12 August 2004

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, PENNY!!!

Yeah, so my year-ago link is actually from the 15th, but it seemed appropriate to post it today. In commemoration of Penny's birthday, I present her first year, in review.

In The Hospital:

-1 weeks "Why yes, I am enormous."

On August 12, 2003, Penelope Anne was born, weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and measuring 19 inches long. She was born at 12:35am - she missed having her birthday on the 11th by less than an hour.

That was actually quite a relief for me, as it meant I got to stay in the hospital for an extra day. If she'd arrived at 11:45pm Monday, I would have had to go home Wednesday, but since she held on that extra half hour, I stayed in the hospital until Thursday.

Thank the gods, because I was still barely capable of walking on Wednesday. No, not like that, really. It's just that I was so physically drained. Just because I had an epidural and didn't have to actually feel all 17 hours of labor doesn't mean my body wasn't working hard. Tell you what: You do situps for one minute out of every three for seventeen continuous hours and see how you feel a day or two later.

And it wasn't until Thursday morning's breastfeeding class that I finally encountered a nurse or lactation consultant who was able to get Penny to properly latch on. If I'd missed that class, we might have given up on breastfeeding altogether.

1 hour "So this is that world thing..."

Month One:

Firsts: Everything was a first, this month. First opening of the eyes, first waving of the arms, first kicking of the legs. First clothing. First meal, first dirty diaper, first bath. First silly smirk. First medical emergency. Come to think of it, I think all of that happened before Penny's first sunrise.

Things Learned/Discovered: The first few weeks of parenthood were really rough. There's just no way to skip over that learning curve. Everything that happens is a new experience. So there's a learning curve for Mom, learning curve for Dad, huge enormous steep learning curve for the baby. Everyone's learning a lot, and everyone's kind of grumpy about it. Throw in sleep deprivation, and it's just not a pretty picture. It took us until September to even get out our birth announcements out. (Though that was at least partially due to hardware issues.)

Eating: We had a lot of trouble with breastfeeding, but I took her to the hospital's breastfeeding class/support group at least once a week for the first month of her life. Still, we were supplementing with formula from the very first day. Once the pediatrician okayed using a bottle at her 2-week checkup (before that, we'd been using a special tube system) things got a lot easier, and she started to put on weight like nobody's business.

Sleeping: Newborns don't sleep like normal people. They usually have their days and nights reversed, and they tend to get hungry every two or three hours. One night, out of desperation, we put Penny in her crib (instead of the bassinet we'd started out with) and discovered that all three of us slept better and longer with that arrangement. There was no turning back.

Events/Holidays: Hurricane Isabel blew through just before Penny finished her first month, and took our power with it. (I can't believe I didn't write or blog anything about it when we finally got back online.) Six days with a one-month-old baby, and no power. No hot water. No hot food. Worst of all, no air conditioning. Penny took it all in stride. I wish I could say the same. Matt and I learned that we could get by without the baby monitor, if we had to - but changing diapers by candlelight was a whole 'nother experience. (Certain parties wondered if the hurricane hit so hard because it was angry that we had chosen Penelope instead of Isabelle for her name...)

Random Stuff: By the end of Penny's first month, we'd settled into a routine. Matt and I were starting to relax a little (a very little, mind you). Just enough to lighten up and be a little silly with her now and then.

1 month "It's SUPERBABY!"

Month Two:

Firsts: Penny smirked at us from the moment she was born, so I'm not really sure when that changed into real social smiling - but I was sure she was smiling socially by the end of her second month.

Things Learned/Discovered: Still early in life, everything Penny saw was something to discover. She developed into what Matt and I called the "Explorer Baby" - she fussed unless we held her upright, facing outward so she could see everything going on around her. She remained the Explorer Baby for a long time.

Sleeping: Eventually, they start to figure things out... By the end of her second month, Penny was sleeping long enough at night that we usually only had to get up once or twice, which really wasn't so bad.

Health: At her two-month checkup, Penny was two inches longer and four pounds heavier than at her birth.

Events/Holidays: On September 29th, Penny started daycare. I spent two days frantically running errands and trying not to miss her too much, and then went back to work at the beginning of October. Going back to work was something of a relief, actually. I missed Penny during the day (I still do, really) but it was nice to have something to do. And to talk to people who made sense.

2 months "For this, you woke me up?"

Month Three:

Firsts: Around the end of October, Penny slept through the night for the first time. It was not, however, to become a habit for quite some time. Alas.

Sleeping: Penny slept through the night a few times in her third month (even if Matt and I didn't), but mostly stuck to getting up about once a night.

Health: Everyone in the house managed to get sick around the middle of October, which was way more miserable than just Matt and I getting sick. (Sleep deprivation suppresses the immune system. Oops.)

Events/Holidays: Jess was born the day after Penny turned 2 months old, and Matt and I left Penny with my parents for almost three hours while we went to visit - the longest we'd ever left her! For Penny's first real holiday - Hallowe'en - people came out of the freaking woodwork to give her little outfits and costumes. We wound up with five - FIVE Hallowe'en outfits for her. As it turned out, Hallowe'en was on a Friday, so we put her in a new outfit every day of that week. She was, in our utterly biased opinion, the most adorable Hallowe'en baby that ever was.

Our little pumpkin!

Random Stuff: Penny had her 3-month growth spurt right across my birthday, causing her to go ballistic just as the hibachi chef showed up. Poor Matt missed most of dinner.

3 months (and Jess at 1 month) "I don't really have to share Grandma and Grandad with this other baby, do I?"

Month Four:

Firsts: Penny learned how to laugh around halfway through her fourth month, a welcome, adorable little giggle.

Things Learned/Discovered: Penny had watched the other babies at daycare enough to know that she could roll over. She didn't quite manage it until later, but she spent a lot of her fourth and fifth months working on it.

Sleeping: She slept through the night sporadically in November. We enjoyed it when she did, but she was still so young that we weren't too upset about her failure to make a habit of it.

Health: At her four-month doctor's appointment, Penny had grown to 24 inches and 17 pounds.

Events/Holidays: We took Penny to Chicago for five days over Thanksgiving. I was a total pessimist about both flights, but they turned out to be not as bad as I'd feared. Penny screamed for half of the flight there, then slept, and she slept for all of the flight home (for which I still owe her a Mickey Mouse watch). We didn't get to see all of Matt's family, unfortunately, but at least Penny got to spend a little more time with her grandparents, and to meet her great-grandparents and a few of the others.

Penny and Tina at Thanksgiving

4 months "Do ya mind, Mom? I'm trying to watch some TV, here..."

Month Five:

Firsts: Alas, at four and a half months, just after Christmas, Penny had her first visit to the Emergency Room, for what turned out to be the flu. But shortly thereafter, much to our delight, she took her first bites of solid food!

Things Learned/Discovered: Penny started actually playing with her toys this month, instead of just looking at them, a development that I had begun to fear was never going to come. I learned that having a baby has turned me into a perpetual motion machine. Also, that being a parent does terrible things to your conversational skills.

Eating: Between my production problems, and the sudden announcement of a need for me to travel in January for work, and the hustle and bustle of the holidays, Penny was weaned by the end of her fifth month. After a couple of false starts, she finally got going strong with solid food.

Sleeping: Penny was sick a lot in December, and it did unwelcome things to her sleep schedule. I tried some proto-sleep-training, which got her back down to only getting up once a night, but it didn't work for Matt. She did, however, manage a Christmas Miracle - and what better gift could a four-month-old give to her parents for Christmas, anyhow, than two whole nights of sleep? And then, in early January, she slept through the night for almost two weeks straight! Matt and I were thrilled, thinking that she'd finally picked up the habit.

Health: Poor Penny spent most of her fifth month sick.

Events/Holidays: Despite having the flu, Penny was fantastic at Christmas. She loved meeting her great-grandmother (my grandmother) and hanging out at my parents' house. Like the miracle baby she is, she slept through the night both Christmas Eve and Christmas nights, and seemed to always fall asleep just as we were sitting down to a meal with my family. Of course, she had no idea what was going on, but she enjoyed herself anyway.

Penny meeting her Great-Grandmom for the first time.

Random Stuff: We had a fun play date with Jess. Inasmuch as a five-month-old and a three-month-old can "play" together, anyway... At least, the babies played near each other while the parents fondly entertained hopes that the girls will grow up as friends.

5 months "OMIGOD! Something's happening! To my head!"

Month Six:

Firsts: The very first day of her sixth month, Penny finally figured out how to roll over!

Things Learned/Discovered: Just short of the end of her sixth month, Matt taught Penny how to stick out her tongue, which resulted in a lot of laughter and silliness in the Brooks household. More than usual, I mean.

Eating: Thanks to the stomach uck, Penny stopped eating solids for a while. And what was it that finally revived her enthusiasm for spoon-feeding again? Cool Whip, that's what. But at least she'd learned how to hold her own bottle, which was very nice for Matt and I, who very much enjoyed having a hand free for eating our own food. And - let's be honest - for messing around on the computer.

Sleeping: You know, they say that that there's really not a connection between babies eating solid food and sleeping through the night... But as soon as she stopped eating solids, she stopped sleeping through. I hoped it was just a temporary thing, but - alas. No such luck. But even when she started eating again, she didn't sleep through more than occasionally, so maybe they're right after all.

Health: This month marked the appearance of the recurring stomach uck, and she was diagnosed with her first set of ear infections. Weirdly, Penny didn't seem especially disturbed by them - which was really frustrating, since it meant we never knew when she had one.

Events/Holidays: I was out of town for a few days at the end of January. I'm somewhat amazed that I managed to learn anything at that class, as flustered and guilty as I was feeling about leaving Matt and Penny alone. But they were fine, even if Matt had to leave Penny sitting alone in her saucer for a whole ten minutes while he scraped ice and snow off his car.

6 months "No, the Gnome of Love outfit is not the funniest thing I have ever seen!"

Month Seven:

Firsts: Close to the end of her seventh month, Penny slept on her stomach for the first time. It made Matt and I both a little nervous, since she still didn't know how to roll from her stomach to her back. But we needn't have worried - she figured it out only a few days later. Now she's a firm side/stomach sleeper - just like Mom and Dad.

Things Learned/Discovered: Penny got to be pretty good at sitting upright on her own, which was a nice development for Matt and I, as it meant she could play and look around without our help. She also became a little more mobile, rotating around in her sleep - but if she slept through it, I don't know if it should count as an actual discovery... Still, it amused (and confused) Matt and I.

Eating: We finally got to introduce her to foods with flavor (as opposed to rice cereal, the flavorless introductory "solid" of choice. Her favorite food, for a very long time, was squash. Least favorite? Peas, by a long shot. (She still won't eat anything with peas in it. Even if I pick the peas out for her.)

Health: At her six-month doctor's visit, Penny had gained another several pounds and inches, bringing her up to 20 pounds and more than 26 inches! But you remember the recurring stomach uck? It recurred. I got a certain amount of amusement out of my mother wishing the uck on us so that she could get in another babysitting gig, actually. Neither the uck nor the ear infections seemed to affect her cheery mood, at least.

Events/Holidays: Penny had a great Valentine's Day. She even got presents from actual boys who are not related to her (though they might have been just a bit oblivious to the whole thing, themselves) in addition to the presents from Miss Charita (who might have gone just a bit overboard) and various family and friends.

Penny is our little Valentine!

Random Stuff: Matt and I finally snuck in enough time around the end of February to watch Lawrence of Arabia, which he'd gotten from Netflix back in October.

7 months "Mmm, fish... Whaddya mean, these aren't food?!"

Month Eight:

Firsts: Penny cut her first teeth about halfway through March!

Things Learned/Discovered: Just when I was starting to fret about Penny's monosyllabic baby-babble, the Brandts came to visit, and Braz showed her how it was done.

Eating: As we finally left the stomach uck behind, her eating improved markedly. Though baby-food meat produced a reaction in her nearly as violent as her hatred of peas. Can't blame her too much for that, though... The stuff smelled like cat food.

Health: I went to get Penny from her crib one morning, and found her eyes swollen more or less shut. Since Matt was already being treated for pinkeye, there wasn't much question about what it was. That trip to the doctor resulted in what still holds the record for her most expensive medicine to date.

Events/Holidays: The very last day of Penny's eighth month was Easter! Her Fan Club at daycare (a.k.a. Miss Charita) gave her a super-adorable dress, and she even consented to wear the hat for the duration of a few pictures!

Random Stuff: On the other hand, when Penny isn't providing my current frustrations, she's very good at relieving them. April was a good month for that.

8 months "Play it again, Sam!"

Month Nine:

Firsts: May was a big month for firsts! The day before Mother's Day, toward the end of Penny's ninth month, she finally put all the pieces together and crawled! She picked up "cruising" (walking while holding on to things) the same day!

Things Learned/Discovered: Standing, cruising, crawling, clapping, nose-wrinkling... It was a banner month for Penny!

Eating: Illness put her off her feed again, but she did finally start eating a little better.

Sleeping: Sleep. Don't even talk to me about sleep. We were pretty lax about her sleep schedule while she was sick, but it seemed she was sick all the time. Penny's sleep patterns started to become unforgiveably wonky.

Health: Two rounds of ear infections and something nastily viral marred the month. But Penny is astonishingly good-tempered when she's sick, so it wasn't as bad as it sounds like.

Events/Holidays: Mother's Day wasn't much of an event for Penny, but the day after, we got a box of stuff from Auntie Karen - including the world's most stylin' sunglasses! (Too bad Penny won't wear them for more than about 5 seconds at a clip.)

Random Stuff: We had a fantastic deck built in back of our house - Penny loves going out there!

9 months "Have your agent call my agent. They'll do lunch!"

Month Ten:

Firsts: There weren't any significant "firsts" in Penny's tenth month; she'd just figured out crawling and cruising, and spent most of the month improving on those skills. But right around the end of the month, I was amused to note her first expression of dubiousness. (With the parents she's got, you'd really think it would have happened sooner.)

Things Learned/Discovered: Penny spent a lot of time working on standing solo, as well as learning how to sit back down carefully, rather than just falling onto her butt. We finally saw signs of comprehension - at least, she started looking in the right directions in response to "Where's Daddy?" and "Where's Mommy?"

Eating: Matt noticed a little dark spot on one of Penny's new teeth, and that was about all it took for us to decide it was time to begin a dental care regimen. The last thing we needed was a baby with cavities! It took about a week of fighting to get her used to the idea, but it wasn't long before she started greeting the appearance of her little tooth-scrubber after each meal with delight. We tried her on food with actual texture, and she fought it valiantly, but finally surrendered.

Sleeping: We tried a little sleep training, but without a plan, it backfired horribly. Matt and I were convinced that Penny's awful sleep habits were health related, even though she was fantastic during the day. But in June, the doctor said not. It was time to really knuckle under and make a plan for the dreaded sleep training. I was so nervous, I could barely stand it, but it went better than I'd even dreamed. Which is not to say that it wasn't horrible at times, but by the time she'd reached a full ten months, she was going to bed without much fuss, and sleeping through the night (mostly) fairly regularly, and even pushing her bedtime back so that Matt and I were enjoying some two hours of baby-free time in the evenings!

Health: As of her nine-month checkup, she was 28 inches long and about 24 pounds. An "unofficial" weighing at one illness-related trip to the doctor's had her at 24 pounds around 8 months, so mobility had indeed slowed her rate of weight-gain, just as the doctor promised. There was another freaking ear infection, but since she takes those in stride, it really wasn't a bad month, health-wise.

Events/Holidays: We had a cookout - well, a couple of cookouts - to celebrate the completion of our new deck. Naturally, the weather drove us indoors both times, but Penny still loved the parties. Especially when her Uncle John helped set her up with her very own drum kit.

Random Stuff: Just because it amuses me, I'm linking to my (tongue-in-cheek) exploration of examples of how I'm a bad mother.

10 months "Go on, guess where I hid your comics!"

Month Eleven:

Firsts: Penny visited the library for the first time! Matt and I were both big library fans as kids, so this was kind of a big deal for us, even if it was just another place to her.

Things Learned/Discovered: Penny discovered the kitchen cabinets this month - she spent weeks just opening and closing them, and then finally realized that there was stuff in there! (Time for some serious babyproofing!)

Eating: Having more or less resigned herself to food with texture, Penny was pretty accepting about the introduction of bits of table food into her diet. It wasn't very exciting at first. Cheerios, little bits of toast - standard starter's fare - but then! Oh, then! We took her to a birthday party for her Aunt Sam and introduced her to chocolate cake! That made it all worthwhile.

Sleeping: Penny had been sleeping through the night since the sleep training at the beginning of June, but she'd occasionally wake up after an hour or two, crying. Getting tubes put in her ears did wonders for her ability to sleep, and her general mood in the mornings. She even spent a few days sleeping in until nearly six! (Though that didn't last long. Alas..)

Health: Penny cut her top two teeth! But alas, after most of a month that was illness-free, Penny turned up with another ear infection. We took her to see an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist, who recommended tubes for her ears.

Events/Holidays: Our next-door neighbor brought heaps of fireworks back from South Carolina for his Fourth of July celebration, and he set them all off in our street. It was nice having a display that didn't require fighting traffic, but I was utterly amazed that Penny actually slept through it all.

Random Stuff: The amount of time it takes to get Penny dressed, while brief to Matt and I, is horrendously long to Penny. She gets unbearably bored just about the time we're trying to wrestle her arms into her sleeves.

11 months "Tupperware all over the floor? My work here is done!"

Month Twelve:

Firsts: Only days after she turned eleven months, Penny took her first unassisted steps, and by August, she had gained enough confidence that she had mostly left crawling far behind. Matt and I learned that restaurant carpets desperately need a good steam-cleaning - the bottoms of Penny's feet turned black - so we decided it was time for her first pair of shoes.

Things Learned/Discovered: Penny's linguistic comprehension made huge leaps - or at least, she proved her understanding of a few new words.

Eating: There was still more progress on the food front, as Penny finally figured out that she could, in fact, feed herself. On a limited basis. There was still some question as to how to let go of the food once it was in her mouth. But she kept working on it, as it opened up a whole new world of table foods. Graham crackers. Animal crackers. Orange segments. Tomatoes.

Sleeping: Thanks in part to her sleeping better at night, I suppose, Penny stopped napping well during the day, which made our evenings occasionally uncertain.

Health: We took her to the doctor for a horrible cough, and the doctor told us it was nothing to worry about. But that the little sore on her nose that we'd assumed was a minor thing was actually impetigo.

Events/Holidays: There weren't any really big events this last month, but Penny had a lot of fun playing with her friends and her family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PENNY!

--Liz