A Week Of Firsts And Lasts

Date: Saturday February 24, 2007
Posted in: Family

Hello!

As I stated in my title, it’s been a week of firsts and lasts. Mostly of firsts, and I’ve been contemplating how to organize this post. How better than a list? We all know that I love me some lists. Mmm….lists.

1. Emily has been a big show off. She pulled all sorts of tricks for Nana. She’s at the point where she will roll over IMMEDIATELY after you lay her on her back. Changing her has been so much FUN *sarcasm*. As if the rolling weren’t enough; she has started arching her back. Anytime I put her in a chair I have to secure the safety straps and the straight jacket. Awesome. Where did my floppy newborn go?

2. Emily had another first. RICE CEREAL. Yep. All week Mom kept telling me how she gave me Pablum pretty much from Day One and it helped me sleep. Sleep has never really been a problem for Miss Emily. On Friday, however, she was a little cranky after her mid-afternoon feeding. That’s when my milk is the poopiest, so I gave the cereal a try. I thought that she’d likely not be interested.

I WAS WRONG.

She would actually grab my hand with the spoon and bring it to her mouth. It was like she thought she had discovered the most amazing taste on the planet and could I please HURRY UP AND SHOVE IT IN HER MOUTH? I told her that she had NO IDEA. There’s this thing called chocolate and it’s WAY BETTER than rice cereal. First things first, however.

3. Emily also had a “negative” first. Her first bout of teething. She’s been drooling and gnawing on everything in sight for a few weeks now. Friday night she had a rough night. She was up THREE TIMES. Now that she did that, I feel safe to tell you of her usual nighttime routine without fear of Murphy’s Law kicking in. She’s been sleeping 11-12 hours at night. I KNOW. I’m lucky. Which is why I haven’t mentioned it. The teething has wrecked her streak, and I am a little more tired than usual. I hope they just all come in at once and save us the drawn-out drama that teething can be.

4. Now you’re wondering, ”What is one of the lasts?” Let me tell you. On Friday I went grocery shopping while Emily was sleeping. I called Matthew to ask what he wanted for dinner. He suggested ribs and told me he’d get them out of the freezer and start the slow cooking process. Great. While driving home, I remembered that ribs were what we had for dinner the night I came down with the stomach flu. I saw a lot of the ribs coming back up. I thought it might be OK, but once I smelled them I knew it was NOT OK. Matthew couldn’t eat them either, since he got to clean out my barf-bowl. Ribs are officially off of the menu at our house.

February is a tricky month. One day Spring will bat her eyelashes at you and tease you like only she knows how. We had a couple of days this week where it was sunny. It was so nice out that I went jacket-free. It was SUNNY! And WARM! And I may have been A LITTLE EXCITED! Then it got cold again. It is February, after all. The warmer days have been good in that we all got outside, Emily included. We had all three kids in the swing set, and they loved every minute of it. Here’s some picture proof.

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My Mommy has now gone home and we are getting back to our normal routine. Here’s hoping that Emily’s sleeping routine gets back to normal too. If not, I just may hook some caffeinated DC to an intravenous.

***Edited to add:

Miss Emily made a few wimpers, but didn’t wake up until morning. I went in to get her, looked over the railing, and saw that she had moved to the other end of the crib from where I laid her. She had turned 180 degrees and moved down towards the other end. Crazy.


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Count your blessings….even now there are nights when I am up with my kids…and when the girls were Miss Emily’s age… they were up 4 -5 times a night. Coffee was my best friend!! How does one make a baby that sleeps?????

Comment by Anita on February 24th, 2007 @ 10:08 pm

Miss Emily is sure movin’ right along! I hope she goes back to those long stretches of sleep for you…. ahhhh sweet sleep! Better make that latte a little stronger for the next few weeks eh?

Comment by bethany on February 24th, 2007 @ 10:15 pm

Do you remember if Emily was tired or crying right before that picture was taken? It looks like she has the same mark on her forehead between her eyes that I did/do.

Comment by reddirtroad on February 24th, 2007 @ 10:51 pm

Hi Angella,
Coming out of the woodwork to say that my friend gave all 3 of her babies cereal (only about a teaspoon) starting at 2 months! I thought she was crazy. But now who’s the mama with a 9-month old still waking up 2x in the night? Me. And her 11 month old sleeps like a charm. I think you’re on to something there.

I’m a friend of Ashley’s in PR and have enjoyed reading your blog. You’re a great story teller!

Comment by Rachel on February 24th, 2007 @ 11:17 pm

Wow, what a lot of firsts for Miss Emily!! Sorry about the teething though, that sucks. My boys both started teething really early (like at 2 months of age) and both got their first teeth before they were 4 months old. FUN! I hope things improve and you get back to the looooong 11-12h of sleep - you lucky thing!

Lovely photos, too. Looks like warmer weather is on its way! :-)

Comment by Hannah on February 24th, 2007 @ 11:28 pm

Teething is rotten, you feel so bad for them.
Its nice to have a sleeper. It makes things so much easier. Hopefully she will get back on track soon.
Sounds like an exciting week!

Comment by Kacie on February 25th, 2007 @ 12:11 am

That is exciting about all those firsts! I imagine with Emily being so active she enjoys the full tummy feeling of cereal. My son LOVED his food from day one and still does. I sure hope (for your sake) that Emily gets back to better sleeping. Little Caileigh has been “off” lately too. I guess I can’t blame teeth though. Must be gas! LOL

Comment by Ashley on February 25th, 2007 @ 8:05 am

Is no else really sad for you about the ribs????

We had BBQ’d greek ribs last night and I just polished the rest off for lunch.

No ribs would be a very SAD thing but I know what you mean, once you’ve seen the same batch twice… not so good anymore.

Comment by Kami on February 25th, 2007 @ 10:27 am

I’m sorry but I have to laugh at the rib thing. Ahhh the list of things I can eat being slowly whittled away… I’ll bet that after a good chunk of time those ribs are back on the list, it just takes time to forget.. or (in my case) get brave enough.

Comment by Elizabeth on February 25th, 2007 @ 11:24 am

LAuren tried her first rice cereal a short time go and LOVED it, too! Megan and Kayla both could have cared less for solid food. Another first and last coming your way: The sweeter (if you can call it that) smelling poop will be gone and the new ‘real’ poop smell that comes with ‘food’ should hit soon. I had forgotten how food makes the baby’s poop change.

Awesome pictures, also, as per usual!!:)

Comment by Vicki on February 25th, 2007 @ 2:18 pm

sounds like quite the week!

Comment by Adele on February 26th, 2007 @ 11:31 am

I’m so glad you had a good week with your mom visiting! Sounds like it was pretty eventful too…YAY for Emily sleeping at night (minus the teething spurts). It’s literally been a week since Baby J found his thumb and has slept through the night. What a dream come true…a full nights SLEEP!!!

Your kiddies are cute…and your lucky you’ve been able to get outside just a little. There’s still so much snow here that we’re all getting a little of the ‘cabin fever’! Spring will come soon I hope for all our sakes!

Comment by Tanneal on February 26th, 2007 @ 12:19 pm