I love how much our little bean smiles these days.  She’s so expressive and bubbly.  She’s never in a bad mood (okay, maybe when she’s just pooped or when she’s hungry or when it’s getting close to bedtime but otherwise, she’s darn near perfect).

Right now Annabelle’s in this great spot where she enjoys playing on the floor by herself and is trying to figure out everything around her.  Sometimes I think she’s trying to look right inside of us to figure us out.  I know she’s thinking, who is this person and how can I get her to do everything I want!  I’m just amazed at how her little mind is growing.  She’s getting even better at “finding” toys around her and trying to grab them to put in her mouth.

Annabelle is in loves tags.  Yes, she loves those tags that they put on stuffed animals, on the inside of shirts, on blankets and on toys that say what the product is made out of and includes all kinds of warnings.  I’m telling you, we have some of the coolest toys and what she’s doing is laying there, with this cool toy, trying to grab at the tag attached to the cool toy.  I remember months ago saying to myself that one of these days I should cut those tags off some of those toys because they were ugly.  Now I’m kind of glad I didn’t because they give her all kinds of entertainment.

Annabelle loves her food.  We’ve been making and feeding her baby food for a while but it’s never been very consistent.  We’ll try some squash or cereal or sweet potatoes here or there but it’s not every day.  We’ve starting finding it to her every day though and she really likes it.  This week I brought sweet potatoes for Annabelle’s lunch and her teachers said that she’s a really great eater.  I guess some of the other kids don’t like eating (or aren’t good at it) but she’s a rockstar! Loves her sweet potatoes.

Sleep, the topic I like thinking about the least but end up talking about (and thinking about, and reading about) the most! Annabelle’s sleeping like a 6-month old.  She has good nights and not so good nights.  We started trying a bit of sleep training at the end of the week.  I’ll save that fun stuff for another post.

Each week I try to jot down notes on how Annabelle’s changing and what she’s doing so when I finally find time to write a blog post I have something to write.  For some reason, these updates are becoming a little harder to write each week.  I’m not sure if it’s that we’re just so busy or that things are just becoming “normal” and weeks fade into each other.  I’m not always sure what to write or what really stands out from last week.  Yes, Annabelle is changing but we’ve gotten into a rhythm and our days are looking a little more predictable.

Our little lady has some kind of cold virus again.  She’s got a runny nose and a bit of a cough.  The virus has made her night feedings a little difficult.  Because she’s congested and coughing there have been a couple of times that she’s eaten and then promptly thrown up during one of her coughs.  The hard part is that it happens in the middle of the night or early morning when neither Dusty nor I are at our best.  We learned quickly though and have adapted a few things to help her get through the nights.  One of them being, putting a blanket under Annabelle’s crib so her head is propped up to help her breath.  Towards the end of the week she’s started sounding horse and it’s so sad yet adorable all at the same time.  It just makes my heart melt when she tries to talk and she sounds like an old toy who’s voice box got a little mangled.

I remember babysitting when I was younger and love playing peek-a-boo with the kids.  They laughed.  They giggled.  All I had to do was cover my face or put my hands over their face and then suddenly produce a surprised face while moving my hands.  They loved it.  Every once in a while I try to play peek-a-boo with Annabelle but most of the time she just stares at me with this look, like, “what the heck are you doing mom, you’re crazy.”  This week we got her to crack a smile and even jump a little.  She was a bit surprised when Dusty and I both popped our heads out from behind our hiding spot, saying “peek-a-boo.”

This week we also discovered that Annabelle’s able to hold her own bottle.  We don’t feed her a bottle at home very often but one day I picked her up early from daycare and we had an extra bottle so I thought we’d better use it.  I was holding her and trying to feed her when she grabbed ahold of the bottle and was essentially telling me should could do it on her own (without saying it out loud).

Sleeping is better this week, even with her stuffed nose and coughing.  She sleeps for about 5 hours the first leg and then she’ll wake up around every 3 hours after.  I cross my fingers that things continue to progress and soon she will only be waking up once each night.  I’m still waking up two to three times a night but getting a little extra sleep in between each feeding has helped tremendously.

I love hats on Annabelle! This hat and booties is from Dusty’s mom.  She got it at a market while visiting her sister in Indianapolis.  I’m absolutely in love with both!

I always wondered why parents said, “time went too fast” or “that their kids were growing up too fast.” I think it was because I always thought that time just went too fast for everyone but here I am, saying it myself.  Our dear little Annabelle is growing up so fast.  She turned 5-months old (and well on her way to six)!  I think parents say it so often because you have this little human that’s growing in front of your eyes and you see how things change so fast.  When it’s only yourself, you don’t stop to look in the mirror everyday and notice the changes.

Annabelle has the grip of an arm wrestling champion.  She’s man-handling her toys (and my hair) and not afraid to grab anything and everyone.  It’s so amazing to see how just in the past couple of weeks we’re no longer putting things in her hands so she can gingerly let them lay there while she investigates what it is but she’s going after things on her own.  I love putting a couple of her favorite toys near her and then watch her roll over, grab for them, and then shove them into her mouth.

How are our nights going you might ask?  I’d say the same except that Friday night she slept five hours straight!!!  She slept from 7:30pm to 12:30am and then got up at 3:30am and 6:30am.  What’s even more surprising is that she stayed in her crib until almost 10am on Saturday.  It was the most amazing night and morning ever!  And naps are great too.  This is Annabelle’s third week at daycare and she’s adjusting well to her schedule.  She takes a short morning nap and then a longer afternoon nap.

Annabelle’s almost able to sit on her own* (*her form is still lacking just a bit but she has the general idea).  Her sitting position resembles a hunch back leaning tripod.  I’ve been sitting on the floor with my legs stretched out and having Annabelle sit between my legs so she can practice her new found skill.  We’re also having her sit in a clothes basket with a blanket in front of her to practice her balance (an idea we got from daycare).  It’s so much fun to watch her in her tripod-seated position and then slowly lean forward or to the side and then, plop, she’s laying on the floor.

This week was full of sickness in the Davidson household.  I always heard that daycare is a great way to build up your child’s immune system but really, is this what they meant.  This weekend we got together with both Dusty’s family and mine.  Friday we went to visit Dusty’s mom and then on Saturday we had my family over to celebrate family birthdays.  Late Saturday night I made a comment to Dusty that I just wasn’t feeling right and that my stomach was a little achy.  Long story short, I ended up with a stomach bug late Saturday leading into Sunday and then Dusty got it Sunday leading into Monday.  In the end six of us got the stomach flu.  Annabelle was saved from the disaster but we have a feeling she was “patient zero” as Dusty likes to say.  Dusty and I were so very grateful that our sickness was staggered and that Dusty started getting sick just as I was starting to feel better.  Our house would have fallen completely apart otherwise.

As Dusty was still recovering from the stomach bug on Monday, I got a call from daycare letting me know that Annabelle had a nasty bout of pink eye and I needed to pick her up (and she couldn’t come back until 24 hours after it was treated).  And here was another learning moment for a new mommy.  I actually didn’t know exactly what pink eye looked like or how to treat it.  I’ve heard of it and get that a person has a pink eye(s) when they get it but had no idea what it really looked like.  It’s not just red eyes but there’s gooey, crusty stuff that also collects around the eye (and the way doctors really detect pink eye in my opinion).  Another learning moment, it’s very contagious and you must take your baby to the doctor’s to get it diagnosed and then treated (prescription eye drops will do it).  So, after one week at daycare Annabelle brought two illnesses home, went to the doctor, and had to stay home an extra day until the medication kicked in, and we learned what it really means to be parents.

On the brighter side, Annabelle does love daycare and I can tell she’s soaking so much in, interacting with all of the other kids and with her teachers.  This week we also attended a daycare infant and toddler parent meeting.  I heard they have meetings once a month.  I was a little skeptical on what I might learn that would require having meetings monthly but I was so surprised and am excited for the next meeting.  It was an awesome learning opportunity and so glad I went.  Dusty was able to go too and he thought it was really helpful as well.  They talked a lot about the Montessori philosophy and what they’re teaching our little infants and toddlers everyday.  They gave me so many great ideas of things we can do at home with Annabelle.  And yes, we’ve been doing lots of learning activities at home with Annabelle but as a teacher myself, and Dusty and I wanting to do as much as we can to help Annabelle grow intellectually, I’m always excited to hear more ideas.

Sleep is still not improving.  I’ll leave it at that.  We’re waking up every three hours.

She’s rolling over like crazy and we’re spending a lot of our time helping her get to her back once she’s rolled to her stomach.  Every once in a while she’ll roll to her back by herself but most of the time she wants help.

Annabelle’s so well tempered.  Even with her pink eye and a bit of a runny nose she’s in good spirits.  She’s always smiling and loves talking to anyone who will listen.  She’s in love with mirrors.  We have a huge mirror in our bedroom that’s at least 6 feet tall and she loves laying on the floor just looking into it, smiling and trying to figure out who that adorable little lady is looking back at her.

Love catching all kinds of faces when we take our weekly pictures.  This was a really good one.  I think she was telling us it was time for the photo shoot to be over.

Annabelle officially started daycare this week.  It was a bit of a crazy week getting her and me ready.  And so here is my daycare story.  I had totally psyched myself up for the first day.  I even started getting a little excited about all of the things I planned on accomplishing, including getting my syllabi and other class materials ready because classes started for us the following week.  The night before, I loaded up Annabelle’s diaper bag with all of the things she needed and got bottles ready in the refrigerator.  Many of the local schools around town were also starting back the next day.  It was supposed to be one of the coldest days recorded in a long time so there were announcements of schools were closing. But daycares wouldn’t close, would they?  Needless to say, a little after 9pm I got a phone call letting me know that daycare was closed.  Who would have thought daycares close due to cold weather too.  It was a huge letdown.  So, we tried it all again the next day. Officially, our first day of daycare was Tuesday.  Annabelle did great!  She seems to really like all of the interaction she gets with her teachers and the other children.

I had a lot of friends ask how it went as well as a lot of people who mentioned how difficult it can be at first for parents to take their kids to daycare.  I was very fortunate that Annabelle stayed at home for the past 4 1/2 months.  I went back to work after 8 weeks but I worked half of my workweek at school and the other half from home so I got plenty of time with Annabelle.  I was also lucky to have a friend who nannies watch Annabelle while I was at work.  And then I had the last three weeks off of work for winter break so I really felt Annabelle was ready to go to daycare.  And after a week at daycare I’m even happier about her going.  She’s surrounded by so many great caregivers and is meeting lots of new “friends”.

Daycare wasn’t the only thing that changed this week. A couple days before she went to daycare she started making new noises and talking to us a lot more!  It’s so great because she’ll start making these fun high-pitched noises that make no sense at all but you’d think she was telling the best story.  And if we respond with similar noises she’ll go right on telling her story.

Someday I’ll get more sleep but not right now.  She’s officially in her crib.  No more bassinet.  And I love our baby monitor.  It’s really nice to have since I don’t have her right next to me in the middle of the night.  Annabelle did have a couple of good nights of sleeping this week.  I attribute some of it to her busy days at daycare and being exhausted from all of the new stimulation.  I’m still hoping (and hoping) she’ll go back to waking up once to nurse in the middle of the night but no holding my breath.

It seems that Annabelle has naturally started falling asleep on her own this week (most of the time).  One late afternoon (I picked Annabelle up a bit early from daycare) I was trying to clean the bathroom and had put Annabelle in her crib to watch her mobile while I was doing the last bit of scrubbing when she started to fuss.  Five minutes later I walked in her room and she had fallen asleep.  Since then when it’s time for bed I nurse her and then  lay her in her crib, letting her watch her mobile until she falls asleep.  Most of the time she only fusses for a few minutes before closing those pretty little eyes.  It’s not perfect but it’s making bedtime just a little bit easier.

We welcomed the New Year this week.  I’m still catching up but getting closer.  Sometimes one outfit isn’t enough for our weekly pictures so we tried two!  Dusty got me a new camera for Christmas and I’m loving it!  I thought our last camera was wonderful but this one is so much faster and the lens is awesome!  I’m still trying to figure it all out though.

This week was difficult.  My stepbrother got very ill over the holidays and was rushed to the hospital.  We weren’t sure if he was going to make it but he’s a strong person and is pulling through.  Dusty, Annabelle and I made a trip to see him and my family.  He has a long recovery ahead of him and we keep him and our family in our thoughts constantly.  Things like this remind me how precious everything is and to cherish every moment we have.

When we got back to Omaha we celebrated New Year’s Eve at home.  We had a low-key evening.  It’s so interesting seeing how life changes once you have a child.  Last year we stayed home because I was pregnant and we weren’t telling people yet but almost every year before that we went out on the town and celebrated with friends.  At one time we even hosted an annual NYE gathering.  And this year it seemed so much nicer to stay home.  I won’t blame it all on our little lady but I think we’re just getting older and all the crazy shenanigans don’t seem as appealing.

Dusty and I made a nice dinner while Annabelle took a snooze.  Dusty actually left for a bit and met up with some friends in the Old Market.  And then he came home so we could kiss at midnight as the ball dropped.  It reminds me how we met (for the second time) at a New Year’s Eve party and started dating shortly after.  We’ve officially been together for 10 years!  We’re in the double-digits now!

Annabelle’s still not sleeping at night.  She’s waking up every 3 to 4 hours.  We’ve transitioned her into her crib and she takes most of her naps in her there and starts each night in her crib.  When she wakes up Dusty or I usually bring her into our room to be fed and then we put her in the bassinet.

We didn’t try any new foods this week.  It was a bit crazy with us traveling to Oklahoma.  We’ve tried rice cereal, squash and sweet potato so far and she liked them all.

Annabelle is smiling and cooing more than ever.  She’s very inquisitive and wants to touch everything.  She still loves putting everything in her mouth and really likes looking at herself in the mirror.  We have a huge mirror in our bedroom and she really likes when we lay her in front of the mirror and she can take full advantage of the view.  We’re playing a lot of music and reading books to her too.  She’s soaking all of it and I can see her getting smarter by the minute.

This week Annabelle and I went to visit the daycare she’ll be starting next week.  I’m anxious yet excited at the same time.  I need to get ready for classes to begin and get a few other things done before the holidays end and I know it’s going to be great for Annabelle to meet some new friends.

And my final update is that Dusty and I signed up for the Lincoln half marathon.  Dusty’s been running regularly for a couple of months now but I haven’t so I need to get back into a routine.

Post-baby weight? I talked a lot about how much I was gaining all through my pregnancy but I haven’t mentioned it much since then.  I’ve lost all of the weight I had gained during my pregnancy.  I walked/jogged a lot while I was on maternity leave and really tried eating healthy (not only for me but also for Annabelle since I’m nursing) but once I started back to work things took a nose dive.  I’ve barely worked out and don’t feel like I’ve gotten a handle on when to workout.  I feel lucky that the weight came off but as everyone says, my body isn’t the same (not even close).  I hope training for the half marathon will help me get back into a workout routine.  Exercising with a 4 month old is a huge challenge and I’m working to find a schedule where Dusty and I can both run at some point each day.

Week 18 went way too fast.  It being Christmas I wanted the week to last at least a month.  We took a lot of great photos of her during the holidays but I’m saving those for a recap holiday post I’ll be writing soon.

A couple days before Christmas we went for Annabelle’s 4-month check up.  She’s officially 14 lbs, 11 oz and 25.75 inches long.  She’s in the 62nd percentile for weight and 93rd percentile for height.  And just as a reference she was 11 lbs, 15 oz and 24.5 inches long when she went to her two-month check up.

The doctor gave us the okay to start feeding Annabelle “real” food and cereal.  I had a squash at the house so I pureed that up and fed her a little.  She loved it.  She’s trying to figure out how the whole spoon in mouth works.  It’s fun to watch her discover this new food.  Can’t wait to try other foods.

Annabelle was a lucky little lady and received a lot of wonderful gifts for Christmas.  We had a great time with family and enjoyed the few days that all three of us were at home over the holiday.

A couple days after Christmas I watched my two nieces while they’re on winter break.  I was a little worried about having all three kids together but it was so much fun.  Emma (11) and Mia (9) absolutely love Annabelle and can’t get enough of trying to make her laugh and entertain her.  One girl would hold Annabelle while the other one would make funny faces or noises, trying to get Annabelle to smile or giggle and then they’d trade so the other one could do the same.

She’s still not sleeping all that well at night.  And since she’s pretty much over her cold I thought it might be something else.  I talked to some friends and I guess there’s a thing called the 4-month sleeping regression.  All I know is that if I’m lucky, waking up every three hours in the middle of the night will only last for a month or so and if I’m not lucky, it’ll be much longer.  She goes to bed between 7 and 8pm but waking up every three hours.

This was a big week for us.  Two firsts for our beautiful little girl.  Annabelle has officially gotten her first virus and has a full-fledge cold.  On our flight back from Florida I heard a few extra coughs and I had a feeling she might be getting something.  By Sunday night she had a legitimate cough and runny noise.  Annabelle’s cold did make it a little harder to get anything done.  Because she was so congested at the beginning of the week she didn’t like lying down for vary long and wanted to be held a lot.  I feel so bad for our bean but she was still in good spirits and this hasn’t slowed her down a bit.  I guess these little viruses last 7-10 days so I’m crossing my fingers and hope it’ll be gone by Christmas.

And, drumroll please, she officially rolled over (and hasn’t stopped since).  She can only roll over from her back to front so when she rolls over, after a few minutes, she gets tired and then gets upset.  We turn her over to her back and after a few seconds she rolls over again and the whole process starts over.

Annabelle went to visit Santa this week.  Her first time meeting the big guy was a success but we’ll see how future visits go (picture coming soon).  Seeing Santa was also a big moment for Dusty and I.  It’s at times like these that we realize we’ve joined this whole new group of people.  We’re parents! Yes, I understand that this shouldn’t be a surprise but it’s as though we’re so busy with the nitty-gritty little parts of life that sometimes we forget what the bigger picture looks like.  We’ve been just a couple for so long and then this week we were standing in line to see Santa with all of these other parents, these people that we now have something in common with!

Annabelle has been amazed by her hands for a while now and really enjoys gnawing on them.  This week she’s found another limb, her feet.  If she’s not eating her hands, she’s trying to grab her feet.  It’s so adorable to watch her grab her feet as she examines them so very seriously (as you can see from above).  Then all of a sudden she’ll see her hands and let go of her feet.  Then it’s time to examine her hands, moving them slowly in front of her face like they’re a foreign object and checking them out before stuffing them into her mouth.

Sleep.  It’s not so good this week or it’s not as good as it has been.  I’m not sure if it’s a growth spurt or the cold or a combination of both or something else but Annabelle’s waking up an extra time or two each night.  She’ll go to be at 7:30pm and then wake up between 10pm and midnight, again at 3am and then at 5am.  Most of the time she’s smacking her lips, wanting to nurse.  It’s exhausting and I’m hoping it’s not something that won’t continue for much longer because it makes for an extra tired mommy and daddy.

I know Annabelle will want to be hundreds of different things as she’s growing up.  I’m sure she’ll want to be a princess, a doctor, a teacher, a mom and so many other ridiculous and not so ridiculous things but it’s fun start thinking now.  One day I asked Dusty what he thought she should do when she grows up.  After a fun little discussion we’ve decided, until she can tell us what she’s wants to be, that she’s going to be the top scientist in her field.  We’ll leave it up to her to decide what kind of scientist she wants to be!

It’s the week before Christmas and I haven’t gotten a darn thing done.  Life before a baby, being a teacher (and this being finals week and the start of my vacation), I would have the house completely ready for the holidays, laundry and housework caught up, gifts bought and wrapped, happy hours with girlfriends I haven’t seen in a while and sewing projects started.  I’ve only slightly started on all of these things and instead of happy hours I’m meeting my friends at their house or mine!  I haven’t checked the mail in two weeks (and I love checking the mail)!  One of these days I’ll get used to being a mother and be able to manage more than one thing at a time again.  Thank goodness for family.  Both grandmas babysat this week so I could get some laundry done and go to a doctor’s appointment.

Our little Annabelle is officially 16 weeks old and almost four months.  She’ll be four months old December 23.  These weeks not technically working out to a full month are starting to catch up.  Week 16 went extremely fast and with the holidays approaching I’m feeling the rush to get things accomplished, including this post (today is actually the beginning of week 18 so I thought I’d better finish this post so I can finish working on week 17’s update).

We spent week 16 on Sanibel Island.  It’s a beautiful little island, approximately 12 miles long and 5 miles wide, off the west coast of Florida near Fort Meyers.  More than half the island is made up of wildlife refuges and the beaches are known for their beautiful seashells.  We went with Dusty’s family and had a wonderful and relaxing time.  The weather was perfect, sunny and in the low 80s all week.  And because we were on the beach all week I thought it would be appropriate to take her weekly picture at the beach.

It’s hard to know how a three and a half month old will travel but Annabelle was wonderful.  And a major reason why she was so wonderful is because we had such great family around that wanted to help.  Annabelle was a good little passenger on the airplane with minimal crying.  On the way out we had grandma and great-grandma to help entrain so that was really nice.  And on our flight home she slept most of the time.

Annabelle loved the fresh air and being on the beach.  She also loved all of the attention she got from us all.  I was actually a little afraid to bring her home because I knew she’d miss everyone playing with her and all of the excitement going on.

She slept like a champ.  With such eventful days filled with an ocean breeze she went to sleep early and woke up for one quick feeding before going back to bed.  She’d wake up around 5am for another feeding and then get up for good around 6:30am for her daily walk.  Annabelle’s grandma Jane or Aunt Diane took her for a walk while the sun was rising everyday.  Annabelle had a lot of fun and Dusty and I got a couple extra hours of sleep.

Annabelle really slobbers now.  She still gnawing on her hands and loves to eat her thumb.  No teeth yet though.  She’s still not rolling over quite yet.  She’s so close.  She pretty much rolls over but just can’t quite get her arm moved to make it count.  Her goos and gurgles are becoming louder and stronger and you can most definitely see she’s producing more sounds than she was before.  I still can’t believe how alert she is and how she watches everything that’s going on.  Sometimes I look at her and just see that little brain working as hard as it can to figure out this so called world of ours.

The week was perfect.  Dusty worked with an ocean view everyday and still found time to relax a little.  I was able to take walks on the beach and get a bit of a suntan before we left.  Dusty and I ran on the beach together a few days and even went on a little dinner date.  The trip reminded me a lot of our time in Paris.  I forget how nice it is to get away from the day-to-day stuff that fills up our life and to spend time with family.

This post is coming just a few days late.  Oh how the days go by so fast.  Life was busy before Annabelle but now days can go by and I have a hard time remembering what we did.  Some days we won’t do anything at all but it’ll seem like the busiest day of the week.  I think that’s how life goes with children.  This week did go fast though.  Work was busy, one of my busiest of the semester and then there were so many things we had going on at home.  I put up our Christmas trees (three to be exact) and then we were getting ready for a family trip to Florida (yes, I’m writing this post from the beach) as well as prepping for my annual holiday cookie exchange.  We’re getting really excited for Christmas (or maybe it’s just me) and Annabelle’s outfit this week is just the beginning of holiday attire we have to help get everyone in the holiday spirit.

This week Annabelle continued to go to bed early and wake up a couple of times during the middle of the night.  It was nice that she was going to bed at 7:30pm so I could get things done but waking up at midnight, then 3am, and then getting up for the day at 5am was a bit tiring.  Wednesday afternoon I even took a nap right along with Annabelle to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Annabelle loves our tomfoolery.  We stick out our tongues and make funny faces while she smiles and giggles.  We’ll do about anything to make her smile.  She also loves looking at herself in the mirror.  I’ve read that she won’t realize it’s her own face in the mirror until age two or three but right now she’s just fascinated by that smiling face looking at her.

We love that Annabelle gets to spend so much time with family and friends.  I can’t tell you enough how nice it is to have family close by.  In addition to Thanksgiving last week and having a lot of family around then, most weeks we see family at least once or twice.  She’s not afraid to go to anyone and she loves playing with anyone who’s willing (and I hope these things don’t change).

So this week I cried while reading a book to Annabelle.  I’ve always been an emotional person but to cry reading a children’s book!?!  It’s called Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You.  This little lady has absolutely captured my heart and I can’t imagine my life without her!

And here are a few other weekly trends that continue.  Annabelle loves trying to “stand.”  She’ll stand on our laps, doing squats and building those leg muscles while we hold her.  We’re still working on rolling over.  She’s so close but not quite there.  She’s also continuing to gnaw on her hands.  I think this might be the very beginning of her teething phase 1.