Random cuteness

Christmas is coming!

So I decided that given I have a baby and Christmas is fast approaching I was going to get a head start on shopping for presents. I started already in the beginning of November and I'm glad I did! I have a little more than half done, and most of the rest I already know what I am getting so It shouldn't be too stressful to get it all done in time. Every year I have started shopping for the holidays a little earlier and it has made a big difference on feeling ready and not frazzled by last minute gift getting.  One thing I do to make gift giving easier is to really pay attention throughout the year to when someone makes a comment about something they like or something they need, I make a mental note of it. So when a birthday or Christmas comes up I go back to that little area of my brain (my long term memory that has not been affected by mommy brain!) that stores these comments and pull out an idea.

Now lets talk about Xmas decorations.  We haven't decided yet if we are going to do a tree this year. I know, this makes me sad, but my husband's reasoning is that we aren't having any of the family at our place this year, and with the baby, getting a real tree this year will be pretty messy. I guess it is one more thing to have to do, then clean up, and lets face it, we don't have a lot of free time in these parts lately.  There are just so many things i want to do related to the holidays and I don't think it will be realistic to do many of them.  While Teagan is getting a lot better, she is still pretty demanding and we are still working on figuring out the naps. Many times she only naps 40 minutes, and this makes it hard to start any project, never mind finish it. I may have to leave all of these big ideas I have until next year, sigh.  Hopefully though, then she will only have to nap once or twice a day and her naps will be much longer. Also she may be able to help me with things like decorating cookies!

Teagan is almost 5 1/2 months!  I am starting to really notice that she is catching on to things very quickly.  Last week i started balancing her on her feet. At first she didn't understand what she was supposed to do and kept bending her knees. Then, within a few days, she was putting pressure on them and balancing with me holding her.  She really likes her exersaucer and will now stand up in it herself.  I noticed too that her sitting is getting closer to her being able to do it on her own! she can sit and balance herself with her hands in the front, and can let go for a few seconds without falling over.  I am thinking that by xmas she may just be sitting all by herself!  We have been feeding her solids now for a little over a month and she loves her rice cereal. She smiles and kicks her feet and gets excited when she sees the bowl.  Any other foods we are still working on.  So far we have tries sweet potatoes, avocado, corn, green beans mixed with apple sauce and chicken. Chicken was the worst! she actually gagged and looked at us like we were crazy!  the corn probably went over the best.  I have also been trying to mix some of these with breastmilk and cereal to help her get used to the taste. A little more success this way!

I have quite a few new pictures that I have not gotten around to transferring to the computer, but they are on the way!

Teagan's first Halloween!

Here's my little caterpillar!

Latest happenings.....

Most people say that time goes by so fast when you have a baby.  In some ways I feel like just yesterday i was pregnant, but most of the time it really does feel like it's been almost 4 months.
When you have a colicky baby, you are just counting down the days until that magic month where things are supposed to get easier. Well, we're almost there, at that magic 4 months.  Have things gotten easier? in some ways.  I think you have figured you baby out a bit more to help you deal with the difficult times.  But it's like so many of my friends have said, just when you feel like you have something figured out, it changes.  Teagan is still very spitty and gassy, so, as a recommendation form her Dr., I am off dairy again.  This is so hard for me!  she is also on Prevacid which is an antacid to help control any uncomfortableness she may have due to the reflux.  I honestly have no idea if any of this is making any difference.  Her Dr said however, sometimes you just have to tackle everything at once and hope something works.  The unfortunate part is that if one does, you don't know which one!
T has also been fussy breast feeding and I'm not sure if this is due to gas or lack of supply for me.  I think that what might have happened is that since she started sleeping through the night last month (I know, I am VERY grateful!) my supply might have decreased.  She seems hungrier during the day now so I am just trying to feed her as often as possible. We went three weeks without seeing a weight gain so I am supplementing her 2 bottles a day to help with that.

Now for the positive section of this post.  Teagan is an adorable baby. My favorite part of the day is going in to get her up in the morning and she's smiling.  It's crazy because she often wakes up from naps upset, but in the morning she'll lie there for quite awhile looking around before she starts trying to get our attention.  Last month she found her hands and then forgot about them it seemed. Now it seems like she's found them again and is often trying to fit both fists in her mouth at once! hahah
She is rolling over and getting a lot stronger in her neck muscles. Hopefully in a few weeks we can break out the baby einstein activity saucer!  She is getting more vocal, no laughs yet but I think she is very close. Her favorite thing is making motor sounds and bubbles with her tongue. Here are some of the latest photos of my little peanut :)

Cautiously optimistic

So a big milestone! Teagan has slept through the night for the last 3 nights.  I am pretty happy and cautiously optimistic that this may mean the start of things getting slightly easier with her colic.  She has definitely become very alert and can go longer periods of entertaining herself without crying. The downside to the alertness, however, is that her naps haven't been great, and she gets very overtired quickly, so there are longer periods of me having to constantly try to sooth her. It is a struggle to try to pick up on cues of a colicky baby for when they are getting tired, because sometimes they are just fussing.  So with all of this said, my latest plan of action had been trying to get her down for a nap within 2 hours of her being awake. Sometimes she can't even last that long.  Also I am trying to encourage the development of her morning nap.  I always told myself that I didn't want to be a slave to my baby's schedule, that hopefully when my baby was tired she could just nap wherever and whenever she was tired.  This has proven to be a little harder than I thought given that I have a colicky baby that  cannot self sooth very well.  Ideally i would like her to get to a point where she can have a morning and afternoon nap on a schedule that is not super strict, but for now I am realizing that some structure may be exactly what she needs given the type of baby she is.  She is 3 months old next week and I am crossing my fingers it is the beginning of the end of the worst of the crying!

Teagan is definitely a little character, and her smiles and coos are getting cuter and cuter.  She has recently discovered her hands which I am hoping will soon take the place of our pinky finger being her pacifier!  Oh! and I almost forgot, She rolled over this week! At less than 3 months old!  I told Marc that I think we have a bionic baby. She is sooooo strong, when she is in the change table, she will arch her back and lift it of the table into a bridge pose and you can see her abs! Yikes!  I am seriously scared she will be crawling next month and walking by six months. Ok maybe that might be a slight exaggeration but I really believe that this colic has made her muscles super strong and that she is going to be early with walking!

Teagan at 2 months!

Seriously, this kid has crazy hair! granted, there was a lot of wind!

Reading fashion magazines with mommy at the lake

Planning her first hairstyle

Teagan discovering her hands

After bath

So I am FINALLY getting around to writing a new post.  My baby is officially 2 months old!  In some ways it seems like just yesterday she was born, and in other ways it seems like a lifetime ago. We love our little peanut like crazy, but we have had a lot of challenges so far!

Ok here we go, in all honesty, life has been HARD.  Yes, it needed capitals.  As luck would have it, Teagan is extremely fussy, gassy, and has reflux. Most of my day is spent soothing her.  In the last few weeks a few things have gotten a bit better, but it's a sloooow change.  I feel like I have tried everything, cut out dairy for awhile, tried ovol, gripe water, slings, baby bjorn, every position imaginable. She was on ranitidine for the reflux but recently we stopped giving it to her since there wasn't a major improvement.  I feel so bad for her and it breaks my heart not being able to make her feel better :(  It is really hard for me to accept that she just has an immature digestive system and that I just have to wait things out.  I feel like I am counting down the days until she is 3 months, which is when colic is supposed to start to get better. This makes me sad too because she is only this little for so long.  I really really want to enjoy every stage that she goes through, but this stage is so hard.  We do have some good days, and that allows me to put some things in perspective a little.  I really have to work hard at pushing all my negative feelings away when they come up, because really, I have a beautiful, healthy baby who's new little smiles and coos make me melt.  She has quite the little personality emerging and it will be so neat to see what kind of person she becomes. I imagine as she becomes more aware of the things around her she will get a bit better at soothing herself, and her being uncomfortable with the gas and reflux will subside.  I am just taking it one day at a time, and trying to enjoy what is left of this summer with her.