My Name Is Now Mom

This weekend we had a wedding.  It was a multi-day celebration/camping event, but DH and I weren't sure about bringing TerraDactyl out for multiple days in the heat and dealing with the hassle of camping.  So DH caught a ride with Juggerknot on Saturday and TerraDactyl and I followed on Sunday for the wedding and reception.  This was DH's first night away from TerraDactyl, and I was a little apprehensive on how things would go without me having his support.  But we did really well.  TerraDactyl actually went to bed early and it was her best night of sleep since we started unswaddling her. TerraDactyl trying out her sunglasses in preparation for the wedding Believe it or not, but we took absolutely no photos during or after the wedding.  We spent too much time visiting with friends.  The wedding was beautiful, set among the bride's parents' apple trees.  A large percentage of the guests were small children.  There was a whole section of...

Since TerraDactyl seems more reliable in her ability to roll over, I've decided she needs both her arms unswaddled.  If she rolls over at night I want her to be able to lift her head up and potentially roll back onto her back.  Or just cry and wait for me to wake up and flip her.  :D  So the other day I unzipped both wings off her Swaddle Up pajamas.  TerraDactyl in her natural habitat where her camouflaging is most effective TerraDactyl's hands are getting more coordinated.  As you can see above, she's even managed to get her fingers freed up from the fold over sleeves she wore to bed.  She's also getting better at hanging on to things like her toys.  She fell asleep while holding her wooden ring rattle and kept hold of it for about and hour while she slept. Holding on tight TerraDactyl is also getting better at grabbing hair.  My hair is usually up in a bun, but the hairs at the bottom often fall out and dangle and TerraDactyl...

TerraDactyl turned four months old yesterday.  So far, I've remembered to take photos on her monthiversaries (thank you Google Calendar reminders).  I'm trying really hard to make sure I'll have a completed baby book to give TerraDactyl.  I still haven't chosen my favorite photo for the baby book though. I like this pose and I think it might be a bit more in focus This picture gives a better height estimate and I do like her expression here I've been noticing a blackberry bramble that's been growing unchecked outside our nursery window for a while now.  But it's in the side yard that we never go into and it's all a bit overgrown, so I always forget about it when I'm outside.  Well, my forgetfulness has finally paid off!  The bramble actually gave us some fruit!  Here's our blackberry harvest for the year: I totally ate it all in one sitting And a finally.  A drum roll please...  Here is the proof that TerraDactyl can indeed...

TerraDactyl has been wearing a lot of bibs lately.  We were wearing them for a while when she was spitting up.  But We got the spit up situation under control.  It was a combination of making sure we held TerraDactyl upright for 15 minutes after she ate and me getting better at reading TerraDactyl's hunger level.  When she starts popping on and off, it means she's probably got a burp and it's time to stop feeding her, instead of waiting for her to stop on her own.  Ready to start the day So for a while we stopped using bibs.  But lately, TerraDactyl has been SUPER drooly.  She's spending a lot of time sucking on her hands, and clothes, and anything else she can stick in her mouth.  And all this sucking is producing more saliva that then falls out her adorable open mouth.  Soaking her clothes.  So, rather than changing her outfits a million times a day, I've been going through a bunch of bibs.  And we still end up with wardrob...

Was it just the other day that I was concerned TerraDactyl wasn't pooping?  Well I'm not worried anymore!  She pooped THREE times yesterday.  BIG ones.  So much poop. That's one happy baby All day long TerraDactyl was SO close to rolling over from her back to her front.  I was poised to capture her first roll for hours.  And then, late last night I relaxed my guard...  and she did it!  So, no footage of it, but it totally happened.  I promise.  ;)  We also started playing with the Happy Apple.  TerraDactyl seems to like it.  It's hard to tell if she's just randomly flailing and accidentally hitting it, or if she keeps flailing so she can keep making the musical noises.  But she's smiling while she does it, so I'm saying she likes it. 

While TerraDactyl and I were having floor time yesterday, Riley decided to join in.  Riley and TerraDactyl probably spent 10 minutes bonding.  It was pretty sweet. Hand holding and staring contests TerraDactyl has also continued her quest to roll from her back to her stomach.  She's super close, but no success yet.  But she's SO CLOSE. She just needs a tiny bit more "oomph"! After our Mommy & Me yoga video yesterday the next video that came up was on exercises to help with diastasis recti (separation of abdominal muscles).  The method described to check for how bad the problem is was really good.  Basically, you just do a crunch and when your head is up, you stick a finger (or two or three) into your belly button.  If your ab muscles have separated you'll be able to feel the muscle up on the side of your finger.  I've got one finger of separation between my muscles at my belly button.  It's a weird feeling.  I can...

With TerraDactyl's exciting week (the work picnic, book club, concert...) her schedule's gotten a bit messed up.  Which I think may have affected her...  regularity.  She's been pooping very regularly at 7 or 8 am each day.  But Thursday she did not poop at all!  All day long!  I was a bit concerned.  But she gave me a big ol' poopy diaper on Friday afternoon, so that was a big relief.  Honestly, I never thought I'd be so excited to see a poopy diaper!  The reduced pooping may be the schedule thing, but it may also be an age thing.  I guess some breastfed babies don't poop every day (after the first couple months of pooping ALL the time).  One more advantage of breast milk over formula - it's easier to digest, so you get fewer poopy diapers.  ;)  We'll see how things continue to develop. Making "snow angels" Alright, subject change!  TerraDactyl is doing her best to roll over from her back to her front.  S...

Development update:  TerraDactyl is less satisfied with laying around.  When she's in her bouncer, she's a lot more wiggly.  And if it's leaning back, TerraDactyl spends a lot of the time trying to sit up.  It's kind of like watching her do crunches on an incline. Time for a workout! The last few days have been a little insane.  I spent most of my day Tuesday prepping for Wednesday.  I was planning and packing and pumping milk...  Why all the prep work?  Because Weird Al Yankovic came to town!  (Kind of like Santa Claus).  We had tickets to go see Weird Al with DH's Hometown Homies.  We'd bought the tickets ages ago when they first went on sale.  There was a limit to how many one person could buy (4), so DH and I both had to buy tickets so we could all go.  We were super on top of things, pressing refresh and waiting to simultaneously buy the tickets.  And we just barely got them.  The concert sold out i...

We had a very full weekend.  Saturday we had DH's work's summer picnic.  It's a pretty big to-do.  There's lunch and ice cream and swag give-a-ways, and a giant slip and slide.  I haven't had a chance to do the slip and slide yet.  I'm hoping next year will be a good year for it.  :D  There was also a petting zoo, a butterfly house, and a couple exotic animals - like a wallaby (so cute!). DH catching a butterfly on a sugar paintbrush We were at the picnic for about four hours.  TerraDactyl did pretty well, but she was a bit touch and go for a while.  I think the loudspeakers they had set up for give-a-ways and music bothered her.  She calmed down when we took her off on the nature walk, away from the noise.  Fortunately it was only 77°F or so because I kept TerraDactyl in the Tula carrier the whole time and I've got the tan lines to prove it.  ;) TerraDactyl likes the butterfly Sunday I got a massage!  My lef...

Yesterday, TerraDactyl and I started the day with 40 minutes of Mommy & Me yoga.  It went pretty well again, but we didn't quite get to finish the second video before TerraDactyl had just had enough.  TerraDactyl enjoys the squats, but she really likes the butt lifts.  She lays on my belly so when I lift my butt up, she goes upside down a bit.  It makes her laugh. How did you get here? After yoga, TerraDactyl had her tummy time.  Aaaand, after about 2 minutes, she rolled over!!!  (2 weeks shy of 4 months, if you'd like to record the milestone 😉)  It was SO exciting.  She'd been so close to rolling over the day before, I was taking video in the hopes she would manage it.  I was so excited, I had to mute the video for this post because I was just too loud. After our productive morning, TerraDactyl and I ended up taking a three hour nap together in the afternoon.  Well, I probably only slept for an hour, but TerraDactyl wa...

Today I decided to try Mommy & Me yoga instead of just regular yoga.  This went over a lot better with TerraDactyl.  She liked having my attention.  It doesn't matter if she's right in front of me while I'm doing yoga, if my face isn't directed at her, she gets irritated.  TerraDactyl is very interested in this mirror We also tried Baby yoga.  TerraDactyl seemed to like it, but again, it's probably just because I was paying attention to her and interacting with her.  I don't know that she liked it any better than when I read her books, or give her a bath.  The last part of the baby yoga was tummy time and TerraDactyl nearly rolled over!  She was so close.  She just sort of hovered on the edge of her balance.  At one point I thought she was going to turn over, but she seemed to dislike the loss of balance feeling and jerked back to her belly.  She would have rolled over so easy if she had just pushed off the ground with he...

After I'd been trying to use up all our size 1 diapers that TerraDactyl had outgrown it occurred to me that she was probably too big for her Swaddle Up pajamas too.  I checked her weight and she clocked in at 14.8 pounds!  Definitely time for the next size of PJ's.  I went ahead and ordered her the transition ones (the sleeves zip off) because I figure TerraDactyl will be trying to roll soon.  Once she starts rolling, I'm supposed to unzip one of her arms for a few nights and then end up with both arms out.  The new PJ's look a bit like prison garb... I'm trying to start doing yoga at home to increase my strength and flexibility.  And because it seems like an achievable workout with an infant.  I chose a 30 minute postpartum video.  It seemed perfect.  It only took me FOUR HOURS to get through all thirty minutes.  TerraDactyl was NOT a fan.  In the end, I did manage to get through the whole video as well as a short 10 minute ...

When Jugger₀ came to play Werewolf Legacy with us, he brought his daughter's Jumper that she has outgrown.  TerraDactyl has been pushing with her legs lately, so we thought we'd try it out.  She likes it! When we first put her in, it was set up pretty high, so TerraDactyl couldn't actually reach the ground.  But she flailed around enough it was still bouncing pretty good.  Even after lowering the seat so that she can reach the ground, TerraDactyl gets more bounce from flails than from jumping.  But she seems to like it, so we'll call that a win.  We finally used up the last of our size 1 diapers, so we're back in cloth diapers.  After spending so much time with disposables, I have to admit, I'm a little spoiled by that little color line that indicates when the diaper is wet.  :)  Ah well, I'm sure I'll acclimate back in no time.  Growing into a new terry cloth footie pajamas for post-bath time Did you see the kit...

After our crazy busy week, TerraDactyl and I spent a relaxing Monday just getting back to our normal schedule.  We spent most of my productive time cleaning up the house from our Werewolf party.  And doing laundry, of course.  ;) TerraDactyl loves Mondays!! Good news!  The last few nights I've been waking up at 4am because my upper back has been hurting so bad.  I have to go out and stretch it out on my exercise ball for 30 minutes or so before I can fall back asleep.  Well, OK, that's obviously bad news.  The good news is that doesn't happen when I sleep on the other side of my bed!  For middle of the night feedings (or anything before 10am or so), I just sit up and lean against the headboard and feed TerraDactyl on my Boppy pillow.  She usually falls asleep while I'm holding her upright and it's super easy to just lay her back down in her bassinet.  But apparently, sitting in the same spot for so much time messed up the mattress...

In the last post I mentioned TerraDactyl had a couple wood toys she can play with.  But her favorite toy is this giraffe blanket.  She spends a lot of time either cuddling it or sucking on it. The giraffe is so easy to hold Last week was a busy week.  It seemed like I was either prepping for a big event or trying to recover from one. We spent the first part of the week assembling a pergola for our deck.  Lowe's had a season end clearance sale and DH just happened to see the display model at the store.  DH ended up assembling it mostly by himself in the evenings after work.  I helped with a few steps that required two people, but TerraDactyl tends to be needier in the evenings, so she was in the sling wrap which definitely limited my helpfulness.  :) Shade! Thursday evening I finally  got my Christmas present.  We went to a Walk Off the Earth concert.  WOTE is a Canadian band that made their big break in the Five People, One...