Girlie's Eighth Month

This kid is such a delight who is more fun with each month. She's sitting really well independently, which just makes everything so much easier for me and exciting for her. It allows her to be part of the action now. It also makes going out and about much easier.
Her first tooth came in yesterday, and her second is not far behind.

Making Baby Food

Now that Girlie is delving into solid foods, I'm enjoying the preparation and cooking involved. Since each food is introduced with a three or four day waiting window, it gives me plenty of time to learn about each food. You know me, always the student! There's purchasing. Is it on the dirty dozen list requiring that I buy organic? Is it in season and available at the local farmer's market? And so on. Then there's how to prepare it so it maintains its nutrients: just mash and serve, bake, boil, steam, peel, etc. Finally, there are recipes and yummy food combinations. Plus, there's the totally exciting experience of feeding it to Girlie for the first time and watching her reaction.
We've been doing everything homemade, including the rice cereal. My rule is: If I won't eat it, I'm not feeding it to my child. I've been getting most of my information for how to prepare foods at the Wholesome Baby Foods website. It's a great resource!
So far, Girlie has had eight foods: banana, avocado, pear, sweet potato, apple, brown rice, peach, acorn squash. We're taking it slowly around here. Plus, there are tons of combinations with each food that we add! I think the sweet potato has been the biggest hit. She had the acorn squash tonight and really liked that. I loved the smell in the house as it was baking... Hello autumn!
I've been taking lots of pictures to share with you all, so here we go...

First time trying avocado

Pureeing avocado and pear in the blender

Baking apples and sweet potatoes in the toaster oven

What a cutie! This is after trying one of my combinations.

Baked apples. You can see the peel is ready to come right off.

Apples and pears... 

Make yummy apple sauce, no sugar added!

Divvying up and preparing to store in the freezer.

Look at that spread!

Another angle of all the meals I've prepared for my little one!

Making rice powder in the blender.

Baby's view of dinner time.

Mine and Reagan's breakfast: Rice cereal with pureed peaches (I get a little pat of butter and scrambled eggs too). The homemade rice cereal is good. Kind of like cream of wheat. Easy to prepare to boot!

Yum!

Acorn Squash

First time trying solid food!

Hm... What is this?

Oh! It's banana. Gimme!

Girlie's Seventh Month

She has grown so much this month! She is sitting really well all by herself. She has literally grown out of her size 3-6 month pjs. She's rolling over a lot now! Glad I decided not to worry about that milestone. She can scoot around on her tummy a bit. She's been eating solid foods. She's up to seven foods for her seventh month: banana, avocado, sweet potato, pear, apple, brown rice, peach. She is babbling, cooing, gurgling, yelling - lots of verbal stuff this month. She's still as happy as ever, even at the beginning stages of teething. They're still hiding out under the gums, but the two on the bottom may be emerging soon. We're enjoying the last of her cute gummy grin.
She loves sitting and playing her little piano that her Auntie E bought for her. She is also improving her reaching and grasping, so she really enjoys playing blocks in the high chair. She is starting to show affection by reaching to hold my hand or pat my face and by giving slobbery kisses on the cheeks on request. She loves kicking. As her Daddy says, she has non-stop foot and leg movement. She even rolls her little ankles and can keep a pretty decent rhythm with her feet. Maybe she'll take after her Mommy and be a dancer.

Thursday's Thirteen Things: Girlie's Birth

1. The contractions started around 11pm on February 27, 2012. Thanks to our Bradley Method Childbirth Classes, we knew to try to get some sleep before the real labor began.
2. With help from our doula and doula-in-training and techniques from those Bradley Classes, I made it through the first stage of labor comfortably at home.
3. We drove to the hospital around 4pm when the contractions were consistent and before rush hour hit.

4. The anesthesiologist came in right as I hit the transition between first and second stage and as I was starting to feel the self doubt that goes along with that stage. Fortunately, I had a fabulous doula and coach and I was able to hold strong. Besides, I moved into second stage before I was really able to decide anything.
5. The actual birth was definitely a lot of work, and it took me a little while of figuring out how to push effectively with the contractions. I remember a lot of emotions during that time: fear, self-doubt, determination, etc.
6. Our beautiful baby girl was born at 11:21pm on February 28, 2012. She was only 39 minutes from being a Leap Day baby. I'm glad she didn't wait, because I was definitely ready to be done with being in labor.
7. Her birth was all natural, thankfully. I hemorrhaged afterwards and they were able to use the petocin to stop the bleeding.
8. I was able to hold her right away, but it definitely wasn't long enough. They had to take her because she had fluid in her lungs and I had some tearing the doctors had to stitch up. Fortunately, Robert was able to hold her for a while through my rough patch.

9. She went to the nursery so they could watch for signs of infection, and I went to the ante-partum section of the maternity ward so they could keep an eye on my blood loss.
10. I cried myself to sleep that night. I wanted my baby more than anything else. It didn't feel fair that I did all that damn work just to have her taken from me. All I wanted was to hold my baby!
11. I did get to where I could walk and go see her the next day in the NICU. I was even able to breastfeed her a little. It was still hard not to be able to be with her all the time.

12. The absolute hardest thing I have ever done in all of my life was leave my baby at the hospital after I was released. She had to stay a full 7 days so they could administer the full course of antibiotics they started after signs of pneumonia. Fortunately, she was healthy and made it through all of that ok. I still feel so terribly sad and miserable every time I think of her in that hospital all by her self with all those tubes and monitors. In fact, this is the first I've really written about her birth, including in journals and stuff, because it is just so damn hard to think about. I'm glad I have her sitting right here beside me.
13. Despite the difficulty we faced after her birth, it is still the best thing I have ever done. I have a sense of confidence I have never felt before. I gave birth to a child naturally. Me, the one with the congenital heart defect. I gave birth to a beautiful, happy, sweet baby girl whom I cherish. I am woman! I am mother! Hear me roar!

home from the hospital

her first night home

the sunrise on her first morning at home