9 months

Marie is 9 months old today! She's officially been outside of me longer than she was inside, and that's just crazy.

Weight: 20 pounds, 4 ounces (80th percentile)
Length: 27 inches (25th percentile)
Head circumference: 45 centimeters (75th percentile)

Milestones:
-Marie is now a pro at crawling (which means she no longer rolls all the way across a room, much to my dismay), though she isn't nearly as fast as my neighbor's daughter who's the same age.
-She has started to pull up on things, including her crib bars, which necessitated the lowering of the crib a couple of days ago.
-Marie can feed herself some solids if the pieces are big enough and aren't too slippery. And if she has pieces of bread on her high chair, she'll shove them into her mouth faster than she can swallow them, so now we need to pace her with a couple pieces on her tray at a time.
-She's tries to drink out of a sippy cup while holding it on her own, but she needs help tipping it up.
-Marie met Santa Claus! She did really well with him, too. Especially after he gave her a candy cane in a crinkly wrapper.
-She celebrated her first Christmas! She wasn't really sure what to make of it, but she seemed to enjoy ripping the paper off a couple presents, at least.
-Along the same lines, she participated in her first nativity pageant as a sheep. (If you want to get technical, her costume made her look more like a bunny, but let's not split hairs here.)

Santa's hand is in front of his beard to prevent her from yanking it off his face.

Her pajamas have bunnies on them. I thought they were sheep. Whoops.

Opening presents!

Current likes:
-Splashing in the tub. She's enjoyed baths before, but now she loves them!
-Eating solid foods. She's eaten basically everything we've put in front of her, including bananas, chicken, pasta, ham, turkey, peaches, applesauce, corn, green beans, yogurt, and bread.
-Getting into everything. Nothing is safe around her!
-Playing with her toys, but especially playing with paper, receipts, and wrappers.
-Having freedom to crawl around. She isn't as content to sit on laps for long periods of time anymore.
-Grabbing (and chewing on) the strings from my sweatshirt.
-Playing with my watch or ring (while I'm still wearing them, lest you think I'm knowingly handing her a choking hazard and valuable and sentimental item just for funsies).

Hanging out in (and licking) the laundry hamper.

Exploring the jumper in a new way.

Current dislikes:
-Getting her bib put on. I think it might be because it pulls her hair a little.
-Getting her nose wiped or her hands and face cleaned after eating.
-Getting her diaper changed if I haven't fed her yet first thing in the morning.
-Being covered by the carseat canopy.
-Being left in her jumper if we leave the room.
-Falling from a standing or kneeling position and bumping her head. (Imagine that!)

She wasn't too happy after her nap. 

Nicknames:
-Girlie
-Sweetheart

Other odds and ends:
-Marie basically eats whatever we eat, so I've been trying to make sure we eat more fruits and vegetables ourselves (I've never eaten so many bananas in my life!). I gave her some baby oatmeal the other day and she wasn't such a huge fan, but that may have been because I made it too thick. (When it was runnier, she seemed to enjoy it just fine, but it also dripped everywhere, so I added more powder and then she figuratively turned her nose up at it.)
-Marie survived another road trip, this time to Arizona. She was fantastic on the trip down there and was still quite good on the drive back, though she was a little fussier. I didn't have many toys on hand, so I kept her entertained by handing her the trash from our lunch, including a water bottle, various wrappers, and an empty Pringles container. And then I kept cycling through those items as she got bored of them. It kept her pretty happy!
-We got into some bad sleeping habits while we were in Arizona for Christmas, because she slept in the same room as us and whenever she woke up it was easier to just feed her and go to sleep rather than to let her self-soothe. So the next couple days after we came back home were a little rough, but she's capable of sleeping ten hours without eating, like last night.
-I think she's basically settled into a two-naps-a-day routine, with the longer nap in the morning. Her morning nap is sometimes 3 or 3 and a half hours long, but it's usually around 2 hours.
-She could probably squeeze into size 3 diapers, but we've been putting her in 4s because we happened to have a box of those after we ran out of 3s. And they fit more comfortably, so, you know, bonus.
-She still doesn't have any teeth, but we suspect she might be teething because she's been drooling like crazy, runs her tongue over her gums, blows raspberries, and has been a little more fussy than usual. And I thiiiink I can feel something hard on her top gum (which surprises me, because I thought the bottom teeth are usually the first to come in).
-Marie does baby yoga, by which I mean she frequently engages in the downward dog position. Often on top of her wipes container or while nursing, these days.
-She rarely spits up anymore! A couple times a week, maybe, which is a big improvement.
-She jabbed her finger up my nose on Sunday, which gave me a pretty nice nosebleed. Guess we need to teach her to be gentle.
Marie says "mama" and "mamamamama" a lot, though I don't think she means me, by any means. She has said "dada" as well, but "mama" is the current fave to jabber. She also says "ba" and "ga".
-We've started putting her in 9 month clothes, though she still wears some 6 month clothes as well. And I may or may not have squeezed her into a 0-3 month sweatshirt to see if it still fit today. (It didn't.)
-She is sporting a mullet but I can't bring myself to spend 20 bucks on a haircut for her or to cut her hair myself. Also, her bangs are almost constantly in her eyes because clips don't stay put very well in her hair.

Pulling up on the ice chest and getting into mischief.

Just chillin' with Dad at Grandma Erickson's house.

See? Drooling. A ton. 

8 months

Marie turned 8 months old on Sunday!

Milestones:
-Marie learned how to crawl a week ago. Of course, my mother is taking all the credit for teaching her. Perhaps with some good reason, as there were definitely crawling demonstrations involved. (A plan for my mom to open her own private crawling school where she can charge a steep tuition may or may not be in the works.)
-We took our first road trip to California with Marie to visit my family for Thanksgiving. She hadn't been on a road trip since she was a month old, so we weren't sure how she'd do, but she's a champ! She didn't nap as well as she usually does, but she was pretty happy most of the way there and back.
-Marie can move herself from a crawling position to a sitting position and back again. We've found her sitting up in her crib after waking up from a nap a couple times now.
-She's starting to develop her pincer grip, which means we need to be even more vigilant about vacuuming.
-Marie can hold her own bottle, but she has trouble tipping it back far enough sometimes.

Current likes:
Playing with anything crinkly, rolling all over the place, getting into mischief, trying to feed herself, blowing raspberries, life in general. She is a happy baby!

Current dislikes:
Being hungry, being overtired

Current nicknames:
-Smiley
-Rollie Pollie Ollie

Other odds and ends:
-We used my parents' scale to weigh Marie and she clocked in at 20.5 pounds.
-The night before we drove back home to Utah, we spent the night at my aunt's house and I shared a room with Marie for the first time in a couple months. She is not a quiet sleeper! She wasn't fussy, but before she fell asleep she kept rolling around, slamming her legs down, and scratching the sides of the Pack 'n' Play.
-Marie has tried a bigger variety of foods, including various soups, pork fried rice, bread, cereal, peaches, and a sampling of ice cream (her daddy is a softie). Whenever she sees us eating something, she wants to partake as well. She still isn't fantastic about eating foods with chunkier textures, but it's a work in progress. And we've finally ordered a high chair, so it should be easier to feed her once it arrives. (Holding her on our laps and trying to keep our clothes clean is just a little tricky.)
-Diaper changes have become more challenging, as she tends to roll over once the diaper is off.
-Marie currently wears size 3 diapers and 6-9 month onesies.
-Still no teeth or any real sign of teething, which is just fine by me.
-Marie generally goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:30, wakes up once before I go to bed to eat, and then sleeps until another feeding before I go to work between 5:00 and 7:00. Yes, the long range in time makes it tricky to anticipate when I'll be able to head out the door. After the morning feed, she'll sleep for another hour or so.
-Lately she's taken to pursing her lips and exhaling heavily through her nose, which I think is pretty funny. She also gets this really serious look on her face when she's concentrating intently.
-She gets giggly right before bed, which makes it hard to put her down! Oh, we just love her to pieces!

7 months

Marie turned seven months old on Thursday. We become even more smitten with her every day. (Cheesy, much? Perhaps. But true.)

Milestones:
-Marie has started sitting up on her own, though she isn't very stable yet and can't hold the position for very long.
-A week after her surgery, we moved her into her own room, and we've been sleeping better for the most part as a result. The day she turned seven months, we transitioned her from the Rock 'n' Play to her crib, and it looks like she's going to be a tummy sleeper like her parents. And bonus! As a result of sleeping on her stomach, her hair gets way less tangly now.
-She slept through the night for three glorious nights in a row! She can usually go from about 9 in the evening to around 5 in the morning without eating, which is pretty fantastic. (What would be more fantastic is if she would stop waking up around 2, crying for a minute, and then going back to sleep, because then I sometimes can't fall asleep for an hour afterward.)
-We started solids but haven't been super consistent with giving them. She doesn't seem to ingest too much, but so far she's tasted avocado, oatmeal, sweet potato, carrots, peas, and applesauce.
-She's rolling all over the place these days! We have to be quick with diaper changes or she'll roll away before we're finished. Distracting her with a toy or a package of wipes helps keep her on her back sometimes.
-She'll push up on her hands and knees but hasn't made any real attempts at crawling yet.
-Marie visited her first pumpkin patch and attended her first ward Halloween party this month.
-Marie has started making few consonant sounds (like "ba" and "ma") instead of just vowel sounds. I'm holding out hope that her first word will be mama! She's getting more vocal, which has been pretty exciting.

Current likes:
Playing in her jumper (thanks Daniel and Carly!), playing with her keys, lifting her legs and slamming them against the ground while laying down, playing with crinkly things, looking at Daddy, listening to "I Love You a Bushel and a Peck", being bounced on our knees, getting rocket rides, splashing in the bath.

Current dislikes:
Getting the eye ointment put in her eye, falling asleep anywhere besides home (which makes church and outings super fun sometimes).

Other odds and ends:
-Her eye has been cycling through periods of looking great and then getting red and swollen again, so we took her back to the ophthalmologist on Friday, who said it's likely that the interior (?) stitch is irritated and inflamed, but she doesn't think it's infected. She prescribed some antibiotics which should hopefully help, but in the worst case scenario, they'll have to remove the stitch. Which sounds like more surgery. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that!
-Marie still fits into some 3 month pants and pajamas and many 3-6 month outfits, though we may box up some of the smaller onesies soon.
-We bought Kirkland brand diapers at Costco since there was a coupon, but she got a diaper rash shortly thereafter. I'm not sure if it's correlational at all, but it's the worst one she's had so I don't know if we'll buy that brand again. She's still in size 3 -- I put her in a 4 at night once and she soaked right through it because it was too big, I think.
-We haven't really been doing the baby food thing, so we've been steaming vegetables or giving her chunks of soft fruit to gnaw at mostly. When she has a steamed carrot, she'll start sucking on it like its a pacifier and it's basically the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

At our ward Halloween party. You can't see her wings very well, but she's a parrot.

Trying out avocado for the first time.

We call this her watermelon outfit. 

She loves her jumper!

She seems thoroughly unconcerned by the creepy thing behind her.

Instilling a love for pumpkin patches early on in life.

Happy girl!

Surgery day

Monday, September 29th, was surgery day. I had previously requested the whole day off of school and found a sub. We didn't receive instructions about the surgery until the Friday before, when we learned that we didn't check in at the hospital until 2:30. At that point, I could have cancelled the sub and my time off and requested a half day instead, but it seemed like more of a hassle to go through the process, so settled for taking the whole day off.

We were told to give Marie a bath and put her in clean clothes to reduce the risk of infection at the surgical sites, so we did that in the morning. I was allowed to feed Marie until 11:30, and then she was only allowed to have Pedialyte until 1:00. When I gave her her last feeding, I was a little nervous because she didn't seem super hungry and wasn't eating too much. I gave her some Pedialyte around 12:20 but she didn't care for it and only drank around an ounce.

That morning we also received a phone call from the ophthalmologist, who asked us if we wanted to proceed with the procedure because our insurance wouldn't cover the amniotic membrane transplant, which would act as a bandage for the eye procedure. When we had received the letter from our insurance a couple months prior, we called the eye doctor's office and were under the impression that they were going to appeal it for us. So receiving this phone call the morning of the operation was a little stressful! Jacob called our insurance company that morning and they said we had a certain number of days from the time the claim was denied to send in an appeal, but to expect the claim to be denied. We decided to go ahead with the operation anyway because I had already taken the day off and because the surgery had already been rescheduled twice at that point.

Right after checking in.

The skin tags on this ear are less noticeable.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in right at 2:30. Somebody came to check her vitals and we changed Marie into the hospital clothes. A nurse came to examine Marie to make sure she was healthy enough to proceed with the surgery. We were a little nervous because Marie had been coughing off and on the previous two days, and we were hoping that wouldn't be cause for them to cancel the surgery. Everything checked out, though, although they had a hard time getting a blood pressure reading. Marie was starting to get fussy, as she was getting hungry and tired. Jacob kept blowing on her stomach to try to cheer her up, and Marie alternated between laughing and crying.

We were eventually taken to the pre-op waiting room, where we were told that the surgeon was behind schedule and instead of having her surgery start at 4:00, it might not start until 5:00 or 5:30. This was especially disheartening because Marie was practically starving already and we weren't allowed to feed her still. We closed off an area of the room with a curtain and tried to calm her down. I may or may not have started crying as I was holding Marie, because I felt awful that she was hungry and I couldn't explain to her why I couldn't feed her. After a while Jacob took her and managed to get her to fall asleep in about two minutes. We put her on a cot as she napped, and I started grading some papers that I had brought with me.

Around 4:30 or so the anesthesiologist came by and told us what he was going to do: place a breathing tube, give her gas to fall asleep, give her an IV, etc. Then the ophthalmologist came by and explained her procedure as well. Since Marie was having two surgeries, they were able to switch the order of the doctors and they'd be able to start sooner than expected. The plastic surgeon also came by and quickly marked the areas he'd be operating on with a purple marker. We signed some consent forms, and by 4:45 we took Marie to the entrance of the operating room where we handed her off to the anesthesiologist.

We then went to a different waiting room, where we were allowed to eat. (No one was allowed to eat in the check-in or pre-op waiting rooms, as the patients had to fast and that would be unfair to them.) We had packed some sandwiches, granola bars and apples, so that became our dinner.

About an hour or so after Marie went into surgery, the ophthalmologist visited us and said that the surgery went well. She was able to remove most of the small mass (dermoid cyst?) that was by the eyelid, as well as reattach the lids to the bone and each other. She was also able to manage to complete the procedure without the amniotic membrane transplant, which meant we didn't have to worry about paying for it out of pocket. She went over the instructions to care for the eye (ice packs for the first 3 days, warm compresses thereafter, and eye ointment three times a day), and then she left. At this point we were waiting on the plastic surgeon.

Before too much longer, the plastic surgeon came out and told us that the skin tag removal went well. He put Marie in arm restraints so she wouldn't try to scratch at her stitches. He told us to keep the area dry for 2 days and to schedule a follow-up visit in two to four weeks.

At this point, we had to wait for Marie to wake up from the anesthesia, get her breathing tube removed, and have her vitals stabilized before we would be able to go in and see her. We were told it might be half an hour or so before that happened. Eventually the receptionist went home for the day, so she informed us that when the phone rang, we could answer it and if it wasn't for us, to call out the name of the patient to the room so the appropriate parents could get on the phone.

After only 15 or 20 minutes, the phone call came that we could go see Marie! She was resting on a bed that seemed pretty large for a baby, and her arms were spread straight out to her sides. She had a plastic eye patch taped to her face, and her eye looked pretty bloody, which we were told was normal. She was crying weakly and she seemed pretty groggy still.

I was able to feed her, and she ate well, despite us being told that most babies aren't coordinated enough to really eat after surgery. She fussed a little bit, but for the most part she was a champ, even when the nurses had to take her blood pressure again. We had to wait for her IV transfusion to be completed, but after an hour or so a nurse went over the discharge instructions and said she would take us to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions so we could go home.

We were looking forward to going home, because it had been a long day, but at the pharmacy we learned that one of the doctors forgot to sign the prescription for the painkiller, and she had already left for the day. Since hydrocodone is a controlled substance, the on-call doctor was unable to just call it in -- the prescription had to be physically signed. That doctor had said he (or she) would try to make it down as soon as possible, but s/he was at a different hospital and it had already been half an hour since s/he said that. Our nurse, who was pretty amazing, said she would walk the prescription over to that other hospital and get it signed so we could fill it. We went back to where we were waiting when Marie came out of surgery and continued to wait.

Marie was getting fussy, because she was tired, and I was getting grumpy, because I was, too. We ended up waiting over an extra hour to get the prescription filled. By the time we got home, it was almost 10:00. I was exhausted but still had to pump because I stubbornly refused to do so at the hospital (mostly because I didn't want to ask anyone where an appropriate location to do so would be). After pumping, I changed Marie's diaper, and for the first time in months she peed while her diaper was off, soaking her pajamas. This meant we had to clean her up, take off her arm restraints, change her pajamas, and put her arm restraints back on before we could go to bed. We also had to give her a dose of Tylenol to stay ahead of the pain -- we were to alternate between Motrin and Tylenol every three hours. We finally got to bed around 11.

Overall, Marie has been great. We kept her on pain medication for the first two or three days, and we never did give her the prescription pain killer that we waited so long for. But of course. She is not a fan of getting the eye ointment applied to her eye, nor to putting the eyepatch on or taking it off. She doesn't seem to mind the arm restraints too terribly, though recently I've been keeping her out of them as long as she's wearing the eye patch. She had a follow-up with the ophthalmologist last Monday, and her eye isn't infected, which is good. Her incision is still pretty pink, and the stitches from her skin tags have yet to dissolve. Or maybe they have, but they've been covered in super glue or Dermabond or something which is stubbornly clinging to her skin still. (Which is all well and good, I suppose. The edges are just barely starting to peel off, but we're leaving it alone.) She's happy and healing nicely! We sure love our Marie!

A couple days after surgery.

Almost two weeks after surgery.

In which I paint myself in an unflattering light

When Marie was born, the first thing that Jacob and the doctors noticed was her copious amounts of dark hair. The first thing that I noticed when they placed her on my chest was a mysterious blob on her cheek. "What is that thing?" I wondered to myself. I felt ashamed as soon as I had the thought. I had just given birth to a baby that we had hoped and prayed for, and instead of marveling at the miracle that we were given, I was noticing an imperfection.

The blob on her cheek turned out to be a skin tag, one of five on her face. The other four were located right by her ears, two to a side. Her right eyelid was also formed slightly incorrectly; the top and lower lids weren't attached and formed a curved shape instead of a point.

These two factors -- the skin tags and the eyelid -- caused the doctors at the hospital to tell us Marie may have a condition called Goldenhar syndrome. We were told the syndrome is associated with kidney failure and hearing loss, and they ended up whisking Marie away to conduct a renal ultrasound.

Want to stress yourself out? Try Googling "Goldenhar syndrome" alone twelve hours after giving birth while your husband and baby are elsewhere in the hospital. Tears streamed down my face as I saw images of children with facial deformities and read about the various symptoms.

The ultrasound showed that Marie's kidneys functioned normally, and she passed her hearing test, so those were both positive things. An ophthalmologist came to examine her eyes (which involved propping her eyelids open with some device and caused both Marie and I to sob), which revealed that the actual structure of the eye was fine. We were given a recommendation for a follow up visit with an eye doctor at four months and went home.

Around the time Marie turned two weeks old, I was a wreck. I was convinced she had jaundice, was worried that she had Goldenhar syndrome, and was paranoid about taking any pictures of her that showed her skin tags. I was self-conscious for her; I didn't want friends or strangers to look at Marie's face and wonder what was wrong with her. I tried taking pictures that only showed the left side of her face or using her clothes or a blanket to cover the skin tags up. I was jealous of mothers whose babies were born free of abnormalities. I loved (and still love!) Marie, don't get me wrong. But I hated the idea that others might form judgments about Marie based on her skin tags and didn't think it was fair that my sweet baby had birth defects.

At her two-week appointment, we received a recommendation for a plastic surgeon. We were able to make an appointment with him when she was about a month old. He examined her, said the skin tags were actually called "accessory tragus," and then said that she did not have Goldehnar syndrome.

What a relief! The past month of angst and worry melted away as we learned that Marie's "symptoms" were merely cosmetic and could be fixed with surgery.

On a side note, throughout my pregnancy we were unable to see Marie's face on any ultrasound we received. I'm not sure whether the skin tags would have been apparent on an ultrasound, but I do think this was a blessing in disguise. If I'd had to worry about the possibility of our then-unborn baby having Goldenhar syndrome for months on end, I'm not sure how I would have functioned.

We tentatively scheduled a surgery date with the plastic surgeon, and when we met with the ophthalmologist three months later, she agreed that she could coordinate schedules with the plastic surgeon so Marie would only have to go under anesthesia once. We ended up rescheduling several times due to various circumstances, but last Monday surgery day was upon us.

Stay tuned for part two of the saga, surgery day.

6 months

Marie is 6 months old today!

Weight: 18 pounds, 8 ounces (~80th percentile)
Length: 25.3 inches (~25th percentile)
Head circumference: 44.5 centimeters (90th percentile!)

Marie's weight for height ratio is basically off the charts. Chunky baby! 

Milestones:
-The day after she turned five months (and two days after she rolled from tummy to back), Marie rolled from back to tummy. And then she didn't roll at all for another three weeks. Lately she's been rolling from back to tummy much more adeptly, but she has a harder time rolling the other direction. This makes her so steamed when she's over her self-inflicted tummy time!
-She has a tendency to scoot backwards when she's on her stomach. If I put her on a blanket, it isn't long before she's off it. 
-When we went grocery shopping this weekend, we sat her in the grocery cart for the first time. It was short-lived, however, because she still can't sit unsupported and she looked pretty uncomfortable leaning against the seatbelt.
-Marie transfers objects between her hands. 
-She can put her pacifier in her mouth! Happy day! Sometimes she puts the wrong end in her mouth, but she seems to enjoy chewing on the hard plastic part as well. She has a harder time picking up the pacifier, but if we put it in her hands, it'll go straight to her mouth (until she pulls it out and plays with it instead). 
-We left Marie with a non-family member babysitter for the first time so Jacob and I could attend the Ogden temple dedication. We were a little nervous how she would behave, but she was awake for about 45 minutes and took an hour and a half nap and woke up right before we picked her up, so I think it went pretty well!
-We've done some half-hearted attempts at sleep training this month, and now we can usually put Marie in her bed wide awake with her pacifier and she'll put herself to sleep. She still wakes up at least once at night (and on really bad nights, more like four times), but nothing to complain about too much. 
-Marie had her first surgery yesterday, which is another post for another day. It went well, though, and other than being a little fussy, she's recovering nicely.

Current likes:
Playing with her toys, being held, sitting and standing with support, getting sherbets on her stomach, blowing raspberries. 

Current dislikes:
-Loud noises (a couple of times when she's heard another baby yelling/growling or Jacob has sung boisterously, her little lip will quiver and she'll start crying), being hungry, being tired.

Nicknames:
-Sweet girl
-Stinker

Other odds and ends:
-We did a terrible job taking pictures this month, partially because the memory card for the camera was full so I had to delete photos before taking any more. I've since wiped the card so hopefully we'll take more this month.
-Marie is is size 3 diapers and I'm contemplating sticking her in 4s at night because she continues to soak through them on a regular basis. Including this morning, when I was feeding her and suddenly felt an unpleasant splash on my lap. 
-We're planning to start solids in the next week or so!

5 months

Marie is 5 months old!

Milestones:
-Marie finally rolled over from tummy to back yesterday! I know each child is a special snowflake that develops at their own pace and whatnot, and I wasn't terribly concerned about her lack of mobility, but it's a little bit of a relief since it seems like all the other babies her age have been able to roll for a month. Of course, she has yet to repeat the action, so we'll see if it was just a fluke.
-Along the lines of rolling, she'll roll from back to side and she also rotates a little bit during tummy time now.
-She had her first real giggle fest a couple weeks ago, which was basically the most adorable thing I've ever witnessed. She's only repeated it a couple times since then, and we've yet to capture it on video, but just trust me that it's delightful.
-We took her to a briar patch to pick raspberries. Not that she did any berry-picking or even came close to the raspberry (bushes? vines?). 

-We went to the park and put Marie in the baby swing for the first time. She leaned against the front of the seat the whole time. We're still working on the sitting thing.

-She attended her first temple open house. Everyone fawned over her.

-Marie got her first rat's nest in her hair. I suppose that's what happens when you're a baby with long hair and your parents don't exactly brush it every single day. Parenting fail.

Current likes:
Looking at Daddy, standing with support, playing with toys, holding her feet, grabbing my hands and staring at them, listening to music

Current dislikes:
Being left alone in a room while she's awake. Gone are the days where we could put her in the swing and do dishes; now, she wants to be able to see us all the time. Well, almost all the time. She played quite happily in her bouncer in the kitchen for a while before falling asleep today.

Nicknames:
-Lately I've been asking her, "Aren't you just a happy little goose/clam/Gus Gus?" 
-Babycakes

Other odds and ends:

-Marie has a habit of taking her pacifier out of her mouth and playing with it. Sometimes she'll try to put it back in her mouth, but she usually puts the wrong end in and chews on it a little. Other times after she takes it out she'll get mad because she isn't sucking on something anymore. There's an easy solution to this one, kid. . . . 
-We acquired a book of traditional children's literature that I've been reading to Marie. She doesn't look at the pictures much (not that there are very many of them anyway), but she usually smiles and looks entranced as she listens to the fairy tales and the different voices I use for the characters. Success!
-We've been putting her in size 3 diapers at night because she kept soaking through the 2s. Story of our lives. Also, she doesn't have blowouts super regularly, but when she does have one, it seems like she's always wearing white. But of course. And to top it off, her last blowout was in her carseat and her pacifier ended up in a puddle. Shudder.
-We haven't started sleep training but she's gotten into some bad sleeping habits since I've gone back to work. I'll try putting her down to sleep earlier in the evening and she'll wake up an hour or so later and just want to play. So perhaps some sleep training is in order. Recommendations? I will say, though, that she can usually have a 6 hour stretch between feedings, so that's been nice. Not that I've been able to sleep 6 hours, because she takes a while to fall asleep after the last nighttime feed.
-We haven't introduced any solids yet but she's starting to look a little more interested in food. She'll stare us down while we're eating.
-I think this morning she was trying to blow raspberries or buzz her lips together, so that's all sorts of fun.

-Lately I've been singing "Alice the Camel" to her while bouncing her on my knees, and she's usually all smiles. I guess Jacob has gotten a little tired of the song, though, because the last time I finished (with "Alice is a horse!"), he said, "I think she already knows that Alice is a horse, because you've sang that song eight billion times." 

4 months

Marie turned four months old yesterday. Which means she'll be getting more shots at her appointment on Monday. This time, we are armed with generic infant Tylenol in hopes that she won't be Miss Crankypants like she was after her two-month shots.

ETA:
Weight: 15 pounds, 8 ounces -- exactly 9 pounds heavier than her birthweight (75th percentile)
Length: 24 inches (25th percentile)
Head circumference: 41.5 centimeters (75th percentile)

Milestones:
-She can lift her head and chest for short periods of time during tummy time, which means she tolerates it a little better than she used to, though she still isn't a fan.
-She's started reaching for objects and trying to put them in her mouth. Her success rate is still hit-or-miss.
-Marie can track objects with her eyes as they're moved up, down, left, and right.
-We finally finished off the size 1 diapers and are solidly into size 2, but I'm a little nervous that she's going to outgrow them before we finish off the Costco-sized box we have.
-We pulled out the 3-6 month clothes yesterday since most of the 0-3 onesies were getting a bit snug on her. Some of those outfits look ginormous! I'm pretty sure the pants would go up to her armpits if we put her in them now. Despite Jacob's height, Marie isn't the tallest kid around. Yet.
-I haven't really spread this information around, but when Marie was born, her ears were pretty hairy. We're talking long, dark hair that fortunately blended in with the rest of the hair on her head. I'm happy to announce that this hair has finally fallen out! It was mostly gone by three months, but I wanted to wait until it had all fallen out before documenting this very important update for posterity.
-Marie went swimming for the first time with us this month. We had been holding off because we didn't want to buy swim diapers lest she was too small for them still, but we went with our friends and they let us borrow one and it fit just fine. She did really well! She wasn't a huge fan of being splashed in the face, but she didn't really fuss at all while she was in the water. 
-We also took Marie on her first hike (a very short hike, but a hike nonetheless). She ended up falling asleep in the carrier, but she seemed to enjoy looking around when she was awake.
-We had free entrance to a Real Salt Lake soccer game, so Marie attended her first sporting event. Let's just say she wasn't a fan, especially of all the loud music. We ended up leaving early (after I had climbed over all the other people sitting in our row like six times because she was crying).

Current likes:
funny faces, being held in front of the fan, looking out the window, playing with her toys, standing with support
Current dislikes:
being put down for naps in the crib, getting her clothes changed, getting the crusty milk cleaned out from her neck folds

Nicknames:
-The only one that's really stuck for the last few months is "Stinker." For the record, Jacob is the one who calls her that. Though I maaaay or may not have called her Stinkerpuff the other day.
-Super Soaker (she still spits up all the time)

Other odds and ends:
-She's started sucking on her lower lip, making her look either pensive or like a turtle.
-Marie tries to sit up when she's laying in her swing or bouncer. Work that core!
-She's still nowhere close to becoming mobile. Not that I'm in a rush to baby-proof or anything. Marie does love kicking and flailing her arms, though!
-Marie will lift one foot in succession when she stands on my lap. I like to think she's dancing. Perhaps a good ol' Irish clogging? She'll also swivel the upper half of her body to look all around her while she's standing.
-Her latest trick is blowing spit bubbles and drooling. 
-For a period of time, her bedtime was getting later and later. After one night of her not falling asleep until midnight, I did some research and discovered that babies her age should be going to bed no later than 6:30 in the evening. So, you know, she was only going to sleep practically six hours later than she's supposed to. That night she slept from 4:15 in the afternoon to 8 in the morning, waking up 3 times to eat. We're still working out the kinks, but she seems to do better when she's put to bed between 6 and 6:45. She's having a rough time with naps in her crib lately and will scream once she's put in there. Alas. Maybe we'll ditch the crib idea for a little while and revisit it when she's older.
-She's started grabbing my hair, which means that I now wear my hair in a ponytail almost every single day.
-Marie will go several days without pooping and then have three blowouts and an additional two poopy diapers in a 36 hour period. Which is awesome for our laundry situation.

3 months

Marie is three months old today! I can hardly believe she's already a quarter of a year old. 
Milestones:
-Marie can sit with support and hold her head pretty steady.
-She's started bearing weight on her legs while we hold her.

Standing like a big girl.

-She brings her hands together.
-Marie has shown more of an interest in books.
-She tries really hard to giggle. I wouldn't qualify her efforts as true laughs yet, but it's pretty adorable all the same.
-This month she's attended her first water park, play, and amusement park. Not that she was able to appreciate them much.

At Roger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

Sleeping:
Last night Marie slept from 10 until 5:15! It would've been more glorious if I hadn't woken up multiple times to make sure she was still breathing. And then things got, um, a little uncomfortable because my body isn't used to going so long without feeding her. Her bedtime is still hit or miss -- one night this week she fell asleep on her own at 6:30 and didn't wake up until midnight to eat. Then a few nights later she didn't fall asleep until 11. It's also been tricky deciding whether to swaddle her and put her in pajamas at night because it's been so hot in our apartment. Sometimes we'll just leave her in a onesie and put her to sleep in that and not swaddle her until she wakes up to eat when it's cooler. Also, we're trying to get her to take naps in the crib instead of the swing to help her get into better sleeping habits. She's slept for as little as 12 minutes and as much as an hour and a half in the crib. It's a work in progress.

You expect me to sleep in here? Dream on.

Eating:
Marie still eats around 8 times a day, every 2 to 3 1/2 hours on average during the day. She's become much more efficient, sometimes taking only 7 or 8 minutes. A ''long" feed takes about 20 minutes. So much better than spending an hour like she used to!

This signifies our relationship: I just want to cuddle and she just spits up all over me.

Pooping:
In the last week or so, Marie has pooped between 0 and 3 times a day (for a grand total of 5 times in the last 6 days. Yes, I've been keeping track. Yes, I'm sure she's going to love reading about this down the road.) Considering she used to poop every time she ate, it makes me a little nervous that's she's possibly gearing up to grace us with the Mother Load. In other news, we grossly overestimated how long she would be in size 1 diapers. We bought an extra 2 boxes at Costco some time ago, and we returned one of them earlier this week. She really should be in size 2 (and we've been putting her in 2s at night because I got tired of her leaking out her diaper), but we're trying to finish up the last of the 1s first. I think we have around 25 left, so fingers crossed we'll be done within the week.

Current likes: 
Laying in her bouncy seat and looking at the toys, looking at herself in the mirror of the swing mobile, being held, sucking on her pacifier, eating her fists (which we're trying to discourage), staring at lights, looking at faces, listening to music, grabbing blankets/burp rags/her bib/her hair. 

Current dislikes: Getting dried off after a bath, getting her clothes changed when she's tired, accidentally yanking her hair when she gets her fingers tangled up in it, having air trapped in her stomach and being unable to burp, having her fingers forced open in an attempt to make a darling handprint for Father's Day. (There was much screaming and flailing with that one.)

Nicknames (all of which are preceded with "my little"):
Sweet Pea
Turtle (because when she's on her back, she reminds me of a turtle that's flipped over on its shell and can't right itself)
Lizard (thanks to Jacob, because she's taken to sticking her tongue out and licking things)
Honey Bunches of Oats
Bundle of Joy
Barrel of Sunshine

Other odds and ends:
-The other day I tried measuring her and I think she's about 23 inches long. Not sure how much she weighs, since we don't have a scale. Some of her pants are becoming highwaters on her. 
-She is a morning person! Marie is all smiles and coos when she wakes up.

My little barrel of sunshine.

-Marie still snuggles pretty well, though she does like sitting and standing while we hold her.
-We tried her out in the Bumbo yesterday so I could try to put a headband in her hair. And then she got stuck because her legs are so chunky.

The headband lasted until we got her out of the carseat during Sacrament meeting.

-About a week ago we noticed that she had some dry, bumpy red patches of skin on her arm. We're hoping it isn't eczema, and it doesn't seem to bother her too much, but we've been trying to put lotion on her more frequently to help it improve.
-She's become aware of the TV, so I've been trying to keep it off while she's awake or turn her away so she isn't facing it while its on. 
-We're blessing Marie in church this Sunday! We're excited for our families to come visit and celebrate with us. Now we just need to find a dress . . .