Rice cereal!

After much deliberation, I decided to start Gabriella on rice cereal. She would have normally started next week after her 4 month appt, but after 3 weeks of not STTN (after STTN since she was 9 weeks), with feeding times getting increasingly closer together overnight, and an overall feeling it might be time, I took the plunge. I was nervous she wouldn't like it, but man, to say that she loved it would be an understatement. She was almost attacking the spoon with her mouth. Granted, a good amount dribbled down her chin, but she did really like it and really started getting the hang of it at the end. I think I might make it a little thicker tomorrow. After she finished her entire serving, she downed a 6 oz bottle and is now sleeping....hopefully till tomorrow AM!! Fingers crossed!

This weekend was a busy one for Gabriella. She met her 5.5 month old cousin, Nicholas, for the 1st time. They were adorable together....very curious about each other and they even spent a little time babbling to one another. Gabriella also met her fellow fort monkey, Kendall, and mommy Jenna; both adorable!

Gabriella and Nicholas

Jenna, Kendall, Gabriella and mama

Gabriella and her 1st time having rice cereal

Thank you!

Thanks so much to all you ladies who left the sweetest comments yesterday. They were so nice to read. Today I am doing much better. Gabriella was being super cute all night until she went to bed last night and I soaked up every minute that I could with her.

I miss Gabriella

I'm sitting here today at work just thinking about my little girl and trying with all my might not to burst into tears. I'm out of tissues at my desk and if I go into the hallway it will particularly evident that I'm not holding up well. I don't know why today is such a hard day. This is already my 3rd week back at work and while I must say goodbye to my baby girl every morning, I feel physical pain when I am apart from her. Its a certain heaviness in my chest that makes it hard to breathe when I'm not with her.

I know I ranted on and on about how I was eager to go to work, to get back to some amount of "normalcy," I even *gasp* was looking forward to being away from her in the sense of taking a break from it all. I've come to realize quite quickly that its not at all like I thought it would be. I hate that I can't be with her all hours of the day...to see her smile and squeal, to learn new things...even to throw a tantrum when she's overtired or doesn't want to be put down. I would give anything to be with her right now....

::thank goodness I found some napkins from Friday's lunch on my desk::

Cuteness!

Gawd, I love my child. She is SO strong....she wants to sit up all the time and can bear a good amount of weight on her legs. Just a little eye candy :)

Gabriella and Mama

Daddy and Gabriella (aka the good luck charm)

Happy 3 month b-day, baby!

Tomorrow Gabriella will be 3 months old--my little girl is getting big quick! I don't know if I will remember to blog tomorrow, so I wanted to make sure and commemorate her 3 month birthday.

I'm pretty sure that Gabriella is in her 3 month growth spurt right now--the child will not stop eating. Today she downed 2 of her 4 oz bottles in 3 minutes. I could not believe my eyes. She's also been cranky as well today, which is not her norm anymore (since her reflux has died down). I think its safe to say that after she's done with this growth spurt she's not going to really fit in her Carter's 3 month onesies. She's growing so incredibly fast!

I went back to work last week and I can't say that it was easy. However, as heart wrenching as it was to leave Gabriella last Monday morning (yes, I cried and it totally took me by surprise), after a couple of hours I was ok. Tuesday morning and the rest of the week were just fine. Getting to spend the morning and evening with her are my favorite times of the day. In the morning she just smiles and squeals --I just want to eat her up she's so cute! Everytime I try and capture her gummy, eye wrinkling smile I never can b/c she is moving so much. Arms and legs are always flailing when she's excited and super happy to see mama.

Tomorrow is Miami's 1st game--not that I particularly care, but Chris is so excited for Gabriella to wear her Miami onesie that I got for him as a gift when I found out I was pregnant. I will definitely take pics and post.

My sister is coming into town on her way back from Europe on Thursday and I am so excited to see her. Last time she saw Gabriella she was 4 weeks old--she's in for quite the change! Anywhozzles, I leave with a few snapshots of my cutie, taken yesterday and a few days ago :)

12 weeks and going back to work!

Gabriella is 12 weeks today and our little girl is growing by leaps and bounds. She is such a happy baby and really brings so much joy to our lives. She is squealing with delight and constantly smiling. She's become somewhat of a crappy napper....she likes to only nap for about 25 min at a time, but we're working on it. I think we have a new bed time routine that is working well for us. Usually Gabriella would get her 2nd to last bottle, then a little playtime, then bath, nap, last bottle, bed. However, Gabriella is always super hyper and active after she eats. So, I have started to give her a bath about 30 min after her 2nd to last bottle so that she gets sleeps about 30 min later. Then I swaddle her and put her in her crib like its bed time. I let her sleep for about 25-30 min (just shy of when she would wake up on her own) and then wake her in her crib and do a no nonsense nighttime style feeding in her own room. After I feed her, I change her if needed, if not she gets wrapped right back up. I've tried this the past 2 nights and its worked pretty well. She'll wake up and spit out her paci 3 or 4 times within the 1st 30 min, so I have to be close since she'll start to cry, but otherwise its working well. Friday night she slept from 9 till 7 (with the last feed around 9.30) and last night she slept from 9 (feeding at 9.45) till 8.30!

While I am bummed to leave her, I know I can't stay home. So, I am actually kinda excited to go back to work...get dressed nice, actually wash my face, do my hair, etc. Tomorrow is my 1st day back. We have some exciting stuff coming up in September. My sister is visting us for a week on her way back from Europe before she goes home to CA. That'll be on the 10th. Then, on the 18th Chris' brother and fam, including Gabriella's adorable 5 month old cousin will be visiting.

I leave you with some recent pics of my cutie :)

10 weeks old!

OMG, I'm gonna say it again. Time is flying by and I have left my blog in the dust when it comes to updates. I somehow always manage to do other things while she naps and never get around to updating.

The latest and greatest, Gabriella is doing great. She had her 2 month check up last week and was 12 lbs 5 oz (90th percentile), 22.5 inches long (50th percentile). Now the length measurement at the pedi's is different than the one they used at the hospital so while it seems that she's only grown 2 inches, she's really grown 3 since the 1st pedi's visit they clocked her on their scale at about 19.5. So, anywho....Gabriella has reflux and is on Zantac for it. We're still on the fence about whether or not its helping her. She's been on it for almost 3 weeks and if we don't see more of an improvement, we'll switch to Prilosec. Basically what happens with her, in addition to her spitting up, is that she cries for more food after she spits up, but not b/c she's still hungry, rather to kill the heartburn. You might wonder how we came to this conclusion, well after many episodes of eat, spit up, cry, eat, spit up and some research on my part, I took my concerns to the pedi. She also sometimes arches her back during and after feedings and will also sometimes cry prior to and after spitting up after much time has elapsed since her feeding. On a good note though, she loves to smile and makes all sorts of adorable little noises like "Gaa!"

We have days where I just cry right along with her, but we get through it. I'm thinking about adding rice cereal in soon to see if perhaps thickening up her milk will help her keep stuff down and not trigger the burn.

I go back to work on the 31st and I am totally torn about it. While I love love LOVE my little girl, I am so F-ing stir crazy. Sure I take her places when I want to get out of the house, but with her temperment when her reflux is bothering her, I try to work around her schedule as best as I can. I am looking forward to going back to work, but I'm not looking forward to being away from Gabriella. I think an ideal situation would be for me to work part-time but that's really not an option at this point in time.

In terms of my continued post partum recovery, things are going well. I've got about 10-15 lbs left to lose to get to my pre pregnancy weight. While that's great considering I gained almost 50 lbs, it still leaves me some new clothes to buy for work...which on the one hand is fun b/c I get to go shopping and on the other hand sucks b/c I know I'll be back to my pre preg size soon and won't be able to wear those clothes (I'm mainly sticking to pants). I am still pumping, which I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for. My Lansinoh crapped out on me 2 weeks ago and I decided to invest in the Medela pump in style and WOW what a difference! Like night and day. B/c of the investment, I decided to pump until Gabriella is at least 4 months. That's my goal. If I hadn't bought the pump I would have likely just started her on all formula.

I will try to be better about updating, I promise!

Here are some newer pics :)