Solids

On Wednesday we gave Lucy her first taste of rice cereal.  Aside from a dab of ice cream on her tongue or a few crumbs of graham cracker crust this was her first foray into solids.  At two weeks shy of 6 months this was a reasonable time to start and she was showing all the signs of readiness.  However I was not ready!  Even though I plan to nurse Lucy at least as long as her sisters which means we aren't even halfway through our nursing time, this changes things.  For the past 6 months every ounce of her food has come from me--we're rarely apart more than a few minutes except for sleeping.  (Not only is she breastmilk exclusive, since she's refused attempts at bottles she's exclusive to me, too!) And while there is a certain pressure associated with that, it's such a privilege to be able to provide for her in that way.  When we first had Maddie that made me feel a bit trapped and nervous--what if I needed to be somewhere else, what if I was ill, what if I just didn't feel like being available at any given moment for over a year?! But I came to terms with it and now I actually embrace it.  (There is the odd time it complicates things, but fortunately my life is such that it's pretty rare I can't have Lucy in tow. I'm still hoping she'll take some pumped milk at some point because I do have a few things I'd like to do...)  This isn't meant to be some diatribe about how breastfeeding is the only way or a superior way.  Not at all!  But it happens to be the way that works for us and I'm grateful to God that after starting out with such a painful experience when I first had Maddie that I'm now successfully nursing our third baby.  So, since it felt right in every other respect except from my sentimentality we ventured into the world of solids.

Here is Lucy right before we broke out the cereal.  We weighed her and she was 18 pounds 6 oz.  That means she is more than double her birth weight of 9 pounds 1 ounce.  She was big at birth and clearly is still big!  Looking at those rolls I think together we've done a pretty good job!

The two fingers in the mouth is quickly taking over the thumb as her primary comfort sucking.  It's quite a look.

 

And here's Andy giving giving the rice cereal to her.  Perhaps I shouldn't have been so sentimental since she wasn't such a fan even though I mixed it with breastmilk.  In the last couple days we've mixed in a little applesauce and she's a little more interested.  Still lots of spitting it out and playing with the spoon which means nursing is still going strong and hopefully will for the foreseeable future.

 

 

 

 

While I'm blogging about Lucy here are a few more things since time is flying by and I want to remember them. Lucy is a bit of a lazy bum.  If my memory serves me correctly, both Maddie and Avvie rolled around 3 months.  Around five months Lucy did a couple rare rolls but to be honest I think they were more the result of being on a slight incline or being laid down slightly on her side.  However, the same day she had the rice cereal she did a bona fide tummy to back roll and has since been repeating it.  Around 5 months I started working on sitting a bit and had to laugh at how bad she was at it.  Again, this was something her sisters mastered younger (self-supported at five months), but she would just sink forward.  However, she's recently begun sitting more nicely.  It's still early to sit independently and I certainly don't want to rush these milestones, but I do think she'll enjoy sitting and being able to play with toys.

Lucy has major stranger anxiety.  This has been going on for a couple of months believe it or not.  I didn't think it was possible for a three month old to have such a strong preference for her mother, but she did (and does).  My poor mom has been stuck with a hysterical Lucy on a few occasions when I had things with the other girls (Maddie's kindergarten screening for one--cue more sentimental tears from me!)  I feel bad for anyone who has been stuck with her while she screams, but generally I'm able to be with her and kinda love when I see those chubby arms reaching for me when we've had to be apart.  We're making progress in church nursery thanks to loving volunteers.  I generally take her down just in time for the sermon and make it through most or sometimes all of it before I'm paged to retrieve a red-faced and tear-stained Lucy.

Sleeping is going pretty well.  She naps pretty reliable in the morning for anywhere from 1-2+ hours.  The afternoon either means one long-ish nap or two shorter ones.  She generally goes down like a pro at 7pm but is no longer sleeping through until 5am and then back down till 7am.  Now she often wakes up around 11pm and then usually will go back down until 5ish (and then back down again until 6:30), but sometimes she sneaks in another 2am feeding.  I was going to sleep train recently but decided that she was nursing out of genuine hunger so I'll give her another month or two before I try and train her to go 10-12 hours straight.

Lucy is a happy girl!  She giggles most for me and Maddie.  Maddie is definitely her favorite person after mommy.  And Maddie still completely adores Lucy.  And I have to say that despite all my talk of Lucy's preference for me, she's pretty fond of her daddy, too!  She is starting to play more--she happily spends a fair amount of time in the exersaucer in the morning while I get everyone fed and dressed and she enjoys grabbing, throwing and chewing toys while hanging out on the floor.  She still enjoys the Ergo and I usually have her in it for shopping trips, walks, etc.

I think that's a pretty good update for now and certainly much longer a post than I planned on when I started.  Hopefully I can spend some time this weekend catching up on posting since I have lots I want to document--our last day in Turks and Caicos, Nate's birthday party, Mother's Day and various around the house pictures.  Oh, and Disney Day 7 2012 one of these days...

Turks and Caicos Day 4

After a rainy and cold day like today I'm ready to head back to Turks and Caicos.  Since that's not an option let's check out some more pictures of paradise.

While Beth and I were walking the babies around for their morning nap we saw that a walkaround with Big Bird was about to start in another section of the resort.  We hightailed it back to our pool and grabbed the older kids and dashed across the grounds.  (We let the dads stay at the pool for some down time.)  It was really just a chance to snap a picture with Big Bird and Grover and not the activity we envisioned (I'm not really sure what we envisioned), but the kids liked meeting them.  Avonlea didn't feel like trudging back and since my hands were full with pushing a sleeping Lucy in the stroller Avonlea caught a ride in the Ergo.  She liked it and it was good for a pinch, but I don't think I'll make a habit of wearing a three year old around!

 

 

 

We pretty much took over the baby pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite our best efforts Avonlea got a little sunburned, particularly on the part of her hair.  She hates having her hair brushed enough as it is so I let her just wear it down and unkempt after her bath.  I was feeling so horrible for letting her get even a little burnt that I didn't want to subject her to anything else.

After dinner we went to watch a little show.  Avvie and Beth went in search of a snack and I found them dipping marshmallows in chocolate.  We embrace the all inclusive experience!

 

 

The whole crew

 

That was our last full day in Turks and Caicos.  The next day we only had the morning but that didn't stop me from taking a bunch of pictures so I'll be back soon with those.

Turks and Caicos Day 3

I've got to plow ahead with my blogging because as I blog about this trip it's helping me to work on a photo book I'm making of it.  Saturday dawned with beautiful weather again.  Sunnies (and smiles) all around!

 

Maddie adores Sammy and would often seek out a seat next to him and happily share food off of her plate (even when he didn't necessarily want it).

 

 

 

Since Maddie isn't a huge fan of the ocean she spent a lot of time making sandcastles.  She was very proud of her creations.

 

 

  

After the beach we headed to the pool for a round of drinks.  The kids were addicted to their virgin daiquiris.

 

 

Lucy is still exclusively breastfed...except for this one little taste of a daiquiri.

The whole crew at the bar.

Thanks Beth for taking a picture which managed to lengthen my legs! I'm content with my post-baby body and while I've got a good 10 pounds I'd like to drop, I'm not in any big rush.  (Five months after giving birth I'm still enjoying food without nausea too much to restrict myself. Life without daily vomiting is good!) That said, I won't complain about pictures taken at particularly flattering angles, even if it's a somewhat odd nursing picture :)

While reading about our resort online Beth saw that there was a baking with Cookie Monster activity.  The kids were desperate to do it so we were happy to find out it happened on a day we were there and was open to anyone and included in our package.

 

 

Who is that hugging Cookie? Uncle Edward!

 

 

Whose under that blanket?  A napping Lucy.

 

By this point in the vacation the babies were pretty tired and taking long stroller naps.

 

There were water slides for big kids/adults and also a section for little kids.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed them.

 

 

Still sleeping!

Lucy did wake up between lunch and the water park but by the time we left for dinner I had her asleep in the Ergo.

Here is the entrance to the Italian Village where we stayed.  The lobby was off to the left and the property sprawled behind it towards the beach.

We had dinner at a diner themed restaurant and then headed to what was billed as Elmo's Dance Party.  Cookie Monster showed up instead and the kids were a bit disappointed at first but then wildly danced and had a great time.  We enjoyed watching them have fun but were at times a bit dismayed at the music choices (the word "sexy" played too prominent a role for a dance party being led by Cookie Monster).

 

Yup, Lucy was hungry again.  And Edward apparently was excited about the dance party.

 

 

After awhile Avonlea decided she'd rather have dessert than dance and lucky for her their was a little pastry place close to the stage.

 

 

 

It was such a treat to spend time with Andy. It's so easy to let work stresses, home maintenance and other things at home distract us from really focusing on each other.  Even though we were busy chasing kids, it was such quality time together--talking, relaxing, enjoying playing with the kids.  I'm sure part of this was due to the fact that our phones had no service and we didn't bring a computer.

Only a day and a half left so bear with me for another post or two.