Grandma G Visits Houston

Work brought my MIL/Grandma Grohmann to Houston this past week. She got to stay with us two weekends in a row while working the whole week in between at the Texas Library Association Convention in the George R. Convention Center and staying at a hotel downtown. Here are some cute pictures of her and Elizabeth together.

Turning Schwenty-Nine

I turned 29 today! Wow only one more year until I'm 30 and officially "old." Isn't it weird that this age seemed so old when we were little? According to my MIL Diane's calculations, I turned my forever age. Whenever your birthday matches your age, you'll always be that age. So I'll always be 29 since I was born on March 29th. Diane was born on the 21st, so she'll always be 21. It's a fun thing to do so we don't have to think we're getting any older.

Everyone at work kept asking me what big plans I had for the day. I kept telling them "I have a baby." I had to toss out the idea of wild partying a long time ago. But the weekend was still special. Diane was in town so she babysat Elizabeth on Saturday night while Andrew and I enjoyed a nice dinner out. I didn't realize this or plan it but we've gone to one Japanese restaurant or another every year now for a while to celebrate my birthday. I guess I just like Japanese food and sushi that much. This year was no exception. Andrew took me to a neighborhood fusion Japanese restaurant so I could get my sushi fix.

We had wanted to go see a movie afterwards but things just didn't work out. We had planned to eat dinner, then come home and bathe and feed Elizabeth and put her down, then go catch the movie. Well we had to sorta rush through dinner so we could get home in time. But by the time we got home, our nightly routine got started later than usual and Elizabeth got fussy and it was hard settling her down to go to bed. So we missed the movie. We instead did the next best thing by renting some movies from Blockbuster and watching them in the comfort of pjs on the couch. There are some big pluses to watching a movie at home I must say! But hopefully one of these days we'll actually get to a movie theater again. I love movie theater popcorn and the microwave kind just can't come close enough.

Tonight we celebrated my birthday with cake, ice cream and presents. Diane baked me carrot cake - yum! And I received some wonderful presents from my wonderful hubby. Course the biggest present of all was Elizabeth. I love my little one!

4 months!

Elizabeth turned 4 months on Wednesday. We captured her being cute that night during and after her bath. She's so photogenic!

I took her in to see Dr. Rowland today for her check-up and weight is 12 lbs 13 oz (40th percentile), height is 24.5" long (60th percentile) and FOC -head measurement is 16.5" circumference (75th percentile). Banana baby! I've been worried that Elizabeth hasn't been gaining enough weight but Dr. Rowland reassured me everything is ok. Elizabeth has been in the 50th percentile for weight all along and Dr. Rowland showed me that her placement on the growth chart and the difference between 40 and 50th percentile is not that significant. And now that Elizabeth is more active and will continue to be more active, her weight will probably fluctuate. There will only be cause to worry if she continually goes down in her growth rate. So let's hope for the best. But I also have to keep in mind that Elizabeth was sick for a while and on antibiotics which made her poop like crazy so I'm sure some weight was lost through that! Elizabeth was moving like crazy on the table and rolling and scooching around (show off!) which impressed Dr. Rowland. She said she usually doesn't see babies move like that until 5 or 6 months. So again the weight issue isn't cause for alarm since she's reaching her milestones ahead of time.

We're going to wait until she's 6 months to introduce solid food and Dr. Rowland agreed with that. Even though we don't have a family history of food allergies, I want to be as conservative as possible on this and not risk anything. Plus I want to wait until Elizabeth is ready. She seems to be watching us now when we eat which is a good sign. And she's drooling like crazy and mouthing objects all the time which could mean she'll cut her first tooth soon. Yet she still seems to be doing ok on just her feedings (update 4/15/09 - well now I've had to nurse her several times this week in the middle of the night, but maybe she's just going through a growth spurt). And she has good head control but can't quite sit up for that long without support. She is getting plenty of tummy time though at daycare which should improve her back strength and also round out some of those flat spots on her head.

She also had her third round of vaccines (we're splitting up her shots a bit and going every month instead of every other month). She had her Rotavirus, DTAP, HIB, and Pneumococcal vaccines this time. At her 5-month shot-only visit, she'll get her Polio and Hep B shots. This is always the part that both of us hate. Everything is fine and dandy until the nurse comes in with that big needle and sticks Elizabeth in both thighs. At least it's at the end of the visit! She took her rotavirus ok in the mouth and didn't get that upset. Andrew and I learned a trick when we had to give Elizabeth her antibiotics - gently blow in her face which stimulates her swallowing reflex. It works! But with the other shots there was a split second delay from the time Elizabeth got poked until she started crying. But she didn't stay upset that long. At least we're getting better. Before she'd be hysterical the whole time.

I'm looking forward to starting solids in 2 months. Anyone have a recommendation for a good book to read? Dr. Rowland mentioned Super Foods. There's one called Super Foods for Babies and Super Baby Food so I'm not sure which one she meant. I'll have to ask at our next visit!

Roly Poly

Now that Elizabeth can roll over from her back to tummy, she's been rolling over non-stop! I caught her sleeping this morning on her tummy and snapped a few shots before she woke up. With the "back to sleep" campaign and preventing SIDS, I was a little scared at first and tried rolling her onto her back when I put her down for her bedtime tonight. But she kept rolling over onto her tummy. I've read that once babies have good enough head control and can roll over in both directions, the risk of SIDS greatly reduces. Plus there's not much I can do if my headstrong daughter prefers to sleep on her tummy! What am I going to do -watch over her crib all night and keep moving her onto her back?
Update 4/15/09: Elizabeth has been sleeping on her tummy for over 3 weeks now and seems to sleep really well that way. I guess she's a stomach sleeper just like her daddy! I still put her down for naps and bedtime on her back but eventually she finds her way onto her tummy. I've been checking on her several times a night (can't help it) and sometimes she'll be sleeping right up beside her crib bumpers. With the fear of suffocation, I'm always worried so I move her to the center of her crib. At least her face is turned away and not buried in the bumpers but I'd rather her be in the safest position possible. I've read mixed reviews on those mesh bumpers so we'll keep the current ones in place for now because they fit and I don't want her legs and arms getting stuck outside the rails. But we'll definitely remove them once Elizabeth starts pulling herself up. And that won't be far off now! Elizabeth is a wiggle worm and has been moving and scooching all around her crib. I find her diagonal, sideways and at the opposite end of her crib and facing the other direction!

New Toy

We let Elizabeth start playing with a new toy yesterday ... a set of keys. She loves them. She loves holding them, putting them in her mouth, and of course throwing them. Yeah so far her distance record is about 3 feet; Not bad for an almost 4 month old. The other big news to report is Elizabeth is now rolling over from her back to her stomach. We put her down on her back the other day and the next thing we know she is on her stomach. Becky had to ask me the first time, "Did you put her on her stomach?" I am sure we will get to report her crawling soon.

Happy Anniversary (Since Dating)

Today Becky and I have "officially" been dating for 7 years. Has it really been that long? Where does the time go? I don't really know ... but what I do know is that through all the ups and downs our love still continues to grow.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Did you forget to wear green today? Becky had to remind me this morning after I dressed Elizabeth in the wrong outfit. Oops. Hope everyone has a great day!

Naked Time

When Elizabeth is older, she'd be embarrassed that I took a video of her naked as a baby, but I don't care. She acts so cute after her bath that I had to capture some of it to share with everyone. She gets really talkative and wiggles like crazy. Course here, she's a little confused by the camera as if to say, "what's that thing in front of mommy?" But I'm glad she wasn't too camera shy. Thank you Andrew for formatting the video so it wouldn't be too big to fit!

A Year Ago

It was a year ago today that I found out I was pregnant. I give thanks to the Lord for watching out over us throughout the pregnancy and blessing us so much with the birth of our sweet little girl. In her three months here, Elizabeth has brought such joy and happiness to our lives. Just seeing that gummy smile makes my day! Everyday she's gets bigger right before my eyes and I always say to her, "Please stay small forever." I know that the time will pass too quickly and soon enough my little one will be all grown up, so I'm trying to relish every moment I can with her.

ANDREW adds: Elizabeth is such a blessing in every way possible. It is hard for me as her father to put into words what she means to me ... to us. She is such a blessing! She is such a joy!

Daddy's Little Girl

We enjoyed the nice weather today and hung out in the backyard for a while before it got dark. I just had to take a picture of Andrew and Elizabeth. He just loves his little girl and likes blowing raspberries to make her smile!

Roll Over Elizabeth

Elizabeth has been rolling over from her tummy to back for a couple weeks now! We tried taking video but she would not cooperate. So until she gets really good at it, these pictures will have to do! She is very close to rolling from her back to her tummy. She'll bend her knees into her stomach and roll to her side and a little of her stomach, but her bottom arm keeps getting in the way of rolling all the way over. Grandma Keillor calls that a speed bump!

Just a spoonful of sugar ...

helps the medicine go down! Being a kid rocks! I miss the days of bubble gum flavored medicine. Elizabeth drank pink milk tonight (AKA Princess Punch)!- 3 ml dose of her medicine mixed in with an ounce of milk. Usually she doesn't like drinking from a bottle whenever I'm close by (why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free egh?) but I've tried the ol' put the dropper at the back of the cheek and tongue trick and it doesn't work. Luckily she drank every last drop of her Princess Punch. I have to repeat this for the next two weeks. I hope everytime will be this easy!

Cold or sinus infection?

I took Elizabeth to see Dr. Rowland again today. She got a cold back in February and it never really went away. Even after almost going through a whole bottle of saline drops and humidifying the nursery, these past couple of days her congestion has seemed worse than ever with a stuffy nose and coughing - as if a lung is going to come up any minute. If I touch her chest, I can feel the congestion! I spoke with Dr. Rowland's nurse on Monday and told her Elizabeth's symptoms. She was concerned about the congestion in the chest, so she suggested I come in. Dr. Rowland was out yesterday and I was unsure about having another doctor in the practice examine her. So I booked an appointment for first thing today. Dr. Rowland was concerned that she's been sick for 25 days now and thought it could be due to a sinus infection. After listening to Elizabeth's chest and looking up her nose, in her ears and down her throat, she said everything was clear - no fluid in her ears and no yellow or green mucus - so no symtoms of a sinus infection. Yet she still wrote a prescription for Amoxicillin. She said it won't hurt Elizabeth, but I'm concerned about giving my 3-month old antibiotics. She did say if things don't clear up within 4 days, I know it's not a sinus infection. I pray that my little one gets better soon!

Elizabeth's Wardrobe Changes

As promised, here are pictures of the other outfits Elizabeth wore the day of her baptism. Watch out Mariah Carey! (If you've ever seen MTV's Cribs, you'll know what I'm talking about - the woman went through a zillion different outfits!)
The last one is a cute little Feltman Brothers dress from Grandma Keillor. The first two show Elizabeth in a cute outfit from Grandma Grohmann.
Wonderful story - Grandma Grohmann got the little shirt, bloomers and bonnet as a gift when she was pregnant ... with ANDREW! Of course she had a boy and could not see herself putting the outfit (with all its lace and pink roses) on him. But she kept it in case she later had a baby girl. Instead she had 2 more boys! But she never gave it away, knowing someday a baby girl would be coming into the family. She passed the outfit onto me at my baby shower. I can't believe she saved it for 28 years!
Elizabeth looks so precious in everything. The second and third pictures are hilarious. She's really got in the habit of sucking her fingers (good - she can self-soothe, bad - I can't just take her hand away like I can do with a binky) and lately she's been getting a finger caught up her nose! Her latest thing is to constantly stick her tongue out and she usually puts whatever is close by up to her mouth. I predict she's going to try to put anything and everything in her mouth!

Elizabeth's Baptism

This is our first official post. Elizabeth was baptized today! Thank you to all our family and friends who traveled near and far to be with us on this special day. Elizabeth looked absolutely beautiful in her gown. Course she didn't like wearing her bonnet that much! Although she did manage to chew on the bonnet strings a bit. With everyone in town, it was a hectic day. We got off her feeding and nap schedule a bit so that's why she's all tuckered out in the picture. The oils they rubbed on her chest and forehead smelled like aromatherapy scents. Maybe she fell asleep because she was all relaxed from that?? Thanks to Grandma Keillor for her lace bloomers, christening socks and after baptism outfit (in the tradition of Grohmann women wearing two dresses to formal events!). I'll have to post pictures of her wardrobe changes later.