Five Month Update

Dear Samantha,

We’ve reached the five month mark! You spent the last few weeks checking off a number of your developmental milestones, including the completion of that roll you’ve spent the past couple months attempting. You torqued your little body around until you at last made it from your back to your tummy, where you could finally view everything from right side up, push up a bit with your arms and then… wail because you realize that being on your tummy sucks.

And so went this month of frustration, this period where you are too small to do the things you really want to do like sitting up by yourself or crawling and too big to be content hanging out flat on your back on the floor. It seems to be made even worse by your supreme fascination with your big sister, that ball of fire who races from room to room leaving a trail of stuffed animals in her wake. I’ve heard before that second children try to do everything sooner in order to keep up with their older siblings, but I was not prepared for a five month old baby who so clearly wants to LET IT BEGIN! LET IT BEGIN! To run, dance, draw, and join the tea parties. To drink chocolate milk and eat Lucky Charms. To do anything that doesn’t require a Bumbo Seat to keep you upright.

Fortunately, we were able to appease you a bit with the green light from your doctor to introduce solid foods. Your first couple attempts with rice cereal were clumsy and reminded me of Lana’s first meals, but by feeding number three you were downing the cereal like a pro and trying to grab the spoon out of your father’s slow, slow hands. It took only a couple of tries before you were polishing off an entire package of baby food at each sitting. Your favorites so far are prunes (Lana calls it your chocolate), pears, applesauce, and sweet potatoes. You’ll tolerate squash, carrots, and green beans. You will frown, gag, and refuse to open your mouth if we dare come at you with peas.

Speaking of refusals, what do you have against giggling? Mommy’s love nothing better than the sweet tinkling sound of their babies giggles, you know. WHY WON’T YOU TINKLE FOR MAMA? I did, at least, get to enjoy a couple of authentic giggles for the first time this month. The first one happened while I was getting you ready for bed in your room. You let out a dainty little sneeze and I responded with an AHH CHOO of my own. That struck you as giggle-worthy just long enough for your father to rush into the room and share in the delight of the moment. I spent days after that making sneezing noises like an allergic crazy woman, but got nothing more than a patronizing chuckle out of you. That’s your typical response now when something amuses you -- a quick chuckle that sounds like an old man reacting to a joke at his local Kiwanis Club.

You may laugh like an old dude, my dear, but you’ve got the most precious smile that is all baby. It lights up your whole face and melts my heart every single time I see it. I love you so, so much my precious Samantha Claire.

Love,
Mama

Four Month Update

Dear Samantha,

You turned four months old today and this will undoubtedly go down in our family history as the month of The Great Spit Up. Or, to be more precise, the spit down the back of our shirts, across our laps, on each of the 50 some bibs we own, all over the carpet… basically on everything and everyone besides Lana and Rico, who were wise enough to steer clear. It was a strange development given that for the first three months of your life we barely even needed a burp cloth, much less a tarp. It was also incredibly stressful to watch you go from a happy, content baby focused on learning to use your hands and trying to rollover to a miserable fountain of spit up caught in an endless cycle of eating, retching, and crying.

Your pediatrician diagnosed you with acid reflux and we began administering twice daily doses of Zantac. For another week we saw almost no improvement so I started contemplating radical diet changes including the elimination of all dairy products (the HORROR!). Luckily, the medicine kicked in on day number six and I got my happy baby back without having to sacrifice my love of cheese and ice cream.

Once you returned to us from the spit up-induced funk, you began testing your voice through increasingly loud babbling and squeals. You were eager to join in conversations and your father and I spent more than a few dinners caught in the crossfire between your squeals and Lana’s continuous stream of stories about the latest episode of Diego or the new Barbie and the Mermaid toy on television. I guess that’s what we can expect from dinners for years to come -- a cacophony of girl talk that ends only when you both become surly teenagers with no interest in speaking to us.



Your other main interest this month was the continued decimation of your poor little head. You rubbed it back and forth across your crib mattress, car seat, floor, etc., until the only hair that remained was a couple small patches at the base of your skull and the very top of your head. The sides of your head were often covered in scratches from where you clawed at yourself with those little fingernails that I can‘t seem to keep cut short enough. In fact, you tore at yourself so much this month that your father and I began calling you “Lady Gouga.” (I sincerely hope you won’t get that reference by the time you’re old enough to read this).

Head injuries aside, we ended the month in much better shape than we began it. I’ve spent a ton of time bragging about what an easy baby you are, so this may well have been the Universe telling me, “Don’t get cocky, woman.” I’m sure we’ll have more bumps in the road to come, but we’ll get through them as a family. A family that wouldn’t be the same without you, my precious Samantha.

Love,
Mama

Three Month Update

Dear Samantha,

You turn three months old today. Shortly after writing your two month update in which I complained about your reluctance to sleep at night, I gave my old friend the Miracle Blanket one more shot. I swaddled you up nice and tight, laid you down in your crib, turned on the Sound Spa Lullaby ceiling projection and held my breath as you squirmed around in the blanket. Darned if you didn’t settle down almost immediately and drift peacefully off to sleep. And you stayed asleep for a whopping SEVEN HOURS! I was a new woman after a full night of sleep and you were a new, much happier baby in the morning. Instead of screaming at me to GET YOU A BOTTLE NOW!!! you emerged from your Miracle Blanket stretching calmly and flashing your beautiful, dimpled smile.

Your amazing sleep transformation continued for most of the month, save for one night when you woke up at 3 am. I stumbled into your room and found you almost entirely out of the blanket, waving your arms around and grinning at me like a miniature Houdini. Anyone who has ever used a Miracle Blanket knows they are almost impossible to escape from since they use a baby’s body weight to restrain her arms tightly at her side. And no offense, Sweetie, but you’ve got a lot of body weight to keep that sucker wrapped up tight. Apparently you also have a lot of strength because I wrapped you up even tighter when I laid you down again at 5 am and by 7 am you had busted free once more. You seemed thoroughly amused by your new escape act, but I was downright devastated. Luckily, a switch to Lana’s old, magic Miracle Blanket (instead of the new one scored at a consignment sale) and some aggressive swaddling put a stop to your break outs and you resumed sleeping peacefully through the night for stretches up to 10 hours.

Sleeping through the night not only saved my sanity, but also provided you with the energy to spend more time awake and alert during the day. You thoroughly enjoy sitting in our laps and watching Lana run around, dance, and play. She rarely slows down enough to actually interact with you, but when she does you reward her with some of your brightest smiles. Lana’s done a great job of adjusting to your addition to our family and I know she's very happy to have a baby sister, even if she doesn’t show a ton of interest in you yet. One day we went to pick her up from school and I set you down on the floor in your car seat while I gathered Lana’s things. Several little girls crowded around to see you, and Lana proudly announced, “That’s my Baby Samantha. She’s so cute!”

You’ve also spent some time at the end of this month trying your hardest to roll from your back onto your stomach. You came dangerously close to completing the roll for the first time on my very first day back to work. I guess you were showing off for your grandparents, who were at the house watching you that day. Fortunately, I am still working from home where I can see you throughout the day and make a mad dash downstairs when you start attempting milestones like your first rollover. I’m also incredibly lucky to have some great family to care for you while I work. You have so many people who love you dearly already, my Moon Pie, and none more than me.

Love,
Mama

Two Month Update

Dear Samantha,

Two months old already -- where does the time go? It’s amazing to me that, despite the fact I’m up almost round the clock, the days and weeks are flying by. I spend a lot of time awake at 2am or 4am or sometimes both because you still insist on eating every three hours or so, and only occasionally reward me with a stretch of sleep longer than four hours at night. The old tricks that helped Lana sleep so well so soon seem to have little impact on you. We spike your bottle with rice cereal -- you wolf it down and demand more a few hours later. We swaddle you in a Miracle Blanket -- you grunt and groan until we free you and give you back your much beloved thumbs. You remain a lovely, pleasant, easy to get along with baby and settle down the second a bottle is inserted in your mouth, so I don’t dread the nights the way I did when Lana would scream until my ears bled. But sweet will only get you so far, kid. Mama needs to sleep.

The lack of sleep has, however, become easier to handle due to the emergence of your heart-melting, dimpled smile. I knew from past experience that the time would come when I would reach down to pick you up and you would grace me with a smile that says, “Hey, you’re that woman that pumps milk for me, stays up at night with me, and cleans poop off me. I think I like you.” Sure enough, that moment came at 4am on December 9th and it was even better than I remembered. It sure as hell made the 4am wake up call easier to swallow.

Since then you’ve smiled and cooed and made me yearn for more free time to spend gazing into your sweet, round face. I have no small amount of guilt about the additional demands on my time (most notably your sister) that prevent me from holding you as much as I would like. Fortunately, you demand very little and you have an amazing set of grandparents to help give you the extra attention you deserve. Please know that although I may not always have you in my arms, you are always in my heart.

Love,
Mama