Alien Abduction??
I’m beginning to wonder if alien’s have abducted my baby…
In the past, she was an eating machine. She LOVED to eat. She would get so upset when she had to wait for a bottle that she had what we deemed the hunger-death-scream. She seemed to suck her bottles dry, no matter how much we put in them. When we started trying solids with her, Aaron proclaimed that “the only thing she didn’t like was the bottom of the bowl.”
The past few days though, we have to fight with her to get her to eat more than a couple ounces of breastmilk at a time. Even her first bottle of the day, she’s not interested. And it’s not just bottles she doesn’t want anymore, she’s not a fan of the solids anymore either. We have to make silly faces and sing “Sweet Chloe Mae” (most people know it as “Sweet Caroline” but not in this house!!) to get more than a couple bites in her.
She’s not wasting away or anything – estimates from our home scale put her at about 19 pounds – but I can’t figure out why she’s refusing to eat and we’re all starting to get a bit cranky because of it…
6 months old
Our little girl is growing up!! She seems to do something new and exciting almost every day.
She’s been trying new foods the last few weeks as her bedtime snack (i.e. – we stuff her full of food to help her sleep longer at night!!) She’s had carrots, green beans, butternut squash, bananas, applesauce and avocado along with rice cereal and oatmeal cereal. We plan to try sweet potatoes this weekend so she can enjoy some on Thanksgiving!! She seems to like everything we’ve given her – as Aaron says, “The only thing she doesn’t like is the bottom of the bowl.” Now that she’s 6 months old, we’re planning on moving up to an evening meal, not a snack, and adding a morning meal. She just recently started eating on a fairly predictable schedule, so we thought we better shake things up a bit 
As of last Sunday, Miss Chloe has a tooth!! She was chewing on my knuckle and I felt something sharp. I’ve never been so excited to be bit before!! The poor kid has a sore on her bottom lip right by her tooth now, because she keeps chewing on it though.
In a wonderful change, Chloe no longer wakes up crying in the morning. She wakes up giggly. It’s fantastic!! She purposefully grabs her toys and occasionally moves them between hands. She can sit up fairly well on her own, but still randomly thrusts herself backwards, so we have to keep the boppy pillow around her or our hand nearby. She’s figuring out that the buttons on her toys generally make something exciting happen, but she’s not a pro at it yet – I think it happens by accident more often than not, but it’s a start!!
We sold our pool table which made room for a playroom for Chloe. She doesn’t have many toys yet, but we have a gate up across the doorway and have made it into a dog-free zone, so she won’t be covered in hair or risk getting trampled when she’s playing on the floor. Hopefully this will not only give her a safe place to play, but also allow her to develop her crawling skills soon.
Hard to believe it’s been 6 months already…
Chloe’s Lullaby
We sing parts of this song to Chloe when we’re trying to get her to sleep. It now works within the first few lines, although we don’t bsing it in order. The italicized lines show how it all started…
“I Will Follow You Into The Dark”
Love of mine some day you will die
But I’ll be close behind
I’ll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs
If there’s no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me
“Son fear is the heart of love”
So I never went back
If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs
If there’s no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It’s nothing to cry about
’cause we’ll hold each other soon
In the blackest of rooms
If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the No’s on their vacancy signs
If there’s no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
A wee bit different than the ”Rock-a-bye Baby” that my mom sang to me, but it works!!
5-months-old
She is wearing the same outfit she was in her 4-month picture. (Great planning on my part…) She has hives and she wants to sit up on her own so badly that she almost fell out of the chair, because she didn’t want to lean back. But…I got the picture taken!!
Chloe now likes to spend her days chewing on her fingers and toes and playing with her feet, which she only recently discovered she had. She also likes to chew on rings, rattles, shirts, other people’s fingers, washcloths and pretty much anything she can get her little hands on. She drools so much we often have to change her onesie or change out her bib. She worked for weeks and weeks on rolling over from her back to her tummy. She did it and now she’s done rolling over - been there, done that. She likes to play in her exersaucer, grab at her feet in the Bumbo and look at herself in the mirror.
I’m probably jinxing us, but I think she might finally be figuring out sleep. She slept straight through until 5AM a couple nights ago and made it until 5 without eating again last night. The only bad part is, after getting 8 consecutive hours of sleep, which she’s not used to, she thinks she’s ready to be up for the day. She’s not though – I promise.
She’s changing so much every day and we’re trying to soak up every minute we can with her and etch it into memory. She’s amazing!!
5-months-old with my monkey
These days, I'd rather chew on him than have my picture taken with him.
Blakely 2.0
I finally feel like me again. I’m not the same me that I was before. I don’t look the same as I used to, I don’t feel the same as I used to and I don’t spend my time doing the same things I used to. But I feel like me – I’m finally comfortable in my own skin again.
Even though I’m down to my pre-baby weight, and then some, I still get the muffin-top look with almost every pair of pants – new and old. I’ve needed new bras every few weeks since about the 20th week of pregnancy, and I’m sure I’ll have to buy a few more. My hair is still falling out by the handful (or at least seems like it) and shows no signs of stopping. So physically, I’m not the same and don’t expect to ever be. I’m a lot more comfortable with my pudge and stretch marks than I was a few months ago though.
Now, when it’s just Chloe and I home in the morning, I can take a shower without her screaming the whole time. It’s a quicker shower and I poke my head out every 30 seconds to make a funny face at her in her bouncy seat or exersaucer – but I can take a shower!! Aaron and I get to eat a hot dinner together more often than not, occasionally even cooking it together. Again, we often spend a good portion of dinner making faces or silly sounds in Chloe Mae’s general direction – but we can eat together!!
My life isn’t what it was, but I don’t want that life. It took me a while to adjust – no one imagines that the baby they wait 9 months for will spend 90% of her days crying for the first 3 months. And even if our little girl hadn’t been colicky, a baby is a big adjustment, regardless. I’m adjusting though and I like who I am now. I think laying on the floor in a shirt covered in slobber, snot and spit up, making faces and random sounds at my amazing little girl suits me just fine. Maybe I’ll call myself “Blakely 2.0″ from now on…
Wordless Wednesday – Chloe’s First Pumpkin
I never seem to have the time to post anymore, so I thought I’d at least start participating in Wordless Wednesday. (In the future, it will be truly wordless!!)
