4-6 months!

Life has gotten so busy since school started that I didn't realize I hadn't updated this since she was 3 months old!  She has changed so much since the last post.
Month 3 July

We had just returned from our annual family trip to Morro Bay where Maia got to see the ocean and go for a hike for the first time.  She also got to spend time with the Stime side of the family :) 

 Josh and I sort of have a tradition of putting our initials in the sand over the years, and this year we added Maia to our heart :)

Month 4 August
August 1-Maia turned 4 months old!!!  She started to sit up with support around this time.

In August she went in for her check up, including more shots, but she was a trooper :)

In mid August, I returned to work for the new school year.  After being with her every day for the past 4 and 1/2 months, the first couple of days were kind of hard.   I was texting Josh like crazy, asking for updates all the time.   Since I am still breastfeeding, pumping at work has made me value the small amount of prep time that I actually have after pumping.  After I come home, I spend my time with her,not only because I haven't seen her all day and miss her, but also so Josh can work on other items that he wasn't able to get through during the day-cleaning, fixing dinner, etc.  In August she was starting to sleep through the night on a regular basis so this helped us be able to plan the day.   

August 30th- We went to Chevy's to celebrate my brother's birthday.  It was the first time, in a while, that we had been out anywhere other than work, so we got dolled up to go celebrate my brother :)

September: 

September 1: Obligatory monthly picture :) 

Her ability to stand with support has gotten better, and she can sit for short amounts of time by herself. 

Solid food :)  After her four month check up we started out with rice cereal and then a couple of weeks later moved to pureed food.  Josh wanted her first taste of food to be fresh and made by him, so below are some pictures of peas that he made from scratch :)  

This was rice cereal :) 

She has started tolerating tummy time more often and for longer periods of time.  She still will only roll to her side and can't roll all the way over without help, but she is trying and lifting her head and limbs.  

 She will also eat soft foods, like banana through her mesh feeder.  Josh has also put frozen banana in it as well to help with her teething, which she enjoys.  She LOVES banana!

 Although she loves her activity mat, she loves to jump when we help her stand, so we decided to get her an activity jumper.  It has the fun activities of a walker, but is still a jumper, like the ones people used to attach to a door frame.  She loves playing in this thing!  She will jump up and down and play with all the little things on it.   It gives us a couple of minutes to do a couple of other things, like run to the bathroom :) or do the dishes :)

September 8th, Grandparent's Day:  We had Maia, and her cousin Mikey take pictures for my parents :) 

Dressed up for Grandma Rosenblum's birthday :) 

 Teeth!
Her two bottom middle teeth have started to come in!

teeth beginning of September

Teeth in mid September

teeth today September 28, 2013

She seems to be finally catching up to the age on her clothing:)  She was in newborn size until she was 2.5 months old.   She was in 0-3 until she was about 5 months old.  She is finally in 3-6 or just 6 month labeled clothing.  This ladybug outfit is 6 months-she fits the onesie, the pants are too long and the hat is too small

:)

She isn't saying much recognizable, but she does like to talk to her self and to us :)   When she's hungry or upset, she'll cry "mamamamammama".
She'll be 6 months on October 1st and I can't wait to watch her grow even more!  We've got a cute Halloween costume in mind for her :)  Even mommy and daddy are dressing up!   I've seen more changes in Josh in the past 6 months-she really does bring out a cutesy side of him I've never seen :)    

Keep checking in, I'll try not to take three months to update next time :) 

13 weeks postpartum, Maia's 3 months old!

It's been about a month since I last posted, and some of you have been asking for an update :)

If I could sum up the month in a couple of words they would be: breastfeeding, growth spurt, talk, and body control :)

Maia has been growing like crazy the last month or so.   At her two month appointment, on June 3rd, she was 10 pounds 2 ounces, gaining about 3/4 of an ounce a day.  That would mean she's about 12 or so pounds right now, but we haven't had a chance to check on that.  I would weigh myself first without and then with her to find the difference, but our scale's battery died so once I find that information out I'll share it with you, since her next official weigh in isn't until August 12th at about 4 and half months.

She went through a pretty rough growth spurt at about 11 weeks old, for everyone in the house.   She wanted to eat ALL the time (like every hour) and would only sleep in small increments, only wanting to be fed again.  This went on for about a week.  Little did we know that this actual was starting the day of my brother's wedding, which accounted for her fussy behavior that day :)   Speaking of which, her first wedding outside the womb (her first two were at 10 weeks prego at Katie and Mikey's wedding, and at 6 months prego at Chris and Erica's wedding).  If you remember from my earlier blogs, I had found her dress back during Christmas time, since I knew their wedding colors were red, and it's too hard to find that color during this time of year.   She looked so cute, especially with the Hello Kitty headband I received from my friend Jessica :)

Our little family at the wedding, excuse my dress that decided to gather in the front :) 

She ended up sleeping in Heather's arms

Since father's day was the day after the wedding, we had a quiet day at home and then with Josh's family.   We didn't know it at the time, but the growth spurt had started this weekend, and she spent most of father's day very fussy, and eating constantly-which makes for a tired and sore mama!  Due to the lack of sleep and frequency of feeding, we stayed home all week.

We recieved some gifts from my cousin Melissa-she knows me and my hello kitty addiction LOL

Thank you so much Melissa!!!!

She has recently realized that she can use her arms to grab items and bring them closer to her.  She has a couple of toys that she likes to play with like this :) 

We've started taking her on walks around the neighborhood as well and she loves to look at the world around her :) 

When propped up she can sit by her self for a little while :)

Up to fairly recently Maia has been sleeping in her pack in play crib that sits out in the front room, when we are out there as well, or more frequently in her monkey rock n play that we could bring in our room fairly easily (one of our most used baby items, thank you Grandma and Grandpa Stime!)  Being first time parents, we liked to have her near us, and wanted her nearby when she cried.  However, we wanted to get her used to sleeping in her own for a couple of reasons: 

• Even though she is far from the 25 pound limit for the pack and play, she has more power in her legs now and can push her self up into a laying down standing position. 
• I can see that she wants to stretch her legs out and the rock and play keeps them in a squatted frog position. The crib will be better for her back and legs.  

I want her to get used to it, so the crib isn't such a scary, foreign place when she's older.  So far she has slept in it a couple of nights and for some of her naps.  She put up a fight the first couple of times, but seems to be getting used to it.  Thank goodness for modern technology that gives us peace of mind.  She has a video and audio monitor and a sensor that will alert us if she doesn't move or breath every 20 seconds.   I love that if she's in her crib I can log on anywhere in the world and be able to her and see her in her crib.

video feed of her room :)

Through a former co worker we also got some fun little items for her: an activity mat and a little bounce chair (and a bassinnett for visiting for long periods at the grandparents houses :))  She loves her little bouncer because she can kick freely and her activity mat is not only fun, but has been helping her with tummy time.   She can lift her head and will move her legs but is not strong enough to do it all yet.  

Kicking in her bouncer

Her activity mat

She is also going through the stage of wanting to be held A LOT or sitting with me or Josh.  Even as I write this blog, I have already breast fed and had her sitting on my lap on a pillow while she watches me type and we "talk".  Speaking of which (no pun intended), she has tried to reply to us talking to her with little voiced out sounds.   I can never post videos on here so I will put it on Facebook soon.  It's really cute :)

Helping mommy blog :)

Maia also took her first real trip to a store and loved taking in all the colors, sounds, sights, and people at Target (her first trip of many I imagine :)) She was asleep in the picture :) 

Lately she loves to smile while sticking out her tongue and making little sly smiles.  I took this picture when her onesie got stuck on her head :) 

So Maia is now 3 months old!  It's hard to believe that much time has gone by already!  We love to watch her grow and excited where our "Maia adventures" will take us :)