Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Another Blog About Ziva

Ziva's almost 11 weeks old now. In some ways I can't believe she's more than 2 months old, but in other ways it feels like we've had her forever. She's 16 pounds now, and 25 inches long. She's wearing 3-6 and 6-9 month clothes now. She's a beast. She's got the fattest thighs, cheeks and chin(s) ever, but in actuality, she's pretty much solid. She's not like some Maury Show obese baby, but she's pretty muscular and stocky. It looks like she inherited my bulky build. Hopefully, she didn't inherit my lazy metabolism...
Nursing is a wash, but I'm trying to keep my supply up so we can ditch the formula (by and large) and exclusively pump. A very generous mom from MDC is giving me an electric pump, so that will make life easier. I'm bummed about it, but I'm kind of tired of feeling like crap over it, so I'm trying to get used to doing the next best thing. We did have some (extreeeeeemely) mild success t getting her to try the breast shield again, but I'm keeping my expectations dirt low, so I don't get disappointed of ticked off if she doesn't ever want to nurse.
We FINALLY started cloth diapering. I've been feeling guilty about not doing that, especially when she got BAD diaper rash a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how I'm going to keep up with laundry, but I guess we'll figure it out. She looks adorable in cloth diapers.
My sister Hannah (aka Moriah) came to visit for a week. We had a good time. She helped out a lot with Ziva and even slept with her last night... Mal and I had forgotten what it feels like to sleep through the night and without a nightlight! It was amazing. Also, since Mal and Ziva both sleep on their backs with their arms and legs all over the place I usually have to squish into a little strip of bed with one leg, one arm and one butt cheeks hanging off. Last night I slept on my stomach with ALL OF MY BODY on the bed. It felt heavenly.
Ayways, "she's still Hannah," as Malachi put it, but I think she'll do alright. She's 18 and in a lot of ways, still acts like the giddy, scatterbrained, superficial teenager that I've known, but I think she's wanting to do some growing up. She's going to move here in Sept and start school to be a dental assistant. I think living here, paying for her own stuff, working and being thousands of miles from Mom will help her.
So, back to Ziva... She's very happy- always smiling and laughing. And she's very independent. She isn't interested in cuddling anymore () but just wants to be helped to sit up or stand up, or held over the shoulder so she can see everything. Our synagogue has a walker in the nursery and when we put her in it she went nuts. She was so happy and started moving her feet and trying to move. The walker was too heavy for her, so I pushed her whenever she made a walking motion with her feet and she was in heaven.
I credit attachment parenting for some of her independence and happiness, as things seems to be going so well with the techniques we're using. I know everyone does things differently, but this is working out well for us. She a sweet baby and very easy going, and the AP stuff we're doing just seems to make it better. She's loves sleeping with us and being with us. Her face lights up when we interact with her. I can tell she feels loved and safe with us.
She's holding her head up like a pro and getting a lot better at keeping her torso up too. She's grabbing things and putting them in her mouth and making lots of noises. She makes this gurgling "guuuuh" sound all the time- it's her favorite- and lots of little syllables with "ahh" in them.She likes having "conversations" with people where she makes a noise and they repeat it. Loads of fun.
Anyhow, other than being flat broke and exhausted, thigs are going well for us. Hopefully, with Malachi finishing school and externship in 2 months, he'll be making more money and with Moriah moving in, I ought to be ble to work a bit more, so things will get a little less ugly financially.
The end.
K