Baby's First Road Trip

Spencer went to the CubeSat Conference at Cal Poly this week and Gwen and I went with him. This entailed a 3 hour drive to San Luis Obispo, figuring out what to do with her until time to check into our hotel, staying in the hotel, figuring out what to do with her after checking out of the hotel, and driving home. I was a little nervous about being on my own with her and out and about. There were many naps in the car; which was fine- I drove by our old house in Los Osos, and hit all the sites. Spring is a beautiful time on the Central Coast (thoug hI felt bad doing allthat driving on Earth Day). Gwen really enjoyed hanging out at Morro Rock. She was fascinted by the seagulls and their flapping and squaking and the intense salty wind. We also spent a lot of time at the park and the Health Food Store that had a changing table in the bathroom- it is horrific the lack of changing tables out there. It is interesting that I was even nervous about spending time with my baby...mobility for me wasn't an issue and she is so easily entertained! There was something really special about spending 48 hours with her non-stop and with no distractions. It could have been exhausting, but it was really pleasant (getting the stroller in and out of the car did get a little old). There was nothing else for me to do except spend time with her...totally different than being at home when I am often plotting my escape. I feel like I know her and appreciate her even more, and the greatest surprise is that it is even possible to feel this way!

Sweet Relief!

I had surgery last Friday to have the rod removed from my collar bone and it went really well! I felt better than I did before the surgery (and it wasn't the pain meds- I hardly had any). The surgery was only about 30 minutes so I wasn't under anesthesia for very long and when I came out of it instead of scared and panicky like the first time, I felt a rush of relief. I started crying and had to tell my nurse that I was okay, that I was not in pain, I just was so happy to have the rod out. I am still breastfeeding, and so I had to pump and dump for 24 hours. Gwen had a hard time not nursing, and it was really sweet because we realized that she didn't just want milk, she wanted to cuddle with Mama and have her milk (I thought I was just the boob to her).

Whirled Peas

Gwen tried peas for the first time and isn't a big fan....yet. I used her baby food mill and this is the chunkiest food she has had so far, and let's face it, peas have a pretty distinct taste- certainly compared to banana and rice cereal. I have about a 1/4 of a cup made up, so we will be trying peas for a few more days before moving on. Also, over Easter weekend Gwen sprouted her second bottom tooth!

She has also started the beginning of crawling....good thing Mama is more mobile! On that note I get the rod taken out of my collar bone this Friday. I will have a 3 day recovery (or so) and am trying to prepare by cleaning the house and making up a pot of chili and some lentil soup to put in the freezer.....ambitious I know. I am so looking forward to having this rod out and moving on with life!

Happy Easter Bunny

I often call Gwen my little Honey Bunny, Bunny Bear, Bunny Poo, etc; so it seemed really natural to stick a pair of bunny ears on her and let her play with some Easter Eggs. To my surprise she did not mind wearing the ears and she of course loved exploring the plastic eggs. For Easter we visited her Studley family and spent Easter morning with some of the extended family we met at Thanksgiving. Gwen has a 3rd cousin just a couple months older that she met which was fun. And I am so mobile with my cane that I joined the tail end of the Easter Egg hunt and actually found one egg :-)

Traveling with our bunny
Last night we stayed at Grandma's house for the first time since Thanksgiving. Since then Gwen has outgrown the bassinet feature of her pak n'play and we tried to get her to sleep in the bottom of it (what is basically a playpen). She was having nothing of it and ended up sleeping with us in the full size bed. Spencer and I were perched on either side of the bed while she lay stretched out in the middle....needless to say we didn't sleep well. We realize now that traveling with an older more interested inthe world (i.e distractable) Gwen, naps are a bit more challenging. I am posting this entry from the car in front of Grandma's since Gwen fell asleep in the car on the ride back from our Easter Egg hunt. She fussed and cried for the 35 minutes of the 40 minute drive before finally falling asleep. She has been napping in her carseat for an hour now, and still going strong- what we will do for sleep!

What a Well Baby

Gwen had her 6 month well baby visit yesterday and she is doing amazing (not that we needed her pedi to tell us that). We were very excited to find out how much Gwen weighed (she is sooo heavy). She weighs in at 19lbs 1.5oz butt naked (93rd percentile), length is 2'2.75" (81st percentile). I don't think her length was measured that accurately because she seems more than 3/4 of an inch longer than 2 months ago. She is eating one 'meal' a day- we have brunch together- rice cereal or bananas (she is not a fan of either). We were going to start with avocados next, but the pedi pointed out that Avocado is a common alergen, and we might want to wait until at least 8 months. Since Spencer has a slight alergy to Avocado, we will put this off. I think sweet potato or peas will be next :-)

Hmmmm, Rice Cereal

Gwen is 6 months today! She had her first bite of 'solid' food- baby rice cereal mixed with breastmilk (1 tablespoon rice mixed with 3 tablespoons of breastmilk). It mixed up to a lumpy milky gruel...honestly it reminded me of spit up, especially since it smelled like milk. She only ate about half of it until she lost interest completely. Though, the spoon was a hit. Gwen actually has a tooth coming in (bottom center right) and she enjoyed chewing on the spoon (and nursing on it). I think 'real' food will be a lot more fun, we will try either avocado or banana this weekend :-)