Saturday, April 24, 2010

Happy Things Big and Little at 3.5 months

It has been a fabulous week.

Miss M. had a shots-only appointment this week. She got the DTap and polio vaccines, and she got weighed. She is up to 10 pounds, 10 ounces--still a peanut, but gaining nicely. She did just fine with the shots, and barely even cried. There was just one little yelp from her when they injected her, and then she was find--no sobbing, no tears, at least from her. I, of course, was in tears. I am so pathetic. She was terrific the rest of the day, but fussy the day after. Thankfully, she bounced back quickly and seems just fine now.

There were lots of cute moments with Miss M. this week. While I am working, Miss M. obviously drinks breastmilk out of a bottle. She held the bottle and fed herself twice this week. It makes me a little sad that I didn't get to see it for myself, but on the other hand, if I were here to see it, she wouldn't have been drinking from a bottle!

When she sees us coming at her with the pacifier, she opens her mouth wide to accept it. At about five this morning, after she'd been fed, I was desperate to get a little more sleep. She was happily laying in her bassinet sucking on her hands and talking to herself. When she saw my hand reach over with the pacifier, she took her hands out of her mouth and opened wide. Ahhh, sweet bink relief. . .she dropped back off to sleep immediately.

Last night, another precious moment: she fell asleep while I was nursing her at around 7. I left for a quick burrito run, and when I got back, T. had put her in her bassinet upstairs. A short time later, she was fussing, so I took my dinner up to my bedroom. As soon as she saw me, she immediately stopped fussing and started beaming at me. I just hung out on my bed next to her as she lay in her bassinet. While I ate my dinner, she stared at me smiled at me, and didn't make another peep except to talk to me. It is so cool that she recognizes us, and that we can make her happy simply by being present. It is even cooler that she can communicate to us that she doesn't want to be by herself, and that we can satisfy her by being present. I just love it.

I also discovered a budding love affair with books--specifically, Dr. Seuss. While reading her Green Eggs and Ham this week, she was giggling and screaming in delight every time I turned the page. She loves the crude illustrations peppering the pages of GE&H. I would've never guessed that such a young baby would respond to a book.

She is also grabbing things with pretty good accuracy. T. said he saw her put her bink back in her mouth herself this week. She is regularly clutching the toys that hang off her bouncy seat.

Miss M. also is exhibiting a taste for television, unfortunately. We put her in her bouncy seat with her back to the television, and she almost turns herself upside down trying to watch the news in the morning. It's funny to watch, and kind of disturbing, actually. Who knew boob tube addiction started so young?!

We did have one little moment of panic this week. The day after she had the shots, she was fussy, but when I got home from work, I found her happy and smiling. T. was feeding her the rest of a bottle when I first got home, and I realized (later) that he hadn't burped her. When I went to feed her a while later, she started SCREAMING. It was horrible. After a period of unabated screaming, I noticed that a strand of my hair had become tightly wrapped around two of her toes. (I have no idea how or why this keeps happening, but it does.) Unfortunately, this time the hair was tightly wrapped and digging into her toes. T. tried to help unwrap the hair, but she was screaming and writhing in pain, and it was tough to get off, as it was knotted around her toes in a way that made unwrapping it impossible. It wasn't clear whether she was in pain from the toes, or from gas. T. got nervous, and wanted to take her to the hospital (hello, new parent freakout overreaction!).

Surprisingly, as upset as I was that she was so uncomfortable, I stayed calm, and pointed out that her toes were pink and appeared fine below the point where the hair was, such that perhaps we could work to remedy this ourselves. After a bit of trying to work at the hair with tweezers and baby nail clippers, I told him to hold off while I tried to calm her down a bit, and turned her over so she was facing my shoulder. She didn't get any calmer, but with her feet flipped over and upside down, T. was finally able to get the hair off her toes.

Just as he said he'd removed the hair, Miss M's screams reached a crescendo, and she let out a huge poopy fart, and a giant burp. And then, sweet silence, and she immediately fell asleep! She's got a little mark on her toe from where the hair was, but is otherwise apparently no worse from the wear. . .such a weird thing to have happen.

Finally, we have a start date for my new job! I'll be moving and starting the new job at the end of June. We are mostly really excited, and partially freaking out. There is so much to be done before we go. The next eight weeks or so are going to be CRAZY.

1 comment:

Heather said...

Oooo! I hate it when a hair or thread gets stuck around their toes or fingers! That used to happen with the threads from the boys knit blankets. Now that they are older, it doesn't happen anymore.