Books and bows:)

Miss Sophia got all the good mail yesterday! First, she received the Winnie the Pooh series from Aunt P!! I hate to say this, but I have never read them, or had them read to me (at least that I remember), so I'm very excited to learn about Pooh along with Sophie:)

How did I not realize that the shipping form was much more interesting to her than the books!

Second, the bows I won from Rebekah's contest came yesterday! Kristen sent not only the 2 bows I asked for, but an extra big bow and a headband! (Hey, and btw, that's our new granite kitchen counter!) Here's the link to Kristen's Etsy website--highly recommend! http://www.etsy.com/shop/prettyprettybaby

It was wrapped so nicely, and came with a sweet note as well.

Here's the model...not sure what happened to the lady bug bow...it must have gotten lost in the upload so I'll add that later.

Here's the bow!

Sophie's first trip to the zoo!

We took our first trip to the zoo yesterday! It was also Sophie's first ride on the carseat "the big girl way." She wasn't really sure what to do, lol.



She was, however, more excited to chew on the new strap than to look at the animals.


I took these two before we left, when she was fresh. Good thing too, b/c Sophie can sweat. By the time we made it back to the car, her head was full of little sweat curls, cute and sad at the same time. At least I slathered her with sunblock this time, so not even a hint of a burn.

We went with an old friend of Dan's and her daughter who is 2. She gave me a fresh perspective on the whole bfing situation. Her daughter was born at 32 weeks and she was only able to bf about 3 months. For various reasons, she had to stop. She found a milk bank and supplemented with another women's breast milk until her daughter was 13 months old. Hearing her story really hit home for me, I guess. She had wanted to continue, but just couldn't. Now, I'm back on the bandwagon of NOT cutting back yet. I think that I will burn through what I have in the freezer, and take anything newly pumped to my parents house, to store in their deep freeze, so it will last longer.

PT Progress

I completely forgot to mention Sophia's PT appt this past Friday. The first thing B said was "wow, she's looking really good!" She'd doing really well holding her head at midline, but does need some added endurance to hold it there for longer periods of time. We'll continue to work on that, as well as continue to strengthen her left neck muscle.

Sophie was having NO part of PT. We really didn't get much accomplished. She was a crank-meister, and cried everytime B or I attempted to put her into a stretching position. The good news is we don't have to go back until July 25. B said as long as we continue to do her excercises there's no need to come in so frequently. I hate to admit it but we HAVE been slacking in that department. It's not that it's hard, it's just not routine to remember to do them. Inevitably, I will have already picked her up from the changing table when I remember the excercises. Nine times out of ten I'll put her back down and do them, but sometimes not. Dan is the same way. So, I feel like we got off easy, but vow to keep it up like we should.

Oh, and PSA about the Jumparoo. Dan mentioned to B that we have one (and that Sophie loves it). She cringed at the mention of it, so of course I probed for more info. She said that alot of times parents will come in when there kid is learning to walk, and report issues with them wanting to bounce, not walk. According to her, it's a result of the jumparoo. I told her we didn't leave her in for hours at a time. Her primary concern was that Sophie is getting enough opportunity to stand outside of the Jumparoo. She said the excersaucer is completely fine, and I also showed her how she stands while holding on to me, which was totally acceptable.


And for your viewing pleasure, here's our first glimpse of her teeth. She is very guarded about her mouth right now, so this pic is actually a still shot of a video I took of her giggling:)

14 minutes

Sophie cried for 14 minutes, and then there was silence. I thought she was asleep, but then she let out a shriek that made me go check on her. Her crib is still bumperless since Target didn't have them, so I thought she got her foot stuck. Nope, she just decided to start crying again. Once in the nursery, I couldn't NOT pick her up. We rocked and then she was out. I put her back in the crib and then she was NOT out. Oh joy. I didn't pick her up right away, but stood next to the crib and rubbed her belly a bit. It was obvious she wasn't going to sleep, so I decided to nurse her. Worked like a charm and then I put her in bed, which brings us to now...when she is starting to fuss again:(

Last night went well, so I was hoping for the same tonight. She went right to sleep at 9:30 and slept until 3 am when she started fussing. I got up, put her pacifier in and she was out until 4:30. She had peed through everything, so I changed her and brought her into our bedroom where she slept until 7:45. Obviously, tonight is not going as smoothly.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining. I'm not. I'd much rather be in this situation, than not have the opportunity to be in this situation. When I was holding her tonight, she buried her head in my neck and it felt so perfect. So right. Then, I had a really off-the-wall thought. I thought "I hope that one day she finds someone that loves her as much as I do." And then I cried. Is that weird, the thought not that I cried? It seems a bit odd to me, but it's what I was thinking.

UPDATE: She finally stayed asleep, but was pretty fussy from 3-3:30. I didn't get her! My laziness really did just allow me to lie in bed and assess the situation, which wasn't a situation at all. She finally went back to sleep and didn't wake until 6:15!

eating...

I don't blame this completely on starting solids, since it started happening before we introduced any, but Sophie is not a fan of the bottle anymore. If she's starving she'll eat, but if she's not, she'll just play with it and it just gets messy (and frustrating). When I came back to work, I left three 4-oz bottles with Dan. She always ate at least 2 of them, usually 3. Well, that turned into only eating 2, and now, she's eating her first bottle at about 3 pm (when I haven't fed her since 6 am). What's up with that?

Is this b/c of the introduction of solids? During the day, Dan feeds her one time, usually a fruit. The first few times he did this, he fed her the ENTIRE container "because she seemed hungry." This started the discussion we continue to go round and round about. That is, her primary source of nutrition until she's one should be breastmilk. He does NOT get it, although he's finally resigned himself to only giving her 1/3-1/2 of one container. But again, this decrease in bottle usage started before solids, so I can't contribute it all to that.

But, since this is the new pattern, I'm thinking about cutting down pumping at work from 2x a day to 1x. I don't think that will have any horrible repercussions on breastfeeding, will it? I mean, she eats 4 oz from a bottle a day (if that, sometimes she doesn't even finish), and when I pump 2x a day, I typically get 10-12 oz daily. That is only pumping about 10 minutes TOTAL daily, so I know I could get more if I put more time into it. So it seems to me, even if I cut one session, I am still pumping 1-3 more ounces than she needs, daily. Plus, I have oodles of frozen breastmilk at home. I think if I were to quit bfing right now, I would easily have a two week supply.

As far as the downside of cutting out a session, I'm worried for purely selfish reasons. 1) I'm afraid my weight will start to go back up and 2) that my period will start. Obviously, if we have any prayer of another baby, a period is a must, but at the same time it is SO nice without one!

3) I am absolutely petrified of the hormonal imbalance once weaning starts. The PPD I suffered was bad enough, and now I'm hearing that if you suffered from PPD that the weaning process can be just as bad. I don't know if I (or Dan) can handle that.

I don't know what to do. I need to think about it a bit more. I think also, cutting out a pumping session is another step closer to her "growing up," so I think I'm feeling similar to how I felt when she started solids. Why rush it if there is no need. I also hope it's not a snowball effect, and that if my body sees my cutting down sesssions, that it will start decreasing milk supply over all.

Don't get me wrong. Formula is not the end of the world for me, it really isn't. But I worked so hard, especially in the beginning with the clogged duct, then mastistis, then abscess, and now it's finally easy and I don't want to mess it up.

I'll take some time this weekend to think about it.

For fun, here's a pic of Sophia from last night--sorry for the booger hanging out of her nose:) I LOVE the onsie. It says "I'm a Miracle." It also has a matching hat that should be perfect for fall:) Dan's Aunt P sent it to her when she was just a few weeks old. I remember thinking how BIG it looked, and now, it fits her perfectly.

Time for a change...

I finally did something a *little* different to the blog. Not sure I like it, but it's an improvement over what it was. I think;) It still needs alot of work. I'm also thinking of changing the title. It doesn't fit anymore. It's more "Sophie's World" than "My Infertile World." Speaking of that, I have a child now (wow, still hard to think/say that), so am I still infertile? Technically speaking, I don't think so, but mentally I am. I have no delusions of getting pregnant the "regular" way, although Dr K swore it can happen. We're not holding our breath, that's for sure. I will forever lump myself in the group of women that spent years trying to get pregnant.

I don't want someone who googles "infertility" to come across this blog and open it just to see a smiling picture of Sophia. Been there done that, and while it sometimes gave me a smidge of hope (depending on the day/amount of hormones in my system/presence of a period), more times than not it was just a kick in the stomach. I don't want to do that to someone else. However, I know that some key word searches like "IVF" or "FET" or "endo" will lead people here anyway, so I guess there's not a lot I can do about that.

Other news...
Our kitchen is nearing completion. Cabinets and all appliances are in, and the granite is getting installed as I type. My mom made the comment that we're fixing it up so well that we won't want to sell. Not quite. I am SO ready to get out of there. I keep telling myself that with any luck, we'll be in a new house 12 months from now. I'll try to post pics soon!

Sophie news...
Not alot new. See, this is what happens when I post so frequently:) When I go a week without posting there is SO much to say, and when I post so often, nothing seems quite post-worthy.
I haven't made it to Target to get the bumper for her crib. I'm taking 1/2 day off tomorrow and heading straight there after I leave work. This means that as of tomorrow night, I have NO excuse for her to sleep in pnp anymore:( Honestly, she is outgrowing it. She *just* fits to lie the short way, and a few mornings I've woken up and she's moved herself and is laying longway. It's time.

Dan's Father's Day present:)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I won!!!

I won Rebekah's contest!!! I.never.win.anything, so I'm very excited:) I picked the ladybug set, although I'm fairly certain Sophia's going to have to grow more hair before they actually stay in her hair.

Father's Day has come and gone. I got Dan Cardinals tix, a membership to our zoo, and made him a video montage of his first 6 months as a dad. I'll try to upload it here. I managed to get it on FB, no problem. Also, using One True Media, I was able to upload video to that program, and THEN upload from there to FB, so I'm hoping I've found the secret to upload video to the blog. I'll be trying that this weekend.

Nothing too crazy to report. Sophie's sleeping is still erratic. I think I'll start to make the switcharoo to her crib this weekend. Wish me luck!

My friend Steph did a little photo shoot back in April, for Sophie's 4 month pics. Here are a few of my faves...

Stephaniecordle.com

desperate attempt to win some bows:)

Ok, I'm a dork...but I like to win. Apparently I get 3 entries for EACH blog post about Rebekah's give-away?!
Here's a link to her post! http://to-infertility-and-beyond.blogspot.com/2010/06/pretty-pretty-baby-bowtique-giveaway.html

This just earned me 3 more chances:)

A sleeping update

As I put Sophie in her pack and play last night, she looked up at me as if to so "why did you put me down." I knew I was in for it. She fussed, and fussed, and cried a little. I went to bed about 10 minutes later and listened to her moving and fussing for about 20 more minutes. I finally leaned over and started massaging her tummy. It's something I've done since she was just a few weeks old, when she was having gas issus. It worked! She stopped fussing and was asleep within minutes.

Then, she woke at 12:52 (yes, I know the time). She did her usual fussing and moving around, slamming her legs down on the pack and play. I let her do this for 30 minutes. Just when I thought she was done...she'd start again. I tried the tummy massage again, and it worked again!

After that, she slept until 4:15, so I fed her and put her back down, and she slept until 8.

I feel good about last night. I hated her crying, but I knew she wasn't in any pain. I'm going to try to keep this up and we'll see how it goes.

She does not sleep in her crib yet, for 2 reasons.
1) I need to get a crib bumper. When she plays in her crib, she inevitably gets her foot/leg caught in one of the crib slats.
2) I have a HUGE deadline next Thursday. Until then, I need to be able to sleep as peacefully as possible.
I'm planning on making the move to the crib on July 1. I'm already dreading it. For so long, I thought she'd be fine with the move, and it would be harder on me. Quite honestly, I've kept her next to the bed so long b/c it's just convenient for me. After the move, I'll have to actually get up:) However, now that this new pattern has emerged for her, I'm not so sure she's going to handle it as well as I had originally hoped.

Sophia needs some hair bows:)

I never thought I'd be into the girly girl pink and bows type of stuff. Butttttttt...I am:) A fellow IFer, Rebekah, is having a bow giveaway on her blog. I've "known" her for a while (too long, given the circumstances) and was thrilled for her as she welcomed her son, who is a result of her 2nd FET (if I am remembering correctly).

Anyhoo...she has this fabulous blog. I wish my blog was fabulous but I just have no time. As I told someone the other day, I barely have time to pee. She has a friend who has an Etsy shop, and is doing a bow giveaway on her blog. So, I am playing along with all of her contest rules...one of which is if I blog about the give away and then link to her post I get THREE entries for these bows that Sophia HAS to have. http://to-infertility-and-beyond.blogspot.com/2010/06/pretty-pretty-baby-bowtique-giveaway.html

She's my little ladybug, so how perfect are these?http://www.etsy.com/listing/49401514/pretty-little-ladybug-set
but I like these too...http://www.etsy.com/listing/46744683/pretty-preppy-trio

Ok Rebekah, can you rig this drawing so I can win??? I think I've done everything you've asked, except follow you on Twitter, but that's b/c I don't do Twitter:)

Sleep trouble...

Well, we made it through the first 6 months with a marvelously easy baby in regards to sleeping (in regards to most things really, but especially sleeping). A new pattern has evolved though, and I'm not digging it.

Sophie used to go to bed b/t 9-10, wake b/t 3-4 to eat and then sleep until 7 or so. For the past week, she is waking at 12:30, 1:30, 3:30, 4:30...fussy, fussy. She doesn't typically wake each of those times every night, but at least 2 out of the 4. I think I said in an earlier post that I just feed her b/c it's a quick fix back to sleep for another few hours. Last night, I fed her at 12:30, she woke at 1:30 but quite honestly I was so tired that I just let her fuss, so she must have gone back to sleep. Then she slept until 5ish.

She doesn't cry really, but is really restless and whiny in her sleep. I had stopped using the sleep positioner a few weeks ago, but used it again last night to see what happened. My active little girl managed to move her body IN the sleep positioner a full 90 degrees.

This new pattern coincides with a few things, but I don't know if any of them is the culprit.
1) turning 6 months
2) not using the harness
3) the emergence of 2 teeth

Also, she is starting to fight going to bed a bit. I've always made a habit of putting her to bed awake, and until a week ago, that worked fabulously. It was hard to leave the room when her little blue eyes were staring up at me in the dark, but she was typically asleep within 10 minutes. NOW? Not so much. She no longer will just ease into sleep. I tried to put her to bed last night at 9:30. No luck. I rocked her for a few minutes, and put her back to bed. No luck. Lather, rinse, repeat and she finally stayed down. I just really don't want to get in the habit of rocking her to sleep, or having her fall asleep on me. I've heard that's bad, bad, bad.

So, I had a talk with Mr. Google this morning and a consistant answer to this problem could be separation anxiety, but I'm doubtful of that. I don't think that's it. She is showing no other signs.

What to do?? I have no clue. I wish she came with a manual:)

6 month "official" stats

Sophia's 6 month pedi appt was on Friday. She weighs 17.1 pounds (75th percentile), is 25 inches long (25th percentile) and her noggin is 44 cms, (90th percentile)! So far, she has Dan's head and my height:)

She got 4 shots, which she didn't handle too well. I dropped Dan and Sophie off at home after the appt, and came back to work. He called to say she had cried her first real tear, so the shots must really have hurt her. Combine that with teething and we had ourselves a cranky-Franky. Speaking of teething, her 2nd tooth came in last week.

Dr. R wants us to start feeding her 2 meals of solid foods per day. Dan will feed her fruit for lunch, and I'll feed her veggies/rice cereal for dinner. She did say we can try oatmeal now, but she seems to be doing ok with the rice cereal, so I'll keep that up a bit longer.

Dr. R also said she weighs enough to be sleeping through the night. That's great, in theory. However, for the past week or so, she's been waking 2 times, once at 1:30 and once at 4:30. I feed her both times, but I'm not sure if she's really hungry or not. What I DO know is that she just fusses until I feed her, so that's my short term solution.

She also has excema, which is no surprise given the allergies/sensative skin that run in my family. I've been directed to slather her with Aveeno after each bath, and keep hydrocortizone on an excessively dry patch on the back of her calf.

ALSO, she is officially sitting up on her own. My big girl is growing up! She can sit up for several minutes, assuming she doesn't try to move too much, lol.



She's a babbling fool lately too. Less drool (now that the teeth have come in), but no less noise. It's adorable, simply adorable. I can't get enough of her.

Torticollis update

arePhew. This has been the week of dr appts. Yesterday was Sophia's PT appt--ok, so not a dr really, but whatever.
Her neck rotation to the right is MUCH improved. Her tilt to the left still needs alot of work, although it's better. PT gave us some alternatives to the excercise that she's been fighting so hopefully that will help. We also have a new excercise called "head righting." Basically, we have to position her on our lap (or excercise ball) and tilt her whole body to the right, which automatically makes her head correct to the left (or "right" itself). We do this 3x per day, 10-15 times each, or until she is obviously tired.

I also mentioned that she seems to use her left hand most of the time. PT said that that is also a sx of torticollis, b/c of the way the head is rotated/tilted. Basically, she SEES her left hand more , and it's easier for her to track her left hand. So, we will start working to encourage her to use her right hand more. This is, thankfully, fairly simple. When we're holding her, we can just hold down/pin (sounds more harsh than it is) her left arm to her side or behind her a bit, which will force her to use her right arm. Also, we have to encourage her to lift her right arm over her head. This is a bit trickier, but can be done with the help of toys. Last night, for example, I held her links above her head, to her right, and held down her left arm. Worked like a charm:)

So, we get to work on these new excercises and go back to PT next Friday. She did mention that we really have to keep at this. She said so many times parents see their child getting "fixed" and start to taper off/completely stop the excercises. She made it clear that what we are fixing CAN be "undone" so we have to keep it up.

I asked about the flat spot on her head and PT said it's better, so I feel good about that. I've done all I can possibly do to get her off of her back. We mentioned that we are about to put her Bumbo away (for size reasons mostly), and PT said "no, she's done with the Bumbo." She was adament. She said that it's only to be used to assist with learning how to sit, and since she can do that now, we don't need nor should we use the Bumbo. Another piece of baby gear bights the dust...

Next stop, 6 month pedi appt today...

6 months!

Our sweet sweet Sophia turned 6 months this past Saturday. It truly does seem like she was just born. Where does the time go? I wish I could slow it down a bit. Her unofficial 6 month stats...

1) Eyes grey-blue

2) Hair still red

3) Makes every indication of being left-handed

4) Ticklish on her collar-bone:)

5) A few 3 month clothes still fit, but she is solidly in 6 months, and some 6-9 month clothes

6) Who needs toys? Her favorite "toy" is the tag/label on her toys,boppy, wubbanub, etc.

7) Size 2 diapers

8) Can finally touch the ground in her excersaucer; can turn herself in her excersaucer

9) Smiles spontaneously when she sees us:)

10) Has one tooth, and I swear the 2nd will be here within days. I can see it in her gums, and it is *this* close to breaking through.

11) Has tried rice cereal, sweet potatos, green beans and carrots

12) Is tripoding and can sit for a few seconds, unassisted.

13) Is rolling from back to belly on her own, within seconds of being layed down.

14) Bouncy seat is a thing of the past

15) Bumbo is almost thing of the past. Her thighs get stuck in it:)

16) First time in high chair last night, and she did fairly well.

17) I swear she gives us hugs.

18) She's become a super cuddle bug over the last few weeks.

19) Loves "the itsy bitsy spider!"

20) She loves to grab her toes:)

Sophia aka snooze button

As I've mentioned, Sophia sleeps in the pack and play next to our bed. This morning, I heard the alarm go off and hit snooze, but in my sleep induced haze I realized that the radio was still playing. I took a second and tried to figure out what was going on, and then I realized. Instead of pushing the snooze button, I had pressed on Sophie's head. Just about the time I realized this, she started waking...so she doesn't do so great as a snooze button:)

"Her hips are perfect."

Orthopedist appt was yesterday. First step was getting the x-ray done, which wasn't a problem. Dr. K was enthralled with Sophia, as usual:) She asked if she slept like a frog, with her legs spread out. I thought it was an odd comment and told her that she is still sleeping with her harness, so of course that is how she looks. She then said "she's done with it. She doesn't need the harness anymore." It caught Dan and I both offguard, because we expected her to "graduate" to a different style of harness. She then said what was music to our ears, "her hips are perfect." I was shocked. YAY Sophie:) She walked through the x-ray with us, and explained that she liked to see a 30 degree angle (of which bones, I've already forgotten), at 12 months, and that Sophie, at 6 months, is already at that 30 degree stage. We go back in 8 months, when she'll be 14 months. Dr. K will follow her until she's 10, so at 14 months, then 2, 3, 5 and 10 years.

I asked why she opted not to move Sophia to the next type of harness and she said that with her mild dysplasia, research shows no difference in long term prognosis, wearing the harness from 6-12 months or not.

Realistic me, who needs to know things upfront, asked what would be "bad" news at the 14 month appt. She said that unless there is a family history, there really shouldn't be bad news. Her hips are "in" at this point, and they won't come "out", the only issue would be a negative change in the degree.

So there you have it. Last night was her first night sleeping without her harness. I would say she's only slept without it maybe 5 times since she was 9 days old. I woke up in the middle of the night to her slamming her legs down in her pack n play. She's obviously not used to the extra freedom:)

sweet potatos, green beans and a TOOTH!!!

It's been awhile. I knew that if I didn't update today, it wouldn't happen this weekend...and then due to next week being absolutely, completely full...it also wouldn't happen next week.

So....Sophie has tried sweet potatos, and loves them:)

Next up was green beans. Not.so.much.

I've been mixing the rice cereal in with the veggie and she is tolerating it more (i.e. not spitting it RIGHT out, lol). Carrots are on the menu for this weekend.

And um, her poops are just obnoxious, since we started solids. Yuck-O. I don't mind the mess so much as the stench. yikes. But, the "good" news is she is going much more than once a week now (as she did before the solids started).

The BIG news is that 2 nights ago her first tooth broke through:) I was holding her,away from me (her back was to my chest) and I was blindly trying to put her pacifier in her mouth. My knuckle went in instead and she bit down. Um, ok, there is something in there. I was so busy at the time, so didn't think much about it. Later that night, I wrestled her down (b/c who really likes to have someone else's fingers stuffed into their mouth?) and sure enough, I saw one teeny tiny little white triangle popping up. I'm trying to see "signs" of teething, so we'll know when the next one pops. The only thing I can really pinpoint is that she was pulling on her ear, and for several days before the tooth popped, she wasn't eating as much. She was eating as often, but not nearly as much. I had written that off to the introduction of solids, or maybe it is a combo of the two...??? And now that I think about it, maybe the tooth was partly to blame for the nasty poops (I've heard that teething causes diarhea)??

Developmentally, she's picking up speed also. She is in the early stages of "tripod-ing" and can sit unassisted for a few seconds at a time. SHe does really well...and then slowly starts to fall over:) When in her carseat, swing or bouncy chair, she is constantly trying to sit up. Yesterday afternoon, she napped in her crib, on her back. When I heard her starting to stir, I went in and she was on her tummy, neck up and just looking around. This is HUGE, especially in regards to the torticollis. She didn't know I was in the room, so I left her alone to do her own PT, which lasted about 10 minutes. Go Sophie!!!

Speaking of PT, she's been really resistant to one of her neck excercises, but we keep trying. I don't think she is in pain, I think she just doesn't like being forced to do something that doesn't really feel natural. Otherwise, we're doing ok. I'm holding her in the right positions, bfing in the right positions and trying to encourage her to look the right way, by holding toys just out of her gaze so she really has to move her neck to see them. It's hard though, and takes some time and patience.

In fun news, she.loves.bubbles. Dan ran into the grocery last week, so I hopped in the backseat to hang out with her. I started blowing bubbles and she was just shrieking with happiness. I couldn't blow them fast enough. I have to get a video of this, OMG it was the best thing ever. After the bubble would pop, she would just look at me like "ok mom, do it again."

Next week she has 3 appts. Ortho on Monday, PT on Thur, and pedi (6 month appt) on Fri. Plus, our kitchen rehad is underway (must post pics), and are cabinets are getting installed on Tues).

For fun...

her first time in the grass:)