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.