Baby Marin | Week Forty Three (10 Months)

As of today, Marin is ten months old. I feel like this week has been super crazy and I have been running all over the place for work and the holidays. Lots of parties, events, meetings. All good things, but I am very glad to have a Thursday at home with this little gal. She is currently napping like a little champ.

She is extra drool-y today and we are still awaiting the arrival of a tooth. Someday it will happen. Someday.

Marin discovered the kitty door today that is in the door in our kitchen that leads out to our garage. That is not a place for babies and she knows that she isn't allowed out there. That realization makes it even more a part of her little baby agenda. Any chance she gets, she crawls as fast as she can to reach the kitty door. Geoff the cat just kind of looks at her like, "Hey, that's my room!"

She has surprised us lately and has been sleeping in later than usual. We didn't roll out of bed until after 8am today. The days of waking up at 3am or 5am have left us, at least for now. It has been a nice, welcomed change.

(A gal and her kitty buddy.) 

I can't wait for this time next week when Marin gets to experience her very first Christmas. I think she will enjoy the wrapping paper and boxes almost more than the gifts themselves. She was totally entertained with tissue paper for a very long time while I was wrapping gifts the other day. Simple distractions.

Week Forty Three. Ten Months.

Baby Marin: Week Thirty Five

Fall is my favorite season of all and sharing it with Marin has been a blast. Today she experienced playing in some leaves for the first time. Her ultimate goal is to taste all of them and I have to watch her closely. She taunts Geoff, who is stuck inside, and he just looks out at us, pissed off that he is behind a screen. 

About an hour after we took these photos, I realized there is a massive raccoon just hanging out in our backyard. The raccoon is bigger than our cat. I think he's living underneath our porch. Great. 

We also had another first yesterday evening. Marin took a ride in a shopping cart for the first time sans her car seat. Target was a new land full of treasures (her mom feels the same way and so does her bank account.)  I think it's nice for her to not only be able to see the ceiling tiles whenever we go anywhere. 

Still no teeth but she's been pretty easy going the past few days. Nap time today has been awesome. We are currently on round two and she didn't fight either one of them. Amen and hallelujah. 

I love being able to experience simple, everyday things through the eyes of a child. 

Week Thirty Five. 

Baby Marin: Week Eighteen

I usually post this little post on Tuesdays. It is now Thursday. That should probably indicate that our lives have been quite busy this week. So, alas, we find ourselves in week eighteen of Marin's little existence on this earth.

I feel like our child has changed completely in the past few days. She had her 4 month well check exam last friday. She now weighs in a 12 lbs, 1.5 oz and is 24 inches long. She still handles the shots probably better than I even would but that still is so hard to watch you child go through. Luckily, Ryan is always there with me and he is far tougher than I am. We have also gotten the green light to start introducing solid foods. I don't even know really where to begin in that whole process and I want to do a lot of research before hand. Do you start with rice cereal? Do you not? How do you make your own baby food? What is best for baby? So many questions. I am excited for this new part of our lives though. I envision many days of food being thrown all over our little home and running down Marin's little chin. It will be an adventure, that I am sure of.

Marin has most definitely discovered that she can make an array of sounds. In the past week alone, she has become so much more vocal than before. Even now, she is swinging next to me making sounds that sound somewhat like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. She is becoming so much more aware of her surroundings, strong and alert. Tummy time doesn't seem to be the worst thing ever in her mind any longer. Toys that are nearby will probably find themselves somewhere in the vicinity of her drooly mouth. No toy is safe. Soon our cat, Geoff, will no longer be able to just sneak by without a tug of the tail. Stroller rides are her jam.

She is growing up so quickly.

I am looking forward to introducing the solid foods, to hearing the new sounds that come out of her mouth on a daily basis, to many more stroller rides.

Week Eighteen.

Baby Marin: Week Eight

Week Eight. On Friday, our child will be 2 months old. This has probably been the most challenging two months of our entire lives but I don't doubt for a second that we were meant to live in this season of being new parents. Parenthood is changing me. I feel a reshaping of so many things, deep inside my tired bones. I will never be the same. This little girl has already taught us so much and this is only the beginning. 

I am a little nervous for our 2 month appointment with her on friday due to the vaccinations, but I am looking forward to finding out how much she weighs now and all of the other ways she is growing up far too quickly. 

Everyday brings new things. More fussy afternoons. More diaper blowouts. More smiles and giggles. More time spent awake then asleep. Marin is growing bit by bit by bit. 

Marin at 2 Months (Week 8) 

1. Smiles at us a lot with her big, gummy grin.
2. Calms herself by bringing her hands to her mouth and sucking on hands. 
3. Turns her head towards sounds
4. Pays attention to faces and can pick Ryan and I out of a group of people fairly quickly. 
5. Gets fussy if she is bored. Or hungry. Or wet. 
6. Holds head up and is beginning to push upward during tummy time. 
7. Smoother movement of legs and arms
8. Sleeps through the night every couple of nights or wakes up only once to nurse. (Hallelujah!) 

Mama at 2 Months

1. I've slowly started exercising again. It feels good to do something other than sitting and nursing a baby all of the time. (I'm still doing that though.) There is a long road ahead of me, destination: losing the baby weight and then some. It's a big process.
2. I've slept through the night a few times and always wake up surprised when Marin is waking up around 6 or 7 am, not 3 or 4 am. 
3.  I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that maternity leave is ending soon. But, there is hope on the horizon: I am proposing that I go to part time at my place of work. I think it is a great step for my little family.  
4.  I finally am wearing normal pants again. Not the size I would like, but there's no maternity band and I am fine with that. 

Dad at 2 Months 

1. He still is the best diaper changer and baby-burper on the block. He gets up with me for one of the feedings at night if Marin is up at that point. 
2. This man can swaddle our baby better than I can any day. 
3.  He will spend his first day flying solo with the baby next week when I go back to work for a few days.  
4. I am amazed by his calmness and clarity towards our child (especially when mom is frazzled) and how he loves her. He's swell. He's a great dad and I am so glad I get to do all of this with him. 

Bath Time. A little blurry, but I don't care. 

Baby Marin: Week Six

Six weeks. Week six. I now have only 35 days until I return back to work full time. Who's counting? Clearly I am. Clearly I'm not fully ready to return just yet. I want to just hang out with my kid all day, write my blog, work on some other business ventures, and scrub my kitchen. That sounds good to me.  I plan to embrace the next 35 days with gusto, with determination, with a focused passion for the little details in the everyday and to witness every little change in our little girl as she continues to grow far too quickly. I want to soak it all in.

This week is going to be a good one. My first order of Doterra oils should be arriving on my doorstep any day now. I had my 6 week postpartum appointment yesterday and I plan to dive head first into really exercising again. So far it's just been little walks here and there. I'm ready for some intensity in my workouts, to really feel it the next day. It's been a while, that's for sure. My jeans (well, not my old jeans, the ones that are a way larger size than I'd like at the moment) still don't fit well. Nothing fits well. It's true what they say: your post-pregnancy body is very different from your pre-pregancny body. Even though I'm slowly losing the weight, everything has settled different. Jean shopping isn't one my favorite things right now. Yoga pants are lovely. Elastic is my friend.

Marin is still growing like a weed. I am always surprised in the morning when I sit down to nurse her and realize that she feels bigger than the night before. Every time she smiles, Ryan and I can't help but comment on how adorable our child is. We made that. We are some proud parents, that's for sure. No shame in that, right?

We are so close to sleeping through the night. Sunday night she slept from about 9:30pm to almost 5:00am! Hallelujah! I know going into week six, we will probably see a growth spurt which is probably going to alter our sleep schedule yet again, but I'm rejoicing while I can. I feel far more like a functioning human being now that I'm sleeping a little more every night. Thank you, baby. Thank you.

We are still working on getting rid of cradle cap and baby acne. My current remedy is coconut oil, which seems to be helping far more than anything else we've tried. I'm also going to try altering my diet a bit this week and see if that helps. I love me some dairy: yogurt, cheese, milk, etc. But, it could be affecting her skin? I'm also going to try and back away from stuff that's too spicy (I will maybe have put a hold on the sriracha that I just bought. Sad day.) Maybe it will help, maybe it won't. There seems to be a lot of opinions out there on the subject. There's a lot of trial and error when it comes to breast feeding.

Our little girl is 42 days old. 42 days. She'll be in college before we know it. I don't want to blink and miss anything.