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.