Monday, September 29, 2008

Sleeping through the night

Last night we put Sara Beth down at 8:30pm.  She didn't awaken for a feeding until 6:30 this morning!  Heather woke up last night around SaraB's typical 3am feeding and when she noticed the time she became a little worried that something was wrong.  However, when she checked, she found Sara Beth sleeping peacefully through her early morning feeding.  Hopefully, this will become a regular occurrence.

Sara Beth really might be an olympian.  Check out her skills with holding her head up already and sitting in her bumbo.  If either of those were olympic sports, then she would definitely be in the running for the gold.   



Unfortunately, neither are considered "real" sports so we will just have to wait a few years, but the prospects looking good.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Sit-ups

In the continuous process of growing up, Sara Beth keeps adding to her list of abilities.  The newest to be added is sitting upright in her stroller.  Heather took her around the block sitting up and looking forward, and Sara Beth enjoyed every step of it.  I've mentioned it before, but Sara Beth really doesn't want to miss a thing that might be going on.  So when she sits forward, she can see a lot more.  Heather would have gone kept on walking for longer, but it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon.  Even though fall technically started a few days ago, the weather here in Dallas still behaves like the peak of summer.  Needless to say, all future walks will be conducted in this new format, but in cooler parts of the day.  


As soon as  Heather got home, she tried to sit Sara Beth on the  floor in the similar upright position, with less  than perfect results.  She slowly sank forward, though I will give Sara Beth props as she  grunted and strained to sit  back up the entire time.

Now that we have FINALLY captured a picture of Sara Beth smiling, the process has become easier, and so we can catch her in the act a lot more often.   This time, Heather tickled her with her little duck toy.  Of course, in the next frame, Sara Beth decides that her duck is a chew toy and begins to gnaw on the plastic.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Life without acid reflux

Sara Beth is a very happy easy going baby.  She now likes her swing and will fall asleep in it.  This past weekend, I told Heather that I would take care of her so that Heather could go out and get some errands done.  Sara Beth behaved like a little angel.  While I worked on fixing a broken oven, she sat in her swing.  When I turned around to check on her, she had fallen asleep.  I tried moving her back into an upright position, but she immediately curled back down to rest her head on the side of the chair.  I did place a burp cloth as a small pillow so that her head wasn't resting directly on the plastic.  Later on in the day, she took a nap on my chest.  


SaraB's muscle control has also greatly improved.  Heather captured the below shot today.  We were reading in a book that babies sometimes have a little head control by the time they are two months.  Again, Sara Beth appears to be far ahead of the curve.  We also read that the typical baby begins to support some of their weight on their legs by the time they reach three months.  Again, she appears to be advanced as she does that already.


And last, but certainly not least: we have finally captured a smile on camera.  The below photo is the culmination of weeks of hard work and dedication.  I caught Sara Beth un-awares while Heather was distracting her.  

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Status update

The prevacid appears to be doing the trick.  Sara Beth sleeps through the night like a baby.  Well, at least until her regular 4am feeding.  She is also acting like her normal happy self again, although she still doesn't want to smile for the camera.  SaraB stopped smiling about 3 seconds before I took the below picture:


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Antacid: 1 Sara Beth: 0

Sara Beth has always been a fussy baby.  Heather and I have worked hard to keep her from crying, but it has always been a battle.  At first we thought it might have been something that Heather ate, so Heather scaled her diet back to nothing but oatmeal with lactose free milk.  That didn't do anything.  We then asked the doctor, and he prescribed some Levson, which did help a bit.  SaraB was better, but it still took a lot of work to keep Sara Beth from going into meltdown mode.  But we have been holding her and rocking her.  Heather called the doctor last week to say that something was still wrong; that the Levson was not the right medicine.  SaraB's regular doctor was not in that day, and she was transferred to a different doctor's office.  A "helpful" receptionist responded "Well, you know that baby's cry, right?" and that there weren't any nurses or doctors available. 

Well, this morning, when Sara Beth spit up, it was bloody.  So Heather took her to SaraB's regular doctor.  The doctor diagnosed that SaraB has one of the worst cases of acid reflux that he has seen.  Apparently the blood was from SaraB's esophagus that has been damaged from all the acid.  He also said that might be why she didn't take naps during the day: she hurt.  So, Sara Beth is now on Prevacid, and seems to be doing much better.  The stuff takes a little while to fully kick in, but there is marked improvement.  Sara Beth took a full 5 hours worth of naps today, which is more than she has had since we brought her home from the hospital.  She also had her longest feeding on record at a full 30 minutes.  And best of all, no more blood in her spit up.  So all signs point to this really helping Sara Beth to feel better.  

But despite all the problems with the acid, Sara Beth is still growing.  While in for the appointment today, she weighed in at a respectable 11 pounds and 14 ounces.  Her growth is slowing from a pound a week to "only" a pound every two weeks, but she is a fully healthy baby girl now.

SaraB can now hold on to her rattle.  Right after this picture was taken, she bopped herself in the head with it.


Another attempt at capturing a smile on Sara Beth's face ends in failure:


Capturing the elusive smile

For weeks SaraB has been smiling.  We will be playing with her or making noises at her, and the smile will dawn across her face.  It is the sweetest thing, and we want to share her little rays of sunshine with the world.  However, as soon as we pull out a camera to capture her smile, it evaporates.  Today, Heather took the below photo.  It is the closest we have come to catching a smile on film.  We'll try again tomorrow to see if we can capture it while it is still in full bloom.


Due to hurricane Ike, Melanie and Alan were in Dallas hanging out with family and waiting for Houston to return to modern civilization.  They came by and Audry and Sara Beth played together for a little while.


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Six Weeks

Today Sara Beth turned 6 weeks old!  And I have not made a post in a week.  So consider this the catchup post.  The below picture shows her in her Sunday outfit:

This week we have had lots of people over, and are taking care of a stray kitten until my sister can come and pick it up.  To top it off, Sara Beth didn't feel very good the beginning of this week.  Needless to say, by the time I have some spare time, I'm ready to go straight to bed.  I have a 5k race on Sunday, but I'm not getting up early in the mornings to get any practice runs in.  All that being said, I'm having a blast.  I think the phrase "time flies when your having fun" applies.  

I have become good at getting Sara Beth to fall asleep when she is hungry.  Yesterday, Heather was doing the grocery shopping, and I wanted to keep SaraB with me at home.  Sara Beth started to get a little hungry about 30 minutes before Heather was to come home.  So I walked up and down the block with her, and after only 5 minutes she fell asleep.  I came back inside and sat on the couch relaxing with her sleeping on me.  At this point, it dawned on me that I would have a very unhappy baby on my hands if she woke up before Heather came home.  She would be hungrier and rather mad that she was tricked and her meal got delayed.  Fortunately, Heather walked in the door just as she awoke.  I passed the ravenous beast off to Heather in the nick of time.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Trying out the bumbo

For the un-initiated, a bumbo is a chair that helps babies sit up at an early age.  We tried it with SaraB and achieved limited success.


She slumps over to one side or the other unless we use her arm to prop herself upright.  Also, Heather introduced her to a new friend: Elle the elephant.  Though the below picture doesn't show it, they are fast becoming new friends.  


Life is beginning to settle into a routine.  I come home, pick up Sara Beth, and don't put her down until we sit down for dinner.  After dinner, I pick her up again and either go for a walk outside, or take her into the back yard with me to pull weeds until she falls asleep in my arms.  Typically, as soon as I come back inside, she wakes up and cries for her evening meal.  Heather feeds her, then, on bath nights, we bath her, then calm her back down, and put her in bed.  Other nights, I read to her and put her in bed.  Either way, I think I am getting used to this parenting thing.  It has been more than a week since I have even had an wild and zaney poop story. 

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Top Three List

Tonight I present the top three things that make Sara Beth upset:

#3.  Missing the party.  I have mentioned this before, so I won't go into too much detail.  Suffice it to say, during the day, Sara Beth does not like to be put down for naps in her crib, though she will sleep just fine in her bouncer seat, as long as it is near people.

#2.  Getting her shot.  Today, Heather took SaraB for her 1 month checkup which included a shot.  Not surprisingly, She turned all red and started to cry.  Heather calmed her down quickly, but SaraB was clingy for the rest of today.  While at the doctor, Sara Beth weighed in at a respectable 10 pounds 14 ounces, so she is still gaining about a pound a week!

#1.  What could be worse than getting a shot at the doctor?  Well, for SaraB, the answer is being taken out of the bathtub.  She absolutly loves taking baths.  She kicks and splashes her feet in the water.  Heather shampos her hair.  And we pour water over her. And then, as the water gets cold, we pull her out to dry her off and get her ready for bed.  And she will cry and cry.  It takes much longer to console her about the loss of her bathwater down the drain then it does to calm her after getting stuck with a needle.  I'm looking forward to next summer when we can take her to the pool.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Blue Steel

Those who have seen Zoolander will appreciate this face:

I've already said that she is beautiful enough to be a model, but now I can say that she is practicing her modeling faces.  Above is her "blue steel" look, and she is working hard at perfecting "magnum." 

50% more advanced then the average baby

Yesterday, Sara Beth turned one month old.  It was also the first day that we all went to church together.  She did really well and, of course, everyone who saw her said that she was beautiful. 

According to Heather, who reads all the baby books, a typical infant leans how to smile in response to stimulis around 6 weeks of age.  I am proud to say SaraB has already achieved this skill 2 weeks early.  And considering that she is only 4 weeks old, that is 50% better!  I hold her vertical, talk sweet nonsense to her, and then bring her in for a kiss, and repeat.  After around the third time, she will begin to crack a smile.  

Sara Beth is constantly making some sort of noise while awake.  Mostly, she does one of her variations of a grunt, but she does add in some coos and sneezes for variety.  I really enjoy sitting with her and echoing her sounds back at her.  She looks at me and sometimes I will see a shadow of a smile as she waits till I am done making my sound before she makes her next one as we "talk" the each other.