43 Weeks

This has been quite a week over here! I feel like Annie is a completely different baby than she was a week ago, she's seeming more and more like a toddler with each passing day. She's definitely in one of those spurts of development right now, it seems - I was just reading again about Wonder Weeks, and it seems there is one typically between 42-46 weeks, so that might be what's going on with her lately! Also, she looks kind of angry in the photo, but she's happy - that's a new face she makes when she's excited - love the scrunched up look :)

So anyway, just yesterday, I was nursing Annie before bed and she was pretty cranky, probably because she took one 45 minute nap all day - Ben was on his way out and he said bye to me - Annie looked up at him, waved, and I SWEAR, she said "bye dad". Yes, I knowww she probably didn't "mean" it - but we both were just kind of silently staring at this creature, like..... um, what? You can actually..... understand what we're saying? Crap. Then she waved a few more times when we said bye. She's certainly not consistent about it or anything, but she did it again several times today, except of course when I tried to video her - then she just stared at me motionless while I said "bye bye" 100 times like a moron. I did catch her mid wave in our photo session this morning though.

Annie will also now take steps when standing at the furniture - they are VERY tentative and shaky, but she can get from one side of the table to the other. I'm kind of surprised by how well she's picked up pulling up since everything else was kind of slow going.

THEN, earlier today, I said "How big is Annie??" to her, and she fricking held her arms above her head! Once again, I was just kind of shocked. So I said it again, and she did it again. She started out with just lifting one arm, but then by the end of the night was lifting both arms. Again, very inconsistent, but she'll do it. As you know, I think this "game" is dumb still, but.... it is pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Annie also has been banging things together more, and putting her cups inside things instead of just throwing them around

I was starting to get worried before last week that Annie wasn't interacting with us much, but it was like a switch was flipped and she now realizes that we are actually talking TO her, and that she can do things to us and we react to her. It's pretty awesome. She still is loving clicking our lips too - so much so that when I'm nursing her, she's constantly trying to click my lips, the entire time, and sometimes will stop nursing and grab at my mouth until I make a noise.

We had an awesome Thanksgiving - I probably should make that it's own post, but who knows if that would happen. We celebrated with Ben's family on Thursday, and mine on Friday, and Annie did great both places - she got to enjoy 2 Thanksgiving dinners - we gave her pretty much everything we had, and she LOVED the turkey and stuffing. She even got a few bites of pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake as well, but seemed to like the turkey most. Since then, she hasn't been eating as well, maybe she's not a fan of plain veggies anymore after tasting the good stuff :)

First Thanksgiving dinner!

Annie also had her first pasta with tomato meat sauce.... it was a hit :)

Bathtime was a necessity after that meal

This has also been an interesting week for naps - probably since Annie has had so much going on in her little brain, she has just NOT wanted to nap in the morning. Thursday she took maybe 30 mins in the morning, Friday she played in her crib for 40 minutes and then we had to go so she got maybe 20 minutes in the car, Saturday she played in her crib for a full hour before Ben just gave up and took her out, and today we just didn't even try. So I guess Annie is now on one nap a day. She did fall asleep in the Ergo for about 15 minutes on a walk with Ben while I was visiting Grace and Sam in the NICU this morning (they are doing great, by the way! Hopefully they'll be home by Christmas!) which shows she probably isn't QUITE ready to give up that nap since she has NEVER fallen asleep in the Ergo before, but she then made it until 12:40 or so, and did sleep a little over 2 hours. She does that schedule at daycare, so I guess we'll do that at home now too.

She napped great at both grandparents houses! Probably because I put her in the darkest, coolest corner of the houses I could find :)

A little disoriented after her nap

Little Grace - she's in an open air crib and only has a feeding tube, no additional support! I got to hold her for the first time today

I was so happy I got to hold Sam as well - he's a lot smaller than Grace, so is still in his incubator with a bit of breathing support still

Breastfeeding has been a bit frustrating as well - Annie just wants to play, all the time. She never seems hungry, and I'm struggling a bit with when to nurse her if she's only doing one nap - today I did 7, 11, 3 and 7 which worked fine, but the 11 and 3 feedings are a bit of a struggle. She is so fricking strong now, she'll just basically arch back and twist right off my lap. I really wish I had a scale so I could see how much she's eating. I have pretty much been engorged all weekend - I was hoping that after 4 days of only nursing, my supply would regulate somewhat, but I guess I'll need to cut back even more on what I'm pumping. I have to say, while I do love nursing Annie, I won't miss the daytime sessions at all.

This child is a CHUNK.

That sums up the week! This was a heavily photographed week, obviously, so here are my favorite photos from the past 7 days!

Another beautiful snowfall called for another photo shoot

Playing with Mia's toys, again

Peacoats! DEFINITELY an essential.... :)

Grandpa distracting Annie during her lunch on Thanksgiving :)

Striking a pose at her 2nd Thanksgiving - she borrowed this pose AND outfit from Madeline.

Not sure that's where those go... but good effort, Grandpa :)

Ben laughed hysterically at this pic for probably 10 minutes