Amelia giggling!

Amelia is such a giggle monster these days. She absolutely LOVES it when you tickle her and even does the anticipatory laugh! Enjoy this video!

The Belmont Stakes

We had a great time partying at Kim, Geoff and Cooper Cheeks for the Belmont Stakes! 

We dressed up in our Derby-esque best and had a blast. 

All the kiddos had a great time, Amelia can't wait to play with these cuties when she is a little older!

Needless to say Amelia was pretty pooped by the end of the night!

6 months old!

(yes I am aware she is almost 7 months old...but here is her 6 month update!)

How is my sweet baby girl 6 months old already?

Time has flown by. It is honestly getting hard to remember the early days...and labor is a blur...I think that's god's way of helping us want to have more children. :)

Amelia is growing like a weed, at her 6 month well visit she was 15 lbs 3 ounces (26th percentile) and 26 and 3/4 inches ( ?? percentile). She is still so long and lean! People are surprised when I tell them she is 6 (and a 1/2) months old, one woman even asked me if she was a preemie! I tell them no, she is just destined to be a super model, tall and thin! Despite her low percentile in weight she is as chunky as ever! She has the perfect little chunky baby thighs and the rolls on her arms are perfect!

We have had quite a month! Several firsts...some good and some bad.

• first ear infection (4/27/12)
• first trip to the ER
• first solid food (4/28/12) -- at this point she has had avocado, banana, oatmeal cereal, yogurt, applesauce and watermelon! This week we are trying carrots and pears! All the fruits and veggies have been homemade except the applesauce and she has really enjoyed everything!
• first baby pool experience
• first zoo trip
  
  

  

  
  

Here's what Amelia is up to at 6 months!

• wears size 2 diapers and mostly 6 month clothes, still fits a few 3-6 month pieces and we wear a few 6-9 month pieces but they are really a little too big!
• nurses 5-6 times a day...occasionally only 4 on the weekends if her naps extend
• Sleeping pretty well (knock on wood), nurses for the last time around 7 and goes down around 30 minutes later and sleeps until morning...sometimes that means 5 and she eats and goes back down and sometimes that means between 6 and 7 and she is up for the day. We have the occasional night waking but its more the exception than the norm now! (fingers crossed I didn't just jinx it!!!)
• 2 teeth! (bottom two)
• LOVES solid food... eating lunch and dinner everyday, lunch is usually oatmeal and fruit and dinner is usually veggies and fruit and sometimes yogurt!
• LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....(whoever invented that show must have a degree in child development because she could care less about TV but then we put on Mickey and her face lights up and she smiles and coos...its crazy!)
• sucks her thumb and pointer finger (together) on the regular...its crazy, its never her thumb by itself...
• on that note...completely refuses the pacifier, unless to use it as a toy
• sits up like a champ, shes not perfectly stable just yet so we usually stick the boppy behind her, she sometimes tips over if she gets really excited or if she has to reach extra far for a toy. She is getting better and getting herself back to sitting when she leans back on the boppy
• laughs and giggles like crazy...we got a great video I need to post
• Loves Peek-a-Boo...I have yet to catch this on video but I really need to, she is so good at it!
• talks and laughs all the time, we are working on dadada and mamama but no luck just yet!
• Loves keys and links...but loves cell phones and remote controls even more...
• Loves going to daycare at Grandmas, she smiles as soon as we walk in the door and it makes it a lot easier to leave her everyday knowing she is happy and safe!
• Had a great visit with Grandma Wagner...we are getting sooooo excited for our Tenn lake trip over 4th of July!
• Not crawling just yet but I would say its not too far off, if you put a toy just out of her reach you can see her little mind working hard trying to figure out how to get to it! (if she can roll to it she will!)

We are really enjoying this time in Amelia's life!

Solid food!

On 4/28/12 Amelia tried her first solid food! We did a lot of research and decided we would try a combination of baby led weaning and purees and see what worked best for our family. We also decided that we would be forgoing the traditional rice cereal most families start with and feeding Amelia real food and whole grains.

First up was avocado! We decided we would try The baby led weaning approach and gave her hand held size strips. She had a hard time keeping the slippery pieces in her hands but overall she seemed to enjoy it! I'm not sure she actually ate too much but it was a fun experience!

Next up was banana, again we went with the BLW approach. Things pretty much went the same as they did with the avocado. She was interested but didn't actually eat all that much.

Next we decided to try oatmeal with the spoon. What a hit! She immediately started squealing with delight when the oatmeal touched her tongue! She slurped it down like champ! She wanted to hold the spoon herself and did a great job of bringing it to her mouth.

Next up was pureed sweet potato and it was another huge success. Although she made crazy faces and didn't squeal quite as much as she did for the oatmeal oddly enough she kept opening her mouth big for more!

Overall we have really been enjoying exploring solid foods with Amelia. We are taking it slow, she still has a bit of a tongue thrust reflex, but plan to keep trying new foods!

Our little girl is growing up so fast!

Our first trip to the ER

On Sunday May 6th we had a milestone I was not looking forward to... we took Amelia to the Emergency Room for the first time.

I guess the story begins about a week or so before when I went to nurse Amelia at lunch and noticed she felt kinda hot. My mom said she hadn't been acting strange so we decided to just keep an eye on her. At lunch the next day and she felt twice as hot so I busted out the temporal thermometer and it read 99.3. (you add 1 degree to whatever a temporal thermometer said so really her temp was around 100.3) I decided to call the doctor because she had also been pulling on her ears. (She had been doing this for awhile but we had her checked when she first started doing it and no infection, apparently teething pain also occurs in the ears so we chalked it up to that). The doctor's office said to bring her in so I did and low and behold her right ear was infected. (I guess another milestone...her first ear infection. sad.) Doc perscribed amoxicilin and sent us on our way.

Fast forward about 8 days...Friday May 4th...we took Amelia out to watch a local bike race. It was pretty hot but we were in the shade and Amelia kept cool but I started noticiing a few bumps on her legs and back. We figured it was probably heat rash and it wasnt bothering her so no big deal. I put a little cortizone on it before bed that night and didn't think much of it. Saturday night we gave Amelia a bath and when we were done we realized that the spots had spread a bit but we still weren't too worried, she was acting normal and she didnt have a fever so we put her to bed. Sunday morning when I went to change Amelia's diaper I realized the spots were now COVERING her entire stomach, back and behind and her arms and her legs....I started to get a little worried. I decided to call the on call nurse at our pediatrician. I explained the situation and that she was on the amoxicilin and the nurse said it was probably a reaction to the amoxicilin but nothing to worry about. She said to call the pediatrician first thing in the morning and to call her back if there were any new sympotoms.

(I have a better pic where you can really see the bumps but I will refrain from posting pics of my dear daughter's backside!)

A few hours went by when I noticed this on Amelia's arm.

At the time I didnt have a  clue what it was a frankly it freaked me out! After speaking with the nurse we decided it was a hive. She still felt it was ok to take Amelia to the pediatrician the next day and told me again to call with any new symptoms, espeically any swelling of the hands or mouth or any trouble breathing.

A few more hours went by and the hives started spreading. The next thing I know she has them on her arms and legs, some several inches wide! I also noticed her bottom lip appeared a bit swollen. I called the nurse back and they advised that I take her to the hospital. (Cue freak out by me...)



I pulled myself together and we drove Amelia to the ER. ( I have sense learned that Spartanburg has TWO after hours minor clinics...grrr) The hives were getting worse, covering her face and head after she nursed, all over her legs and arms. We waited HOURS to see a doctor and stayed up WAY past Amelia's bedtime. When the doctor finally came in he looked at her for about 30 seconds and decided it was viral, she had to be out of daycare for a week and walked out. He literally was backing out the door as we tried to ask him questions...needless to say we didn't get our answers. We went home and put Amelia to bed and hoped for the best. ( I didn't sleep to well) She seemed better Monday and the hives were gone by Tuesday. The bumps are gone now and she never had a fever. I decided to take her in to see her regular doctor just to make sure everything was alright and they felt like we can't rule out an allergic reaction so she is now considered allergic to penicillin. They also discovered that her ear infection is now a double ear infection and put her on a new antibiotic.

We survived our first trip to the ER. Lets hope we don't have another one anytime soon.

(feeling just fine on Monday after the ER, what a trouper!)

I really like to take pictures...

I have taken so many pictures of my sweet girl because I want to remember every day of her life. I may not be a professional and I really need to learn how to properly edit photos but I think I get some pretty good shots. Here are some I'm loving right now.

5 months old!

Amelia is 5 months old! (and some day I may actually get a post up on time...) Ridiculously long post ahead...

(updated weekly photos are on the watch me grow page!)

As I say every time...so much has changed in a month. I may say it every time I write an update but that doesn't make it any less true. I am so amazed by how much Amelia has grown into a little person in the last 5 months. She is so deliberate in her actions and has her own little personality. I cannot believe how quickly time is flying by. Everyone keeps telling us to enjoy every minute because it will go by so fast. It sounds so cliche but it s absolutely true. I feel like I am going to blink and she will be walking and talking!

Much like last month we have had quite a month of ups and downs. Thankfully mostly ups but there have been some difficult times mixed in. Of course...the difficulty is all about sleep and breastfeeding. This month Amelia decided to really throw me for a loop with her feeding/sleeping. In a matter of a week Amelia got her 4 month shots, mastered rolling over and got a little cold. We went from a solid 6-7 hour stretch minimum a night with one feeding to waking every 3 hours again. The problems started with the shots. She took it a lot worse than she did at her 2 month appointment. She really wasn't herself for about 3 days. Then she mastered rolling over and its like she was compelled to do it every single time we put her on her back, even though she was not happy once she made it to her stomach. Then she got a little cold and was a sniffly mess. Thankfully the cold didn't last too long. (Yay breastfeeding!) All of these things and a possible 4 month sleep regression meant a difficult month for mommy! I would put Amelia down around 8 or 8:30 and like clockwork she would roll over and wake up around 10:30, daddy tried to soothe her, mommy tried to soothe her, nothing worked...except feeding her. I'm pretty sure she didn't need to eat so much as she needed the comfort but it was all that would work. After the 10:30ish feeding she would inevitably wake around 1:30 for her usual nightly feeding and sometimes again around 4:30. It was a brutal schedule. Thankfully as the month went by it got a little better. I started letting her fuss for a bit when she woke at 10:30, I never let her get herself completely worked up but she would usually fuss on and off for 10-15 minutes and then soothe herself back to sleep. She eventually stopped waking up at that time. Then we hovered between her waking once or twice a night for several nights...then back to once a night...then...(please don't jinx it because I'm writing it...) NO WAKINGS. That's right, as I type this she has gone almost a week with no night wakings. Great for her sleep but led me to another problem...having to wake up to pump. I will spare you the details but its not fun. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new wonderful sleeping baby!!! Wish us luck!

Amelia has grown and developed so much in the last month, here are some of her accomplishments:

• Can roll from back to front, and front to back (although she is much better at back to front oddly enough)
• doesn't terribly mind tummy time and is starting to push herself around and lift her bum
• sleeps on her tummy most of the time
• naps in the crib!!!! (hallelujah!)
• found her feet! (3/29/12)
• puts her feet in her mouth (ew)
• first time in a high chair (it only lasted about 10 minutes...shes wasn't really ready)(4/14/12)
• enjoys playing in her excersaucer/bounce baby
• giggles like crazy when mommy and daddy kiss her cheeks or pretend to eat her belly
• loves when mommy and daddy read her books
• showing signs she knows her name, absolutely knows mommy and daddy's voices
• loves touching faces
• loves looking in the mirror (so vane...) :)
• has learned the joy of dropping toys
• getting interested in the food we eat, she stares at the food as we put it in our mouth and even has begun to reach for it... Eric and I are taking Infant CPR and then we are going to start her on some solids. We are going to do a combination of homemade purees and baby led weaning and see how it goes! First up is Avocado and Sweet Potato!

We had a lot of fun in Amelia's 5th month of life. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day and Easter.

Amelia met a few new friends.

Ali Claire Pingley and Amelia

Welcome to the world Mackenzie Elizabeth Mannix!

Aunt Abby came to visit!

Amelia is truly the joy and light of our lives. We are really enjoying watching her grow and develop. I don't think we could possibly love her any more than we do!