This year our butternut squash plant produced early and gave us two large squashes instead of many small ones. When I weighed one of the squashes, it was exactly the same as Fiona’s birth weight:
The squash was 9 inches long. Fiona was over 16 inches. It’s weird to hold the squash and think that Fiona was the same size because I did not get to hold her the night she was born. Now I have some sense of what she must have felt like.
Fiona is asleep right now in her crib.
Yesterday we had a nice surprise visit from Nicole and her son Caz. Caz was born full term eight days before Fiona. His weight has always been more than twice Fiona’s, but she’s starting to catch up. His weight is a little less than twice her weight.
We put the babies next to each other to compare. Keep in mind that even though chronologically Fiona is only a week younger than Caz, gestationally, she’s ten weeks younger.
Their feet:
Obviously Fiona’s foot is the daintier one.
The babies lay next to each other and didn’t seem to realize there was someone next to them. At one point, Caz tried to hold Fiona’s hand, but like a typical girl, she played hard to get and ignored him. I noticed that Caz lies with his legs outstretched while Fiona still curls up in a ball.
After playing and nursing, we went outside and picked tomatoes and grapes for Nicole to take home:
OK, she woke up.
We were playing in her room and she smiled in reaction to some silly things I was doing. She did it three or four times in a row! It was so wonderful. Of course it was the one time I didn’t have my camera.
Actually, she’s been sort of smiling for the last week or so, and reacting favorably when John plays with her nose.
I think today’s smile was a peace offering for the lack of sleep she’s been causing for the last two nights.
Yesterday was especially bad. Not only did I not get much sleep, Fiona was miserable and uncomfortable all day, crying almost constantly when not sleeping for short stretches. I think her tummy was upset because at one point she let out the loudest farts I’ve heard. They echoed off the walls and it was hard to believe they came from her. They sounded like whoopee cushions. She also threw up a lot yesterday, big globby, curdy puke. It was quite a day.
Then, she decided to have her quiet alert time at 4am. She didn’t have any quiet alert time all day, then after she ate and I changed her diaper, she was wide awake. It’s not the she needed a lot of attention for most of it, but even when she is awake she is so grunty, I could not get to sleep. Then she became needy. At 5am, I decided enough was enough and I took into bed with me, where she promptly fell into a deep sleep until 6:30.
Next time she is getting the swing:
Way back when, before we became pregnant, Nicole and I would see moms walking with jogging strollers while we were running. We joked that some day that would be us, except we would be running.
Then Nicole had a difficult birth and I had a c-section and it took both of us a long time to get to the point that we felt we could exercise. Neither of us thought we would run again for a long, long time.
Yesterday I went for a “run” with Nicole. I put the word run in quotation marks because we probably walked as much as we ran and it was all very slow. We didn’t go very far or for very long. It was my first run since December 31, 2009 when I was about 8-9 weeks pregnant. My lungs were burning after the first minute and I really felt it in my legs after. I knew the first one was going to hurt and I’m glad I got it over with so I can start building some strength and endurance. Nicole was pushing a jogging stroller.
Now we are those moms, but we are running. I’ll get a jogging stroller soon, when Fiona has better head control.
Today, I feel it in my legs and my ribs.
Ahh, the sweet soreness of activity.
Sorry, no photos of Fiona today.
Fiona is between clothing sizes now. For her adjusted age, she is in the 50th or higher percentile for her length, but only in the 25th percentile for weight, making her long and thin. So even though she weighs 8 1/2 pounds or so, many clothes intended for babies her size still too big. The 0-3 sizes fit her length well, but are too wide. Newborn sizes fit her width well, but are too short. So, she is between sizes.
We have the same problem with diapers. She’s outgrowing her newborn diapers, but all the size 1 diapers are too big.
There are worse problems that can be had.
But speaking of diapers, we purchased three different brands in size 1: Huggies, Pampers, and BabiesRUs store brand. The diapers do not come in small packages, so we have about a week or two of each. The Pampers diapers can easily fit inside the Huggies diaper, which in turn can fit inside the BRU diaper. They aren’t even remotely close to being the same size. This is worse than sizing for women’s clothing!
Here are some photos of Fiona and one of me, because I’m usually the one holding the camera, it looks like I never hold the baby. By the way, that is John’s hairy leg in the third set.
I can’t believe Fiona is three months old today. She’s a month old adjusted. It’s been a crazy summer. My post partum shed is in full swing as of last night; my hair is falling out in clumps.
A friend told me that every post on this blog is full of cutesy pictures of Fiona and that I gush about her cuteness. I think it’s just because she is so darned cute! Here are some photos of her in her bath. Notice the little fat rolls she is starting to get:
That big knob on her stomach is her big distended belly button. She has small hernia right below it and part of her bowel is pushed up. It doesn’t cause her any pair, has nothing to do with the reflux, and will probably go down by the time she is a year old. A pediatrician told us that he will not be concerned until she is three years old. I think it is the result of straining a lot the last week in the NICU, which is when it showed up. Before that, her belly button was little and, you guessed it, cute!
Fiona loves her bath and will go from screaming bloody murder to quiet as a mouse when we put her in the bath.
Speaking of reflux and screaming, I think the Prevacid is finally working. She seems so much happier, eating is a lot less of an ordeal, and interestingly, she stopped screaming during diaper changes. She’s also been a lot less gassy but I think it’s because I stopped drinking milk and eating ice cream every day. She is still the Princess of Puke, spitting up often, but not in as great a quantity as before, and not crying when she spits up.
Here she is chillin’ like a villain on her Boppy:
And no, I don’t pose her, she’s just a natural.
It’s a mirror image, literally, and also bunny feet:
Slumped over on her daddy’s lap:
If you want to see the whole shoot with the photographer from the beginning of August, go to:
http://www.maryjaneweddings.com/pickpic/gallery/splash.php?gallery_id=152
password is keren
