Cecilia Got Her First Tooth

After months of waiting, yesterday, it happened! Cecilia popped her first tooth. It's the bottom front one, on my left. You can't see much of it, but you sure can feel it. She's eating a lot more now and in a much better mood. Plus, she slept for more than 8 hours last night. Yeah teething!

Announcing ...

We are expecting our second baby September 9, 2010! We're very excited about it, although I'm not sure how excited Cecilia is about the changes already happening.

I have morning sickness (or rather all day sickness) this time around, and I can't maintain a milk supply sufficient to meet her calorie needs. If the stubborn baby ate solid food, it might be ok :)! Hence, we've started supplementing with formula, which she is finally starting to take on occasion - if Ben feeds it to her. She hasn't nursed in over a month, even at night, but evidently she must associate breast milk with me, still. She only needs about 4 ounces of formula a day, but the smell of it makes me sick. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to it, but even rinsing the bottles after a feeding I have to hold my breath. It's not what we envisioned when Cecilia was born, but I guess nothing usually works out the way you anticipate.

We're taking a different approach toward prenatal care and delivery with this baby. I'm going to wait until we're in NY and find a midwife there to hopefully do a homebirth. I've already scoped out a few and will begin calling a week or two before we move. I should be around 12 weeks when we move, so we aren't concerned about waiting. Plus, I've been on prenatal vitamins since before I got pregnant with Cecilia, so there's not much a doctor here would do except get me admitted into a group and tell me which day I got pregnant (which I already know ;) ). I have my trusty Brewer Diet to follow too! Although, with the morning sickness I haven't been getting my eggs or my protein. I try though!

This pregnancy is already different than the last, although this time I'm taking care of a baby and still tying to exclusively breastfeed. I think the women who nurse throughout a pregnancy must have older babies who eat solids, because I can feel the energy draining from my body and I just can't get enough calories! We'll see what the next 32 weeks bring. We're very excited and looking forward to our newest addition! Any bets on boy or girl? We'll have to wait until delivery day to know though (sorry to my sisters, who want to crochet in advance). I'll go on the record now as saying I think it will be a girl.

First Try at Formula

Well, the day has come. Yesterday and today we tried giving Cecilia formula because my milk supply is no longer holding out. We've been staving this off for more than a month, but it has finally happened. The last few days I've been sick and I can't eat enough calories to keep up normal milk production. However, Cecilia doesn't like nor want formula. At this point, she would rather go hungry than eat anything other than breastmilk. We've had a little luck with pureed sweet potatoes lately, but she does not like solids. It's rough in the Swoboda house lately with a hungry baby and nothing she will eat.

Cecilia has started using her music table as a make-shift walker! It happened for the first time last night. Ben and I saw her push it forward and then take a couple of steps up to it. The first time we thought it could be a fluke, but the farther she got the more we sat up and said "she's doing that on purpose!" We got out the video camera, but then she got a little distracted. We got a few steps on video, although she keeps getting distracted by her toy!

Cecilia Talking

The sounds right now sound more like babble, but recently she's added a DaDaDaDa sound. I've got it on video a couple of times. Ben's working hard to teach her that he's Dada, and sometimes we almost think she's getting it!

Cecilia Plays and Stands

I took some video of Cecilia playing at her music table and standing. She's getting better and better at standing holding on to things and walking around. She can get all the way around the table and can transfer between the music table and the couch. What a mobile girl!



Here's a long one of Cecilia and I playing while she's standing.

Trouble With Solid Foods

I don't know why I thought that Cecilia would do any better with solid foods when breastfeeding was so difficult. So far, she has completely rejected bananas, avacados, sweet potatoes, green beans, rice cereal, and oatmeal. We've had a little more luck getting her to eat the cereal, but success is few and far between. Generally, she does the best when there is an audience who is literally cheering on her every bite. If each mouthful is followed by raucous applause and cheers, she will sometimes take another bite. Is she getting ready for a career in entertainment or what? We usually try every night around dinner time, and often during other meals during the day. She can pick up (with pincers) little foods, so we've tried that. However, after she chews on it a few times, she decides she doesn't like it. The one exception - celery. She LOVES chewing on stalks of celery! She has also chewed on some bell pepper (although she made funny faces the whole time).

Thinking she may just want to feed herself, not believing she's ready for full on finger foods, and remembering that cold things feel good to teething babies, I froze little popsicle molds of oatmeal, rice cereal, and pureed green beans. She did pick them up and chew on them, but once she realized they were food, they became smears on her high chair and floor.

We have a head strong, stubborn baby, but I'm sure once we get her eating she'll be an eating queen!

New Year's 2009

This year for New Year's, Na-naw and Paw-paw watched Cecilia so Hannah and Ben could go out. We were VERY grateful! We went to Elliott and Becky's friends, Jeff and Megin, for food, games, and midnight. Jeff and Megin were very brave, because they had a 1-week old baby in the house! It was a lot of fun, and they were a great group to ring in the new year with. We even met another Catholic couple with a baby 1 month older than Cecilia! Maybe we'll get together with them for a playdate :). We helped clean up and then headed home right after midnight. It was a good New Year, although calmer than what we've had in the past.

2010 promises to be a good year. Cecilia turns 1, we both start new jobs, we hope to buy our first house, and who knows what other changes will be coming!