Official Stats

Caroline went to the doctor yesterday, and we have the new official stats. She is 17 pounds even, which is 75th percentile for weight, and she's 27 1/4 inches long, which is 90th percentile for height, according to the doctor's charts, which are based on formula-fed babies. According to my WHO chart based on breastfed babies, she's in about the 65th percentile for weight and the 97th for height! She's my tall, skinny girl!

Last night, we went to the Outback Steakhouse for Jimmy's birthday. Caroline was happy in her carseat for about 20 minutes, but after that, she wanted out, so I held her the rest of the meal. It was a big grab fest from then on out! First, she reached for my margarita, but I didn't want to share :-) Then she went for my water glass. I did let her have a little sip, but she didn't really know what to do after the water went into her mouth, so she just sort of let it dribble down her chin. Next, she reached for the steak knife. I don't think so! Finally, I decided to let her play with one of those cardboard coasters, figuring it was pretty harmless. Well, she managed to bite off a small chunk of the corner and swallow it! Yikes! But given her reaction to that compared to the rice cereal we've given her the last several nights, I'd say that cardboard must have tasted better!

When we got home, we tried some bananas, and those were definitely more popular than the cereal or the avocado I've given her the last couple of nights. She kept sticking out her tongue and trying to lick the spoon, but she hasn't quite figured out that she needs to open her mouth so we can spoon the food in. I think she got a couple of decent bites into her, though, and she held off on blowing raspberries until after she had swallowed the last little bit, so last night's dinner was a much cleaner affair than the one before!

What a cutie!

Wow, three updates in less than a week! I'm on a roll!

I told Jimmy several days ago that Caroline seems to be a little quieter than Anna was at this age. Anna babbled NONSTOP, and honestly, she hasn't shut up for a single moment since she was Caroline's age! So the other day, I commented on how Caroline just doesn't babble like Anna did.

Apparently Caroline heard me and decided she could NOT be outdone by Big Sister! Over the last two days, she has been doing a lot more babbling. Today in Sunday school, she had everyone in stitches because she talked and laughed and blew raspberries the whole time. Then we went out to lunch after church, and she embarked on a one-sided dialogue that was almost embarrassing in its volume. She's saying lots of "buh" and "bah" and "mah" sounds (yes, I've even heard a couple of Mamas in there, but Jimmy refuses to let them "count"!), and she peppers her "speech" with lots of squeals and squeaks. It's hilarious.

She also learned a new trick at dinner tonight. I tried to feed her some avocado, which was not exactly a hit. After a couple of bites, she decided that thrusting the green mess out with her tongue was not efficient enough, so she decided to try blowing a raspberry instead. So with each bite, she would wait until I pulled the spoon away from her mouth, and then....pphhhhhhbbbbbbttttttt! Green slime all over the place! I have to give her credit for coming up with it so quickly. I think it took Anna at least a month of eating solids before she figured out that trick!

A week of firsts

Caroline seems to have hit a "maturity spurt" over the last week or so and has had a lot of firsts. Monday morning, she cut her first two teeth. They are the front bottom ones, and they are SHARP! She's still trying to chew on whatever comes within her reach, so I've gotten my finger chomped on several times now. I've been amazed at how fast the teeth are growing. Monday, they weren't even really visible, but you could feel the little ridges just above the gumline. Today, you can see them poking above her gums if she opens her mouth. They're so cute, but I already miss her little toothless grin!

Caroline has also learned to sit pretty well on her own this week. Previously, she could balance for a few seconds if I sat her up just right, but she usually fell over fairly quickly. But yesterday afternoon, while we were waiting for Anna's bus, I set her on a towel on the front lawn, and she sat really well for over a minute! She also sat on the living room floor last night for Daddy.



Since Caroline will be six months old tomorrow, we decided to go ahead and start some solids with her yesterday. I was originally going to start with avocado rather than cereal because it actually has some nutritional value (cereal is mostly empty calories), but the avocado I bought several days ago still felt a little firm, so we did some cereal mixed with breastmilk instead. Last night, she actually seemed to like it pretty well and ate about a tablespoon. Tonight when I tried it again, though, she made a disgusted face and refused to eat much. She might have swallowed a tiny bit, but most of it came right back out as soon as I put it in! Anna thinks it's hilarious when she spits her food out!



We've also had some great advances in sleeping over the last few weeks. Around the time I posted about all of our sleep issues, I came across some information about the "4 month sleep regression". According to what I've read, it's very common for babies to become terrible sleepers around the time they're 4 months old, and Caroline is apparently the poster child for this problem. Apparently, this can cause a real problem because many parents decide they have to "do something" about a baby's sleep habits around 4 months because that's the point at which sleep deprivation really starts to wear on you as well. Because of this, lots of parents and babies get really frustrated because the parents are trying to train the baby to sleep at exactly the time that the baby is developmentally programmed to start waking up every half hour or so. Supposedly, most babies are ready to fall back into some more agreeable sleep patterns around 5 months or so.

So just after Caroline turned 5 months old, we started some gentle sleep "training" with her. I'm not a big fan of sticking a baby in a room to cry for hours by him/herself, so for us, this meant that Jimmy started going in if she woke up right after I put her down, rather than me going in and nursing her back to sleep. The first night, she cried for a while, but he managed to calm her down and get her back to sleep. After a few nights, I guess she figured it wasn't worth waking up if she didn't get to nurse, and she started sleeping 5 hours or so before waking! Woo-hoo! She's also going to sleep now without having to be nursed into a coma first, and we've been able to stop swaddling her. She's actually taking naps in the co-sleeper next to our bed instead of the swing now, too. She does occasionally cry a bit after I put her down for a nap or bed, but she rarely cries more than 3-5 minutes, and it's usually more of a "winding down" sort of cry than an outright screaming fit. She's now sleeping at night from about 9-2 and then from about 2:30-5:30 or 6:00, which is a vast improvement over the constant waking from a month ago.

We have a doctor's appointment Monday morning for the official stats. According to my scale, she's weighing somewhere between 16.5-17 pounds, but I have no idea how tall she is these days. It's definitely getting harder and harder to carry her around in the carseat (which adds about 10 pounds on top of the baby weight!), so we do a lot of baby wearing because it's more comfortable. Caroline also seems to like to be up where the action is. Here's a picture of her "helping" Daddy grill burgers the other night.



She also loves to give and receive kisses. Anna managed to capture this one of Caroline kissing me the other day. I just love sweet baby kisses!

Celebrity Baby Sighted in Houston Suburb!

This particular celebrity has been spotted at various malls, grocery stores, and shopping centers in the greater Houston area. It is suspected that she is hiding out in a Houston suburb, spending her time napping and enjoying chauffeured rides in a silver minivan.

Yes, Pebbles Flintstone is alive and well. You may remember the child star from her role in the Saturday morning cartoon The Flintstones.



Here is the star today. She appears to have aged well!



Miss Flintstone has been attempting to travel incognito to avoid the paparazzi, but one astute photographer snapped this picture while she was traveling with her entourage.



When asked if she has anything new in the works, the star commented, "Aaaahhhh baba bebob mamamada brrrrr pbbbbbbt."