by any means necessary

The sure fire way to get Sophia to sleep during the day is to put her in the baby carrier and start doing housework. Laundry, vacuuming, baking....all of it seems to put Sophia to sleep. So you'll find a lot of this around our house these days...

Making dinner

Sleeping soundly!

Don't want to get ketchup on the baby girl...

No more excuses for not doing housework... darn :)

first smiles!

Sophia is smiling at us! We love all the special grins we are starting to receive from Sophia! There is nothing like smiling at your baby girl and having her give you a big gummy grin!

They are hard to catch on camera but I managed to capture her smiling at her daddy this morning!


We love you baby girl! Your smiles light up our days!

5 weeks!

Sophia is 5 weeks old!

We've seen big changes in Sophia during her fifth week of life. She is becoming more and more social, telling us all about her dreams when she gets her diaper changed. She also smiled socially for the first time! She gave her mom a few big gummy grins on February 17 after her diaper change!

At 5 weeks Sophia:

• wears size newborn (getting a little chunky for these!) and 0-3 month clothes
• smiled socially for the first time!
• sleeps swaddled in her crib at night
• naps in the baby carrier during the day
• is most awake and playful in the morning
• eats every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-4 hours at night
• has started to hate car rides!

one month!

One month ago Sophia Alice arrived and changed our lives for the better! What a month it has been! Sophia has grown so much in just her first month of life going from a sleepy newborn who ate 12 times a day to having more wakeful periods and greating us with coos and baby babbles.




Her first month of life was filled with visits from friends and family, volunteering for Reading Camp (starting her young!), trips to the doctors for check ups, walks around the neighborhood (yes, in February, in Cleveland! 60 degree weather!) and lots of snuggles with mommy and daddy.





At one month Sophia:

• wears size newborn and 0-3 month clothes


• weighs 9lbs 8oz and is 20 3/4" long


• eats every 2-3 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night


• loves to sleep in the beco baby carrier during the day


• sleeps swaddled in her crib at night


• must be reading the baby books because she is trying out all the soothing techniques! one day she loves car rides, the next its the vacuum, she's going right through the whole list :)


• can lift her head and turn it


• coos and babbles
  
  

Gesundheit!

a table set for three!

A Romantic Valentine's Day Dinner.

The table was set with everyone's beverage of choice.

One little 3 week old slept right through.

Letting her mommy and daddy enjoy their first Valentine's Day as parents. A yummy dinner of oatmeal pancakes and mimosas :) With a lot of maple syrup of course.

Thanks Sophia!

4 weeks!

It is hard to believe Sophia has been with us for 4 weeks already! She is growing and changing every day!




During her fourth week Sophia had her first trip to the outlets! It was a nice sunny day on Saturday so we decided to go there and exchange some clothes Sophia was growing out of before she got to wear them. Sophia did really well. She slept most of the time and sucked on her pacifier when she was awake.

On Sunday, Sophia went to church for the first time for a Reading Camp meeting. She did wonderfully again slept, ate, and slept again! Everyone was very excited to meet her! She also had a visit from Nana and Pappy who brought her a Valentine's day gift.

Sophia has started to have some fussier periods in her fourth week especially in the evenings. She seems to have read about the "witching hour" and decided to join the bandwagon. Some, not every night, she fusses in the evening hours and no one thing seems to work to settle her to sleep. Some nights swaddling works, other nights lots of rocking, last night she and daddy danced and sang 80's love ballads..... Every night is a new adventure.

At 4 weeks Sophia:

• wears size newborn and some 0-3 months clothes


• eats 8x a day-her timing is ever changing roughly every 2-3 hours, some nights will go 4-5hours but not consistently


• hates having her diaper and clothes changed most of the time


• loves sleeping in the beco baby carrier (most of the time...Sophia isn't consistent these days in her likes and dislikes!)


• has started to hate car rides as of Monday! We're not sure why!


• is starting to coo and make other noises when awake


• Can lift her head and hold it better each day

Happy Valentine's Day

On Sophia's first holiday she wanted to send out a little Love to all her family and friends.

And to her special friend, Asher, the answer is YES :) Sophia would love to be your Valentine.

walk like an egyptian

Sophia took a special trip on her 3 week birthday. She got to visit Cleocatra and her Tut friends at daddy's office.

and of course she got to spend some special time with her dad

We can't wait to visit again!

3 weeks!

Sophia is three weeks old!

Sophia was a little sleepy during this week's photo shoot

Sophia is changing every day and keeping her dad and I on our toes. Just when we think we've figured out her routine she throws a curve ball at us. For example, we used to always know when Sophia needed a diaper change. She would cry, grunt, and then there would be a very loud sound followed by a smiling Sophia. Just the other day she was fussing and we couldn't calm her so we decided to check her diaper. She had landed a silent one on us! Now we know, check the diaper, even if you haven't heard a poo explosion.

In her third week Sophia took her first trip on the highway to go to dinner at her Aunt Laura and Uncle Mark's house in celebration of her Nana's birthday. She also got to visit her dad at his office. All of his co-workers were very excited to meet Sophia. While dad's co-workers admired Sophia sleeping in her car seat mom and dad enjoyed lunch together.

At 3 weeks Sophia:

• wears size newborn clothes and some size 0-3months


• has a very expressive face and smiles often in her sleep and while she is nursing


• loves to sleep in the beco


• loves her car seat


• enjoys tummy time and is lifting her head higher than last week


• is liking baths a little more but still not her favorite activity


• hates having her diaper and clothes changed most of the time


• eats every 3 hours during the day until about 5 when she eats every 1 1/2 and then sleeps for 5 hours (roughly, Sophia's eating habits are still irregular but this is the pattern she started in her third week)


• gets 1 bottle a day of expressed milk from her dad


• sleeps swaddled in her crib at night

like father like daughter

Carl has a favorite hat. A hat that is so important his mother and father-in-law searched all over London in vain for a replacement when it went missing. Thankfully this hat was located months later in the pocket of a certain winter coat.

When Sophia saw her dad's favorite hat, she just had to have one too.

Now she wants to be in a rap song like her daddy. :) Love them! :)

about the weekly posts

Just a note to fill you in on the weekly posts with the giraffe. I got the idea from my friend Emily who did this for her son Asher for his first year. The giraffe next to Sophia was a gift from Carl's office and I thought would be the perfect thing to give us an idea of how she grows throughout her first year. The quilt she is laying on was made by Emily and is so pretty it had to be shown off on the blog!

As you can see from the first 2 weeks, Sophia doesn't like to stretch out just yet so it is hard to compare her size! I am sure this will get easier as she grows.

Hope you enjoy!

Ridin' in Style

Miss. Sophia has been a bit fussier about falling asleep during the day the last two days. No more nurse, sleep, nurse, sleep. She has been awake a little more, which is fun, until she gets to be tired and just can't settle to sleep as easily as she used to. To help Sophia sleep I decided to give the Beco a try!


It worked! and I was able to eat lunch with 2 hands! Love it!

2 Weeks Old!

Sophia Alice is 2 weeks old! I am pretty sure I will be saying this every week, month, year.... from now on but I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since Sophia joined our family! What an incredible 2 weeks it has been. Carl and I have certainly been learning a lot about our sweet little girl over the last 2 weeks.

Sophia's second week was filled with more visits from mom and dad's friends. She met mom's long time friend (since middle school!) Caitlin and her sister Sarah. Mom and dad's friends Jason and Amy came by with food and to visit Sophia. Timing is always tricky with Sophia as she occasionally decides to eat right through her visits so Amy and Jason only got to see Sophia briefly. Sorry friends! Hopefully next time Sophia will want to play more :)

Sophia lost her umbilical cord stump this week (at 8 days old). No more stump meant Sophia could have her first real tub bath. Mom and dad were hopeful Sophia would like this a little more than the sponge bath but so far bath time is just not Sophia's favorite activity.




At 2 weeks old Sophia:

• wears size newborn clothes


• weighs 7lbs 15 ounces and is 19 3/4" long (as of her doctor's appointment when she was 10 days old)


• is in the 45-50 percentile for weight and 40th for height


• was declared "healthy (and) beautiful" by her pediatrician


• makes the cutest faces while she sleeps


• giggled once, her Mom and Dad are very curious what she was dreaming about :)


• likes to be swaddled to sleep at night


• loves her carseat


• can lift her head and turn from side to side

And one more picture of my sweet girl :)