Ramblings

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I love being a parent. Hadley still gets up so much at night, and of course I'm frustrated at her sometimes for it, but most of the time I see my little girl cry or reach out her arm for me and I just want to hold her and kiss her. I am still breastfeeding (this is a lot longer than pre-mom was expecting) and I love it. I have a feeling I'll be stopping soon because Hadley seems ready for it - she latches on for a few seconds and then is ready for something else. This makes me pretty sad and if you know me, you'll be shocked that I feel this way. Before I had her, I had mothering scheduled. I would have her on this date, breastfeed until this date, second kid on this date, etc...She certainly threw a wrench on my plans, but definitely for the better. There's nothing like a child to keep you on your toes.

I'm not sure if she'll read this post one day, but if she does, I want her to know how much I absolutely love being a mother, especially her mother. I'm a much better person now that I am her mother.

Crawling

Hadley started crawling yesterday. Not going backwards or shifting the butt enough to move, but really crawling! Her type of crawling is funny though - she is a little lazy with the left leg and the right does most of the work. I've heard this is pretty typical, but it was a little shocking to see at first. Today she zoomed her way past us to grab a bag of sun chips. I think Justin and I are now in for a lot of trouble (and fun)!

Crib

Since Hadley can now sit up from her tummy position, we've moved her to a crib in her own room. Tonight is the 4th night of this and we're constantly waking up at night to soothe her. It's been pretty rough, but sometimes I think it's more rough for me since I miss having her somewhat next to me in the room. I'm sure when she sleeps better again I'll feel better about all this. I *never* thought I'd have her in my room for so long, but even though she'll be 9 month soon, she seems so small and fragile to me sometimes.

Sitting up

Hadley learned how to sit up from her tummy position on Monday night August 3rd. I was putting her to bed and having an extremely tough time. She didn't want to be bounced on the yoga ball, facing forward or in cradle position, and kept screaming and screaming (yes, those few glorious days of 7pm-2am were gone after her fever over the weekend). I *finally* got her calm enough to lay her in her co-sleeper and moved far enough away in the room so she wouldn't see me. Well, a few seconds later, she pokes her head out of the co-sleeper and smiles at me! That was the last night of the co-sleeper.

Cheerios

Hadley loves cheerios. We're not sure if she likes the taste of it (it's not Honey Nut Cheerios) or if it's the only food she can feed herself with. Usually we have a really tough time getting her to play with any toy for more than 5 minutes, but if we give her cheerios, she's completely content. It's really cute how she does eat the cheerios. She starts by touching it with her index finger. Then she pushes it to her thumb and upon success, it goes in the mouth. Sometimes the index finger and thumb does not meet, but the cheerios stick to the hand. In that case, the entire hand goes into the mouth. If we're lucky, she'll offer us the cheerio with her entire hand!

I am looking forward to other types of food. So far most of them stick too hard to the serving surface and Hadley just gets frustrated.

Mama Baba

Hadley had her first word today! As I was desperately trying to feed her (she wants to feed herself and can only pick up cheerios) I said mama and she did the same. Of course, everyone's going to say that she was saying gibberish and I thought I heard her repeat mama to me, but daddy who was in the kitchen heard the same thing. Later on in the evening, after her shower and while daddy was drying her, I said mama again and so did she! Now here's the even better part. Daddy said baba and she also said baba. After this, I told Hadley that if she wanted to keep me up all night, that was fine by me. I am just so excited she said her first word and both Justin and I were around to here it. I'm glad it wasn't at daycare.

We went to Aram's in Cushing Square for a Mother's Day Brunch. I was more interested in sleeping than watching mom and dad eat.