Tomorrow night Gena and I will exchange gifts and open the gift Zoe made us at daycare (we have no idea what it is). Saturday we'll be off to Saint Cloud to have an early Christmas with the Barthelemy family. Sunday we'll be heading out to Montana.
We're a little worried about Sunday. We've had snow in Minnesota 14 of 18 days so far this month and it sounds like the biggest storm yet will start Saturday and carry in to Sunday. So having a 1000 mile drive with a small baby along is going to be a real challenge even without bad weather. The good news is that we have time to go slow if we need to. We'd really like to get the trip over quickly and have a lot of time to spend in Montana but if we're there a day late then so be it.
I'm excited for Zoe to make her first trip to Montana. Other than my parents and my sister she has not yet met any of my family. I'm especially excited for her to meet my grandmother, who will turn 80 next year, and her cousin Ashlynn who was born only 18 days before her.
Mostly I'm excited to share her with all of them. I hope she's not too cranky from the long drive but I feel pretty confident that she'll still charm them the way she's charmed us.
Today Gena and I took Zoe to the pediatrician for her 4 month well check.
We were excited to see her height and weight since we can't weigh her accurately anymore.
Her weight was 14 lbs 11 oz. A little lighter than I might have guessed but still in the 75th percentile.
Her height is now 26 1/4 inches. That's up 5 inches since she was born and 3 inches in the last 2 months. She's in the 97th percentile for height which is an even higher percentile than where she was at 2 months.
I expect that at some point Zoe's height will go back towards average but I would be thrilled if she were a tall woman. 5' 10 would be perfect!
She also got a five shots and some medicine that she had to swallow. I think she took those a little harder than she did at 2 months but the nice side-effect of those is that they make her sleepy so Gena and I went out and had some dinner together and she slept all through our meal.
Daddy checking in.
My grandmother (the greatest grandmother anyone has ever had, no one who has met her disputes this) has an expression, "filling in squares". Basically when you have a new life experience you are filling in a square.
I don't fill in many squares these days but the ones I do fill in are huge. In the past few years I married my best friend, I turned over a digit on the age odometer and I had a daughter. Those were pretty huge squares to fill in.
Zoe fills in squares constantly. Over the past few weeks she slept in a different home for the first time, she rolled over for the first time (way behind her cousin on this one!) she saw snow for the first time and she had many other firsts.
Soon we'll have first Thanksgiving, first Christmas and many more. It's so fun to experience these along with her.
Other fun stuff over the past few weeks:
-We don't let Zoe watch TV but when she can sneak a peek she loves it. She will rotate her head 180 degrees to see the screen and we have to move her so she can't watch it.
-Daycare sends us notes home each day about what Zoe did. This week she was sitting with a boy and trying to hold his hand. Dad gave her a stern talking-to when he found out.
-Zoe's hair is growing back a bit. She has some fine blond hair growing underneath her thinned out original brown hair. She still has a thick patch of brown hair on the lower back of her head. She also seems to have a little birthmark back there.
-Zoe is as chatty as ever but the things she says are getting longer and she's also learning to make consonant sounds in addition to her "ooh", "ahh" and "hi" sounds.
Every day brings something new and it's always fun to find out how she'll change!
Erik and Kari sent us a ladybug costume so Zoe wore that for Halloween.
Zoe has been adjusting pretty well to being at daycare. Mom and Dad are still having a harder time. I never thought I would have an adjustment to make with her going to daycare. I was already used to leaving her every weekday, but I was surprised at how much harder that was when it wasn't Gena I was leaving her with.
Her daycare is great, they take wonderful care of her but it still hurts my heart a little when I drop her off every morning.
On the upside she gets more fun to be with every day. She is so responsive now, she smiles and coos at us when we talk or sing to her. She's really quite a good girl. We rarely have a problem getting her to bed at night, even if we lay her in bed before she's asleep. She usually gives Gena about 8-9 hours before she needs to be fed and we don't usually have extended fussy periods.
I feel like Zoe gets a little cuter every day but one area where she's not getting cuter is her hair. She's lost a lot of it off the top but the lower part of the back of her head still has a thick patch of hair. We call it the Costanza look. She might have some fine blonde hairs growing in underneath the last bit of dark hair.
I'm really loving being a dad. It's a ton of exhausting work but I feel like my capacity for emotion has doubled. It makes me appreciate my parents more and it makes me love my wife more. Sometimes I can't believe it's only been three months but at that the same time I feel like I can't remember a time when I didn't have her.
Mommy here. Last week was my first week back to work and it went better than I expected. I think I cried every day for a week leading up to my first day back (in anticipation of having to be away from Zoe). When we dropped her off on Monday, she looked at us from the arms of the director and started to cry as we were leaving, which of course made me start to cry, but I regained my composure pretty quickly. I was able to visit her over the lunch hour every day, which helped a lot. From what I can tell, they are doing a great job with her. Daycare sent us a couple of photos of her sleeping and laughing.
Zoe has slept really well lately going 8-9 hours several nights, so I am very lucky and thankful to get some much needed sleep of my own.
I have been slowly getting back into the swing of things at work as well. It's actually nice to have an adult environment again. I continue to breast feed Zoe so I am pumping at work - not sure how long I will be able to last as it is very time consuming and doesn't fit with my schedule very well - lots of juggling. I keep a photo of her in my pumping bag so I can be reminded why I am doing it:-)
Zoe officially outgrew the culinary scale when we tried to weigh her in the salad bowl on Saturday so we can only assume she is now over 13 pounds. She is a very long baby and is wearing her six month clothing if only for the length.
Dad checking in again.
Zoe Belle turned 2 months old yesterday. Today we had her two month pediatric checkup. They checked her weight and height, she's 23 1/4 inches and 11 lbs 13 oz. Her had is 16 inches. Each measurement is in the 75-90% range for her age. She was weighed on an empty stomach so I think she might actually be a bit heavier.
The doctor is not concerned about her hip development which could have been a problem since she was breech.
After that the technician came and gave her four vaccinations. She turned beet red and screamed but calmed down pretty quickly afterwards. Mom left the room while she got her shots which was probably a good idea.
We also went to her daycare to fill out some paper work and get ready for her first day which will be three weeks from today. She'll be in daycare with a girl named Alpha, a girl named Ivy and a boy named Vegas... OK. It's a great day care though, it will be hard to leave her but we think she'll be in good hands.
Zoe's two favorite places are her changing pad and the salad bowl... yes, the salad bowl.
She loves to lay on her changing pad and look at the wall hangings. She hates getting dressed or having her diaper changed but when she just gets to lay there she has a blast.
She also loves being in the plastic salad bowl. We put her in there before bath time so we can weigh her. Today she was 11lbs 5 oz. She puts on a few ounces every week. Mom feeds her well! She might not fit in that bowl for much longer.
She didn't like baths the first few times but now she seems to enjoy it and it's a fun time for us.
She is getting more fun day by day, she still has her cranky times but fewer of them and she's smiling and cooing much more. When we do have cranky times she enjoys dancing with either of us and seems to show preference for certain types of music. She likes Radiohead, so we're good there!
Gena was getting a little restless on Friday so she brought Zoe in to my office. She got to meet some of my coworkers and we had lunch together. It was great fun to see them there.
Hi everyone - Mommy here. It's been a long time since I've been able to update the blog...this cute little baby keeps me pretty busy. Things are going well. Zoe is growing like crazy (11 lbs. 2 oz. on Saturday when we weighed her on Brian's culinary scale in a salad bowl). She is also getting easier to deal with and I am getting a little better at it as well. Life is not without its challenges, but I am enjoying her more every day and she is smiling on purpose now and starting to coo, which is about as cute as can be. We try to get out and go for walks most days - when we're lucky, Susan, a friend of mine from work, walks with us around Lake Cornelia in Edina over her lunch break and gives me a little adult conversation:-) I have attempted to run with the stroller a couple of times now, but I tire out pretty quickly and am only going about a half mile at a time before I have to walk. I suppose I'll get back to running eventually, but for now my body is not cooperating the way I would like it to.
Zoe is starting to lose some of her beautiful hair now - she has a little bit of a receding hairline. I am still getting up with her a couple of times a night to feed her (breastfeeding) and we take naps together sometimes during the day with her on my chest (she doesn't like to be put down). I keep trying to put her down in her bouncer and swing, but it usually doesn't last too long before she wants to be picked up again and she almost never sleeps in them so she is developing my biceps for me. She and I also dance together regularly in the living room because she loves listening to music and seems to really enjoy the movement - it's the only thing that will calm her down sometimes.
Brian is a great dad. He calls to check on us a couple of times a day and is in love with this cute little baby. On days when I want to throw her out the window (yes, there are those days when she will not stop crying), Brian comes home and takes over to give me a much needed break and he is a pro diaper changer, etc.
I have been to work a couple of times to show Zoe off and will try to visit Brian at work one of these days as well. I will be going back to work on Oct. 20 and Zoe will go to daycare down the street at New Horizons. Like most moms, I am a little worried about daycare - I just want them to be nice to her - but I'm sure everything will be fine as they seemed really wonderful when we were going through the selection process. I imagine I will be a complete wreck when the day comes and will probably be going through big time withdrawl, but I must admit I do miss regular adult interaction and aspects of my job. We'll see how I feel in five weeks...
Guess that's all for now - thanks for checking in!
Gena has been feeling a little bad because she has gotten so many phone calls that she hasn't returned.
We want to let everyone know that phone calls are very much welcomed but understand that between naps and feedings even getting a shower is a luxury so it's not always easy to get to returning phone calls.
Just remember that we don't answer the phone if it's not convenient and we don't have the phones on when we're sleeping. So feel free to call, we want to hear from you. But please don't feel offended if we don't answer or don't follow up right away.
They had all wanted to meet her so much and we're glad they finally got the chance. Zoe still has to meet Miranda, Elise and Lauren.
