All about Amelia

Amelia's first photo shoot! Taken at a little more than 3 months old

So what about Amelia? What is she like? Well, she started out much like most newborns, sleepy! She was born bright eyed, and has managed to keep those big and observant eyes. She slept a lot in her first month or so. Once we hit that month mark, all things changed! We started getting a progression of fussiness. Fussiness turned into pure screaming. The occasional screaming turned into screaming all of the time. I was pretty sure she had acid reflux with the symptoms she was showing. Went to the doctor, and sure enough, she had it. So on medication we went. For a few weeks, I was really wondering what was wrong with her. She wouldn't take the paci. We all but forced her to take it and eventually she relented. Her soothing became better once she did. Other than occasionally being able to sooth her with the paci, there was nothing I could do to calm her down. We tried ALL of our old tricks and many new tricks. The microwave vent helped for a while most of the time. The hair dryer helped for a little bit, but ended up making things worse later. The bathroom vent would kinda help, but not for long. Bouncing seemed to help a bit at first, but like everything else, it lost it's effectiveness with her. She stopped sleeping unless she was being held, and even then she wouldn't sleep well. She feel asleep screaming and woke up screaming. But once the medication settled in, we started to meet the true Amelia! Amazing what happens when a baby is no longer in pain! So on to the next problem. She decided that she would sleep nowhere but in my arms or in her car seat (even then she didn't sleep very long). So much of her time sleeping would be in her car seat, on the stroller, right by the microwave vent blasting. I even tried to hold onto her in the sling or bjorn, but eventually this only worked if I kept everything quite while she was sleeping. Well, tending to a 2 year old all day, this was not possible, so she would wake up often and not sleep well. Even with the car seat by the microwave tactic, she was taking 3 20 min naps throughout the day. That's right, newborns and infants need quite a bit more than 60 min of sleep during the day. She was now always over tired ALL of the time. So if any of you have dealt with an over tired baby before, you know that it isn't fun. There was no soothing her. She needed to sleep but didn't want to. She seemed like she didn't want to miss out on anything. She wanted to be stimulated ALL of the time. It got to the point to where she would start crying when I would start walking up the stairs because she knew what was about to happen. It was CRAZY!!! But at 3 months, we sleep trained her. It was awful! I hated every minute of it and felt like I was damaging her. I had to keep the big picture in mind and I knew that she needed to get her sleep. So it was a rough couple of weeks, but we stuck to it. I am glad we did, because she slowly started sleeping longer and longer. She even started waking up in a good mood! It was then, that I was finally able to admit that we did the right thing for her. All the wailing and screaming on her end, and crying on my end, was all worth it. She started becoming the happy and social baby that she is today. The fact that she was never a huge paci fan (very much unlike her brother), eventually became a blessing. Once she gained more control of her arms and hands, she became a very good self soother with her thumb! Because of the, she started sleeping through the night at about 2 1/2 months old! With the exception of a few growth spurts, she has been a champion night time sleeper! She still isn't the best daytime sleeper, but she is getting so much sleep at night, and her naps are at least long enough to complete a full sleep schedule. She wakes up happy and rested baby, and that is EVERYTHING!

She officially found her feet at about 4 months and hasn't lost sight of them since. She LOVES to suck on her big toe!

She started in the middle of the floor, ended up under the chair!

First time in High Chair

Random Cuteness

First time in her crib at about 2 1/2 months

Amelia started her solids at about 5 months a couple of weeks old. She did beautifully! We have been progressing her foods ever since. He likes avocado and banana so far and sweet potatoes and pears are next!

Here is Amelia warming up to her solids foods. I gave her a spoon to play with the day before!

SOLIDS!!!!!

She absolutely adores her brother! He is by far her favorite person. She often goes into bouncing and giggling fits when he wakes up from his naps. She is just always so excited to see him!

Her big blue eyes have stuck thus far, which is awesome! She always looks wide eyed and very alert. Mommy got her cuddler with Amelia for sure. She loves to be held, but please do make sure she can see everything! Mommy's little bright eyes!

So here are some pictures of the little Miss growing up so far:

One week old!

Weight: 7lbs 15oz 70th percentile

Height: 20 inches

Head circumference: 98th percentile

Three week visit:

Weight: 9lbs 1oz 63rd percentile

Height: 20.75 inches 60th percentile

Head circumference: 38.5cm 90th percentile

One month old!!!

2 months old!

Weight: 11lb 03oz 74th percentile

Height: 22.25 inches 50th percentile

Head circumference: 40cm 80th percentile

Look who is 3 months old!

4 months old!!

Weight: 13lbs .10oz 50th percentile

Height: 23.50 inches 25th percentile

Head circumference: 92.5cm 88th percentile

5 months old!

We wake up to cuteness every day, but one morning we woke up to cuteness with her arm out of her PJ's!

Look who is holding her own bottle (sometimes anyway). She started doing this at about 4 1/2 months old.

Bath Time!

To say that Amelia is now a sweet, happy and joyful baby would be an understatement. She has a smile that would surely stop traffic and a personality that would cheer up the most crabby of people. I have honestly never met such a happy baby. She is always smiling and laughing. I would always get a bit annoyed when people would comment on how Gabriel seemed to be such an "easy" baby. My thought was, "what baby is easy?". Even though his personality fit what the books would call "text book baby", he wasn't "easy" to me especially as a first time mom. Now that I have Amelia, I know what they meant. I wouldn't say that she is a laid back baby, or easy going like her brother was. She is my spirited, sensitive and happy baby, who is already bursting with personality. She loves to play with her toys, especially the ones that squeak! She needs to see everything around her. Her eyes are always wide open and she LOVES to be stimulated! She just doesn't want to miss anything.

She flipped over from back to belly at about 3 months and started going back and forth around 4 months. She wasn't a big fan of using her arms to push up for a while there, but has gotten so much stronger in the couple of months. She liked to do the super baby thing. Head up, arms and legs up too.

She makes circles with her feet when she is excited, and when she is really excited, she does this amazing bounce with her whole body. She now makes circles with her feet and hands when she is about to get fed. I am told by my mom that I would do that as a baby as well. I can't imagine that I was quite as cute though! :-)

When she was a bit younger, she would hold my finger when she was nursing and still does that when I feed her with the bottle. It is the darn cutest thing! She stopped nursing around 4 months. It was a combination of things, but it seems as though she was bored with it. She went from not excepting the bottle at all, to preferring it. I had to wait until she was sound asleep to nurse her at all. Then I just gave up on it and went to formula. She transitioned really well. She had a significant increase in spit up, but considering how much she spits up normally (a LOT), I wasn't at all surprised by this. She started holding her own bottle around 4 months old, but doesn't do it very often. We must work on this! I think she just really likes the attention of having us feed her. She is perfectly capable of holding onto it herself, just chooses not to!

She had been doing this fake cough that she noticed would get her attention when she wanted it. She used it very frequently! She recently started doing this cute little eye squint when she laughs and smiles. She scrunches up her nose and gives a big smile and breaths in and out through her nose. Soooo cute!

Although she is super sweet and happy, she knows what she wants and there is no getting around it. She can go from zero to scream in a very short second. She requires to be blocked to any and all stimulation before she can sleep, including in the car. She likes to listen to white noise and/or music when she sleeps. What ever you do, do NOT mess with her sleep. I call it the wrath of Amelia. If you don't have her ready for bed by the time she feels she should be, she and you will certainly be paying for it! When she is tired she starts to rub her ears, but then progresses into her putting her hand on top of her head and pulling it down over her face. In the mouth goes her left thumb and her R hand often remains resting on the side of her head. ADORABLE! She has favored her L side when sleeping so she has a bit of a flat head on that side. Not too bad though. And she has more recently been favoring her belly to sleep on now, so this makes her sleep on her R side more. Her L side of her head has filled out a bit more ever since. She sleeps with her but up in the air. Sometimes has her arms to her side and hands under her (like I used to sleep when I was a baby).

She is started talking rather early and hasn't stopped since. She began with "bababa" and other basic baby noises. She clicks her tough, and raspberries A LOT. She has worked her way into "dadada", "yayaya". She passes toys easily from one had to the other and pulls toys toward herself. He has done this for a while now, but she almost always pats our backs when we are burping her, or just holding her like we do when we burp her. I LOVE this! She is progressing beautifully and is an absolute joy and without a doubt, the perfect addition to our family!

More updates soon!