

Sophie went to the doctor yesterday and has a sinus infection. We're giving her antibiotics twice a day, and it should clear up quickly.

As far as Thanksgiving goes, the plan right now is 95% to go to my parents for Thursday dinner, and then about 50-60% to go to Oxford for Saturday dinner. The percentages are rough estimates based on how Sophie is feeling over the next couple of weeks.

Grandpa's turn

 

Hanging with Grandma

 

Yesterday while I was getting her dressed for the day, I rolled Sophie onto her stomach (in her crib), turned around to grab a shirt, and turned back just in time to see her flop onto her back, all by herself.

Okay, that's new. So I flip her back onto her stomach, and boop! over she goes again, onto her back.

So I get her dressed and roll her onto her stomach, and she can't quite get the same traction with clothes on.

But, then, this morning, she rolled over with her PJs on, so I guess we can officially check off this milestone.

 

 

Sophie's had a cough for about a week now, and just last night she started tugging at her ears, so it's off to the doctor with her. Hopefully it's just teething, but she might have her first ear infection.

I'll keep y'all posted.

New Stats

16 lbs. 1 ounce
27 inches long.

There's apparently some kind of fork in the road to laughter, because Sophie was headed straight there, and had even had some good 20-30 second giggle fests, but now whenever she's starting to laugh, she ends up shrieking instead, which is slightly less cute.

Of course, she's still adorable as hell, though.

Story time

 

Stephanie gets some sleeping baby time

 

The laugh is early on, about 0:10, but there is much cuteness that follows.

There's been no independent verification, but Christie claims Sophie had her first real laugh on Saturday, and I believe her.

Okay, I know it's not polite to brag, but yesterday was picture day at Sophie's school, and Christie picked out the absolute cutest outfit in the history of cute outfits for her to wear in her picture, and the word from on high is that she was really smiley for the photographer.

So we may have some wallet sized pics to send out soon. I'll keep you posted.

I just had to brag about the cuteness of our kid.

Last night was a bit rougher. She still slept, but was restless all night.

Oh, and Mary, if you're reading this before you head south, I really recommend going through St. Louis, but if you want to go through eastern Tennessee, gas up in the country, and avoid the big cities. All the media sources I can find say to expect gas shortages in all big cities in that part of the country for at least the next two weeks.

Just wanted to announce to the world that, while Sophie has had some cranky evenings in the past week, she's slept for at least 6 consecutive hours every night since Thursday.

Tummy Troubles

So... as everybody knows, we've been struggling with colic. A couple of weeks ago (or was it just last week?) we took Sophie to a specialist. The visit went well and I felt encouraged to try breast milk again. I've been pumping to try to keep my milk supply since Sophie was 8 weeks old. We are now at week 14 and it seemed like it was time to give it a go.

The first couple days went well, Sophie had some of my milk and then we'd top her off with formula. But.. as my milk supply started to increase so did Sophie's fussiness until last night we had a bout of colic like the old days when we were sleepless zombies.

The long and short of it is, I'm done. I could continue to pump and try again later... only to have to wean her in a couple months. This has bee an emotional roller-coaster for me. I really wanted to give So-So the much-touted advantages of being breast-fed. However, we are already past the critical age when breast-feeding makes the biggest impact.

Maybe next time

So far, I'm loving the Montessori school. Granted, Sophie's just now 3-months old, so there's not a lot going on that differentiates a "school" from a daycare, and what is going on is subtle. But I feel like a foundation is being laid, and I know that they're constantly looking for developmental milestones.

There are only 24 hours in the day, and for 9 of those hours, someone else is taking care of our baby. I like that the people we've chosen for that task really know their stuff, and are looking to develop her mind, not just get through the day. Frankly, given how sleep-deprived Christie and I have been lately, that's more than we can often manage.

And then there's the other level, where I just like the sounds and smells of the place. I could try and explain it, but I doubt I'd do a very good job of it. It just feels like a good place to be.