1 Month 1 Day

At one month, Lola is starting to do her first tricks.

She can hold up her head for a few minutes.

And she is starting to focus better and to track things with her eyes.

You can also notice that (just like Nina did) she is starting to lose her newborn hair. We are curious to see what her real hair is going to look like, but we'll probably have to wait quiet a while!

At her 1 month doctors check up (4 weeks, 3 days), she weighed in at 9 lbs 14 oz (66%), was 21 1/4 inches (52%) long, and her head was 36.8 cm (39%) in circumference. And perfectly healthy all around!

Squashy Newborn

We've been settling in here at home over the past couple of weeks. On Friday, Feb 19, Lola had her 1-week check up. She weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz, three ounces over her birth weight and way up from her minimum of 7 lbs 4 oz at the hospital. She is a good eater, sleeper and pooper - what else can you ask from a newborn! Her umbilical cord fell off after about a week and a half, but her little belly button (or booby bellon, as Nina calls it) is still healing.

Now in her third week of life, Lola is starting to have a few longer awake periods. Maybe a couple of 45 min periods during the day, then she is ready to hit the sack again. If you hold her upright, she'll try to hold up her head for a few seconds before it flops over again. Her skin is so soft, and she is so irresistibly snuggly!




Nina, not surprisingly, is very keen to get in on the baby action.

Crawling!

It is official, Nina is crawling! She has been doing a pretty good commando crawl (on her belly) for probably a month and a half. Then on Monday when I brought her home after daycare, I put her on the floor while I changed out of my work clothes, and sure enough she popped up onto her hands and knees and started motoring toward me. We really need a video for this one, but this picture does capture the action fairly well.

"Oooo, my favorite toys - the rattle and the captain! I'm going for it!"

Good job, honey.

So we'll mark crawling at 6 and 1/2 months. Crazy.

It is funny how she has favorite toys. There will be a pile of toys on the floor, and she will consistently go for one or two of them. In the top picture, you can see the red polka dotted donut - that one is a current favorite. She gets a hold of it and won't let it go for tens of minutes. She loves the little cardboard baby books (great for chewing, I suppose), a denim bookmark, a couple different rattles. Even in the bath, there is the blue octopus comb thingy that she always goes for first. She knows what she likes!

Nina had her first Mishap Report at daycare on Thursday. She is in a mixed age classroom going from 0 to 2 years. They section off the babies and the toddlers with a gate. Well, Nina is fascinated with the toddlers. The teachers say she is magnetically attracted to the gate, constantly scurrying over and looking through. So the report says, "Nina bumped her forehead on the inside play area gate when she was trying to look through it and/or stand up." Apparently there was a little bump, but it went down by the time I picked her up. The whole episode sort of makes me laugh. I can totally picture it in my head - Bonk! I have a feeling this will not be her last misshap!

On Tuesday (busy week), Nina had her 6 month checkup and more shots. Here are her stats:

Height: 26 inches (51%)
Weight: 16 lbs (42%)
Head Circumference: 43 cm (60%)

Dr. Enright and I talked about Nina's sleep, and she gave us a few handouts. That is one area where Nina has been moving backwards these past several weeks. ~:-(

4 Months

Nina is 4 months old today. And for her big birthday she got to .... go to the doctor! and get 4 shots! and an oral live virus vaccine! Lucky girl. Here are her four month stats:

Height: 24 inches (41%)
Weight: 13 lbs 14 oz (57%)
Head Circumference: 40.5 cm (37%)

Her growth in the second 2 months of her life has been a lot slower than the first 2 months as is normal. She has, however, moved down in the percentiles (they were all around 70% last time). The doctor was not at all concerned. She said height and head measurements can vary by a bit since they are so hard to measure, and her weight looked fine especially since she is so active. Blah, blah, blah, she is healthy and doing great. Dr. Enright also said Nina has good trunk control. Now if that is not a complement then I just don't know what is!

Ok, ok, now let's get to what you really want to see - 4 month portraits!



As you can see in these pictures, Nina's personality is really coming out. She is alert and aware of the world around her, but she is also beginning to respond and interact with it. She is definitely wanting to put everything in her mouth these days but her coordination is not always quite there. The development of hand-eye coordination is really a very slow process. She has managed to put her pacifier back in her mouth a couple of times. If she is on her stomach or side and the pacifier falls very close to her and is angled just right, she can use her hand to push it toward her mouth. Pretty cool!

To make up for the whole shots-on-her-birthday business, I bought her one of those exersaucer thingies. So stay tuned for some fun standing baby pictures! On second thought it could take a while - there appears to be rather a lot of assembly required.

Symmetric Baby

Nina's 2 month doctor's appointment was today (10 weeks 1 day). First the stats:

Height: 23 1/2 inches (78%)
Weight: 12 lbs 3 oz (71%)
Head Circumference: 40 cm (71%)

Growing nicely. The doctor said her head control was excellent. She also had a bunch of vaccinations, 4 shots and one oral dose. She cried, cried, cried when she got the shots, tears and everything. So heartbreaking. You feel like you are completely betraying her trust. She is happily laying on the exam table and then bam! jab in the leg. Luckily she calmed down fairly quickly and within 10 or 15 minutes was sleeping in her stroller. There is a chance she could develop a slight fever from the vaccinations so we'll be on the lookout for that.

A few pictures from last weekend.

Nina Belle, Jedi Knight

On the way to Santa Cruz, woohoo!

1 Month Doctor's Visit

Nina had her 1 month check-up yesterday (actually 5 weeks 5 days). She now weighs 10 lbs 9 oz - up almost 3 lbs from birth. She is 22 inches long and her head is 38 cm. She had her second shot for the Hepatitis B vaccine (the first one she got at the hospital). Dr. Enright said she looked great, and we agree!

1st Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday, Nina had her first appointment with her new pediatrician, Dr. Andrea Enright at Palo Alto Medical Foundation. She weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz which is 2 oz over her birth weigh and 7 oz over her weight a day or so after birth. Her height was 20 in and head circumference was 35 cm (love the mixed units). She is a champion nurser and it is reassuring to see that she is growing!

Picture of the day:

1/9/2007. 5 days old.