Two Feet Long

Enjoy the pictures below! I can't believe January is already done and Morgan is 3 1/2 months old. Some highlights include:

• Morgan is now 24.5" long according to our home measurements with the tape measure. That's an inch in one month! She's officially over 2 feet long. That's my growing weed!
• Morgan got to enjoy her exersaucer for the first time today. Initially we thought the lowest setting was too low for her, but after putting her on the next highest setting and watching her dangle a little bit, we put it back down, put her feet under her where they belong (not behind her so she's flying) and she loved it. Yet another thing to keep her occupied and happy when I need to get something done real fast...yay!
• I think we can officially say that Morgan now gets up only once a night for feeding (I'm so going to kick myself later when she's up twice tonight). It varies between 2-4:30am, but either way it's awesome. She's been getting up 2-5 other times needing her nuk put back in her mouth but that can be done when one is half asleep. :) SOOOOO much better than 2-3 and sometimes 4x a night like when she was super tiny.
  
• Morgan is no longer changed (diaper) in the middle of the night. We just double up on her inserts and she's set. The diaper weighs 10#s when we wake up in the morning, but the awesome thing about cloth diapers (specifically our bum genious ones, can't speak for the other ones out there) is that they keep the moisture away from her skin so she doesn't get diaper rash from this. Woop woop!
• Morgan now takes less feedings and more per feeding than she used to. She takes about 4oz per bottle and only eats every 3-4 hours instead of every 2 hours like she used to. Today she actually couldn't eat everything I knew I had going on in there. I keep feeling like I'm just on the verge of when she is going to outpace me and far surpass my supply. Each week something seems to happen where I have an extra pumping session, or she misses a feeding at daycare (some days she just doesn't eat them all) and we have enough. She still gets some formula at home (ie. 1-2 oz at night for her night feeding, usually with breastmilk but sometimes not) or like Saturday when she was taking a long nap, I quick pumped a bit b/c it had been a while since she ate, and then she knew what I was doing and woke up. Instead of giving her some of the milk I had pumped, she got 2oz of formula.
  
• Morgan is really starting to enjoy and rock tummy time. She holds her head up high, looks at books (or Jessie, see below), and has a good time. FINALLY. That was a long transition from hate to love.
  
• Morgan loves books. I was hoping she'd get to this point b/c when she was super little, we'd read to her and she'd start screaming. Great, an SLP with a daughter who hates books from the beginning of life...but not so much. She sits on our laps and looks at the pictures rather intently. She (ok me) really likes her Belly Button book by Sandra Boynton (one of my favorite children's authors). Good times!
• Morgan's coordination with grabbing toys and bringing them to her mouth is improving. She still misses and sometimes her toys go flying instead of getting to their intended target (ie. mouth) but there have been some improvements. Since she kept hitting herself in the face and making herself cry with her harder plastic toys, I bought her a soft love bug toy yesterday and she loves it.
  
• Last one - Morgan has really done well at church the past few Sundays. The only time she got upset was when too many little old ladies "peaced" her at church last week and she freaked. As in screaming bloody murder and we had to step out for a bit. :) But now she likes to look at all the people, listen to the music, drool all over, etc. Good times.

So things have just been really great lately at home. Work has been another story but again, I am still not ready to blog about it. I've had such a good day and I don't want to think about it until 7:30am tomorrow morning. Enjoy the pictures of our little bear....she's getting sweeter by the day and we're so proud of her.

Look Daddy! I can pet the puppy (and then have a fistful of hair - ick!)!!

Morgan's first go at the exersaucer - she did great once we put her feet where they belonged and she stopped "flying in her seat."

I love my exersaucer!! (thanks D&S!)

Mommy & Morgan

Adam sleepin' on the job...yikes!

Adam teaching Morgan early that Channel 33 is ESPN. Oh dear.

Jessie giving Morgan encouragement (and maybe a few kisses) during tummy time (which Morgan now rather enjoys).

Morgan's first birthday hat/party at daycare for her friend, Saxby, who turned 2.

Adam & Morgan doing their "balancing act" which Morgan finds hilarious and I find scary as all get out sometimes...but then do it myself later and it's quite fun!

How. Cute. Is. This.
Morgan wearing one of Daddy's winter hats.
:-D

Yay! Hands a' workin'! Boo...hands a grabbin'...

We're so excited that Morgan is using her hands more and more each day...but that also means she'll grab whatever comes within arms' reach...including our faces, necks, anything really. So while we're really happy to see her improving her motor coordination, it can be a little painful at times! It's also funny that she's sucking on them rather loudly at times to the point where I can hear her sucking on them from the next room sometimes.

Morgan is also enjoying tummy time much more...and is getting close to on her way to rolling over! What I have found that gets her more accepting of tummy time is to start her on her back, get her all excited and happy, and then move off to her side so she's looking at me. Then I get her legs started for her and eventually she overcomes that darn arm that's in the way and is on her tummy. She no longer lets her head go down either - her head is up high and sometimes she does the "swimming baby" motion with arms and legs in the air. Then I let her get her arms out on her own and have a book up and ready for her to look at and she's usually set! The thing is, she's a big step towards doing this on her own b/c she pulls her legs up to her belly and next thing she is on her side - all by herself! Adam and I get all excited, hold our breaths, and wait to see what will happen...and then she returns to her back and smiles b/c we get all excited for the good job she's doing. It's truly amazing to see such a little person make such gains in what seems like such a short amount of time. Just think, 14 weeks ago she was a little wet noodle baby who screamed for no reason (as far as we knew) and ate constantly. Now she can hold her own head up, use her hands (albeit not perfectly yet, but huge improvements here), smile, recognize us, go to daycare like a big girl...the list goes on. It's awesome.

Speaking of daycare, Mary informed me Monday (yesterday) that Morgan needs to bring 9 valentines to daycare for her friends in a few weeks. How. Cute. Is. That. My daughter needs valentines. I can't wait to write them out and send them with her. I teared up a little when Mary told me that. She must think I'm nuts. :)

Morgan is now outpacing me with what she eats vs. what I can produce. :-( Big boo. Yesterday I made 10.25 oz but she ate 12 at daycare. So last night I was convinced that she'd have to dip into her frozen daycare stash today but then when Morgan ate last night, she only ate on one side so I pumped the other and had enough for her feedings today and dream feeding tonight. However, she did the same thing again today - ate 12 while I only produced 10oz. I'm not going to make it a habit of pumping at 3am or whenever she decides to get up. So while we're only off by about 2oz, it was a hard realization that Morgan is finally surpassing me and will need formula supplements when the frozen stash runs out. The plan is to keep going with bfing and pumping so she gets what she needs at least a bit.

Also, it's safe to say now that my friend from work, Abbie, is preggo with #2!! We are really excited for them and Cammie who will be a big sister. Very exciting time! I suddenly know several preggo people (some close, some not) and we're hoping it doesn't rub off anytime in the immediate future...no irish twins in the Schmidt family please!

Ok, off to bed. Life sure is great when there's a baby to come home to. Work's been nuts but I don't want to talk about it right now. Too many good baby/family thoughts running through my head. :)

Grow Much?

Here's Morgan during her first week of life (don't mind the hat falling over her eyes)...


And here's Morgan today, 3 months; 5 days old. Grow much, baby? Wow!!


Here's Morgan just grabbing her rattle...


And here's what happens when she can grab everything. :)


Here's Adam's favorite of the flying baby pose...


And here's my favorite. :) She really is adorable, right? It's ok, it's hard to deny.

3 Months Old

My baby is three months old today. Three months! 13 weeks, one day, 1 hour, and 50 minutes as of this sentence. What a long but fast road it's been! I have to say after she hit 6-8 weeks or so, things have been all downhill from here. Here are some highlights of what our little girl is up to...I'm so proud of her and just keep hoping that I'm doing enough or that I'm doing things the right way to give her all the tools she needs to be a smart, healthy, and happy young girl. Enjoy the highlights!

• She knows me. She knows me so well in fact (and Adam too) that when I come get her from daycare, she blinks a time or two, I say hi, and then she's grinning something huge. If she could talk, she'd totally be saying, "MOM!!! Oh my gosh it's really you!! Awesome!" She also does this with Adam who gets her up in the mornings. He slowly wakes her up and after about 8 hard blinks, smiles like there's no tomorrow and it's awesome to watch.
  
• Morgan has a death grip. She's getting so strong now with her hands and is grabbing (unintentionally) everything. Today she was laying on her play mat and continued to grab at the crinkly butterfly so perhaps she's more intentional than first reported. Either way, she's getting pretty grabby. :)
• Last night could be considered her first sleep-through-the-night night. She slept from 7:30pm-4:19am. I *might* have gone up once to replace her nuk but it was definitely in my sleep if I did, therefore I don't think I did. Then she went right back down which was typical until late last week when she would be out cold...put in her crib...eyes pop open and smiling at whomever would look at her.
  
• The other night when the previous bullet was happening, I put her nuk in at the head of her crib. She watched me walk away. She then moved her head around a bit and then looked back where I had been to try to see me again...kids don't have object permanence that early...but it was interesting to wonder...
• Morgan is "talking" up a STORM. She told me all about daycare all the way home today (a 15 second drive). We "talk" back and forth which basically entails lots of vowel sounds with an occasional gurgly /g/ sound. I'm not hearing as many of the other consonants she had been playing with but the more talking is awesome. Plus, it's so great for Adam to be able to hear her say "hi" to him over the phone while he's traveling (he's in Winnepeg, Canada this week).

Pumping session over, therefore posting over. Off to get ready for tomorrow even though there's an outside chance we might be staying home for an ice storm. 3 months...wow.

Hands...baby hands

Morgan loves her hands. She now uses them as quite the little soothing devices and has gained even more control over them than she had at last post. Her movements towards objects are just that much more purposeful...to the naked eye (ie. not one of her parents) it might look like she's just flailing about but we know - we know that she's trying to reach for things here and there. Pretty neat...

Tummy time update - Mary, our sitter, is some sort of amazing. I haven't talked to her about this yet but she must be working some sort of magic with Morgan and tummy time. We try to get her on her tummy several times at night but we're not super parents and some nights it only happens once or not at all. Well, the other night before Adam got home from class, I put her on her tummy to find her head up so high without initially touching her face to the floor and it was great! She didn't immediately start fussing and she actually held her head up and studied the pattern on the burp cloth that was under her face. Today Adam put her down on her tummy and she sort of tucked her hands/arms under her chest to help hold herself up. It was amazing especially considering that less than 2 weeks ago she kept bouncing her face (softly) off the floor and almost instantly screaming her head off. Proud parents!!

Ok, I just got the cue that it's adult bedtime. Morgan only got up ONCE for feeding last night and 2x for nuk plugging. :) We had to wake her up at 6:15am for our normal morning routine and didn't have to get up an hour before hand to feed her. I'm hoping this behavior continues but not if it means she's coming down with something. When she had a cold about a month ago, she slept like this at night. I'm just going to go with the fact that she's older and maybe getting into a better nighttime routine. I'll let you know after we see what tonight brings. :) G'Night!!

Hands to midline make for a tasty treat

Morgan is phenomenal. How did we ever get so lucky as to have such a beautiful little baby sleeping upstairs in our house? You know, that baby who sees me when I pick her up from daycare, looks at me for a second, and then breaks out in the biggest baby grin that spreads right across her entire adorable little face. Yup, that one. There is much to catch up on, yet again, as we were without internet for a while and I couldn't get anything written!!

Last week I started back to work. I worked 1/2 days Monday-Wednesday with the intention of working full days Th/F. The heavens were looking out for this working mommy though, and I was lucky to get a 2-hr early out on Thursday due to weather and a 2-hr late start Friday for the same reason. Woo hoo! So I hadn't really had a full day until today, Monday.

Before I forget - Happy Birthday to my brother, Travis! He's now 26 years old...

As I was saying, today was my first real, full day back to work. It went well. Adam's taking a week-long MBA class this week in an effort to get his classes done asap (I think spring 2011 is looking good for graduation) so I had to drop Morgan off this morning. It went fine. Believe it or not, picking her up was the hard part. I was so excited to see her that after I got that HUGE baby grin when she saw me, my heart started to really hurt knowing that she was without me all day long. Who knows if she had a reason to smile that big all day? What if the other kids were bugging her? What if she missed me and cried about it at some point? I became rather upset about it and poor Mary (sitter) got to see me shed tears yet again. It's so hard going through a whole day not knowing what I'm missing until she's right there in front of me showing me. Sigh. Just when I think I love her as much as I possibly could, I go ahead and love her that much more all over again.

On a less sad-for-me note, Morgan has really gained some control over her hand movements. She can now bring her hands to midline and routinely does this to suck on one or both of her fists. Sometimes she even gets a little noisy...we now have to make sure to wash her hands on occasion b/c they start to get a little "spit stinky" and we don't want that. I don't mind kids playing in the dirt, but we don't need stinky spit hands. That's just gross. ;-)

She's 12 weeks old today. Where has the time gone? I sometimes can't believe my body went through that only 12 weeks ago and today I am able to do any and everything I did before I got pregnant. I still seem stuck at this 14 extra pounds. I started the 30-day shred last week and stuck with it but fell off the bandwagon. Fatigue is an awful enemy. I am hoping that after some R&R tonight that I'll be able to get back on the bandwagon tomorrow night. However, if I don't go to bed at least a little early tonight, that Tuesday shred is not going to happen. G'night...

Morgan's First Shots

Morgan had her first shots today. I was really excited for the doctor's visit to see how much she'd grown and to find out her percentiles for head circumference, weight, and height, but completely dreading the shots that were to follow. Here's her stats:

• Head circumference: 31.5cm? We forgot b/c we were more focused on percentiles. She was in the 54th percentile here. Right on average.
  
• Weight: 12.0 lbs. What a big girl! That's a hair under a 3lbs gain since birth (was 9lbs, 0.4oz at birth). 63rd percentile here.
  
• Height: 23.5"! That put her in the 74th percentile for her height. Yay! We both agree and think it would be great, should she be an athlete, for her to have a little height advantage, so we were pleased to hear about that.
  

I'm more happy that she's growing and that my supply apparently is good enough for now since she's right on track. Her appointment overall went alright.

(I'm posting this now...just found it and hadn't finished it...)