2 Month Appointment

Harper's 2 month appointment went well.  I was very appreciative that Grammie Yo joined us.  She even baked delicious brownies for the staff (it's good to make the people poking your baby with needles happy). 

Harper is right on schedule with her development.  She is over 11 lbs now, is 50th percentile in weight and height, but is now 75th percentile in head size.  Perhaps she is growing a Marley noggin' after all!  It looks like she might be an excema princess just like her mommy!  She has a very light case of it right now, so we're lubing her up good to get rid of it.

If I were to give advice to someone expecting a baby (which everyone LOVES to do), I would say pick your baby's pediatrician carefully!  I am absolutely thrilled with our choice.  He's amazing, his staff is amazing, we never wait, and he never makes me feel like the crazy neurotic mother that I clearly am.  Anyone in Round Rock looking for a pediatrician: I highly HIGHLY recommend Treehouse Pediatrics (both Dr. Travis and Dr. Chang are AWESOME!)

She's great!

Harper is doing so well!  She can lift her head for long periods of time and can now grasp toys and grab at your fingers to pull them to her mouth.  On Friday, we have her 2 month appointment (even though she will almost be 11 weeks old by then).  I'll post another update on her progress after her appointment on Friday!

Thanksgiving

 Our awesome Thanksgiving family photo.

I have been meaning to add actual text to this post for a long time, because it was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember!

We all had a great time at Q's parents house for Christmas.  The best part was that Jenny and Matt were able to be there!  Harper loves Auntie Jenny and Uncle Matt.  Both of them were so careful and loving with her!  They are going to be very important people in her life.  I think they will be the cool relatives that she will call upon when her parents just don't understand, or when we are too embarrassing to be seen with in public.

The day after Thanksgiving, Brandon drove down to Austin with Victoria, Branden, his new girfriend Brianna (weird and creepy name situation, but she is pretty nice ;) ) and her daughter Marilyn.  Everyone had a great time at the Madruga's house.  It was a good thing Grandpa Quini brought all those old toys down to Texas because they kept the kids well entertained!

We finished off the weekend with some Call of Duty MW3 and lots of leftovers.  It was a wonderful first Thanksgiving with our little girl :) 

2 Months

We celebrated Harper's 2 month birthday at Five Guys on Friday night!  This is a great restaurant for babies because it's full of contrasting colors: everything is black, white, and red.  Harper was having a sleepy day (we all need them sometimes), so we brought her already in her jammies.  In all of these pictures, she was still hatching.  She's like her mom when it comes to her hatching time.


Harper now plays with her play mat on her own and bats at the toys, smiles, will stick her tongue out to imitate you when you stick your tongue out, and sleeps very regularly 6-7 hours in a row at night.  She also giggled for the first time this week! She loves getting all the attention from Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Kyle, and Grammie and Grandpa Madruga. 

This month it hit me how fast time goes by!  These 2 months have flown by and every day she learns something new.  Before we know it, she'll be graduating.  I'm so proud of her and I'm enjoying watching her grow up, even if it is a bit too quick. :)

First laugh

First legit giggle happened today! This video was taken right after the big moment :) I didn't catch the first laugh, but you can hear the noise I'm making that triggered the first giggle.

8 weeks old

Today our little girl is 8 weeks old!  She had a big first today...SANTA!  She was sound asleep the whole time and has "old grandma" face in the picture, but I think she liked it.  I am so excited for Christmas this year.  All the decorating I've done in past years has been practice for this year, preparing me for my baby's first Christmas!

Last night our family slept better than we have in, well, 8 weeks.  We put her in her crib at 8:30pm and she didn't wake up to eat until 5am!  That is 8 1/2 hours!  Quinito and I even got some "date night" tv watching in before we went to sleep.  It's been a good weekend. :)

Harper has been in mommy play boot camp.  We play with the play mat A LOT.  You can practically see her brain developing as you play with her, AMAZING!


Here are some pics from this week.
 
On Friday, Harper will be 2 months old.  I think she wants cupcakes for her 2 month birthday party. :)

Learning to play!

Harper played with her play mat for the first time!! 

This is so much fun. :)

Milestone

As I write this, Harper is in her crib by herself!  Not sleeping yet, just in her crib putting herself to sleep!  This is the 3rd day that she has put herself to sleep without being fed or rocked to sleep.  I'm so proud of her.  :) 

She is becoming more and more "human" everyday.  Interacting more, smiling when we talk to her, and looking for her favorite objects when she enters a room (mainly the fan and the white crayon picture in the nursery).  She LOVES when you sing to her, songs from musicals are her favorites (Annie, Wild Party, Miss Saigon with me and Man of La Mancha and The Sound of Music from Grammie Yo)  She also LOVES when Quinito comes home to play with her.  He is louder and more exciting than I am, and she appreciates the change in pace. 

Here are some new pics, including one I took tonight of in her crib, self soothing to sleep.  :)

The blue shirt she is wearing is the t-shirt that Quinito wore home from the hospital as a baby.  She rocked this vintage tee with some stretchy pants and silver shoes. 

Halloween

 At the pumpkin patch!  Yes, she sat in the pumpkins all by herself.  Mommy was nervous, but it was fine and the picture was worth it!

 Couldn't resist. :)

It's Harper's first Halloween!
We went to the pumpkin patch, had our annual pumpkin carving contest (with plenty of trash talk), walked around the neighborhood in her costume, and gave out candy to lots of Trick or Treaters.  Normally our pumpkins are either car or politic-themed, but this year it was all about Harper.  Quinito even carved her face into his pumpkin (naturally, he had to win the contest). Harper wore her pink skeleton costume while we worked on the pumpkins.  On Halloween night she was Fernando Alonso.  Best first costume ever.

Month 1

What I have learned:

The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.  That phrase is the best way to sum up month 1 with Harper.  Before Harper, I was confident that I knew what to expect, having read many books and collecting advice from well-respected parent friends.  Now that she has been here for a month, I realize that nothing prepares you for this life changing bundle of joy.  Things I thought would be hard are no problem; things I didn’t even think about are the hardest things ever.

I like plans and having the right answer.  I like being on a schedule, being on-time, and having a to-do list that gets done.  Miss Harper is teaching me that plans change, that there isn’t always a Google solution to why she is crying, and that the to-do list is sometimes unfinished because she wants to be held.  The “plan” is now only a suggested outline that can be changed at any moment with an unexpected extra feeding, complete outfit change, or just a need for a moment of quiet time with mommy and daddy. I'm becoming much less rigid and more "bendy". :)

I like making clear decisions and consider myself fairly objective, but when she cries, I melt.  I want to take all her pain away immediately and it clouds my judgment.  Logically, I know that eventually she will calm herself down and she will be fine, but in the moment I feel like life stops until she is calm again.  (I’ve also learned that this lack of objectivity worsens with less sleep.)  This is something I didn’t even consider before having her.  My clear thinking is slowly returning with more sleep and increasing “mom-confidence”.

What Harper has learned:

Harper has now met several family members.  Last week she got to meet her Great Grandma Linda and her Grammie Annie, who stayed for the week and got as much snuggle time in as possible.  She seemed to be calmed by them and took advantage of the extra shoulder naps.  She also met her Uncle Alix and Grandpa Stevie.  Alix thinks she is “soooo cute” and was excited that my big fat belly was gone.  He was very gentle with her.  I think that he will be more interested when she becomes more active.  Grandpa Stevie just kept saying, “she is just so beautiful!”  They also brought another Halloween costume for her, so she will be a pink skeleton during the day and Fernando Alonso at night!

Harper is now 9 lbs 4 ounces!  She has good head control and loves to sit up and look around at things in the room (favorites are the windows and the ceiling fan).  She also likes her mirror.  She has started to smile when you sing songs to her or speak to her.  She is starting to push up on her legs and tries to stand (with help).  She is usually happy and sleepy during the day, and gets a bit fussy between 7-10pm.  On good nights, she gets up around 3am and again around 7am to eat, but usually she is back to sleep within 30-45 minutes.  The longest she has slept has been 5 ½ hours.  Harper has acid reflux, so she now has to sleep on an incline (we put a 2X4 under one side of her crib) and she is on Prilosec.  Her favorite “toy” is her swing and her mirror.  She likes to swing while watching either Frasier or Project Runway while I do chores around the house.

Home Alone

Last week the grandparents went home and Quinito went back to work, so Harper and I were on our own during the days for the very first time.  When you are on your own, there are times when you have to let her cry for a minute because you MUST go to the bathroom!  She survives it, no problem.  Everyday I managed to take a shower, get myself dressed and relatively presentable, and leave the house multiple times with a baby who was also dressed and relatively presentable.  I'd say that's a sign of a pretty successful first week.

We kept surprisingly busy throughout the week with feedings, diapers, trips to the grocery store, etc.  Any time she is awake, her favorite activity is our "mommy concerts", where I dance her around the house and make up songs about things we see in the house.  Her current favorite is my song about the ceiling fan.  Even when she is asleep I find myself humming these songs to myself, they are pretty catchy.

Three weeks old on 10/9/2011

Three weeks old already!  Harper decided she wanted a profile shot, so that's what we got this time :)  We're also going to start doing close up face pictures so that we can tell how much her face changes.  Her eyes are so wide now when she is awake, which is more and more of the day (and sometimes night). 

I also included a picture of her most loyal friend, Spyder.  Spyder wakes up with her in the middle of the night, checks on her regularly while she is sleeping, comes with me to feed her in her room at every feeding and tries desperately to sneak in kisses on the top of her head when mommy is not looking.  He gets upset with me when I try to vacuum while she is sleeping.

Hook 'em!

She has already learned from dad that football naps are the best naps, and it's best to nap when the Longhorns aren't playing so well.   

Harper meets Grammie and Grandpa Madruga

Quinito's parents came for a visit this week, and it was perfect timing because he had to leave for 4 days to go to California.  Though we missed him like crazy (and I'm pretty sure he missed us too) we managed with lots of help this week from the grandparents!  It's nice to have people around who are not afraid to change a poopy diaper or soothe a fussy baby.  

This week Harper decided that 2am-5am was the best time to be awake and fussy.  Luckily, Grandma "Yo" was here to help me try to get her back to sleep, even in the middle of the night!  And last night she only woke up for her feedings and changes and went right back to sleep with no argument.  Maybe this first little rebellious stage is over?  We'll see :)

When Q returned, he couldn't believe how big she had gotten!  You don't realize when you see her everyday, but he says shes absolutely huge!  That makes me proud; I'm feedin' that baby darn good. ;)

Now, the next challenge is being home by myself next week.  Up until now I have had lots of help getting through the day.  I've already figured out a few tricks to get things done when you are by yourself.  I put her in the stroller and wheel her around the house with me when I need to move from room to room.  This works well, especially when you have to take a shower!  I need to build up my upper body strength though because that car seat is HEAVY.  Luckily I do have a lightweight stroller that it fits in, but getting it to and from the car is tough!  I guess its time for my mommie muscles to bulk up. 

One more first; Harper's first Texas vs. OU football game is this afternoon!  She has know how to "hook 'em" since she was 30 weeks in my belly (we have the picture to prove it) and now (thanks to Grammie Yo) she has the burnt orange outfits.  Pictures to come of the newest little longhorn fan!

Here are some pics from this week!