Six Months!

Hmmm...it seems as though she's interested in the new big girl carseat I'm in the process of picking out...
Gotta get my hands on it!!

Wow...I cannot believe our baby is 6 months old today! She is growing & developing by leaps & bounds every single day.

She can sit on her own now for as long as she wants to...and get herself down onto her back if she wants to. She can't quite get into the sitting up position on her own yet but she is working VERY hard on it...during play time & nap time. She gets up on all fours and then sticks one leg out to the side and tries to sit back.

Crawling is still eluding her...she is SO close...rocking...picking up each knee, and each hand...just not in the coordinated motion required to move forward. However this doesn't stop her from getting her to wherever she wants to go.

Random things I want to remember...

-I'm transitioning out the 6/9M gear and bringing on the 12M gear.

-I've started to wean...I'm down to 3 nursing sessions, 2 bottles & a bit of solid food once a day.

-EVERYTHING goes in her mouth...with a hilarious ferociousness.

-She often watches what is on TV...much to our chagrin.

-Her new favorite toy is a mirror that Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke got her. It does animal sounds & sings a fun baby song.

-She made her way to the DVR yesterday, and the laptop today.

-She just started to take interest in the cats after we got back from Iowa.

-She still loves the bath & loves to play with her duck & other fun animals from Uncle Keith & Aunt Lee.

-She is just starting to giggle at random things she does herself.

-Clay turned her upside down a couple of days ago & now she keeps trying to turn her head upside down on her own...it is SO funny!

-Her diapers are starting to smell a bit now that she is eating food! And she is going less frequently.

-She responds REALLY well to YAAAAAAYYYYYY!! I can get her to eat with yay, not cry when she tips over, and smile no matter what when I say YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY. And I've started to say it to adults...and then I feel very silly.

-Her happy face is this HUGE open mouth grin.

-She really only gets fussy when she gets tired.

-She is getting better with naps...she rarely cries now when we put her down now. Some naps are longer, but most are still 40 minutes are so. She takes anywhere from 2-4 naps per day.

-She LOVES to kick her feet...on her back, on her belly, in the bath...even if it is hitting a toy or something hard!

-She still has her little bald spot, and patches of eczema on the backs of her calves. We are also still fighting the drool rash on her chin & cheeks.

Whew!

In her crib at Grandma & Grandpa Pierses. It was great!
Luci meeting cousin Kylie for the first time...they hit it off!
Love my baby!!
Happy with Grandpa Pierse.
Family photo!

Our 3 weeks of family visiting has come to an end. Luci has now been to both Iowa and Indiana to visit her loving grandparents. The flights to & from Indy went well for her...the flight home was challenging for her parents, but she was just fine due to the constant entertainment we provided. On the way home she had 2 poopy diapers and the airplane did NOT have a changing table...ahhh...the fun. So I actually put her down on my seat & managed to change it that way, but she barely fit & this certainly won't be an option next time we fly...so we are still brainstorming how to handle this...any suggestions?

After her 3:50am wake up call on Friday she was remarkably good natured most of the day. That night was a different story...she cried off & on from midnight until 5am...more on than off...and nothing was soothing her. Around 5am I decided co-sleeping was better than no sleeping...so for the first time ever I slept next to my baby on a bed. Luckily not all of the nights were like that.

On Saturday Clay & I left Luci overnight for the first time (well, my first time) as we headed to Chicago for our friends Liz & Craig's engagement party. I irrationally cried before we left, and for about an hour after we left...thank goodness Amanda was able to give me a pep talk or I may have may have asked Clay to turn the car around. We got to Chicago in time to take a bit of a nap (Clay napped, I closed my eyes and saw & heard Luci crying the night before), and then went out for dinner with Jen & Paul. It was SO great to be back in the city & hanging out like old times. The engagement party was so much fun we even went out a bit afterwards. I drank more than I have in well over a year and didn't feel super great on Sunday. Nonetheless we got up & went to church and made it out for brunch with Holly, Kristin & Jamie. I started to freak out a bit on Sunday morning but Holly talked me down from that one. I was still anxious to get back though...the drive back to Indy seemed to take FOREVER. When we got there Luci was in the highchair...she looked at me like it was no big deal...then got a HUGE smile...then burst into tears!! I missed her terribly, but just like Grandma Pierse had told me she would be, she was fine. The night was a big step for me mentally & emotionally...and Clay & I really had an opportunity to talk & reconnect a bit...it was great for us. So thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Pierse and to all of our Chicago peeps for making it such a great night.

Great Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke

We had a wonderful visit with Great Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke. They came back from Iowa with us & stayed until we left on Friday for Indiana. Visiting the Butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science.

Luci & Great Grandma got along quite well and we can't wait for them to come back next year!

New Tricks!

Sitting!
Sippy cup!

Sweet Potatoes!
She knows she's onto something...she's just not quite sure what!

She spends lots of time with her face down in her blanket or the carpet...not sure if she likes the way it feels, or if she's resting?Getting so close!!

Rockin...

This happy grin is a familiar sight (we are so blessed!) She's still got the drool going on...
and she still loves to eat her monkey.
Playing with Aunt Brookie.

Luci is getting up onto her hands & knees pretty regularly now, and has even started to rock! She is great at pushing herself backwards, but has yet to make it forward with the crawling motion. Today I looked away for 30 seconds, and before I knew it she had made her way onto the tile in front of the fireplace. It won't be long now...

Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas!

Since Luci just never took to rice cereal, we decided just to move onto veggies. Yesterday she tried her first bite of sweet peas...and while she didn't love them, she did like them more than rice ceral!

Her cough is getting worse...boo. Dr. Brooke tells me 'she's fine' though. She doesn't sound so fine to her mama :(

Home Again

I love this picture!! Her face describes the travel part of our week perfectly!! Happy with Pop Pop

Hanging out with Aunt Tammy! Visiting with extended cousins (second or third?) Rachel and Hailey.
Great Grandpa Halvorson holding his LRP-y!!

Well we made it from Houston to Iowa via Minneapolis & back...and we are happy to be home again! We left for Iowa on 12/31 very early in the morning. Luci was up at 3am so we just stayed up & headed to the airport for our flight. We had picked the very first flight because it was about 80% empty...which meant that the 3 of us could sit together. We were quite a sight dragging our luggage, car seat & baby through the airport & then the airplane. Not a hand, shoulder or back went unused....thank goodness for the Baby Bjorn. Our Luci was a champ! She did really, really well on both the flight & the 2.5 hour drive...we couldn't have asked for any better behavior. The way home was a different story though...our flight ended up taking about 1.5 hours longer than planned and our poor baby cried for the last 45 minutes of the flight. As Clay said, we were those people. When we arrived home Monday night I've never been so relieved. Luci was thrilled to see her toys & kick around the floor.

Unfortunately I think she brought home a little bug. Poor baby is so hoarse that when she tries to squeal nothing comes out. She's also had a rough couple of nights...which means SUPER rough nights for Clay & me. I think she's working on some teeth too...as Clay likes to say...it is always something!

My Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke came back with us to get out of the Iowa winter for a few weeks. Last year when they came the weather was terrible, but this year it seems to be cooperating. Luci is enjoying the extra sets of loving arms & smiling faces!

Clay & I were thrilled to see snow and experience a bit of proper winter! We even took Baylee and her bf Drew skiing one of the days! Overall it was wonderful trip, and we were all thrilled to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke, Aunt Baylee as well as Great Grandparents, Great Aunts & Uncles, and second & third cousins. Thanks for a wonderful visit!

rollin 360

With the ever-present drool!

Our little lady managed to roll from her tummy to her back today...3 or 4 times. Her technique is pretty much the exact reverse of her back to tummy method. When she first rolled onto her tummy she did it 1000 times the first day...this was not the same. I'm not sure that it has fully sunken in yet...or maybe she just prefers to be on her tummy?

We are getting ready for the big Iowa adventure. I scored a minivan rental for $200 for the whole week so I'm pretty excited about that. Excited about a minivan...who am I?!?!?!

Merry Christmas!

5 months on Christmas Day!


We went to REI and Clay had our pea climbing rocks...to his delight she squealed every time he brought her over there.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! I hope everyone had a blessed & joyous holiday. Poor Pop Pop had to work on 12/23, Christmas Eve, and Christmas day but he returned home on Christmas night. Luci & I went to church on Christmas Eve & got very, very homesick (well at least I did). Thankfully we are blessed with unbelievable friends; the extended Lawrence family welcomed us as one of their own for both Christmas Eve & Christmas dinner. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

On Christmas Day our baby was officially 5 months old! Here are some things we want to remember...

-She is a rollin fool...but only from her back to her tummy...and only to the right. She gets about 1/2 way over on the left, and then rolls back onto her back, and then rolls to her right. She then scoots to get where she needs to go by turning her little body around in a circle.

-She is just starting to respond to her name.
-She has just started to notice the cats...she doesn't really want to touch them yet, but she really likes to watch them.
-She LOVES her soft blocks...especially the one that makes crinkly noises.
-She is in 6-12 month onsies, 9 month pants and 9 month sleepers. Most 6-12 month dresses fit, but are too short and look more like shirts. As of today (12/28) 9 month sleepers are being retired & replaced with 12 month sleepers!
-She has a constant rash on her chin & cheeks from her excessive drool. It might be the start of teething? She loves to mash her red little angry face into our shoulders...I think it must be itchy. -Little patches of eczema have returned to her calves & elbows.
-Her hair is starting to come in more quickly...it is a light brown/dark blond color. She still has the bald ring on the back of her head from all of the back & forth flipping of her head. It looks like it will be curly.
-She loves her paci and is constantly taking it in & out of her mouth. Sometimes it makes it back in correctly, sometimes it doesn't. This doesn't seem to bother her for the most part...she'll gladly gnaw on any part of it that she can get into her mouth.
-She likes the bath...but only if she gets to chew on her rubber ducky.
-She still needs white noise to sleep.
-She will sit in the jumperoo for up to an hour at a time.
-She is very wary of anyone holding her but Mom or Dad.
-She still likes to look at herself in the mirror, smile, and then turn away all bashful like.
-We are still seriously struggling with sleep...both day & night. She's taking 3 naps a day, usually between 25 - 45 minutes long. This does not seem long enough, but no matter what we do she won't resettle & go back to sleep. By 5pm the five o'clock fussies set in & we seriously struggle to keep her entertained & awake till 6pm. At 6pm we start the bedtime routine (bath, lotion, sleepsack, nurse, read 2 books, sing a song, in bed). Usually she falls asleep while nursing around 6:30p or 6:40p. Then she is usually up 45 minutes later, and again another 45 minutes later, and up again at some point between 9pm and 11pm. Then usually again between 2am and 4am for a diaper change & feeding, then back to sleep until sometime between 6am and 7am. Sleeping in past 7am is a real (and infrequent) treat. Sometimes she settles down easily for those first few wakings, and other times she's up for over an hour at a time. It stinks. Last night I fed her a bottle of formula at 9:40p and she slept from 10pm to 3am. So I might stick with that and hope that the 3am feeding goes away on its own.
-Her first diaper change in the morning is almost always poopy. It is often the only one of the day.
-She's starting to sleep on her tummy. She usually rolls over within seconds of being placed on her back in the crib. Given that she is in her sleepsack, we try not to worry too much about this...but still do.
-Just within the last 2 days she has started to raise up on her arms & knees...in the crawling position. We'll see how long it takes from here!
-She can sit in the corner of a chair for a fairly long period of time. She can sit for maybe 10 seconds unassisted on the floor if we put her in that position.
-Finally...and this is the source of much debate...she may be turning the pages of her board books during story time. Grandma Pierse first pointed out that she was doing this & Clay & I thought she maybe had a case of the proud Grandmas. But...I too now think that she is turning the pages. Sure, she doesn't wait until I'm done reading that page, but it is always the right hand, and it always grabs the page & pushes it to the left. Pop Pop thinks both Grandma & I are nuts.

We head to Iowa on Monday & we are all a little nervous about flying. We are planning on the 7am flight on Monday to Minneapolis because it has 84 seats open...so hopefully we can all sit together. Then once we get in we still have the 2.5 hour drive down to New Hampton to contend with...I hope our baby got her Pop's love for traveling.

Are you smarter than a 5 month old?

Happy Pea loves her soft blocks from Aunt Lee & Uncle Keith!

You can kind of see the rash on her little chin :( This is right before a giant scream that was saying...ENOUGH MOM.

Last week while at the doctor with our sick pea, I asked our pediatrician if we still needed to let her cry 5 minutes while going to sleep...he said we could 'give her a little TLC'. I interpreted this to mean 'do not let her cry'. In retrospect I see that, duh, he did not mean do not let her cry. However I managed to convince myself & my husband that we should not let our baby cry, as it would make her more congested & miserable. It started very innocently...first going into soothe her after just a few minutes of crying instead of the usual 5 minutes. Then standing there with her until she fell asleep, not letting her cry at all. Then it turned into picking her up at the first signs of unease...then holding her when we couldn't get her back in her crib without disturbing her...

The culmination of this well intentioned parenting has resulted in the last two nights being spent in the recliner...with us holding our sleeping Pea...because as soon as we put her down she would cry. As you can imagine, we are EXHAUSTED. Today Luci seems to have turned the corner with her cold, so I called Dr. Brooke to see if it would be all right to let her cry 5 minutes before going to sleep. Dr. Brooke told me that Dr. Bhakta most certainly did not mean 'do not let her cry', and that despite my fears, crying would most certainly not make Luci's cold worse...and that it may, in fact, loosen up some of the 'crud'. Then she quoted some doctor like statistic about how many colds Luci will suffer from a year or before the age of 5 or something like that (and it was a lot), and asked if I planned to continue this line of parenting indefinitely.

So tonight I was pretty relieved to let her cry her usual 8 minutes or so...um, yeah. Not so much. I'm quite certain that while, yes, yesterday was a very rough day for Luci (she was too congested to nurse), that she did not need to be held all night long. I am quite certain that our smart baby girl had figured out that if she cried, we would hold her, and therefore, she should cry the minute we put her down. So tonight, while I was all prepared for 8 minutes or so of crying, our baby girl cried for almost an hour. I went in every 4 or 5 minutes to soothe, and she appeared to be soothed, and then the second I turned away from the crib she let out a serious scream. It was most certainly not an "I'm sick, cuddle me" cry...it was an "I seriously protest this change" cry. I guess the good news is that I'm certain her lungs are just fine...

Pop Pop saves the day...and by day, I mean night

A discarded attempt for the Christmas Card photo...

The sweet man I married spent the vast majority of the night sleeping on Lucipea's floor. I failed to mention in my post yesterday that I also suffered from a stomach bug last week, and woke up with a sore throat & congestion on Tuesday...and really, really needed some sleep. I fed Luci around midnight, and the next time she woke up (like 20 minutes later) Clay went in to soothe her. He came back a short time later, and then after another 10 minutes or so Luci called out again...her Pop Pop responded and didn't leave her crib side until 5:30a. I woke up around 5am and went into check on them and it was the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time.

He's getting some much deserved rest at the moment & Luci is up jumping her in jumperoo. She doesn't seem to be feeling any worse than yesterday...and maybe even just a bit better. I ran the humidifier and plugged in a menthol/eucalyptus scent thingy so maybe that helped.

Sick Pea

Well our pea is sick...that is what is up with her. Yesterday the rash on her face really started to bother her...it seemed to be very itchy and maybe it burned a bit? Her whole little face had started to swell up and her eyes were puffy...poor baby. Then this morning she woke up super congested...so we decided to go see Dr. Bhakta. His thought was that last week she had a stomach bug that has been going around, and then this week got a cold on top of it. He thinks the rash on her face is just eczema, and that it was not an allergic reaction to any food. No medicine or anything like that...just some words of advice on how to treat her face and how to keep her runny nose from aggravating it.

That being said, our giant baby is now 17 lbs and 12.9 oz. She's gained over a pound in the last 3 weeks so no need to push the solids...she's growing just fine. Now if we could just say the same for her sleeping...the last few nights have been ROUGH.

From Ugh to Grateful

Well we didn't make it to Indiana...boo....ugh....boo. To all of you Hoosiers...we are very sorry, and very disappointed that we didn't make it up for the Festival of Lights. We had planned to leave on Saturday morning at 7am, but when we checked availability on Friday (we are the last on the plane) it had dwindled to nothing. So we decided to go Friday night at 8pm, knowing that would be much tougher on our Lucipea. Regardless, at 11am on Friday I went into superwoman mode, running around town getting gifts for the family Christmas gift exchange (we had planned to take our time shopping on Friday afternoon), washing clothes and packing for both myself and Luci. But when I got home from shopping Luci had just woken up and was a bit out of sorts...not playful or smiley at all. I nursed her and she proceeded to projectile spit up/throw up most of what she ate for the next few hours...while continuing to seem out of sorts. We checked availability again for the 8pm flight and realized there was no way we'd get even 2 seats together (one of us & Luci in her car seat), not to mention the 3 together we had been hoping for. The idea of one of us in a middle seat with a baby who was spitting up everything & awake well after her usual bedtime surrounded by strangers on both sides for her first flight was just too much...so we decided our first trip to the Midwest would have to wait. Ugh.

So what is up with my pea; I just don't know. She woke up Thursday with a rash on her chin, and by Friday it had spread up the left side of her face. Then the projectile spit up on Friday...I was calling all of my mommy friends for advice...at which point Amanda prompted me with 'any new foods this week?' We'll I realized I'm a bad mom and had broken the #1 rule of introducing solids...I had inadvertently introduced 2 last week. I switched to oatmeal cereal because she hadn't been enjoying her rice cereal. I also had given her a bottle with water & a tiny bit of juice because we had been planning to give her that on the descent into Indy. I hadn't considered the juice a new food, but surely it was. So maybe this is an allergic reaction to white grape juice? Or oatmeal cereal? Or maybe she is teething? Or maybe a stomach bug? Or maybe something all together different? She has been spitting up a ton since Friday and really isn't very interested in nursing (solids are on hold for a few weeks...or months). Her sleeping is also all messed up, compounded by the lack of the swaddle. Saturday night was the roughest night in a long, long time. After being awake from 2:40a to 5:30a (and Luci was still awake) I went into our room & starting sobbing to Clay. He promptly jumped up to help, even though he had a long day of working starting in an hour and a half. Finally after half of a dose of Tylenol she fell asleep...but was up at 7am. And 2 morning naps of 20 minutes each left me desperate to get some sleep. At which point Amanda called & I proceeded to tell her my tired sob story. Ugh.

Then Amanda told me why she was calling (aside from always just being willing to listen, sympathize and offer help)...which was to report that one of the toddlers in the neighborhood had been found not breathing, and the more prayers that were said the better. Tears started to flow and I felt so ungrateful for complaining that my baby was what...too wakeful?!?!?! An hour or so later we learned that said neighbor toddler is just fine; she had a febrile seizure but is doing all right. From ugh....to grateful.

The one good thing about not making it to Indy was that I was in town for the annual Cottage Green Cookie Exchange yesterday. After my crazy night/day I was looking forward to just getting out of the house for a bit. I pulled my tired teary grateful self together and managed to not only get my Rachael Ray's 5 Minute Fudge sliced & beautifully displayed on my favorite platter, but to get Luci fed, AND get makeup & heels put on. I even squished into my one pair of uber trendy jeans (well, at least they were hip 2 years ago when I bought them) and covered up my remaining mama belly with one of Old Navy's finest new trapeze style shirts (thank goodness for THAT trend). Many thanks to Jamie (Amanda's husband & Clara's dad); he babysat for Luci and even managed to get her to take a much needed nap. It was so good to get out & hang with the ladies in the 'hood...I got lots of great advice on Luci's current state and offers to watch her so that I could get a nap if needed. We talked about the toddler who had the seizure and how we could help. Amanda suggested bringing over some cookies...I was worried about invading privacy, but I went with her to drop them off in addition to offering meals or any other thing anyone could do to help because it was important that they knew they were not alone. I should not have worried about invading privacy...we were warmly greeted & hugs & tears were had by all. Bottom line? This neighborhood just oozes support. Grateful.