Modified Tummy Time

I really enjoy looking around my surroundings, as long as I'm awake and happy (which my Mommy and Daddy would say is only a fraction of a day). Sometimes my Mommy and I play a game called "tummy time." I'm not entirely sure how this constitutes a game, as no one really takes turns, nobody advances through any sort of levels or places on a board, and no one can win, but hey, who's complaining?

The game entails this: I lay on my stomach and hold up my head. My Mommy praises me. Sometimes I hold up a part of my body with my arms. This is when my Mommy gets really excited. :) Other times I may try and kick my feet and play like I know how to crawl (Mommy and Daddy say that will come in time).

Anyway, here's a picture of what Daddy called "modified" tummy time where Mommy put me on my tummy on a pillow laid on the couch. Meanwhile, Daddy took pictures. One of those pictures is in this post. Daddy said I looked cute in the bonnet, but I just don't know...

Meredith wears a dress

Mollie this morning decided Meredith could wear a dress and chose the dress Mollie was baptized in. She even put on the bonnet. How cute! Our plans are to have Meredith wear the baptismal gown my sisters and I wore when we were baptized, but Mollie's getting worried that Meredith won't fit into it. We'll just have to see in two weeks. The picture with this post was taken after we came back from church today with Meredith wearing the dress and bonnet. Luckily for us she laid (mostly) content while we quickly took her picture.

Meredith is doing well, still eats, sleeps, makes messes in her diapers, and cries. Mollie seems to think that Meredith cries more than normal, but Mollie is experiencing most all of the crying Meredith does, so her opinion may be biased. Meredith does seem to get a fair bit of gas and she can be bloated some times, but we have found that gas drops help out. Right now Mollie's looking into what goes into "gripe water" that often is given to babies who have colic problems. We've both decided that we would talk with our pediatrician first, though.

Daddy & I Take a Nap

Mommy says I'm napping more, but if you ask me, this whole sleeping thing is overrated. I would much rather be looking around, trying to hold up my own head, and exploring the world. All I need to do is learn to crawl... but Mommy and Daddy say I sure kick enough to be crawling any time now. Mommy keeps having this thing called "tummy time" and praises me when I hold up my head and my body with my arms. Oh well, I'm content to do as they ask as long as Mommy keeps feeding me and changing my diapers.

One of my favorite sleeping positions with Mommy and Daddy is while they're lying/sleeping too. I nestle myself into their shoulder and try to get some rest too. Sometimes I just don't feel like sleeping, though, and I just hold myself up and look around. Problem is, it seems like we're always trying to sleep on the couch, and all I can see are couch cushions. That's just no fun! I need to request a new sleeping location so I can see all the fun things in the world. I'll get on that soon enough, but in the mean time you can look at the picture of Daddy and me sleeping on the ever so boring couch.

Shamu, meet Meredith

Last weekend was the SwRI (Tim's work) picnic at Sea World San Antonio. Jaclyn (a college friend of Mollie's) was over for the weekend helping us out and Meredith is now just a month old, so we decided to venture out into the populated world with her for a short while. Being Texas in September, it was quite toasty outside so we tried to keep to the shows intermixed with trips to air conditioned buildings.

Two of the shows we went to included Shamu's Believe, and the dolphin Viva show (see pictures). Unfortunately, the introductions between Shamu and Meredith were really just a one-way transaction as Meredith slept through the show, but she was awake during Viva! It probably doesn't matter because she can't really focus on anything that far away yet, but Mollie, Jaclyn, and I had a good time anyway!

If you look at the picture of Meredith, hopefully you can see how much bigger she's getting, quite a surprise when you think just a short month ago she was hardly six pounds! She's growing like a weed! :)

Back to the Doctor

Meredith went in for her one month appt. today. It was a hard one. They drew blood from her arm finished said it was not enough and drew from the other arm. Meredith screamed the whole time poor girl then after that they gave her her hep B vax. Her weight is up to 8.7 lbs and her height is 20 1/4 inches. Her head is still measuring large at 14 inches. Wow she weights what a "typical" new born would weight at a month. She is loving still fitting into her newborn cloths though. Every now and again i try something bigger on her but NOPE. Some day soon she will be in them though. No picture because it was not a pretty sight today.

Widow's Peak

HELP!!!! I am losing my hair. who knows what color it will come back in as. Mama still says i am beautiful though.

Some of the Grandparents

Here are some pictures of Meredith visiting with her grandparents. Some how when my mom was here i did not take any pictures blame the socialization. Good thing she lives near by and we can see her again soon. Meredith was visited by her Grandma Stavenger and by her "Pops." Here are some pictures.

A New Trick

Meredith has learned a new trick and it makes me laugh every time she does it. She sticks out her tongue. She does it when she is happy when she is sad when she is ready to eat pretty much all the time, even when she is sleeping. See evidence to the left.

Birth Announcement Ordered!

So it's been three and a half weeks, but we (finally) have a picture chosen for a birth announcement (see picture for this post). Mollie and I have it on order at our local grocery store/photo center (HEB), and it should be ready soon. All we'll have to do then is mail it out to everyone ... ;)

Keep Trying

Mom and Dad have it in their heads that we need to have a picture of me that could go on my birth announcement...yeah my parents are LATE getting to that point. you would think that by now they have enough pictures of me that they can pick one out and do the announcement but NO..mom even took about 12 today and does not like any of them. We will share the best with you but we will have to have another photo session when dad gets home. Well mom says it is time for me to go and take my afternoon nap so that she can get some house work done (our first official day of just the two of us). I am trying to be good for mom but sometimes it is just so hard to be a baby...i can not tell mom what i need so she has to guess and sometimes it takes her a while to guess right. Oh well we will get it all working. Oh and mom played with the colors on this picture just because she thought that it looked better this way.

The Bath

Yesterday I took my first sink bath and boy oh boy it is much better than a sponge bath. I did nto cry until mom took me out of the sink...Pops (Grandpa McGurk) took pictures so we need to talk to him about sending them down here so that mom can include a picture on the blog.

It Almost Fits!

Hey guys it is me and I am growing like a weed!! Mama put on a sleeper to see if it fit and WOW I sure have grown. I need a little length and a little round the middle and it would fit perfect, but mama said that i could wear it for now too. I have to say that i have had quite the traumatizing day. well mostly it was mama and grandma that suffered. I cried most of the night last night and a lot today but mama found the gas drops that aunt Katie gave us and they sure did help. I think that mama will have to give them to me again when i get TOTALLY upset. So i had a bath tonight and mama scrubbed out more brown hair (not really) and then we tried on this jammie thing and then i ate my bedtime meal. and boy those gas drops must have helped plus me crying through the bath must have helped my appitie because I ate the best i have in about a day. Well mama says it is time for me to go to bed so i guess i need to go. talk to you all soon.

Sharing The Love

I am reminded that there is more love to go around every day. no matter how much Meredith cries or wants to spend all day eating there is SO much love that has happened because of her. Not only do i love her more and more but the love I have for her father (ie. Timothy) grows all the time. Just from the little things that he does or says or from the way that he shows his love for Meredith. Timothy's last post makes me happy that i am able to stay home with our little mustard seed. I love being able to be here and care for her. I am not sure at this point if i could handle someone else caring for her. I just have to many preconceived thoughts about how things should be while she is growing and developing. the picture i am sharing is not the best one of me but it shows that i can spread my love between all my "children" at once. Meredith is in the bassinet being rocked with one hand and i am petting Gwen and Gill with a foot and a hand. I love that the dogs are not put off by the new addition and like to be in the middle of things unless i am feeding Meredith...then they are just a distraction for me and Meredith.

Baby Instruction Manual

Somebody must have already thought of this and written a book -- especially with the number of self-help and DIY books around. Why not have one for raising a child too?

Maybe with a title like:

• Your baby day-by-day calendar (keep track of how old she is too!)
  
• The Baby Dictionary
• Babies for Dummies
• Others?

Even so, I think I know why I haven't seen any yet. It's either because I haven't looked (which is probably most of the explanation) or because a baby instruction manual would be pretty simple -- at least for a while:

• Chapter 1: Diapers
• Chapter 2: Diapers
• Chapter 3: Feeding for Mom
• Chapter 4: Diapers
• Chapter 5: Sleeping and how to get her to sleep
• Appendix A: Feeding for Dad

The second edition would just find more chapters on diapers ... and maybe crying. The collector's edition would have a preface from Mom about love, an epilogue from Dad about love, and probably a chapter or two about it too. :)

Meredith Bonding Time

With Mollie home all day with Meredith, it can seem like I hardly get a chance to see her, compared to Mollie. I do my best though to spend time with our little squirmy as much as I can once I get home. I'm sure glad Mollie is staying home with her during the day. Not only is it saving a bundle for day care, but Meredith is getting great amounts of love from her Mom, and I know that when I get home I'll be filled in with all the latest news.

As I said, as much as I can I'm trying to spend time with Meredith. This includes holding her (taking her away from Mom, the "Meredith hog") when I'm at home and taking care of Meredith while we're out on the town (see previous post from Mollie and the snuggly). I'm just trying to get in all the love that she gets from her Mom all day in a shorter amount of time. :)

Big Brother Gilligan

Since we had a post for Guinevere not too long ago, I only thought it fair that we show how Gilligan has adjusted to Meredith. I think he'll do better once Meredith gets old enough to play with him -- for I think that's what Gilligan really wants. He gets quite jealous when I hold Meredith, always wanting to play with his ball instead. He even gets interested when we "play" with Meredith and her toys (see the picture).

Beyond being the big brother that just wants to have a good time, Gilligan is also a relative gauge for how well we've slept the last few nights. We've found that if the last night or two have been rough, Gilligan will stage a protest by not eating in the morning. Once we have at least one "good" night's sleep in, he's back to his usual playful self.

Mommy's Little Night Owl

This picture will pretty much describe itself. Thank you Aunt Becky for making sure I had just the right outfit for the occasion. Just one more thing to add. My hair is getting lighter. Mommy and Daddy may just have their little toe head yet. we will have to see.

The snuggly

Daddy says mommy takes me all the time and he wants his time with me. So daddy has started taking me when we go places. Mommy is fine with it. I got a new experience yesterday. I spent my first time in the snuggly. I have to say that I am in love!! I like being so close to daddy. Daddy gets worried though because my legs turn purple. Mommy and Grandma stuffed a blanket under my bottom and my legs started turning back to normal color again. daddy wants to wait a little while longer till we use it again but I think that I want to use it again today!! I did not get to use it today when we went out to hobby lobby to pick up some picture frames for daddy. I had to show my distaste for the car seat and stroller though. I would have much rather been put into the snuggly. I think that Daddy may think twice again before loading up the stroller and just throw in the snuggly instead. Here is a picture of me looking up at daddy the first time i was in the snuggly.