Accomplishments Abound!

It's been a while, not only since I had a real post, but since I've updated on some of Sophie's accomplishments over the past few weeks/months.

"Hi, Internet Friends!"

The biggest news is she's crawling. EVERYWHERE! Along with the crawling she can sit on her knees with her feet behind her, she can pull herself up on just about everything, she can go from a crawling position to a sitting position and she's beginning to cruise. The Little Miss is determined and very confident. She'll pull herself up on the furniture or even her toys and then let go. Most days she'll wobble a bit then either grab on or fall on her hiney. Most recently though, she's been letting go and actually standing ON HER OWN for a good 30 seconds to a minute before getting wobbly.

"Look Mama! I'm standing!"

One of her favorite activities is to stand with us holding her arms and she'll jump. She'll bounce and bounce and bounce until Mom & Dad are worn out.

Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.

Miss S is also playing peek-a-boo. She had been pulling cloths down when we cover her face for quite a while but now she pulls them up over her face, waits for us to ask "Where's Sophie?" then she'll pull the cloth down bearing the biggest grin. It's so funny to see her be so proud of herself.

Peek-a-boo!

Some other accomplishments include waving "hi" or "bye-bye". If Y or I walk into the room she'll look at us, smile, then wave. It's heart melting!

"So THIS is what waving looks like!"

She's been reaching for us now, too. And talk about heart melting....she now says Mama only it comes out "mum-mum". We're still working on Dada. She can identify people, too. We'll ask her where Daddy is and she'll turn to him. She knows the dogs' names, too. SO CUTE! My Mom was out for a visit during the month of July and after she left, Miss S would search and search for her Grandma. It broke my heart especially since she was so smitten with Grandma this time.

Sophie and her Grandma on her 8 month birthday.

Eating is going well. Sophie loves her food and is getting to the point she doesn't want purees anymore. She'd much rather eat our food. We're having a tough time with breakfast since she doesn't like her cereals. We try to fit grains in throughout the rest of the day. Sophie's also been drinking out of a sippy cup for a couple of months now.

The Little Miss is also sleeping in her room in her crib now. Shortly after I posted my confession post we moved her into her room. The first night she awoke once, scared but went right back to sleep. The second night she slept all night and woke a little scared in the morning. By the time the third night rolled around she was sleeping all night. We've had a few setbacks with recent company and teething but otherwise she's doing great!

4 and 5 month updates!

So I'm a bit behind...as usual!

4-month stats as of 3/26:
Weight: 12lbs 5oz
Length: 24.5in
Head: 39cm

We've determined our home scale is a couple of pounds heavy and our previous "guesstimations" at her weight were totally off!

We had to return to the pediatrician on 4/6 for some more constipation issues. Sophie began to have problems in Missouri but we weren't sure of the cause since she had been normal for a couple of months prior to our visit. On 4/5 she had a really hard BM with a bit of blood in her stool. I figured it was likely a tear but wanted some reassurance. I phoned the pedi's office and spoke with the on-call nurse. We discussed all possible scenarios and determined it was most likely a tear but we should bring Miss S in on Monday. As confirmed, it was a tear. Since she was already on cereal and doing well, the pediatrician suggested starting her on high-fiber fruits and vegetables, adding a bottle of half-strength juice, and using some suppositories to clear her out. This seemed to help a bit after the first week but then she was back to hard BMs and unable to go without the aid of a suppository. Fun! Back to the pediatrician AGAIN! Now we're trying Miralax (stool softener) to keep things soft so her rectal muscles have a chance to return to normal. As of now, they're stretched out causing things to build up since she can't push things out as normal.

5 month weight as of 4/29: 13lbs, 15oz.

In her Easter best.
Easter ended up being quite cool so her cute sleeveless number had to be swapped with this outfit.

Milestones and accomplishments from the past two months:
-first audible laugh on March 13th. Grandma was tickling her neck.
-rolls over from back to tummy (and back again). The girl is QUICK!
-scoots when she's on her tummy
-can move objects from hand to hand
-will pick up and maneuver the pacifier to her mouth
-she now laughs in anticipation of being tickled
-she's discovered the dogs. Cutest darn thing EVER! She giggles at them and stares in fascination. (Pictures coming soon!)
-she grabs her feet
-she can sit, unassisted, for 1-2 minutes before falling over
-shes loves, loves, LOVES her food. Since we're avoiding constipating foods she's had: peas, green beans, squash, pears, peaches, and prunes. She seems to love green beans and pears the most but gets excited with all of them.

Yummy! Peas!

She's also learned to drink from a straw and try to grab the food from my fork. Last week, I'd stopped for a milkshake on the way home from running errands. I sat down at home with Little Miss S on my lap. As I took a sip of my milkshake she pulled the drink toward her. She was playing with the straw but I didn't think much of it at the time. Next thing I know, she has the straw in her mouth sucking away!! The little goober ended up drinking some of my milkshake. She was very proud of herself, bearing a giant grin, when I pulled the straw away.

Milestones Abound!

Let's see if we can catch you up since the last post. I really do need to get better about posting!

Sophie had her 2-month check-up where everything was great. Below are her stats from 1/26:
Weight: 9lbs 10oz
Length: 22.3 inches
Head Circumference: 37.4cm

She had her first round of vaccinations at the appointment. Aside from some screaming during the shots themselves, she was a real trooper. She never really ran a fever or was too terribly fussy. Later that afternoon she did have some leg pain which required one dose of Tylenol to get her to calm down.

Y and I finally had an evening out to ourselves the first of the month. Y's parents watched Miss S for a couple of hours while we enjoyed dinner. She did pretty well with them and believe it or not, I wasn't too worried. No phone calls to confirm all was okay.

We recently weighed Miss S and she's now up to 11.5lbs! Since the last post, she now has her BMs under control. The Prevacid has helped all around and we no longer have to get things moving with Karo syrup. Yay for progress!

In milestones, Sophie can now roll from tummy to back frequently. She's putting everything from her hands, her sleeves, her toys, Mommy's clothes and hands in her mouth. Sophie is now also sleeping through the night! She had been doing really well and waking only once at night, usually around 3am for a feeding. Last week she began sleeping until 6am! She's had a couple of nights where she's slept until 7 and 8am! Talk about heaven for Mommy and Daddy! While she's still trying hard to roll from back to tummy, she can now twist and squirm in such a way that she'll turn herself sideways in the crib with her feet against the side rails.

I bet you didn't know life was this exciting at 2-months old!

Probably one of the biggest developments of all is she's wanting to sit up ALL. THE. TIME. I was playing with her in bed one morning and had her partially propped up on my pillow. Next thing I know, she's using her stomach muscles and pulling herself into a sitting position! She is by no means steady at all but she much prefers sitting up to lying down. We pulled out her Bumbo seat and she LOVES sitting in her seat and watching the world.

We had a great Valentine's Day with our little love bug. She was VERY spoiled by friends and family. We had a pretty relaxed day at home and just enjoyed being together as a family. I can vividly remember last year's Valentine's Day. Y went all out, making a special dinner at home. I was on, what would be, my last round of Clomid. I was sad and depressed that we had been trying to conceive for 18 months. Y did everything he could to make me forget. Later that night, I was in the bathroom losing my entire Valentine dinner from the Clomid pukes. Of course, later that week we saw Dr. H and I told him no more Clomid...we had to try something else. Oh how I miss Dr. H. He was such a great Dr!

Coming this Sunday, Little Miss S will be 3 MONTHS old! Seriously, where did my tiny little baby go?! Why is time moving so quickly?! She'll have her first big trip in March when we head to visit my family in Missouri. Everyone there is VERY anxious to see her.