Tara fed Anna her first “solid” foods last night. The doctor told us at our last visit that Anna could probably start on solid foods after her fifth month or whenever she really started being interested in what we grown-ups were eating. Well, she’s been grabbing at our plates for the last couple of weeks now, so we thought we’d try her out on some yummy rice cereal!
Here’s a little movie of Anna eating her first food (QuickTime, 2.6MB).
August 18th, 2006
Anna’s starting to get a little mobile. Tara got a good little movie of Anna enjoying some tummy time (QuickTime, 1.7MB), and another of her rolling over (QuickTime, 1.6MB) from her back to her tummy all by herself (yes, the binkie is a true motivator for the pre-crawling set).
Lots of milestones here of late!
August 18th, 2006
Another “first”: Anna’s now able to sit up by herself for something of an extended period of time. Tara took some good pictures.
1 comment August 15th, 2006
The “firsts” are turning out to be just as amazing as everyone says they will be. Last night at dinner Ms. Anna started laughing at her silly mom, and then laughing at me when I tickled her ribs. Absolutely amazing, and one of those moments in parenthood that makes the whole “lack-of-sleep-and-no-time-for-yourself” thing seem meaningless by comparison.
August 15th, 2006
Last Friday would have been little Ben’s seventh birthday. We were happy to babysit for Ms. Madie on Friday evening while my cousin Dean and his wife Melinda took some time out to have a quiet dinner together to talk and reflect. And it was great to see folks at a birthday party in Ben’s honor on Saturday.
I just can’t believe what kind of changes a year brings. This time last year none of us had any real clue that Ben was sick, and certainly no expectation that he might not be with us today. The passing of such a wonderful little boy still doesn’t make any sense. And every time I look at the picture of Ben and his dad we have in our living room I cry.
We miss you Ben.
1 comment August 13th, 2006
We were happy to welcome some of our relatives from Germany this past week. My aunt and uncle from Duesseldorf stopped in for a visit on their way up to Aspen, where their eldest daughter will be attended boarding school for a year.
We’ve some pictures!
2 comments August 13th, 2006
One week later and we’re still sleeping through the night! Most nights she cries for anywhere from 15-30 minutes before nodding off, but the last couple of nights she’s gone to sleep within 3-10 minutes. We’ve managed to keep her on the bedtime schedule, which sometimes proves to be a little difficult. I still think it’s worth it! More sleep for her, more sleep for us!
August 8th, 2006
This last weekend we went on Anna’s first hike. Neal received a baby backpack for father’s day and we just now were able to try it out. Anna needed to be able to sit up on her own (even for a minute) before she should ride in the backpack. She’s been doing a pretty good job of sitting up by herself, so we thought it was a great time to try out the backpack. She seemed to enjoy it – new smells, sounds and sights. She certainly slept well Sunday night! It was great for us, too. We figured out that the last time we were in the mountains was last September when we went to Yellowstone on vacation! After our success this weekend, I think we’d like to try to get out for a hike more often – maybe even once a week!
August 7th, 2006
It took two horrible nights for Mom to come to the realization that maybe Anna should be sleeping in her own room. Sunday night was perhaps the worst night since she was an itty-bitty baby. She was up every hour and was in no mood to sleep from 2-4 am! I was so incredibly exhausted on Monday and so was she, which meant she was kind of crabby. Crabby baby and sleepy mom…not a good combination.
So yesterday I made the gut-wrenching decision to move Anna to her room (yes, I know, it sounds silly and melodramatic, but it was very difficult). All day yesterday I put her in her crib for naps and we continued when it was time for bed. She only screamed for 30 minutes (broken into 5, 10, and 15 minute intervals) before she nodded off. She woke up once at 11-ish and then slept solidly until 5:30 this morning! Here’s hoping we’re starting a positive trend and that this wasn’t a fluke.
My sleep was rather fitful, but mostly uninterrupted. I’m kind of paranoid about the SIDS thing. When she was sleeping beside our bed in the bassinet, I could hear her breathing or peek in to make sure her chest was moving up and down. Not so when she’s in the other room! You can’t hear her breathing on the baby monitor and checking on her involves opening her bedroom door, which always runs the risk of waking her. I imagine it will get better with time.
On an unrelated note, Anna had her 4-month vaccinations on Friday. Whereas we didn’t have the 3-hours of crying, we still had the elevated temperature. She ran a fever for about 24 hours (up to 101.5 degrees), but seemed to be okay otherwise. The doctor did not give her the DTaP (the one with whooping cough), suspecting it caused her reaction last time, but maybe one of the others is causing the problem? We’ll have to see what happens at 6 months. Needless to say, I’m going to schedule her appointment for early in the day on Thursday. Be prepared!
This weekend Anna had her first day of full health in a little more than a month! Sunday was a great day (until the night, of course). I’m so happy to see her feeling better. What a drag to be sick for more than one quarter of your life.
1 comment August 1st, 2006
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