A little meme action

Jen and I were tagged for a meme by The Cutest Little Babymakers in Town. She tagged both of us, so I will try to answer things that are true for both of us. Should be fun!

The Rules:
1) Link to the person that tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6) Let the fun begin!

1. Jen and I have the same birthday. It is October 17 in case you want to send presents. :)

2. Jen and I have very different sleep needs. She tends to require somewhere around nine hours of sleep to feel really rested. I am fully functional on six hours. Neither of us is anywhere close these days.

3. Jen and I could not have more different television tastes. She prefers to watch the sci-fi channel and I am a reality junkie. Conversely, I hate sci-fi and Jen thinks reality tv is the worst.

4. Jen and I, when we lived in Boston, used to get our hair cut by a man we referred to as "The Dark Overlord."

5. Jen and I can both eat far too much sushi than is really necessary. Usually when we leave the sushi place, we're both well past full.

6. Jen and I have shared our home with four cats, though we only have three. Jen had a cat named Grendel when we moved in together, but one of my cats (Ralph) became very territorial and violent towards her. We gave Grendel to a former coworker of mine, and she is very happy there.

I think I will tag Jen&Cait at Addition Problems, Shelli&Narda at Hydrangeas Are Pretty, and L&H at Two Mommies and a Meatball.

Sucess!

Tonight I was able to put Babygirl to bed with no problems! We may have gotten through this phase of Mama will do only and Mommy doesn't.....


I am inordinately proud of this;)

6 month well-baby visit

Punk had her 6 month WBV today, even though she'll be 7 months in a week and a half or so. Oops. We got a little behind.

She is BIG. She weighs 18 lbs even, although she kept picking her head up (she does that) so it might have been a little off.



She is TALL. She was 27.9 inches today. Which means we have 1.1 inches until she has met the length limit on her infant car seat. Clearly she does not get this from me.



Dr. K and I talked for quite a bit about how high needs she is, especially WRT how she needs to have things a certain way to eat or sleep, how she is still swaddled at almost 7 months, and how she seems to require constant stimulation and entertainment. She proved this to him by doing her screaming thing throughout the visit when no one was looking at/talking to her. I told him I was concerned about her inevitable enrollment into child care because she is so specific about things and he said, "Well, she will be a challenge for any caregiver, certainly." Heh.

We also talked again about her increased muscle tone, especially in the legs. It's making it hard for her to learn to sit because she doesn't/can't relax her legs enough to make a nice wide base for herself, and while she certainly has the trunk strength, she can't do it on trunk alone. He asked if I was concerned and I said I thought she would work it out, and he agreed. I told him that Shriner's said not to worry unless she wasn't meeting milestones or developed a weird gait or something. We talked a little more and both thought she was likely on the high end of normal for tone, probably because she's a ridiculously strong beefcake, but then he asked me if I was familiar with the local Early Intervention program. I told him I was an EI worker for 3 years and have BIG LOVE for the EI, and he said he'd like to put through a referral for them just to check out her tone. Dude, really? I get to have an OT and/or PT come to my house FOR FREE so I can pick their brains about my kid's tone and sensory needs? OKAY! (And heh, now that she has "hypertonia" in her chart, she's an automatic qualifier for services if we want them.)

Basically he said he thought that she was ridiculously bright and that was what was causing her to need so much stimulation. She was SO focused on everything he was doing and he got such a big kick out of her, which is nice because umm, I get such a big kick out of her. We talked a bit about foods and he said we could start meats at 7mo if we wanted to, and could start combining ingredients which is good. He also is a flouride-pusher and wants her to take flouride supplements, but I told him I would talk to Jen about it and decide later. (Which probably means no.) He also agreed with me that she will likely chill out with the stressful screaming and frustration when she learns to crawl and pull up, because she has somewhere to go.

So once again, I leave the pedi with a referral, but this time it's not for anything weird and/or scary. Yay!

Also, she is the cutest baby ever:

Mean Mama

Most days, I feel like the meanest mama on the planet. It is an awful, awful feeling.

For whatever reason, Punk has her own agenda and that agenda does not include: eating, sleeping, being held. Ever. And note that 1 and 2 involve 3. *sigh*

When I hold her to feed her, she'll drink an ounce or two and then squirm and twist away, nearly falling off my lap and onto the wood floor. And then I spend the next hour or so fighting with her to drink the rest, even though she is HUNGRY. And I keep trying, and she gets more frustrated with me.

But sleeping is the worst. She gets exhausted, rubbing her eyes, yawning, and getting glazed... yet she ramps herself up. It doesn't matter how "early" I catch her sleep signals, she will freak out. I pick her up, swaddle her, take her into the rocking chair, and then... she arches her back and screeches like I am stabbing her with hot pokers. She will screech and arch, screech and arch, until she eventually collapses, opens her mouth wide for the pacifier, and then instantly drifts into sleep. Meanwhile I am on edge and near tears, feeling like I broke my baby, 3-5 times a day/night.

It is seriously becoming too much for me to hear her wail like that. I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like I am killing her. But she needs to eat. And she needs to sleep. Sigh.

Talk talk talk talk...

...it's all Babygirl seems to be doing these days! Okay, not all she is doing - but she is definitely maintaining a running commentary on life in general!

6 Months. Wow. So much has happened and so much has changed. I remember a time when 6 months was three season changes - tops, when school would be almost over or just starting, the time I had before Camp started, the time before my finals, the time left before summer.....

It used to seem so long. And short. And now - it's so short!

August Ruth is amazing. She talks and talks and talks. Yaya, Dadada, yadayadada etc etc.....;)

And it will only get more and more complex!

Happy half birthday sweetiepie!

Half a Year!

My Little Punk is six months old. It happened on Tuesday. Where on earth did the time go?

It seems like she was just gearing up for the Big Day. She stocked up on new skills and exploded with them. In the last couple of days, she has become very chatty. Very very chatty. With consonant sounds - mostly "dada" with a little "yaya" and something that sounds like "glagla" mixed in. But she wants to talk about EVERYTHING. It is so awesome.

Of course, she still wants to yell at us when something doesn't suit her. And lately she has also learned the fine art of tensing every muscle she possibly can until she is rigid like a board and she grunts. "Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" This tends to occur when we are trying to restrain her - in the car seat, the high chair, our laps, etc. The Punk, she does not want to bend to your will.

She is very resistant to sitting, and wants to stand all the time. I'm starting to think she will never, ever sit. See the aforementioned rigid as a board.

She has really gotten into banging in the last couple of days. She used to just like to bang her hand on a mom, but now she likes to bang her toys on the tray of her high chair. And drop the toys. And yell for moms to pick them up. Repeat.

She knows how to roll from belly to back, but usually refuses. Because it's more fun to yell until someone flips you.

Basically, six months in a nutshell: Punk is living up to her little name. :)