Ceridwen’s Cauldron

Dear Ada,

I can’t believe you’re 7 months old already! It seems like only yesterday I was writing up your 6-month post. Clearly, someone has sped up time.

This month started off better than last month, as you began by having naps again. At first it was half an hour or 40 minutes, but even that was a huge relief, and you were much happier. Now you’re napping for up to 2 hours at a time, sometimes twice a day. In between you’re happy and bright and all smiles and generally a little charmer.

We started the month by giving you your first solid food. Because we live in a digital age, these precious moments were caught on camera.

You seemed to take to it well the first time, but you’re not quite ready for it yet. You’ve enjoyed sweet potatoes, rice cereal, and barley. Acorn squash and banana weren’t big hits. You have tried all of these things, but in fact, you don’t eat much at all and most days won’t eat any solids.

I’m trying not too worried. You’ll be ready when you’re ready, and you’re obviously not ready yet. You don’t have a lot of the signs of being ‘ready’ for solid food yet – you don’t closely watch the food your Dad and I eat, or try to grab things off our plates. You haven’t cut a tooth, and you’re not quite sitting up on your own – all apparently signs of a baby who is ready for solid food. I talked to a mom whose daughter didn’t eat solid food until 9 months.

In the meantime, all those cuddles I was worried about losing last month? I still get those. And I love them. You nurse off to sleep almost every night and most nap times. (This is one of those things that parents apparently Should Never EVER do, because according to the experts it means you will Never Learn To Sleep On Your Own, but I just can’t give it up yet.)

Your motor skills have improved by leaps and bounds this month. You’re reaching out and grabbing things and occasionally managing to bring them to your mouth. When you’re in your exersaucer, you like to grab onto things and bang them together, or shove them onto the floor to make a big noise. We have a set of stacking rings, and in the past few days you’ve started pulling the rings off on your own.

You like to grab onto the pages of books (and if we let you, you’ll shove them into your mouth) and any toy that makes a crinkling noise is a big hit. We have several books with the special crinkle paper in them, and you go on what your Dad has named ‘crinkle-paper benders’. You play with the book wildly for several minutes, laugh and coo and shout, then suddenly get upset and cry and are ready for milk and a nap.

You are almost sitting up. You don’t need much support if we rest you against our legs. You’ll sit up on your own for several seconds, but then you topple to the side. You haven’t quite caught the trick of leaning forward to balance out your weight.

You still aren’t able to roll over on your own. You get tummy time twice a day to help you learn, but I have to tell you, that’s pretty much my limit, because all I’m doing is watching you cry, and trying to distract you. You really don’t like to be on your stomach. You are capable of lifting your head up and looking around, (it was when you didn’t do this at the doctor’s office that he seemed concerned) but it seems you just really don’t want to, and much prefer to lie on your back and look around you at all the toys. You can roll onto your side to look at things.

This month I took you to Sears Photo to have 6-month photos done. They’re going out to friends and relatives soon, but I have to say I think the best photos we have are the ones your Dad takes. He always manages to capture your moods so well.

We both love you more every day.

XOXOXO

Mommy

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 8 Comments »

It’s a grey, March day out there today. Spring is in the air, but it’s cloudy and there’s snow and ice everywhere still. In fact, this is one of the worst times of year in Montreal, when the packed snow gets just wet enough to freeze, making sidewalks slick and everyone generally miserable.

Here. Have some tiny red mittens to brighten your day:

I saw this pattern at Christmastime and fell in love with it. It’s an advent calendar. You knit 24 tiny mittens and hang them on a cord. They’re each big enough to hold a chocolate, or a small toy.

I’ve been trying to be reasonable about the amount of knitting I have planned for myself this year. I want to start lots of projects, but I also want to be realistic about what I can and cannot finish. Planning 24 mittens is a lot. But I thought ‘they are small. If I do only 2 a month, I’ll have the advent calendar done around Christmastime.’ Which is pretty much perfect.

Then I was busy in January, and my wrists were bad through the first part of the year. So I’ve only just cast on the first of these in the past week, but look where I am. Four mittens in three days.

These things are like popcorn. They knit up fast, and they are so cute you just want to make another one! And then another! And another!

The pattern is called Smitten. It’s easy to see why.

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 2 Comments »

A picture of a little project I’m working on…

Hint: It’s not a scarf.

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 1 Comment »

Dear Ada,

You are six months old! I can’t believe it’s gone so fast – we’re halfway through my year of maternity leave and I’m starting to think I don’t want to go back to work.

We had your 6-month doctor’s appointment yesterday. You weigh 5.15kg (About 12lbs 2oz) and are 62cm (about 24.5 inches) long. That puts you in the target length for a 6-month old, but underweight for that age. However, your adjusted weight (if we subtract the 5 weeks you were early) is right on target.

This month has had its ups and downs. I won’t lie to you – the past two weeks have been really difficult. You seem to have decided that you don’t want to nap any more during the day, or if you nap it’s only for ten or twenty minutes at a time. It’s been frustrating and by the end of the day both you and I are exhausted, and we need a break. I’ve been having some trouble with my wrists (and have even been to the doctor about it) so carrying you around all the time like you want is painful. I hate letting you cry, and yet sometimes it hurts too much to pick you up and I’m tired and frustrated and just wish you’d sleep.

Apart from that, things are good. You are a wiggly baby and just on the edge of rolling over on your own – you just can’t quite figure out how to get your arms out of the way. The doctor has ordered more tummy time, which is almost a shame because you hate tummy time. Sometimes you will do nothing but cry to be picked up for five solid minutes. If you are particularly tired, you may just put your head down on the play mat and sigh pathetically and not move. There was one exception – once when I put you down with your arms under you, you flipped yourself right over before I realized what was happening. You lay on the mat with the most startled expression on your face. I think you were trying to figure out if you should cry or not!

You do love stretching your legs, and sitting in your exersaucer and you’ll contentedly play with your toys there and keep yourself amused while I look on. You like to sit up in your bouncer chair, and in your high chair and watch what’s going on around you. I have taken to doing a ‘cooking show’ if you’re awake while I’m making my lunch. You watch me while I make a sandwich and explain all the things I’m doing. (I am mashing up the tuna with a fork. Now I am adding mayonnaise. Now I’m putting the mayonnaise back in the fridge…) You don’t understand, of course, but you seem to enjoy being my studio audience.

You are mostly good around new people, and smile at everyone. At the doctor’s office for your last appointment, you looked around at everyone with big, fascinated eyes. Every time you made eye contact with someone new, you smiled and laughed and hid your face in my shoulder. Occasionally, you’ll be startled by new people in the house (usually this happens just after you’ve woken up from your nap) and start to cry. You did this just this week when Arin and Liam had just arrived for a visit. Liam was telling me how he had just had a vaccination at the doctor’s, and I said you had vaccinations coming up next week. You screwed up your face and let out a wail.

“Oh no, Ada,” Liam was quick to reassure you. “It doesn’t even hurt!”

(I hope you will remember these wise words when we go to the nurse’s office.)

You can reach for things and hold them now, and chew on your fingers. Usually it’s your first two fingers, but from time to time you get your thumb in your mouth and chew on it for a while. You still won’t take a pacifier or a bottle, but we’ve gotten used to that now and I’m told that soon I can start you on a sippy cup.

You’re getting more and more interested in the food your dad and I eat at the table and this week we’re going to try to feed you your first solid food. Oddly, though the doctors and nurses we’ve spoken to are adamant that babies don’t need solid food before they’re 6 months old, the nurse at our clinic seemed astonished that you were still a breastmilk-only baby. There’s just no pleasing people when you’re a parent.

Mortimer Moose is still your favourite toy, though your My First Doll is a close second, and you will happily chew on it while sitting in your high chair. You love things with crinkle paper in them, touching them and making noise. We have a few cloth books that you like to reach out and touch and chew on.

Your Daddy caught a really cute video of you this month. You are cooing:

You’ve started ‘reading’ books to us. We will sit with you on our lap and open a book, and you will start cooing. Every time we turn a page, you make another noise, as if you’re ‘reading’ what’s written there. It is unbelieveably cute.

We didn’t have any visitors from out of town this month, but your Auntie Arin stops by fairly often for a cuddle.

And we made a weekend trip to Rowan Tree Farm to visit Taras and Janice, and then drove to Ottawa for the afternoon so you could meet your brand new cousin, Oliver. He was 7 weeks old, and as big as your nearly-6-month-old self:

You also got to visit with Uncle Shaun and Aunt Denise, who marvelled that you could hold your head up and look around and move, while your Dad and I held Oliver and reminded ourselves that we had to support his head, and wondered at how much he slept. You and Oliver didn’t really notice each other all that much, but I hope you will grow up to be good friends.

I can’t wait to feed you your first bites of solid food, and I have the cereal and spoons all ready to go. But I can’t help looking at you sometimes and feeling a little lost – you’ve grown so much since you were born! You’re still small, but you’re not my tiny little baby any more and the time seems to be going by so fast, I can’t believe it. Solid food seems like such a huge turning point, the beginning of the end of all our nighttime cuddles and feedings throughout the day. While part of me will be glad to have my body back to myself, another part of me wants you to stay just as you are forever, my precious little baby.

I can’t believe how much I love you. You wouldn’t believe it either.

XOXOXO

Mommy

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 6 Comments »

(I know these posts are running late. This has been 90% written since Mid-December and I’m only getting it up now. Five month post to follow.)

You started this month with a big accomplishment. You slept for 8 hours straight for the first time! You woke up bright and perky and I took you downstairs to brag to your Nanny C, who was staying with us. She thought we’d had a bad night because we were up so early, but it was just the opposite.

You’ve been cooing for so long now, and so much, that it’s hard to remember when you couldn’t ‘talk’ to us. The best time for this is right after you’ve woken up in the morning, or from a nap. You will happily sit in your bouncer chair, or on a lap, and gurgle and laugh at everything we say or do.

The only times you’ve been really unhappy in the past month have been when you had reflux. You would spit up just a little and scream and scream about it. Sometimes you would cry for most of an evening, because the gas was bothering you so much and nothing we did seemed to help. It was heartbreaking to watch.

I made an appointment with the doctor and she prescribed Zantac for you, which you have to take 3 times a day. You don’t like it one bit, but you don’t spit it back at me either, and the medicine definitely helps. You haven’t had a bad evening since, and that makes us all a lot happier.

You’ve had a lot of big development leaps this month. You’ve started trying to sit up on your own if we put you in the bounce chair, or on the breastfeeding pillow. You can’t manage it yet – with help you can balance for a few seconds but that’s it. But you are really trying.

You also love to “stand” if we’re holding you. You can support your weight on your legs, though of course you can’t balance yet! If you’re a bit cranky, all we have to do is stand you up, and you’ll calm down. Your favourite time to stand up is when we’re talking on Skype with your grandparents. You want to be on your feet and looking at the screen.

That’s another leap you’ve made – you will look at the screen now, and recognize the faces on the other side. One night while we were talking with your Nanny C. you seemed to be focussing on the screen more than usual. I asked her to stick her tongue out at you, which is always guaranteed to make you laugh. She made faces at you and you laughed and laughed. She was delighted. Before this we weren’t sure if you were seeing anything more than just the change of patterns, but now we know you’re recognizing that there’s someone there.

My birthday was this month (December 4th!) and many people pointed out that I have the best birthday present there is – You! They’re right. We started the day out as we usually do – you woke up early in the morning, I fed you, and then we went back to bed for a cuddle. That night though, I put you in the crib in your room and you’ve slept there ever since. It feels a little odd not having you in the cradle at the foot of the bed any more, but you seem happy in your own room, and are sleeping up to 9 hours (!!!) at a stretch there.

Your nap times are getting longer and more regular but there’s still not a distinct schedule. You generally have a short morning nap of about forty minutes, and then a longer afternoon one of anywhere from 2-4 hours, but depending on how you sleep the night before, where you’ve fallen asleep, and what kind of mood you’re in during the day, it really varies.

Since you’re recognizing toys and cooing and talking to yourself a lot more, I can put you down and you can ‘play’ by yourself for a bit. You love to talk to the mobile in your crib (which is a Fisher Price sound and lights thing that plays animal noises and projects images). However, you much prefer being carried around, or sitting with me or your Dad, having us sing songs to you or read you books.

This month your Nanny C and Aunt Bonnie came to visit you. They stayed for a week and I think for that whole time I only held you when I was feeding you. While they were here we took a Big Outing and drove to Kingston for lunch to meet your Aunt Marie, who drove in from Toronto just to see you. You were very good in the car, but when we had to slow down for construction just a half-hour outside of Kingston, you woke up and realized you were HUNGRY. We had to stop along the way and feed you. It’s usually this way – you’ll sleep in the car as long as it’s moving, but heaven help us if we slow down!

For my birthday, I took you for another visit to Ariadne, my favourite yarn shop, for an afternoon of knitting and shopping. I thought you would nap in your car seat while we were there, but you wanted to be up and looking at all the interesting things around you. (Yarn, more yarn, other people, other children). I only got 3 rows knit while you were on my lap, but the trip was otherwise a success.

I’m finding that I’m a different sort of Mom than I expected. I though I wouldn’t check on you every 5 minutes, but I am, and I have been known to hang over your crib, just to make sure you’re breathing. I also didn’t think I’d be the type of Mom who insisted her baby was the Cutest Baby in the World but let me tell you, I have been out in the malls and to the Doctor’s office, and although there are a lot of cute babies out there, you are the cutest, by far.

I love you so much,
Mommy

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 4 Comments »

Since I’ve had more than one person ask about this.

The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) has put out its nominations for its award for Video Game Writing.

Some of you have noticed that while Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was nominated, it’s listed as being written by Benjamin McCaw, not by me. This is correct.

It’s the Wii version of the game that’s nominated for the award, not the Xbox360/PS3/PC version (As you’ll see if you click through to the nominations page). Although the games share a title, the stories are completely different.

I’m also not a member of the WGA, so my script wasn’t eligible for nomination.

Thanks to the people who have taken the time to call or e-mail, thinking I wasn’t being properly credited, and to the people who wanted to congratulate me. I really appreciate it. However, the WGA page is correct and all the congrats should go to Ben McCaw, and the other nominated writers.

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 2 Comments »

It’s finally finished.

The unblanket I blogged about here and here and here is finally done. It’s taken nearly two years (if my Ravelry page is to be believed, I cast this on in early April 2009).

It started life as a baby blanket, and then I decided it was too complex to finish in time, so it became a Christmas gift for my Grandmother, and then the blanket edging took too long, and so it wasn’t finished in time for Christmas. I gifted it ‘on the needles’ and now it’s ready to be gifted for real, all finished, this Christmas.

Lace knitting is interesting in that it kind of looks like crap while you’re knitting it. When you’re finished, you take the lace you’ve worked on, wet it and stretch it and let it dry, and it opens up to reveal a beautiful pattern. Which is how this…

Becomes this…

I won’t lie to you – this has been a frustrating project. It was probably too difficult for me to take on as a beginning lace project, but once I’d done several repeats I got where the pattern was going and instead of noticing mistakes when I had an extra stitch on the next row, I started picking them up right away. At the end I was even able to knit it with only occasional glances at the pattern. I learned a lot from doing this pattern and if I had the time and energy, I might even be convinced to knit it again.

Well… maybe. Even the beauty of the finished product hasn’t taken the sting out of the edging, which was a ridiculous pain in the bum to knit and involved tears and screaming. (Although to be fair, part of that might have been that it was 3 days until Christmas and I knew it wasn’t going to be done in time.)

However, it’s done now and gorgeous and I’m so proud of it that I’m taking up some of Ada’s valuable nap time to write a blog post about it.

Also I went around the house laying it on various surfaces and taking pictures of it in all its glory. A detail shot of the lace:

Now I’m off to lovingly wrap this in tissue paper and gift wrap.

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 3 Comments »

Dear Ada,

This post is very belated and I’m sorry. We had company last week and the past month has been such a blur that writing a post about it keeps slipping out of my mind.

Month 3 was a big month for you, in terms of development and visitors and events. It’s hard to remember all of it and get it down. I need to start taking notes throughout the month so I don’t miss anything.

What we did miss was getting your photo in the car seat on your month-iversary but this was taken a couple of days earlier (note the mittens, which I knit myself):

You’re much more alert this month, and you’ve started cooing and kicking and talking. That smile we caught on film last month was definitely a Real Smile and you’re smiling all the time now. You love to ‘tell us stories’, and laugh and giggle. Your dad has a new game he plays with you where he sticks out his tongue at you and you laugh and stick out your tongue in response.

We bought you a new bouncer chair this month, and you just love it. It plays music, and features a hanging panda bear toy who quickly became your new best friend. We caught some of your interactions on video, because they’re so cute:

You nap in the morning and afternoon every day, but only for 20-30 minutes at a time unless we cuddle up together – in which case we have a few hours’ sleep together. At night you sleep for at least 3 hours most nights, but you’ve slept for stretches of up to 7 hours, which makes me wake up feeling rested! (Though the first few times you did it I had to get up and make sure you were okay.) Of course, after a few nights of 5 and 6 hours of sleep, when you go back to 3 hours at a time, I get pretty cranky!

You’re rarely cranky and mostly are bright-eyed and smiling but you’ve had a few bad evenings this month, mostly due to what we think is a bit of reflux. You went to the doctor and had your first vaccinations and she offered some advice on sitting you up and burping you to try and minimize the trouble. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go back and get a prescription for some medicine.

I never noticed you staring at your hands, so I don’t know when you realized they were there. However, you are getting better and better at maneuvering your fist into your mouth to suck on, but you won’t take a pacifier at all – you spit it right out.

Possibly related to that, we’ve also discovered to our chagrin that you won’t drink from a bottle any more. It seems being exclusively breastfed has spoiled you a bit and you just don’t know what to do with the bottle nipple. We’re hoping you might learn to use the bottle again – we have lots of people who want to babysit you for a few hours, and would love to have the ‘job’ of feeding you.

And we have had lots of visitors this month!

Your Great-Aunt Anne and Great-Uncle John came for a visit, with their dog Winston, and they were thrilled to meet you.

And then Nanny B and Poppy came to visit for a couple of days on their way to Texas. They were thrilled to bits to see their granddaughter again, and they were amazed at how much you’d grown. After they visited us, they headed to Ottawa for the weekend to visit your Aunt Denise and Uncle Shaun and we took you on your very first road trip – to Ottawa, about a 2 hour drive, for a family dinner.

You slept most of the way in the car – aside from waking up when you were hungry. I’m glad you like the car because we’re up for longer drives in the future – all the way to Halifax to see family there.

And at the end of the month, your Nanny C. and Aunt Bobo came to visit – but I’ll save those photos for your 4-month post.

This month was also Hallowe’en, and even though you don’t even know what that is yet, I had to make you a costume. You were dressed as the world’s cutest duck:

(Actually, you were just a duck but you’re such a cute baby the costume became the World’s Cutest Duck when you were in it.)

This month has been a busy one and you’ve grown a lot. I see it every day but it’s sometimes surprising to look at old photos (well, older photos anyway, since pictures taken 3 months ago aren’t exactly old!) and realizing how small you were back then and how big you are now. It’s nice to see you paying more attention to the world around you, being distracted by lights, colours and toys. Most of all it’s wonderful to have you responding to the things your Daddy and I do and say.

As I said before, I’m writing this late, and it’s because I can’t believe how fast your third month passed and how much you’ve changed.

I keep telling people ‘It feels like we’ve always had this baby’, which some people have taken to mean that you haven’t changed our lives at all. That’s not the case. It’s just that it’s hard to remember what life was like before you arrived, before we had this precious little person to love. I don’t know what we ever did without you.

XOXOXO,
Mommy

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 11 Comments »

Dear Ada,

I can’t believe you are already two months old! You are still so small and yet every day we marvel at how much you’ve grown.

This month you grew into the newborn-size clothes that had been too big for you – and now you’ve almost grown out of them, but aren’t yet ready for the 0-3 month sized clothes we have for you. Still, it’s hard to look at the smaller clothes and believe that we once had to roll up the sleeves so they would fit you.

You’re growing stronger and stronger and every day we notice a difference. You are holding your head up a lot more. I’ve started putting you down on a play mat for “tummy time” five minutes at a time and you can push yourself up a little, and manage to push yourself around in a circle on some days. When you’re sitting on someone’s chest, you push yourself up to look around, then let your head drop back down (sometimes alarmingly fast). Every day you keep your head up for longer, though.

You also follow objects for brief periods of time – if I catch your attention with a bright toy you can focus on it and follow it around a little bit. It’s still not enough that we can really play with toys but we’re getting there.

Yesterday you smiled for the first time – or we’ll call it that rather than gas. Certainly, it seemed as if you were smiling in response to what I was saying. Great Nanny Young and Papa were here and we caught the moment on camera:

You’re a very good baby – if you’re crying you’re hungry, or need to burp, or need a diaper change. You’re big enough now that we’ve started using the cloth diapers that we bought for you. So far we’re doing pretty well with them – only one major incident where a diaper leaked. We’re still using disposable diapers in the nights, simply because it’s easier, but it’s great to know we’ve cut our waste (and expense) way back.

You love to be held. You fall asleep against my chest and will sleep for hours if we don’t disturb you. If we put you in your crib you wake up a lot sooner. This month I bought a cloth carrier called a “cuddly wrap” so that I could have my hands free while you sleep and you love it. If you’re sleepy but can’t seem to settle, you’ll nod off after just a few minutes in the carrier and sleep contentedly for hours. Make no mistake – I love cuddling you in the carrier as much as you enjoy sleeping in it. I get the benefit of being able to snuggle my baby while still getting things done around the house.

You aren’t sleeping through the night yet, but you’ve had some four-hour stretches of sleep. On one notable occasion you rather spoiled the effect of a long sleep by staying wide awake for an hour afterward. But we’ll consider it progress. You are awake for longer stretches between feedings and it’s fun to play with you, read you stories, and have you tell me stories. You’re not cooing quite yet, but you’re getting there.

This month we had some special visitors – you met your Great-Nanny Young:

And Papa Young:

They were very much charmed with you and have declared you “the sweetest baby” (and who am I to argue?) They were here for three days and they only put you down when you needed to be fed. We might have trouble getting you to sleep in a crib alone after this!

We also had many visitors for your naming ceremony, which happened on the first weekend of October. Your Aunt Denise and Uncle Shaun came to visit from Ottawa for the ceremony.

Aunt Denise held you for most of the day (I’m sensing a theme. You must be an extra-snuggly baby. I’ve suspected as much.)

But she gave you up long enough for the ceremony, and she was kind enough to videotape it for us (briefly switching the camera to your Dad at the end, so she could give you a kiss.)

A lot of people have been wondering what a naming ceremony is – basically it was a brief blessing ceremony, and an introduction to all our friends. We put the video online so our family could share it.

Aside from just the short rite, we asked all of our friends to sign a wish book for you, leaving a personal message. Over the next while we’ll be asking everyone who visits to sign the book and leave you a note, and we’ll be taking it when we visit family at Christmas. You won’t remember all of these visits from the people who love you so very much, but you will have a record of them that you can read as you grow up.

The dress you wore is a family heirloom now – Great Nanny Young hand-crocheted it for me. I wore it at my Christening, and your Uncle Dan wore it at his Christening. I switched the blue ribbon and buttons he used back to the pink ones I had used. I’m hoping to get some comparison photos of all three of us, but for the moment, here’s a close up of you in it:

I find we didn’t take as many pictures of you this month as we did in your first month – that doesn’t mean we’re less interested, just that there weren’t as many ‘firsts’ to capture. We did take you to have professional photos taken – the same photographer who took my pregnancy photos. We’ll have .jpg images of them to put up here sometime in the near future – they’re gorgeous.

I can’t believe how quickly this month has flown by. You get more beautiful every day, and more bright. I find myself wanting you to be a little bit older – I’m looking forward to you cooing, and playing with toys, looking at pictures as I read stories. At the same time, I don’t want you to get any older at all. I love you just as you are: small and perfect, and a plentiful source of snuggles. A little more sleep at a stretch would be good, to be sure – but I’m only tired, not exhausted, and we have lovely little naps together to make up for it. People tell me to enjoy every minute of this age because it’s so fleeting, and I am taking that advice. I hope I don’t forget a moment of our beautiful times together.

With much love,
Mommy

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 6 Comments »

Dear Ada,

I can’t believe you are one month old today. It seems like you have always been around, while at the same time it seems like the past month has just flown by. You’ve gone from being a baby we had only seen in ultrasounds, to a real little person who has changed our lives entirely.

When you were born, you weighed 5lbs 2oz. Today you weigh about 6lbs, 2oz. Very few of your outfits fit you – we have two preemie sleepers that your Auntie Arin lent to us that fit pretty well, but even the newborn clothes are too big on you (though they’re getting closer to fitting all the time!)

This is how you looked when we took you home from the hospital:

This is you now (chair provided for scale):

It’s been a month with some pretty scary ups and downs. You arrived early, so most of your first week was spent in the hospital, with various worries about you losing too much weight, sleeping too much, not eating enough and having jaundice. Those days seemed so long because there was so much going on. When I was talking on the phone with Nanny C she would have to remind me that you were only a day or two old, and that I couldn’t expect things like you gaining a lot of weight, or drinking breast milk easily, or being on a regular feeding schedule.

We took you home after 4 days in the hospital. On your last day, we thought we were leaving but had to stay extra time because you had jaundice. That’s not as scary as it sounds – basically you spent some time in the baby equivalent of a tanning bed (and we made jokes about your ‘day at the spa’)

It’s been amazing to watch you change over the last month. You caught on to how to breastfeed within a couple of days of us getting home from the hospital – which is a really big feat for a baby born so early! You’re growing as well. Your face has filled out, and you’re more alert between feedings. You can lift your head up and swivel it around to follow voices (though you still don’t have a lot of control over it). You recognize voices – mine and your Dad’s in particular, since you’ve heard them the most.

You had some visitors in the past month – friends and family. Guests who came from far away included Nanny B and Poppy. They were here when you were just born, and they came to visit you in the hospital.

Then Nanny C came to visit. She stayed for two weeks and helped us set up house with you. (She also took care of me while I was sick with a very bad cold.)

My cousin Patti even stopped by on her way through Montreal (she lives in Toronto) to see you, and take some pictures to show to our family in Nova Scotia.

You are a very happy baby. You sleep well, and cry only when you’re hungry, or wet, or cold. You don’t cry much even when we bathe you, as long as we keep a washcloth over you to keep you warm.

For the past few days you’ve been sick with a cold, and we’ve been up frequently and late worrying about you. Apart from some congestion you’re fine, but that doesn’t stop us from fretting every time you cough or sneeze.

You usually go for 2-3 hours between feedings – sometimes we get a 4-hour stretch at night, which is nice for me, because it means I get a bit more sleep too. Though now that I’ve written that, today has been a trial and you’ve been up almost every hour or hour and a half wanting more food! (I think you’re going through a growth spurt.)

You aren’t usually awake between feedings for very long – though you are getting more and more alert every day. When your eyes are open we read you stories, and sing you songs, and I’ve even half-memorized some poetry to recite to you, since you can’t focus on the pictures very well at the moment. You tend to drift off when you’re being spoken to, particularly if it’s something with a good rhythm (my current favourite is Wynken, Blynken and Nod.)

You’ve already been out on trips all over Montreal. We took you in to visit everyone at our work the week you came home (we had some paperwork to fill out). Yesterday, your Auntie Arin and I took you to various yarn stores. I had Molly Ann from Ariadne hand you a pair of knitting needles – they say if you’re given the needles by a master knitter, you will grow up to be a knitter yourself. I’m looking forward to teaching you (but not until you’re a bit older.)

Everywhere we go, people tell me how sweet you are, how tiny, how like a doll. They say you are a beautiful baby. Before you were born I had the silly worry that people would tell me that even if it weren’t true, but now I find it doesn’t matter. You are the most beautiful baby in the world to me.

I can’t believe how much I love you – more every day. I could watch you sleep for hours (and sometimes I do stay awake just to watch you, even though I should be getting some sleep myself!) I didn’t expect that – I didn’t expect that every time I held you I would be overcome by just how beautiful and you are.

I love you, I love you, I love you.
Mom

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 9 Comments »