Greenvale Adventures

After Nadia turned 1, I gave myself permission to stop the monthly updates. My goal is to do a little summary of the previous year for each birthday, but my goodness too much has happened to wait until 2.  At the moment, her favorite activities are playing outside and reading books! Can’t even count how many stories we read in a day.

Before I get to the good stuff of the last six months, I’m going to vent about Nadia’s current ailment. Last year on Easter Sunday we got the bad news that Nadia’s daycare would be shut down for a week because of positive COVID-19 cases, which ended up turning into a two-week closure. Nadia ended up getting sick with Adenovirus and ended up with an overnight ER stay at Chippenham hospital. By the time she finally got back to daycare the next Thursday, she refused to let anyone feed her a bottle, so I had to take her home again! Once again Easter has packed a big punch. Nadia seemed cranky after her nap on Easter Sunday, but we ended up having a great afternoon visiting with my parents, sister and her family. Then, Monday morning we got a call from daycare saying Nadia had a fever and spot on her butt which turned out to be Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. This has been a rough one, poor Nadia is completed covered with sores. The pediatrician says usually it peaks by day 5, so hopefully by tomorrow she will be on the upswing. I’ll have to remember to paint the door with a blood of a lamb next Passover so that the daycare plague du jour passes over us!

At Nadia’s first birthday she still was so much of a baby— she wasn’t walking, wasn’t really talking, and still wasn’t ready to transition away from nursing and bottles. Yet, by Thanksgiving she was walking up a storm, and my Christmas she was all done with bottles at daycare. I remember how proud she was when she started walking into daycare by herself instead of being carried. Just like that she was becoming a toddler and ready to explore the world. 

On New Year’s Eve, we took Nadia to the neighborhood playground and watched her slowly look around at the push cars, slides and little tunnels. From then on, that was her spot! She loves running around picking up the mulch, going down slides, climbing the cars. I love to see how excited she is to enjoy the world. It’s also nice being able to play together! So much of the first year is caring for a little one who can’t really return affection. 

Slowly I’m learning that 90% of the things I worry about turn out to be insignificant. I worried she was not gaining enough weight for a long time. After jumping around on the growth curve (6th-40th percentiles), she settled into the 30th percentile weighing 21 lbs at her 18 month check up. She’s always been tall and still is on the 75th percentile for height and the 95th percentile for head circumference. I really got myself worried when she wasn’t sitting independently or crawling for a long time, but now she’s practically running up the steep driveway and climbing like a ninja. While she wasn’t one of the first kids talking in her daycare room, I’m amazed by how quickly she picks up words now (hello, bubbles, bananas just this week). The other day she said “Thank you” when I gave her a snack and I felt so proud. She still signs when she’s tired or for emphasis for things like more, milk, and all done.  Blueberries are one of her favorite things in this world and she calls those “blue babies.”  She also loves crackers but has gotten into the habit of calling the book “Hop on Pop” “cracker” so that’s a little confusing. 

Just the other day I saw her pull out her baby doll and give her a little blanket and lay her down saying “shhh.”  When I started talking she told me to “shh” and then gestured at her baby.  She’s just such a sweet girl. When she has a big snack, she will often try to feed me a few bites. Clearly she’s learning how to show love to her people.  

My biggest frustration is instead of stopping to eat, Nadia often “windshield wipers” her plate throwing food everywhere. Hoping that goes away soon.  We continue to hope at some point she will sleep through the night, but for now she still wakes every 2-4 hours. One day we will sleep, but for now I’m grateful for coffee. 

We just love her so much!

While driving to work this morning, I hear familiar lyrics:

You can get lost in the music for hours, honey,
You can get lost in a room.
We can play music for hours and hours
But the sun’ll still be coming up soon.

The world’s just spinning
A little too fast
If things don’t slow down soon we might not last.
So just for the moment, let’s be still.

You can get lost in the music for hours, honey,
You can get lost in a room.
We can play music for hours and hours
But the sun’ll still be coming up soon.

The world’s not forgiving
Of everyone’s fears.
The days turn into months, the months turn into years.
So just for the moment, let’s be still -Head in the Heart, Let’s be Still

And all the sudden while driving to work, I’m transcended in time to ballroom lessons after work. Hearing this song over and over, as we stumbled through learning to foxtrot for our first dance. Such happy memories of a simpler time, when our biggest stressor was planning a wedding. In some ways I’m glad we chose an obscure song because on the rare occasion it plays on the radio or pops up on a playlist, I’m flooded with happy memories of our wedding and months we spent learning to dance.

So much of my life right now feels like it’s living in the “and.” It’s feeling the sheer joy of belly laughs while blowing raspberries mid-diaper change AND it’s longing for my life before motherhood. It’s missing date nights with my husband AND knowing I have never felt such a clear sense of purpose and meaning in my life. It’s longing for an uninterrupted night’s sleep AND feeling totally in love sandwiched between my baby and husband when my alarm sounds.

Maybe you’re living in the “and” too. Just know both can be true.

Motherhood is hard. Marriage is hard. And they bring such a richness and joy to my life.

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Well that was the longest/ shortest time! It’s both hard to remember life before Nadia and it seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and then taking her to daycare for the first time. So much change in one year. If I had to describe Nadia these days in one word, I would describe her as busy! It feels like if she is awake, she is probably in motion– crawling, pulling up to standing, and recently walking along the length of a coffee table. She is so curious to understand her world. She loves climbing into the refrigerator, closets, finding cords we didn’t effectively baby-proof, and pulling out ALL THE WIPES. A patient at work said “Gosh, I hate to insult you, but she sounds like my cat.” Yes she does act like a cat, and a very cute one at that.

She loves to babble and it seems like she can say dada, mama, and hi. Waving both hello and goodbye bring her so much joy! She really is a ham for getting attention from her favorite people. She still freezes up in big groups of people, especially if heaven forbid mom or dad isn’t around. It is nice that most mornings I can drop her off at daycare without tears anymore (that phase lasted a few months and made me feel so lousy driving off to work). She is always excited to crawl to the door during afternoon pickup. Overall, she is a social butterfly (but also fiercely attached to “her people”– mom, dad, daycare teachers).

Around 6 months I purchased several Montessori inspired materials (object permanent box, egg-in-cup puzzles, simple shape puzzles, Pinkler triangle, etc.). It has been so neat to watch the way she plays with these items change. Now she’s mastered the object permanent box and will place the red ball and clap for herself when it comes out at the bottom– Around 6/7 month she simply picked up the red ball to chew, at 8/9 months she would throw the ball across the room. It’s just amazing to see her brain learn a concept and her fine/ gross motor skills develop to support the new skill. She is definitely making an effort to climb her Pinkler triangle too– that’s going to be nice when we’re stuck indoors this winter.

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We celebrated Nadia’s first birthday on Saturday with family and a few close friends: both grandparents, the Westers, Brett & Emily, Melissa, Ryan & Oliver, Emily, and Anna. It was so special to celebrate little miss Nadia. Her party had a One-toberfest theme and I really had fun finding a dirndl for Nadia to wear and looking up German recipes for lunch. Honestly, the whole thing was so cute we’re tempted to bring it back for two-toberfest next year! On Nadia’s actual birthday we walked around Swan Lake in Byrd Park, as that was the walk that finally pushed me into labor. We shared a cupcake in the park, but Nadia honestly wasn’t very interested– she was much more excited to eat sausage, pretzel, and German potato salad we had for dinner!

Some favorites from this month:

-Standing and trying to walk! Nadia still needs support to stand, but whenever she can she finding a way to pull up to standing. I really don’t think it will be much longer until she is walking.

-She really likes trust falls– she seems to really enjoy the sensation of falling (which is terrifying to me as her mother). Nadia loves to climb up to standing in her crib and then throw herself back– when she starts doing that it’s usually a good clue she wasn’t actually ready for bed.

-Playing in the “Big Tub”– Nadia finally graduated this month into the big pink tub. She had started to get grouchy in her whale tub and it turns out she was simply ready for more space. She really loves splashing in the tub, and on at least three occasions this month she’s also decided it’s a good place to poop. We’re really hoping this trend doesn’t continue.

-“Mmm” Nadia is really enjoying talking more– she says “Mmm” for emphasis and “Ahh” after taking a satisfying sip of water. It’s exciting to think about all the new words and sounds she will learn over this next year.

Recapping this first year:

-Nadia wears size 4 diapers and 12 months clothing– she’s stayed pretty true to Carter’s sizing throughout this first year. She’s such a tall, skinny girl!

-Nadia is not even CLOSE to “sleeping through the night”– she still needs to wake every 2-3 hours to make sure her “people” are still there. She starts sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room and usually moves to our bed with her first wake after I’m in bed. Honestly, I don’t hate it- there are worst things than waking up next to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. One day she won’t need us so much and this is a short part of our relationship.

-She has been exclusively breastfed her first year! I’m so proud of myself that we were always able to work through our nursing challenges. Going in, I had no idea what a challenge this would be. I also didn’t realize that I might not be “finished” at a year. I’m looking forward to wean off pumping during the workday over the next couple of months, but I have no plans to stop nursing when we’re together. Naturally, Nadia is losing a lot of interest in daytime feeds as she has a good healthy appetite for solid foods.

-Nadia is a joy to feed! She has a wider palate that many adults I know. She eats tangy potato salad with mustard, chili, thai curry, eggs, pasta, meat of all kinds, and the list goes on. She’s a total poster child for baby-led weaning!

-She’s totally a pandemic baby- we have kept her world as small as possible (while still working and needing to use childcare). She’s still never been to a grocery store, indoor restaurant, or met many family and friends. We made a lot of sacrifices to shelter her to the best of our ability from COVID-19. I’m hopeful we can keep her healthy until a vaccine is available to her age group.

-She loves to be comforted with music and being rocked. My go-to lullabies for Nadia are “Edelweiss,” “Two of Us” by the Beatles, and “Father and Daughter” by Paul Simon (although I always say Mother when I’m singing).

I probably forgot to capture many other special moments from this month and Nadia’s first year, but I think you get the sense that she is well-loved and that we all survived this wild year!

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After a long stretch of various illnesses, this has been a happy and healthy month for Nadia (well except for whatever she picked up this weekend). It’s like Nadia was waiting for a stretch of good health to show us all the things she has been working on these last few months.

Finally, Nadia can crawl in a mostly coordinated way, although she still enjoys a good army crawl and janky crawl depending on the day. Nadia loves finding the most dangerous places to practice these skills, such as booking it to the stairs while we’re not looking or trying to crawl off the bed. I hope I never forget the look on her face when Nadia realized she could crawl out of her bedroom into the hallway to get to our room. How exciting it must be to discover a whole new world!

Pulling up has been a big highlight this month– she a big fan of reaching for the neck of my shirt to pull herself up to standing. She has not managed to pull up to stand at the coffee table, but I am sure that’s coming soon. Everyone at daycare is guessing she will be walking in another couple of months, which seems crazy because until a month and a half ago she could barely sit independently. I had myself prepared that she wouldn’t walk until 18 months since most of her other gross motor skills were on the late end of normal. Constantly I am learning the lesson to stop worrying about Nadia, because clearly she is doing just fine.

Earlier this month Nadia moved into the next age group at daycare, although she is just on the other side of the nursery and still has the same lead teacher. Nadia now gets to go outside twice most days and sits at a table for snacks and story time. She is now with a smaller group of children (five total) and seems to be thriving with this group. It’s funny how much older she seems with this new structure.

I believe I started sending a “lunch” to school around 8 months, but now Nadia eats breakfast and dinner at home and lunch and two snacks at school. I guess she really is making progress with transitioning away from milk feedings and towards solid foods. All these little changes are bittersweet, it is exciting seeing her grow up but sad to realize she will never be a newborn again.

Slowly Nadia is making progress on the sleep front. Sometimes she is able to wake up, talk for a few minutes and go back to sleep on her own. She still looks for milk feeding a few times and some rocking and singing before going back to bed. After the stretch when she was waking up hourly due to being sick this has felt quite a bit better for everyone.

Lastly, we got to have a couple fun outings this month– a daytrip to First Landing State Park to play at the beach and Flying Squirrels game. It’s funny- we have done so few activities beyond walks in the park because of COVID, it was nice to have some “normal” fun.

When reflecting about the last month, honestly what jumps out the most is how sick this poor girl has been! It’s been a rough time for babies in daycare thanks to outbreaks of RSV, COVID, and all the other minor viruses.

While Nadia still is COVID-free (thanks be to God), she has cut all four top teeth over the last month and a half and easily picked up another 2-3 colds. Last week we got a call from daycare saying there two children in her classroom tested positive for the RSV virus; by the end of the week Nadia and one little girl were the only two who tested negative for RSV. I am trying to stay positive, but I’m afraid it’s going to be a long fall and winter if she’s managed to stay this sick in the summer, which historically has relatively low viral transmission rates. I am certainly thankful that Nadia usually is a good sport when she is under the weather, I honestly was a bit surprised when the pediatrician told us she had a double ear infection earlier this week.

When she’s not busy being sick, Nadia is finally giving crawling the good “college try.” She has a funny way of army crawling that sort of looks like an octopus gliding across the floor sporadically when she spots her unassuming prey. It seems like the things she is most inclined to crawl to are her basket of books in her bedroom, her musical instruments, and oddly enough toes (especially with nail polish). She also is starting to crawl to Daniel or me when we walk into another room.

Nadia is definitely a feisty girl; twice during daycare pickup I heard stories of her “fights” at school with the other babies (although one of the times she seemed to be innocently defending herself when an older boy took her toy). At home, she definitely lets Daniel and I know when we take something away that she wants. Diaper changes are also becoming a power struggle. It’s like a wresting match to keep her pinned long enough to manage to wipe her butt and get the new diaper on before she tries to flip off the changing mat. Oh man, I miss the newborn days.

She still loves mealtimes. I am amazed by the many foods she enjoys: Thai curry, sardines, enchilada casserole, and just about any piece of produce we put in front of her. I really enjoy our family dinners and splashes in the tub to clean up.

Sleep continues to be an ongoing struggle. She usually takes her two daytime naps without pomp and circumstance, but sometimes the bedtime routine drags on forever. Many nights she will go to sleep around 7:30, but will start waking again by 9:30. On the bad nights, she is truly up every hour. I really don’t know how Daniel and I manage to be functional human beings. Co-sleeping is our only saving grace, that and my eternal hope that she will resume longer stretches of sleep any day now.

All this is to say, I absolutely love being Nadia’s mom, even if it’s an exhausting business.

This month’s favorites:

-Mommy– the separation anxiety is REAL. It’s hard to leave the room without tears sometimes!

-Water play– She really enjoys playing in the bathtub or baby pool. I’m so glad she outgrew the phase of hating bathtime.

-Big Girl Car seat– This month we moved Nadia out of her infant seat and she really enjoys sitting up higher so that she can look out the window.

-Pulling out books & toys and dropping them on the ground– Nadia just loves dumping out her basket of books and picking her own toys to play with. It’s very satisfying dropping toys off her highchair while she waits for dinner

-“Wa-wa-wa-wa” — Nadia loves putting the back of her fist against her mouth so she can make funny sounds. I don’t know how to better describe this without being culturally inappropriate, so I will leave it there.

There you have it, another month in the books. I can’t believe she’s almost a year!

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In honor of World Breastfeeding week, I thought I would share some of my ponderings from these last 9 months of my milky mama life. I also want to preface this by saying that I know that some people (actually about 60% of women) plan/hope to breastfeed their child for a longer period than they are able to for various reasons. By no means do I think I am a better mom for breastfeeding, but breastfeeding has been a huge part of my identity as a mom. Also, did you know that a year of breastfeeding equals about 1,800 hours? A full time job with 3 weeks of vacation equates to 1,060 hours per year… so let’s just say it’s been a labor of love!

In the Beginning

I still feel so incredibly lucky that within minutes of being born, Nadia latched without effort. So many moms and babies struggle, and I felt so blessed that it was so easy for us. The first few days at the hospital felt magical—my body fed Nadia in the womb and seamlessly transitioned to breastfeeding.

Then one morning I woke up at home and it was like overnight I was transformed into a very tired Dolly Parton. This was followed by several weeks of waking up dressed for a wet tee shirt contest. It didn’t take long to realize that breastfeeding is not a glamourous affair. There were days when I felt so “touched out,” but those milk drunk smiles kept me going.

While pregnant I spent so much time learning about labor and pregnancy, but I really didn’t think much about breastfeeding. I knew my mom and sister breastfed babies and it just seemed like the normal thing to do. I didn’t realize that breastfeeding is a 24/7 job. I had no clue that mamas can’t be apart from their baby for more than an hour in the beginning (hello cluster feeding) and no more than 2-4 hours with an older baby (without pumping or risking a clogged duct). Breastfeeding would be so much easier if you could just push a button and close shop for a day or two.

Nadia was diagnosed with a cow milk protein allergy when she was 6 weeks old. This meant I had to give up dairy from my diet or switch to dairy-free/ hypoallergenic formula. Obviously I survived, but it wasn’t the easiest time to make a major diet change. The few times I slipped up this year, Nadia had week long flair-ups and I felt so guilty. It was also hard getting pressure from the pediatrician to supplement or switch to formula because Nadia dropped from the 40th percentile at birth to the 20th percentile at her two month check-up. I’m so glad I trusted my gut, completed my dairy detox (and did daily diaper counts to make sure she was properly hydrated.

Back to Work: Nursing, Pumping and More

Pumping is an interesting experience too. It didn’t occur to me that my pumping windows might fall during scheduled meetings at work. It’s been interesting to share “sorry I have to break now to pump’ or tell a patient “I’m going to need to follow up with you an a half hour.” And don’t get me started on making work calls while pumping— it’s the worst! I always wonder– what does the caller think the background noise is?

Everyone builds a maternity wardrobe but no one really mentioned getting nursing/ pumping clothes (beyond a few nursing bras). It didn’t occur to me that I wouldn’t be able to wear any of my dresses because I don’t particularly like stripping to nurse! Before going back to work I realized that 90% of my wardrobe had basically no access for pumping at work. So that was interesting, especially in COVID times when dressing rooms were closed and my body just birthed a human and therefore was a whole different size/ shape!

Likewise, I felt like I got a lot of information about breastfeeding in the early days, but I didn’t know much about how breastfeeding changes as baby ages. I miss the newborn days of listening to podcasts or reading while nursing. Now, I basically have to lay down in a dark, quiet room or Nadia will get too excited to nurse. She hates to feel like she’s missing out on the fun!

It’s also been interesting navigating questions on how long I will breastfeed. On the one hand, I think it’s great to talk about breastfeeding (and normalize breastfeeding), but I was surprised by how many people felt the need to offer weaning advice. Some seemed to think breastfeeding was sweet with newborns and gross with older babies (heaven forbid a toddler!). Some thought that once solids were introduced breastmilk no longer mattered (nope– babies need breastmilk/ formula as their primary nutrition through age one). Some were concerned that I couldn’t possibly nurse once I had a baby with teeth. Now, to be fair biting isn’t fun, but a few rounds of unlatching and “No, Nadia!” seemed to mostly kill her curiosity.

Every so often I think about the Seinfeld episode where Elaine mistakenly sends a Christmas card with her nipple showing. It feels like most of the time I’m home I’m either breastfeeding, about to breastfeed, or recently stopped. This creates the perfect storm to take a selfie with Nadia only to realize my nipple is showing. Thank god none of these pictures are making the Christmas card!

So, while I was wildly unprepared for the journey, I have loved breastfeeding. I hope to do it again with future babies and honestly, I will be sad when I wean Nadia. That said, it seems really exciting to wear an outfit and not worry about boob access or to go to sleep without a bra without waking up in a puddle.

Lastly, a list of shout-outs that make breastfeeding sustainable:

Science– Learning about breastmilk really motivated me to keep nursing. It has so many magical properties and the antibodies given through breastmilk gave me a lot of peace during the stressful transition of returning to work prior to being eligible for my COVID-19 vaccine.

Cute nursing/ pumping friendly clothes– If you think about how much formula costs, it’s really a no-brainer to spend some money on clothes that are practical and make me feel like the cute mama I am (as opposed to the old cow I feel like!). Also, it feels really good supporting small businesses owned by women.

Pumping/ nursing combo bras- I LOVE Kindred Bravely’s Sublime nursing/ pumping combo bra. I can’t say enough good things about this bra– supportive and comfortable for all-day wear. Easily transition from pumping to nursing throughout the day.

Cute pictures while nursing– It’s an experience and journey like no other. I treasure pictures Daniel took of us. While the end feels never in sight now, I also realize it’s such a short phase in the big picture.

All the water and all the (dairy-free) snacks– No one warned me how thirsty and hungry I would be. I didn’t realize lactating mamas need more calories than a 3rd trimester mom, about 500 per day! Nuts, granola bars, peanut butter, fruit and oreos got me through a lot of hungry days.

Support from other breastfeeding mamas- I was so lucky to be breastfeeding at the same time as a close friend to have someone to talk about the day-to-day ups and downs. I also got a lot of support from meeting with lactation consultants and connecting to breastfeeding mamas on instagram and the milky mamas facebook group.

So to all my other current and former milky mamas, Happy World Breastfeeding week. Our bodies are amazing!

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Well, this working mom is a little late on Nadia’s 9 month update thanks to a busy weekend away, a long week at work, and a sick day for Nadia.  I feel like as soon as I finish writing one month’s update, it’s time to write the next.  The days sometimes feel long, but the weeks and months fly.  This month, Nadia’s top canine teeth came in earning her the nickname vampire.  We have had a lot of laughs joking up her vampire qualities (she’s hungry for blood; that explains why she’s up at night, etc.). Nadia had a good 9 month check-up and was on the 23rd percentile for weight, but 84th percentile for height and 90-ish percentile for head. I guess that’s why she keeps outgrowing her hats!

Next week I am really looking forward to taking a picture of me holding Nadia as she is 40 weeks old, as I’m pretty sure the last picture I took while pregnant was at 40 weeks.  Still crazy to think Nadia was born a full week and some change after that!  Sometimes when I feel like Nadia is slow to do something (roll over, sit up, crawl, sleep through the night, etc.), I just remind myself that this is the same baby who choose to come into the world at 41+ weeks.  She does things on her own timeline. 

As for this month, Nadia continues to have such an easy-going personality.  She still loves blowing raspberries and now she figured out how to blow raspberries on mama’s leg.  It’s so fun watching her engage with us.  She often babbles “da da da” but I’m not convinced she’s saying “Dada” as she says “Da Da Da” just as often to me as she does to Daniel. 

I can tell she is frustrated because she cannot crawl.  When I pick her up at daycare, it’s a maze navigating through a sea of young crawlers and one new walker.  I always feel like I’ll try to help her crawl to no avail during the day, but as soon as I’m ready to put her down for bed that’s when she kicks into action trying to practice crawling and pulling up on her book basket. 

We see more preferences as well—Nadia certainly has her favorite people (Mom and Miss Nicole at daycare are currently in the lead).  The other evening I picked out a stack of books for bedtime and one by one I started to read a story only to have her close the book.  That night she only wanted to read the “Snuggle Bunny” book because she loves the attached puppet.

Other favorites include:

-Wiggling– especially while we’re trying to change her diaper. This drives us nuts!

-Listening to music and playing music instruments (the tambourine, xylophone, and jingle bells are popular with supervision).

-Stacking cups—she really loves knocking them over and picking them up one at a time.

-Eating—she’s finally eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It seems like she enjoys almost everything she tries!

As far as challenges for this month, we have cycled through several daycare colds resulting in trips to the doctor and a couple days off work.  It’s stressful navigating these last-minute work changes, although honestly nice to be home a little more when it does. 

We also tackled our longest drive to date—two 6 hour car rides to see family spanning a weekend.  My goodness, if parenting utilized a badge system like the boy scouts, there certainly would be a merit badge for surviving a car-ride through summer DC traffic. 

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Lastly- here’s a few pictures from Independence Day. We enjoyed staying home (skipping fireworks) and walking through Lewis Ginter in the morning. Daniel orchestrated this photoshoot all by himself.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading along.

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Wow, Nadia has been busy this month with lots of firsts: first two teeth (center bottom), sitting up without support, Kicker’s game, Beach day and probably a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting. I feel proud and excited to see her reach new milestones, but also a little sad to see her become less baby-like. Being a parent is such an emotional roller coaster.

We had a great time celebrating Father’s day and Nadia turning 8 months old today at Yorktown beach. It was fun to see Nadia play in the water for the first time (besides the bath), she was skeptical at first but warmed up quickly.

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Movement- Nadia’s favorite position is still tummy-time! That’s her favorite way to play with her little aquarium mat and knock over block towers. I was starting to get nervous that Nadia was not able to sit independently and I put a lot of effort into helping her learn to sit up this month. I was so happy when Nadia started sitting by herself both at home and at daycare. She is not crawling, but has mastered the pivot turn to easily access all her toys, whenever she makes a 360 spin I think she looks like the cutest little sprinkler.

Socializing- Nadia loves babbling and is stringing together various sounds. Sometimes she says “Ba-ba-ba” when it seems like she’s looking for a bottle/ milk, but that might just be an accident. She loves grabbing masks, waving, smiling, and making jokes like blowing raspberries. It’s so cute seeing her more interactive with others. She definitely has her favorite people too– Mom, Miss Nicole at daycare, and Daddy.

Sleep- Nadia is far from sleeping through the night, which is bizarre because from months 3-5 she was typically only waking once per night. Lately, Nadia wakes 3-4 times most nights. She doesn’t drink as many bottles at daycare anymore and I think she’s waking to feed. Even when I am home all day, she just don’t nurse as much/ frequently as she used to during the day. I’m really hoping as we add more meals of solid food she will readjust and sleep longer stretches at night. It probably hasn’t helped that Nadia cut her first two teeth this month.

Feeding- Nadia has done so well with baby-led weaning. I’m surprised by how many foods she enjoys. Broccoli, meat–truly any meat, and mango have been recent favorites. We always feed her at dinnertime (and we all eat versions of the same thing) and recently we added breakfast. I think I’ll be sending a “lunch” to daycare starting this week. Another way this girl is growing up! She’s also learning to take sips of water from an open cup. She either LOVES it or hates it depending on her mood. We’re hoping to let her use open cups at home and a sippy/ straw cup at daycare or when we’re away from home.

And that’s it for this month! Looking forward to more summer-y daytrip this summer!

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I feel like I just wrote Nadia’s 6 month update, but here we are! After a chaotic month without daycare and a sick child, this month has felt normal, whatever that means. When Nadia originally returned to daycare she refused to take a bottle from any of her teachers, luckily that strike only lasted a day. However, Nadia has managed to earn herself the reputation of a baby who is quite selective as to who can feed her. It’s so funny to watch these preferences develop.

Not much “new stuff” this month. Nadia still loves being on her tummy, but can’t figure out how to crawl. She loves when someone holds her so she can jump (and she likes the jumper at daycare). If she’s in a snuggly mood, she still enjoys being held for a nap (and secretly it’s one of my favorite things).

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The biggest “new thing” has been trying out solid foods. We offer solid foods during dinner and mostly Nadia is offered what we are eating. She seems to enjoy almost everything she has tried– it seems like broccoli, sweet potatoes, banana pancakes, and meat have been favorites! It’s nice having Nadia sit at the dinner table with us. As someone who is a “clean freak” the mess of baby-led weaning has not bothered me at all. I think it annoys Daniel more!

Lots of babies experience a six month sleep regression, and Nadia certainly has. She’s back to waking 2-4 times a night. She still usually just wants to nurse and go back to sleep, so it’s been fairly manageable. Thank goodness for coffee.

We really enjoyed celebrating Nadia’s baptism on May 8th. In normal circumstances we would have done this much earlier, but we wanted to wait until grandparents and siblings were vaccinated so we could have a “normal” celebration. It was so nice to celebrate this moment with our families, especially since we had to miss some of the normal fun stuff during my pregnancy and newborn phase. Nadia really loved meeting her grandparents. It made me so happy to see Nadia immediately warm up to Daniel’s parents.

Daniel finished graduate school this month and we had fun marking the occasion with party after Nadia’s Baptism brunch. It’s going to be nice have more time on the weekends when neither of us is working, well beyond the “work” that every adult does to maintain semi-functional lives and homes.

Favorites from this month:

Making fart sounds with her mouth– Yes, Nadia just loves entertaining herself my spitting and making gross sounds. I didn’t realize this phase of life would come so early.

Puzzles– Nadia really enjoys her shape puzzles- mostly taking out the pieces and holding/ teething them. Sometimes she picks them up bobbing for apples style. It’s adorable.

4am Parties– About once a week Nadia likes to throw a party at 4am, always on a weekday. She wakes up, happy with lots of energy and then gets annoyed we don’t want to join the celebration. Usually these parities end up with Nadia in our bed touching our faces or talking very loudly in her crib. She’s not the first person to imply I’m a buzzkill at a party.

Baths– Since starting baby-led weaning, Nadia has definitely been getting more baths in the evening. Her favorite thing is to steal one of the washcloths to chew. I guess it’s sort of like brushing her gums?

The day Nadia turned 5 months she rolled over for the first time, and that set the tone for an exciting month of new discoveries! Within a week Nadia was rolling tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy. A few times Nadia has rolled onto her tummy while she’s sleeping too, which meant she finally outgrew her bassinet. She naps in her crib (in her bedroom) and sleeps at night in the pack-n-play in our bedroom. She wakes up a couple times most night and I appreciate not walking down the hall in the dark 🙂

Nadia is still exclusively breastfed and is a pretty good sleeper. We plan to introduce solids next month using baby-led weaning. When we eat dinner, Nadia will copy our chewing motions and she reaches for my food when she sits on my lap during meals. I hope this means she will be curious once we offer food.

Nadia loves to play on the floor– whether she is reaching for toys in her play gym or just rolling around on a blanket. I often put a playmat down in the kitchen so Nadia can play while I cook. These days, I’ll be mixing something and look over because Nadia rolled over but got stuck on her shoulder. I know it’s just a matter of time before she’s crawling.

We got a little extra time with Nadia this month due to a COVID/ spring break daycare shut down. It was a little wild to find out right before dinner on Sunday that we would have to keep Nadia out of school for a week, and then really wild to learn mid-week that they would actually close for two weeks. I’m certainly thankful that Nadia wasn’t exposed to COVID (it was another classroom) and that Daniel and I have flexible jobs. I would hate to feel like we missed out on the 2020 parenting thrill of working and parenting full-time…

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Just when we were ready to send Nadia back to daycare, she came down with a terrible fever on Friday night. The next morning the pediatrician sent us to the Pediatric ER, which eventually lead to an overnight hospital stay. Even with her terrible fevers (103) she was still smiling and playful (well, when she wasn’t crying). I hope we won’t be going back to a hospital anytime soon–it was stressful and scary! Nadia has been home a few days now and seems like she is almost back to her regular self.

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We took our first trip as a family of three this month– we spent a weekend at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. We had a great time staying in a cabin. We enjoyed walking the trails and snuggling during an afternoon thunderstorm. We stopped by the Booker T. Washington Site on the way home– Nadia got to see her first live farm animals. It’s funny because of COVID we had a lot of firsts that trip– first overnight stay, first time sleeping outside her bassinet, first time getting a diaper change in the car, etc.

Nadia had a good first Easter this month– although you wouldn’t know it looking at this picture. We took her to a sunrise service (which is fairly easy to pull off with a baby who’s pretty much always up by 6) and had my parents over for lunch and then an afternoon egg hunt for August. It was a nice easy-going day.

Nadia has been a good sport this month as Daniel and I had her sit on three civic meetings regarding the casino proposal that will literally be in our backyard. We took Nadia to her first protest too– we held signs on Forest Hill and got a lot of supportive honks. We will find out next month if the proposal was accepted. I really hope it won’t– we might decide to move if it goes through.

Things Nadia loves:

-Faces– she loves touching my face, including sticking her hand in my mouth to touch my teeth. She loves yanking off masks too!

-Kermit the Frog- Nadia LOVES when we play any song by Kermit the Frog. My personal favorite is Caribbean Amphibian.

-Tummy time- best position for playing with toys!

-Kisses– best way to make Nadia laugh.