5

3 days ago our little baby turned 5 months! It's hard to believe it's been so long and it's hard to believe it's been only 5 months since we've started this journey of becoming parents to our little sweetheart!

When I look at Sophia's pictures taken during the first couple of weeks I can't believe how tiny she was and how she's grown even though she's still very young and little!

The last couple of weeks have been full of discoveries for our curious baby girl. 

Her second tooth finally came out. I'm not quite sure that she understands what's happened to her mouth, but she's putting  the new acquirement to work :) Though sometimes she ends up biting her own fingers. Poor baby!

Sophia got her new high chair and has been sitting with Mommy and Daddy at the table when we eat together:

Also she's tried eating some milk with a spoon (well, of course not on her own) and tasted some banana, even though she hasn't quite figured out what to do with it yet. But I think she likes it!

Our little munchkin has gotten much better at grabbing. She's able to reach for the toys that are not immediately in front of her and to get them and bring them closer (and into her mouth if she can; that includes Daddy's glasses and the strap on the changing table!).

Sophia started recognizing her toys and becomes very excited when she sees one that she hadn't played with for a while (like her favorite flower after it was washed).

Last week our cute heart celebrated her first Thanksgiving and attended her first Thanksgiving dinner:

Even though there were a little too many people for her at the dinner, she still did pretty well especially after taking a very quick nap. She's our little social girl (must've gotten those genes from her grandparents:).

There was another 'first' for her. Even though Sophia didn't realize it she got her first passport photo taken and soon (hopefully soon!) she'll have her first passport!

Our little girl is very active (again, the genes that must've skipped her parents' generation:)). She's able to move off and around her play gym on her back in a matter of minutes. This is just a little part of where she ends up after I set her down in the middle of the play gym:

Last night she moved pretty far away from the play gym.

And today she did her first official roll over from her back to her tummy. The funny thing is that neither Kyle nor I were able to see it. Kyle was driving home and I was cooking in the kitchen (yes, that happens these days, though not super often:)) when I heard Sophia voicing her joy / surprise and found her on her tummy looking up at me and smiling! So we are getting pretty close to the end of the 'find-the-baby-in-the-same-place-where-you-left-her' time. We'll need to stop thinking of baby proofing the house and actually start doing it. Oh, boy!

Along the same lines I can't help mentioning how much our sporty baby girls loves her jumperoo. It almost scares me sometimes how much she jumps in there, but she's very happy to do it and smiles and giggles a lot! Apparently, she's decided that Mommy and Daddy have some of the jumperoo's functionality and can help her stand and jump. Sophia's still trying to sit up on her own, but whenever she gets a chance she likes to stand up and jump, jump, jump, ..., jump... as long as our arms can handle it. Her legs are getting pretty strong and we mostly need to hold her for balance when she stands.

I'm sure I am forgetting something that I'd like to write down about what's happened, but this is a pretty full post on it's own, so if I need to add something I might just write a new one anyway.

Plus, as always, I'm getting pretty tired and it's not helping my memory or writing skills for that matter. So night-night!

Sleep training

"Is she sleeping through the night?" - I get asked this question daily and I honestly hate it. I know that any parent understands that sleep or sleep deprivation for that matter can be one of the biggest problems during the first year. People who care about us ask this question because they sincerely want to know how we are doing. Strangers are most likely trying to let us know that they've been there too. Still every single time I hear these words I have to pause and think. 

"Is she sleeping through the night?" Yes and no. Sophia definitely can do it. In fact she's done 7-8 hours barely waking up  for the dream feed. Has she done it lately? No. There've been tonnes of reasons for that like teething, growth spurt, vaccination, teething. I am sure that among those are some so called accidental parenting examples too. Oh, and did I mention teething?

I was talking to a friend today and she said that with the first ones we always try to make everything perfect. I agree. Sometimes I feel bad for Sophia, because we learn as we go and that includes not so great experiences too. A couple of weeks ago we tried a sleep training method described in the Baby Whisperer book "pick up / put down". Well, lets say it wasn't successful and it was not a happy time for any of us. After seeing no progress we gave up. Since then I've been trying to get Sophia to sleep in any way I can nursing/bouncing/holding. The other day I came across a book called "No-cry Sleep Solution". I read it all in one day and mostly night (Sophia woke up a lot that night and gave me plenty of time to read it:)). I am trying to use the ideas described in the book and while I know it's going to take some time (and maybe some more time and even some more time), I feel it's a much more loving way that doesn't leave both the baby and parents upset and frustrated. I love the flexibility of the plan too. The author is honest and is not trying to make you feel guilty for anything you do or don't do while helping your baby to fall asleep - for anything except for making baby cry. I've tried it for a day now, so it's too early to say whether it's going to help or not, but in any case it's a good experience and time for all of us.

With that said I still feel sad today. Maybe being tired and spending half of the day in the dark (very dark) room doesn't help. Or maybe it's just today. Tomorrow's a new day and let's hope that one day when asked "Is she sleeping through the night?" I'll be able to say "Yes" and smile. Eventually everybody does. :)

P.S. Actually, I got a lot more to say on the topic, but my eyes are closing, I am tired and I should go to sleep. And if I don't get this out and posted now, it'll stay in my drafts folder for another couple of weeks.

4 months. 1st tooth.

It's been a while since my last post. I don't feel like writing too much and I am not sure where to start since I've got a lot of updates.

Our beautiful little girl turned 4 months in the end of October:

By now she's able to roll from her tummy to her back (though she hasn't been too interested in it lately), she's definitely trying to sit up and her control of neck and back is pretty good. She loves talking, smiling and even starting to laugh, especially when Daddy is playing with her.

On November, 1 after teething for over a week Sophia got her first tooth! We don't have pictures of it yet (it's quite tiny and she's not always showing it. In fact you can see it best when she's crying :( ). The second tooth is most likely on its way.

Sophiechka went through another growth spurt and now her 3-6mo sleep&plays are getting tight on her. Hmm, she's not even 5 mo old. Looks like we might have to start switching to a bigger size of clothes earlier than I expected. 

Yesterday we had the 4 mo well check up. Our all-grown-up baby girl did really well! She was talking to the doctor, wasn't upset during most of the visit, though hated the shots, of course. She took a few naps during the day (though even the shots didn't stop her from catnapping) and she seemed to be a happy baby. Well, at least until 12:30am hit. Our poor little baby woke up and Kyle and I spent next 4 hours taking turns trying to get her to sleep. Finally at 4:30am after some kids acetaminophen and another feeding we all went to bed and got some rest... ahh.. until 6am that is. So today's been rather slow and tiring for all of us. We'll see what happens tonight.

On the lighter note we took Sophia to the church Trunk or Treat event on Halloween. Though our little munchkin wasn't sure what was going on, it was quite fun for us.

Here's our little banana with Daddy and Mommy:

Almost forgot to say that Sophia weighs 14lb 2oz and is 25.5 inches tall, which puts her in 50th percentile in weight and 90th(!) percentile in height. (Remember what I said about her sleep&plays?)

Well, it's time to try to get ready for sleep, so I guess this is it for now.

Good night and not such a good night.

Sophia's been adjusting to her new room pretty well. In fact, the first night in the nursery she slept pretty well and didn't wake up until 5:30 am, which is not such a common thing these days, unfortunately.

The next day she got adjusted much better and started moving around the crib in her sleep and consequently ending up with her head bumping and pushing against sides of the crib. Obviously, she didn't get a very good sleep and neither did I. We woke up around 2:30 in the morning and got back to bed about 4:30am. I was so cold and couldn't get warmer even under a bunch of blankets! At 5am we needed to get up. Kyle & I had breakfast. *Note to self: Do not have coffee for breakfast if you are planning to catch a bit more zzz's afterwards.* I tried to sleep, but I couldn't. About 6:30 baby girl once again hit the corner of the crib and figured that she should get some food to make up for the unhappy awakening :) I took her into our bed and we rested for about 40 minutes and than.. lets just say it was the time to change baby's diaper..s.. :))

Anyway, it's been a long day, since all of us were tired. Sophia was quite cranky and in the  'hold me than I might cry a little less' mood the whole day. Of course that made mommy feel kinda of cranky too.

After doing lots of research and not finding anything better, we decided to get the breathable baby bumpers. Driving the get them with a tired baby in the car was a whole other story. They are quite thin and have almost no padding, but they are safe in case the little one pushes her face against them. We'll keep our fingers crossed for a good night with no bumping accidents.

P.S. It's late and I didn't proof read this message. I tried to say something funny about meaning to have the mistypes in the post, but oh, well. I am too tired. Good night.

Nursery

Well, here it is. The day we finally moved baby into the nursery. Now she's going to sleep in her own room (hopefully:)).

It feels strange and our bedroom looks rather empty without the changing table and all the baby stuff. We haven't put away the bassinet yet (just in case) though. It will be nice to have our bedroom back, but a little uncomfortable at first.

I am already missing my little girl. I've never spent more than a couple of hours away from her. And that hasn't happened very often, since her day naps are quite short. 

I really hope she adjusts well to her new crib and room in general, but I am sure I'll be spending a lot of time checking up on her using the video baby monitor!

Fingers crossed for a good night sleep for the baby and the parents! :)

P.S. the nursing chair is quite comfortable and who cares if it doesn't match the rest of the room? :D

8 hours, Idaho, 3am

Well, this blogger application for iPhone is pretty bad. I typed a bunch of stuff last night (Sept 18) and I saved it a few times. And guess what? It all disappeared as soon as I closed the app :( Why am I still using it?

So I am going to try to finish this post. Honestly, I don't remember what I was going to say, since it's been a long time and this post got lost at least twice now due to the blogger application 'features'.

First, some happy baby pictures:

We tried another photo session on September 28, but baby girl Petersen (that's how our insurance called Sophia in their paperwork before they knew her name) wasn't in the mood for a photo shoot, so we'll see if the photographer was able to catch some nice moments in between the crying time.

Anyway,  that week of September 19 Sophiechka slept for 8 hour stretches (from 11pm to 7am without waking up) for about 4 nights. 

But her sleep schedule was completely ruined when we went to Idaho to visit Sophia's great grandmother Lois. Nevertheless we had a great time meeting family and going for Sophia's first picnic on her 3 month birthday. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Sophia handled driving quite well. Actually better than I expected.  She didn't sleep much in the car, but she played with tons of toys that we had with us and that were given to her one by one. Both times the last couple of hours were a little too much for her and the only way to calm her down was leaning over the car seat to nurse. I have to admit it was a very "interesting" experience, but it kept the baby happy :)

The first day in Emmet, ID was stressful for our little girl and she spent the whole time clinging to mommy and daddy. But during the next couple of days she warmed up to other people and let grandma and grandpa hold her for short periods of time.

The original title of the post was '8 hours'. It sounds quite ironic now, since our little silly bean has been waking up between 2 and 3 am during last week and having difficulty going back to sleep. In fact during last two nights she decided it was time to wake up and play and didn't go back to sleep until the 6am feedings.

I am wondering if this was caused by me trying to get her to sleep longer during the day and letting her sleep in my arms, feed and sleep again for longer than 3 hours. We are trying to change the routine today, we'll see where it takes us. Poor daddy started his new job this week and I am sure that sleep deprivation is not very helpful at all :(

We are supposed to get our new nursing chair today, so hopefully we'll transfer our little munchkin into the nursery this weekend. I am hoping Sophia will sleep better in a normal size crib, since she's definitely growing out of her cute cozy bassinet. Also daddy should get a bit better sleep even if the baby girl wakes up for night feedings.

It's been getting colder, grayer and rainier every day. Fall is definitely here. But Sophia and I have been enjoying our afternoon walks around the neighborhood. She likes sitting in the Baby Bjorn carrier facing outward and watching everything. She's a curious little girl and this gives her plenty of time to look around and smile at people we see. And I cant help liking how cute she looks all bundled up in her warm hoodies and blankets.

As you can see she even manages to catch some zzz's on our walks. 

I am guessing this is a pretty long update! I feel I am still missing many things like her new playing habits and lots of talking.

My understanding was that other babies usually learn first to roll from their backs to their stomachs. Well, our cuteheart is not 'other babies'. She hates her tummy time so much that last Tuesday, October 4 she figured out a way to roll to her back while doing the tummy time! Unfortunately, I didn't expect this and I don't have any videos or pictures of that. Hopefully, she'll do it some more and we'll be able to catch it somehow.

I think this is it for now.. Baby girl is going to be waking up soon, so I'd better get this saved and maybe published.

Photos... Not really :)

Today we were supposed to get family pictures taken. The day started out pretty well (if we skip the extra night feeding at 2am :)). Sophiechka took a good nap in the morning and actually enjoyed her bath (even played some with her rubber ducky!). I was glad and felt a bit relieved, since the previous 3 bath times were accompanied by tears and i was starting to worry thar she'd hate it forever.

Unfortunately by the time we needed to leave to take photos Sophia started getting tired. She stayed tired, but she doesn't sleep in her carseat unless she's exhausted. So by the time we got to the photographer, our little baby girl started making her fave 'abrth' sounds and crying was just around the corner. We managed to change her into the adorable pink dress that made her look like a little princess, took a few family pictures and even got a few smiles out of her. But after that poor tired sunshine got upset and nothing including feeding worked. We agreed to try again in a couple of weeks. We'll see how that goes.

On the way home our cutie finally fell asleep. Got home, ate and slept for a couple of hours in my arms.

I am not really in the mood to write, so I guess gotta go get some sleep.

Church, bruises, dresses, yoga balls, spining...

Today has been a full busy day. The night was kind of busy too... Instead of getting a longer stretch of sleep, little Sophia decided to wake up at 3am, and 6am, and by 7:30am she was wide awake and ready for the new day. Apparently, that's the only thing that she read in the Baby Whisperer book :)

The 6am feeding took a while as well. The feeding itself was quick. Sophia fell asleep... Two minutes later she woke up... I picked her up, calmed her down.. She fell asleep... Two minutes later the sound of a diaper filling up broke the silence... I picked her up, changed the diaper, went to wash my hands and came back to the sound of hiccups.. Poor baby... Poor mommy :) Figured there was no way Sophia would fall asleep while hiccuping, so started feeding her again - it helped eventually and we all got some sleep... for 30 minutes I guess. :)

Anyhow... We made it to church. Baby girl wasn't super happy; in fact as soon as we walked into the sanctuary she started getting pretty vocal. I took her outside, tried bouncing and felt her latching on my arm. It kind of hurt, but I didn't see until later that I got a bruise about 1.5'' long and 1/4'' wide! I hadn't realized before the strength of baby's sucking.. (Well, I had, but kind of thought that an arm wouldn't be as sensitive). Eventually Sophiechka fell asleep and I was able to listen to part of the sermon and talk to a few people after the service.

In the afternoon we spent some time shopping for a dress for Sophia to take pictures, got haircuts and got another yoga ball... Yep, another one... in fact this will be the forth one. I've been wanting to get one for a while, since when our little cuteheart is moody bouncing is a very good way to calm her down (not a very easy movement to keep up though). We went to a store, asked questions and got a 65cm ball. Got home, tried pumping it (terrible pump!), it looked too small. We returned it and ordered another one of Amazon.com. An 85 cm ball. It came with a bit better pump. We pumped it and before it was full I realized I'd need a step stool to be able to get onto it. Hmm.. decided that 75cm should work. So we got that one at the same store as the first one (the guy who was at the cashier desk recognized us and wondered why we were getting the second yoga ball.. well, we decided to skip the minor detail of it being the third). Well, that one worked better, but after giving it more thought we went to another store and got a 65cm ball again! We'll see how that works :)

I guess I haven't written much about our little munchkin today. It looks like she might be rolling over to her stomach soon. She keeps trying to turn, but hasn't figured out yet what to do with her shoulder. But she has found her way to move around. Today in the evening Kyle set her onto the play mat and within 10 minutes she turned around about 180 degrees still laying on her back. I'll have to try to make a video of what she does, but briefly she arches her back, pushes with her feet on the floor and spins around :) That's the first time we've seen her do that! She's definitely growing quickly; just like aunt Donna said: Sophia will be crawling in no time!

I am sure there's more to write, but it's getting late, so we'll finish watching the Criminal Minds episode and try to pump another yoga ball! Yay! :)

Two month check up and shots :(

UPD: I actually started typing the post on Wednesday after the check up, but due to not being able to upload the picture from my iPhone directly to the blog it didn't get published until Saturday night.

I started typing this post yesterday, but got distracted by the poor little baby girl who had to deal with the results of three shots and one oral vaccine. 

So to start with the good part I'll say that Sophia is doing well. She's 11lb 11oz and 22" long (though honestly the nurse wasn't able to get her little wiggling and squirming legs to stretch out). These numbers put her in the 50th percentile just like when she was born. 

While we are really happy with our pediatrician recommended to us by our good friends from church John and Sheril Fitzpatrick, the vaccination process wasn't a very happy experience for either of us. I'll just quote my own post from Facebook that I wrote after we were done: I've never seen Sophia so confused, scared and upset. Her little eyes filled with tears looking at us were heartbreaking, as if she was saying: Mommy, Daddy, why are they hurting me? I need you to protect me. :( Needles to say that I couldn't help my tears appearing in my eyes. It was a very difficult moment. I know it's for her own good and it is one of the ways we are protecting our little baby from all the nasty things out there. But pastor Larry's comment made me think of how we won't be able to protect her from everything in the world. It's the difficult truth we all have to understand. 

The rest of the day Sophiechka was not feeling too great, but infant's acetaminophen definitely helped her to calm down and relieved the fever that was starting in the evening. For a long time her cry was very different from what I've heard before and even while asleep she was making little complaining noises that sounded like sad sighs. 

We still spent a bit of fun time together. Sophia got very interested in my engagement ring, reached to touch it a few times and was watching my fingers very closely. Also she tried to play with her what seems to be favorite flower toy on the changing table: 

In the evening Sophia was very happy to see Daddy and they spent some fun time in the play gym talking, smiling, playing.

First post. 10.5 weeks.

Here I am sitting in our bedroom with dimmed light listening to the the distant sound of the ocean coming from Kyle's iPod and holding our beautiful baby Sophia Grace. I could stare at her for a long time and not understand how this little miracle was entrusted to us by God.

Our baby girl is 10 and a half weeks old. And yet we are not completely sure about what we are doing and what is the right way to do things. You'd think that raising children is one of the oldest tasks that humanity has been performing for ages and there should be a neat plan with plenty of 'if... then...' directives and an extensive wiki page along with a quick reference and FAQ in order to make new parents' lives easier. Right. There are thousands of words written in hundreds of books; all sorts of information are pouring out of the 'all-knowing' Google pages; I literally feel like I am drowning in all kinds of advice and yet it all comes down to figuring out your own ways that work for your baby.

What I seem to be struggling with the most is understanding that baby is a baby and I can't and shouldn't expect her to run like a perfectly written and tested piece of software. While I do believe that Sophia was created by God perfectly, I need to remember that she's unique in her own way. I guess when I am confused and inexperienced in some areas I find myself in a desperate need of set of instructions with a predictable outcome. When the outcome doesn't happen I start panicking. But God has blessed me with an amazing husband and wonderful family and friends who give me support and reassurance when times are difficult.

Enough said about me though. I'd like to spend more time writing about our beloved baby Sophiechka. It's difficult to describe distinctive milestones at this age, but Sophia's vision has definitely improved. Now when I put her into the swing so that I can have a short break and grab a bite, she watches me from across the room and makes me feel guilty for not spending time with her. :) Her beautiful greyish blue eyes are always curiously looking around even when she's very tired. It seems everything's exciting and interesting to her and she's afraid to miss even the smallest thing.  On the downside being able to see more overstimulates her and doesn't let her fall asleep anywhere outside of the quite bedroom. (Tell me about going on a ride or for a walk in order to sooth your baby... While she likes the movement, she at best tolerates her car seat or stroller.)

Yesterday and today we've noticed that our baby girl started actually trying to grab things that she's interested in. I can't say she has a very good control of her hands, but she's definitely making connection between her movements and the results that she achieves. (With that being said she still easily wakes herself up with her hands if she's not snuggling in her 'woombie'. ) Her adorable little hands are more open and she's more willing to reach and touch new things.

Lately Sophiechka's smile stopped being just a copy of our expressions (though she still readily smiles back), but has become an expression of happiness. She'll smile when seeing her favorite toys, hearing me wind up the mobile on her crib and the most rewarding smiles are the ones she gives me when I greet her after she wakes up from sleep. No matter how fussy she is before falling asleep or how short her nap is, that smile is pure cuteness and makes my heart smile back.