Thursday, December 31, 2009

6 months!

As of Monday when we went for the 6 month check-up, Princess Savannah is officially 16.5 lbs. and 25" tall - the 50th percentile for both measurements. She scored 99% on her skills exam - turning her head when she hears your voice, rolling over and sitting up with support (extra credit for sitting up on her own - she's an over achiever already), the only thing she doesn't do consistently is pass toys or what not from hand to hand, they usually go to her mouth first.

Medically, she checked out perfectly and got the last round of her first set of vaccinations as well as the flu shot. She screamed with the shots but the tears only lasted a few minutes, thankfully she isn't due for more shots until her 9 month appt. in March.

Now that she's 6 months old she is able to start on solid foods. So far she has had rice cereal, oatmeal and bananas. She tolerates the cereal, seems to like oatmeal and LOVES bananas! Aside from the solids she's still exclusively breast fed, yay mom! We know she's allergic to cow's milk, as was I at her age, so as long as things continue to go well we'll keep at it.  I've never put a timeframe on how long I'll nurse her since I don't want to beat myself up over it if I don't make it to a pre-determined date. There are days that I dread pumping but overall I rather enjoy my twice daily 20 minute breaks from work, I've come to think of it as "me" time.

We, well, really more I, have decided to try making her food. It isn't an organic thing, it's more of a cost savings thing and dare I say, more "green." Those little jars might seem inexpensive but they quickly add up, after I pureed and froze them, the 39 cents/lb bananas I purchased yielded at least 8 meals and left only peels to throw out. It will be a bit time consuming since we'll have to steam or bake everything except bananas and avocadoes but I think I'm willing to part with 20-30 minutes of my time a week, after Savannah is in bed of course. :)

She still isn't sleeping through the night but I'm holding out hope and praying that she'll surprise us sometime soon, perhaps even a New Years Eve miracle? She goes down fine, but we run into problems in the middle of the night when she wakes up screaming and is inconsolable for 30-45 minutes, she isn't hungry, doesn't need a diaper change, isn't running a fever. As hard as it was, I let her cry it out (CIO) the other night - she cried for 45 minutes. I didn't intend to let it go that long but I just kept giving her another 5 minutes. She eventually wore herself out but only slept for half an hour before she was at it again. I couldn't stand the thought of tears streaming down her face for that long the second time around so I went in and scooped her up, un-doing whatever strides we made the first time around I'm sure. Oh well, six months of this has taught me to get by on less sleep.

6 month birthday...
From SGN - 7th month


From SGN - 7th month


First time eating rice cereal...
From SGN - 6th Month


From SGN - 6th Month


curious pups
From SGN - 6th Month


I'm almost too embarassed to post these next sets of pictures, we had just returned from being out of town for Christmas and it's quite obvious that the house was in total disarray.

First time eating oatmeal...
From SGN - 7th month


From SGN - 7th month


First time eating bananas...

I took it to be a good sign when I held the banana close to her and she lunged for it.
From SGN - 7th month


From SGN - 7th month


This is a food mill that we got James' dad for Christmas, when he heard we were going to make our own baby food he insisted that we take it home with us since it says on the box that it's ideal for baby food.  Clearly Savannah is interested.
From SGN - 7th month

From SGN - 7th month


Yummy!
From SGN - 7th month

From SGN - 7th month


She loves to grab the spoon
From SGN - 7th month

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Little Model

It has become tradition to take a family picture with James' family every other Thanksgiving and Christmas, while we were waiting for everyone else to join us we had our own little photo shoot.

From SGN - 6th Month


From SGN - 6th Month
From SGN - 6th Month
From SGN - 6th Month

Finally, everyone joined us!
From SGN - 6th Month

Other random photos...
From SGN - 6th Month
From SGN - 6th Month

Getting a backwards hug from her cousin, he sometimes pronounces her name 'banana' - so cute!
From SGN - 6th Month
He's quite fond of the backwards hug...
From SGN - 6th Month
From SGN - 6th Month

And a little love from her Uncle Mike
From SGN - 6th Month

Christmas, Part 2

On Christmas Eve we traveled to James' parents in GA, little miss has been rather unwilling to be in the car as of late so I know neither James nor I were looking forward to the drive. Thankfully she was AMAZING in the car, better than we could have ever expected. She slept for the first 2 1/2 hours and then was mostly happy for the next 45 or so minutes, as long as we sang to her or reached back to let her hold one of our hands she was fine.

She woke up bright and early on Christmas morning (which prompted me to tell her that I'll remind of her inability to let Mommy and Daddy sleep in when she's 14) and ended up needing a nap halfway through gift opening
but the rest of her gifts were wrapped and waiting for her when she woke up.

We decided to start a tradition of getting new PJ's for Christmas and opening them on Christmas Eve (Yes, we stole the idea from the TV show Modern Family.), we didn't get a picture of us opening them but we did get one the next morning.
From SGN - 6th Month

We don't have any pictures of actual present opening but we've got plenty of other pictures...
From SGN - 6th Month
Sitting up is her newest trick!

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month
Her cousin's little red wagon coupe, thank goodness she liked it because she's got one coming next year. :)

From SGN - 6th Month
Apparently it tastes good, too!

From SGN - 6th Month

Christmas, Part 1

On Sunday, December 20 we had an early Christmas celebration with part of my side of the family. We were so excited for Savannah's first Christmas with visions of her ripping into the wrapping paper and squealing with delight, we feared that we were setting ourselves up for disappointment but thankfully, we weren't! She wasn't overly excited but she did grab hold of some wrapping and tissue paper and was somewhat mezmerized by the gifts. And she looked rather adorable with bows on her head, she's definitely the best Christmas present we could have ever received.

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

Friday, December 11, 2009

Oh, Christmas Tree...

Our Christmas cards went out yesterday, in a few days I expect we'll hear a collective, "Awww..." as everyone opens their mail.

We finally got our tree last Sunday, we wasted no time decorating it and putting Savannah next to it to let her explore.

From SGN - 6th Month



Clearly she is a fan of Santa.
From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month


Put down your phone, there is no reason to call DCF - she was actually dressed weather appropriate as it was unusually warm that day. :)

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

5 months!

Savannah officially turned 5 months old on Friday! She is weighing in the neighborhood of 16.5 lbs. and is probably about 25-26" long (measuring a baby isn't quite as easy as it seems). She is FINALLY giggling! No actual laugh yet but we're thrilled to hear something, all of our silly faces, sounds and dances seem to be working.

Unfortunately she still isn't sleeping through the night and I don't think we're even close. Some nights are better than others though, about a week ago she went down at 8:00 and didn't wake up again until 3:00, she nursed and went right back to sleep until 7:30. Technically speaking that IS sleeping through the night but I'm not counting it until I need my alarm clock to wake up. We do think she is teething though (major drool, gnawing on everything, etc.) which could easily be the problem and all the sleep gurus with their books and tricks can't do anything about teething. If this isn't teething, God help us.

Everyone always remarks that she is the happiest, most content baby - either we're doing something right or we just got lucky, I'll just assume that it's our doing. :) She really is the sweetest thing, her little smile just melts my heart and it's impossible to look at her chubby little cheeks and not smother them with kisses.


From SGN - 6th Month

From SGN - 6th Month
From SGN - 5th Month


Yes, she really did drool all over the turkey...good thing no one knew until now. :)
From SGN - 5th Month


Hmmm, where do I begin?
From SGN - 5th Month


From SGN - 5th Month


Thanks for my Turkey Day dress, Grandma!
From SGN - 5th Month
Month