Long day.

We've had a really long day...

Started off with a doctor's appointment for Aoife. She's doing everything she should be and now weighs 16 pounds. She's really worked on sitting up and rolling this week, so I guess it's time to get a move on babyproofing!

We spent the afternoon helping Aoife's Great Grandparents unpack boxes and move in to their new apartment at the Masterpiece in Pointe-Claire.  We still have about 60 boxes to unpack tomorrow and over the weekend.  We are so pleased that they decided to move, so we don't mind about the unpacking though.  Aoife was a real champ through the whole day, and played by herself with her toys while we tried to set the place up.

Fitting in at daycare.

Aoife finally seems to be getting in to the groove of daycare.  When I went to pick her up today, she was sitting up playing with the other kids.  No crying at Mimi either.  She also drank some milk (2.5oz) which is way better than none, which is what she had been drinking before...not sure if there's just too much action around her to eat or if she just wasn't ready to take a bottle from Mimi.  I wish I didn't have to take her every day, but it's easier if I know that she's doing ok while she's there.

Chicken was a big hit at dinner tonight.  She's getting really good at breaking off big chunks of food, but not so great at chewing and then swallowing.  I guess some teeth would help, but I'm not in a rush...for my sake....

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Aoife is six months old today!  Where did the time go?

She had a fun morning at daycare and was full of smiles when I arrived to pick her up.  We went to our first Baby Sign Language class and learned a few useful signs for Mummy, Daddy, milk, more, eat, and so on.  It seems like it's going to be a lot of fun, although signing while singing may prove to be too complicated for me.....The key will be getting in to the habit of signing all week at home.

A conversation we had today:

Mama: "Aoife, today you're 6 months old.  To celebrate, we're gonna take a really good nap!"

Aoife: "Ha-na-na-da-da-da.....La-la-na-na-da....Naaaaaaaaaaaaaa-nan-na.....da-da-da"  (All the while, poking me in the eye and trying to relieve me of my lower lip...)

We did get to take a nap and it was great.

For dinner, Aoife had broccoli, carrot, and rice.  Not much was eaten, but she had a lot of fun with it.  Mummy and Daddy celebrated her 1/2 birthday with some 19 month old wedding cake.  It was surprisingly awesome for having spent all that time in the freezer!

Tongue-tied no more....

Yesterday was a big day for Aoife and I.  Actually the past month has been pretty busy with trying to figure out her slower weight gain. I started taking domperidone to increase the supply of breastmilk and it  has worked very well. Aoife gained 2 pounds from December 3rd to January 3rd, which is amazing for a 5 month old baby.

A couple weeks ago we met another lactation consultant who agreed that Aoife might be tongue-tied given the whole picture of the problems with breastfeeding and her slow weight gain.  We finally had an appointment with a dentist yesterday who confirmed the situation and clipped her tongue tie.  It was quite a traumatic experience for the baby who of course was not expecting that at all.  It took her a few minutes to latch on after the procedure and she was shocked and angry for quite a while.  The dentist had used some topical anesthetic on her, so she had some relief when that kicked in and I gave her a dose of Tylenol right away.  In the afternoon an evening, she refused to breastfeed unless we were in the bathtub.  While I usually love taking baths, I wasn't relishing the thought of running a bath every few hours during the night...thankfully she was able to drink from a bottle with less pain.
This morning she started breastfeeding again and seems to be more comfortable.  We have to stretch her tongue 3 times a day which she does not appreciate, but I'd rather do it right than have to have the tongue clipped again.  I already notice a difference with her latch, and feeding her is already more comfortable than it has ever been.  We are seeing way more of her tongue sticking out of her mouth and already are hearing some "harder" letter sounds like "ta ta ta" and "da da da".  Keeping our fingers crossed for more improvement in the coming weeks.

Aoife has learned to sit quite steadily in the last couple weeks:

She can reach for toys and get them in to her mouth and stay up all at the same time.  I think she really enjoys the new angle on life.

She is also really enjoying her exersaucer now.  She plays with all the toys and has started to bounce in it too.

Swimming lessons started last weekend at Pointe-Claire pool.  The pool is heated quite warm so that it is comfortable for the little ones.  Here's Aoife and her dad at her lesson.  I think they both really enjoyed it!

Not a great blogger...

We have had a very busy time in the last couple of weeks.  I should really try harder at blogging because we could have had quite a few posts recently.

My awesome sister and niece came to visit us at American Thanksgiving.  They were meeting Aoife for the first time and she loved them!

Here we are together.  It was great to see them and we had  great weekend.  The Thanksgiving meal was extravagant, as usual, way too much food.

 They arrived on Aoife's 4 month birthday.  I can't believe 4 months have passed already.  It seems so fast.

And so much has changed, as you can see from the pictures!

We've been struggling a bit with a decreased milk supply, due to the return of my period (yes, that was my 4 month birthday gift...)  Aoife has been having trouble sleeping for a couple of weeks and has slowed down her weight gain a little bit.  She has dropped from the 75th percentile for weight, to around the 40th. I finally figured out why and we've been working on supply with a couple of supplements: Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle.  Things seem to be going back to normal, but I will be keeping a close eye on this.  It is also possible that part of the slowed weight gain is just part of the normal process for breastfed babies.  Apparently they pack on the pounds for the first 3 months and then slow down a bit. Also, her parents aren't exactly giants, either. :)

Aoife met Santa for the first time last week. She really liked grabbing his beard.  Had to stop her from pulling it off!

Milestones: Aoife rolled from her tummy to her back on the weekend. She's also enjoying being on her tummy a lot more and being a lot more active in general (think Jolly Jumper...) She has started using a pacifier when she is tired, and that's helping me to get her into her bed for naps.

That's all for now! I will try to do this a lot more often.

Snow!

Aoife's first snowstorm!

First snow of the season today, and it was a pretty good accumulation.  5-10 centimeters.  We took a photo to remember it.

Aoife's been doing really well with the bottle.  She's had a bottle every day since Sunday.  Next step is to see if she'll take one from me...

Stand-Off

So today was the bottle stand-off with Aoife.  Except that it wasn't a stand-off...

We woke this morning at around 9:15.  Well, Aoife had been up since about 7:45, randomly screaming in her sleep.  So she and Alex were in the rocking chair when I came out at 9:15.  She woke up, super happy, apparently unaware of the sleep-screaming that she had been doing.  I fed her and then left the house, feeling extremely guilty for leaving her for a day of screaming at the bottle. My mom was going to come over to help.
I went to meet Julie for some breakfast and shopping, and then Val joined us a bit later on.
At 12:25, I received this text message: "She took the bottle like it was normal.  Screamed when we took it away.  Go figure."

Seriously?
We've been working on this for weeks. She would scream and scream and scream until no sound was coming out. My mom just lays her down on the couch and she drinks a bottle like she had been doing it forever?

So, I continued shopping and had a massage.  It was great.  By the end of the day, she had drank every last milliliter that I had left in the fridge.

When I got home, she looked at me like "Oh, you came back! I'm so happy!"  It was such a relief to walk in to a quite house, no screeching.  She was ready to eat and latched back on like a champ.  She was ok.  It went so much better than I had expected.  Hopefully she might do this again!