My sweet baby girl

Lately I've been falling even more in love with Makena. She's just so... everything! No, she isn't perfect, and that's a good thing. I'll admit there are times that she drives me absolutely crazy. She will whine and fuss and be needy...but, then again, she's a baby. And more importantly, she's MY baby! She's the baby I've been waiting for. She's the baby who I worried I'd never have. She's the baby that made those 2 pink lines appear. The baby I felt kicking around inside my belly. The baby who's heart I listened to when I wanted to check that she was doing okay. She is finally here! I have a baby! I'M A MOM!

I don't know when (or if?) it will ever completely sink in. The thing I've been anxiously anticipating for so long has actually truly happened. For real. She's here, in the flesh!!

Last Saturday she woke up and after nursing for a long time in the morning we got up to play and she started to do her morning poop. Lately, if we're at home and we notice her trying to poop we take off her clothes and diaper and sit her on the toilet. I know, she's a baby and it sounds crazy, but we've had MUCH success with this!! She was sitting there and I was sitting below/in front of her encouraging her to puuuuush! And then she threw up. All over my lap and the bathroom floor. It was a lot of puke. We went into the bath and then I was feeding her some breakfast and Pam left for work. A few minutes later she puked again. And then again. And then about 20 more times throughout the rest of the day. Awful. We knew that she had picked it up from Colin, who had been sick along with the rest of his family a couple weeks before. But, he hadn't puked in 5 days so we thought it was safe. Guess not!!

We got her some Pedialyte, and she could barely keep that down. She had a fever of 101, and just wanted to be held and nursed, but I was instructed to not feed her too much or her tummy would be full and she'd just puke more. It was a rough day. I just had to sit there and let her throw up all over and clean her up and then do it all over again. And, then Pam came home and was sick too. That night Makena woke up at around 3 am and puked all over...my face. Getting woken up because you're being puked on is about as crappy as it sounds.

At least she was in a pretty good mood the whole day. She still sat and played happily. She's spontaneously throw up, but then smile. I won't post the picture I took AFTER this one, where there's a puddle of puke at/on her feet.


Then on Tuesday and Wednesday they were feeling better but I wasn't...I didn't puke, but I was nauseous and had awful headaches. And a fever. AND we were hit with a huge heatwave where temps got up to 101...including inside our apartment!!!! With no A/C we were in pretty bad shape. We went over to friends houses to cool off. We slept all together on the floor in Makena's room where it was a couple degrees cooler.

It was sticky and gross and I couldn't stand to be touched by the hot little furnace that Makena is. So breastfeeding wasn't too enjoyable those days at all! On Wednesday night Makena was so excited by the ability to crawl around at bedtime (usually she's in a sleepsack and can't crawl, and the bed isn't exactly firm enough or big enough to give her room to anyway! But it was way too hot to wear it those nights.) so while trying to nurse her she started to crawl away. I just continued laying there, and she came back over and just started nursing again. It was super cute. This picture doesn't do it justice at all, she was looking up at me with this coy little adorable face.

And that's the thing...she's just wonderful and it's in those tiny moments that my heart grows bigger and more full of love for her.

She can give kisses now, if you get close to her face and say "give me a kiss! mmmm!" she'll open her mouth and try to make out with you... lol.

I'm realizing more and more that she isn't a tiny baby any more. She can do so much on her own. She can sit and crawl and fall over and get back up and pull up to standing and feed herself. She can move AWAY from me!! It makes me sad, and I miss the little newborn baby who would just doze off and was content to stay in one place. She's growing up already, and it's so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that 1, we have a baby. And 2, she is getting bigger!

We packed up the co-sleeper and put it in storage. "We'll use it with the next baby." Yes, we want another baby...shoot I'd want that 2nd baby right now if we could have it! But even the thought that one day we'll have another baby means that one day Makena will be the big sister, and officially NOT the baby. But for now, she is the baby. Even if she can drink from a cup by herself.

CRAWLING and more fun!

First of all...Makena learned how to crawl! On August 9th she was rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, and kind of went forward a bit but nothing else. We knew it would happen soon! Then on the 11th she totally crawled! Pam and I were frozen in place watching her, and finally Pam said "why aren't we filming this?!" and grabbed the camera. This video was taken a couple days later-

Happy birthday Donte! I can crawl now, so even if you try to run away I can still eat you!!

We had a few rough days/nights where she would wake up at 3 am all ready to play. But then she got over the excitement of being able to move and fell back into her routine. (what routine?)

She loves eating, especially from her mesh feeder thing. I've been putting frozen cubes of pureed baby foods in there, and she especially loves peaches.

She is still working on grabbing her food and getting it in her mouth, and it's a frustrating process because she wants to eat but really doesn't like being spoon fed. She likes her food, but wants to feed herself. So it's been hard to find soft enough food that she can hold on to. I baked some yam "fries" for her and she was super happy about it!

We've gone a few times with Pam while she teaches her soccer classes, and Makena is totally interested in watching the kids run around. And I think she hears her Mama's voice because she looks around.

Since she can crawl now, she doesn't want to stay in one place. She'll sit and play for a while, but I can't walk away because she knows how to either come find me or find trouble. Or more likely, she finds trouble on her way to find me! Today she was eating shoes, a magazine, a business card, sunglasses, a candle holder, AND one of my (used) nursing pads. Eww! So sometimes we have to plop her in the playpen, but she seems to be okay as long as there is some exciting stuff in there to explore! She really likes books, but mostly she gets mad at them because she can't quite always get them to open. She spent a while studying this book- maybe she'll be a veterinarian when she grows up?!

The other day I was getting all the cloth diapers stuffed and ready, so I sat her in her crib while I was on the floor in her room. I heard her laughing (she does this hilarious fake sounding laugh and I can't tell if it's real or just to get your attention!) and I looked and realized she had pulled herself up and was STANDING! So I had to lower the mattress. What a big girl!

On August 15th Pam had won tickets to see Rob Thomas in concert AND meet & greet passes! It was a benefit show at the unbelievably beautiful Mountain Winery in Saratoga. So we figured that was a pretty darn good reason to leave our baby for the first time! Yep, at almost 7 months old we left her with her first babysitter. 2 babysitters actually! Andrea and Erin came over and Pam and I left the house! Together! Without our baby! And we both sat in the front seats of the car! The concert was great, meeting Rob was super cool, the whole thing was totally awesome. But, as awesome as it was, the most exciting thing in my life was at home in bed. Crazy how having a baby changes how you feel about things that used to really excite you! (And apparently Makena did pretty well, considering it was bedtime and she refused the bottle and doesn't fall asleep easily!) It took us longer to get home than I thought it would, we were gone for 6 whole hours! (And wow did I need to pump!!) But it was a really good time and it was our first date night in... 207 days!

Then on my birthday we all went on a walk, and spent the day getting as many birthday freebies as possible. It was fun. :)

And Makena is pretty much the best thing ever.

P.S. She LOVES drinking water from a cup!