SHE's cooing (from Wed)

SHE's aglow

SHE's an arm-y girl

Sierra on her quilt

Sierra rolled over today in front of gran gran from her back to her front. She spends time each day on her handmade quilt (courtesy of Aunt Phoebe's friend Vanessa - Thanks Vanessa & Phoebe!) doing tummy time and practicing roll overs and crawling.

I just took this series of pictures of her on the quilt after she rolled over. (As usual, we did not catch the actual roll over on film.) She was lying there razzing her lips. (Apparently "razzing" is the term they use for what babies do when they make the spitty farty noises I was talking about. :) )

Note Naya observing the goldfish in the background.

SHE's in her new throne

SHE's a happy girl - but hard to catch smiling. Close this time!

Crib trials

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night she slept in her crib with Josh next to her on the futon.  Each night, I nursed her in our master bed, and she fell asleep. We carried her to her crib and put her in it.

Friday night she woke up at 11:30pm, 3am, 4:30am, 5am, until Josh finally brought her into the bed. Each time she got up, she went right back to sleep with a pacifier and getting rolled to her side. After she still fussed, Josh brought her to feed around 5:30am.

Saturday night, she lasted until 5am with just wakeups at 1:30am and 3am. (With her last feed at 8:30pm, I was bursting, and so went in her room at 5am as soon as she stirred to get her. I wonder if she might have gone longer if Josh had put her pacifier back in and supported her back on to her side again).

Sunday night, she started at 10pm and then woke up at 11:30pm and then 1am.  Josh took an hour to get her back to sleep after Clover removed her blanket. Finally around 2am she fell asleep but was fussy on/off every 15-20 minutes until Josh put her in bed at 3.  Finally around 5am, Clover came and got her for feeding.

Pentacel

Sierra got her Pentacel vaccine today (2nd booster) and didn't even feel it!  As instructed by the nurse, I held her right thigh steady.  At the same time, I said "ba, ba, bla!" which made her smile as it often does, which may have helped by distracting her. :)

Ms. Smiley

Saturday we went for a hike at Rancho San Antonio, past the farm along the rogue valley trail. It was really nice, shady, and peaceful past the farm. It followed a creek. Sierra slept most of the way and then Josh bjorned her part of the way back.

Sunday, Irv and Alison came over with their kids. We walked to downtown Mountain View, got lunch and ate at the park while the kids played.  Sierra slept the way there and woke up at the park where she sat quietly observing her surroundings. She was a very good girl.  I held her in my lap and we went down a slide.  Josh held her and got her to smile herself silly (with her signature tongue smile):

Front to back roll over

Friday early evening, Sierra was sitting in her blue chair unbuckled, in the kitchen. I was out in the dining room and next thing I knew, she was crying. I went back in the kitchen and she was face down in the chair, legs and arms splayed and flailing! Poor girl. She needs to be buckled now. But also, she rolled over front to back!

And then yesterday, she was lying flat on her back on her jungle gym mat by the window downstairs. A few minutes later, she was crying, Josh went over and she was lying face down, frustrated that she didn't know what to do. Another front to back rollover!

And just now she was sitting in between daddy's legs as he sorted mail.

SHE's under her sunbrella (from Saturday)

SHE's sliding for the first time

SHE's grabbing

Sitting

Sierra can sit for about 30 seconds to a minute before toppling over. Here she is supported behind by a boppy and in front by her froggy tummy time (small boppy) pillow.  This was my clever way of making her more comfortable, but the frog pillow kind of slid out the front so I'm not sure how much support it actually provided.  Makes for a cute picture though!  Note her sleeves are rolled up bc she sucks on them (along with everything else) and makes them wet. I only roll them down at night so they cover her better when she sleeps.

75th percentile

Dr. Fong thinks it could either be an anal fissure (a small cut he saw in her bum) or an allergy (e.g., to pistachios, which is what we are currently suspecting) in my breastmilk.

She has gained 1 lb in 2 weeks! She weighted in at 16lb, 5oz. (75th percentile) This indicates that she is digesting well.

SHE's a winner

SHE's all clean

Ma!

mmmMa! That's her latest consonant, after ba and bla!

Also, when she's excited she flaps her arms up and down. This started about 2 weeks ago.

She also reaches her arms up in anticipation when you are reaching down to pick her up.

Whose crib is this, anyway?

Naya has taken over the crib. Sierra still hasn't slept in the crib, so someone else has taken over. She sleeps here at night when I am sleeping on the guest futon. She waits for me to go to bed, and then jumps in the crib. I think she likes sleeping nearby me where she can observe me, kind of like how she slept on the Ikea Visdalen cabinet when I used to sleep in the other room. (Lemma also likes sleeping by me. He waits for me to go to bed and then curls up somewhere by my feet.) Just now I caught her napping here during the day. I wonder if this is a bad habit for her.

Last weekend

Sunday it was nice and warm for the first time in awhile (70F). We went to this park on the E. Palo Alto side of the Dumbarton bridge. It is nice and green this time of year. Sierra slept through most of the walk, and then woke up and enjoyed the scenery. Then we went to downtown PA, where she nursed, and then we had gelato and walked around, and then had an early dinner at Crepevine.

Sierra doesn't drink much when we are out and she is nursing in the car or on a park bench. She's either too distracted and interested in her surroundings, or she's tired and dozes off.

SHE slept reasonably well

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Josh Elman
To: Clover Huang
Sent: Tue, April 20, 2010 9:27:51 AM
Subject: SHE slept reasonably well

She woke up last night at 11:30, but went right back to sleep, and then again around 3 or 4. By 5 she was getting pretty wide awake and wasn't going back to sleep. I brought her to you around 5:15. After you changed her, it took about 10 minutes, then she went back to sleep in my arms (6:30ish) and I laid her down, and she was still dead asleep when I left at 7:45.

-Josh

SHE helped take this pic

SHE is sleepy

Blood in poo

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Josh Elman
To: "cloverh@yahoo.com"
Sent: Sun, April 18, 2010 10:11:19 AM
Subject:

Last mon night - mucous
Tues am - red dot
Sat am - fairly bloody
Tues aft - red dot
Wed night - somewhat bloody
Sat am - a few dots
Sun am - fairly bloody (3rd one)
Sent from my iPhone

SHE's enjoying a hot day by the bay

Test

I now have a cell phone that can take photos for posting here. Here is a test picture of Sierra playing with her HABA toy. I avoid buying made in China toys for her since she puts everything in her mouth at this stage. There have been too many reports about chemicals tainting Chinese toys.

SHE's looking up

SHE toppled not long after this picture

SHE's sitting

Growing like a weed

Last Saturday at the doctor's office, she weighed in at 15lb, 8oz. This is 2x as fast as Dr. Fong said she'd be growing since her 4 month old checkup.

She is starting to outgrow some of her 6 month old clothes (depending on the brand) and moving into 9 month old. At 3 mos, she was starting to wear her 6 mos old clothes. I'd say she is generally about 1 size ahead. Grow girl, grow!

SHE's taking a self portrait (holding the phone)

The crib is next

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Josh Elman
To: "cloverh@yahoo.com"
Sent: Tue, April 13, 2010 1:19:18 PM
Subject: Re: cheaper version of that Haba thing.


interesting. Not sure it's worth the delta from Haba quality, but not sure if we need it either considering she's going to be a sit-up girl soon.

So after sleeping with her last night, WOW much better. The pacifier + put-her-on-her-side method worked wonders until 5am when she was basically getting up. Changing her preserved another 15-20 minutes, but I still brought her over right at 6am. I'm pretty convinced that as soon as she can get herself to her side, she'll be fine all night in the crib (after an adjustment period of course)

Hope I was quiet enough this morning cleaning the kitchen and feeding Lemma...

-Josh






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "cloverh@yahoo.com"
To: josh_elman@yahoo.com
Sent: Tue, April 13, 2010 12:53:16 PM
Subject: cheaper version of that Haba thing.


http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2744546

SHE's holding daddy's hand (from yesterday)

Side sleeping, lullaby listening baby

This past week, while Josh was sick, I've been sleeping with her at night. I noticed that everytime she stirred, fussing at night, I would see her trying to rotate to get off her back and onto her side, and as soon as I put my hand on her back to support her, then removed my hand and shoved a rolled up blanket behind her back, she fell back asleep. It worked everytime. I also would put in a pacifier, but am wondering if it would work with out the paci.

Just now, I sang her (the go to sleep song) to sleep on her side of the bed for her nap - a first, as up until now, she has been napping in her carseat stroller, while being strolled around in the dining room. It had been 2.5 hours since she woke up, so I knew she was getting tired. I noticed her rubbing her eyes. I put her down on her side of the bed and gave her her pacifier and a flannel receiving blanket. She hardly fussed at all. I sang to her, she turned on her side, I put the rolled up holey to support her back and she fell asleep. The tricky thing is she always ends up with the receiving blanket over her head, so I gently pulled it back so she can breathe. I am now in the same room as her bc you're not supposed to let your baby sleep with loose bedding and well, that's how she is right now, and I don't want to disturb her! Sweet dreams, little one.

I've also been able to sing her to sleep on some nights recently. It makes me wonder if I should have tried this before. Everyone says to sing lullabies, but I'm not sure we ever really tried. Poor baby, such a simple thing that I'm sure everyone does, and we're just figuring it out at 5 mos. Same goes with side sleeping. I wonder if that's all she really wanted all this time.

Ba ba

The little girl is now not only making vowel sounds, but consonants. Specifically, ba ba and bla bla. She smiles and laughs when you repeat back what she says.

Her sitting has gotten stronger and she sits for a few seconds at a time before toppling over now.

Last week was rough bc Josh had a cold starting on Monday and I slept with her and had her every night. Finally on Fri night, Josh was allowed to hold her if he had a mask on and washed his hands.

Sat morning we noticed that her poo had small streaks of blood in it, so we called the nurse who said the protocol is not to worry about it unless it happens more than once. If it does, we could go to urgent care at lucille packard children's hospital. I think she sensed my worry and said if we want we could see the dr that morning if we wanted. we opted to go in bc urgent care is such a pain with having to wait and then you see these random doctors. we went to the dr. and she ordered a bunch of stool tests. We got all these containers to fill with poo, but the diaper absorbs the poo too fast to fill any of them. There hasn't been blood since that one time, so we aren't going to worry about it.

SHE's happy to see daddy getting better

SHE's one of three special girls

SHE's cute and so is Sierra who is 5 months old today

SHE is looking

SHE's dancing

SHE rolled today more kinda

Tripod girl

I forgot to mention Teagin pointed out yesterday that she can sit in the tripod now (Dr. Fong had mentioned to look for this at our last appt - the tripod is where she sits with her arms supporting her in front, like a tripod!) I actually noticed this too, but wasn't sure if it was the official tripod, but I guess it is! Yay Sierra!

SHE's toyful

SHE knows her name

Teagin just commented that Sierra knows her name; she looks when you call her name.

I also noticed (at least a month or so ago) that she looks in the direction of voices. Like she'll crane her neck to look up behind her from the bouncy chair when you are talking to her behind it. It's very cute.

On another note, Josh came home yesterday and announced he had a cold. He's been sniffling and sneezing since then, quarantined in the baby room. I slept with her last night and she woke every hour or so for a couple minutes until I put my hand on her back and held her sideways to sleep. She seems to wake up when she rolls back on her back. I would then shove a receiving blanket behind her back to support her so I could go to sleep, but I guess after about an hour she'd slip off it, or something... I never noticed this when she slept on the memory foam Ikea futon mattress with me - she seemed fine on her back. Josh says this (waking up multiple times at night and in his case, him pulling her into his nook to sleep) only started last Thurs. I feel like it may have started the night of the Hidden Villa incident.

Spitty farty noises

Lately Sierra has taken to making spitty farty noises - that is, fart noises with her mouth. Yesterday, Josh was watching TV and I was sitting with Sierra on the bed while she was making all these fart noises. I finally said, "Josh, Sierra says, 'Did that come from my mouth or my butt?'" Hahaha... I think that's a classic first grader level joke, but Sierra is already doing it at 4.5 months. What a jokester.

SHE still has a mohawk

Rainy slow weekend

This weekend it was rainy and cold (45 low, and 60 in the house at 6am this morning), so we stayed indoors mostly. I decided we'd try to get a bunch of errands done off my To Do list, which annoyed Josh greatly. He hates running errands, even when the weather is crappy. Saturday we went to babies R us (BRU) while Josh strolled Sierra in the parking lot. We finally got to try the Tacos del Oro taco truck, which happens to be parked right outside of BRU. I had a chicken taco and josh had a beef taco. They were in thick soft corn taco shells, which were crisp on the edges off the griddle, with nothing but the grilled chopped meat, chopped onions/cilantro. They very good!

Today we walked to CVS and then Josh got take out fish and chips from the new fish and chips place nearby. I felt a little gross eating the deep fried shrimp and chips since I had just watched Jamie Oliver's Food revolution, in which these schools in west virginia serve fries to the kids everyday, contributing to the high obesity rate in that area.

Anyway, more milestones for Sierra... Last night we sat at the table while Sierra banged on it with plastic measuring cups. She also took a measuring cup in her left hand, passed it to her right hand (closer to the table) and then banged it on the table.

Today we skyped with grandma elman while Sierra chewed on Bluey (the natural rubber toy with a nipple head). She dropped him on the floor and Josh leaned Sierra over and she picked him up. This is the 2nd time she's done something like that. She did this about a month ago too in the bathroom.

Also, we tried doing the crawling exercise I read about with her. While she's doing tummy time, we put our hands on her feet so she can push off of them and move. She scooted across the mat a few times yesterday and today. I was laughing with her yesterday, and she laughed and smiled too. I think it helps encourage her to laugh, since she still does not like being on her tummy too much, although she's gotten a lot better.

The funny thing about noting the timing of milestones is that I don't think they are really the "first times she did x". More accurately, they are the the first times we observed her doing x, often because they are the first times we tried doing x with her!

SHE's rain rain go away

SHE's focused on bluey

SHE and her shadow

Alaskan books from Aunt Phoebe

Today we received a bunch of cute books on Alaskan animals for Sierra. She will really enjoy them as animal books are her favorite! She loves looking at animal pictures. By contrast, she really has no interest in the baby faces book that I got that got rave reviews on amazon and from Max. Apparently, babies love looking at other babies, but not Sierra! (Mudder says she gets this from me.)

No more tears

Yesterday, Mudder commented that she noticed Sierra no longer cries with big crocodile tears. She just cries with dry eyes now. Maybe she's not as upset as she was as a newborn, when people (like Dr. Fong and Teagin) commented that she had big tears when she cries. Like when we changed her diaper as a newborn, she hated it and would cry big tears. I called her a little drama queen.

Update 4/2/2010:
Sierra just cried some tears while in Inn's blue bouncer chair when she was getting hungry. Oh, well!

SHE's reading new books from Aunt Daisy