Woo hoo! Fun discovery this morning! Zoey's first little tooth is coming in, on the bottom front. She took my finger and showed it to me, and I'm kinda giddy with excitement! It's actually a little surprising to me that I am having some strong emotions around it. I guess it feels like a 'big girl' milestone, that our little baby is growing up. As if weighing 20 lbs wasn't enough. As I wrote last night, there are other milestones coming right up with starting solid foods and crawling, but this one sorta took me by surprise!
I've read that the first teeth generally come in pairs, so I imagine the other bottom tooth won't be far behind. We'll keep you posted!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Superchunk indeed.
And here it is, almost the end of November already! I've had a list of Zoey happenings waiting to be written to this blog, and all of a sudden two more weeks have gone by since I wrote them down. Argh!
Well here's the big news -- our girl weighs 20 lbs! It has been a couple of weeks since our 6-month visit with Zoey's naturopathic pediatrician where she was weighed and measured, and our jaws are still on the floor. I was thinking 18 lbs tops, but when the scale swung to 20 lbs, I just couldn't believe it. Her length was 27 3/4 inches, just shy of 28. She is just above the top line on the charts for both weight and length, so at least she's proportionate. But sheesh! I know some 1-year-olds who are just getting to 20 lbs. I have a belief that babies who are breastfed cannot be "overweight", that mother's milk is exactly the composition and amount that this particular baby needs, and our doctor agrees with that philosophy. I'm certainly not overdoing it on sugar in my diet; in fact, I'm probably not eating enough in general. So frankly, I'm not sure how in the world she got to 20 lbs already, but she is proportionate in length so I'm just going with it. She might lose some of it when she starts crawling, as many babies do. We'll keep you posted! (And for what it's worth, in the picture above, she's got a big ol' cloth diaper on but you can still get an idea of her girth!)
And on the topic of crawling, Zoey is certainly getting close! It has been such fun to watch her practice her crawling behaviors -- first up on her hands, then on her knees with her butt in the air, but never both at the same time yet. So cute! She can scoot around pretty well on her belly, pushing herself backward with her hands and and forward with her feet, and she's becoming more mobile on her back too. One of my favorite things to watch her do is prop herself up on her hands and then flex her spine back and forth, arching and hunching. Sometimes she sways side to side too, just practicing different movements. Sometimes we find that she has turned herself 90 degrees in her co-sleeper before falling asleep. We're going to have to get her a crib soon, because she will be able to crawl out of that co-sleeper onto the bed and potentially fall off. Which would be bad.
She is still experimenting with her voice, which has been delightful to listen to. She went through a phase of a week and a half, maybe 2 weeks where she was mostly grunting really hard all the time, and that was the primary sound that she was making. Sometimes her face would even get red, she would grunt so hard. It wasn't even like she was doing anything at the time -- a few months ago when she was practicing standing, she would grunt when she extended her legs, but lately it's just to hear the sound it makes. These last couple of days have brought back the squeals, though. I think it has something to do with the fact that we're moving soon and have taken down the drapes and things off the walls, which has changed the acoustics in the living room; sounds bounce off the walls more and squeals echo better!
We're moving next weekend and I'm hoping that we can make it until then for both introducing solid foods and starting to crawl. Mostly for my own benefit, I think -- I'm trying to manage just one major event at a time. Of course Zoey is on her own agenda and couldn't care less about how I would like to have things unfold, as it should be. I've heard it said that our children are our greatest teachers, and in these 6 short months I am already starting to see how that could be the case. (I know that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface -- those of you with toddlers and teenagers are scoffing at me right now!)
We have developed a fun little bedtime routine that consists of taking off her diaper and letting her spend some real quality time with her toes for about 30 minutes. It's almost like her legs are spring loaded -- when the diaper comes off, the toes go straight up to her face and she grabs onto them for all they're worth. She really loves her toes. She will roll around, giggle, put them in her mouth, just has a great time for those 30 minutes. We lay a few cloth diapers down on the floor to catch the inevitable moments of peeing. We play a 30-minute CD of African lullabies, some of which are a cappella, and when she hears the voices, she just stops what she's doing and listens very intently. When the last song comes on, we put on our nighttime diaper and our jammies, say good night to Daddy, and then we tank up for the night and she goes to sleep. For the most part, she sleeps from 8:30pm until somewhere between 3-4 am when she's hungry again, but she goes right back to sleep after I nurse her and sleeps for another few hours. When she's ready to wake up for the day, she generally wiggles herself awake and plays quietly with her fingers or the blanket until she's ready for more attention, then she starts making little happy squeaks until we wake up and play with her. She's such a great kid...
Well, that's all for tonight. Wish us luck with the upcoming move! I probably won't post again until we're in our new home, so we'll see you back here after Dec 1st.
Well here's the big news -- our girl weighs 20 lbs! It has been a couple of weeks since our 6-month visit with Zoey's naturopathic pediatrician where she was weighed and measured, and our jaws are still on the floor. I was thinking 18 lbs tops, but when the scale swung to 20 lbs, I just couldn't believe it. Her length was 27 3/4 inches, just shy of 28. She is just above the top line on the charts for both weight and length, so at least she's proportionate. But sheesh! I know some 1-year-olds who are just getting to 20 lbs. I have a belief that babies who are breastfed cannot be "overweight", that mother's milk is exactly the composition and amount that this particular baby needs, and our doctor agrees with that philosophy. I'm certainly not overdoing it on sugar in my diet; in fact, I'm probably not eating enough in general. So frankly, I'm not sure how in the world she got to 20 lbs already, but she is proportionate in length so I'm just going with it. She might lose some of it when she starts crawling, as many babies do. We'll keep you posted! (And for what it's worth, in the picture above, she's got a big ol' cloth diaper on but you can still get an idea of her girth!)
And on the topic of crawling, Zoey is certainly getting close! It has been such fun to watch her practice her crawling behaviors -- first up on her hands, then on her knees with her butt in the air, but never both at the same time yet. So cute! She can scoot around pretty well on her belly, pushing herself backward with her hands and and forward with her feet, and she's becoming more mobile on her back too. One of my favorite things to watch her do is prop herself up on her hands and then flex her spine back and forth, arching and hunching. Sometimes she sways side to side too, just practicing different movements. Sometimes we find that she has turned herself 90 degrees in her co-sleeper before falling asleep. We're going to have to get her a crib soon, because she will be able to crawl out of that co-sleeper onto the bed and potentially fall off. Which would be bad.
She is still experimenting with her voice, which has been delightful to listen to. She went through a phase of a week and a half, maybe 2 weeks where she was mostly grunting really hard all the time, and that was the primary sound that she was making. Sometimes her face would even get red, she would grunt so hard. It wasn't even like she was doing anything at the time -- a few months ago when she was practicing standing, she would grunt when she extended her legs, but lately it's just to hear the sound it makes. These last couple of days have brought back the squeals, though. I think it has something to do with the fact that we're moving soon and have taken down the drapes and things off the walls, which has changed the acoustics in the living room; sounds bounce off the walls more and squeals echo better!
We haven't yet started solid foods, but I think the time is coming near. She is still mostly just watching us eat, but occasionally she will reach out for a glass that we're drinking from or... the other day she was sitting on Amy Jo's lap (Amy Jo is our incredible office manager for our midwifery practice) while we were eating lunch, and with lightning speed, Zoey slapped a whole bowl of lentil soup out of Amy Jo's hands onto the floor. Splattered all over the rug, couch, chair, coffee table... she was quite delighted with herself. :-(
We're moving next weekend and I'm hoping that we can make it until then for both introducing solid foods and starting to crawl. Mostly for my own benefit, I think -- I'm trying to manage just one major event at a time. Of course Zoey is on her own agenda and couldn't care less about how I would like to have things unfold, as it should be. I've heard it said that our children are our greatest teachers, and in these 6 short months I am already starting to see how that could be the case. (I know that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface -- those of you with toddlers and teenagers are scoffing at me right now!)
We have developed a fun little bedtime routine that consists of taking off her diaper and letting her spend some real quality time with her toes for about 30 minutes. It's almost like her legs are spring loaded -- when the diaper comes off, the toes go straight up to her face and she grabs onto them for all they're worth. She really loves her toes. She will roll around, giggle, put them in her mouth, just has a great time for those 30 minutes. We lay a few cloth diapers down on the floor to catch the inevitable moments of peeing. We play a 30-minute CD of African lullabies, some of which are a cappella, and when she hears the voices, she just stops what she's doing and listens very intently. When the last song comes on, we put on our nighttime diaper and our jammies, say good night to Daddy, and then we tank up for the night and she goes to sleep. For the most part, she sleeps from 8:30pm until somewhere between 3-4 am when she's hungry again, but she goes right back to sleep after I nurse her and sleeps for another few hours. When she's ready to wake up for the day, she generally wiggles herself awake and plays quietly with her fingers or the blanket until she's ready for more attention, then she starts making little happy squeaks until we wake up and play with her. She's such a great kid...
Well, that's all for tonight. Wish us luck with the upcoming move! I probably won't post again until we're in our new home, so we'll see you back here after Dec 1st.
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