3 years

The three year anniversary has come and gone on this here blog, 17 days ago. Guess I've been a little preoccupied. I have posted 825 times in three years and 17 days, which makes an average of .74 posts a day.

The first blog I ever saw and got addicted to was The Trixie Update about a little girl and a stay at home dad who tracked absolutely everything about his baby for his right sided mind. He put facts and figures to a baby, along with a TPOD, Trixie Picture of the Day. The site is really brilliant. It has changed a lot since the beginning, and I hardly ever look at it anymore, because he doesn't update very much, but the idea stuck with me. He ultimately designed software to track children, and today I started graphing Cecilia with his two week free trial. Go to this website to see everything Cecilia is up to, including diaper changes, sleeping, and eating patterns. I actually learned how to make links from the Trixie Update, since I can't really write any html. I wish I could though, and if you know someone who can, I would like to put a permanent link in the sidebar of this blog so you could get to that website from this website whenever you wanted.

I'm not sure I'm going to actually sign up for the Trixie Tracker, but I'm going to give it a go, and try the two week trial offer, and see what I think. Any comments from you are, as always, welcome.

UPDATE: I can't write html, but I can steal other's html. Waalaa! If you click on Cecilia's Every Move on the right, you can go directly to the tracking website. Awesome.

Hiccups

Cecilia gets the hiccups quite often, at least once a day, usually on the changing pad. Becky says when you have the hiccups you're growing. At this rate she's going to be huge. =)

This is Me in a Nutshell

"Oh Austin, that's you in a nutshell." "No, this is me in a nutshell: "Help! I'm in a nutshell! How did I get into this nutshell?"


Anyone who has talked to me recently has heard about her most recent schedule of eating. My life revolves around when she eats. Today, for example, she ate at 3 a.m., 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 5 p.m., and 8 p.m. She usually eats for about an hour, sometimes 45 minutes, then we have a good 2 hours while she sleeps before she is hungry again. We get really excited when she sleeps more than 2 hours in the middle of the night. The best night so far, was last weekend, when I fed her at 11:30 p.m., and then again at 5:30 a.m. My initial thought when John told me what time it was that morning was, "Is she dead?" When I realized she wasn't dead, I fed her, and we both felt so rested after our 5 hours of continuous sleep that we got up ready to face the day- at 6:30 a.m., and it was Saturday.

Killing Thyme

What! There's no baby in this picture! Craziness!

I have to tell you I think I grow herbs indoors pretty well. Last year I started a windowsill basil that lived over a year. Last summer I grew from seed more basil, chives, and thyme. I had so much basil that I planted some in my back yard and also gave some to Amanda. That basil is still alive in a pot in my kitchen. The chives died last week. I bought a parsley last summer at the farmer's market, and I am still pulling leaves off it. My biggest success, though, is my three Meyer lemon trees that I started from seeds. My uncle brought back some Meyer lemons from his house in Georgia last winter, and I did some research about growing Meyer lemons in Missouri. Turns out you can do it, and keep them in doors. I asked for a Meyer lemon tree for Christmas, and when I didn't get one last year, I stuck a few seeds in the same pot the windowsill basil was in last January. I kept looking for sprouts and saw nothing for weeks or maybe months. Then I forgot about them. When the warmer weather came in the spring, I found three little sprouts with shiny leaves. A year later, they are about 8 inches tall. I think it will be quite some time before I have lemons, maybe even a decade? That's o.k. I can wait. I'm just pretty proud that they actually grew.

Hopefully I can keep them alive; unlike this thyme that is dying. How much thyme can one (or two) (or three now) people really use?

Baby on Boppy

Cecilia is 4 weeks old today, and I think she gave me her first smile this morning. She smiles sometimes when she's sleeping, and she'll smile when she's finished eating and starts to fall asleep, but this morning she was actually looking at me and then smiled.

She's awesome.

Today would be my mom's birthday. She would be 68. It's kind of hard to think about my mom these days; too easy to get too sad. I feel like I'm starting to understand the mother daughter bond from a different point of view. I know I have only scratched the surface though.

My mom's mom died when I was 2, and everyone said she loved me very much and was a very good grandma to me. It would have been nice to have her around because all 3 of my other grandparents never showed much love or attention in my direction. I always knew my mom missed her mom, and would have liked to share more of me with her. Guess I can understand that part of my mom the most right about now.

Arms in Motion

Lately I've been trying to get her to stay awake during the day after I feed her. 9 times out of 10 she falls asleep before she's finished eating, and I lay her down and she sleeps for at least 3 hours. Today she went to work with me, and she did so well. I was so proud. I don't know what I expected her to do. I don't want to jinx it, but she's so good. John and I both agree that we expected more crying. Maybe they don't really get attitude until they get a little older, and all newborns are this serene?

She makes the nighttime feedings so easy. I wake up all groggy, and I look at her, and her face is so sweet, I just have to smile. I honestly never expected to love her so much so quickly.

Her umbilical cord fell off, and her pediatrician said something about "tummy time" and in an effort to keep her awake this evening I got out this little mat, and laid her on her tummy. Then I just started laughing because she just squirmed around on her elbows, and rubbed her nose back and forth on the fabric. I'm not sure but my mother's intuition (not sure I really have mother's intuition yet, I just like saying it and thinking that I have it) says that she's too little, or too young or just not strong enough yet for "tummy time."

My hormones could be getting the best of me, but I just have to tell you that I couldn't be happier. It's as if everyting I have done so far has prepared me for this. Motherhood feels much more natural than I expected.

Pacifier

The hospital pacifier is so big and blue and ugly, and she doesn't love it, but there are times it comes in handy.

Angel

She Looks Different Everyday

We went to the pediatrician today, and she now weighs 8 pounds, and she is 21 inches long, and her jaundice is all but gone.

Sleepytime

Faces

Here's a few taken today. She makes the funniest faces. After she eats, she is usually awake for a few minutes, and we all gather round and stare at her to see what face she'll make next. John's mom is here helping, and I got an extra couple hours sleep this morning, and I'm feeling like a million bucks right about now.

This baby thing is a cinch.

Touchdown!

Happy Birthday, John.

From the moment I married John, the thought of having a baby realistically sounded like a good idea. I knew he would be a good father. On our honeymoon I had a dream that we had a baby, and I was so happy in that dream. I always dreamed of having a baby and a family, but John made it a reality, and an awesome reality at that. I didn't always have the calling to be a mom, but with John, I knew I could do it, and I would have fun doing it.

Happy Birthday to the best baby daddy ever.

John thinks she looks like a gangsta in this picture.

Well, we're home. We came home on Sunday. As you all predicted, I didn't have the world's best delivery, but she's here now and that's all that counts.

She's a good sleeper and eater. I'm low on sleep and making too much milk, but other than that we are doing well. That and the fact that our power was out this morning...typical St. Louis.

We're going to be laying low, not much blogging will be going on, I imagine, for awhile. Just wanted to say Happy New Year!

Don't worry, there won't be a shortage of pictures of her to come. Meanwhile, you can click here to see her in the fancy dress in the hospital for her newborn picture.