Where We're At - Addie

I'm going to admit it; my mother was right. She said I'd forget. I thought she was crazy. How could I possibly forget? I was living, breathing and dreaming about those small steps, the small blips, the small upsets (that seemed SO important). But, I forgot. I forgot exactly when Lexi rolled over. I forgot the small details of how she ate and slept during that first year. I forgot the about the first time we gave her finger foods. So, I'm keeping a record of Addie's firsts and "touch points" and life in general so I'll be able to remember the day-to-day living.

Addie is the happiest baby I've ever met. She is easy going and quick to smile. Her eyes smile almost all of the time. She has let out a few good belly laughs, but can't quite get it consistently yet. When she's happy, she squeals and sucks in air. When we walk in the room, she always smiles, squeals and sucks in air. It feels so good to know she's always happy to see you! If she's in her jumper and I come back from another room, she squeals at me and starts jumping like a crazy lady with her hands straight up in the air. She's learning, too, how to put her arms up when she wants to be picked up. Sometimes, she'll just smile and squeal randomly even when we're not interacting with her. She rolls over both ways, but once she started going back to front, she seemed to forget how to go front to back! So, she gets stuck on her tummy and gets mad. She is reaching for objects and loves to suck on ice. She likes her exersaucer and regularly abuses the toys. She loves to chew on them - never buy something secondhand from me! I'm not sure what it is, but she only poops when she's in her jumper. I put her in there every morning after her first bottle and she goes within 10 minutes time. Weird, I know.

She is trying to hold her own bottle. She is eating like a champ. We don't have to swaddle her any more when she eats. She doesn't pull away, fuss, kick or fight any more. Dropping the swaddle during her feeds was a gradual process - I made it slightly looser over about two or three weeks' time. Then, I went without it during her evening feed which was when she ate the best and I figured she'd try to fight the least. Over the course of another week or so, I started trying to feed her without the swaddle for other feeds. Some days she could go without, some days I'd have to put it back on because she would kick or her arms would flail wildly about.

She is super hungry when she wakes up. When Addie is hungry, she gives us warning by whining. If you ignore her, it escalates to a cry. It will get to a full blown breakdown with streaming tears and all if you wait too long. (I know this because she got hungry early one day and the time it took me to walk from the barn to the house was long enough for her to think the sky was falling down.) For her first bottle, she eats 5 ounces of that nasty Neocate with 5 teaspoons of rice cereal added to help with her dysphagia. That's quite a bit of food, really. She eats 4 hours later and has 4-5 ounces. Four hours later, like clockwork, she eats again. For her last feed, she can only make it about 3 or 3.5 hours and slurps 5 ounces. She still gets her Prevacid 3 times a day. In the morning, I have to get up 1/2 an hour before she does and give it to her. If she's on her back, I can sneak it in without waking her up. If she's on her tummy, I have to roll her over and that sometimes wakes her up. I hate it! She gets Mylanta before her next bottle, Prevacid again in the afternoon (1/2 hour before she wakes up and sometimes it disrupts her nap, which makes me mad), Mylanta before her night time bottle and I give her her last dose of Prevacid before I go to bed, usually around 10:30. She sleeps soundly until 7:30 or 8. She sleeps around 12 hours a night. We have used the Babywise method to sleep train and it has worked really good for both kids, even with their eating problems. I highly recommend it.

Addie takes 2 good naps and sometimes a 3rd, 30-45 minute evening nap, depending on how the day goes. Her tired cue is the same as her hunger cue. One surefire way to know if she's tired is to put her down. If she rolls over onto her tummy and starts whining, she's totally ready for bed. We sing her two songs while we rock her - with her facing out and sitting on our lap - and then put her down with a small blanket. She still cries before she falls asleep, but it's obvious she's so grateful to be in her bed. When we put her down, she lets out a sigh of relief. Her morning nap is about 1.5 hours. She can usually stay awake for about 2 hours before she gets really tired, but in the morning it's more like 1.5 hours. Her afternoon nap is usually close to 3 hours. When she wakes up crying, we leave her for at least 15-20 minutes to give her the chance to fall back asleep. Most of the time if she has woken up crying, she puts herself back down and sleeps another 45 minutes or even an hour. I read once that a baby who wakes crying has not had sufficient sleep and needs time to soothe and go back down. So true! Unless they have gotten sick or are having a terrible day, give them a chance to go back to sleep - they usually do and wake up cooing and happy the next time. She and Lexi both nap at the same time most days! It's awesome. It took some time to get there, but to have 2, even 3, good hours of total quiet makes my day. Of course, there are days when one won't go down or the other cries through a lot of the nap, but most of the time it works out ok.

Addie doesn't sleep in our arms or on us, ever. She will sleep in the car seat, but only for 20 or 30 minutes. She won't stay down for a "transfer" most times, either. She doesn't like to be held close and cries and pushes against you if you try to snuggle her. She likes to face out. She likes it when we whisper in her ears. She likes it when you lightly run your finger along the the edge of her face and down the bridge of her nose. As you make your way down her cheeks and jawline, she opens her mouth and tries to follow your finger. She smiles the whole time or looks at you with wonder on her face - like the whole process is simply amazing and there could be nothing better in life. She eats her feet as often as possible. She is trying to sit up on her own, but hasn't quite got the hang of it. She is also trying to crawl, but that is a few month's away from the look of things. Right now, she can get her tush up in the air, but doesn't get too far.

Addie and Mia are good friends. Mia puts her nose up to Addie just close enough so Addie can touch her but never too close and never, ever tries to lick her. Addie loves to be outside and will sit for hours in her swing and watch the world go by. Lexi likes to push her in the swing and Addie lights up to get any type of attention from her sister. Lexi can get a squeal and smile faster than anyone. Addie will watch Lexi play with rapt attention and very rarely gets upset if Lexi is around.

Addie has added so much to our family. We like to say she is "cuteness personified". She has never been a complainer and continues to be happy unless she is tired or hungry. She is laid back and easy going. She is extremely alert even though she is very chill about life. We love having her around and are so proud of every little thing she does.