15 weeks!

the time is just flying by... our baby girl has gotten so big already and is such a little person- she has so much personality already!! Her weight gain seems to be slowing down a little bit. She hit 14 lbs almost a month ago, and is still just under 14.5 lbs. We tried measuring her length and got 25 in, but she is always wiggling and rolling, it was pretty hard to be accurate.

Speaking of rolling- she has become quite the expert roller from her back to belly- she flips within a few seconds of being put down! She has rolled from her belly to her back about 10 times total, a couple times accidental, but I think the motivation is just not there because she always wants to be on her tummy. this results in a big laundry problem, because she tends to spit up on her belly, a lot. Especially now that she is determined to become mobile- she scrunches her legs in with her butt way up in the air, and then wiggles around as her body flattens out, inch-worm style. It seems like a lot of work for the inch or so she moves, but I'm sure all the practice is getting her ready for crawling sometime in the future! The straining of belly muscles and the scrunching do not help the excessive spit-up issue, but we're getting used to it :)

We are still getting lots of smiles and more laughs each day, which is so much fun! Sleep is still not so fun, but I'm hoping it gets better as we get into a more regular schedule. We did have four wonderful nights with no feedings/wakings or anything, but then we dropped back to two feedings a night :(. We seem to have worked back to one- fingers crossed that it stays that way or gets better! Naps happen every now and then, but don't usually last long. Our baby just doesn't seem to need much sleep! So that is my excuse for not writing here as much as I would like :) We start part-time daycare this week (HUGE sad face :( ), so maybe I'll update this more often if I need a break from working. Wish me luck- I'm thinking it is going to be a difficult week!!

One of my favorite photos, taken by our friend H3B (http://babyh3b.blogspot.com/)

12 weeks!

Our baby girl is 12 weeks old on Sunday... time is going by so fast! The past few weeks have been so busy, I haven't had a chance to get on here and post updates. Since the last post, we've had a few play-dates and the typical baby activities. Then a week after my last post, Mr. Beaver celebrated his first father's day, and baby Beaver was baptized! She got to meet one of her aunts and one of her uncles, and her great-grandfather. It was a really great week, with picnics and visits to the park, her first trip to the zoo, and first dinner out at a restaurant! The next week was a hard one- I had to take a week long workshop for four hours a day, so baby Beaver was with her Nana during that time (besides a quick visit to nurse in the middle of the class). She had a great time, but I was pretty stressed and did not enjoy that time at all! This week baby Beaver had her first trip out of town, to Washington DC. It was also her first professional conference :) She got to meet a ton of pretty smart people, and had many more admirers during a poster session than my poster got. She even sat in on a presentation by the U.S. secretary of education and behaved very well. While in town, she also got to meet her Aunty Nicole, which was very exciting!

During the past few weeks she has kept up on her smiling, making her very popular everywhere we go. She has also had a few laughs, which are so incredibly cute!! She had one huge milestone- her Nana watched her roll over from her back to her belly!! We had noticed her ending up on her belly after a nap (when she had been placed on her back) but nobody had actually seen it happen. I've seen her struggling, but still haven't witnessed it myself. She is holding her head up higher and longer every day, and making so many adorable cooing sounds, as well as a variety of other different vocalizations. Her cranky time at night has seemed to disappear, and she is starting to go much longer between feedings all of a sudden. It is so strange to feel like she is all of a sudden growing up so much!