Celebrating 6 Months of Addison Joy

Happy 6 months to Addison Joy!

It is so hard to tell how much she has grown even with that teddy bear.
Also, she is a) fighting a cold and b) getting over her vaccinations so she looks a lil red eyed, but still sweet :)

So much has happened this month, check out the highlights below.

• WEIGHT: about 18.5 pounds
  
• HEIGHT: about 26.75 inches (that is my measurement, not the doc)
  
• HEAD: 17.5 inches (the doc said "she is finally growing into her head")
  
• DIAPER SIZE: Three (Huggies at the moment)
  
• CLOTHING SIZE: 9 - 12 months
  
• TEETHING: She got her first two teeth this month! It was rough cutting them and it was hard to see her in such pain. Hopefully now that she has gone through it once, the next set won't bother her as much.
• FOOD: So far we have introduced oatmeal, rice, pears, carrots and peas. She is still having elimination problems, so we give her pears at every meal.
  
• BREASTFEEDING: We are still breastfeeding 4 times a day. She is very efficient now; all her day time nursing periods are 8 minutes or less. Her last feeding is about 10 minutes. I have to remind myself that she is getting what she needs between nursing and solids because 8 minutes or less seems TOO FAST! I cant remember if I have shared this or not, but we have filled the ENTIRE freezer full of stored milk! We are DETERMINED to make it to one year or until she can have cows milk.
  
• CRAWLING/SCOOTING: When she is on her tummy, she is pulling herself to slowly scoot on the floor. She also pulls her legs under her, but once they are there--she does not know what to do with them :) I am still hoping we skip crawling since she does NOT like being on her tummy EVER.
• PERSONALITY: She loves to smile and loves to make people laugh. The best way to get her to laugh, is laugh at her. She has also started to cry for attention, but usually if you just say something to her, she is fine. Addison is a very curious girl. She studies things so intently to figure things out. Except for teething, sickness, etc. she is a very contented baby. I am grateful for such a good baby, but...Babywise definitely helped! She is in love with her Daddy; she cannot keep her eyes off him when he is in the room. Addison has also developed her first crush; a little 15 month old we go to church with. Nicholas likes to share with her and play with her--Addison just stares at him, HA!
  
• SWADDLE: We have only been wrapping her body in the swaddle for months now (her arms have been free to move), but since she can roll in bed we decided it was time to test no swaddle (that and she is too long for the swaddle blanket). We are testing it off and on for naps currently. She seems to awaken a little easier, but overtime she will adjust!
  
• SIGN LANGUAGE: Addison has signed "milk", "eat" and "finished" a few times. I am not sure it was on purpose or not, but...nonetheless we were pleased. My resources indicate most babies will not sign back until about 8 months. I cannot wait until she is doing it all the time!
• SIPPY CUP: We are still giving her a cup to try to sip from each day. Sometimes she sucks, sometimes she bites it. It is VERY early so I am not expecting much for a while. One time I tried to offer the sippy cup before a time we would have normally nursed and she cried; she wanted milk :)
• PHOTOGRAPHER:We are in the process of scheduling a photographer to take some photojournalist type photos (this is the same style as our wedding...more CANDID). We will take mostly pictures of her, but we will get a few with Matthew and I. The girl taking them is actually a girl I went to high school with; she lives about 40 miles from us. We are SUPER excited because we plan on these being the only professional pictures we take (trying to be "thrifty" and take out own *smile*).
• RANDOM FUNNIES: She clicks her tongue, walks when you hold her hands, holds on to things to stand, gives "five" (sometimes), loves the breeze blowing in her face, pets Piper, plays peek a boo (by pulling something off her face or yours), follows Daddy's voice everywhere, cries when I leave her in the nursery at church
  

SCHEDULE: Here is how her day looks now:

• 8:00 (or 8:30) to 9:00: Wake up, Nurse, Eat (Oatmeal, Pears)
• 9:00 to 10:15: Wake time (blanket time--independent play, bouncer, tummy
• time, interactive play with mommy)
• 10:15 to 12:00: Nap
• 12:00: Nurse, Eat (Oatmeal, Pears)
• 12:00 to 2:15 (or 2:30): Wake time (go on a walk, read, play with mommy)
• 2:15 to 4:00: Nap
• 4:00: Nurse, Eat (Veggie, Pears)
• 4:00 to 8:00: Waketime (Bath every other day, reading, family time, etc) she still takes a 20-30 min catnap at about 6:30 IF she did not nap well for the other two naps.
• 8:00: Nurse plus give 6 oz bottle
• 8:15: BEDTIME (aka, Matthew and Kelly RELAX!!!)
• 10:00: Kelly pumps :( to maintain milk supply (see what I mean by breast feeding is a commitment *smile*)

I am sure I have left something off, but that's all I have time for now :)

We hope that this helps everyone as the are "Keeping Up With The Grant Gang". Love to all!

CAN YOU SEE HER TEETH!?!? They are so WEE, I love it!

STANDING...OH MY!!!

Carrots-Making and introducing

We tested out carrots last weekend! WOW, I think this might be the funniest thing we have witnessed since Addison was born. I have never seen such weird faces. For those of you who do not have babies, you probably wont care about this post, except for maybe the picture at the end.

Initial Approach (My Idea):

1. Full nursing period
2. Offered cereal and gave her half the normal serving (which is about 1/3 cup powder now)
3. Offer carrots (about half of an ice cube size)...REJECTED
4. Tried to give the remaining cereal...REJECTED
5. Administered gas drops (not knowing how her sensitive tummy will handle all these new foods, we give drops after every meal with solids)
   

Second and Ultimately Successful Approach (Matthew's Idea):

1. Full nursing period
2. Offered carrots--weird faces at first, but after encouraging words she started to swallow it
3. Offered cereal...SUCCESS!
4. Administered gas drops

No allergic reactions to report as of yet.

Key Takeaways:

• Texture not taste: I think it is much easier to believe a baby has a taste aversion than a texture aversion, but after watching Addison very closely as we give her carrots, you can tell it is the TEXTURE she is uncertain of---not the taste. It makes sense, all she has had are smooth foods--milk and cereal! I think breastfeeding her also makes her slightly more accepting of new flavors (breast milk has slight flavors in it based on what I eat vs. formula--not that one is better than the other, just an observation).
• Expectations: The initial rejection may have also been due to expecting cereal. We fed her cereal and then all of a sudden switched to this new food. It's like taking a drink of water expecting coke or something! Next time, we will offer the NEW food before offering any familiar foods.
• Persevere: Since I believe its mind over matter with introducing foods, we must learn to persevere! If she does not like a food after 3 days of consecutive introduction, we will move on to a new one and WE WILL try again several times until it is accepted!!! Perseverance is key with a baby in general and I think breast feeding has taught me that very fast! If we had not persevered throughout all the COUNTLESS bumps along the journey in breastfeeding, I would have given up LONG ago!

Carrot Making:

1. Purchased ORGANIC whole carrots (its important they are organic so that the amount of nitrates is low)
2. Washed and Peeled
3. Cut into chunks
4. Placed carrots into a pot with water, boiled/simmered covered for about 15 minutes (or until very tender; do not overcook--it causes the nutrients to be lost)
   
5. Drained ALL the water
6. Placed cooked carrots into a chopper to puree and added breast milk as needed to reach desired consistency (be careful to ensure all large chunks of carrots are pureed, mine still had one or two small pieces in it since I used a chopper rather than my food processor. It is ok if there are tiny pieces in there, they can be easily mashed up when you feed the food to baby. I left my carrots a bit on the pasty side since I knew I would add more milk to thin them up as she needed)
7. Place carrots in ice cube tray and freeze
8. After they are frozen, I popped them out of the tray and placed them in storage ziplock bags so that they would store more easily---That is it!

*I used about 5 carrots and got about 6 "ice cubes" of carrots

Serving the frozen carrots:

• In the morning, take cube and thaw in the fridge to prepare for lunch/dinner
• During the introduction I only offered HALF a cube so I would cut it in half just before serving
• Pop in microwave about 15 seconds, add milk to reach desired temperature and consistency.
  
• It's that easy!!!

I am off to make more carrots and now...PEAS!!!!!

Introducing Cereal---Looking Back

Addison now takes cereal three times a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Babywise suggests offering cereal at all three meals until 1 year and we plan to follow the recommendation. Since her cereal has breastmilk in it, she is getting lots of good nutrients within the cereal so we felt it was wise to take the suggestion of Babywise.

As I reflect upon our journey of cereal introduction and reintroduction there are some things I would do differently. If you are a frequent reader, you know we introduced cereal at 4 months (see previous blogs: Cereal Day 4&5, Cereal Day 3, and Cereal Day One) and then back off for several weeks reintroducing at just over 5 months. Every baby is different, but I offer our story for all the Mommy readers out there who might want to file this information away in case it is needed.

• Increase quantity more slowly: Round one we ramped up the amount offered fairly quickly (day one 1 tablespoon, day two 3 tablespoons, day three 4 tablespoons twice a day, etc.). Round two we spent one week offering only 2 tablespoons ONCE a day. Looking back, it was key for the initial introduction to cereal to be very slow, while the frequency offered could move much more quickly. It was as if she had to learn how to digest it ONCE a day and after that hump---she was good! Ultimately it took us about three weeks to get to three cereal offerings a day.
• Watch for elimination changes before increasing amount and frequency: Round one we did not pay attention to changes in her elimination, period. Round two, we introduced the cereal at once a day, small quantity, slightly runny and waited for three eliminations before making any changes. This way we knew the cereal made it all the way through her system successfully and unclogged.
• Consistency of cereal: During round one, the consistency of the cereal was similar to cream of wheat from the get go. I feel like this was the cause for her stomach issues;it was simply too thick! Round two, we allowed the cereal to be on the runny side until we were serving cereal three times a day.

All in all she enjoys the experience of eating and I believe, she actually prefers it to nursing. I am not surprised she prefers eating over nursing. She has never enjoyed nursing or even the occasional bottle of expressed milk. Addison is too interested in moving on to the next milestone and seeing the world than laying down to nurse or take a bottle. This continues to be one of our few struggles, however I realize we have a great and contented baby and I am grateful.

Blogs coming up soon...

• Introduction to Carrots
• Separation Anxiety
• The Sippy Cup
  

Stay At Home Mommyhood Officially Begins

As of Friday, September 24, 2010 I will officially be a stay at home mommy and wife. Some of you may not know that when I moved to D.C. I took a part time job with a hospital. After Addison was born they allowed me to work from home as a "consultant" of sorts. I gladly accepted this opportunity! I thought that I would need the intellectual stimulation AND I felt like I would be lazy by not having a job. All the income I had been making we have been saving anyways, so it was really just for my sanity.

As with any difficult decision I toiled over the decision for a long time and am filled with a mixture of emotions. I struggled with wondering what people would think if I didn't work??!! A very wise person (my mom) encouraged me to do what was best for my family's unique situation and also shared that being a stay at home mom IS hard work and far from lazy. My pen pal (Stori) encouraged me to evaluate the reasons I was working and prayerfully consider the situation. After Matthew and I discussed it and prayed over it, I realized that although working was nice---it was not what was best for us RIGHT NOW. I guess I had to be "weened" off working. I went from high powered all about my career for 5 years, to working part time, to working from home, to stay at home mom. I praise God for the opportunity to "ween" me instead of giving it up "cold turkey", my how our God knows us so well!!!!!

Until recently, I felt like stay at home mommyhood came with sacrifices too, namely my career and "possessions" but when I look at Addison and I see her developing so beautifully I realized those are NOT sacrifices. Sacrifice assumes you give something up, but in our situation staying home gives us everything!!!!!

Throughout this journey I also realized I cannot be EXCELLENT at everything and I must choose carefully what I would like to become excellent at. I cannot be the best worker, mom, wife, friend, daughter, bible study leader, etc. I can only be excellent at what I focus on so I had to cut somethings out. Working was one of them. Furthermore, I want to spend my time on things that have eternal value right now. I desire to guide Addison into a becoming a Proverbs 31 woman, to a woman that loves the Lord, a woman that puts people first and herself last....etc.

God blessed Matthew and I with our surprise blessing, Addison, and I want to relish each moment we have with her! What an awesome calling God placed on my life to be at home with her! Although I know it will not always be easy to stay at home, I am happy that we are following his will. I am confident God will always provide financially, emotionally and physically as we seek to follow his will.

Staying at home is not for everyone and is not the best for every family's unique situation. This decision was best for the Grant Gang and may not be what fits our reader's unique situation or God's calling our reader's lives. All we hope and pray is that our readers seek and follow God's will, whatever that maybe!!!

Worship Leader

If you think this post will be about Addison--it's not :) I do not post too often about something other than Addison, but I am about to change that!!

Matthew started leading worship at the contemporary Saturday night service at our church. His first service was last Saturday. He sings and plays his guitar and has a female vocalist, drummer and keyboarder. Last Saturday they played "Marvelous Light", "Hungry", "Nothing but the Blood" and "Here I am to Worship". They did a GREAT job on their first service as a band!!

I am so proud of Matthew taking on this new role. He has so much on his plate between work, being a relatively new husband and being a new Daddy but yet he has made time to allow God to use his gifts. God will bless him for this ministry and I am thrilled to be able to watch and support him in this new venture.

I still have to pinch myself to remind myself this life I have the privilege of sharing with Matthew Grant, is real. It is funny to think that it took me SOOO many years of friendship with him to realize---he truly is and always will be, the love of my life!

I think this picture captures him beautifully...just smiling, having fun and enjoying life!! This is what he always looks like. We always have a blast doing everything, nothing and everything in between!

I gave him Sponge Bob gummy crabby patties as a welcome home from his trip to Canada. Here we enjoy them together; we have fun doing anything!!!