Big Changes - Hannah is 3 months old

I originally wrote this post on 6/11/11.

I was confusing myself with my previous posts.  I was going by months, counting the month after her birth as her "1st month" but really she was 0 months old.  Now that she is getting older, it was too confusing to keep that up.  So this is an update about her as a 3 month old, starting from June 5th-July 5th.

So my last post ended with Marlene's baby shower on June 5th.  Well, she went into labor just a week later, and had baby Evan 5 weeks early!  They were not prepared for that, obviously!  But everyone was healthy and happy and just fine.  He was actually over 5 lbs!  So Hannah has a new cousin, and is no longer the "baby."

I went back to work right after Memorial Day weekend, and it wasn't all that bad.  I missed Hannah of course, but it was nice to get back to work and start getting caught up.  I have to pump twice a day at work, so that is boring and time consuming.  But so far so good!  Still able to exclusively breast feed, so that is great.

Hannah is really changing a lot these days. She is smiling and laughing all of the time which is super fun. We have some games we play with her that make her giggle, but sometimes she just sees me and laughs and smiles too.

Yesterday she started leaning forward in her swing. Her abs are getting much stronger! She would lean forward and grab her blanket, or a toy, or a burp rag and then shove them in her mouth. She is constantly reaching for something now! And if you put a toy in her hand, she can grasp it now, and immediately chews on it.

Also, last night she slept for 9 hours straight! She's never slept more than 7 hours, and that was only once. Lately she's been sleeping only about 3-4 hours at a time. Steve is in Laughlin on a boys trip and I fed Hannah and put her to bed around 8 last night. Then at about midnight she fussed and I left her alone and prayed she'd go back to sleep. Well next thing I knew it was 5 am and I couldn't believe it! I actually panicked because I couldn't see her chest rising on the monitor, so I was terrified that she wasn't breathing, and I went into her room and she startled awake. She was fine. I am curious to see what happens tonight!

This morning she also rolled over again. I was brushing my teeth and had her on her play mat on her belly in our bathroom. Well I leaned over the sink to spit out my toothpaste, and 2 seconds later looked down and she was on her back smiling up at me. I missed it! She is sneaky. She hasn't rolled over in about 2-3 weeks, so this was another big milestone!

Finally, she is outgrowing her 0-3 month clothes and moving into her 3-6 month ones. Tonight I put her in a brand new pair of PJs, and I really didn't think they'd fit yet, but they do! She is so long, she needs the extra room for her legs now!

Today we went to my cousin Brent's birthday party. Hannah has pretty much met the whole family now. She gets passed around from person to person and doesn't mind one bit. Hopefully she will stay that way.

The rest of this post I wrote after the fact.

We got to celebrate Steve's first Father's Day this month.  I got him a cool hiking carrier for Hannah.  We can't wait to use it.  She just needs to grow a bit first.

Also, Vanessa had her baby this month.  His name is Caleb, and he is a big boy!  Total opposite of their daughter Emma, who has been a skinny minnie her whole life.  So congrats to the Riggs'!

Hannah is also able to sit in her Bumbo chair now without slumping over!

Here she is in my favorite PJs, that my friend Craig's parents gave her.  They are so soft and snuggly.  She is sitting propped up by a pillow without me holding her!

And she can finally sit in her cool jungle safari jumper!  We have a pillow and towel under her because she can't reach the ground, but she LOVES this thing!

Hannah went swimming this month for the first time.  She seemed to like it.  We just waded around Steve's parents' pool.  We got her a float with a shade on it, but she is too little for it right now.  I even dunked her, and she didn't seem too upset about it!  Here she is in her swing after swimming.

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on June 28th.  We went to King's for some oysters and beers, and had a really nice time.  Here's a pic.

Last big thing from this month was celebrating the 4th of July at our usual party at the Aguirre house.  It is always a great time, with yummy food and great people.  Here is an adorable picture of Hannah, and one of the three of us.

Here's a few more pics from the month.

3 month update (Hannah is 2 months old)

Okay, I am catching up.  Lots happened during Hannah's 3rd month.  I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day.  We all went to Paradise Cove for brunch.  Here are a couple of pics from the morning.

Everyone but Mark, who was on vacation

Happy family

Hannah slept thru brunch

We also made it out to our favorite restaurant, Cafe 14, for a date night that month.  Also went back down to Hermosa to hang with the South Bay family and celebrate Candie's birthday.  Then I spent Memorial Day weekend loving on Hannah as much as possible, before I went back to work.  On Hannah's 3 month birthday, on June 5th, we went to my cousin Marlene's baby shower.  Tonya took some amazing photos of Hannah that day.

Here are some other pictures from Hannah's 3rd month.

And a video of her rolling over.

Our girl is growing up!

I wrote this post on May 28th, 2011.

Hannah is 12 weeks old today, and has been changing so much! I can't believe she is already 12 weeks. This weekend is bittersweet for me, because it is Memorial Day weekend, so I get to enjoy 3 weekend days with Steve, but it is my last weekend before I have to go back to work. I've been crying all day, every time I snuggle Hannah or look at her, I think about how I won't get to spend every day with her anymore. I am not happy about it. But I am trying to enjoy my weekend by doing lots of things to stay busy!

Last night we had my coworker, Christina, and her fiance, Mike, over for dinner. We barbecued and had some drinks. Hannah hung out with us, being such a good girl. She sat in her bouncer on the dining room table with us, as we cooked and ate. At one point, Mike, who does MMA fighting, was talking to Hannah, and fake sparring with her. He had his hands up by his face, and was punching the air, and telling Hannah to do it too. Next thing you know, she IS doing it. He got our attention and told us to watch, and she did it again. It was nuts. It was not a coincidence. She really was mimicking him. She had such control over her hands, it was crazy! Earlier in the week she had discovered her hands, and she has been doing more and more with them. But this was crazy.

Then, today, my parents came over to watch her while Steve and I went on a motorcycle ride. When we got home, we were all hanging out, and Mark came over too. Hannah was in her swing, and Steve started playing peekaboo with her, for the first time, just to see if she was into it. Well, she ended up laughing for the first time! I had just read that by the end of her third month, she should be laughing. So again, she is early! It was so fun to hear her laugh, I can't wait to try again tomorrow. Here is a video of it...

Finally, the last big change is that Hannah is no longer sleeping swaddled.  It is working!  She isn't really sleeping any longer than usual, but at least she isn't getting stuck like in the picture that I posted a few days ago!   Here is a picture of her tonight, all sprawled out.  I think she will be just fine!

Hanging out at 2am

Here is a cute video of Hannah that I took at 2am in mid May, about a week before we stopped swaddling her. It's pretty cute. I had just finished feeding her and had put her back to bed. She was so cute and smily and awake that I had to take a video.

No swaddle

I wrote this post on May 26th, when Hannah was just shy of 12 weeks old.

Lately Hannah has been breaking out of her swaddle. She loves it and sleeps really well when swaddled, but now she breaks out all the time and I think it is waking her up. She gets her hands out and gnaws on them and decides that she is hungry. Here is a pic of her today, after breaking out...

Obviously, not too happy. So tonight I decided to try putting her to sleep without a swaddle. I have her in a light sleep sack, with her arms free. I put her down, and at first she just played with her hands, and was really quiet. Then she screamed and flailed around for about 10 min, and passed out. So far so good. Now, as I sit her writing this, she is awake again, and playing with her hands, but not crying. Hopefully she will go back to sleep soon.

She was going to bed around 6pm, which was nice because Steve and I could actually have a baby-free dinner together. A month ago, Hannah would scream at our dinner time, and we were constantly eating cold food, eating separately, etc. So once she started going to sleep at 6, it was kind of nice. But then she'd wake up for her first night feeding around 11 or 12, after I'd only been asleep for an hour or so. Not good. So we pushed her bedtime back, and she is now going down about 8pm, give or take a half hour. And she is much calmer in the evenings, so dinner is still nice. This is also better because I am going back to work next week, and I'd like to see her once I get home, instead of having to put her right to bed. The only problem is, since we started putting her down at 8, she has started only sleeping 4 hours or so at a time, so she is still up at midnight. Oy vey. So now, without the swaddle, let's hope she sleeps longer!

Wish us luck! I'd like to get some decent sleep once I go back to work!

2 month update

Well I am posting this way after the fact again, so I will try not to forget anything!

The day Hannah turned 4 weeks old, we took her down to Hermosa to hang out with our cousins the Bertino's. It was a pretty successful outing. It was so nice to get out of the house and be out doing something! Hannah got to meet her cousins Finn and Sawyer which she loved. We watched Finn's baseball game, and had a yummy dinner.

The following week I had to have a tooth pulled, which was just lovely. I had a molar that i had already had two root canals on, and it cracked or something and got infected again, so I had it pulled. I thought it was going to be a bigger deal than it was. I wasn't in too much pain, and didn't have a problem still taking care of Hannah.

On April 11th we took her to the doctor again for her one month checkup. Really, she was 5 weeks old. She weighed 9lbs exactly and measured 21.5 inches. That means she grew 1 whole inch and over 1.5 lbs since her last doctor visit at 2 weeks. Our doctor is always amazed at how mellow Hannah is!

That same week we went to a infant massage class with Sarah and Kami. It was interesting, and I learned how to massage her belly for gas pains, and her legs/feet/arms/hands for relaxation.

The Burgwalds came to visit us and Hannah got to meet Shawn, Morgan, and her future boyfriend Oliver. I don't know why we didn't get any pictures! We had a nice morning hanging out with them.

The last week of April and first week of May, I had to go to Moorpark College quite a bit. I had to get a physical and 2 TB tests, so I had to go there 4 days. I spent a lot of April getting my other requirements done too. A drug test, CPR certification, buying my uniform, etc. So the first week of May I turned everything in and I officially start school in August!

Steve went back east for business from May 1-6, which meant I was alone with Hannah. Tina was over to help a lot, which was great. We missed Steve, but we survived!

On May 5th, her 2 month birthday, I decided to put her to sleep in her crib, instead of the pack n play in our room. I figured since Steve was gone, if we had a rough night, at least it was just us and we wouldn't keep him up. Well it was successful! I put her in her crib, swaddled up, and she scream for a few minutes, but then went to sleep. I got up to feed her a couple of times, and each time she went right back to sleep! I thought I would be up listening to the monitor all night, but I actually slept, and just woke up when I heard her.

The next day, on May 6th I took Hannah to the doctor again for her 2 month check up. She weighed in at 10lbs 3oz and was 22 inches long. That means she gained 1lb 3oz and grew a 1/2 inch! She was in the 75% for height, and 33% for weight. Also, I had to fill out a developmental survey, of things that she can and can't do. She scored at a 4.5 month old level! So I said that she is a tall skinny genius! She also had her 2 month shots, which I forgot she was getting until we arrived. They gave here 3 shots - one in one leg, two in the other. She turned bright red and screeched and looked furious for about 2 minutes, and then was fine. It made me laugh because I have never seen her like that. Later that afternoon we went to lunch with mom, Tonya, Leslie and another friend of theirs. She slept all thru lunch from the trauma, so I actually got to enjoy a peaceful lunch with everyone!

Here are some pictures from Hannah's second month...

Hannah's first month

I am very late in posting this, so unfortunately I have probably forgotten a lot of things, but I will try to post all that I remember.

After coming home from the hospital, Steve took the first week off of work to help me out.  And my mom and his mom were here quite a bit to help out.  That whole first month was pretty much a blur.  Not from lack of sleep, just from being so busy with Hannah.  I was going really stir crazy by the end!  I basically fed her, changed her, and put her to sleep, over and over again.  And cried because I was just so in love with her.  I didn't have any post-partum depression, but I was very emotional in a happy sappy way.

We went to her first doctor's appt on March 10th, when she was actually due.  She was 5 days old.  She measured in at 20.25 inches long, and was down to 7lbs, 4 oz.  But we weren't surprised, since it took 4-5 days for my milk to come in, so she had only been getting real milk for about a day.  Other than her weight, she was the picture of health and our doctor kept saying how great we were all doing.

Next visit to the doctor was at 12 days old, and she was up to 20.5 inches long, and 7 lbs, 9 oz.  I had to wake her up every 2-3 hours to feed her, since she had been born, in order to make sure she was eating enough.  I asked the doctor at this visit if I could stop that, and she said that I should keep going, since she wasn't back up to her birth weight yet.  I think I did that for another couple of nights, and then I stopped, because I just knew that she was going to be just fine, and I didn't think she needed to be woken up, since she didn't sleep much longer than 2-3 hours anyway.

At 2 weeks old, we gave her her first bottle of pumped breast milk.  She took it no problem.  We had been told that she may not want it, and that I may have to leave the room or even the house.  But she didn't care, and hasn't since, as long as she is getting fed.  I even gave her a bottle myself, early on, and she didn't seem to mind.  So that gave me some freedom to run errands and leave the house for awhile, which was great.

We didn't do too much else that month, since we couldn't take her in public places.  We went on lots of walks around the neighborhood and had lots of family and friends visit.

Finally, when she was one day shy of 4 weeks old, I met my friend Pam at the mall with her little girl who is a few months older than Hannah.  We had lunch, and Hannah slept, and then we walked around the mall a bit.  Of course Hannah woke up after lunch and I basically spent the rest of the time in the public nursing rooms that the mall has.  But at least we got out!

Here are some pictures from Hannah's first month...