An Update

Tomorrow marks 5 weeks that I've been Mia's mom. I'm amazed at how much she's changed in such a short time. I'm also amazed at how fast it started to feel like she's always been here. We've found a pretty good groove us two.

Mia sleeps well in her crib. She goes to bed anytime between 7-8:30pm... depending on how tired she is. I shoot for 7:30pm but she sometimes has other plans. LOL! She's basically sleeping through the night. I have a 4-5 oz bottle ready to be made every night if she wakes and doesn't settle with some pats on the back or rocking. That seems to do the trick.

Every now and then we have a bad night where she cries and refuses to go to sleep. Those nights we struggle. But I really can't complain. I expected the sleep deprivation to be the worst of it. But so far I'm doing okay. Ask me again in mid-August after I've gone back to work though and it may be a different story. LOL!

She wakes between 7-8:30am every morning. Generally closer to 7am unless her bad mommy has kept her out too late. She's gotten to where she'll play and talk to herself in her crib for awhile. I watch her on the video monitor. Sometimes she'll peek her little head over the side of her crib looking for me then lay back down and talk to her feet some more. We've made a game of it now. I usually peek my head in the door and wait for her to see me. Which cracks her up. I love starting my mornings with her thousand watt smile. :)

Like clockwork she gets fussy at the 2 hours awake mark. That's when a morning nap happens. We haven't quite gotten that routine down yet. Sometimes she sleeps in bed with me if I want to nap, too. I like the snuggles. I think she does, too. Sometimes I just rock her a little but lay her on the living room floor or the couch. There's no telling how long she'll sleep. Sometimes only a half hour. Sometimes almost 2.

We've started the afternoon nap with going into her crib. Those naps last longer. At least an hour but usually more. I may start trying to get her to do the morning nap in her crib as well. But I'm hesitant to give up spooning her. Those moments won't last forever. :(

While in China, I was told Mia was only on a formula-rice porridge mixture in her bottle. So I chose not to give her any solids with the intention of starting all of that once we got home. We just started solids this week. So far she's only had peas. I'm giving it a few days to make sure there's no reaction. But she loved them.

She mastered rolling over on day three in China. Now she's sitting up strong, jumping in her Jenny-Jump-Up, and army crawling all over the place. She still can't sit herself up from a laying down position. But my girl is strong and determined. I have no doubt she'll accomplish anything she sets her mind to. I think she's gonna be an athlete. Just a guess. We'll see.

Our bonding is going great. She absolutely knows who mommy is. She looks for me when she hears my voice. She doesn't like having me out of her sight when we're out someplace. She's gotten a little more comfortable just in the last week and will play independently for short periods of time while I leave the room. Sometimes.. but not always. And only if it's just her and I alone at home where's she's familiar.

She knows her name and will look when you speak to her. She knows her doggie's name and will look for him if I ask where he is. They're getting along well. He still wants more of my attention and I try the best I can to divide it between them both.

Mia is completely in 12 mth clothes and even some smaller cut 18 mth sizes. She looks to me like her weight is distributing itself differently. She doesn't have as many neck rolls as she did in China. I have to keep those creases clean so I know I'm not imagining it. Her face looks different to me, too. I can't describe how. She just looks a little older to me. Not as roly poly and chubby cheeked as when we first met.

She has 2 teeth up top right in the middle and the same two on the bottom have now also poked through. She babbles incessantly when we're at home. But I talk to her all the time, too. So that's probably part of it. I read somewhere once that babies are faster to talk if they're talked to. Right now she only says ma ma ma ma. Sometimes it comes out as mama. As much as I'd like to believe that she's referring to me... I think it's just her favorite syllable.

All in all...she's doing fabulously. She's got a very laid back, easy going personality. She just rolls with everything. As long as she's with me, I've found we can do just about anything. She's been with me to a hair appointment that lasted 2 hours. She sat and played in her stroller, charmed the stylists, had a bottle and then a nap. She shops like a champ just hanging out in the cart checking everything out. 

 We've taken walks in her stroller around the neighborhood. 

She even sat on my lap while I had a pedicure. She got a little squirmy towards the end when she started getting bored but she was absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe it. Of course, one of my besties was there as back up. I wasn't brave enough to try that alone.

I love being a mom. But it's hard work. Some days I'm just happy to have her go to sleep so I can have some down time. But then by morning I miss her terribly. I know this sounds crazy because I really do love my sleep... but sometimes I even secretly hope she wakes in the middle of the night for some rocking. I love sitting in her room in the dark and feeling her just melt into me. It's so peaceful. It's everything I dreamed of. And I know those moments will be gone all too soon.