7 Months & Growing!!

May 10th -

On May 7th our little Hadassah turned 7 months old and she is definitely growing.  We had to go to the doctor yesterday and she weighed 16 lbs 6 oz.  Haddie is now in the 50th percentile for weight.  She has come a long way in the 2 months since I started staying home.  At the beginning of March Haddie was below the 5th percentile in weight.  Just even more confirmation that our decision for me to stay home now was the right one. 

 

Other news from the doctor and the reason we went to begin with - Haddie has been tilting her head to her right for a while now.  As she has gotten bigger it has become a little more pronounced.  She has torticollis.  It seems to be mild and with a little physical therapy she should be fine. 

Also Haddie seems to be a little bow legged but just on her right leg so we are being referred to an Orthopedist.  Our pediatrician suggested at first that we just watch it, but when I informed her of Keith's leg issues as a child she thought it would be better to go ahead and have someone else look at Haddie.  I'll update when we have more information.

What's Haddie doing now?  She is sitting up very well.  Today Haddie has started catching herself with her arm as she falls back.  She still ends up falling back completely, but she is able to hold herself up for a few more seconds.

Haddie is finally sleeping in her bed.  Since she was about 6 weeks old she has been sleeping in her swing because of her reflux/spitting up.  It was the only way I could get her to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. 

May 18th -

In the past week Haddie has started leaning to see Keith or I. Right now I'm sitting on the floor with the computer in my lap and Haddie is leaning from one side to the other so she can see Keith.

It's absolutely the best thing in the world to see your child develop. I think I have said it before, but - before Haddie was born I wondered how other parents kept up with the new developments - now I know.

May 29th -
 
Life is always changing and it seems I have the best of intentions of blogging and even start one, but then never get it posted. 
 

The newest event for Haddie is that she is finally rolling over!  Yeahhhhh!!!!!  Before this past Thursday she had only rolled over 5 times.  Since then she rolls over every time I put her on her stomach - that is if I'm not watching.  Thursday morning I was on the floor with her working on a few things the physical therapist suggested to help encourage Haddie to roll over.  She wasn't interested at all so I left her in tummy time and went to the kitchen to get a little done.  Next thing I know she is on her back.  She rolled over 3 times and then I decided to sit and watch.  Haddie got half way over and looked up at me, we made eye contact and then she went back to her stomach.  WHAT?  My daughter is already playing games with me.  She did that again and then I decided to do something else but watch her out of the corner of my eye.  Again Haddie got to her side, looked up at me and when I didn't make eye contact she rolled over completely.  As my Dad said yesterday - I'm gonna be paying for my raising!  I already knew I had it coming to me, but I figured I had a few years at least.  Too funny. 

 

We took in our first baseball game as a family earlier this month.  The residents at Keith's building we going so we joined in.  Some of our friends joined us also.  We all had a great time.

Haddie's 1st boat ride.  Appropriately enough on Papa and Nana's boat.  She looks like she is enjoying it in this picture, but really she didn't.  Mainly she didn't like the life jacket.  As long as I kept her standing she was ok.  We put her in the water a little and she loved it.  Thank goodness!  This mom is praying her kids love the water!

Haddie has started feeding herself.  She actually got the spoon to her mouth without help from us.  Keith is great at letting her try new things.  Me not so much. :)  I need to just strip her down to her diaper so I'm not so uptight about getting so messy.  I'll learn one of these day.

Doesn't Haddie look so cute in the hospital gown.  Yes we were at the hospital.  Everything is fine, but we had a little scare.  About a week ago Haddie started spitting up blood.  At first I thought I knew the reason so I didn't worry about it until she continued.  In the end we found out we needed to put her back on Zantac.  We had gone off it about a week earlier.  Apparently she had a tear or small ulcer in her stomach.  When we went off the Zantac the acid irritated it just enough to start bleading.  By the time we got to the ER she hadn't had bad spit up for a few hours and didn't have any after that.  All is fine, but just enough to terrify me.  Keith was absolutely wonderful!

Onto another note.  Yesterday I got myself a new toy.  I have started training for a 5k.  http://www.c25k.com/  I'm really enjoying it.  When Haddie was born we got a relatively inexpensive jogging stroller and I figured if I actually used it I would get a better one.  Well I'm using it and found a great deal on a slightly used Bob Revolution - exactly what I wanted - the right color to.  Here it is!

Did I say I love my new toy? :)

Well since I got my knew toy Keith decided he was getting a new toy for himself.  He has been wanting to buy this for a while now, but I kept talking him out of it.  Since I got my toy I had no room to try and continue talking him out of his toy and he knew it and took major advantage of it.  We went and picked it up this morning and he is already making great use out of it.  Doesn't he look so proud of himself. 

That was a pretty good size tree he was able to get down with a good chain saw in less than 10 minutes.  It didn't damage anything else either.  The last tree Keith took down fell on the house.  No damage, but I was quite nervous.  I suppose by spending money on his toy we are actually saving money by not paying someone else to take these trees out.  My toy is just that - a toy - I'm still going to enjoy it. :)

***Update on Haddie's leg.  We went to the doctor about her bowed leg this week and she didn't see anything out of the ordinary for this age.  She was slightly concerned about her hips so took a few xrays, but all looked good. 

We are so richly blessed by Haddie's life!  I really can't say that enough.

Until next time :)

Stay At Home Mom

As a new stay at home mom I have been looking for ways to save money.  The most obvious to me and the one thing I knew for a while I would do was to make my own baby food.  Well at least as much as possible.  Don't get me wrong - I still buy the jars of food to have on hand for outings.

The first thing I did was mashing up bananas.  That's so easy - why do people buy commercial banana baby food?  Too easy.  Well that didn't last long - Haddie spits up banana really bad.  I don't think she's alergic, just spits up easier than other things.

Next was mashing up avocados.  So easy and sooooo good for Haddie.  We now ALWAYS have avocados in the house.  It's making me eat them a lot more. 

The most recent food is sweet potatos.  This is the reason I have an immersion blender.  It makes it so easy.  I am so very proud of myself.  5 years ago I never would have thought I would make my own baby food.  It really isn't difficult therefore not all that impressive, but before I started trying it I would have thought otherwise.

Here's the first bit.

Most of the suggestions I have found recommend to divide the servings into ice cube trays and then freeze. That would be about 2 ounces per cube. Haddie is a BIG eater so I knew that would be a LOT of cubes. A friend (who also made her own food) suggested that I drop the servings onto a cookie sheet and freeze. So that's what I did. Sooooooooooooo easy!

Can you tell I'm proud of myself?

I absolutely love being home with Haddie.  God has blessed us so richly to make this possible. Making most of her food is only one small thing I can do to provide the best for my daughter and it saves a ton of money over time :)

Now for what you really want to see.  Pictures of Haddie.  She is now 6 1/2 months.  Check out http://www.cozyimpressionsphotography.com/ blog for a peak at her pics.  Tanya is abosolutely amazing - what an amazing gift God has given her and she uses it for Him.

She isn't really sitting up on her own.  Notice my shoe on the bottom right.  We stabilize her enough to grab the picture.

See!  It doesn't last long.  Don't worry - we grabbed her quickly. 

We had to get the mohawk.  Such a beautiful smile :)

No more boppy to hold her up :).  Again, she isn't sitting on her own for very long, but is doing much better. 

Too funny.  This was the first time Haddie tried to eat Keith's nose - yuck!

Until next time :)

Four Months Already?

"Yesterday Haddie turned 4 months old.  We can't believe the time has gone by so quickly.  Haddie continues to do well.  We had her 4 month check up this mornin and she weighed a wopping 10 lb 6 oz. - just below 5th percentile.  The pedi was just ok with her weight.  Haddie is 24 1/2 inches long - 60th percentile.
What's Haddie doing - she is talking like crazy.  If we are talking/singing to her she is talking/singing right back to us.  I wish I knew her little language to know exactly what she is saying to us.  She is holding on to things pretty well and starting to try to sit up.  She is no where near rolling over, but that would have to mean we are actually putting her on her tummy/back.  We'll get better at this soon." - Written 2/8/10

Ok.  Now that I'm getting time to get back to my blog Haddie will be turning 6 months on Wednesday.  WOW how time flies.  It's been a hectic few months and I'm happy to say it is all calming down finally. 

Before Haddie was born, Keith and I decided that I would return to work in January to finish out the school year.  We hoped that I would teach in 2010/2011 school year but we were planning on re-evaluating that in May/June.  Well I went back to work in January and it was a disaster.  Haddie's weight started dropping  and that only added to my stress.  I don't know how other moms work full time and actually make it work for them.  It did not work for me.  March 5th ended up being my last day at work.  After being home for a month I am a much happier mom.  I'm finally able to enjoy my daughter instead of just going through the motions of being a parent. 

Keith wrote me a note back in January.  The gist of it was that Pure Joy has entered our lives in the form of Haddie. At the time I read the note I knew in my mind that was true, but didn't have the energy to feel it in my heart.  It has been so amazing the past few weeks to truly feel that Pure Joy has entered our lives.  What an amazing gift God has given us.

What's going on with Haddie.  She is still having lots of issues with her reflux.  Her pediatric GI specialist thinks she will grow out of it around 6 months.  I hope so, but can't imagine it significantly changing soon.  We'll see! 

Haddie is the happiest little baby.  She has the most amazing smiles that just light up her eyes.  Every morning when I go in to get her she is just sitting there looking around the room waiting for me.  As soon as she sees me her face lights up.  Just melts my heart everyday.

Haddie has started passing toys from one had to the other and back again.  If she drops a toy she is able to pick it up and will lean/reach for it when it's just a little too far away.  She is getting much stronger and seems very close to sitting up, but we'll see how much more time that takes.  She doesn't seem any where close to rolling over - front to back or back to front.  We are giving her plenty of time to practice and trying to show her how, but she is NOT interested.  Haddie hates to be on her stomach and just gets mad pretty quickly.  I'm starting to think she will be standing on her own before she rolls over. :)  Her legs are extremely strong and have been for a long time.  My ribs and lungs took a beating the last 2 months of my pregnancy.  She is standing for several minutes at a time with a little help on balance.  She is able to stand on her own if she is leaning against something.  Haddie has started grunting at us.  At first we thought she wasn't feeling good, but have since realized it's just her exploring her new talents.

Haddie sleeps extremely well at night and has since she was about 9 weeks old.  It's our best gauge as to when she is ready for more food during the day.  Even though she sleeps well at night she does not nap regularly.  Most days she will take one nap during the day.  We wore her out this weekend and she is already taking her 2nd nap today. 

We spent Easter with Keith's family and had a really great time.  Keith's cousin had her first child 2 weeks ago so it was fun having the babies there for the first time.  It will be a lot of fun watching B and Haddie interact as they get older. 

Wow this was a long post.  I will leave you with some pics of our family - mostly Haddie.

5 Months Old - such a happy girl!

We are truly blessed by our little bit of Pure Joy!  I never could have guessed how much I would enjoy being a mother.

Haddie's First Fit

Written on 1/30/10

Obviously I haven't been actually blogging like I hoped, but something just happened that I have to record. 

Haddie threw her first fit this morning. I was feeding her and watching TV episodes on the computer.  I started burping her and she could see the compter screen.  When I was done burping I tried to turn her around and she started crying & trying to turn her head to the screen.  It was sad but hilarious.  Keith came in the room and we tried an experiment.  Turned her towards the screen - no crying.  Turned her away from the screen and instant crying.  This is one instant she just gets to cry.  No TV watching just yet.

Haddie is doing well.  She has been in daycare for about 4 weeks now and doing much better.  Haddie is such a happy girl now.  It's a far cry from her first few weeks of life.