4 months already? What?? [Pictures!]

As incredible as it may seem, Mia is already 4 months old. I've stopped counting how many weeks she is...after a while doesn't that just get confusing?! But yesterday was the 26th and so she is thus, a 4 month old baby.

Let's do a little photo re-cap with some commentary, shall we?


This was just a few hours after birth. We had no idea she'd be so tiny (barely a 4 and 1/2 lb'er!)...she didn't really fit into this 0-3month onesie that my BF from work got her. About 5 hrs after she was born we had to take her to the hospital. We thought, hmm, maybe this will be just a check-in and check-out. Or perhaps just an overnight stay.



Us at the hospital the day after she was born. Looking at this picture brings back lots of memories...how small our room was (and that bed!) and how 'swollen' I still was after delivery. At that point I wasn't sure how long we'd need to stay there, I thought, maybe just another day? That turned into 6.



She was so tiny...being swaddled with 2 blankets, wearing a little cap from the birth center (that we unfortunately lost!) that we couldn't put all over her head because of an IV. She put up with a lot during that first week and did amazingly well. Greg and I thought she was the strongest one in our family at that point. I think we shed more tears than she did with all the pricks and prods!



This was Mia at 1 month and obviously at home and happy to be there! (Too bad I already lost that bow -- where did it escape to?!) She had already grown quite a bit...I think she was closer to 7lbs by this point. That first month was very tough, for obvious reasons. I tend to be a pretty optimistic person, and so even when people told me, "The first 6 weeks are really rough, then it gets better," I thought, "Maybe it won't be that way for us, maybe it'll be 'easy'." Well, I'm going to be honest with you...it was very difficult. I was blessed with a healthy pregnancy and a great delivery, but the postpartum period kind of hit me like a mac truck. With 2 hospitalizations and such, it was really hard for me to focus on recovery and just getting into the newborn groove. But as a family we learned A LOT and Greg & I grew SO much closer as a team. I've been very very thankful for him and for my kind family and friends.



2 months. We were out at Panchero's having lunch after church. This is when we started to get more 'adventurous' in our outings, which was really fun. The 2nd and 3rd months didn't seem nearly quite as difficult and I have to say I was starting to enjoy myself? That was nice. She was plumping out too! Check out them thighs.



3 months. You know - hang time with Daddy. Wear the same kinds of clothes and such. She had already found her voice and I'm pretty sure was voicing her opinion in this picture. I'll show her this picture later and ask her if she remembers what she was saying.



Close to 3.5 months...taken at Amy's wedding, courtesy of our favorite family friend photographer Laura (why did you move?!! :P) She's kind of gotten over the ridiculousness of all of us and going along with the flow, although she was not the happiest of babies during the ceremony. I heard that it was nice, and that I was featured in the post-ceremony slideshow a few times. I'll have to ask Amy to show it to me at some point!



Just this morning, at 4 months and 1 day old. Her official 4 month check-up is tomorrow and I'm sure she'll be somewhere around 13lbs. She was close to 13lbs when I unofficially weighed her about 2 weeks ago, so I'll be interested to see what it is "officially". I'm proud of the weight gain! The goal for healthy, full-term babies is for them to nearly triple their weight by the time they turn 1, or double it by 6 months. Since Mia was "small for gestational age" (SGA)/low-birth weight, she's already done that!! In my opinion, she pretty much looks "normal" now and is actually on the growth charts, if you're into that sort of thing.

There are still no real answers on why she was SGA or why I had a blood clot, other than that postpartum women are at very high risk for them and I guess I fell into that category. We've done several different tests now - Mia & Greg & I - to see if we had any disorders and everything came back "normal," which is a great thing, but doesn't answer our questions. So, perhaps some of it was just a fluke.

We're very thankful that things have gone so much better after those first few weeks and that our health is on the up and up. During those first few weeks, I would wonder, "Why do people have babies? This is so hard." Yet, it was only a few weeks later that I was thinking, "I could do this again...and I might want to." [Disclaimer: That was just an honest thought, not an announcement!] Babies are slightly addicting and Mia is no exception. My camera already knows to hone in on her if she's in the frame.

So to Mia, thank you for napping long enough for me to blog this. I really appreciate when you sleep. And please, keep staying sweet.

That's all.

Retro Mia

Mia is modeling vintage baby clothing circa 1983.

Working From Home

Thankfully from time to time I get the chance to work from home. It's time I find to be both productive and enjoyable. I'm able to get quite a bit done and not feel like I'm missing out on all Mia and Megan are doing during the day. Friday at home Megan, Mia, and I had some fun with Mike Ferguson's netbook. Even at Mia's young age, she is able to demonstrate the ups and downs of a typical work day.

3 months + counting...

We had a baby 3 months ago and it has rocked my world, i.e., surprisingly kept me busier than I thought.

I really cannot remember what I thought life with a baby would be like before Mia was born. I had done some research and casually observed others, but it's true what they say, nothing will ever quite prepare you as you can never know what to expect. Boy, have I learned that lesson more than a few times these last few years!

It would be entertaining to look back about 4 yrs ago at what I thought my life would be like and then to see how everything deviated from that plan at almost every corner. I think the only thing that has stayed consistent are most of my relationships--obviously my relationship with Greg being a key one as it steered so many of these life changes (yet of course my relationship with God being an anchor through it all).

Truthfully when I found out I was pregnant, it was not an initial moment of joy, it was more an initial moment of fear and anxiety...'twould have been great had it been "planned," but sometimes you just never know what's coming your way and that is part of the adventure of life. However, I can say 3 months onto the other side that most of the fears/anxieties I had have been quieted or at least trampled upon by reality, which is that babies don't end your life, they actually add to the quality and enjoyment of life. Simple things like going to Starbucks take on a whole new meaning, and for whatever reason, your baby's crying never seems to innervate you as much as someone else's babe does (except of course, it can become quite trying when it seems to ne'er end-to that end I highly recommend the "cuddle cure" as outlined in _Happiest Baby on the Block_). And as far as babies ruining relationships or specifically your marital relationship, I feel sorry for those to whom it happens, because I feel as if there may have been a misunderstanding of expectations/duties and some consistent & constant communication can help alleviate those problems, in my experience. Ever since Mia had to go to the hospital, Greg has been my go-to guy and that has made life all the easier, and we talk about things almost all the time. Our life together is almost a constant conversation filled with sidebars and "oh yeah and this this and that" about things he probably thought we stopped talking about 20 mins ago but I put on the backburner while we conservationally tended to another task.

And ever since Mia was born, my personal filter about all things bodily-related (as if there was ever much of a filter to begin with), has pretty much been flung out the window. I think it may be part of parenthood; you just come to terms with things like that and while I try not to overwhelm my non-parent friends, I'd like to slowly inoculate them to what they may experience should they ever be "with child".
Additionally, things I thought I would do for sure have changed, and things I thought I wouldn't really be much interested in have changed. I don't know what kind of "mom" I thought I'd be...I can't quite define myself right now as I'm still trying to mold who that person is...plus the little person for whom I'm now responsible!


All in all, it's a massive life change and whatever "they" say about sleep tends to be true, and even when I think I don't know how people do this repeatedly (and have like 17 kids & counting, or what have you), I don't know, something in me continues to be excited about the next day or what's up and coming, and that gives me a little more fuel even when I'm feeling run down.
Like Aladdin and Jasmine said, it's a "whole new world - don't you dare close your eyes."

And if you get that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day, you can thank me.

The End.

/Off to bed.