No tears...well, not from us...

Okay, it took 20 minutes of crying, but there is no crying from the other room. And Christopher and I are pretty proud of the fact we did not cry...will we do this again, not sure...

Let the baby cry...

So we went to the doctors for her 2 month check up...I hate going to the doctors for myself, and frankly I am not liking going with Eowyn for her appoinments any better. The doctor checked her over and then asked us questions, like how she's eating (the fact that she's almost doubled her birth weight in 2 months I think speaks for itself...), does she smile at you, does she make eye contact...that was all fine...then how is she sleeping? We proceed to tell him, that she's sleeping fine, once she gets to sleep, but she wants to be up from midnight to 2am...after that she sleeps for 6-7 hours in a row...the Doctor looked at us, especially my husband who was holding the baby and doing deep knee bends to calm Eowyn as she was a little fussy from the pocking and prodding the Dr. had done... I guess he saw "new parents doting on their baby" written all over us and proceeded to give us some advice. As I am typing I am following this advice and frankly hating it..."Feed her, change her and cuddle her for a little while, then put her to bed. If she cries, which she will, let her. Do not go in and pick her up. She'll cry less each night and eventually you will have a baby who goes to sleep when you put her down." Well, she's been crying for 15 minutes...more then she cries in a given week, total...well, maybe 1/2 the time she cries in a given week...I guess the good news is I am not crying...I hate this.

Knitted Smock

I love this smock!! I found it while surfing the web for knitting patterns one night and HAD to make it. I did and I am very pleased with how it came out. Eowyn is wearing it here with a white cotton onsie and adorable jeans with a little ruffle on the bottom of the legs. I can't wait for the cooler weather to come so she can wear this. If you have a little one to knit for and would like the pattern, I found it here on Knitty.com. One of the best things about it is that it has buttoned sides and is adjustable so she can wear it for a long time. This is a great bonus when you are talking about baby clothes, since they can grow out of things in less time then it takes for you to make it for them!

And the Lion Won...

We have one of those baby gyms with the bars that curve over the baby and have things hanging down for them to play with. Eowyn's has a lion, and she spent about 20 mintues trying to get that thing in her mouth. Unfortunately, the hand that she's attached to still eludes her from time to time, so the Lion was able to escape every time she got his feet close to her mouth. She eventually fell asleep, as the Lion swayed above her head...sort of mocking her...

I'm ready for my close up...

There has been a serious lack of photos of the Sweet Baby Girl lately. So here are a couple from her recent photo shoot at Grammy's house. Thank you Corey and Angela for her cute outfit!

Maggie Kissy Feet

Today Maggie, our English Springer Spaniel, was actually calm enough to lay down on the couch with Christopher and the baby. She started to kiss Eowyn's feet. Eowyn didn't seem sure of what was going on, but Maggie seemed pretty proud of her "baby caring for" ability. It was very cute. I unfortunately didn't get a pick prior to Maggie being over zealous and making an attempt at hands and face...that was when she was told to get off the couch. Eowyn can't get her feet to her mouth yet, but hands and face seemed off limits to the affections of someone who eats rocks and licks herself.

"It's Poop on me Elmo"

We are going to give cloth diapers a try once the sweet baby girl is a little bigger, poops a little less often and we have a laundry room (right now we have a laundry hallway with scarely enough room for 1 hamper). But in the mean time, we are making great use of all the wonderful diapers that were given to us at showers.

My husband rolled his eyes when he saw the pampers that had Sesame Street characters on them...based on his strong dislike for all licensed characters (he's not biased, he feels the same lack of love for Disney and Nickelodeon).

We used all the other diapers first (mainly because the Pampers seemed a little bigger then the rest) and we are down to the Sesame Street Endorsed Waste Catchers, and Christopher has now found a plus...Eowyn gets to poop on Elmo!

Needless to say we will not be running out to pick up the New TMX Elmo...and we're hoping no one else does so on our behalf.

Wiggles and Giggles!

Eowyn is now 6 weeks old! She has been much more interactive when she's awake lately. She smiles at you instead of just smiling randomly now. She giggles from time to time...and wiggles a lot!

This girl is ready to MOVE. Her legs are moving almost all the time. She likes to push off so anytime her feet hit a solid surface she straightens her legs. It's very cute, but makes feeding harder, since she keeps pushing herself away from the source of the food, seems frustrated the "food moved", then has to get settled eating again, only to wiggle her legs around until she finds a way to push off again.

Despite the interrupted feedings, she's growing like crazy! She weighs 10lbs 6oz! Christopher figured out that if she keeps growing at this rate until she's 1 year old, so will weigh 50 pounds. I assured him the growth will level out and she will not be a 50 pound toddler!



Here is the Sweet Baby Girl playing with her doll. If I put the doll's arm into Eowyn's hand, she'll grab on and flop the doll around, trying to get it in her mouth. She likes to play like this on her back, but still is not fond of tummy time. She also enjoys the baby swing we bought, though it usually puts her to sleep. Her favorite activity is still be walked by someone, anyone, me, her dad, her grandparents, as long as she's moving she's happy.

Starting the wardrobe...

The Sweet Baby Girl wants to thank Grammy O for the tutu and Sarah for the cool BabyLegs! This outfit is such a fun ensemble!! What a way to dress up a simple longsleeve white onsie...

As much as mommy!

Eowyn already weighs over 8 pounds! That's how much I weighed when I was born, 8 pounds even. So now, my mom might have a fighting chance at remembering when "her baby was that size", since prior to this, she never was!

Eowyn is doing well. Besides gaining weight and finding her hands, she smiles a lot and has learned how to making grunting noises which she likes to do when pooping, and hey, since she has very few talents right now, she pulls it out whenever she thinks of it at random other times. Last night she grunted off an on all night...

Here is a pic of her sleeping peacefully...which I hope to happens a bit more tonight then it did last night!

Any port in a storm...

So we are breast feeding exclusively, which is going very well, and Eowyn is gaining weight like a champ...Dr. appointment today has her at 8 pounds 2 ounces at 2 weeks old and she was 6 pounds 13 ounces at birth. Whoohoo!

Well, my husband was trying to calm the baby as I finished up something so that I could feed her. He likes to do arm curls with her... a back and forth type motion which she seems to like. Well, he's doing this and bringing her face close to his when he does...on one of the up motions, Sweet Baby Girl opens wide and latches on to his nose! I guess she decided it looked like it was worth a shot! Christopher explained to her that it wasn't very productive in the food sense, and she should be happy nothing came out!

Red Hat

Sweet Baby Girl in her new Red Hat with the Hot Pink trim...so fashionable! I made it using the cute little pattern titled "Ellen's Ruffled Hat" by Ellen Lynch. I used Rowan Wool Cotton and it made the perfect size hat for the newborn Sweet Baby Girl. Changing the yarn does a lot to change the size...DK weight makes it a bit bigger, but still newborn, and then worsted weight would go for a large newborn, or small "baby".

I think the hat brings out her sweet little pink cheeks!

Not even 2 minutes old...

The diaper that is. My husband seems to have this special nack of changing the baby's diaper just before she has to go again...Often I'll hear him groan as he's changing her because he just got the new diaper in position, was about to fasten and...well, it's dirty. The other thing in this same basic topic that has amused both of us, is how Eowyn makes so much noise when she goes poopy. She's this tiny, sweet little baby, with the softest skin and the most innocent face, and then there is the rumble in the diaper. Christopher said at one point, had he heard that noise in a film he would think it was a sound effect...audio enhancement, but nope...it's all her! Today hubby changed her diaper and brought her to me feed when we both heard it...diaper not even 2 minutes old...

Don't cry...

I figure that while my baby is cute and will likely do lots of fun and funny things that I can write about here, it might also be helpful to pass on the things I have found helpful in the actual parenting of her. So I'm going to start with a subject that is at the forefront of my mind right now...breastfeeding. It's making a "comeback" as of late, with all the studies that show such things as healthier babies, lower risk of obesity in later life, higher IQ, as well as the benefits for mom with the increased weight loss, lower risk of breast and other types of female specific cancers, not to mention the increased bond with the baby...

With all that on the pro list, what could possibly be stacked on the con side to make people opt not to do it? It's hard. You wouldn't think it would be. After all how long has formula been around? What did babies do for the thousands of years before bottles and Similac? Well, it's possible they starved! Sometimes breast feeding just doesn't work, for whatever reason, and even when it works fabulously (like thankfully, in my case) it's hard.

If you are interested in learning more about the "real deal" on breastfeeding, I recommend Andy Steiner's book "Spilled Milk". She does a great job of being honest about breastfeeding, the good, the bad and the ugly. Unlike most breastfeeding books I didn't get the sense that I was a horrible mother if I opted to go the bottle route. Sure breastfeeding is shown as the best option, but she's realisitc about the fact it's not the only. So if you are curious about the day to day of breastfeeding and are trying to make that choice for yourself, this would likely be a helpful read. It's not a how to manual, and may be a book best checked out of your local library, since reading through once is probably all you'll need. My copy is going to my library, now that I'm done with it...I hope you find it as helpful as I did.

making faces...

Eowyn likes to practice making faces. She sits in her little Boppy, or lays on cushy blankets, and makes faces. Happy faces, sad faces, she sticks out her tounge, yawns these huge yawns. It's like someone took a bunch of facial expressions and put them on "slide show". She gets her arms in on the action with these grandious gestures, which look so dramatic, but are probably simply overstated because she lacks fine motor skills at the age of 1 week and 4 days.

We actually put the video camera on her for 1/2 hour to capture this...and in typical new parent fashion, sat and watched it...sure we had the baby right there, but...

Christopher is in the middle of making a movie with the kids in his summer program, but after he's got that done he'll edit out the parts where she just sits there relatively expressionless (the parts new parents will sit through by the casual blog reader might find a little tedious)...then I'll post a link.

I love this one...

Welcome to Sweet Baby Girl...

Hi! I have been having a great time blogging on my business website, and now that I have a baby I thought it would be great to start a blog about her. I hope you find me as interesting and entertaining as I find myself, LOL! Or at least you find my baby fun to hear about!