The Begining of the End

After a lot of discussion, like a lot a lot- nearly two weeks worth of discussion, I've decided it's time to start weaning Tegan, and thankfully the Hubs is on board too. It wasn't an easy decision to make especially with Tegan's current weight issues (although I doubt its ever really an easy decision to make), not to mention the added cost of buying formula (holy expensive batman!). I feel a bit relieved having made the decision. It also helps that we had an unofficial weight check mid month that puts Tegan at gaining a pound since her last appointment.

The timing just seems right for Tegan, I think she's started weaning herself anyway. And for me, I'll be relieved to have a way to acknowledge how much she's eating instead of guessing how much she's getting. Since we found out she had lost weight it's been really stressful on me trying to get her to eat what the medical society deems as enough when the only form of measuring I have is in minutes. In all honesty even before we knew there was a weight problem feedings had become really stressful trying to keep her focused. There's also the small factor that I've mentioned before, that feedings now are really painful! She doesn't actually bite, at least not often, but the mechanics have changed with the introduction of lil teeth.

Making the decision was only one step though, now we have to start the transition. We've tried a few times to give her a bottle but she just doesn't go for it, and quite frankly at this point if we were able to get her to take a bottle we'd just be getting her unused to them in a few months. So our game plan is to continue feeding her normally for a while longer while we get her used to a sippy cup. Once she can drink comfortably from her cup I'll start skipping one feeding at a time for a glass of formula with her solids. This seems like a good solution to everything. She'll keep getting breastmilk for a while and keep beefing up, we'll get her used to a sippy cup and ready for the transition to cows milk when she's one, and hopefully a reduced stress weaning situation. It sounds like a perfect plan in theory. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it works out in real life.

I'm happy with the timing. I'm happy with the plan. I'm happy with the decision. But in true parent form...I feel guilty. I feel guilty for asking the Hubs to work the cost of formula into the budget. I feel looming guilt for stressing out Tegan. I feel guilty for not giving Tegan the best when we're having trouble keeping her size up. But mostly I feel guilty that even with all those things listed above, overall I'm happy and relieved to have an end to breastfeeding in sight. I feel guilty that this isn't a harder decision for me to make. I'm ready to be done, and that's what gives me the most pause, and the most guilt.

Baby Etiquette

(Alternative Title; Things that annoy the snot out of this Momma)

I try my best not to be a 'Debby Downer', but every now and then a good rant is so very therapeutic. And in lieu of the holiday season approaching I figured a few etiquette tips would be a great disguise for this rant :) So in no particular order, here are the things I would suggest avoiding when interacting with children and/or their parents this holiday season, or at least when you are within spitting distance of me or I may just spit back at you, j/k...sorta:

1.) If you want to get my daughters attention, please don't call and whistle at her like she's a dog. She does know her name, and if she's not responding to it she's trying to ignore you. Instead I would suggest doing something more intersting than poking at her just to say hi. Otherwise I will not be held accountable when either my child or myself has this reaction to you.

2.) Please keep in mind that if I am holding my daughter and you get all up in her face, you are also getting all up in my face. Personal space people...even babies need it, those kissable cheeks will have to be admired in limited quantities, or from a distance.

"Don't bug me! I'm sleeping here!!"

3.) Please don't ask me every 5 minutes when my child will wake up from her nap, or jokingly threaten you are about to wake her up because she's taking too long. I know you are excited to see her, but nap time is vital to my sanity, and necessary down time for my daughter. As an adult I expect you to be able to amuse yourself, and/or keep your britches on for an hour or two. I promise, I'm not making my daughter take a nap just to annoy you.

4.) When taking a special outing with us, please don't bring along more than you are willing to carry yourself. While I understand some strollers are as big as a shopping cart, I utilize that space for things I need to care for my child. If I have to dig through all your bags, extra sweatshirt, jackets, bottled beverages, and whatever else you have shoved under there, or stop every few feet to access or stash said items my baby will not be the only one cranky in record time.

5.) When winding down for a nap, whether at home or in a strange place, my daughter will occasionally cry. Sometimes harder than others, sometimes longer than others. Please don't remind me every few minutes she is still crying, or claim that it is difficult to listen to her cry. This momma knows how heart wrenching it is to hear that cry, but also knows sometimes a few tears will fall before dream land descends.

"This is my fussy face!"

6.) When basking in my daughters adorableness, please remember to take into account what she needs, not just what you want. While it's hard to pass up some snuggle time, it might not be the right time for her. We have a very active curiouse munchkin, and holding her in one place might cause fussiness. This fussiness is not to be confused as her cue to be held more, but a plea for wiggle room. If you love her set her free!

7.) Don't assume just because I am a stay at home momma, I have all the time in the world to answer your calls, texts, emails, smoke signals, or any other form of communication. While some days I will be ably to accommodate you immediately, other times it may take a while- minutes, hours, even days, occasionally weeks. My slow/lack of response is not a personal attack on you...yet...

8.) If you ask a favor of me, and I arrange my schedule, and my child's schedule to accommodate you, do not call an hour before the agreed upon time for said favor, and ask to change things because it would be more convenient for you. That's just rude, and has the uncanny affect of causing the action of a face palm. I am more than capable of causing my own headaches thank you very much, your help is not appreciated. **Exception to this rule; if you are also a parent of a little one I understand life happens, you are allowed a pass, and a commissary pat/hug. We can reschedule at a time that works for both parties, perhaps at a time that a glass of wine can be involved.

"Hee, hee, hee! Momma's lost it again!"

And lastly while the above are all in good fun, disobeying them will only cause the wrath of this momma to descend on you and smush pie in your face under the ruse of an innocent trip, this last one is an absolute must and a serious issue...

9.) Please, please, PLEASE, for all that is good and right in the world, DO NOT slip my daughter a special treat unless you have cleared it with her parents first! We know what she is eating, what she can eat, and what may cause problems or bring harm to her. She may not be ready to ingest your special treat. Disregard to this rule WILL cause you physical harm. You are warned.

By simply following these simply guidelines, which come on, are really close to just common courtesy, you will ensure the best possible moods for all involved. Plus you have the added bonus of avoiding this face:

"You're an idiot!"

Best of luck and sanity to all the momma's this holiday season. May my unfortunate experiences not grace your festivities. I have encountered all of the above. Mostly from two 'unique' family members. I'm sure some of you can guess at least one of the offenders based on previous posts here (all though most of the above did not originate from her!). Perhaps some of you that know me in real life can guess the main offender. Ha!

Those few out there reading this, anything you would like to add to this list?

9 Months!

This month has really just flown by again (as is evident by my lack of posts again. Sigh). I have a feeling the next few months are going to fly by even faster with holiday festivities starting. Especially since it is officially holiday season in my book. I'm so looking forward to your first holiday everything, but for now here's where we're at:

Weight: 14lbs 9oz. Unfortunately that's not a typo. At your last check up at 6 months you were 14lbs 7oz. Although there is also a little confusion around this since according to the Dr's office you lost weight, but the paper work they sent home with me shows you gaining a few ounces. Which ever record is right, it still doesn't spell out a good situation. I've been worried about your weight for a while, so when I read the scale at your appointment I was close to tears. Meal times lately have become a battle and I'm not sure how to get past that. We'll go back for a weight check in a month to make sure you're not losing anymore. For now though you've fallen to into the 1st percentile for weight.

Height: 27in, moving you up to the 31st percentile.

Head Circumference: 17in. placing you solidly in the 27th percentile.

Clothes: You're getting closer to filling out your 6-9 months clothes. With any luck next month your update will read that these are fitting you correctly.

Diapers: You're still comfortably rocking out in the size 3 diapers

Feeding: We've made it so far through the teething troubles, and are continuing to breastfeed. You have officially bitten me a few times and it is NOT fun! We tried sneaking in a bottle to give me a break and chance to unclench my teeth, but the nipple on the bottle confused you and instead of eating you decided to use it as a teether. Oops. Guess we haven't been doing so well keeping you used to a bottle. Sigh. At least you've only bitten me a few times. My best guess is that you're eating around 5-3 ounces a feeding. With any luck I'll get this back up bit more.

As of the first of this month we have you eating 3 meals a day of solid food. You still prefer fruits to anything else, and I have yet to find a way to successfully sneak in any meat. When I make a concoction that's fruity enough you'll gobble it all down, usually about 4oz a sitting. But if it's not fruity enough to mask the veggies we sneak in you'll literally turn your nose up at it. The one thing we have found that you'll eat even better than fruit are rice puffs! Holly cow you scarf those down. You'll actually throw a little baby temper tantrum if I try to take your puffs away!

Sleeping: You have created a pretty rock solid schedule for yourself these days. It's pretty easy to guess when you'll be waking up, and when you'll be going down for a nap. You're still sleeping through the night, but you have been edging towards a more 'normal' wake up time. This doesn't always go over well when I drearily stumble to your crib without an ounce of coffee in me yet, but we're working it out. Lucky for me you think it's hysterical when I drink coffee. Ha!

Baths: Sigh...we're back to hating baths again. I really think it's that you HATE being cold. Can't blame you there.

Milestones:
Crawling: You are officially all over the place. If you see something you want to investigate you don't hesitate to wiggle your way over to it. Wiggle being the operative word! You still don't have crawling in the traditional sense figured out, meaning on hands and knees, but you have modified the army crawl to work for your needs. You can definitely pick up speed when you're motivated too. No sign yet of pulling yourself up to a standing position, but you're working on figuring it out, I can almost see the wheels turning as you're trying to figure out how to make it work.

Teething: So far you seem to be snow plowing through teething. You have two teeth on the bottom, and you've been working on a few on top too. You're still usually a pretty laid back teether, but you have your moments. Again I can't really blame you for this. I even took a brush up coarse in teething this month when my wisdom teeth started acting up. Sympathy pain? Perhaps, the bottom line was still 'OUCH'!

Talking: This month you've been working on your weird sounds! This resulted in a disclaimer to Grandma when she took you for an over night. You've developed your own version of a silly laugh that has the unfortunate side affect of sounding like you're gasping for breath. It's a dead give away when you break into the giggles afterwords though. Ha! There's a few other noises that you're working on, and Hubs says we need to work on a few that don't sound like a medical emergence :) We've also learned that the best time to practice your noises is when you are cruising around. At least I can always hear where you're at!

Check Ups: You had your 9 month check up this week. As I mentioned at the beginning there are a few concerns about your weight. You really are a very tiny peanut. We'll have to go in again in a month to see how you're doing. I'm glad we'll get another check up before you're 12 month appointment though. It also conveniently works out to get your second flu shot. Sorry in advance for that! Other than your itty bitty size, everything looks good. So we just have to get you to eat a little more.

Baby's First Halloween!

Happy Halloween Tegan!

It's been a crazy month so far, and it seems to have just flown by! But we have been busy enjoying the fall season. This year for Halloween we're not planing on going out trick-or-treating, but I'm hoping by next year Tegan will be able to grasp the concept of free candy and dress up. I'm definitely looking forward to taking her trick-or-treating when she's older.

Even though we aren't going trick-or-treating we're still having some Halloween fun. I made Tegan a turtle costume which she has been able to rock out to two Halloween parties so far. Our fist party was last weekend, the third annual Halloween party hosted by my sister and her family. I spent most of last week working on Tegan's costume giving little thought to what I might do...oops. Ha! I managed to throw together a costume for myself about an hour before the party. I went as the thing that goes bump in the dryer, static clings evil cousin, I was the dreaded sock monster! That's right, run away in fear! We perfectly fit the theme of the party NOT, which was scary.  Her cousin was a killer bee and absolutly adorable. I was a little worried that some of the costumes would scare her, but she took it all in stride. It was a really great time and even though Tegan stayed up way past her bedtime it went smoother than I would have expected. The ride home got a little hairy as she screamed the whole way home. At least until we were two blocks from home and she finally fell asleep just in time for us to wake her back up and go inside. Sigh! But considering we got home from the party three hours past bedtime she did really very well.

Me and my lil Turtle

Grandma with Sophie and Tegan

Our second party was at our ECFE class, which due to MPLS schools policies was really just a dress up day. But come on, who can say no to a room full of babies dressed up in costumes. I nearly died of cuteness.

Left to right: Turtle-Tegan, Lion-Camden, Punk Rock Star-Margo, Chicken-Betsy, and Spider-Gavin

And finally to wrap up the night our big plans are to have my parents over for a Jack-o-lantern pizza from Pappa Murphys and handing out candy. All in all, I say it's been a good Halloween!

8 Months!

If anyone happens upon the pause button, please let me know! While it still blows my mind that you are over half a year old, I'm really enjoying the stage you are in right now. You are so expressive these days, and seem to giggle at the smallest things. I don't know how to express it, and maybe other moms know experienced this too, but you seem to be becoming more of a little person and not just a baby. It's so much fun to watch that come out in you. As I've said all along you are going to have a stubborn streak a mile long, but you've also started to show that you are going to become one independent little diva. You are also just so laid back about everything, and almost always in a happy mood, and for that I am very thankful, and extremely spoiled!

Here's what else you've been up to these days:

Weight: I'm guessing you're still pretty close to 15-16lbs. It will be nice to get another exact weight for you next month. I am super curious where you're at but since our scale is not the most reliable (its typically accurate +,- 10lbs. Like I said not reliable) I guess I'll just have to wait. Or buy another scale.

Clothes: You're now wearing 6-9 months and 6-12 months clothes, but they're still a little big on you. Also what gives with some baby clothes going from sizes 0-3, 3-6, and then 6-12 months?! This just seems silly to me. Just saying...

Diapers: The size 3 diapers are finally fitting you nicely. I may have jumped the gun on moving up from size 2 before, but I swear the size 2 were getting small at the time!

Feeding: Breastfeeding continues for the time being, but it's gotten really painful again so we'll see how long I can hold out. You seem to get confused between feeding, teething, and just plain playing, and oh yeah, add a pinch of distraction and you have a recipe for a slightly abused me. And don't forget you're adding teeth into the mix now as well! Oosh! Like I said we'll have to see how long I can hold out. My best guess is you're still getting about 5-7 ounces a feeding, and you usually have about 3 feedings a day.

When it comes to solid food you eat like a champ! Well, you eat like a champ if its a fruit concoction. You'll eat a whole jar of fruit (4oz) in one sitting, but you make faces at any vegetables, and wont even open your mouth for the meats. We're currently trying to find combinations of fruits and veggies that aren't disgusting, everything so far has been a little like the V8 juice stuff. But hey, it gets the veggies in. We also just started upping your solids to twice a day. So far each sitting has been about a full jar, but it gets harder to tell now that we are mixing stuff.

Sleeping: You're still sleeping through the night, but you have started to slowly shift to an earlier schedule. Just this past week you've also started staying awake longer between naps, and shortening your actual nap times during the day as well. I'm certainly not complaining about the extra play time with you. You are definitely starting to keep me on my toes though.

Milestones:
Crawling: You figured out forward this month! It's not quite crawling yet, it's more an army crawl where you're just pulling yourself forward by your arms and your legs drag behind you. The Hubs was actually the one who saw you figure this out. I was really glad he got to witness a 'first' with you, he was pretty excited too. I think he said something like "So this is the fist time she's done this EVER, not just the first time I've seen it!" You were both pretty happy with yourselves, and pretty cute I might add. Just last week you managed to squirm wiggle your way all the way across the room. Progress we're making progress!

Teething: You are now the proud owner of a single tooth. Your front bottom tooth came in first and surprised us all! Immediately after that tooth broke through you not so subtly started working on a back molar. It's my understanding that molars take a while to come in, and they will work their way up in fits of starting and stopping, so after a few days of teething, you're now chillaxing with your one and only tooth.You were slightly more fussy as you were working on the molar, but with a little oral-gel you were good to go. Overall you were amazingly laid back about the whole ordeal. Way to go my little trooper!

Talking: You'll certainly gab up a storm these days, especially when we're getting sleepy. You have managed to say 'Mama' a couple of times by accident. You just happened to string the right syllables together, but they don't have meaning to you yet. You can bet though that I'm working on this with vengeance, and we're getting pretty close. You also still 'sing' all the time. The Hubs says we sound like screech owls, or even nails on chalkboard when we 'sing' back and forth to each other, but who asked him anyway! I think he's just jealous that he can't get his voice that high.

And finally, here you are at 8 months!

"Tegan- warier baby" S1 Episode 7.9; Accidental Discovery

Tegan, my little trooper, just cut her first tooth!! Color me surprised!! Which, okay fine, other than the milestone of a first tooth of my first child it isn't that uncommon of an event. Everyone has to get teeth at some point, it's how this whole growing up thing typical goes. So why the big font and italics drawing extra attention, and the theatrics making it seem like I just discovered how to achieve cold fusion, and oh by the way in my spare time I created world peace attitude?

Well fist off, she is my first, and it is her first tooth, so there deal. That alone is enough reason for a celebration. But the mind blowing part is that she didn't show any of the typical signs of serious hard core teething! No over the top fussiness, no bouts of uncontrolled crying, not even the hint of a fever, or even any extra redness on her gums where the tooth was trying to break through! About the only thing she did do was increase her 'chewing' on things. She put just about everything in her mouth I would let her, and she become very interested in her actual teething toys. Lately she's even been sleeping longer at night instead of the hellish nights you usually hear about from parents with a teething child.

I think this new development surprised her as much as it did me. There she was, minding her own business playing in her bouncer and gnawing on a teether when BAM! Out of nowhere she completely lost it seeming to be crying for no reason! To achieve maximum cry volume she had her mouth open as wide as it would go providing me with a clear view of her new budding tooth! Looking back I'm pretty sure she discovered her new pearly addition by biting her lip- thus providing a now understood reason for the before mentioned freak out.

This is turning into one crazy week! And it's only Tuesday! I might just be in trouble here.

Next up the rest of the in-laws come to town for a visit.

Mommy Milestone Moment

I'm still trying to play catch up on recent events, like a few weeks ago we took a trip to a friends cabin for the weekend (which was absolutely wonderful), and some words on the ECFE class we started, and just this weekend a trip to the zoo with the MIL...but this is worth mentioning out of order, and by far was the best part of my weekend! 'What has me so excited' you ask? Well I'll tell you...

Last night Tegan was playing on the floor in her nursery enjoying some Daddy time, after-all what are weekends for if not for as much Daddy time as possible! When I came in to join them I was greeted with a nice big smile (I'll never get sick of that reaction when I enter her room). I took a seat on the floor on the opposite side of her room from where she was and she immediately abandoned her favorite toy and proceeded to wiggle/pseudo crawl her way across her room to come and see me!!! She crossed the length of her room to get to me, which at the moment is no small feat for her! It was the best feeling ever to watch her excitement and determination to come and see me. It was like her way of telling me "I love you". It definitely warmed my heart.

In my little girls eyes I apparently rock!