10 Months

Our baby has officially CHANGED this past month.  One day Crawling just CLICKED and now she is super fast.  The other day at a casting I put her down and then the rest of the moms followed suit (people are sheep I swear), and I was surprised to see that she was the fastest baby. The palms of her little hands slap the wood floors of our apartment, and go super fast when she is up to no good.  There is no use trying to keep her in my arms, she crawls basically everywhere.  I consider this a portion of her vaccines…especially that day she examined a piece of Goose Poop VERY closely.  This month I noticed she has started sweating—that’s how hard she is working.

This month she mastered clapping, waving Hi, and SO BIG.  She knows that SO BIG requires raising her arms AND making a vocalization. She says something EVERY TIME she raises those arms.

Those are the props I gave her to attempt a sitting still picture….it’s basically impossible.

Determined little bugger.  She also says Hi and Bye-Bye.  Strangers everywhere we go engage with her, and it takes her about 7 solid seconds to process that they are saying hi to her and she should recipricate…such a little sweety.  She touches the people we sit next to on the subway, today she even grabbed a mans stubble…I gotta get quicker.  Her preference is to sit next to the subway pole so that she can touch it. More extra vaccinage.

She’s pulling up on anything she can, but not quite cruising yet. She also still needs to work on her fine motor skills….she prefers that I put the food in her mouth still….but she is making slow and steady pickle progress.

Check out her new skeelz:

I’m so mad she is already this old. Boo. Hiss.

Post Script: We weaned her off the Magic Sleep Suit this month AND she has 3 teeth, 1 more about to pop! Lashes—still amazing and still cutest baby ever.  Also, 2 jobs so far…..

Working Girl

 

Click on this to have it open bigger and get the full story. In brief, Pickle had her second job (first as a Wee Willy) and she nailed it.  My favorite parts:

1. When we arrived I noticed a hundred binkies on the prop counter and realized they probably wanted her shot with one in her mouth. Uh Oh.

2. One of my favorite photographers, who I have worked with as a wrangler, was the photographer that day!

3. The client instructed the hair and makeup to do Pickle’s hair as: JUST WOKE UP FROM A NAP.  Perfect, that’s her hair all the time.

4. After I got Pickle settled on set, I escaped to watch the frames pop up in the monitor in the hall.  When the wrangler returned her to me, Pickle lit up and had so much to tell me about what just happened.  She seemed pretty excited about the whole experience.

5. She never took the binky or put the teether in her mouth, so we’ll see if her shots get picked.

6. Connecticut is so beautiful, especially the Private Beach Communities.

8 Months Old

Every Month she gets another month older.  It hits me so hard, every time the 18th turns the corner.

This month it seems as if Pickle made so much progress.  It just proves that being sick can really hold your baby back.  It’s like from month 6 to 7, everything was on pause.  She finally cut that first tooth and got over her bronchialitis and she is making a lot of great crawling progress.  Almost everyday she gets better at the physicality required to actually make it happen.  Today I even got an action shot, with her knees in the air!

We have finally got the eating down.  Every morning she downs her yogurt and as long as her other meals resemble bananas or fruits she is good to go.  She is not an oral baby–hates binkies, rarely puts toys or her hands in her mouth…but she KNOWS what food is and whenever I am eating something, she reaches for it and puts it right in her mouth.

We love having our Pickle back.  Her personality is HAPPY HAPPY baby and she never wants to sleep.  I finally have her in a pretty good rhythm, usually getting that 10:30 nap in and sometimes she falls asleep during afternoon school pickup.  6 pm sharp is bedtime at night and she can sleep a full 12 hours.  This morning I nursed her and we snoozed for another 2! What a nice gift Pickle…thank you.

She claps here and there on her own and whenever she sees Dad she holds her hand up in salute! Hi Dad!  

Doesn’t she look different in Pickletails?

 

Mama Post 3 of 3

 

PRODUCTS:

AROUND TOWN

Ergobaby has been the best. I wish the baby could see out like the bjorn, but it is WAY easy on the body and for my lifestyle.

Mustela–remember what I said about your baby’s head emitting that cocaine chemical? Well, combined with Mustela, it turns into Heroin.

Mobi This was great for those beginning stages, easy to nurse in…but a little steeper learning curve for getting it on just right. Not as great for my subway lifestyle, but ok, staying close to home.

I used the Maclaren Techno for two babies and for years….it was the best stroller. I am using Uppa this time.  My muscle memory is for Maclaren so I am still getting used to it, but it seems comparable.

TOYS

Best toy I EVER bought, hands down…worth EVERY penny (not cheap) Magna tiles–get the 100 piece set.

We rotate (read: throw out) our toys quarterly, so not really a huge toy family.  My kids play most with scarves/pieces of cloth and magna tiles.

I am a fan of Crocodile Creek products and all things Eeboo

Breastfeeding!

I was so freaked out by it…but then your baby arrives and a switch flips and suddenly you are nursing while eating a peanut butter sandwich. (first time after giving birth to Phoebz)

Lansinoh pads hold like a gallon.  The cream doesn’t really do anything, but those soothie pads are pretty great.

Double electric breast pump–any seem to do, don’t mess around with anything less than the full thing.  I have always used a hand me down–you can buy a new kit to go with it so that there is no risk of contamination.

Introduce the bottle early so that the baby will take from BOTH you and the bottle–FREEDOM! I like grass and twig for my bottle cleaning.

If you are having trouble, just jam that breast in and relax. Take deep breaths.

Learn to breastfeed lying down.

Books

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth I am a midwife fan, with no pain meds, but even if you are NOT that girl, this will help you understand what you are about to do.

As will Birthing from Within and Natural Childbirth the Bradley way

Those last few weeks of desperation pregnancy I read this: Girlfriend’s Guide to 1st year

Also, Expecting Adam is a great book.

Tribeca Pediatrics website has a lot of great new ideas that are blowing my mind! Love it!

For Baby:

Charley Harper

Babylit

I made my own board book at pintsize productions. So fun.

Must-haves:

waterproof pads–for changing diapers ANYWHERE you want, lining your bed (lots of liquids in your life now), her crib, popping in your diaper bag. Get a variety of sizes–they are machine washable and brilliant–especially for this apartment dweller who has NEVER had a changing table.

hooded towels- of course!

lotion–get mustela!–massage that baby–its a great pre-bed ritual

boppy-great for nursing and then for when they are learning to sit!

SKIP:

bumbo

baby bathtub

exersaucer

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions! Happy Baby Day!

Pickle Time

Trying to get Pickle to eat is like me pulling out all my baby wrangling stops and entertaining her beyond any photoshoot I have ever been on and her either crying or staring at me like this.  It’s a drag.

Granted, I was feeding her spinach/apples/rutabega at this particular feeding time and she did get a rash and then vomit within a half hour, so maybe she was allergic to it, but still.

Lately I have had better success if I hold both of her wrists in my left hand and spoon the food in with my right, and alternating with pounding a pencil on the table when she starts crying to startle her out of crying.  I decided to be my OWN baby food therapist. Necessity is the mother of invention right? So, I’m inventing it as I go.

Hair

Her hair in the tub is still pretty killer.

7 Months

Holy Mackerel that month went by like lightening.

Her sitting improved quite a bit this past month.  That is about it. I feel like she has been a little bit sick and a lot sick and then a little sick again, ever since she got her 6-month vaccinations.

Yesterday she got her flu shot booster and she did not cry or utter a peep. She just had shocked eyes and then I gave her a squeeze and she was fine. We really showed up that baby born two days before her in the waiting room, who crawls, has 6 teeth, and cried for her booster. (!)

There was a lot of cuddling for about a week this past month, when her fever was so high.  Now she has the two little snot rivers coming out of each nostril and she arches her back whenever I go to wipe it.

Her hair has a perpetual dreadlock situation in the back from rolling around a lot when I put her down for bed.  I am still so thrown off by this head full of dark brown hair. As you can see, The Bigs were just fuzzy bald blondies:

We have tried sleeping with and without the sleepsuit…either way she does acrobatics while she cries to sleep for about an hour each night.  Nothing makes it improve.

She finally got really good at eating her solid foods while we were at my Mom’s house, but since she has gotten sick and we have been home, she is so anti-food.  I try everything to get her to eat, but it is one of the activities that really makes her cry and also bend her body in half so that she can get to the milk instead.  Her high chair arrived yesterday and we put her in it to enjoy dinner with us.  She played with her bowl and emptied her food onto the floor. Baby steps.

By 7 months I had weaned The Bigs.  I haven’t even begun weaning yet.  Clearly we are enabling each other.  Phoebz gave me a lecture today on how she is TOO ATTACHED to me and I need to give her some independence. Neither of us are ready for that.  As Lolly put it to the sitter this past week: “Pickle and My Mom have a great connection.”  It’s true…we’re besties.

Grateful for…

The touch of her hand as she strokes my neck while she is nursing in the morning.

6 Months

We interrupt this 12 Days of Christmas for a very important Pickle Update.
15 Pounds, 2 Ounces ~ 27 Inches! Tall and Skinny! Her sisters were 17 and 18 pounds! Lolly is still the tallest.

Half a year has passed since THAT DAY when I gave birth to my third born.  My third girl.  I still remember those last few harrowing contractions when I didn’t push so that my cervix could open up that last little bit.  I remember the feeling of her descending swiftly after that, in the next few contractions, and then suddenly she was mine.

The sisters at 6 Months. Baldies:

Her hair! The midwife’s face when she examined my placenta. Tweeting:  8 CM and then everything getting very serious after that.  Jason was such a help. Blood on my toe.  That baby not bedding down without being right on top of me. The nurses: I think she’s hungry. Me: DUH!  Asking everyone I saw if she was tongue-tied…..

The look on the sister’s faces when they met her.  It is an emotion that is so unique and special and I still tear up when I see the joy on their faces.  Those weeks after with my new family and my Mom and Dad.

I remain awed by the swiftness of time passing.  I just cannot believe that we are here already.  6 Months old. Last Christmas I remember thinking: I’ll have a little sitter next Christmas.

Pickle is quite something.  I am not just saying that because I am her mother. In fact, often I feel like I am just her little transporter–taking her here and there on her little journey.  Since we live in the public eye so to speak, I have this interaction with strangers between 1-5ish times a day:

Stranger (S): That baby!

Kage (K): It’s hard not to stare at her huh?

S: She’s such a doll

K: Yeah, people say that a lot.

S: That hair!

K: I know, right? If  I didn’t know myself better, I would question her parentage

S: Your first?

K: No, my third, three girls.

S: Three girls! You look so young!

K: Well, I’m 33, my parts were working 10 years ago too.

S: She’s just so beautiful, she looks just like you

K: Thank you. I don’t see it because I was bald and then blonde, but maybe she looks like the adult me.

S: God Bless Her.

Seriously, it is the SAME conversation over and over and over again. The other phrase I keep hearing is: There is just SOMETHING about Pickle.

She is quite something. Phoebe was my talker and Lolly was a little bit more of a mover than Phoebz, but Pickle is all of it. She squawks, she moves, she will not under any circumstances cuddle (That’s a Lolly trait), she’s tiny and funny and just a lot of everything. Which of course, makes me fear the future!

She could not be more offended by food. I have tried to introduce her to solids and she scowls and then shudder-swallows it down with a grimace.  It is to the point now where I just show her the spoon and she shudder-gags. Uh-oh.

She is still nursing around 4 in the morning.  Sleep training her for that last leg has been so hard because we are all so tired and she is a relentless screamer…and now she can roll over IN the Magic Sleep Suit, so we are in a bit of a place.

She has magnet fingers—she can just grab ANYTHING and we have had several close calls when I am trying to eat a meal.  She loves her sisters, especially #1 (don’t tell #2).  She is all of our pride and joy. Like for realz.

As a reward for reading to the bottom, I share with you this very special video, that I have held dear for many months. I am finally willing to share.  Grab a tissue…seriously grab a tissue.

Mommy & Pickle

This little one and I spend a lot of time together.  I do not want it to end.  I am not sure I have appreciated a baby in my life as I do this little picky Princess.  She’s got us ALL wrapped around her little finger and it’s going TOO FAST.

So glad I got that tongue clipped!

Jason made me do it.