I totally forgot about Cheerios!

I can't believe I forgot to relay the most exciting development of yesterday: Stella is feeding herself! We'd tried giving her bananas and corn (not together) in the past and she wasn't interested in it, but then last night we tried Cheerios. Man does she love Cheerios. Then we mixed the corn in with the Cheerios and she was digging it. Then I tried the same thing with bananas this morning and she ate those as well. Although those are much more messy. And the dogs won't eat them, so I have to clean them up myself. But still, it was very exciting!

9 Months and Growing

So Stella is Nine Months old now. It seems amazing that she's been out longer than she was in. It's gone by so fast. We went to the doctor yesterday for her check-up and the doctor used the "W" word. For those of you not freaking out about your baby growing up, the "W" word is weaning. She wants us to start giving her snacks of yogurt and cheese, which will eventually replace those breastfeeding sessions. I'm not ready! It's hilarious, because when I first started bfing, I was like, okay, I only have a year. For the first few months, I practically counted it down. But now that she's so active and only nurses for about 10 minutes or less at a time, it's not really a big commitment anymore and I really have come to treasure that time. It's our cuddle time. My favorite time is when we wake her up right before we go to bed to feed her. She's all sleepy and Tim changes her diaper and cuddles with her and then hands her to me. She doesn't even open her eyes as she eats and she reminds me of when she was a newborn and almost never opened her eyes. It's so adorable.

Of course, she is doing lots of amazing things that I have to remind myself to dwell on instead of the fact she is growing up. Yesterday the doctor showed us how to give her our fingers and she would sit up just holding on to them. She's been holding out on us, being lazy. Also, the doc showed us how to help her pull up the same way, she's really pushing us to work more on that. And when we got home, Stella did try to pull up on a chair for the first time, but gave up. I think she gets frustrated easily. Interestingly enough, the doctor didn't give us any suggestions on how to help Stella crawl and I forgot to ask. Stella still is mostly content with reaching for things, and rolling to get things, with some occasionally creeping, which usually results in her going backwards rather than forwards and getting frustrated.

Stella also seems to FINALLY be over her cold. Some coughing, but that's about it. I also am pretty much recovered. Part of me wants to put her in a hermetically sealed bubble now that we're both well, but I know that won't accomplish anything. Plus, I didn't get much social interaction because I had to avoid babies so we wouldn't take the chance of getting them sick. So hopefully January will be a well month!

Oh, and the doctor's office measured her and I think they at least did the height wrong. They got 27.5 inches, but we'd measured her at 28.5 about a month ago. I think the nurse didn't bother to stretch her out all the way. 27.5 would be the 50th percentile and trust me, Stella is not average height for her age. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she is quite tall. We need to do our own measurement. Her weight is 18 lbs, 9.6 oz, which is actually a slight drop from when we went in a couple of weeks ago and she was 19lbs. That's only 50th percentile, but the doctor said they usually lose some weight as they become more active. Her head was 43.5 cm, and the doctor said it's rounding out nicely. Yeah!

Well, I hear the little munchkin waking up, so I must go!

Another Christmas come and gone

So Christmas 2006 is over. Stella's first Christmas was a resounding success, in fact perhaps too much of a success. We're going to Ikea Sunday to get bins to store all her old loot and new loot. We had a great time with everyone we got to see. Stella is so special she got 3 Christmases: one with her Aunt Caroline, her boyfriend Daniel, her Aunt Christine and her Uncle Brian, one at home with Daddy and Mommy, and one with her MeMe, Pappy and Uncle Keith. Wow, that's some serious Christmas overload! But she handled it in style.

I got some great stuff this year too. Actually, that's an understatement! Tim got me the most beautiful ring as an "upgrade" for my original engagement ring, which I haven't been able to wear since I took it off exactly a year ago because I was afraid it would get stuck. I'd been reading horror stories of pregnant ladies who had to go to the ER to get their rings cut off. My Christmas ring is just amazing, I love it! Tim did a great job! (okay, we went shopping together) I also got a new digital camera from my parents, and it totally rocks! It's a Canon PowerShot A630, 8 Megapixels, and it has manual controls, which I have not learned to use yet. So if you've noticed an increase in the quality of my pictures, it's the new camera that's responsible. It's got a kids and pets setting that takes kick ass pictures of both Stella and Lucy (I haven't tried it on the other furry kids yet). AND you can focus what you're looking at, then just wait for the photo you want to present itself, and snap almost instantly. I cannot believe how good pictures are when you can take them exactly when you want them, rather than having to wait for my slow camera to decide to snap a shot. The only downside to the PowerShot is that it's much larger than regular digital cameras, but that's so that it takes better pictures AND can fit Canon's lenses. Plus it has a really cool swivel LCD, so you can take pictures of yourself (handy for when Stella and I are playing photoshoot at home).

I was also happy because everyone seemed to really enjoy what I got them. I got my Dad some new varieties of beer for him to try, based on the recommendations of Bill, beer expert extraordinare, and my Dad really liked them. I got my mother some jewelry that my friend Nicole had made, and she really loved them too, especially the necklace that I was kind of on the fence about whether she would like it or not. I was very pleased.

So onto 2007, I guess. We'll be going to Bill the Beer Man's New Year's Eve party because my Mother is coming to watch Stella. This is the first time we haven't hosted New Year's since we got married (7 in a row) , so that's going to be kind of weird. But I'm proud to pass the torch to Bill!

Sick of Being Sick

So Stella has practically the entire month of December sick. She had stomach virus which we briefly thought was a UTI at the very beginning of the month, then a cold, then two days of wellness and then another cold which started Saturday. We went to a babysitting coop Friday night which we worked and an 18 month old girl that was there had snot aplenty and was breathing through her mouth. I knew she was sick and I was pissed that my child was now going to get sick because someone brought their sick child and dropped them off. I also somehow wound up being in charge of this little girl and Stella all night. I tried to keep them separated, but it really didn't matter. So Stella started having the sniffles again early Saturday morning and now I'm sick too. Whee! I keep reading that babies have like 8-10 colds their first year of life, but I didn't realize Stella was going to have all of them consecutively!

The picture is of us backstage at our church's Cantata Sunday night. We were Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus!

Dumb-Ass Moves

I backed into the garage door today. Not one of my proudest moments. I used to open the garage door and then put Stella in her car seat and then get into the car and go. But I had started worrying recently that someone could sneak up behind me while I was putting Stella in her carseat. Paranoid, I know. So the last couple of days, I'd been putting Stella in her carseat, and then opening the garage door from the car and backing out. Well this morning, I was super-excited about taking Stella to the mall to see Santa, and I was running late to meet Anna, and I gunned it to back out, not realizing that the garage door was not quite finished opening. So I hit it. Ouch. I was able to get it open all the way so I could finish backing out, but I wasn't able to get it closed again, but I was late and Anna and I both live in the non-cellphone world, so I had to go. My car didn't do too badly, some scrapes on the top above the window and the little knob piece that sticks out where a spoiler would go if I had a spoiler fell off, but otherwise not too bad. I inspected the door when I got home and it just has some minor dents, but when I forced it open with the garage door opener, I bent the bottom wheel that wheels it up. So to get it closed, I had to hammer that pin out on both sides. While Stella sat in her stroller with her earmuffs on (it was loud). So the garage door is closed, which is the important thing, but now we have to add "fix the garage door" to our already incredibly long to-do list!
What's weirder is that in the span of a few hours I felt like a) the biggest idiot on earth for backing into the garage door and then b) a total badass for figuring out why the door wasn't closing and then using my muscles to close it. Go figure.
And on a side note, Stella did beautifully for Santa. We got an adorable picture and Anna and I had fun at the mall. Daniel did not sit for Santa, but kept Stella's spirits up while we waited:) Also, I had to nurse Stella while we were in line and one of the "elves" was talking about how cool it was that I was breastfeeding her, how'd she'd done that with her children and we talked about how wonderful it was. Very cool!

Music Meme from Kelli

Instructions:1. Open your library on your Zen or Ipod or other MP3 player
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button

Ready, set, go!!!!!

Opening Credits: Golden Boy- Greg Dulli

Waking up: The Face of Zero and One-The New Pornographers


Falling in love: Lovely Day-The Pixies (oh, that’s nice)

Fight song: Celestial Annihilation-Unkle (Wow, gotta’ love any song with “annihilation”’ in it for your fight song)

Break up song: Big Man with a Gun-Nine Inch Nails (wow, that’s kind of disturbing. Although I would certainly break up with a man who just sang about his big gun.)

Making Up: Black Tongue-Yeah Yeah Yeahs Not the best way to make up with someone. I mean, she calls them some very not nice things in this song.

Life's Okay: 1,000 Seconds-Secret Machines Seems appropriate since SM are so stoner-rock and if you’re stoned, life’s generally pretty okay;)

Mental Breakdown: Drink To Me Babe, Then-A.C. Newman

Driving: Touch and Go-The Cars (ha! That’s awesome!)

Flashbacks: Textbook-We Are Scientists

Happy Dance: Glow in the Dark-David Garza This is totally appropriate, rock! “I glow in the dark and I won’t sit still”

Regret: My Mathematical Mind-Spoon (well, regret does usually start in your mind…)

Final Battle: Numb-U2 Appropriate somehow I think

Death Scene: Explain it To Me-Liz Phair

Final Credits: Sour Times-Portishead definitely great closing credits music to any movie

How about a Cold to go with that UTI?

Stella has a cold too, poor baby. I can't decide which is worse, hearing her struggling to breathe through her nose, or watching her scream and cry when she has to pee. I'll call it a tie. Although I honestly am trying not to complain too much since she's a trooper and there are certainly way worse things that parents have to deal with than a couple of minor illnesses.

Sick Baby

So I've given up on blogging about Michigan. I can't get Blogger to work nor can I get LGT to let me post photos, so I guess it's a sign that the world doesn't need to know about our travels. Instead I will blog about Stella being sick for the first time. Man, it sucks. It started Thursday when she vomited in the car on the way to lunch with Tim. It was gnarly, but she was in a good mood, so I didn't worry too much. Then she had diarrhea when we got home and a fever. So I started to worry and gave her tylenol, although she was still in good spirits. But man was she warm and a little poo factory. Friday she still had a fever and it was still climbing (it got up to 101.7, which scared the bejeezus out of me), so I called the nurse at her doctor's office. She said to try Ibruprofen to bring down the fever and to monitor her over the weekend. If the fever didn't come down that evening or the next day, we'd have to take her to the ER or Urgent Care. Now that's something a mom doesn't want to hear. But her fever broke that night and there was no more diarrhea after 9am on Friday, so I started to relax. Then she felt warm again yesterday, so I took her temperature and it was 100.5. So we took her to the doctor yesterday and she thought it was just a virus, but did a urine test just to be sure. Let me tell you the way they do a urine test on a baby girl. They literally stick a bag to her to catch the pee. And of course, when they did this at the doctor's office, Stella decided she did not have to pee. I nursed her, gave her water, but nope, she wasn't going to pee while we were at the doctor's. So I had to take her home and collect the urine there and take it back this morning. Luckily, Tim took it for me. Well the doctor called this afternoon and the poor thing has a Urinary Tract Infection. We're going to have to give her antibiotics for the next 10 days. What worries me more is that when I looked online for information, Babycenter had an article that said 30-40% of babies that have a UTI also have VUR, which can cause Kidney failure if not detected and treated properly, and treatment can involve surgery. Great, just what I wanted to worry about! So I'm hoping that after this gets cleared up the doctor suggests the tests for that, which involves an ultrasound. But I'd rather she get the testing than have it go undetected. So scary!
If you'll excuse me now, I have to go clean up poo in Roxie's cage. She is probably sick again since she likes to get sick before we have people coming in town or other big events, and what other time would be better to get sick than when the baby is sick too. Oh, and she has been without her special food for over a week since I haven't gotten over to the vet's because of sick baby and other dramas. Sigh.
UPDATE: I cleaned out Roxie's cage and the poo appears to be cat poo that Roxie snuck out of the catbox. So keep your fingers crossed that's all it is.