Like Mother Like Daughter?

My mom just sent a photo of me when I was 6 weeks old.  I have to say that up until now I though Lyric looked exactly like Keith as a baby.  Now I can actually see her resemblance to me.  I converted both photos to black and white so color isn’t a distraction.

Wow I had a  lot of hair!

Random Weekend Stuff

This weekend we went to Civic Center Park where the March for Babies was happening. This is my 2nd year taking photos of the event and some families(which you’ll see on the Picture The Day blog in a day or so) and Keith and Lyric came along for the ride. Then we went to a few furniture stores to look for furniture for Lyric’s room. We found a few interesting pieces but overall the pickin’s are slim. Out of curiosity I just checked online to see what Ikea has, but at $300+ in shipping it’s doubtful that we will get any of those pieces. They have some great ideas in terms of functionality though.

We also stopped by the baby store and picked up the stroller we finally decided on since we had a coupon for it :).  It’s the stroller that goes with the car seat that we got and we really like it because it is not too bulky and it’s easy to open and close. Once Lyric is 6 months old we can use the seat that comes with it and it’s cool that it reclines and can face forward or face us.

Saturday evening we just hung out at home doing boring stuff, but I took a few pictures of Lyric and Keith that I thought were cute. Keith asked me how to use the Moby Wrap so he could satisfy Lyric’s want to be held, but also get some office cleaning done. Here they are using the wrap-

Sunday we hung out around the house and then in the evening we took a walk on the trail that goes around the neighborhood. We were both tense as we started walking and argued about petty things like how fast we should walk etc., but by the end of the 90 minute walk we had gotten some much needed exercise, talked about the challenges we each face in our new parenting roles, and about some new business ventures that we plan to take.

Lyric kept us on our toes by crying if we stopped walking. Midway through the walk she napped and then woke up in time for the final 10 minutes of the walk.

She loves to look at her jingle toys that we attached to her carseat.

I think it’s a good idea for us to go on some sort of long walk like this on a weekly basis just to decompress and recalibrate with one another. I felt energized for the coming week afterwards.

Exercise and a 1st Wedding

Every day I give Lyric a little tummy time to work on her neck muscles so she can lift her head. She’s getting better and better at it every day.

Last week our great friends Marx and Sarah were married and had a gorgeous wedding. You should remember Marx as a groomsman at our wedding a few years ago :). You can see photos of their wedding on Charlotte’s blog. It was Lyric’s first wedding and she did great. Even though I sat in a spot that gave me the option of a quick exit, I didn’t have to use it because she didn’t fuss at all during the ceremony. I didn’t take many pictures at all since I was holding her most of the time. Here is one that I took-

I took these today. This is the dress we didn’t use and I wanted to get some cute photos of her in it before she grows out of it soon:

She Stares

Lyric has started to realize that I am more than just a milk machine :). Now she stares at me and I even get some smiles from her while she looks at me. Up until now the images I got where she was looking at me where because I am fast with the shutter. Now she’ll actually look at me for extended periods of time.

I bought her this cute sun bonnet so we can go outside and keep her protected from the sun:

She was happy about being able to sit up. I propped her against a pillow:

Another naptime. This is where she is right now:

Just Simple Stuff

Some things I don’t want to forget:

• She loves to have someone hold her and walk around so she can look at things. She really wants to be able to play outside and get into stuff, but for now she is content with us helping her sit up and look at/play with stuff.
• She seems to be intrigued by the ceiling fan.
• When she’s hungry she will try to eat my face and she makes monster noises while she does it, lol
• She has many different cries. Some of them I think of as her way of talking, there are no tears. One of them melts my heart…it’s the “waaaaah” one where she turns her lips down, awww, poor baby. Then there is the high pitched scream which only comes out occasionally. I’m not in love with that one because it startles me each time she does it. Thankfully she doesn’t do it all the time.
• She enjoys sitting at the computer with us and watching what we are doing.
• She loves to listen to music and it can actually calm her down.
• She sometimes sleeps with her eyes open.
• She holds her thumb inside of her hand while she sleeps.
• Sometimes she tries to suck on her whole hand at once.
• Her yawns are sooo precious.
• We call her pooping look “the look of wonder and amazement” because she opens her eyes wide and purses her lips into an “oh” look

I haven’t gotten photos of all of it, but I’ve gotten some of it-

On the Nightmare of Taking a Temperature

Yesterday Lyric felt warm so I decided it was important to take her temperature since all of the research I’d done said that a fever on a baby under 12 weeks can be pretty serious… serious enough to warrant an ER visit.

So of course I don’t want to do the rectal if I don’t have to. I take her armpit temperature multiple times because she keeps squirming and I’m not sure I am getting an accurate reading.  It’s right on the edge of being a fever over and over so my fear is realized - I must take her rectal temperature to be sure. I tell Keith that when he gets home I will need his help taking her temperature.

What happened next would probably have been funny if it had been a sitcom, but since it was real life it wasn’t so funny. Maybe when I read this years from now it will be funny.

So here we go, we are both reluctant to do this and we’re both really tense. The two of us are standing over her trying to get into the right position and arguing over where to stand. He is holding her meanwhile I am trying to insert the thermometer. She is screaming and tense…so tense that I can’t see where to even put the thermometer so Keith and I argue about that.  After several tries we finally get a temperature, but it is so low  that there is no way it’s accurate. She keeps pushing the thermometer out. We take a break so Keith can console her and I hear him making comments to the effect of it being all mommy’s fault that we are even taking her temperature. You can only imagine my anger at hearing that, lol.

So I do a few more google searches hoping to find some sort of magic tip that will prevent her from squirming and crying for the eternity that it takes to get an accurate reading. No such luck. All the sites talk about how easy it is.

So we try again and are still unsuccessful at obtaining an accurate temperature and now the tears are too much (hers, we weren’t crying…yet, hahahaha). We all need to take a break and try again later.

I take Lyric and nurse her and just sit with her for a while to calm her down for about half an hour.  Then I decide to try taking her temperature without Keith’s help. She doesn’t like it of course, who would? After I’m done she poops so I get her into a fresh diaper and she seems happy.  I look at temperature results and they are in the normal range. I check her armpit temp, normal. I check her forehead temp, normal. Thankfully.

So now I am completely frazzled, stressed, and mad at Keith but Lyric has fallen into a deep peaceful sleep in my arms. Ah to be 6 weeks old and have the ability to let things go quickly :).

Wide Awake

I can’t believe Lyric is almost 6 weeks old. She still sleeps a lot, but it seems like she is sleeping less…or maybe she just sleeps more at night. A few nights ago she slept 6 straight hours so we all got a good night’s rest :). Generally we are pretty rested. We’ve only had a few rough nights since she was born.

She is very alert and has been from the beginning. It seems like she wants to see everything she can and she lets us know when she wants to be held and walked around so she can explore. I don’t know how much she is seeing at this point since her vision is limited to a short distance….maybe she is listening to things in different parts of the house (we usually have music or tv on in different rooms).

Sometimes she opens her eyes really big. She usually does this at night once the lights are out, but I caught her doing it during the day. She actually opens them bigger than this at night, lol:

We have had several outings and so far I prefer carrying her in the moby wrap. I tried the hotsling and I don’t know if it’s the stiff fabric or her size, but I just don’t like it. Her neck seems too scrunched up and she looks uncomfortable. I’ll try again when she is bigger and can sit up in the sling.

With the moby I have tried 2 different carries, both facing me and those are really comfortable. I like that I can completely cover her up when we walk outside so she isn’t exposed to the cold. I’m looking forward to when she has better neck control so I can carry her facing outward and show her different things.

We had our 6 week checkup which technically happened at 5 weeks. It was mostly to check on me, but we did find out that she is up to 7lbs 7.5 ounces so she’s gaining like a champ :). I took her for her hearing screening which she passed with flying colors. I need to learn all new time management skills though. I wanted to leave the house at 11:30am so that I could make it in time for the 12p-2p screening time and maybe even grab some lunch with Keith, but that did not happen. First she wanted to eat, then she needed a diaper change, then some more milk, then some consoling, then I grabbed a super quick shower and got dressed, then she needed another diaper change and a clothing change, then I needed to bundle her up and get her in the car, then I struggled to get the carseat secured, and finally we were on our way. We didn’t end up at the office until 5 minutes to 2p. Thankfully we made it in time to get the test done. It lasted under 30 seconds. Hahahaha. All that for a 5 minute visit and a 30 second test.

Midday Surprise

Daddy surprises Lyric by coming home in the middle of the day.  Look how big my sweetie is getting! I was taking some new photos of her, but he scooped her up and off they went.

Lyric’s Visit With Her Grandparents

Lyric’s grandparents came to visit last week to meet her for the first time-

Ooh, I love the full frame sensor on the new 5d because I can hold Lyric in my arms and get photos like this one. I was sitting at my desk holding her and she was completely knocked out -

We were taking some photos to celebrate their 40th anniversary -

Keith looks like he is 20 in this photo-

Lyric just wanted to eat-

On Diapering and *Not* Having a Boy

Just because you have a girl doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch out for a random squirt. Poop can travel surprisingly far.