18 Weeks Old

Norah turned 4 months old last Monday! She had her check-up that same day, along with her shots. They were pretty traumatic (for me!), just like the two-month shots, but her fussiness only lasted for the rest of the day this time, thank goodness! Last time she was unusually cranky for nearly a week. I gave her some Tylenol beforehand, which may have helped some. I like to think it did, anyway.

She’s a big girl! The doctor was impressed that she was trying to sit up when he laid her flat on her back on the table…she has more or less been doing crunches! She weighs almost 15 lbs now (75^th percentile), and is 26 ½ (I think…) inches long (90^th percentile). If I’m remembering the length correctly, she has gained 6 inches since birth!

She is outgrowing her 3-6 month clothes already!!! The cloth diapers add some bulk, though, so that’s part of it. 6-9 month clothes fit her pretty nicely, though!

Thumb sucking has become one of Norah’s favorite things lately. I didn’t think she was going to be a thumb sucker because it took her so long to figure it out, but she does it all the time now. It’s adorable now, but I hope she’s not still doing it when she’s five!

She’s been really fussy in the evenings lately. I guess that’s common. She’s been especially inconsolable when I’m off teaching – poor Travis! Sometimes when I get home, Travis says she’s been screaming for an hour or two, and then as soon as I nurse her she’s fine. He wishes he had such an easy fix!

I started my violin lessons at the Day School last week. I have two students there on Mondays and three on Tuesdays, all between the ages of four and six. It’s a challenge teaching such young children, but MOST of them seem older than they are and are very bright. Most of them. J The hardest thing is that they are all quite impatient and want to play the violin, with the bow, NOW. And you can’t over-explain. You have to keep it simple. Every time I start to explain why we have to learn one thing at a time, etc. etc., I get interrupted by a story about what someone’s adorable silly puppy did yesterday… J But, all in all, I think I’m going to have fun as I teach myself how to teach kindergartners to love music – because, really, that’s the point.

So, after being at the Day School for two mornings in a row, I found that my milk supply seemed to be declining during those hours. I was going to pump during my breaks, but there was no electrical outlet I could use, and my batteries were dead. I have new batteries now, so I shouldn’t have any issues from now on.

I stored so much milk in my freezer that I was able to donate some to a local mother with a baby in need! J I gave her 56 ounces, which probably will only last her 7- (or 8?) month-old son a couple of days, but I was glad to help out anyway. I still have something like 30 or 40 ounces for Norah, and we don’t have to use the frozen milk very often. I’ve been pumping about 6 oz. per day, and Norah usually only drinks 3 oz. from a bottle on the days I’m gone for a few hours, unless I don’t have time to nurse her before I leave.

Norah has been doing a bit better with naps. She’s still not on an exact schedule, but she always takes a few naps a day, and I’ve discovered that I can usually get her to take a long one in the middle of the day. If she wakes up, I just go in quietly and give her the pacifier, and she will often go right back to sleep, sometimes for another hour or longer! It’s great, because I still can’t seem to get much done when she’s awake. She’s high maintenance! And I haven’t had much success so far putting her in a sling or other type of carrier while I do housework.

I’ve been really missing Travis while he’s at work and Norah and I are home by ourselves! I kind of feel like I’m not myself without him. It’s kind of hard to explain. When it’s just Norah and me, I feel like I have to work at entertaining her. When we’re all here, it comes more easily – it just feels like we’re all having fun together. I don’t know why. I wish we could win the lottery or something so we could be together all the time!

I guess that’s about it for this week! Enjoy the photos, and check out the videos in the two previous blogs if you haven’t yet! I still have two more videos I’ve been working on…coming soon!

Video Number 2!

Here's another movie, with photos and video footage from the entire pregnancy, plus Norah as a newborn! Enjoy!

Video!

Click below to see a very, very belated video of us announcing the pregnancy to our families, September 2010! More videos to come within the week!!!

P.S. The music at the beginning is from my senior piano recital at Furman. :-) I miss performing sometimes!

16.5 Weeks Old...Almost 4 Months!

(Sorry, I don't know why the text is tiny and has a white background...I can't fix it!)

I've been bad about doing a post each week! I'm considering not even trying to do one every week, but then I'd have to come up with a clever title for each one...

Here's what's new:

Norah is trying really hard to roll over! I guess that one time a couple months ago was a total fluke. She can roll onto her side, and she might be able to go all the way, but I don't think she wants to end up on her belly! She hates tummy time.

She's also started to pick her head up when she's lying flat on her back! It seems like she's trying to sit up on her own. If I hold onto her hands and pull her up, she'll go straight from lying to sitting to standing, no problem. She doesn't need any head support anymore, and hardly needs any support when standing. Just a bit to help her balance.

She seems to be getting eager to move around on her own, and I'm anxious for that, too! Maybe she'll be able to entertain herself a little more when she can sit up by herself. I know it seems like I'm always saying that, like I don't like spending time with her. I love playing with her, but I just can't get anything done, especially since she barely naps! She's a wonderful sleeper at night, though, which I am thankful for. The other night she slept from 9:30 until 6:00 without waking up, and then slept until 8:00, and then went back to sleep again until 10:00. Usually she's up earlier, like at 7:30 or 8:00, but on Sunday morning with no alarms going off and both of us still sleeping, I guess she didn't realize it was past her usual wake-up time. :-)

Our potty thing hasn't been going very well lately. I usually know when she has to go, but our current pattern seems to be that she can't or won't go when I put her on the potty, and then 10 minutes later when we have to leave to go somewhere, as SOON as I get her buckled in she goes. Ugh. I'm considering looking for a potty chair small enough for her to sit on with some help, since she doesn't seem to like the position I hold her in over the big potty. She squirms and kicks constantly. We'll see...

We got Norah an amber teething necklace. I'm not sure how long these things have been around, but it seems like a pretty new thing in the US at least. It's supposed to secrete some sort of natural analgesic to help with teething pain and reduce drooling. Some say it also improves general well-being and may boost the baby's ability to fight off infections. I have NO idea whether it works or not! We've been using it for a week or so, and I haven't noticed a difference so far. :-( It's cute, at least!

Norah and I are signed up for a FREE mother baby music class at a local church!! It's only 25 minutes once a week, but it's a nine week class and will teach me some new songs, rhymes, and games I can do with Norah. I'm pretty excited about it since I'm always trying to think of new things to do with her! She likes The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and I've also been singing songs from a 1979 Sesame Street record we've been listening to, in addition to whatever else I can think of. Naturally, I place a lot of importance on doing musical activities with her. I've sat down at the piano with her a few times to show her what it does and play a few songs like Twinkle Twinkle, but she isn't interested in it yet.

She did well today when I had to teach a lesson while holding her! She had been fussy, but since I was standing up and rocking and bouncing her and she had the pacifier, she did fine and even fell asleep half way through (I guess she was fussy because she was tired...). This was our first try at that, and later this week I have a few more students starting lessons at my house when I won't have anyone to watch Norah. Hopefully she'll continue to do well with it and I won't have to come up with another plan.

On Labor Day we went to visit Travis’s grandma (Norah’s only living great-grandparent) and his Aunt Carolyn and cousin Leanne. They hadn’t seen Norah since she was two days old!! Grandma Galloway was just taken with Norah, and she kept telling Travis what a good daddy he is. She also was thrilled to see me breastfeeding, and said, “Look, she’s feedin’ her natural!” I thought that was cute. :-)

I’ve started sewing again! It’s been a long time! I made Norah a dress, which ended up looking Christmas-y and is just barely big enough… oh well. It was my first attempt at a dress, and I made up my own pattern. I also didn’t buy any fabric…the white print fabric was in our attic, and the green was a shirt of mine that had holes in it. :-)

I also made her the red polka-dotted skirt that she wore to Grandma Galloway’s house, plus another one she hasn’t worn yet.

I guess that's all I can think of for now. I have been working on uploading video footage, and once I get it edited I'll post it, hopefully in a couple of days! It goes WAY back to early pregnancy, so it's been a long time coming!!!!!