Amelia moves out...

Amelia was sleeping in bed with me for a while, and Jeff was on the couch. Obviously a less than desireable setup for us. Amelia thought it was pretty great while it lasted though. We made her a crib and I made a special sleeping blanket, and we are all working hard on sleep patterns. It is so fun to sew stuff for her, even if she can't appreciate it yet. I will have to put pictures of her room in her baby book so she can see what a sweet little place she had during her first year of life...
And we are all getting more sleep!

Some News.
The first announcement is that Amelia is doing well with her weight gain. We found out on Thursday that she has put on over a pound in the past two weeks. Pediatrician is happy, and we are relieved. I am putting a few pictures to confirm that she is chubby and rosy.
I love those rolls!

Look at how rosy her cheeks are!

Now that she is four months, she is indulging in an egg yolk every day. This picture was taken after her first couple "bites." We have moved the egg eating to right before bathtime.


Although she may be chunking up, she is still a shrimp compared to her 7 week old friend James....


There is more to tell, but I will make it another post soon.

Coming soon... A chubbier, happier baby!

Last Thursday, I took Amelia to her pediatrician for a routine visit, and found out that she is quite undernourished. The doctor was pretty concerned and told me that my breast milk quality was not good enough. I had been nursing her ever 1-2 hours, but she is still only 10 lbs. 13 oz. That was discouraging. He told me I need to start supplementing with formula after nursing her, and that I must come back for a weight check in two weeks. The can of formula he handed me was 42% corn syrup solids (!!!) I am now making my own formula each day at home, and with a little flavor tweeking, Amelia is drinking down quite a bit and spends less time crying and chewing on her hand. I am really really hoping this will help with her sleep issues!

I took this picture of her when she should be napping. It was a fun way to deal with my exasperation after several hours of trying to get her to go down for a nap! I also took her to a chiropractor, and the next day she was unusually mellow and content. She has actually put herself to sleep a few times since supplementing and adjusting. While this is a tough adjustment time for all of us, we are excited to think that Amelia could end up happier and quieter. I get so excited just thinking about it.

Photo Update
So Amelia is getting better and better with neck control. She can almost sit in a bumbo chair independently. Anders and Gretchen came over, and this adorable little flapper hat is a gift from them.

It's so fun to get the babies together. They noticed each other some, but were of course much more interested in what the mommas were doing.

We had a wonderful time in Michigan with ALL of my siblings, their spouses and kids. It felt pretty amazing to be together like that. At one point, I believe there were 19 of us staying at D & Bs' place!

We have surprisingly few "family" pictures of the three of us, so I am happy to show this one.

I can't believe how different Amelia is looking these days, especially in this picture. Little girl on the way, better enjoy the baby! All of these photos are courtesy of brother Daniel-- thank you!

That last picture of Amelia (with me) wasn't so great, so I owe it to her to put this one up. I took it today. Isn't she wonderful?

Just the two of us...

So Jeff is back at work now, and Amelia and I are finding and settling into our own routine. I was really dreading Jeff's absence during the week, but it has been better than expected. Amelia is a pretty regular napper, so I am able to get a lot done, and sometimes join her. Also, we have moved the daily walk to first thing in the morning since she often doesn't go back to sleep after Jeff gets up at six-- might as well get moving! She is increasingly playful and is such a delight to be with. I'll post more pictures and details later, but wanted to give you an update.

Hurray!!

Amelia has begun smiling sweetly and sincerely. It is so fun, and makes parenting FEEL so much more rewarding! Somehow I am relieved to see that she can enjoy life and be happy sometimes, and that we can actually cause her to smile... She even makes some sweet noises now and then. I know that this is just the beginning in terms of interaction and delight, and I am so thankful, since she has had a rough go of it adjusting to life in the world so far. She is two months old today!

Jeff Turns "Almost Thirty."



We had a big birthday party yesterday in our back yard to celebrate Jeff. We barbecued burgers, ate cake and played Catch Phrase. It was a lot of fun! So many people love Jeff, but I was the most excited to celebrate his presence in my life. Don't you love his new look?

Picture Update

Lifestyle.

It's Wear Your Baby to Work Day around here every day. Except for the backache, I love wearing Amelia around in a sling. It's supposed to help her set appropriate sleep and wake cycles, and keep her calm. It's the perfect solution for soothing her AND getting housework done, as well as putting her to sleep in the evening.
Whenever the question about which animal I thought I most closely resembled has come around, I have always thought of the kangaroo-- nurturing but a little aggressive (I WILL box you down!) Anyway, I like having a little joey snug in my "pocket."

A visit from Anders

Gretchen and Anders came over yesterday for a little visit. It's nice that Gretchen and I are both new moms, so we can usually count on each other being at home, slightly bored, but not usually able to go do anything too exciting. So visits are a nice, low-pressure relief.

It was fun to see Amelia and Anders next to each other. Amelia seems so big all of the sudden! Besides size, the main difference between them is temperament. I kept teasing Gretchen because I guess Anders was "upset" which meant he was waving his arms around and making cute noises. Amelia was sleeping the whole time, and it was probably a good thing. If you have spent much time with us lately, you already know that she doesn't often wake up happy, and she is honestly a rather angry baby. I think it's colic, and I feel bad for her. She has her very sweet times when she's awake, but this...
Quickly escalates to this! She keeps us on our toes, and we do lots of dancing and bouncing around the apartment to keep things under control. Poor baby!

Silver Lining...

We were so sad to say goodbye to our neighbors and dear friends the McMillans on Monday. They are moving to St. Louis for the next chapter of their lives, and although we are excited for them, we miss them already.
However, I am big on looking on the bright side, and am reminded of this one every day. They sold us their dining table and chairs! We had been using the tiniest table and only had four chairs. When we had people over for dinner, we could only barely accommodate two more, and that was without the serving dishes on the table! This set comes with six chairs and two extra leaves to easily seat ten. My favorite thing in life is having people over for dinner, so this is a serious step toward a better life. I am consoled.

What did they do to our baby?

Amelia had her very first professional photo taken at three weeks. It was a promo that came with our cloth diaper service, in hopes that we would be the kind of new parents that would spend $300 or so on portraits. A photographer came and set up a studio in our living room, and then charmed and cajoled Amelia into all sorts of impossible poses. The session was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life! She was already crabby before the photographer arrived, and got so angry during the shoot. Somehow, however, he managed to work miracles in between the shots and coaxed her into some very sweet pictures. The above was the best one which we got for free, but she still looks mildly annoyed in the rest. I still laugh every time I look at this! I told the photographer outright that putting sunglasses, a cheesy bow headband or a plastic lace parasol on her were a complete waste of time.

Happy One Month, Amelia!

My, how time flies... She seems just the same to me, only she can hold her gaze and has enough coordination to bat things (things? I mean parents!) away with her hands. This smile was hunted and captured-- I can't wait for her to smile on purpose!

Early Harvest


It feels strange to have pumpkins in July, but we probably won't eat them for quite a while. These were "volunteers" from our compost pile, from a jack-o-lantern Meg threw away in October! One of the garden plots is almost exclusively from these compost volunteers, including butternut squash and many of our tomato plants. We planted that garden with a technique called "Lasagna Gardening." The best thing about this method is that you get to skip the initial weeding and ground prep process, and you create a raised bed.
A quick How- To:
Pick your plot, and create a border, if it doesn't naturally have one.
Cover the whole surface with cardboard, paper bags or a thick layer of newspaper.
Drench it in water to make it stick to the ground, and fill in any gaps with more paper.
Lay down a layer of undigested compost (yes, just kitchen scraps!)
Cover with a thick layer of good soil-- compost, manure or purchased garden soil.
You can then just leave it and see which volunteers show up, or go ahead and plant your own.
Super easy, and you will hardly have to weed at all, since the paper layer kills the weeds!

Amelia goes in the big bathtub.



I was so happy when her icky little umbilical stump fell off the other day, since I have been anxious to take her in the bath with me. She LOVED it, and was so relaxed in the warm water. It was a really fun event that I had been looking forward to since she was born.


She was NOT happy to come out, inspite of having such a cute towel to welcome her. By the way, she had her 2-week check-up yesterday and her pediatrician announced that she has quite a temper! We've been finding this out in the past few days ourselves. For now, it's kind of funny to watch. For now.

Urban Sprawl


While our gardener (that's me) has been on maternity leave, most of the carefully tended plants have withered and weeds have returned in full force in many beds. It's a little disheartening, but I expected as much. The vegetable garden, however, has been thriving. I will post more pictures soon, but I just love this one of our pumpkin vine scaling the fence, with a pumpkin balanced carefully on the pole, especially juxtaposed against the stucco of our neighboring apartment complex.

What happened to our Easy Baby?


Seems like someone slipped Amelia some Needyness Potion a couple days ago. I guess that's what I get for posting about how easy she's been. The last few nights she has been engaging in feeding frenzies, needing to eat about every 45 minutes or so from midnight to early morning. I feed her every two hours or less in the daytime to avoid this, but it doesn't seem to matter much. Sigh. It's a good thing she's so adorable!

Happy Family

Jeff and I are really enjoying being an actual family. Amelia is a really sweet and easy baby, so far. When she is awake, she just looks around quietly-- sometimes for a couple of hours. Anyone can hold her, and she is especially entertaining in her sleep. She very rarely cries, but squeaks a little to let us know she needs something. We heard her squeaking as soon as she was born and thought it was pretty endearing. Jeff and I keep telling each other, "She's so cute!" all day long. We just can't seem to get over the fact that she's actually ours!

Babyspa.
Amelia had her first "spa" experience: a sponge bath and full body massage with coconut oil. I was envious, but she didn't seem to realize how lucky she is!

I love this bunny towel!

I have always looked forward to giving my baby a massage.


Clean and sweet!

Baby bliss?