4 months old

We can't believe she's already four months old! Gwendoline had her four month appointment with the pediatrician this afternoon. I look forward to these appointments to confirm that she's still doing great and developing and growing as she should. But I also dread these appointments because they mean shots. While it hurts my heart to hear her hurt physically, I know it's for the best and will keep her healthy. But that doesn't make it much easier... I'm so thankful that Jeph has been able to come with us to each appointment where Gwendoline has received shots- he really is our rock and our hero.

Before the vaccine administration, Gwendoline got another glowing report! She scored a "normal" in the physical exam portion and an "A+" in the development portion. Here are her new stats:

• Weight: 13 pounds, 4 ounces (28th percentile)
• Height: 25.3 inches (82nd percentile)
• Head circumference: 16 inches (49th percentile)

As you can see, we have a very long, thin baby! Her daddy says that's because she's a supermodel. 

The pediatrician gave us the green light to start her on rice cereal to get some more calories in her from another food source. Hopefully this will also help her start sleeping better at night. She does really good some nights, sleeping for a seven or eight hour stretch before waking up for one feeding and immediately going right back to sleep for another few hours. But other nights... the ones where she wakes up three or four times... are not so easy. Hopefully getting more calories into her belly during the daytime will help her sleep better at night. We're going to give her a couple of days to recover from the shots (they make her feel crummy for about 24 hours), then start some rice cereal trials.

My happy girl, ready for some shopping with her mom!

First Christmas

Gwendoline's first Christmas was so much fun! We got to spend lots of time with both sides of the family and got lots of wonderful presents from many generous people. The first of the Christmas celebrations kicked off a little early this year with Grandpa (Bob) and Marcia (Jeph's dad and his wife) a week before Christmas. We had a yummy Italian dinner at their house while spending lots of time with aunts, uncles, and cousins. It's always a pleasure to sample Bob's homemade pizzas and Italian sausage and peppers.

Next, we celebrated Christmas Adam- the day before Christmas Eve- with Nanny (Jennifer, Jeph's mom). This celebration also included all of Gwendoline's aunts, uncles, and cousins on Jeph's side of the family. Christmas Adam always involves dinner at Nanny's house on the night of the 23rd, followed by hanging out and playing. Coming from a small family, it's taken me a few years to get used to all the enthusiasm and the volume of gatherings like these, but now it's just a lot of fun. After dinner and playing, most of the family members change into their pajamas to spend the night at Nanny's. We didn't this year because Gwendoline's nighttime schedule is still a little erratic and we have a good procedure down at home. But we went back to Nanny's bright and early the next morning (Christmas Eve) to open presents with all the other kids and go to breakfast with the family. Gwendoline is one lucky girl! She got all kinds of fun toys and pretty clothes. But spending time with family was the best gift of all. Here's a picture of Nanny with all eight of her grandchildren, four of which are one year old or younger.

L to R: Benjamin, Aaron, Katy, Parker, Nanny,
Gwendoline, Carter, Presley, Chloe

Merry Christmas Adam!

On Christmas Eve afternoon, we began the 3.5 hour drive from Frisco to my mom's house in Montgomery. We made it all the way from Frisco to Dallas (about 30 minutes) before I realized I forgot all of my family's Christmas presents at home! We had to go back to get them, tacking on about an hour to our already long drive. And we certainly paid for it. The last time we made the Frisco-to-Montgomery drive for Thanksgiving, Gwendoline slept the entire trip, driveway to driveway, both ways. But the extra hour proved too much for her patience and comfort (I don't blame her), and she was not a happy camper for the last 30 minutes of the trip. Talk about stressful... That 30 minutes of trying to soothe an inconsolable baby- without being able to pick her up out of her seat- may be the most stressful time I've ever spent with my little one thus far. But we finally got there and all was made right with the world when Gwendoline saw Grandma.

Christmas morning with our little elf

The next morning, Jeph and I continued a Christmas morning tradition that I grew up with- reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 before opening any presents. I'm excited to continue this tradition with my own family now! Although I remember thinking it was torture when I was little, and I'm sure Gwendoline will, too, at some point, it's important to us that she know the meaning behind the presents. After the Christmas story... Santa! And he did not disappoint! Gwendoline's big gift this year was a Baby Einstein activity bouncer. She loves it! She's still not quite tall enough for her feet to reach the ground to bounce, so we put a couch pillow underneath her to give her feet something to rest on. But that doesn't stop her from eagerly exploring all the stations and making lots of noise. Thanks, Grandma and Papa Gary! I mean, Santa... Gwendoline also made out like a little diva in the clothing department- her wardrobe is complete for the foreseeable future!

Our first Christmas as a family of three was absolutely wonderful and magical, even though we did miss the white Christmas in Frisco. We look forward to seeing many more through our child's eyes. Merry Christmas!

Baby Einstein bouncer (a.k.a., the spaceship)

First (leftover) snow

Santa!

Gwendoline met Santa for the first time last week! Since NorthPark Center has the best looking Santa and set around (according to me), I decided that that's where the first meeting should be. Thankfully, my mom was in town to help out on that day because it gets CRAZY around Santa's workshop. We arrived at about 10:30 in the morning to get our ticket. We got number 81, which put our time to see Santa around 2:30 that afternoon. I had expected this and came prepared to spend the day at the mall with Gwendoline and my mom since it's unrealistic to go home to Frisco just to turn around and go back to Dallas again. Surprisingly (or maybe not to those of you who know how much I like to shop), it wasn't too difficult to kill four hours at the mall. Gwendoline was a rockstar, staying on her feeding and napping schedule amid the holiday shopping craziness. Before we knew it, it was 2:30 and Jeph was meeting us at the mall to see Santa! Ultimately, Gwen seemed unimpressed with the whole to-do, but the three adults had a fun time seeing her sit with Santa for the first time. She didn't smile, but she didn't scream. She also has impeccable timing, saving a huge spit up until 15 seconds after leaving Santa's lap. Merry Christmas!

Sick days

I've been confronted with a new reality this week: Moms don't get to call in sick. No sick days, no half days, no "I'm just going to shut my office door and lay my head on my desk" days. I've had a terrible cold since Saturday. Thankfully, Gwendoline isn't showing any signs of being sick so I really hope she doesn't catch this cold from me. On the bright side, I have a terrific husband and parenting partner who has been helping out as much as he possibly can (and keeping Gwendoline away from my germs as much as possible). Jeph worked from home for half a day on Monday to help out and let me get some much needed rest. He and Gwendoline are so cute together; I know they both had a great day! But around Gwendoline's 7pm bedtime, Jeph said he realizes why I like to climb into bed every evening around that time, too. That girl is a handful, even when you're well!

Hopefully our days of being shut in the house are coming to an end as I'm starting to feel better as the week progresses. We've sorely missed our friends this week: strolling around NorthPark with Christie and Gracie, visiting Nanny in Coppell, our new mom support group at Baylor, and our first outing to the library for story time with the Frisco mommy/baby group we just joined.

Also this week, Gwendoline has started something new. I'm calling it "distracted baby syndrome." She has discovered that there is just too much world out there that can be missed while she's eating. So instead of continuously eating until she's full, she'll eat a little bit then smile at me for three minutes; eat a little more then smile at the dog for five minutes; eat a little more and baby talk to whoever will listen for four minutes. Mealtimes, which are still about every three hours, are starting to take a really long time... But at least she's happy when she's distracted. Though I worry that she's not eating enough because of all the distractions, common sense (and other people I trust) tell me she would not be a happy camper if she were hungry. So I'm going with it and enjoying these sweet times when all she wants to do is "talk" to and smile at her mommy.

Another recent first is sleeping through the night! Last week, Gwendoline slept through four out of five nights. It was lovely! But since then, she has decided that she still wants to see us at nighttime, so we're back to two night wakings and feedings. Hopefully she'll realize that mom and dad aren't all that interesting and are a little grumpy at night and start sleeping through again.

Awesome dad working from home when mom is sick

Dad attempts to load the car

Happy girl in her duckies

A typical Gwen sequence of events: happy... HAPPY... HAPPY!! crash