Baby's first BOO!

Happy Halloween!

4 months old

Markin is 4 months old today. Time is flying by so fast! She weighs 13 pounds 7 ounces and is 23 1/2 inches long.

Likes: Her thumb, of course. Playing - with her hands, her toys (kitty cat crinkly toy from her newborn pics is a favorite lately), stuffed animals that she can chew on, her floor gym and bouncy seat, and she loves things that play music. She likes story time and telling stories (a.k.a. "talking"). She also enjoys stroller rides and cuddling.

Dislikes: empty bottles

New accomplishments: Blowing bubbles - so cute! Markin also sticks out her tongue after I do and when I ask "Where's Markin's tongue?" She's also getting really good at hand-eye and foot-eye coordination. Also - she grabbed her feet for the first time last weekend and now she won't stop grabbing them. Adorable!

Making mommy feel loved: When I picked her up at day care tonight, she was playing with the floor gym. I went over, said hi but decided to let her play while I gathered her empty bottles and other things. All of a sudden she started crying! Danielle (her "teacher") was shocked because Markin NEVER cries - but nothing was wrong. I went over to her and all of a sudden she gets a huge grin on her face. She just wanted me to stay with her and was afraid I was leaving her again :) While I love that she was happy to see me, I hope she doesn't get upset when I leave her in the morning because then I'd have a miserable day worrying about her being unhappy all day.

Out of room!

Well, they say that baby's things take up more room than you expect - and they certainly do! In addition to our house overflowing with all of the baby gear (there's a narrow path through the living room between the swing, bouncy seat, floor gym, bumbo, boppy pillow and all of the toys), the freezer is also overflowing with breast milk. After Markin was born, I bought a small upright freezer to store breast milk and food - while small, it should've met the needs of a family of 5 according to the suggested guidelines of how much space you should need. When I first bought it, I was so excited to have extra freezer space that I bought lots of veggies, several frozen pizzas, and 2 kinds of ice cream (things I usually bought 1-at-a-time or not at all with my limited freezer space) and it was still pretty bare in there, even with the frozen meals my mom made me since she knew that I wouldn't have time to cook for myself with a baby. Well, for the past month, I've been trying to get rid of all of that extra food, along with trying every way possible to rearrange in there to get as much milk stored as possible. Well, the food is out of there and it's still overflowing with Markin's milk. I put 155 ounces in there from this past week but Markin ate less than 5o ounces from the freezer during that same time span. I know this is a good problem to have, but HELP! I've been looking on craigslist for a cheap freezer, but not finding much. Don't want anything too expensive and only plan to use it for more 6 months or so (I want to get her through cold and flu season - hoping my supply holds out that long :), but since a can of formula costs around $25, getting a used one will pay for itself, right? If you have a cheap freezer for sale - let me know!

A lifetime ago

It's so hard to believe that my entire life changed for the better exactly one year ago today, even if I didn't know it at the time. I had my egg retrieval and Markin was conceived on this day a year ago.

Sniffles

Oh, no! It's cold season! And we've both caught one - me first, and I probably gave it to Markin but I'd prefer to think that her cousins gave it to both of us :) I actually have laryngitis, and Markin can't figure out why I'm not talking to her! She likes the whispers at first, but then looks really puzzled. At least during the week she had people who could talk to her at day care - she won't have that this weekend. Bet she'll be glad to go back to day care on Monday.

She has just a little bit of the sniffles, combined with lots of sneezes and a little cough. She doesn't really have a runny nose - all of a sudden it's just there, like she blew her nose. Very easy to wipe up. Wonder if that means it'll be easy to teach her how to blow her nose (it's not an easy thing to teach - and I have plenty of practice trying to teach preschoolers how to do it!)

Meal times were a little difficult. She'd drink for a while, then let go to breathe. Then, if she couldn't latch on right away again, she'd say "ehh" and wait for me to stick it in her mouth. "Ehh" was more of a "help" then a "please" - guess we'll have to work on manners someday :) -- but at least it wasn't crying! I rely on the weekends to actually get some quality time feeding her but I'm considering letting her have my pumped milk in bottles instead because it'd be easier for her to drink when she's stuffy - easier mainly because she drinks faster from a bottle. At day care, I've been giving her fresh milk instead of what I have frozen (a whole freezer full :) because I'm hoping my antibodies will keep her from getting too sick.

We've been doing a lot of cuddling. She definitely wanted to be held all day. Not sure if that was related to not feeling well or a new stage she's going through. Hoping it's a stage - I enjoyed getting to hold her and was glad we had an easy day so that I could just sit around cuddling her all day.