We have a tooth! (and solid food)

Yesterday while nursing, I felt in Marissa's mouth, and could feel and see the reason for all the drool, mouthing of things, and bit of fussiness lately.  Her first tooth, bottom right center incisor has officially poked through!  I think the one next to it is not too far behind either. 

So last night we officially started solids for Marissa.  I have given her a taste a couple of times over the last couple of weeks off my finger of sweet potato or avocado, but this was the first time I mashed up some avocado and gave it to her on a spoon.  She had mixed reactions, some surprise at what was this new texture and taste in her mouth, some of it came out, and then she had fun grabbing the spoon and getting some in her mouth herself.  She only took in a few bites, but that is fine as I figure now is all about introducing new tastes and textures, and 99.9% of her calories will still come from breastmilk for awhile.  Her little rolly thighs prove she is getting enough of that. ;) 

4 months!

Marissa is now 4 months old!  At her checkup, she was 12 lb 6 oz and 23.75 inches (about 25-30%).  She is growing so fast!  And then 2 days ago, she decided to roll over both ways in the same day!  She "talks" a lot now "Aaaaaaah!" "Oooooooh!" and is sleeping from 10ish to 6ish, then again till 9ish!  She is a very happy baby, and loves her play gym with the toys hanging down.  She can grab them and talk at them now too.  I think her favorite one is the ladybug toy that hangs down.  She is very aware of her surroundings and the people in her life.  She really lights up when her big brother or sister get close and talk to her.  We love her so much!

6 months old!

I have been so lazy and bad about updating this lately!  I will try and post some more to play catch up.

First, some baby cuteness! 

Marissa turned 6 months last week!  She had her doctor's appointment last week and is now 14 lb 5 oz and 25 inches.  25% for height and weight.  She has the most adorable little chunky thighs and sweet little expressive smiles!  I call her Scooter Bug because she has this way of scooting backwards on her back where she arches her back and then scoots around.  Between that and rolling both ways, she can get around a fair distance on the floor now.  She is grabbing at her toys a lot more, getting really close to sitting (sits propping herself up with her hands for a few seconds) and I just adore the smiles and baby giggles.  She really adores her big brother and sister and smiles when one of them comes near her.  She is still a very "easy" laid back kid, just goes with the flow, rarely fusses (unless poopy, tired or hungry) and is still sleeping awesome at night, going from like 9ish to 5ish, eat, sleep again another couple of hours.  I have not started solids with her yet (not in a huge hurry, and she has not shown much interest yet), but probably will offer some banana or avocado soon.  No teeth yet, but drooling like crazy and mouthing things a lot.

Sweet baby girl

My Michelle singing and playing ponies

Smiles! and other updates on kiddos

Marissa is 8 weeks today, and will be 2 months on Saturday, which also happens to be her grandpa's birthday. About a week and a half ago, we started seeing real big responsive smiles from her. :) Here is a picture.


 
We are really enjoying her smiles; definitely makes up for the lost sleep. Matthew claims that Marissa now knows how to smile because he is the one who taught her how.  I love watching how the older ones are interacting with their baby sister.
 
Both the big kids are doing very well at school.  Matthew is making straight A's on his report card, and no longer is in resource, so spending all day in the regular first grade classroom!  Michelle has mastered writing her name, is getting pretty good with scissors, and is better learning to listen and obey her teachers. It still is interesting getting all 3 ready to go somewhere and behave nicely while there, so when they do, they get loads of praise.  Typical in church is Matthew making Star Wars noises to go with whatever scene is in his imagination at the time, Michelle singing loudly with the hymns (the ponies singing) and then saying to her ponies, "That was some nice singing!" in a loud voice, and Marissa after nursing letting out a big burp.  At least life is never boring with my crew.
 
At 7 weeks (last week), Marissa had a doctor's appointment, and is now 9 lb 8 oz and 21.5 inches.  She had to get 3 shots too which were not fun, but some mama milk afterwards helped out with that.  She is getting stronger too...holding her head up better and supporting weight somewhat with arms and legs.  We get a lot of comments on how alert and focused she seems as well.  She loves looking up at lights and fans and people's faces.  I have noticed too that she starts out with a mild fussy cry, but can really let you know that she is not happy and is hungry if you can't get to her right away.  She is just a sweet baby and we love her very much.

Life with a new baby

Marissa will be 4 weeks tomorrow!  Not sure what she weighs at this point (8 or 9 lb?), but definitely we are getting lots of milk in and pee and poop out. Her nickname for now is "Squeaky" as she makes a lot of those sweet baby squeaky sounds. :) She is so snuggly and just plain cute if I do say so myself. ;) We are cosleeping for now (I do have a pack n play w/ bassinet insert set up in my room, but mainly am using it now for diaper changes/safe place to set her down) as that gets her and mama the best sleep. She is up about twice a night to nurse. The biggest challenge for me lately is trying to make sure I can get enough into her right before we have to get in the car to take the older siblings where they need to go (preschool, plus after school activities). I just hate it when we get in the car and she is crying because she is hungry, but there is nothing I can do at that moment. :( But, I do feel it is quite an accomplishment to get 3 kids into carseats all across the backseat and get someplace on time! :) It does help that my older two are 7 and 4.5 and can mostly get themselves in and out, although I still have to hold hands and remind them not to just run off in a parking lot.

I THINK my bleeding may have FINALLY stopped (hooray!) which hopefully means I get a nice long break from that (PPAF came at 15+ months with the other 2). Stupid hemmorhoids are still bugging me too, and seems like those make it a bit harder to do #2 (sorry, TMI). I have some hydrocortisone cream from the hospital I am using, so hopefully that will go down soon. Plus, I am upping the fiber in my diet (raisin bran every morning!) to help too.

So far, so good on PPD. I had that with both of my first two (actually just a worsening of my clinical depression that I have all the time), but this time I am under care of a psychiatrist who is managing my meds so we seem to have found a good dose for me.
 
Marissa has already been exposed to a lot of sickness since she has been here.  Chris were both still gettting over colds when I went into labor, both kids (and my parents and sister and brother who came to visit) got some awful stomach bug with throwup/diarrhea/fever right after we got home from the hospital, and since then there have been more colds, including one Michelle has now and I think Marissa got a bit of.  Thank God she did not have that stomach bug though!  Another good reason to breastfeed!
 
Nursing is going well....she lost some weight after birth (was 6 1b 10 oz Friday at the ped's office after she was born), but by 1 week was gaining again (6 lb, 15 oz at 1 week).  I have not officially weighed her since, but my guess is that she is 8 or 9 lb now.  She is definitely making a lot of diapers for us to change!  We go for her next checkup on St. Patrick's Day. 
 
Big brother and sister are doing okay with adjusting, but are having a couple of issues.  Both have acted up a bit at school, I am getting a lot of "help me", "hold me", "I need a hug", etc. from them, and Monday night Michelle made a turd in the bathtub.  Gross!  But both are very loving toward their baby sister, almost TOO much...Michelle wants to hug her and ends up kind of laying on her.  But we are getting there, and Marissa is definitely a wonderful addition to our family. :) 
 
A few pictures:

Sisters: