Week 42: October 28 - November 3

HOLIDAY ANNOUNCEMENT: I know it's a bit early, but we're working on Madeleine's Christmas List. I'll post the link each week, but if you want to, you can bookmark the page if that's easier. I'm posting it early because some of the items are for sale at Etsy and might therefore be very limited, and with the holiday season approaching, I wanted to give you the best chance of getting what you'd like to get Madeleine. I do apologize for the lack of pictures on the list. I don't know what the problem is. Sorry!

Nursing

Matt suggested I move this section down, to give the reader something they WANT to read about first. However, I figure this is the only section where I really get to mention what's going on with ME, and it's first, so people can skip it or read it and forget it when they see stuff about Madeleine.

SO! All is well. Almost great, actually. :)

Sleeping

YAY. Sleep is going superbly, despite a few little bumps in the road (pun... intended!) Madeleine's naps are consistently over an hour, and on Tuesday, she even slept almost 2 hours for her second nap! It seems as though she's starting to make up for lost sleep in her naps. If she has a short night, she'll have longer naps, which is great. No issues here right now!

Solids/Food

Last week, I reported that she was really into food. And she definitely is. However, she still doesn't seem to quite get the concept of swallowing. I know she IS swallowing some, because the food disappears more now, and we see it in her diapers. But a lot of food still comes out of her mouth. She'll chew on it for a few minutes, then - bloop! - out it comes, pushed by her little tongue. She also doesn't get the idea of drinking. We've tried giving her water, and she has swallowed some, but it seems to be more by accident. OH well, we'll just keep trying!

Foods she LOVES: biscuits, apples, cantaloupe, peaches, tomatoes
Foods she likes: zucchini, green beans, chicken, carrots, asparagus
Foods she doesn't love: bananas, cucumber.
Potential problem foods: cheese, yogurt (dairy??)

By the book...

According to "Your Baby's First Year, Week by Week," during this week, Madeleine:
1. Sits down from standing position (um, not really. She's super close, though. She uses Matt or I to help her sit -- smart baby!)
2. Responds to music by rocking, bouncing, swaying, humming (maybe??)
3. May repeat word incessantly, making it an answer to every question (she doesn't seem to talk with us much)
4. Grows aware of self (vague......)
5. Imitates gestures (YES!!)

New Things

BIG week this week. I think it has something to do with Madeleine FINALLY getting over her month-long cold.

To begin, a little setup: on Thursday, Matt put Madeleine down for her second nap, but she didn't seem too tired. Also, it was pretty warm, so we didn't put her in a sleep sack (either the light or heavy). Both of these things resulted in a FIRST. Madeleine stood up in her crib!! She was just cooing and talking to herself, and I looked at the monitor to see her in the corner of her crib in a new stance. I told Matt she was trying to stand, and then I turned away. When I glanced back, she was pulling herself up!! It was awesome! She made such pleased sounds.

BUT THEN, it occurred to me that she would have to get down in order to actually take her nap. The question became, do we go in and put her down, or let her figure it out? I frantically looked online for what other moms said to do, and the conclusion was unanimous: leave her. It was sad, because eventually her happy sounds turned to cries when she couldn't get down. Eventually though, she did, and I didn't see it. It took her a few minutes to calm down from being so upset, but then she fell asleep and slept for an hour. We had to wake her in order to preserve her bedtime.

So yay, Madeleine, standing up in her crib! It was super cool. She hasn't done it since, and I suspect that's because we do put her in the sleep sack for naps. It's probably got pros and cons. The good is that she won't get stuck standing up and have a hard time getting down, but the bad is that she doesn't get to practice getting herself down (and up of course, but I think down is harder). Also, at the end of her naps, it would be cool if she could stand up. But with the cooler (cold!) weather, this is the best way we can keep her warm during sleep.

MOVING ON! NEW TEETH! This also happened on Thursday. When I was feeding her before bed, I happened to see something in her mouth. I felt around, and felt the tip of a new tooth! It's the top middle. After a day or so, it was obvious she was getting both top middle teeth. Yay!

The new teeth are causing some bumps (as alluded to in the sleep section). Sometimes she avoids meals because her teeth hurt, and she's nursing longer and gnaw-ier (not a word, I know...). She's also been a little fussier. It's odd that she doesn't seem to have any symptoms until AFTER the teeth break the skin. I've been giving her meds before naps the last few days, and I think it's helping. She had started to wake early, though by early, I mean around an hour (nothing like those 30-minute beauties we had around 6 months! DO NOT miss that time!). Tuesday's 2-hour marathon showed me that the meds are helping. :)

Okay, so WHAT ELSE? How could there possibly be MORE, you ask? Well, it's not as big, but on Saturday, Matt was helping her stand and she was holding onto his fingers. Then she got a block in one hand and had to let go of one of Matt's hands. Then she grabbed the block with her OTHER hand, and she stood ALL BY HERSELF for about 5 seconds! She had no idea what was going on, though. Her concentration was on the block, so when Matt tried to duplicate the move, it didn't work. She hadn't set out to stand, just to hold her block.

FINALLY, also on Saturday, we saw some genuine crawling action. There were verified belly lift in her movements! Plus, for the first time in 2 weeks, she crawled all over the place.

Sunday morning, she woke early and had a runny nose, and we were SO bummed that she was getting yet another cold. But Monday saw no signs of a cold, and she actually slept until 7! Oh, she slept til 7 on Saturday as well, for the first time in at least a month. This was MUCH celebrated by all -- we got to sleep IN on Saturday, yay!

I've noticed her using her pointer finger more. Which is great, because soon she'll be able to pick up things using the pincer grasp.

Misc

Monday, we had a hair-brained, last-minute impulse to go to the Pumpkin Farm and Apple Barns in the Ellijay area, so we made our plans, packed everything up, and headed for the North GA mountains. It was awesome. Madeleine was crazy about the pumpkins -- pics and video below. We only got to spend half an hour there, but it was completely worth it. Then we went to my aunt's house in Jasper for her to take her afternoon nap, and for us to hang out a little bit. We got to see my cousin Matt (so hard not to write Matthew, as I have always called him!) and play some serious ping-pong. I think 6 games while Madeleine napped? Oh, and speaking of her napping, she slept for over an hour at my aunt's house, slept through the phone ringing, the answering machine (which was in the room where she was), a little dog noise, and us playing ping pong below her. She is seriously the BEST BABY ever.

Madeleine still loves to stand and walk on our fingers, but she's also started cruising from one piece of furniture to furniture. :)

Seriously, right now, she is so awesome. Almost every moment is a ton of fun. She laughs easily, smiles, plays.... I can't believe how much I am enjoying her and life right now. I love being with her, watching her learn, watching her grow. It's incredible that she will soon talk, think, and reason, and that we get to be part of her life.

Teething Update

I think we had one week without this on here. LOL. There are now four teeth of note in Madeleine's mouth. It will probably be some time before I can get a picture of all 4, but here you could definitely see the top two. I had to use the flash, but I think it's a decent picture anyway. [Click to see bigger]:




Slideshow

You could say that I did my best to make up for last week's lack of pictures. :)

Video of the week!

Two videos this week from the pumpkin patch. Madeleine LOVED the pumpkins!