New Toys

For the parents, since Abigail is too little to actually care about toys yet!

Last week, my dad was visiting us for a few days on his way to work in Michigan, which was really nice. We had a great visit and were very busy! We had been casually looking at and talking about what kind of 2nd car we would be looking for when we eventually determined that we could no longer live with just our one, 2-door car. In the middle of May, Claude was hired for a great paid internship this summer in his field that will be pretty much full-time, so the conversations about a 2nd car not only became more urgent but also more possible with the extra income. So when my dad was here, we were asking him about it and getting his input and help with the research and decision-making. Sunday afternoon, we figured out that a Toyota Matrix would probably fit our needs best (4-doors, hatchback for cargo space, decent gas mileage), so Monday morning, Claude asked my dad to find us a Toyota Matrix. By 6pm that day, we test drove and put down a deposit on a 2009 Matrix with only 29,000 miles on it! We will meet with the seller to complete the sale on June 6, so Claude is counting down the days.

And the toy that I really wanted since being pregnant with Abigail, but especially since her arrival, is a good camera. I have enjoyed taking pictures and playing around with fun shots and I knew our 4-year-old point and shoot just wasn't going to cut it with a baby, but I also knew that I didn't have the time or brain power at the moment to figure out a DSLR, so we found one that was in between. So after lots of research, I got my toy last week too: a Panasonic DMC-GF3, which has an intelligent auto mode, so I can turn on the camera and it'll take great photos until I can read on how to use the cooler settings. It also has exchangeable lenses, so it'll be flexible going forward. Here are a few fun pics that we've taken in the past few days with it!

First time in the stroller

We got a really cool stroller before Abigail was born but I've been putting off using it because she just seems so small in it and she seems to really like (aka falls asleep and stays that way for hours) us carrying her with one of our carriers so she's close to us. We finally broke out the stroller yesterday for a walk at Lake Como...

Not quite sure what to think about this

Hmm...not so bad

Well, actually, I don't really like this - get me outta here! 

Ahh, much better!

 We'll try again, but will definitely make sure one of us has a carrier with us just in case!

Playing with Daddy

It has been really fun for me to watch Claude and Abigail play together. Even though she's not super responsive yet, you can tell she loves her daddy! Within the first few days, I realized that not only was Claude great at calming her, but he also has to work harder and be more creative at it than I do, since if she's fussy, I usually just feed her to calm her down! 

At her very young age, she has learned how to score soccer goals with a tennis ball on our couch, dance to traditional music, and do a military salute. Pretty impressive! Here are a few photos and a video...

Both the things on her wrists and on her feet rattle when she moves - pretty funny to watch her since she can't yet figure out where the noise is coming from!

One month old!

Wow! Hard to believe Abigail is already a month old! We had her one month appointment with the pediatrician and here are her stats:

Birth weight: 7 lb 15 oz
One month: 9 lb 11 oz!!

She is right on track and gaining weight beautifully, which is always nice to hear as a breastfeeding mom when you can't measure ounces to make sure she's getting enough!

We have had lots of challenges with common breastfeeding woes: thrush (yeast infection on her tongue and then transferred to me for which one of the treatments is gentian violet painted in her mouth - thus the purple mouth in some of the pictures!), mastitis (breast infection requiring antibiotics - to which I am of course am allergic to the most effective ones), and then thrush again because of the antibiotics! Hopefully we'll be cleared up and pain-free soon!

Birth length: 20.5 in
Length at first clinic visit: 19.75 in (they use a board to measure on instead of measuring tape, which is probably the difference since I don't think she shrunk!)
One month length: 21 in

And her head is getting bigger as it should as well, though I don't remember those measurements offhand.

All three of us have spent our month adjusting to our new life as a family of three and figuring out how to eat and sleep and stay clean (diapers or showers, depending!). We have enjoyed going for walks with her in a carrier in our neighborhood and have realized that babies attract a lot of attention and smiles from passersby on the sidewalk or in their cars.

We have also enjoyed the random milk drunk smiles and look forward to the intentional smiles in a few weeks. It's also been fun to see her transition from sleeping most of the time to having longer periods of being awake and alert. Her big, beautiful eyes will track us now if we move in front of her. And I have loved watching Claude and Abigail play together (watch for a future post on that)! Plus, we got to celebrate my first Mother's Day on her 1 month birthday!

1st Mother's Day

A "few" of our favorite photos from this month... (this really is a few compared to how many photos already exist of this adorable little one, so my apologies if you have a slow internet connection - might want to launch the page and go get a cup of coffee or something and come back.)

Enjoying the flowers and cool pink elephant from Grandma and Grandpa!

The lactation consultant warned us the gentian violet that we needed to paint her mouth with for the thrush would turn it "Viking" purple...

So Claude wanted to make sure there was no confusion over which team Abigail really supports!

Love this monkey-butt outfit!

 

The sleep series...

She will sleep for hours if she's somehow attached to one of us

And if she's not, she'll try to get as close as possible! (I sleep on that side of her and towards the bottom of her co-sleeper) 

We took her to an appointment and she fell asleep on the way home, so rather than wake her, Grandma decided to chill out in the car with her and enjoy the outdoors!

And just when you were beginning to wonder if she had eyeballs under those sleepy eyes...

Hello Houdini - that swaddle is supposed to keep her arms down by her sides so she doesn't startle herself awake. Yet every night, often halfway through, she will somehow manage to get one or both arms through the bottom, up and around so she can have them by her face like she likes them!

She actually really likes tummy time for the most part and her changing table

Doing her "homework" - the public health nurse gave us some black and white pictures to show Abigail (since that's pretty much what she can see right now). Grandma rigged them up by her changing table with her giraffe so she can check them out.

Love this one!

She has such big eyes that sometimes when we take her picture, she looks positively surprised!

And lest you think she is always a sleeping or happy angel, she is a real baby...