Poor Baby

Josephine's 4 month doctor's appointment did not go so well today. The doctor, through no real fault of his own, wanted to look in her ears & she was simply not in the mood. So, he had to "force" her head from side to side & she did not appreciate it one bit. She let out quite an ear-shattering squeal followed by the longest, loudest crying fit that we have ever seen - great big tears running down her cheeks and all. Unfortunately, she was totally inconsolable, and this was before she even got her vaccinations. After the shot & oral vaccine, she was beyond upset. We couldn't even get her dressed. I pulled my shirt up & nursed her for a while, but she was so upset that she couldn't even calm herself down enough to suck. We ended up just wrapping her in a blanket & taking her out the car. Once we got her in the car, I finished feeding her and singing along with the Elizabeth Mitchell cd seemed to do the trick. We finally got her calmed down enough to get her in the carseat (still not dressed) and she fell asleep about half of the way home. Today has been filled with nice long naps & bouts of big tears. She just feels icky (last night's "up every 2 hours" schedule didn't help either since none of us got good sleep). So, I'm already dreading the next appointment because today was beyond miserable. The doctor really did feel bad, and Louie & I have never felt worse (the look in her eyes definitely said "why are you letting these people hurt me?").

In better news, Josephine is growing like a champ. Her four month stats -
Weight - 16 pounds, 3 ounces (95%)
Height - 26 inches (95%)
She's still perfectly proportioned (the right weight for her height), which is what the doctor says matters more than height and weight alone.
And, although there isn't a scientific test to determine it, we're all convinced she is also the cutest, sweetest, most adorable little girl in the world.

Oh - I should also mention that the doc said "no go" on cereal before 6 months. He had lots of reasons (including the fact that giving rice cereal to babies to make them sleep longer is as outdated as telling people to smoke as a way to lose weight), but the most compelling reason to wait is that babies who get cereal before 6 months have much higher incidences of asthma, diabetes & skin conditions like dermatitis and eczema. So - okay - we'll wait.

Okay - baby girl needs me. Gotta run!

More Photos

HAPPY FOUR MONTHS JOSEPHINE!

Since I don't have any photos from the weekend to share, I thought I'd "leak" a couple more of Josie's holiday photos. We'll have the Christmas cards out by the end of the week & then I'll add the rest of the photos to Shutterfly.

Another full weekend

Today is Tuesday, and I feel like I'm just now back on track after a busy weekend. Friday was the typical "catch-up" night (laundry mostly). We always swear that we're going to watch a movie, but are always too tired. (Ever wonder how Netflix makes money? It's because of people like us. We once had the same movie for over four months.) Saturday we headed to UC's graduation (I had 11 of my online students graduate) & then on to Xenia to celebrate Phillip's birthday and Kevin's birthday. First on the bill was the surprise party for Phillip at Mom & Dad's. We tried to resist the full spread of party food to save room for our "adult dinner" at PF Changs for Kevin's birthday. (Lou was not as successful as I was. He fell prey to a tray of "pigs in a blanket" & barely had room for the yummy Chinese fare.) Dinner was perfect. Good food, great friends, what more could you ask for? To be honest, I asked for one drink too many. (I should've stopped at one, because my tolerance is non-existent.) After dinner and a spirited ride back to Xenia, we picked up a very happy baby Josie (snuggling in her Grandma's arms) and decided to head over to Chrissy & Kevin's for a couple of rounds of Guitar Hero & Rockband. Needless to say, a couple of rounds turned into a couple of hours. Warning: this is where Lou & I turn into bad parents. Long story short, we finally got back to Cincinnati at 2:30am. Yikes! It was a rough night (to say the least) but we learned our lesson. Thank goodness Josie felt like staying in bed until 3pm on Sunday as well, because I was so dehydrated from the alcohol, then pumping & dumping, that I wasn't going anywhere. Now that we've all fully recovered, it was all worth it (but I wouldn't have said that yesterday). Live & learn I suppose. :)

One year ago this week...

This week in Josie history/from my online pregnancy journal that I started last November...

12/5/2006 : We're PREGNANT! This morning we took two more HPTs. I took one and had Lou read it and then took another to confirm it after he went to work (and then took about 20 photos of the results to show him later). Then we had our appt with Dr. Firestein (for my follow-up PAP) at 11am. I told the nurse I thought I was pregnant & she confirmed it within a minute. Scott rushed in to congratulate us again & to ease our worries. We are SO excited. He set my due date to August 10th, 2007. And says I am 4 weeks & 5 days pregnant today! I'm going in for my first ultrasound on the Dec. 19th, because Scott knew it would make us feel better. I am elated!!!!!

Random Thoughts

Even though I'm quickly approaching four months of motherhood, it's painfully clear sometimes that I still have no idea what I'm doing. At least that's how most of this week has felt. My "parental confidence" was so low on Tuesday that I just about skipped my weekly hypno-mamas group, because I was almost embarrassed to admit how much trouble I was having. Thank goodness I sucked it up & went because I found out that every single one of them is also going through the same thing. Lou did an internet search & found it's a documented thing - "four month regression" - when babies sort of revert back to the chaos that was the first couple of weeks of their lives. Call it what you will; it's been quite a challenge - up every couple of hours again at night, refusing to nap during the day, general fussiness, etc. It's just been one heck of week. Add to this the fact that I am desperately trying to get Josie into a routine so that I can start back to work after the holidays, and I'll admit I was ready to trade Josie for four kittens and a plasma tv to Grandma Schneider afterall - what an offer - :) ! In all the madness, I've just tried to remain calm and grateful and remember how lucky we are to have Josie (even wide-awake at 3am Josie) in our lives. Here are some photos from this wacko week.

Venus has decided that the crib is so comfortable that the Boppy must be, too. Here she is completely stretched out in one Josie's favorite spots. (I should also mention that my Boppy cover got recalled due to lead paint on the massive zipper that goes across the whole back of the thing. Unbelievable!)
Here's a photo of our little Penguin. Lou got bored when I was talking to my mom on the phone the other night & decided to play dress-up with Josie by revisiting the Halloween outfit. She was much happier in it this time. Isn't she cute?
And here is what happens when it's going on 4pm & you haven't taken a nap because you just want to party like a rockstar all day. Eventually you can't take it anymore & pass out head first into your toys. Too funny!
Speaking of sleep, Josie just woke up from a much-needed (but short) nap. We went this morning to tour the day care center that is around the corner from our house (one of only two in the city) & that threw off Josie's schedule a little bit. More on the day care thing later. Gotta go rescue the little one from her Pack & Play.

Whoa baby!

Three words - "Four Month Regression"!
This is all I have time for right now, gotta go tend to a very tired baby who refuses to sleep.

More Milestones

Here's the video I mentioned the other day. It's actually pretty boring unless you're Josie. For her, these were pretty dramatic moments. For over 3 months she just laid underneath these things dangling in her face & then one day discovered that she could reach out and touch them. In her excitement, she started throwing her legs over to the side to do what is obviously the beginning of rolling herself from her back to her front. We're amazed at how she's able to get around with this new move. She just goes a couple of inches at a time, but before you know it she has completely moved herself 180 degree (sort of like the hands of a clock). Here's the link to the video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7688476232363136228&hl=en

Also, I added the photos from the end of the month to the Shutterfly collection.

Holiday Cheer

Parents have always said to me that the holidays take on such greater significance when you see them through a child's eyes. Although Josie is still too young to know one day from the next, I'm already sensing that there is a degree of truth to that. Last night we took Josie around the corner to Fountain Square to see the first weekly performance of Santa rappelling off of the Great American Building. She couldn't have cared any less about that, but she thought the fireworks were pretty cool. (The photo above is our little bundle all wrapped up in her stroller with the ice skating rink behind her.) It just made me feel all warm & mushy to have our daughter on the Square amid all the holiday lights, music, etc. So, I have no doubt that going to the tree farm to pick out Josie's first Christmas tree next weekend will be just as special. Typically, I'm already annoyed by all the Christmas kitsch by the second day of December, but it's definitely different this year. To prove that, see the link below. (Thanks to Schmittee for passing this on. It's totally disturbing, but makes me crack up for some unknown reason.)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1132750009

Perhaps it was all of the excitement with the fireworks & daredevil Santa that got Josie's party started last night. Regardless of what started it, the party didn't end until about 7am. Maybe we jinxed ourselves when we celebrated that she went right to bed at 10am (no Nuk, no swaddle, no nothin'), but she woke up at midnight (starving), then again at 1:30 (starving), then again at 3:30 (starving), then again at 5 and stayed up as wide awake as can be until 7am. Her longest stretch was from 7-10am which we very much appreciated, but wouldn't have complained if she slept until at least noon. What a night!!! Oddly enough, she has only taken one 1/2 hour nap today. We don't know what the heck is going on, but hopefully it won't happen again anytime soon. If it's another growth spurt, we may need to go ahead and contact Tyra Banks, because there's a good chance she'll be at least 6 feet tall & ready for the 200th season of "America's Next Top Model" by 2025.

So, it's December. Josie's 4 month birthday is right around the corner. I have an official "back to work" start date of January 7th. It's hard to believe that I carried Josie home wearing a tank top and flip flops & we can't leave the house now without at least 3 layers. Time really does move all too quickly.

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin....

That's right - Josie has officially added "Rolling" to her list of credentials. We were having "tummy time" like any other day, when Josie pushed up on her arms with much more authority than she ever has before. She got this very proud "check me out" look on her face (see photo above) and then started to wobble. That's when I switched the camera over from still photos to video and managed to capture her very first flip from belly to back on film. (You'll hear the obvious excitement in my voice.) So, here it is! ENJOY!

In other Josie news: we have decided to stop swaddling her at night. Actually, this was more of Josie's decision than ours. For one, she got too big for her swaddling blankets, and she also spent so much energy trying to "Houdini" herself out of the swaddle that she would wake herself up at night. So, I must say the last couple of bedtimes nights have not gone as smoothly as we're used to. Typically I would just feed her, bundle her up & put her down for the night. Getting her to sleep now is a bit more of a battle, but we're getting there. Wish us luck! :)

Funny stuff

After three failed attempts to upload the video showing the fact that Josie has finally learned that her hands are attached to her body & that she can get them to do whatever she wants them to do, I've decided to give up and go to bed. But, it's been a couple of days since an update, so I'll leave you with these two recent photos. This first one is from Sunday night with the Xenia gang came down to visit. Kalie & Claire wanted Josie (or "Juicy" as Claire would say) to be comfortable, so they got four stuffed animals from her room and surrounded her in her swing. Kalie then insisted on taking a picture, and here it is. (I think she has a future in photography.)
This second photo is only funny because a little time has gone by. It wasn't funny at all when it happened. Pictured below are four new onesies, two packets of new socks, and a couple of other random things that I foolishly washed with my orange maya wrap sling. The color bled and turned an full load of laundry completely peachy-pink! Thank goodness we have a girl. And, conveniently, now her onesies and burp cloths perfectly match her socks. :)
I'll try to update more this weekend & also get that video uploaded. She's really learned a lot in the past week and is even beginning to roll herself over. I'll share some more highlights soon.

Sneak Preview

A couple of weeks ago, we had a friend-of-a-friend professional photog come over & take Josie's "official" three month photos to serve the dual purpose of gracing our Christmas cards (remember I said it was okay to do at least 1/2 of the things you swore you would never do as a parent?). Yesterday we got the proofs back, went through the 200 or so photos, picked our favorites & then promptly ordered our cards. We only got to pick 4 pictures for the card & I'll order others to hand out when I'm in Xtown for Xmas, but I thought I'd give you VIPs a sneak preview (mostly because I can't resist sharing this sweet little face with the world).

Josie's First Thanksgiving

We definitely had a lot to be thankful for this holiday & that made celebrating Josephine's first Thanksgiving even more special. As if turkey and mashed potatoes aren't enough to make a day great, we also got to spend more time with Josie's great-grandma and our family in Indiana and extended the trip to a weekend in Chicago with Aunt Manda & Uncle Mike. Since they hadn't seen Josie since she was born, this was an important trip for all of us! And it couldn't have been more perfect.I'm actually getting a little ahead of myself. The photo above was taken at M&M's at the end of our weekend, but as I said, the festivities actually began early Thanksgiving morning. We woke up around 6:30 am with intentions to leave by 8, but after an earth-shaking diaper blowout that ruined Josie's thanksgiving attire, we didn't make it to the car until just after 9. (And not a moment too soon, because just as we drove away, the first runner in the annual Turkey Trot race came buzzing down the street with 11,999 people behind him.) The drive to Marion, IN was uneventful - just the way we like it. Josie slept almost the entire way & played happily for the twenty or so minutes that she wasn't sleeping. We arrived in Indy safe, sound, and hungry. Douglas & Brent certainly didn't disappoint, and we had quite the Thanksgiving feast. Here's a photo of Josie having her first Thanksgiving dinner with her dad.

After dinner, it was playtime. Josie spent lots of time making faces for her Grand-daddy and Great-Grand-nana. (Poor Ollie the dog got a little jealous.)

After playing for a while, Josie (and the rest of us) assumed the normal post-turkey pose and just spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and watching football. Here's Josie sacked out with Grandma on the world's coziest chair.
So, I guess it would be dishonest of me to say that the relaxing only lasted one afternoon. Actually, that's what we spent the remainder of the whole weekend doing. This trip to Chicago wasn't about great holiday deals on Michigan Avenue or another trip to IKEA. It was all about chillin' out together & everyone getting in their cuddle time with Josie. Here's Josie with her Aunt Manda.

And a big double kiss from her Aunt & Uncle M&M:
And watching football with Daddy- (yes, we're aware that our daughter has an addiction, and recognition of the problem is the first step toward recovery):
I should also mention that the full set of Thanksgiving weekend photos from me & from Manda are now added to a new album in Josie's Shutterfly collection - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com - you'll notice that there are a lot of photos where Josie appears to be staring off intently in the opposite direction of the camera into the exact direction of the tv.

Here's Josie & I settling down for a long winter's nap while M&M went out to the store to get the fixins' for our Thanksgiving Mexican Fiesta.

And here's Josie all snuggly in front of the fire. I think it's safe to say that Josie loves her Aunt & Uncle.
Overall, it was the perfect weekend! We left Saturday afternoon after filling up Josie's belly and (unbelievably) made it home in about 4.5 hours. We only stopped once for gas & a quick trip through the drive thru. Thanks to the CDs of white noise that I made, our new favorite "kids music" by Elizabeth Mitchell & the back seat full of toys, Josie was very content for the whole drive. She slept all but about 1/2 hour or so. I had pumped some milk on the way to Chicago from Indy & saved it for the ride home, so I just fed Josie in her car seat instead of having to stop to nurse her. We also spent some time "reading" her Spots & Dots book (which mesmerizes her). All in all, it's great to know that Josie does so well in car. I'm sure there's another trip to Chicago right around the corner. Heck, maybe next time we'll actually leave the house. :)

Thanks Douglas & Brent for a delicious dinner! Let us know when you open your B&B and we'll be your first guests. Thanks M&M for letting us rearrange your furniture & totally take over your house. You don't know how awesome it is to have someone cook & clean up after you. It was like a vacation! It was the perfect weekend!!

What a weekend!

This Thanksgiving weekend has been nearly perfect! We arrived home from Chicago last night after a delicious dinner in Indiana on Thursday & are taking a brief hiatus from the holiday festivities at the moment - that is until Chrissy, Kevin, PJ, Janelle & the girls get here in a few minutes to cap off this perfect weekend! I promise to get all the photos added to the collection & the highlights added to the blog by Monday afternoon. Hope you all had an excellent Thanksgiving!

WARNING: T.M.I.

Let it be known that I recognize that this might be Too Much Information for some of you, but it's a big day for those of us here at Chez Schneider. Today is the Anniversary of Josephine's conception. That's right - one year ago today her journey began as a microscopic clump of dividing cells. (And I'm willing to bet she was the cutest fertilized egg anyone has ever seen.)
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! This year we definitely have something extra to be thankful for! Gobble, Gobble!

New Links

For all you parents out there (or people with gifts to buy for little ones), I just added a whole bunch of new links to cool baby toys, clothes, etc. on the left under "Our Links." Enjoy!

HAPPY 100th!

Okay, it's possible that I may be coming down with a bit of Blogger's Anxiety. I added a "hits counter" to the website in the middle of last week, and it's already up to 100 hits! YIKES! Glad you're all visiting. I'll try to keep up my end of the bargain. :)

Busy Weekend

We've officially decided to re-enter the world. With that, we had three parties on the calendar for this weekend. Unfortunately, the Hypnobirthing Reunion had to be cancelled (poor Jill and her massive sewage back-up). But, we were able to make it to Jodi & Larry's Beaujolais Nouveau release party! Josie was a trooper, and I really enjoyed the vino! :)Grandma & Aunt Manda - that's right - Josie is officially fitting into the (4-6 month) dresses you bought her. Here's a close-up. Too cute!
I thought I'd also post the photo of Lou doing the vacuuming this weekend, although he didn't opt for the sling. She seemed to be just as content propped up on his arm.
And here's something for you Grand-daddy: Josie in her first pair of jeans (handpicked by Grand-daddy himself). I finally got a photo of her wearing them. Believe it or not, they're already getting snug. No worries, I jsut bought her some more jeans last week.
So, another week has gone by. We wrapped it up with football & chili (and what Louie swears is the last Bengals game he's going to watch) yesterday at Helene & Andy's house. This week is going to be an exciting one: off to Indiana for Thanksgiving on Thursday, then on to Chicago for our first (of many) trips to Aunt & Uncle M&M's house. I'm sure it will take us the whole first part of this week to get everything ready that we feel like we need to make the trip. :) Wish us luck!
FYI - I added the photos from the last couple of blog entries & a few others to the Shutterfly collection. Enjoy!

That silly girl

If it hasn't already been made clear to you from the fact that this blog even exists, I'm a bit obsessed with taking photos of Josie. But, there's good reason for that. She's hysterical. Take this first photo for example. I like to call this her "Legwarmers are #1" pose! Seriously, can you believe she did this? On the topic of her legwarmers - equal parts Rainbow Brite & Punky Brewster - I now know that one of the laws of the universe is that I get to dress her in whatever I want for the first few years, but then I can't complain when she seeks revenge as a teenager.

My other favorite photo of the week is this one. Here's Josie with her new little giraffe cuddly blanket.

Besides the fact that she was absolutely cracking me up trying to fit the whole thing in her mouth, the guilty look on her face as she hugged and cuddled it was made the whole thing hysterical to me. It was like she was afraid I was going to be jealous that she could possibly be enjoying something else besides me.

And finally - here's another video of our girl. As I said, my goal is to get that giggle on film. By the time Lou got the camera rolling, she wasn't really laughing anymore, but it's still pretty cute so I decided to post it. Enjoy!

Another pedi trip

Josie had another trip to the pedi this morning for two more shots (and has a big Bugs Bunny band-aid on each leg to prove it). She did very well, despite the obvious torture. The first shot totally didn't phase her, but the second one definitely more than made up for it. What a scream! She seems to handling the vaccines well but is pretty drowsy.

Oh - and I forgot to mention she weighs 15 lbs. & 8 oz! (Three cheers for mama's milk!!!)

Happy 3 months Josephine!

Josie turned three months old today! So, we thought we would have Cincinnati's Mayor Mark Mallory help us celebrate. Here we are commemorating the event below: Actually, Mr. Mayor was also having coffee & waffles on Saturday morning downtown & we thought it would be funny to get Josie's photo taken with him. So, we interrupted his breakfast with Councilmember Cranley. Cranley took the photo & Mr. Mallory asked us exactly what a "baby blog" was anyway. (I walked up to the table & said "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, can you take a photo with our daughter for her baby blog.") Truth be told, we felt a little funny asking him, but now I'm glad we did. :)

Josie is getting more & more fun everyday. And she seems to be enjoying her life outside the womb even more. Here she is before her bath on Saturday night. (That's right - Lou & I now spend Saturday nights bathing our baby & watching a movie in bed. Had we known just much fun this would be, we likely would've had children a lot sooner.)

Yep, she's all smiles these days. And she's even giggling like crazy. We're convinced that making your own child laugh is the reason why people have kids. Lou got her laughing so hard today by jumping across the room and saying "Hi Boo-Boo" over & over again that she was laughing so hard that her face turned red & she gave herself the hiccups. Lou actually had to stop because she was cracking herself up. I was of course crying at the cuteness of the whole thing. It's just so funny to see what makes her laugh. My next project is to capture those giggles on video, although I'm not sure Lou is willing to do a repeat performance of "Hi Boo-Boo" for the entire viewing audience.

Another one of my new favorite things that Josie is doing started happening this week while she is nursing. One day this week, I was feeding her & watching tv. Suddenly I realized she wasn't attached anymore, so I looked down to see if she had fallen asleep. Instead, she was staring up at me with those huge sparkly blue eyes with one of the biggest smiles on her face that I'd ever seen. It was as if she was totally saying "thanks for the milk mom; this is great!" Then, she kept doing it. Eating then pulling off to smile up at me. It was so funny. So, the next time I nursed her I grabbed the camera in case she did it again. And she did! So, I'm sharing it with all of you in this photo. (I decided it would be best not to share my nipple with all of you, so this is the least revealing photo of them all.)

We've also moved to the front carry position in the sling now that Josie is such a big girl. On Thursday evening, I decided I couldn't stand the cat hair anymore so I put her in the sling & grabbed the vacuum. Lou came home to find me happily cleaning the carpet with a very happy little snuggler sound asleep in the sling. I think the sound of the vacuum totally knocked her out, which I will definitely have to remember in case of emergency.

In other news, it was a busy week for this little girl. Friday I went to Xenia for some much-needed pampering at the salon & an overdue trip to Mom & Dad's offices. It made for a long day for Josie since he took her to the law firm that morning. By the car ride home Friday evening, Josie was ready to reach around from the back seat and strangle me. 20 minutes of motor boat noises later, we made it home safe & sound. I learned a very valuable lesson: Josie does in fact have a schedule & if I deviate from it too much, there is hell to pay. (Lesson learned.)

I guess that's it for now. She's had a busy day today (her three month photo shoot was this morning) & she needs some attention. As I type this, she is laying on her playmat & is learning at this very instant that she can hit the orange duck above her head and make it rattle. It's an amazing thing to watch that little brain working. Gotta go enjoy the moment... I'll leave you with a close-up of those baby blues.

Oh yea - and there are more new photos in her shutterfly collection - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com Enjoy!