Sephie Post: Third Stats Update
We had family pictures taken that didn't quite turn out as well as I had hoped. Oh well. Sephie and Hayden looked cute, but we were kept waiting almost an hour and it cut into Hayden's nap time, so he just wasn't as receptive as you might otherwise expect. The one good picture of the four of us, Sephie isn't even looking at the camera and I look like a Stepford wife. So we'll be re-doing those, because my daughter and I need to get our act together.
Yesterday, Sephie turned two months old! I meant to update, but as I spent the vast majority of it working and completing necessary odds and ends, I felt too rushed to give it the proper attention it deserved.
So, Sephie stats!
My favorite measurement of growth with Sephie has to be her smiles. She's been smiling since she was born, but now she smiles at everything. She's starting to work on laughing. She'll open her mouth wide and noises will come out, mostly gurgles and grunts like the baby Yoshis of Super Mario Brothers, but it's obvious that she's trying to convey happiness or amusement. She smiles at mirrors, she smiles whenever anyone gives her any attention, she smiles when she's nursing, she even smiles during her diaper changes. She is definitely one happy baby.
She went to the doctor last Monday, attended by the same resident who actually helped deliver her. She is measuring 24 inches long (what the heck, kid?) and weighs just shy of 12 pounds. I haven't been able to take her to the lactation clinic at the Birth Center in several weeks, so I'm not sure what her weight would be now but I think she's averaging about three ounces of weight gain a day.
Hayden remains very protective of her, as does Little Bit. I'm working on trying to adjust the vibes I'm sending out, because I know the stress I'm feeling about letting others hold her is certainly encouraging part of Little Bit's over-protective reaction to strangers and even some familiars who go near her. Hayden loves covering her with a blanket, handing her pacifier, and bringing her toys to share, which is especially remarkable because Hayden's worst feature these days is his refusal to share. I miss my sweet little baby boy, because I don't always like the toddler he's become.
She is now totally in cloth diapers. Once I got the hang of it, they became incredibly easy. I've shown several women connected to the Clan the joy of cloth diapering, and interestingly, everyone seems to think they're "fun." I don't know about fun, but I do like how softly they rest on her skin. I like that she has had no instances of irritation. And I'm amused that whenever I leave her in B's care, I can expect to come home and find a disposable on her little butt, because B likes to irritate me.
There's no real pattern to her nursing or diapers, but she has been sleeping through the night for nearly three weeks now. She sleeps very well if we put her down between 10 and 11, and usually wakes up right around 7:30. Sometimes I'll actually have to wake her up. She's definitely a baby that enjoys her sleep, and she's a heavy sleeper to boot. She usually doesn't wake up if I transfer her from point A to point B after she's fallen asleep.
We're still keeping her hands in mittens because she has very long fingers that are skinny to boot. At the check-up with her pediatrician, she gave us the go-ahead to keep her hands in the mittens until she's bigger and we can cut her nails comfortably. I try to change her mittens twice a day because she's gotten to the phase where she's chewing on her hands. I've also started putting lotion on them to keep her skin from drying out while in them.
Speaking of weird anatomy, she has crazy feet. Super long and super thin. I've yet to find any booties that actually fit her, so she's going around in heavy woolen socks. She has precisely four pairs that actually fit--three from Old Navy, and one from Baby Gap. I picked up a three-pack of socks from KOHL's that are better than most, but still have a hard time staying on her feet. I'm going to have to order her more for either Old Navy or the Baby Gap.
She has an incredibly strong neck and has headbutted just about all of us in the house. I actually have a bruise from where her face connected with my jawline. I think it's impressive she has so much strength given that she hates tummy time and I hate putting her down for tummy time. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that tummy time is an exercise in mutual misery. She spends most of the time crying.
And, her crying is hilarious. She still prefers to whine, and even when she gets really upset, she still focuses on crying by the enunciation of sounds, like "Wah" and "Meh." We all feel like jerks about it, but when she cries, we're cracking up. I don't think I have heard a baby's cry that I found so amusing in my life. Phoenix's cry scared the shit out of me and Hayden's stressed me out. So to find a baby who can cry in such a way I alternate between thinking it's adorable and hilarious is quite the feat.
She loves Tori Amos. This is to the annoyance of B, who'd prefer she treat the music with the same contempt as he does. But I sang a lot of Tori tunes to Sephie towards the end of my pregnancy, and do so now as a means of soothing or just entertaining her. She has an especially favorable reaction to "Silent All These Years," which I tend to view as Tori's most lyrically powerful song anyway.
I'm still exclusively breastfeeding. Our nursing problems have vanished, but occasionally I'll give her a BornFree bottle because I'm going out or whatever. Sephie hates bottles with a passion and will usually only take it after some refusal, crying, and then eventually deciding that being fed is more important than being ideological. She doesn't do much comfort nursing, but she's still a lazy nurser and will usually doze off two or three times in a nursing setting.
I'm still bad about dressing her. I just prefer to keep her in a onesie and a sleeper most of the time. I don't know, I'm just more concerned with her being comfortable and warm than I am about her being stylish and cute.
She still loves her papasan swing and her bouncers. She has a nice BrightStarts bouncer that we keep upstairs which she likes because it has a small mirror in one of the toys that dangles from the bar over the bouncer. Her bouncer that we keep downstairs we got from FreeCycle, but she likes it because the toys hang down in her face and the butterfly-shaped toy plays music. I actually get annoyed by the downstairs bouncer because even though it plays music, you have to tug on the butterfly to get it and the song only lasts about 90 seconds. What seals the deal for her in terms of the bouncers are their vibrations.
I definitely think she's on the verge of teething, because she has been chewing on her hands a lot, spitting up twice as much and a little more on the fussy side. It would be a bit early but not completely out of the realm of possibility. Obviously, I'm hoping it's not the case, but who knows?
Bathing her has become a lot of fun. She likes the bath and she prefers the water on the hotter side of warm, so she obviously takes after me in that respect. The BathLuve is definitely a lifesaver, though--trying to bathe her without it doesn't work as well because she gets cold, and this is a baby who likes to be all warm, all the time. She hasn't gotten to the place where she's interested in bath toys yet.
My favorite time of day with her is early in the morning and right before she goes to bed. I'll change her and then pull her into bed to nurse with me. In the morning, it's cold so I'll snuggle with her under sheets, and at night I'll usually be in the middle of trying to accomplish another task, like laundry, and so will have a program on Netflix. Right now, I'm in the middle of a PBS presentation of "Empires: Kingdom of David: The Sage of the Israelites," which is an in-depth look at the history of the Hebrews. I love watching these types of programs with her because I find them fascinating and I like the idea that she's learning, even if she totally doesn't care and hasn't learned a thing. It makes me feel better.
Isn't that what parenting is all about? /sarcasm
Yesterday, Sephie turned two months old! I meant to update, but as I spent the vast majority of it working and completing necessary odds and ends, I felt too rushed to give it the proper attention it deserved.
So, Sephie stats!
My favorite measurement of growth with Sephie has to be her smiles. She's been smiling since she was born, but now she smiles at everything. She's starting to work on laughing. She'll open her mouth wide and noises will come out, mostly gurgles and grunts like the baby Yoshis of Super Mario Brothers, but it's obvious that she's trying to convey happiness or amusement. She smiles at mirrors, she smiles whenever anyone gives her any attention, she smiles when she's nursing, she even smiles during her diaper changes. She is definitely one happy baby.
She went to the doctor last Monday, attended by the same resident who actually helped deliver her. She is measuring 24 inches long (what the heck, kid?) and weighs just shy of 12 pounds. I haven't been able to take her to the lactation clinic at the Birth Center in several weeks, so I'm not sure what her weight would be now but I think she's averaging about three ounces of weight gain a day.
Hayden remains very protective of her, as does Little Bit. I'm working on trying to adjust the vibes I'm sending out, because I know the stress I'm feeling about letting others hold her is certainly encouraging part of Little Bit's over-protective reaction to strangers and even some familiars who go near her. Hayden loves covering her with a blanket, handing her pacifier, and bringing her toys to share, which is especially remarkable because Hayden's worst feature these days is his refusal to share. I miss my sweet little baby boy, because I don't always like the toddler he's become.
She is now totally in cloth diapers. Once I got the hang of it, they became incredibly easy. I've shown several women connected to the Clan the joy of cloth diapering, and interestingly, everyone seems to think they're "fun." I don't know about fun, but I do like how softly they rest on her skin. I like that she has had no instances of irritation. And I'm amused that whenever I leave her in B's care, I can expect to come home and find a disposable on her little butt, because B likes to irritate me.
There's no real pattern to her nursing or diapers, but she has been sleeping through the night for nearly three weeks now. She sleeps very well if we put her down between 10 and 11, and usually wakes up right around 7:30. Sometimes I'll actually have to wake her up. She's definitely a baby that enjoys her sleep, and she's a heavy sleeper to boot. She usually doesn't wake up if I transfer her from point A to point B after she's fallen asleep.
We're still keeping her hands in mittens because she has very long fingers that are skinny to boot. At the check-up with her pediatrician, she gave us the go-ahead to keep her hands in the mittens until she's bigger and we can cut her nails comfortably. I try to change her mittens twice a day because she's gotten to the phase where she's chewing on her hands. I've also started putting lotion on them to keep her skin from drying out while in them.
Speaking of weird anatomy, she has crazy feet. Super long and super thin. I've yet to find any booties that actually fit her, so she's going around in heavy woolen socks. She has precisely four pairs that actually fit--three from Old Navy, and one from Baby Gap. I picked up a three-pack of socks from KOHL's that are better than most, but still have a hard time staying on her feet. I'm going to have to order her more for either Old Navy or the Baby Gap.
She has an incredibly strong neck and has headbutted just about all of us in the house. I actually have a bruise from where her face connected with my jawline. I think it's impressive she has so much strength given that she hates tummy time and I hate putting her down for tummy time. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that tummy time is an exercise in mutual misery. She spends most of the time crying.
And, her crying is hilarious. She still prefers to whine, and even when she gets really upset, she still focuses on crying by the enunciation of sounds, like "Wah" and "Meh." We all feel like jerks about it, but when she cries, we're cracking up. I don't think I have heard a baby's cry that I found so amusing in my life. Phoenix's cry scared the shit out of me and Hayden's stressed me out. So to find a baby who can cry in such a way I alternate between thinking it's adorable and hilarious is quite the feat.
She loves Tori Amos. This is to the annoyance of B, who'd prefer she treat the music with the same contempt as he does. But I sang a lot of Tori tunes to Sephie towards the end of my pregnancy, and do so now as a means of soothing or just entertaining her. She has an especially favorable reaction to "Silent All These Years," which I tend to view as Tori's most lyrically powerful song anyway.
I'm still exclusively breastfeeding. Our nursing problems have vanished, but occasionally I'll give her a BornFree bottle because I'm going out or whatever. Sephie hates bottles with a passion and will usually only take it after some refusal, crying, and then eventually deciding that being fed is more important than being ideological. She doesn't do much comfort nursing, but she's still a lazy nurser and will usually doze off two or three times in a nursing setting.
I'm still bad about dressing her. I just prefer to keep her in a onesie and a sleeper most of the time. I don't know, I'm just more concerned with her being comfortable and warm than I am about her being stylish and cute.
She still loves her papasan swing and her bouncers. She has a nice BrightStarts bouncer that we keep upstairs which she likes because it has a small mirror in one of the toys that dangles from the bar over the bouncer. Her bouncer that we keep downstairs we got from FreeCycle, but she likes it because the toys hang down in her face and the butterfly-shaped toy plays music. I actually get annoyed by the downstairs bouncer because even though it plays music, you have to tug on the butterfly to get it and the song only lasts about 90 seconds. What seals the deal for her in terms of the bouncers are their vibrations.
I definitely think she's on the verge of teething, because she has been chewing on her hands a lot, spitting up twice as much and a little more on the fussy side. It would be a bit early but not completely out of the realm of possibility. Obviously, I'm hoping it's not the case, but who knows?
Bathing her has become a lot of fun. She likes the bath and she prefers the water on the hotter side of warm, so she obviously takes after me in that respect. The BathLuve is definitely a lifesaver, though--trying to bathe her without it doesn't work as well because she gets cold, and this is a baby who likes to be all warm, all the time. She hasn't gotten to the place where she's interested in bath toys yet.
My favorite time of day with her is early in the morning and right before she goes to bed. I'll change her and then pull her into bed to nurse with me. In the morning, it's cold so I'll snuggle with her under sheets, and at night I'll usually be in the middle of trying to accomplish another task, like laundry, and so will have a program on Netflix. Right now, I'm in the middle of a PBS presentation of "Empires: Kingdom of David: The Sage of the Israelites," which is an in-depth look at the history of the Hebrews. I love watching these types of programs with her because I find them fascinating and I like the idea that she's learning, even if she totally doesn't care and hasn't learned a thing. It makes me feel better.
Isn't that what parenting is all about? /sarcasm