And the big news this week is that Sarah is most likely allergic to cow’s milk protein.  We found some blood in her diaper and took her to the doctor.  She hasn’t been particularly fussy.  You would think that if she is having that much intestinal distress she would be screaming her head off, but she isn’t.  Apparently it could take up to two weeks for the dairy to clear my system and hers, so we won’t know if my elimination of dairy is helping until then.  If she is still having symptoms after two weeks, then I take her back to the doctor and also cut out soy.  Luckily this type of allergy is something she should grow out of by her birthday and isn’t related to any dairy allergy she may have later in life.

Cutting out dairy is hard.  Thank goodness Sarah is so cute and gives me a huge smile every time she sees my face.

Other big news is that she had her first bottle this past weekend!

Here are some pictures from Sarah’s last bath.

She is a very accommodating baby.  She is happy to go wherever Ted and I are going during the day or wherever we are all going during nights and weekends.  She does have a thing about red lights though.  She hates them and lets us all know about it.  She is also rather fussy in the mornings when I have to get ready for the day instead of holding her.  She also frequently is fussy in the evenings when Ted is getting ready for bed. In the evenings no amount of holding her stops the anxiety.  But (so far) she is not the type to scream without stopping.  There is generally some intense arm waving and loud heavy breathing punctuated with yells.  Then we calm her down for a few minutes with walking her around and singing and then repeat the whole process over and over.  Overall she is a pretty calm happy baby though.

Something else worth mentioning is Zoe’s overwhelming need to sit on this baby.  She is quite crazy about it.  Like a duck determined to hatch an egg.  I let Zoe sit with us but that is not enough.  She is constantly inching closer trying to get on top of Sarah.  I have to hold her away and if I move my hand she is instantly moving in.  It is quite comical when Ted joins in and I have Ted, Sarah, and Zoe all on my lap at once.

Yesterday I took Sarah to her one month well check.  She is now 10lbs 11.5oz!  She has been able to hold her head up for awhile now, but she has been doing it for longer stretches this week.  Also while we had seen fleeting smiles here and there before, this week she seems to be really smiling in response to things.

Sarah mostly slept through her first Christmas.  Lucky for her she had Ted to open her presents.  This Christmas was filled with Skype instead of travel.  On Christmas Eve we did a post dinner skype with Jack and Ben.  Then later on we skyped with my sisters, aunt, and cousins and participated in Yankee Swap with them.

Then on Christmas morning we opened stockings and a few gifts from Santa and each other before a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, eggs, and fruit salad.  We then opened more gifts before skyping with my sisters, Jack, and Ben again.  We all opened the presents from aunts to nephews and a niece and then Ted and Jack played the drums together.

Then we participated in a five location conference skype with Great Nana, Uncle John, Gram, Pops, Auntie Kristen, Uncle Josh, Abby, and Aunt Dede reporting in from MA, NH, two FL locations, and us representing NC.  Craziness!  And yet the sound quality was better on that massive skype than it was when we just skyped with RI.  Mysterious internet.  It was great to see everyone and just amazing to see everyone all at once.  Other than missing out on hugs and getting to pass the babies around, it was just like getting together in real life.

After all the skyping we fed Ted a quick lunch and got all dressed and ready.  Just before it was time to head out I put Sarah into her Christmas outfit.  She immediately filled a diaper and leaked on the outfit.  Pat changed her into the dress she wore Chrismas Eve and she let us know in no uncertain terms that she would need to eat before we left the house.  I fed her and burped her and she proceeded to puke in my hair and all over my shirt.  I went upstairs and washed out my hair and changed shirts and we were ready to go!

We arrived at Kate and Peter’s fashionably late, but hopefully Ted and Sarah distracted everyone.  Ted was on his best behavior and made himself right at home.  He passed out hugs left and right and had everyone laughing with him.  Sarah slept while we ate dinner and woke up when we were done, just in time to be passed around to everyone for snuggles.  After dinner we took a walk and Ted tried out his new scooter.  Luckily the rain held off for us and we came back just in time for dessert.  We had a great time.

This week we didn’t have a doctor’s appointment to tell us how much Sarah has grown, but she has outgrown her newborn diapers and some of her newborn pajamas.  I have been putting her in some of the super cute 3 month size outfits that she got as presents and have been continuously surprised that they fit.

She has been focusing on our faces much more this past week.  She will spend a long time just quietly examining my hair line especially.  I remember Ted doing that too.  I assume the contrast between my light skin and dark hair is the easiest thing to focus on.

She has been holding her head up for longer and longer periods.  She also continues to use the weight of her head to throw her whole body wherever she wants to go.

We took Sarah to her two week well-check today.  The doctor said that she looked great and that she had gained back enough weight that she was over her birth weight (which is what they hope for by two weeks.)  She is now 8lb 12oz which puts her in the 60th percentile for weight.  She is 21.5 inches tall, which is the 90th percentile for height!  She didn’t get that from me!

A lot of Sarah’s facial expressions and movements remind me of Ted when he was this small.  One thing I don’t remember is him being this vocal though.  I don’t mean crying.  Sarah is frequently making little noises.  She squeaks, purrs, snores, and makes little noises that seem to say, “hello?  I am over here.”

This past weekend Auntie Christine came to visit and help us get ready for Christmas.  On Friday we got a tree from the Farmer’s Market.  Saturday we decorated the tree and the house and went to the Christmas Parade.  On Sunday Ted got to spend some quality time playing with Auntie outside.  Then Sunday night after Auntie had to head back to Boston, Ted and Pat went to the Christmas Celebration at Pullen Park.  It was a very fun, action-packed weekend.

Ted putting the rocket ship on the top of the tree.

Sarah’s First Parade!

Ted had the best view.

Sarah is one week old today!  Hard to believe I spent the the entire week before last with one thought going through my mind:  I cannot believe she has not been born yet!  I was sure she would be born by Thanksgiving if not sooner.  With Ted I was convinced he would be late and then he was born on his due date.  A doctor told me second children usually come earlier than firstborns.  Not in this case!  Who knows how long Sarah would have stayed in there had she not been induced or evicted, as I like to say.

Eight days after her due date Pat and I headed to the hospital for a scheduled induction.  I was worried that forcing her out before she was ready would lead to a longer labor or even a c-section.  Luckily none of that came to pass and I had a much shorter labor and was able to forgo the pain medication again.

Since we were expecting her so much earlier she missed meeting Auntie Kim, Auntie Anne, and cousins Jack and Ben by a day.  She also only had super short visits with Auntie Christine, Grampa, and Gramma.  Luckily Sarah did get to spend some quality time with Gram and will get to see Auntie Christine again this weekend.

This week we took Sarah to the doctor twice.  The first time was her 48 hours after leaving the hospital weight check.  She was down to 7lbs 12oz from her birth weight of 8lb 9oz.  They asked us to come back in another two days to check again.  She gained 3oz in those two days so they were satisfied she is on the right track and our next appointment is her two week well check.

Sarah sleeps in our room in a bedside co-sleeper.  I am absolutely loving this.  When we had Ted in our room during his first days it was in a pack and play and I had to get out of bed to see him.  Which I did every time he made a little noise.  I didn’t sleep at all when he was in our room.  We moved him to his crib in his own room pretty quickly.  This let me sleep between feedings which was wonderful, but after walking back from his room I usually had some trouble falling back asleep.  So far with Sarah I have been able to place her back in the co-sleeper and fall back asleep immediately*.  Of course now that I have admitted this, it will change, because that is what babies do.

*Except for the couple of times when she has turned into what Pat and I lovingly call her voracious velociraptor moments, where she will go four hours trying to nurse constantly with no break, chomping on anything within her reach.

Since Pat’s monthly post last week, Ted has added “Zoe” and “kitty” to the six words he was saying last month.  He says Zoe clear as day.  He seems to be starting with the harder words first… He could say teeth before he could say mama.  And he says, “ticka ticka ticka,” while tickling his own belly.

He is also starting with the harder, more obscure animal noises, llama, monkey, donkey, and of course sheep, but he finally says, “moo!”  I mean to me, moo seems way easier than hee haw.  For the rooster he says, “cock-a.”  He doesn’t quite have the -doodle-doo yet.   And occasionally he will tell me that the dog says, “arf, arf, arf.”

He will tell you that a car says, “beep beep” and the train says, “toot toot.”  He loves pointing out cars.  I took him to Marbles Kids Museum, which is in downtown Raleigh and let me tell you- there are a lot of “cars” in the city.

He also loves playing the drums and loves drumming all over the house with anything that resembles a drumstick.  Or his bare hands if a drumstick isn’t handy.  I don’t know if it is just an intense phase or if he is going to be a musician.  Every time he hears a bit of music or someone says the word “dance,” he starts dancing.

Also new this week, he knows where his knees are, as well as my knees.  And when I pointed to my arm tonight and told him the word he repeated it like three times, trying to get the sound right.  I didn’t add it to the list of words he knows because that was the first time he said it and sometimes he will just say a random word once and never repeat it.

His newest sign this week is “help.”  Unfortunately he mostly only does the sign when I say “help” instead of just making the sign to actually get help.  Hopefully he will figure it out quickly that signing help is going to get me to help him much faster and happier than his previous method of whining in frustration.

Another thing Ted loves is feeding Zoe cat treats.  We had to put a child lock on the drawer where we keep them.  He will give her a whole bunch and we will tell him she is all done, but he keeps signing, “more, more.”  Zoe is definitely enjoying this new skill.  Also Ted seems to know that they are just for the cats and never tries to eat them himself or feed them to Pat or me.

Lately I have been looking at our cookbooks, Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef, just to get ideas for healthy things I could cook for our family.  Really Ted loves vegetables and fruit, so right now I don’t have to worry about hiding them in other foods… its the other foods he is more suspicious of.  One of the key ideas in both books is that toddlers don’t like trying new foods.  I decided I had better start upping Ted’s variety now, while he is still accepting of them, so that there will be less “new” foods for him when (and if) he hits that phase.  So this week he had olives, summer squash, quinoa, salsa, zucchini, and whole wheat crackers with cheddar cheese.

On Tuesday, March 24th he took his first unassisted steps!  This last week of his first year has been very exciting for sure!  After taking those first steps he didn’t really want to do it any more.  Lots of videos of him about to take a step then getting down on all four and crawling over with a big smile.  Then on Saturday at the airport waiting for the aunties, Uncle Josh, and cousin Jack to arrive he walked quite a distance while totally distracted, looking at a brochure he was holding in both hands.