changes.

lots of new things happening here lately! Audrey did great at her appointment last Monday -- showing her pediatrician how she could stand up (holding my fingers for support) and stomp her feet, and also be really dramatic about getting her check up :) at 20 weeks old Audrey weighed 12 lbs., 9 oz. and was 24 inches long. For length, she's still in the 15-20th percentile range, but her weight dropped below the growth curve that she's been following so her doctor recommended that we start cereal and solids a little sooner than planned to help give her some extra calories each day. she normally eats 30-36 oz. of milk each day, which seems like a lot for her to be taking in and still not weigh very much. so we started with oatmeal cereal (which she was not a fan of) and then rice cereal (loved) and then a combination of the two, which is shown in this video below. she's wearing her new "i love my aunt" bib from her Aunt Laura! note at the very end how Will is encouraging Audrey to blow raspberries at me with a mouth full of cereal -- he got booted out of the kitchen shortly after :) she did really well at spoon feeding! after a few messy tries, she started opening her mouth for the spoon and most of the cereal ended up in her tummy instead of well, everywhere else. she actually started getting really impatient when i was taking too long in between bites. we decided to start with avocado as her first food and are going to give it to her on her five month birthday (Monday) to celebrate! i'm going to try my hand at making my own baby food! i already have a magic bullet so Laura, Audrey, and i browsed through Target a few weeks ago and i found a baby food steamer, sterilizer, and defroster on sale and got some 4 oz. tupperware containers to freeze everything in. i'm pretty excited!

i'm reeeeady!!

yummy!

the weather here has been so nice lately so Audrey and i have been going to the park almost every day! this weekend, Will went with us and Audrey tried out the park swing for the first time!

check out my sneakers! :)

now that our sweet girl is almost 5 months old, we started talking about moving her out of our room and into her crib in the nursery. ever since we brought her home, she's been sleeping swaddled in a rocker next to my side of the bed. this has worked out great and it gave me peace of mind having her right next to me. it's also recommended that babies sleep in their parent's room until around 6 months to help reduce the risk of SIDS. we bought an angelcare monitor to put in her crib to ease my mind about having her "so far away" (aka the next room over) at night. a sensor pad goes into the bottom of the crib on a plywood board underneath the mattress. it can detect her breathing movements and an alarm sounds if there is no movement after 20 seconds. i was worried how she would adjust to sleeping in her big crib when her rocker is on an incline and 'hugs' her. we thought maybe it would help for her to get used to sleeping without being swaddled first. when i woke up one morning last week and found her like this:

i knew it was time to start unswaddling her at night. doesn't she look so proud of herself? :) the first two nights went really well. she put herself to sleep within minutes and woke up only 30 minutes earlier than usual. when i checked on her an hour after she fell asleep, she had both of her arms by her head, holding little tufts of her hair in each hand.

for some reason the third night didn't go as well. then, we went into daylight savings time and her sleep pattern was all over the place. we took a chance and put her in her crib, swaddled, for the first time last night. she went to bed as usual at 8:30 and after an hour and a half of fighting sleep, a little fussing (and probably confusion), she fell asleep and stayed asleep until 4:30 a.m. after i got up, located her paci and gave it to her, and she fell back asleep until 5:00 a.m. but was back up at 5:30 a.m., then 6 a.m., then 6:30 a.m., then 7 a.m., and finally at 7:30 a.m., we brought her into our room and laid her down in the rocker where she slept until 10:30 a.m. Whew! We're going to try again tonight and hopefully it only gets better.

i've been really thankful to meet some great friends who also have October and November babies. a few are located nearby and some are as far as Canada, California, and even Alaska! it's been so great getting to know them and it's so helpful to have others who have babies the same age and are going through the same things at the same time. they have all been so generous as well; many times when i go to check the mail, i find sweet letters and coupons and little gifts from her "aunts."

pink camouflage wipes case from Aunt Lucy :)

tutu and matching bow from Aunt Andrea :)

my friend Jenn (from Canada) and i talk on the phone once a week! she's so sweet and we have so much in common. Her son, Gavi, was born 4 days after Audrey and was also early (our due dates were the same, 11/11/11) because Jenn, like me, had Cholestasis. they also both weighed exactly the same when they were born! a couple weeks ago she picked up some matching bibs for Gavi and Audrey -- so sweet!

i've talked (a lot) about Audrey's fascination with her mermaid from Aunt Susie and Uncle Larry. she loves that thing so much, i was hesitant to add a moose into the mix. Lamaze toys are so great and i highly recommend them to anyone. we received Mortimer the Moose as a gift but since Audrey loves her mermaid so much, i wasn't sure if she could find any room in her heart for sweet Mortimer :) she still loves her mermaid the most, but now she has one hand on each when she plays and looks back and forth and them and laughs. 

oh hey, mermaid!

oh hey, mr. moose!

Laura gave her the stuffed elephant (Ellie) the first time they "met" when Audrey was out of the NICU so we keep her close as well. Audrey just loved to be surrounded i guess! Even when she naps, she is a little hoarder! she has to have her nap blankie (my old baby blanket) under one arm, her wubbanub under the other arm, her ring of links in one hand, and another blankie to tuck her in. it's a lot of work getting it all together every time she takes a nap but i kid you not, it's almost impossible to get her to go to sleep without those things!

another exciting change is Audrey's wardrobe. it sounds silly but the girl has been wearing 0-3m clothes forever now so i was thrilled that a few of her 3-6m outfits finally fit. one of my favorites was a gift from great grandma Hammersley, osh kosh overalls!

night #2 in the crib is tonight! i'll let you know how it goes. in the meantime, i'm going to take a nap! :)