7 months

Fashion: Still remains tricky in regards to sizing. She is definitely wearing 9 month pants, but 9 month onesies are a bit too big for her. She would still prefer to be naked all the time anyway. ;p

Health: At this point, Hattie has had probably 6-7 ear infections. She's set to get tubes on April 6th. I'm sad that she has to go through that and the procedure will be tough for us, but I'm happy about it because it'll stop the infections (hopefully) and the $35 copays for the pediatrician every single danggum week. And the shots. Those antibiotic shots are the worst. I can't handle holding my baby when she gets shots much more. We need a break.

She's 18.6 lbs and 27.5 inches tall. Perfectly healthy in all other aspects aside from her little ears.

Zzzz: Her norm is to either sleep through the night or get up once for a bottle. Except for the week when she had a bad ear infection and wouldn't sleep much at ALL. She would wake up scream crying every time I put her in the crib. After the antibiotics, she started sleeping well again. :)

Naps are going well at TenderCare. They told me that they put her in the crib now when she's drowsy and she falls asleep! She usually needs to be rocked to sleep or she cries before going to sleep. Yay Hattie! I need to work on this at home. I love holding her as she falls asleep though. Warm baby snuggles are the best ever!! But for her own sake and so I can get more things done on the weekends, I need to put her in the crib MUCH sooner than I am now.

Nicknames: Hattie Boo, Booski, Goofball, Hattie Love  (I can't seem to stop with the Boo thing)

Fitness: The girl will not stop moving. She crawls like a champ now, sits up no problem, and wants to stand up all the time. Against everything. Walls, tables, couches, me...  She still can't stand for very long unassisted, but it won't be long. No walking yet, thank God. We need a little bit of time to finish up babyproofing the house before that happens. She is so strong and so determined in terms of motor skills. :)    She claps now. A lot. She loves clapping.

Eats: We're still working on ramping this up. She eats a jar of baby food at TenderCare each day and I'm trying to get her to eat some more food when we get home in the evening. Sometimes she's just not hungry, but I'm trying. She isn't interested in puffs, so I'm going to try some other finger foods to get her going in that direction. As far as bottles, she's still taking the same amount per day - approximately 30-36 oz.

The spoken word: Babbles galore, but nothing really definitive in terms of specific words. She does say "Dadadada" and "Ma" a lot, but they're just babbles at this point. She also screams when she's amused and then giggles. It's hilarious.

Things Hattie loves: The twilight turtle in her room, Violet dog, Mommy (separation anxiety is in full swing), Mummum crackers, slamming her hands down on things, still loves that On the Move DVD, chewing on pacifiers, Daddy's alarm clock

Things Hattie doesn't love: Shots, being on her back during diaper changes (two person job), having her face wiped (two person job)

Pictures from the past month:

The hummingbird wouldn't sit still...

6 months!

Fashion: Tricky times clothing size-wise. She fits in 6 month onesies but not the pants. We've moved on mostly to 9 month sized pants. Socks are hard to find that fit for her longer feet and chubby ankles. If it were up to Hattie, she'd be sans clothes 24x7. I swear her mood lifts the second I take her clothes off before her bath.

Health: She weighs 17 lbs, 3 oz.  She has been pretty healthy! Not much congestion at all. The junky cough remains, but it's not too bad. She got all good marks at her 6 month well visit. :)   She's 51st percentile for height, 70th for weight, 81st for head circumference. Lots of smart brains in there! Our focus health-wise right now is teething. She has two that have popped through the gums on the bottom and I think more are on their way. It seems to bother her a lot so I've been giving her Hyland's teething tablets and Motrin to help. She hasn't been drinking her whole bottle many times and I think it's due to teething pain. Poor little thing.

Zzzzz: She's off and on here. She's going through so many developmental spurts that she's often up at night crawling around in her crib or talking or crying from teething pain. It has led to sleepy days a few times, but she still comes through and sleeps through the night here and there so we can catch up on our zzzs.

Nicknames this month - Hattie Bear, Boo, Boo Boo Bear  (Not sure what's up with all of the Bear nicknames)

Fitness: She's able to army crawl and now sit up on her own from her stomach or after doing the army crawl somewhere. She's obsessed with moving. She also wants us to hold her and bounce her up and down a lot. And she wants to stand up a LOT. She's also now verrrry close to pulling herself up to standing while in the crib. Oh boy. We'll be lowering the crib mattress and putting up some gates this weekend.

Eats: She's still at around 30 oz per day and still leaves 3 oz in random bottles for no reason. She eats jarred baby food at TenderCare now. She LOVES it. Her faves are peas and green beans for sure. She doesn't seem to care for fruit. I tried twice to give her mashed up banana on the high chair tray and she wanted nothing to do with it.

The Spoken Word: She 'talks' a lot still. No real words - although Mike, Hattie's teacher, and I SWEAR she has said "Hi." several times. I wish she'd get going on short words like ba and da and ma again.

Things Hattie Loves:  Still the stacking cups, the 'On the Move' Baby Einstein DVD, sleeping on her stomach (although I don't like that one), sleeping in general, her TenderCare teachers.

Things Hattie Doesn't Love: Having her face wiped, shots (who doesn't), teething.

Pics from the past month:

 

 

5 Months

Fashion: Hattie is firmly in 6 month clothing territory. She has some long little legs. Random opinion: I don't get why anything buy onesies and bodysuits are sold for babies. I have so many shirts for Hattie but she just lifts the bottom of them up and sticks them into her mouth so we don't use them.

Health: She weighs 17 lbs, 1 oz.  Healthy there. But has another double ear infection. :(   One more and it's tubes time. Sigh.  She has one tooth that has popped out so far. She doesn't love the teething phase of life. She chews on things and then cries because it hurts.... Oops! I almost posted this without mentioning the worst part of this month. The ER visit. Long story short... Hattie had croup. Scary stuff. Her breathing was labored and her cough sounded like a seal. It took 15 years off of me, I swear. I don't ever want to think of it again honestly.

Zzzzz: Randomly sleeps through the night, but more often gets up at 2 and wants to eat. Since she only eats part of her last bottle most nights and goes to bed at 7ish, I don't want to deny her food so I feed her. Then she gets up right when I'm done with my shower in the morning. Like clockwork. I haven't been able to put my makeup on at home for a couple of weeks now. I'm scaring the natives when I go outside. ;p

Nicknames this month - Baby Bear, Buzzy Bee

Fitness: She's strong, this one. She loves to stand assisted and is able to sit up on her own for minutes at a time now. She still topples backwards soon after, but she's getting good at it. She is sooo eager to crawl, but can't figure out the logistics yet. She sort of crawls backwards and sideways though. And she loves to plank.

Eats: She's still at around 30 oz per day and still leaves 3 oz in random bottles for no reason. We have started her on solids. She loves carrots and loves eating from a spoon. It's like she's been doing it all her life. No big thing. :)

The Spoken Word: She talks a lot still. I hear random 'words' like ma and ba but nothing more. Everything else is supercute babble. She was blowing raspberries and screeching happy screeches a lot but stopped when she got sick. I wish those would come back into the mix.

Things Hattie Loves:  Chewing her thumb, her Violet dog, her IKEA stacking cups from Karin, snuggling her head into Daddy's chest, smiling (smiling's her favorite!).

Things Hattie Hates: Being hungry and not having a bottle in her mouth that very second, when anyone wipes her nose (after having a cold since October, I don't blame her).

Pics from the past month:

(This one makes me laugh. It really doesn't look like her that much, but is so cute.)

Yummy!

4 months

Fashion: Hattie is in between sizes pretty much. 3 month clothes are too short and 6 months clothes are too long. It's hard to find things that fit just right. But mostly we're quickly transitioning to 6 month things and just folding sleeves and cuffs when needed.

Health: She weighs 14 lbs, 13 oz. She was gaining 2 lbs per month but has slowed down. Her little pudgy wrists and ankles are thinning out a tiny bit. I don't want it to happen! She finally moved on from ear infection town. It took three rounds of antibiotics (final one being shots of Rocephin), but she's good now. She seems so much happier now. As am I. Her congestion was the worst! I couldn't be happier to have that be done and gone. Girlfriend can BREATHE! :)

Zzzzz: Well, I was going to say she sleeps through the night like a champ still but she is going through some changes now that I hope don't last long. I think she's having a brain growth period and she's so alert and curious and excited about the world. I am tired but I can't get mad when I'm greeted with such huge smiles when she wakes me up in the middle of the night. BUT... we are going to work on transitioning her to her crib in her room and also from the swaddle. I don't want to do either, but both are inevitable so may as well start the work now. I can sleep when I retire, I guess.

Nicknames this month - Baby Bear, Buzzy Bee, Sweet Face

Fitness: Hattie has awesome neck and head control. She's strong! Tummy time = rolling right over from her tummy to her back. So we do other things to strengthen her head/neck like have her spend time in the Hop 'N Pop we just got ( http://www.smartplayzone.co.uk/product-detail.asp?prod=1344 ) and basically just hold her while she sits up. Speaking of... that's ALL she wants to do. No more laying down for this girl. She can't do it on her own, but she's getting there.

Eats: She's up to probably 30 ounces of formula per day. She has been acting funny with bottles and sort of grazing on them so it takes longer to feed her. Hoping that stops soon as feeding her takes a super long time right now.  - This is from last update and hasn't really changed. She's gaining weight though and has wet diapers so we just go with it.

The Spoken Word: She is a loud one now.  'Talks' all the time. She also now makes a sound that sounds like "Aah aah!" over and over like a monkey. It's so stinkin' cute. She also lets us know when she's not happy by telling us in that little voice and adding a little scowl. There's no mistaking when she isn't into something. Girl has opinions.

Things Hattie Loves:  Chewing on her wrist or my knuckle, grabbing her feet, her teething links, holding hands, the piggy rattle that hangs in her car seat, seeing babies on TV (she smiles at them), touching EVERYTHING,  'eating' cloth books, watching football on TV.

Things Hattie Hates: Being woken up (I guess what baby does, but sometimes it has to happen!), waiting for a bottle. Hmm... not much else. She is such an easygoing one right now. :) We are hoping that continues. She's so happy!

1 and 2 month pics

Because I forgot... :)

She doesn't look that different, does she?

3 months old!

Hattie is three months old!The difference between 1, 2, and 3 months old is colossal. I love this age already.

Fashion: Hattie is wearing size 3-6 month clothes now in many cases, but sometimes they're too big. It's amazing how different brands' clothes fit. It's tricky to try things on an infant, so we usually have to go ahead and guess if it'll fit and if not, re-dress her. Which I leave up to Mike if possible because girlfriend does NOT like to put her arms in and out of sleeves.

Health: She is probably somewhere close to 13.5 lbs now. Not sure as her last well visit was at 2 months and we don't have another one until December.  I think she may be teething as she continuously wants to chew on things and drools a ton. When she chews on my knuckle, I wonder what I'll get when it comes out of her mouth. She gums HARD!


Hattie had her first ear infection already. :(  Hoping it's her last. She has been congested for 3 weeks now also. Poor little one.

Zzzzz: She sleeps pretty darn great. And a LOT. TenderCare says she's the best napper in the room (4-5 naps per day, some as long as 1.5 hours!). She sleeps through the night most nights at home, only occasionally getting up once to eat and then goes right back to bed. She has been doing this since 2.5 months. I consider myself VERY lucky and don't take it for granted at all. It's actually hard to get her up in the morning. Like Mama, like daughter. :)   We're transitioning her to the crib slowly. We started out in the Rock n Play and transitioned to the cosleeper a couple of weeks ago. We're not ready for her to be in the crib yet though! We love having her in our room. We're also going to start transitioning her out of swaddlers. We tried one arm out a few weeks ago and she woke herself up too much with her arm jerking around, but it seems like her arms are more calm now so we're going to try it again starting this weekend.

Nicknames this month - Nugget (since she was born), Nugsy, Little One, Pretty Girl

Fitness: Hattie is getting better at tummy time. Which is good since she has a mild flat spot on the back left side of her head and we're trying really hard to correct that. She actually loves sitting up so we sit her in our laps facing us and she has awesome neck strength then. I wish she liked tummy time on the blanket more because I'd like her to work on rolling over. Right now, she just chews on the blanket when we try that. ;p   We also sit her in the Bumbo seat but that freaks her out after a couple of minutes for some reason, so we limit her time there.

Eats: She's up to probably 30 ounces of formula per day. She has been acting funny with bottles and sort of grazing on them so it takes longer to feed her. Hoping that stops soon as feeding her takes a super long time right now.

The Spoken Word: She is 'talking' a lot now. She makes an 'oooooh' sound that melts our hearts. Her little voice sounds so sweet.

Things Hattie Loves:  Chewing on cloth diaper burp cloths, bath time, ceiling fans, Baby Einstein DVDs, lamps, car seat cat, sitting outside and listening to the noises of the world, snuggling with Mama after eating, smiling at Daddy.

Things Hattie Hates: The Nosefrida (so do Mommy & Daddy), being hungry and having to wait for her bottle, waking up from a nap, when the ceiling fan stops spinning, being in the car most times (ugh).

Picture!  (Hungry baby = challenging photo shoot)

She's here! (Well, she has been here for 12 weeks. Oops!)

Hey there. I had a baby! :)  Yaaay!

Sorry for the lapse in blogging. Let me tell you, I had NO idea how tough it would be to do anything else when I had the baby. When my friends who all had babies disappeared during their maternity leaves, I was all, "Hmph. They could totally still be in touch with me. What the heck?"  Well, now I know what the heck. During my time off, it was a miracle if I was able to eat three meals a day and DEFINITELY something to call the Pope about if I got a shower daily. Anyway, I'm back at work now and can git to blogging again.

And here she is!  

Hattie Elizabeth Petruska

But I guess we should start with my birth story since that's sort of where we left off...

At week 39.5, I went in for my scheduled c-section. We were scheduled to have it at 1 PM so we headed to the hospital a couple of hours before that. I was SO ready. The girl was starting to wrap her feet around my right rib cage and scratch my back with her toes. I was also feeling lots of Braxton-Hicks that day so I was doubly ready. We checked in at around 11:45 AM. The desk clerk told us there were a few emergency c-sections ahead of us and we'd have a delay. Oh boy. We settled in to the chairs in the waiting room and waited for our name to be called so we could get to having our kid. Tick tock, tick tock..... three hours later (!!!!!), we finally are called to go back. Which is a good thing because my B-H were getting stronger. Finally we get put in a triage room and I'm hooked up to a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor. Yeaaaah.... my contractions were 2 minutes apart! Eeps!

Well apparently it was a full moon (Literally. The moon was full.) and it was one of their busiest nights in a long time, so we kept on getting bumped by emergency c-sections and regular ol' natural births. I didn't go back to the OR until 7 PM! Needless to say, we were ready. Let me tell you... having a c-section is a strange experience. First of all, there are like 15 people in the room. I couldn't keep them all straight. I think my Uncle Leon was there. I can't be sure. I had three anesthesiologists. For that, I was very thankful. They were SO helpful. They did a great job giving me a spinal and helping me feel calm. The one basically just sat near me and put his hand on my shoulder. Which was very comforting because Mike couldn't be in the room until after the spinal was administered. Finally, I was numbed up and Mike was in the room next to me. Then my OB showed up. The show was starting! They told me what was going on for the most part. There was some, "You're gonna feel some pressure." and "Things are going great!" Then about maybe 20 minutes into it, while we were talking to the anesthesiologists about the show Amazing Race, I believe, the OB shouts, "Here's your little girl!" and all of the sudden a crying baby is raised above the curtain between us and the Doctor. And then taken away. Wha?! No drum roll? No "We're yanking your baby out from behind your ribs now!" If we blinked, we may have missed seeing her. ;p   It was very surreal. I felt like I was dreaming. We heard her crying over in the corner and then she was brought over and placed in Mike's hands. I was able to kiss her little head but not much else since I was tied down to the gurney. And she wasn't HUGE like the OBs kept saying. She was definitely healthy at 8 lbs, but not the 9.5 lbs they predicted. Pfft. So... they closed me up. There were some hairy moments during that process in which I thought I was seriously going to die. I thought, "I got to this moment and NOW I go?!" There was intense pressure and I couldn't breathe. I kept asking, "Um, what's happening?" and the OB finally told me that they were having a bit of a tough time getting everything tucked back in. WHA?!?! OMG. Finally everything was in it's rightful place and I was wheeled to ICU because all of the full moon emergency people took up the L&D rooms. Hmph. I finally got to look at our daughter. She looked sorta swollen and bruised, but beautiful. Amazing. Again, a very surreal feeling. But holding her made me feel like a Mom. It just was a feeling that all of the sudden filled me up. Nothing else in the world would ever matter as much.

The rest of the story is pretty typical. We stayed at the hospital for a few days. Hattie had many visitors and was showered with love. I ate jello, pudding, many Italian ices. We had a photo shoot and the pictures were so amazing.

That's it for now.