Tag: Baby Girl

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Nine Months!

Posted on by Mama

While it feels like I just had my daughter, the reality is that she is already nine months old! Time really does fly, especially when you have kids.

She had her nine month check-up today with our family doctor and it went really great. Her height is in the 50th percentile, her weight is in the 99th percentile and her head is growing really well. She is surpassing all of her milestones and the fact she is eating pretty much solids for most of her food intake (minus formula for naps and night time sleep/feeds), the doctor was impressed. She even knows her name when it’s called, which both the nurse and doctor seemed shocked by.

The doctor inquired about her sleep, which we informed her she is going through a bit of a regression. Nothing major to be honest, just she has a hard time going down at night, but once she does finally fall asleep she is down for the count. Also, she is down to two naps a day, which we didn’t inform the doctor of, but not sure if that plays a roll in it. Her sleep schedule has changed, she gets tired by 7 PM, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion and it seems to work for her.

All in all, the appointment went great and only a minor concern on our end. She has a little skin growth, we thought it may be a skin tag, the doctor wasn’t entirely sure of what it was and only had a guess as to what it could be. So she took a photo and informed us that she will send it off to a pediatric dermatologist for a consult and will let us know what they say. It made me feel a lot better and looking forward to that call.

But Valeria is doing great with her growth and very healthy according to the doctor, which in turn makes my husband and I extremely happy. We’re doing something right!

Looking forward to her one year check-up, which is happily scheduled on Halloween. You know I’m going to dress her up in a costume for that appointment! Gotta give the girls at the office a little smile and laugh that day.

Hope you are having a wonderful summer wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Five Months!

Posted on by Mama

Today Valeria is five months old and wow does the time fly! It feels like just yesterday I was bringing her home, but I’m pretty sure I say that every month.

Since she was born, we have been taking monthly photos of her, which I do not share online for personal reasons. Frankly, I’m just not comfortable.

But today, since it’s becoming Spring (though you couldn’t tell from the doom and gloom weather we are currently having) and Easter is at the end of the month, why not choose that for the theme.

My cousin and her soon to be God Mother, bought her this cute little floral shirt and sage green romper combo, which of course I had to put her in for the photo. I also bought her a little Squishmallow chickie, which she loved! Put her on the couch and sat her up. She is getting better each day with sitting, though she does topple over every once in a while. That big noggin is hard to hold up!

The pictures turned out cute, I got a few good ones, A LOT of blurry ones, but all in all not to shabby. She’s a miss wiggles, but I’ll send those out to family later.

Well, that’s all for today really, well I guess the gym was also on the agenda tonight and we did go, but that’s not as important as Valeria’s big five months! I’m beaming I’m so happy.

Any who, I’m off for the night. Valeria is sleeping and I get to spend some much needed time with my husband.

Have a good day or night wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Valeria’s New “Skills”

Posted on by Mama

I haven’t written much about my daughter lately, but I think I’ll dedicate this post to her. She has learned some new “skills”, that my husband and I find hilarious.

The first being to stick out her tongue. Compliments of her grandmother (my mom), when she was playing with her and attempting to get her to mimic. Well, now she is like a little lizard baby, always sticking out her tongue. It’s so cute and hilarious because she only sticks out the tip, sucks it back in and gives this big giant grin.

The second, which I’m not quite sure where she learned this one….it may have been from me to be honest, is to blow raspberries. If you don’t know what that is, let me explain: it’s when a baby sticks their tongue out and make a razzing sound. Her raspberries are also accompanied by spit bubbles. This is now how she greets me in the morning, just blowing raspberries and smiling, very pleased with herself.

The third, she makes little spit bubbles and then sucks them back in, smiling and giggling to herself. She thinks it’s so great and I can’t help but laugh at it.

This fourth one even impressed me, and it makes me wonder if she has inherited my double-jointed ability. However, my husband read that this is a very common baby thing. As of today, she can now bend forward, literally folding herself in half and puts her toes in her mouth. I was astonished and instantly started laughing. I called my husband over to see what she was doing and his immediate response “Is that okay for her to do?! Is it NORMAL!?” He then proceeded to read into it and felt better afterwards. I’m a relaxed mom I guess, cause it made me laugh. Just sitting on mom’s belly then boop!…folded forward and toes in the mouth. Makes me chuckle just thinking about it.

Another one which I’ve discussed before is her rolling. Ever since she’s learned to roll, she is constantly doing it. It’s impressive to watch honestly and we make it a game with her now. Just rolling her back and forth as if she’s on a swaying ship, it makes her laugh and smile. If she’s amused, I’m happy!

It’s been a beautiful adventure watching her learn new things and she picks them up so quickly. I can’t wait to see what she will pick up next in her “skill” set, but I’m really looking forward to it! I have a feeling those raspberries are going to come with some sassy when she’s older.

I’m a proud mama of this silly little girl and I wouldn’t change it for the world!

Until next time..

Ciao!!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Family Day + Chillin’ Tuesday

Posted on by Mama

Monday was family day, which added another day to my husband’s holidays and when I found out, well I was thrilled!

Sunday night, we came back to my mother-in-law’s apartment late so we were just going to make the drive home the next day. The next day I was feeling a bit under the weather, I’m sure for a number of reasons, the main one was my tummy was feeling queasy, possible that I had a small bout of food poisoning. Eek! But I’m also very much an introvert, so when my social meter is maxed, I tend to get really exhausted and want space. The number of factors against me was racking up.

My husband’s siblings came over later in the afternoon and he got to spend some time with them. I was resting in the bedroom and I felt terrible I wasn’t out there socializing with them. They ended up playing a new board game that his sister and her fiance brought over called “Worst-case Scenario”. It seemed really fun, I even got to play a round before we left. I told her next time we’re here visiting that I want to actually play for real. They love board games, so it’s always nice that they bring them over for us to play.

We headed home by about 4:30 PM and the drive was pretty quiet. Valeria slept the whole ride, she was exhausted and my husband and I were both fairly silent. Not for any particular reason, we were just both ready to be home in our own space. We really missed our bed. We got home around 6:30 PM and unpacked the car in one go, including Valeria. I did not want to go back out into the cold.

We dropped everything on the floor and quickly spoke to my mom before heading back down to unpack out bags. I leave my husband to unpack his own, but I usually take care of the rest. I also don’t like leaving things packed up, it’s one more thing I don’t need on my list of to-do’s!

After I was done unpacking and sorting things for laundry, I turned to my husband and asked what he wanted to do once Valeria fell asleep for the night. He wanted to veg on the couch, for those of you who don’t know what that means (and the fact I’m showing my 90’s/2000’s lingo here), it means to be lazy on the couch and not do anything. And that was exactly what we did! Valeria spent some much needed time with grandma before her bed time, then she passed out with little fuss. My sleepy girl!

My husband and I proceeded to watch the latest episode of 90 Day Fiance and oh my gosh, what a mess! It’s one of our guilty pleasure, trash television shows. We also have to start the new season of Love is Blind. He went to bed with the baby after the episode and I fell asleep on the couch finishing the show Griselda. Which I think I’ll give a review on. Eventually I crawled into bed by 6 AM and slept for a bit before Valeria woke up, right before my husband started work at 9 AM.

Today has been a pretty chill day, nothing planned or going on. I’ve been really exhausted, even napped when Valeria had her naps. I will admit I’m going through something and can’t quite figure out how to manage. A story for another day though.

I think Valeria hates being home, even though she is tired, she just wants to go go go all the time. She is definitely not a homebody like her mother, that’s for sure. Her naps have been good, she’s been a bit fussy but nothing crazy. Her laugh is coming in more and more each day and it’s too adorable for words!! I’m obsessed, I purposely play with the tummy to make her laugh, she goes crazy. She also has this new excited sound she makes now too. How can I describe it…..it’s like a oooo ooo, think of like a baby owl or like a puppy trying to howl. It’s the sweetest and always puts a smile on my face. She does it whenever things make her happy; animals, her crystals, the fireplace, the giant stuffed Mickey Mouse at my mother-in-law’s, certain people. I wish I could record it for you to hear.

Did your kids make any cute new sounds when they were four months? Does it put a smile on your face thinking back to it?

Valeria is currently sleeping at the moment, mom nap time powers activated! And I’m just writing this up quickly. I’ll be heading to the gym tonight around 7 PM, so wish me luck! Changing up my routine just a little, I’ll let ya know how that goes.

I hope you had a wonderful day wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!

Posted in Travel/Vacations

Meeting Great Nonna!

Posted on by Mama

Today was a good day, but a little bitter sweet.

I was woken up at 7 AM by Valeria having a tough morning and my husband exhausted, trying to soothe her. I took over for a while but in the end it was a team effort. My husband went back to bed, I however could not. Once I’m up, I’m up.

I laid in bed and watched Jersey Shore Family Vacation, yes it’s my guilty pleasure show, don’t even judge! After I went to get ready for the day. By the time I got ready, my husband was up and shortly after that, Valeria was up. Baby girl got a bath and got ready, she had a big day ahead!

Unfortunately, we had to leave when all of my husband’s family came over. I felt really bad, but we had plans with my nonna and Godparents. We quickly stopped to grab some pastries for everyone then we hit the road. It was about an hour drive to my nonna’s apartment.

When we arrived, we saw my godmother in the parking lot, we grabbed Valeria and everything from the car then proceeded up with my zia to the apartment. When we walked into the apartment there was my zio and nonna. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see them. I’m very close with my family and to not have seen them for 5 months has been difficult.

It was the first time they met Valeria and oh my goodness did they love and adore her! She was so smiley, silly and giggled so much, she was having a blast. My zio was constantly playing with her and to see my teeny tiny 5 foot tall nonna holding our very tall girl. It was so cute and I took a bunch of photos of my family holding and playing with her. It warmed my heart to watch them with her.

We had a deeeeelicious lunch of Pasta e fagioli, chicken cutlets with sauteed mushrooms, rapini, salad, roasted pepper salad and then dessert. I know everyone claims their grandmother or mom is an amazing cook, but I can’t explain how incredible of a cook she is. I need to learn from her so I can keep these traditions and recipes alive. We sat and talked, laughed and just spent some good quality time together, which I really needed. I love them so much and I hope Valeria grows up loving them just as much as I do. And I’m so thankful that she was at least able to meet her great nonna, my dad’s mother.

We spent pretty much all day with her and we left around 6:30 PM and got back to my mother-in-law’s apartment by 7:30. My husband’s siblings were still over and the kids running around playing. It was great to end the night spending time with them.

Though I have to admit that I missed my family. My husband could sense it. I let him know I want to make more of an effort to see them, at least once a month, especially my nonna. He agreed without hesitation.

The rest of the night was good, and Valeria got tired at 9:30 so we tried putting her down to sleep for the night. She is fake news! My husband left to help his brother and guess what happened…she rolled to her belly, rolled back to her side and then popped her little eyes open, saw me and started laughing! “You were asleep, go to sleep this isn’t funny…” in a half serious tone, which made her laugh even more. My husband walked in 5 minutes after it happened and he goes “She’s up?!” I explained what happened and he laughed. We took her back to the living room and just let her hang out with his mom and sister until his sister left.

Now, our little girl doesn’t want to sleep, she wants to play. But the whimpering eyes closed thing is new, which now indicates ‘I want my bottle and sleep‘. Hopefully she gets some good rest because tomorrow is another big adventure.

Stay tuned!

Ciao!!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Everything in the Mouth!

Posted on by Mama

I was hoping to have written this earlier in the day however, our internet went out and hasn’t come back up. So writing this on my little cell phone using data is a bit difficult, but I had to write this!

My daughter is teething early and I wrote a blog post all about it previously, I’ll link it here if anyone is interested: https://mamaonthemove1.com/2024/01/24/teething-early/

Any parent is well aware of this drooly, fussy and a bit restless of a time. Also during this time comes the, what I like to call, Everything in the Mouth phase. Yay! From teething toys, her burp cloth, fingers (hers and ours), shirts, she has even tried my hair and everything in between! Having your hair pulled for a taste test in your drooling, almost four month old’s mouth is not the greatest feeling for the scalp or the drenched strands. She even tried to grab a pasta noodle off my husband’s fork, which he saw the ninja attempt immediately and dodged that catastrophe.

I know some of it is exploring and learning for her too, which is great for her development. But man, I bet those cold teething toys or even the cloth feels so soothing! I have to wonder though, why is that? Is it a little massage or maybe like a counter pressure for them? I really should read into this more to see why it is they try to put everything in their mouth while teething.

If anyone has any insight I’d appreciate the information!

Ultimately, it’s been funny to watch her attempts and to see some relief on her little face when something does work. This is going to be a long road of teeth coming in so I’m ready for this rocky road…oh the joys of parenthood!

But today was a tough day for Valeria, the evening seemed to be the worst. Not really sure why that is, but the only thing I can think of is maybe she is more relaxed as she is getting ready to sleep. We were finally able to really get her down to sleep after a few attempts.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been stop and go writing this post since 9 PM…it’s now 11:20 PM. But since she is snoozing away next to me in her bassinet, I’m just finishing up here, quick shower (you shower when you can as a mom) and bed. I’m exhausted and tomorrow is a busy one.

I’ll keep ya posted on any funny anecdotes with Valeria. Do you have any funny stories of your kids? Let me know in the comments!

Ciao!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Valeria’s Doctor Appointment

Posted on by Mama

Today was a big day for Valeria, we got to meet her new doctor. We will call her Dr. L; Dr. L took over my former physician’s practice/patient roster. Since I was a patient, I was able to register Valeria with her as well. Ideally we would have liked a Pediatrician, but sadly none in our city are accepting patients.

Now, my husband and I were nervous to meet the doctor due to the fact that we have decided not to vaccinate our children. It is a personal choice and we have done extensive research on the subject matter. We just feel it’s what’s best for us and our child/future children. We know it’s not a popular opinion, but I have no judgment against those wanting to vaccinate their children. Again, you do what you think is best and I fully respect that as a parent and just as a human being. Now it is DEFINITELY frowned upon by most medical professionals, we have already run into a few who have looked down on us and our decision. But that is neither here nor there.

We got to the clinic and checked in with the receptionist. A short wait later the nurse called her name, incorrectly (Sigh) and I quickly corrected her. The nursing staff went crazy for her! They kept saying how adorable she was, how well behaved, etc. There was only one nurse there I recognized and we got to talking (I used to work there), however the staff has all changed. The nurse took her height, weight and head circumference, let us know the doctor will be in shortly and off she went out the door.

The Dr. L walked in about five minutes later. A very friendly young female doctor, who greeted us warmly. She instantly said our daughter’s name correctly, even had a bit of an accent. She asked if I was of spanish decent and informed her I was Italian and she mentioned she was half Columbian and that name was very common. She regaled us with a story of her Columbian mother having trouble pronouncing common Columbian names to English pronunciation. We laughed and completely understood and let her know few people actually are able to say her name correctly.

Dr. L proceeded with her assessment of Valeria, as we curiously watched, all the while wondering if she is growing and developing at a good rate. She was so kind and gentle, making her smile and laugh. Seems Valeria really liked her. Since she was close to four months (February 14th – yup Valentine’s Day), she asked a bunch of questions for feeding and milestones, etc. We happily answered and she also showed us her growth percentiles, which was fascinating. She is slightly above for height, measuring at at 24.5 inches and her weight was 14.85 Lbs. We don’t make small kids, plus my husband is 6’3 so I have a strong feeling I’m going to be the shrimp of the family.

Now, the vaccine conversation; I had informed the nurse we weren’t vaccinating and obviously the message was relayed to Dr. L. Who in turn surprised us with her response. She let us know that she full accepts our decision, that there is tons of research out there and if we ever want to discuss it, she will give us the information she has about vaccinations. She also stated that she will never force anything on us, that it’s our bodies and our health and as a doctor she will not judge and only provide us with the best care possible.

At that moment, I knew she was the perfect doctor for us. A kind and understanding physician, those are rare and hard to find these days. I did not have some good experiences with health care providers during COVID, which I mentioned, and she understood. Confirming that wasn’t the first time she heard that. Have any of you had similar experiences? What a weird time it was in our world during COVID.

We ended the appointment with her saying good bye to us, letting us know to book for a six month and then playing with Valeria one last time to get a smile. And out the door she went.

We quickly hurried out the room so they could clean it for the next appointment, stopping at the receptionist to book the next appointment and then we drove home. My husband and I discussed how pleased we were and how professional and understanding Dr. L was. The fact she was so gentle and playful with Valeria as she casually worked in her assessment as she did so. An amazing experience we both agreed.

On the car ride home, Valeria fell asleep, so we got home and put her down for a nap. The rest of the day was busy getting things ready for the weekend since we were headed to my Mother-in-law’s house for our nephew’s birthday.

All in all, it was a pretty great day! Super thrilled with Valeria’s growth and development and the fact we found a wonderful non-judgmental doctor. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend wherever you are in the world.

Ciao!

Posted in Daily Life as a Parent

Laughter!

Posted on by Mama

Today was extremely chilly outside, so it was another indoor day. Valeria woke up in a good mood and to entertain her, we placed the play mat down for her to kick and touch. It has a little piano for her to kick and different sensory toys, it’s great and to watch her being able to interact with it finally is amazing. She is kicking up a storm now and able to reach up, she loves the music the piano keys creates. It’s a bonus because this entertains her AND causes exhaustion. Mommy win! Makes getting her down for naps much easier lately.

This is the play mat, it’s great!

Later in the day, after her first nap, my husband sang “Are you happy and you know it” and helped her clap her hands and she was loving it! She was having such a great time, she finally laughed! An actually full on laugh, it was so cute! We were even able to capture a video of it! The way her face lit up as she laughed, it seriously melted my heart.

There are so many emotions I’ve felt in the last three months, it’s truly unbelievable. I can’t explain it, but the best way to describe it is this; it’s as if you are watching yourself as a kid learning and growing, to see the wonder in your mini me’s face as they explore and discover their voice, their emotions, their body. Even if it’s not always great, it’s always strangely beautiful. As a parent, you watch but you also grow, learn and change as well. To be proud and astonished by the little human you’ve created, or multiple little humans.It’s seriously a blessing.

But her smile, that laughter….my God it was wondrous. Can you be too obsessed with your kid? Pft, no! Okay maybe, but c’mon people it’s my first kid of course I’m obsessed with everything she’s doing! I’m just happy we were able to capture the moment.

Alright, okaaaaaay, I’ll move along now. The rest of the day was pretty ordinary; made bread this morning, cooked bacon in the oven, feedings and naps for baby girl (with play time thrown in-between), dinner, a bit of video gaming (while she slept of course…mommy needs fun too) and the day flew by.

My husband was able to put Valeria down for the night after he came back from his Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) sparring session tonight. Not surprised, she was pretty exhausted, she only had about a half hour nap while he was gone.

Anyway, I’m exhausted myself since I was up at 7:30 this morning. Just couldn’t get back to sleep after baby girl woke up for a diaper change and quick feeding. Early bird gets the worm and all that nonsense. Honestly, just not a morning person, but who is? Seriously….

Let me know, are you a morning person? I’m a night owl personally, except for today….forced awake ugh. Now my butt is off to relax with some Bob’s Burgers and than bed.

Ciao!