Growing Galore!

Holy cow is Sophie growing!!  You may have noticed less posts lately – that’s a direct correlation to how much Sophie sleeps during the day.  For the last week or so she’s been VERY awake during the day.  Her first morning feeding is around 6-7 (I don’t consider the 1-2 am feeding a morning feeding…however, I am starting to consider it a slow form of torture), she usually falls asleep after this feeding in my arms…I can usually put her back in her crib where she stays for all of about 20-30 minutes.  Then she’s up again to play.  Sometimes she’s content to sit or lay with me and play with a rattle or just look around.  Other days, like today, she fusses until I put her on her mat and she’s pretty happy there.  Of course, she’ll “talk” to me to let me know when I need to start the music again.  After staying awake for an hour or so Sophie works up an appetite and wants to eat again…and start the cycle again.  Today I was able to lay her down at 4 for 45 minutes (so far, I think this might be a long nap!!) which should give me a break.  Of course, I could be folding laundry right now, but I figured I’d get a post up and a new picture.

Yesterday we had our appointment at the cardiologist.  He confirmed that she has a small hole between her top two ventricles and that she also has an extra vessel between two of her arteries in her chest.  He believes both of these will resolve with age and we don’t have to go back, so things are good.

Sophie was weighed at the appointment and came in at a whopping 9 pounds 6 ounces which means that she gained a pound and a half in the last 2 weeks.  Wow!!  She’s finally outgrown newborn size and is in 0-3 months.  Every day is something new and exciting for us – things are going good.  I’m also including a riveting video (about 15 seconds) of Sophie trying to hit the rattle on her play mat – the sun rattle and the music light are her favorite toys.

Sophie hitting rattle on activity mat

Random Thoughts of the Day

• What does how you write the date (2.18.09 or 2/19/09 or 2-19-09) say about you, your style, or your mood?  It seems that I form a (perhaps unconscious at times) impression about somebody based on this fact. 
• Leads into the next thought:  If you have some completely different handwriting styles (as I definitely do), will handwriting analysis be able to determine I’m the author of all of them?
• Read The Road by Cormac McCarthy a couple of months ago (thanks to Kelly for the suggestions…Sophie’s arrival interrupted my reading of the rest of the list for now).  Highly recommend it.  Initially I was annoyed by the author’s style (you’ll see when you start it) but after just a few pages I felt that it really fit the story and mood and it kind of pulled me along from one page to the next. 
• It’s snowing…again.
• I’m tired…still.
• Sophie’s stroller has a really good shock absorbing system.  I had a chance to use it at the mall last week.  I definitely think I’d be a mall-walker today if one was closer than 50 minutes away!
• Sophie enjoys her play mat more and more each day.  Yesterday it really seemed like she was consciously hitting the rattle that hangs.  Some of the songs really capture her attention.
• I have to include a pic!!!!!

 

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Baby Me

Dug out a couple of baby pics of me when I was about Sophie’s age.  I also came across a little older one of me and Becky in the bath…we’ll have to take an updated one on this theme when her little one is here (with the babies, not us!)

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Tech Tip of the Day

For those of you who use Firefox (and I would recommend that over Internet Explorer), I’ve got a tip that you may or may not be using.  It seemed like there were times when I’d go to the same websites every time I opened the browser (email, ofoto, blog – or the 6 or so store websites I check for diaper sales).  If you seem to do the same thing, here’s a shortcut for you: 

1. Open all of the sites in tabs of one browser window (ctrl+t to open new tabs)
2. Go to Bookmarks > Bookmark all tabs
3. Name the folder something useful like “Bills” or “Diapers” or “Everyday” or “Deals” or “Shopping”
4. Browse all the sites without forgetting what you were going to look up next

One Month (tomorrow)

Tomorrow is Sophie’s one month birthday.  It’s crazy to think how much she has changed already…and even crazier to think ahead to how much more she’s going to develop in the coming months.

Tuesday was her visit with the doc.  Overall things went well.  Her height and weight are in the 50th percentile but her weight is in the 10-25% range.  She’s gaining well (one lb. since last visit) so the dr. isn’t worried.  However, she did hear a small heart murmur (which she admitted she probably only heard since Sophie was sleeping) so we’re off to the cardiologist.  Tom really doesn’t like to go to the doctor so all of Sophie’s extra visits frustrate him.  It sometimes feel like they are way too overly cautious but we understand that' it’s better safe than sorry.

Not much else is new…I haven’t heard of any jobs for next year yet, but I’m still looking.  Tom’s office relocated across the river – hopefully that should be his last move for a while.

Here’s some pics from today.  We tried to get some at Sears on Tuesday but she wouldn’t stop crying…maybe next time we’re in the city.  These aren’t up to Ofoto yet but there are some February ones (use the link on the side).  Thanks to all those who have been leaving comments on pics and blog – I enjoy reading them!

Wakey wakey

Sophie is definitely waking up to her world these last few days.  It’s nice to see her awake at a time other than when she’s hungry.  Mostly she enjoys just looking around and taking in her world.  The TV catches her attention when she’s being burped and she’s spending some time on her floor mat just looking at the toys that hang on its bars.

She’s also close to smiling on her own.  There’ve been a few moments when she was looking at me that she started to smile…I think that since we were looking at each other it was more than gas.  That’s what I’m telling myself anyway!

I oscillate between thinking she’s getting bigger and maybe her clothes are just shrinking in the wash.  Tomorrow is her one month appointment so we’ll have a chance to see then how much she’s grown.

3 Weeks & 1 Day…Today Was Supposed to Be Her Birthday!!!!

February 4th, the day that was circled in red on the calendar.  Sophie had other plans though; she wanted to make sure that we were on her schedule from the very beginning.  Generally, her schedule hasn’t been too bad but yesterday and last night were not my favorite.  I think she might be going through a growth spurt because she wanted to eat A LOT and OFTEN.  Plus, she didn’t want to be laid down after that.  For some reason she likes to be held for a couple of hours during the late night feeding.  She’s a stinker like that sometimes.  A couple of other Sophie-isms is that when she’s getting angry she starts kicking her legs…this is usually followed by crying unless she can be calmed down; the other thing that is interesting is how much she likes to either hold her hands or put at least one of them on her face or head.  She doesn’t scratch herself or even suck on them (unless she’s hungry), she just likes to have her hand on her face.  My Mom says her hand-mannerisms remind her of Grandma Peggy.

Here’s a couple of pics – Zeke got to hang out with her on the floor today.  He’s very interested when she cries.  I also included a picture from 3 weeks ago and one from today:  her birthday and her due-day.

 

Zeke & Sophie

Most have asked how Zeke’s doing now that Sophie is home and the answer is that he’s responding very “Zeke-like”.  He sniffs her from time to time and comes running if she’s really crying (usually at diaper changes), but for the most part he just ignores her.  We’ve also been trying not to ignore him – his walking frequency has decreased, but that is also in part due to the deep snow on the course.  We’ve been out a couple of times, but not too much.  We’ll work on some Zeke/Sophie pics in the future, but for now I figured I’d include one from this fall.  Oh, and we didn’t come home from the hospital empty-handed:  we brought him a stuffed bear (hopefully he will stop trying to steal Sophie’s bears from her room!)