Eating Solids...

Daphne is now eating solids. She started a few days ago, but I forgot to post. The first thing she ate was banana, next peas, and today she just finished her jar of sweet potato. Yum.

More updates soon.

Can Almost Crawl...

Daphne can get up on her hands and knees now! She can't move yet to crawl, but she can rock herself back and forth.

I'm very excited to see the first time she crawls.

Hehe, above average baby!

Today, Daphne is exactly 5 months old!

On the 11th, she had her second round of immunizations. As soon as we got home, I gave her baby Tylenol. She didn't gag at the cherry flavor, so I think she's about ready for solids. She handled her shots better this time around.

She weighs 20 pounds and is 26 inches long. I forgot the circumfrence of her head, but she's in the 95th percentile. She's in the 95th percentile for her length, too, and above the 95th percetile in her weight.

We put together the exersauce, and she can entertain herself for about 20 minutes on it, which is great. She is also liking her swing more. She used to hate being in it before.

She can effortlessly flip from back to tummy and back again now, and she's mastered her thumbsucking technique.

Emmanuel moved the server and something happened, so its down now, but he's bound to get it up soon. I have new pictures, courtesy of Cousin Catherine.

Things I Do Not Want To Forget...

I don't want to forget the funny way her eyes droop as she's falling asleep. I hope I'll always remember the way she wiggles around, the odd way she twists and tilts her head to see things that catch her attention, her funny little squeals, and her little bite-size tamale feet.

Look at that baby's muscles!!!

Before I forget, I have a story to tell.

Emmanuel and I were at one of his friend's house, and his friend had a daughter. She saw Daphne and started to talk, coo, and sing to her. It was the cutest thing EVER. She started to sing a variation of "This little piggy went to market..." to Daphne while fiddling with her toes.

All of a sudden, she gasped and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, that's the cutest thing, ever." And starts to look for her mom. She wanders around the house calling out for her, "Mom, mom...mom? Where's mom?" She finally finds her mom, brings her to Daphne and says, "Mom, look, this baby has muscles!" I was at first so confused until I realized she was referring to Daphne's arm folds!!!! She went on stroking Daphne's "muscles," saying, "Oh my gosh, you are so cute. These are the cutest muscles I've ever seen! Aww, look. Wow, what muscle-y shoulders! One, two, three, four--you have four!"

"Four shoulders?," her mom asked. "I don't think so."

"No, four muscles on each arm!"

Then she proceeded to count Daphne's leg "muscles."

Type-riffic Baby!!!!!!!!

I was standing in front of the computer with Daphne in her sling sitting kangeroo style, and all of a sudden, she starts typing on the keyboard. I quickly opened up KWrite so I could save what she was typing.

Look:

b cxllllllllkkkkknjjkkkkkkk;;;;;;;;;oll n9jjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkbbb mmmmm bbbbbbbbbbbbbb v c i hhhhhhhhhhhhngbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbvb ccccccxgh hhhhhhj vcv v cccccc szzzzzzzkkmmmmmmm ;;kooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohbokopoooommmm
mmmmm9090oooooo m9./kkkkkk-9090j uiuuuo8uiiiiiu67777777743s3eee 0.....;;;;/;/l.n /.

She really likes the spacebar. =)

Daphne Jade is just too cool in so many ways!!!!!!!!

Not really a milestone, but I can't help writing about it...

Daphne is growing up so quickly. I recall being pregnant and a bunch of mothers telling me that babies grow up so quickly and thinking what liars they had been the first few weeks following Daphne's birth (haha). But apparently, they had been very, very, and quite sadly correct. She's two feet long now, and everyday I see more and more they kind of person she's becoming.

For example, today, she was really cranky while I was nursing her to sleep and I stroked her forehead. She was very annoyed with my stroking because she immediately made this annoyed grunt, and I just thought it was the funniest thing, EVER. She's grabbing everything now, and it's just so amazing because I clearly remember her when she wouldn't even unfurl her fingers!!!

Man... ::shakes head in disbelief::

Oh, and I mustn't forget about her very expressive eyebrows. They are always going up and down. Sometimes she just raises one eyebrow, and occasionally, she'll make one go up, take it back down, and raise the other one, so it looks like her eyebrows are doing the wave. Heh, what a funny kid.

Playing with toys...

Daphne can now reach out and play with her toys all by herself. I put her down today with this butterfly-looking toy with a rattle in the center of it that turns, and she reached out and started rotating the rattle. She brought it closer to her and touched it, looked at it, played with it's rattle. It's pretty exciting to see. I put her down with a toy so she could entertain herself momentarily while I did something, but I was so in awe of her newfound ability, I just sat, watched, and occasionally helped her out when the toy seemed to frustrate her because it wasn't doing what she wanted it to do.

I'm so proud of her. =)

I really ought to go buy more film so I can photograph her more.

Daphne Rolled Over

Yesterday, Daphne Jade rolled from her back to her stomach. It was the funniest thing to watch--she kept lifting her head forward, trying to use it as momementum. Hahahaha, I wish we could have videotaped it.

I wish we had a video camera. Le sigh...

First Immunizations...

Ok, last time I posted, she wasn't able to get her immunizations. There was a mix up.

She got them today and, BOY, is she cranky. I feel so sorry for her. I thikn she's sore. I'm going to give her some baby Tylenol, and then maybe all will be well.

Daphne's First Laugh

Today was the first day I heard my beautiful, intelligent daughter laugh. She laughed RIGHT NOW. More on it later.

Pictures Updated and Daphne Growing Quickly!

Well, I updated the pictures page.

Daphne now fits into her 3-9 month old clothing. She fits in it a little too well, actually. Which means I actually should have had her wearing it about a week or so ago! I need to go looking for 9-12 month clothing! Or maybe she will slow down.

Today, Daphne will get her 2-month immunizations. I'll write how that goes. The appointment is at 3:10pm.

The end.

First Time, Thumb in Mouth

Today is the first time I've seen Daphne Jade put her thumb in her mouth! She actually did it. But then she gagged.

Now she is trying to eat her fist!

Sling Miracle!

Thank the Lord Daphne is one of the kids who like to being in the sling. I was worried she wouldn't be, but I was so glad when she took to it! AHHHHHHHH! Now I can go places! Hooray!

She sucks her hands now, too!

Daphne now eats her hands now! She had been trying to do it for a long time, and now she's finally got a hang of it! What a cool kid, indeed!

She Smiled at Me!

Today, she was lying quietly on my lap, and I said hello to her and asked her how she was doing. You know what she did?? SHE SMILED AT ME!! I got really excited and started to kiss her all over and then she smiled again! and again! I'm absolutely certain that those were real smiles! She's made faces before that resembled smiles, but I doubted if the truly were. I really don't think they were. But these smiles were real!! YAY!

What happened?!

I just finally got Daphne to sleep at 3:00am! What happened to being able to sleep through the night, Daphne?? WHAT HAPPENED?! I'm going to read about babies and schedules.

Breastfeeding is WONDERFUL!

I never, NEVER, NEVER, never, never, never, never, NEVER EVER, NEVER EVER thought I'd EVER admit it, but breastfeeding is seriously the coolest thing in the world. I absolutely DREADED it in the beginning. I remember at the hospital, breastfeeding the baby for the first time. The first time, actually, wasn't all that bad. I don't even remember if I was doing it correctly, but I remember it not hurting. However, the next several feedings WERE EXCRUCIATING. I would ABSOLUTLY DREADED feedings. I tried and tried and tried, but it was so painful, I couldn't stand it. I would struggle to remain calm to unlatch the baby with my pinkie, but the pain was sooooooo intense, I'd just pull her off. What made this worse was that Daphne had low-high risk of case of potential jaundice. BLEH! So she was bottlefed formula. Probably, over the course of her entire life, Daphne has drank 150 fluid ounces of formula, give or take. I am determined to let that amount be the only amount she ever eats, EVER.

She went cold turkey on bottles when Daphne was about 2 weeks old, and it was SO hard. My nipples weren't sore anymore, but they were still tender, and she still hadn't learned to latch on quickly. She was latching on correctly, just not quickly enough. There were so many times after I said good riddance to formula did was I tempted to fetch a bottle. It was JUST SO HARD. She'd struggle to find my nipple and when she couldn't find it immediately, she'd start to cry! Sometimes, she'd be inconsolable. There were times when Eman was even tempted to give her the bottle. But I was SOOO determined. I rationalized that the tenderness was BOUND to go away sometime, and I had no excuse not to breastfeed. There are hundreds of women who have had harder time trying to breastfeed that I had, so there was absolutely no excuse. It was hard for me because I was impatient, and I constantly thought, what would that mean if I gave up on breastfeeding because I am impatient? It's not like I had anything else that demanded my time. I wasn't going to work, I wasn't going to school. I had no legitimate reason. So I kept trying and kept trying. Slowly but surely, I stopped dreading feeding her and the pain subsided.

Now she is a purely breastfed baby. Thinking back on it, it would have been so difficult for me to bottlefeed her. I'd have to get up, prepare formula, warm it up. I actually think what really did it for me though, what convinced me to go cold turkey, was that I'd pass on antibodies to her and that there was almost a zero percent chance that she'd get diarrhea or become constipated due to bacteria in the bottles or making formula too concentrated.

Yep. Now it's time for a diaper change.

Current Sleeping Habits and Weight...

I forgot to mention that Daphne Can now sleep through the night, meaning she can go for 6 hours!!!!! Yipee! Ah, the advantages of having a fat baby.

Also, last time she was weighed... She was 14 pounds! But she had clothes on, so I'm not too sure of it's accuracy. But I very much doubt she had 2 pounds worth of clothes. So I guess she's around 13 pounds and a couple of ounces.

Oh, My Little Daphne Jade

I wish you could talk so you can tell me when you're ready for me to re-start school.

Hmm...