Week 29

Let me tell you how cute our girl is. Here are some of the adorable things she does. When she's just about asleep, she twirls her foot round and round in little circles...it's the only part of her body that moves. Related, when she's eating and getting drowsy, she likes to scratch her head with one of her hands...she'll run her fingers through her hair while she's doing it. Ususally she'll bring one arm along side her head and fold her arm over the top of her head to do so...it's funny to see as her head is almost as long as her whole arm is. It sounds crazy to describe but her proportions are so funny...her little arms and legs compared to her head! When she laughs, ususally when someone is kissing her belly, she has this low, gutteral grunting sound (sort of like Butthead from Beavis and Butthead). She loves to chew on things and at times, pull whatever is in her mouth out. Sometimes she does it with such force and enthusiam, that it causes her to lose her balance and topple over. Which bring us to another thing she does that is a recent development...sitting up on her own. It took her a little while to get the hang of...trial and error...but she's managed to prevent toppling over now. She'll sit alone for a few minutes to play by herself, but before long she's looking for me. She doesn't like to be left alone and lets you know she's upset if you leave for too long. That part is not so cute. She definitely has a set of lungs on her. Related to that is her new sounds. She's trying out new sounds almost by the day...she's getting good at 'buh' sounds. Occasionally she'll roll over, but she doesn't care for it too much. Some of the kids at daycare around her age were rolling back and forth all over the place; Claire, however, doesn't seem interested. Maybe she'll walk first! She has very stong legs and will walk a few steps if you hold her up. Also, if sitting down and holding onto your hands, she will pull herself up standing. She's not grabbing furniture or anything to pull up, but she likes to be upright.

It's been a long time since I've updated our ongoings, but I'll try to give the short and sweet version of the last couple of weeks. I finished up teaching the second week of May once school got out at the college and was looking forward to taking Claire out of daycare to be at home full time. May 19 was our official first day of summer together. At 3:00 a.m. that morning, I woke up to the sound of distressed crying and found Claire vomiting. Never having experienced this with her before, I was very concerned and spent the night holding her in the recliner. She was so exhausted from throwing up. For that whole week she was sick throwing up every time she ate; we ended up having to give Pedialyte in small doeses every 10 minutes all day long. Let me tell you...that becomes a long day. Friday of that week we were in the ER with her. By Tuesday of the following week she was still sick and my mom came down to help me take care of her and give me a break. Unfortunately, my mom ended up getting the bug too. She went to her pediatrician twice.

a rare smile while sick

We thought we had finally seen the end of her illness as Memorial day weekend approached and were hopeful as we had company coming into town including Ryan's parents and two of my girlfriends. We were very confident by Saturday night that she had made a full recovery. She had been in great spirits for several days and was starting to slowly return to her normal feeding schedule. Ryan's parents took her for a few hours so that we could get out together for a date night; upon our return, however, she was starting to vomit violently once again. Memorial day weekend eventually came to an end but Monday night she was sick again. To put it shortly, we didn't get much rest, worried a lot, got thrown up on a lot and had a very unhappy girl on our hands. I think I was more stressed out in those two and a half weeks than in the first two months of her life. There was nothing the doctor could tell us that pointed to a specific cause of the illness, nor was there a miracle cure to end her discomfort...just a waiting game. That sucked.

In the wake of all of that, we are starting to slowly return to a semblance of normalcy. Very slowly. Her sickness totally threw off her sleeping pattern so while she once was sleeping thru the night, we have returned to a pattern of waking up every three hours or so during the night (thankfully work is done for me). She was off of solid foods for almost three whole weeks and lost almost a full pound. We have had to return to rice cereal only (two of her vomiting episodes followed oatmeal--which is weird because she was totally ok on oatmeal for several weeks prior)--however, we haven't yet re-introduced baby food which she was very enthusiastic about before getting ill.

Summer at home, now that we're a healthy household, is wonderful. It's amazing how fast the days fly by, especially considering how we don't do a whole lot besides sit on the floor playing. Claire is now sitting up on her own unassisted...although she does fall over sideways or forward or backward occasionally.

sitting up

We also go for a lot of walks one the Fox River trail as well as family jogs (in training for the ragnar relay at the end of summer). Ryan has also made the backyard 'Claire-friendly) by fixing up her baby pool area (which she utilized over Memorial day weekend with the assistance of Ellen and Amy) as well as her baby swing on the tree in our backyard. It's so much fun to put her in there. She really seems to enjoy swinging.

in my walker (my feet don't quite touch yet!)

Hanging with daddy

We've been very busy this summer already. Ryan's sister Ashley is getting married in two weeks, as are several of our other friends, so we've been doing the wedding shower/bachelor(ette) circuit. The weddings are just over the horizon. This weekend, Claire and I are escaping to Minocqua while Ryan engages in bachelor party debauchery (j/k). I'm looking forward to some relaxation.

On a final note, Claire is about 27 inches long and about 16 pounds (having lost almost a pound while ill and having put that weight back on). She's quite long and quite slim for her age...we're getting good use out of her 6 month clothes yet! Personality wise, she's a very happy baby overall. She's generally in a good mood, smiles a lot for Ryan and I, but takes a while to warm up to strangers. She's very inquisitive and solemn when encountering new things...she seems to take everything in and be deep in thought as to her feelings about her surroundings and new things. It's very cute. She's the light of our lives and we're so happy to have such a wonderful addition to our lives.

Until next time (which will hopefully not take so long to do)....love,

Katie & Ryan