Sarah - 6 Months

Sarah is now 6 months old! This month has been really fun. We started solid foods a couple weeks ago and Sarah is trying a new food every 3 days. She's had rice cereal, bananas, carrots, green beans, and sweet potatoes. I think she's starting to get the hang of swallowing and is really enjoying the new flavors. She's able to sit up pretty well, but still falls over a lot. We got her a Baby Einstein jumper used because she loves to jump. As you can see from the pictures, all of Sarah's original hair is gone... we cut her comb-over right after camping, so now her hair is more even. It's going to be a light brown or blonde I think!

We went on a couple trips this month. July 9-11th we went camping at Assateague Island with some friends from my Bible study. Sarah did well camping and even though the weather was less than desirable (rained most of the time!), we had a great time hanging out with friends.


Sarah and I went to Catonsville Commons Nursing home to help Kelley from church with giving the residents a bingo game. It was so fun to bring Sarah to let the residents see and play with a baby. I think this guy in the picture was only there to see Sarah because he hardly played bingo. :) It was such a good experience too because there was a blind woman there and she heard Sarah laugh. I spent some time with her at the end letting her hold Sarah and she just loved it. It was such a special time and I think will become a regular event on our schedule.
We also went to Deep Creek with Ted's family (July 24-28th). That was lots of fun too, a couple days Ted and I were able to get away while Ted's parents watched Sarah. We went jet skiing twice and it was really fun. I rode on the back while Ted drove. We also enjoyed playing pool and cards in the evening.

Here are Sarah's 6 month shots. Taken early in the morning on July 29th.

Sarah - 5 Months

Can you believe Sarah is 5 months old!? Time really does fly!

This month has been FANTASTIC! Mainly because Sarah has been sleeping through the night very consistently. She goes to bed at 8pm and sometimes wakes around 6am, but often sleeps till 7 or 8! She's also taking a regular nap at 1pm and mini-naps in the morning around 10am. I'm not particularly fond of "scheduling" a baby, but now that she's on a schedule, I wouldn't have it any other way and she isn't fighting it.At night, when we put her down she sometimes fusses a little bit. When this happens after about 10 minutes of crying, we say she needs the "Daddy Touch" -- which is Ted calming her down and putting her to sleep. For some reason the Daddy Touch works best. Recently she was crying and I told Ted to give her the Daddy Touch but he was caught up looking at something on the computer. I didn't nag him, but a couple minutes later, Sarah fell asleep (on her own) and Ted said, "see, she just needed the Daddy Touch"

Sarah's definitely still loosing her hair, which is sad for us. Ted calls her "baldy" sometimes, rather than "fuzz" (her old nickname). She is great at grabbing and holding toys and rolling over. She's learning to sit up and sometimes I think she'll crawl soon (she has a strong desire to get places -- I can see it in her eyes). She also likes to giggle and talk\coo at us. Sarah also started teething this month. Specifically, last Tuesday! :) She is drooling and biting everything. She likes when we just rub her gums with our fingers or put a cold teething toy in her mouth.

Sarah - 4 Months

Sarah is now 4 months old. It's been a great month this past month. Lots of growing and development. Sarah is loosing some of the hair she was born with and it's growing in lighter-- more like a light brown. She's moving more in her crib and is able to roll over, although she doesn't do it a lot. She is able to hold on to rattles and understands she is getting it to make the noise. She can hold her head up pretty well, but still gets tired doing it...

Sarah's also getting better and better at sleeping, she's started going down around 8pm and still wakes up for a feedings around 11pm and 4/5am, but sleeps regularly till 7:45am.

We took these pictures on Saturday morning (the 29th) before we drove down to Virginia Beach to visit with some of my college friends. (more on that later!) It's pretty early, so the lighting isn't great, but here are Sarah's 4 month pictures!

Sarah - 3 Months

We're now a week into Sarah's 4th month... She turned 3 Months last Thursday... Boy am I glad to be out of that stage! I think 3 months might be my favorite age. She's cooing and smiling most of the awake times. She's rarely fussy these days and if she is, it's resolved pretty quickly by feeding her or when she poops.

I started working last week. I started with a planned 3 day\week schedule. My mom would watch her Mondays and Kristine (our neighbor with a day care program) would get her on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Kristine also has 2 other kids -- a 2 year old boy and a girl 1 week older than Sarah.

Last Thursday was her first day all together with all 3 kids and apparently, it was a little too much to bear. She called me on Monday night, realizing that having all 3, even just 2 days a week, she would not be able to provide the kind of care she wants to give. She didn't want to leave me "in the lurch" but since my schedule and my mom's schedule are relatively flexible, it worked out to have my mom watch her the rest of the week as well, just through May. By the end of May, Kristine will have some help from some college students home from the summer and once school is out, the other 2 kids will stay at home since both their mothers are teachers.

We're so grateful for Kristine, because she knows her limits and was honest with us. We're glad she's able to watch Sarah just part time, which is quite hard to find! And she's so close (walking distance!) and I can tell she has a heart for child care. She's actually being trained for foster care and will be able to provide a home for some kids in our community when there is a need.

Sarah has really grown a lot this month. Even I can see it! She's been getting some soy formula during the day, since I'm not able to pump the full amount that she wants to eat. She's doing well at going back and forth from the bottle to the boob, so we're able to continue breast feeding. I'm hoping to be able to continue for at least another 3 months, maybe longer.

She's sleeping for about 6 hours at night most nights... but she does sometimes wake up sooner than that. She's very good at just nursing and getting back to sleep, so I don't mind getting up that much. It's actually nice to get rid of the milk I am soaked in...

Her favorite toys these days are mirrors and mobiles. Part of our morning routine involves me getting her all ready, then I put her in her crib to play with her crib mirror for about 20 minutes while I get ready. She's thoroughly amused by it. Many thanks to Lauren for the suggestion of the crib mirror! She also still loves the mobiles above her crib and her swing. Her face lights up and she even puts her hands up, signaling them to rotate. We call them her "friends". as in, "Do you want to play with your friends?" "Whatcha doin' friends? Just hangin.."

Here are her pics! These were taken on April 29th before I went to work (at 6:45 am!) She's a little sleepy...

Sarah - 2 Months

Sarah is 2 months old today! She has been growing steadily, although she's still quite small... We won't have an official weight till next week, but when we put her on our scale at the house, she's 9 pounds.

Developmentally, Sarah seems to be right on track. She smiles and laughs a lot (inherited from both me and Ted). She's fairly good at holding her head up and she can roll from her stomach to her back. She seems to recognize Ted and I, but she still doesn't say "excuse me" when she farts.

She's not sleeping through the night (wakes up about every 3 hours), but she is a pretty good sleeper in general at night. She goes back to sleep after feedings and we usually can sleep off and on from about 11pm - 8am. We still end up having her sleep with us in bed (she falls asleep nursing). Once she's asleep, I can usually move her to her pack n' play next to our bed.

This month I tried giving up dairy to see if it would help Sarah be less fussy. I think it has helped a little, but she still does cry a good amount. Ted was lactose intolerant as a baby and I was allergic to milk as a child so it's very likely that Sarah can't digest dairy products easily.

We took more pictures on the rocker with her "2" block. Of course you know she wasn't calm for the whole shoot, but we got some good shots.


Does this look familiar?


I used a hair dryer to keep her calm and also give her that "wind-blown" look!





Love this one with the grin!

Bear Suit

Sarah has a favorite outfit. It's her bear suit. Our friends Josh Talley and Monica Phillips gave us the bear suit at our couples shower... and we also got a bigger version from Ted's mom. Little did we know how much 2 of them would come in handy!

We first tried her bear suit on her to take her home from the hospital. It was way too big...

Now the bear suit fits perfectly. We first discovered the wonders of the bear suit when we wanted to hang out on the deck with Meagen and Andy Young and it was a little chilly. Sarah had been crying a lot (nothing new!), but when we put this suit on her, she calmed down immediately. Now I put it on her nearly every time she's fussing! So she wears in every day basically. Here are some recent shots of Sarah in her bear suit.

Sarah and her favorite photographer - Meaghan Elliott

Bear suit and the swing - a winning combination!

All Smiles

Sarah has been smiling a lot recently and we know it's not just gas... Here are some shots of her smiling. We're hoping her smiles will increase and fussiness will decrease now that I've given up dairy.

Sarah and her daddy

Sarah and Grandpa Wade

Sarah and Great Abuelita Rivero (Ted's Grandmother)