Giggles

It has been holiday madness. Tilly Rose likes the lights, but more she likes to watch her brothers, and they love the lights and everything, lots of excitement. She is just getting mastery of sitting up, not quite at the point where we'll let go of her, but she's really close. Her teeth have been hurting a lot lately, and her bottom 2 finally cut through. In general she's more awake. She doesn't always go to sleep when her mom tries to put her down, but when she's tired and she sees Francesca putting on the baby carrier she gets excited and kicks her legs to get in. Almost getting peek a boo, we are popping out from behind walls and she likes the game, but isn't quite falling over laughing from it yet. Also won't be long before she's trying to grab her mama's dinner, she's starting to reach for things at the table. Sometimes when she wakes up after she's been put down for the night I am able to get her back down, this is the first child I've managed that. She really likes to watch the cats. We'll see what she thinks of christmas.

4 months

 Things are going well. Rose is talking often, warming up her voice for when she learns words and needs to compete with her brothers. She's also been blowing bubbles a lot because her teeth are starting to come in and she's gotten pretty drooly. Still full of smiles. Sometimes she doesn't like being held by others and tries to get back to her mom. She's learned a new trick of grabbing her left foot, and then usually rolls over onto her side. She hasn't found her right foot yet. Her brothers continue to be excited about her and talk to her and entertain her. Oliver always comes with a lot of energy. Finn tells her stories with toys while Oliver is off at school. We have another cold, but it doesn't bother her too much, barely protests and hasn't really made it hard for her to nurse. We went and saw an opera written by her Grandpa Howard and Rose was pretty interested in the music (her brothers were entranced and sitting on the edge of their seats.) Moving forwards.

Halloween and 4 months

She's getting more and more awake. Now when I hold her she holds her head up the whole time, doesn't want to be faced in towards me, she wants to be propped looking out to see the world and her brothers. Her legs are getting stronger also, if we hold her on the table they don't collapse underneath her right away. Still smiley all the time, she's been making a lot of noise lately, coo's and squawks and things. Very drooly lately, we wonder if she's teething, the boys got their first teeth at 4 months. I feel like I haven't been getting a lot of time with her lately, she is maybe a tiny bit sick, and the time change means she's pretty tired when I get home so I only get to hold her for a minute or two before she wants her mom and to go to sleep. But the past two mornings she's been awake early, I think she was bapping me in the face to wake me up, so I had some time with her then, her wiggling and dancing and smiling and me trying to get my eyes open. She's also getting more aware of her mom, when strangers try and hold her she wants to get back.

We weren't going to do a halloween costume, but at the last minute decided that even if she did sleep through halloween and wouldn't want to wear it we should anyway. So I whipped up a gnome hat with some braids and we dressed her all in green.

So things are good, growing well, getting stronger, loving her brothers.

3 months

Tilly Rose is growing strong and fast. She is the most full of smiles baby I've known. As soon as she's awake she flashes huge grins like the sun breaking out from behind the clouds. It makes it worth it when I'm shuffling around at 2am to check on the boys, and peek in on her in the cosleeper and she's just full of joy at being alive and kicking her feet. She loves to wiggle and kick her feet, she's always dancing about, move move move. Even when she was inside she was a mover. She's getting better at her grip, starting to more frequently connect with things and hold on, but not purposeful yet. But she does have it down to hold her hands together and bring them to her mouth, which she really likes. She's good at self soothing, slobbering all over her hands she puts herself back to sleep often, or if she's hungry she can delay a good chunk of time with her hands and sleeves. Starting to figure out how to flip over from her tummy to her back, can't do it consistently yet, but it will be soon. And she's started laughing, really cute. She's a talker, often making little cooing sounds, not all the time, but frequently. She's just super sweet and full of light. I keep forgetting that I can put her down, I'll take her so Francesca can do something and find myself wandering around the house with her, instead of setting her down so I can help the boys with something. Finn has gotten a lot more into her lately, giving her endless hugs, and bouncing her in her bouncy chair (sometimes a little more than is advisable.) She likes looking at the people she knows. She's a pretty solid sleeper, going down same time as the boys, and staying in her cosleeper until around 2 or 3. Things are great, our lives are completely chaotic and frantic and full up with love and we're trying to appreciate all of it.

 this last one is our Rose in  a nutshell :)

8 weeks

Going going going. We're all super busy. School has started and is going well, but keeps our mornings quick. Finn is loving preschool, and Oliver likes school as well, but will claim it's boring if asked. Francesca says it's funny that she still can't do anything when it gets down to just Tilly, because she still has to hold the baby, or change the baby, or feed the baby, so even though things get a lot easier she still is busy. I keep telling her that as long as she keeps the kids intact then she wins my praises.
Tilly Rose is doing great. Still lots of budha smiles all the time. Still has a pointy little chin, she hasn't chunked up the way the boys had. Her eyes have lost some of the quicksilver gray, looks like she's going to have the deep deep brown of her brothers and mother. The skin on her shins is rough, much like the back of her mothers arms, it reminds me of the legends of the Selkies (the seal's who shed their skin and walk the land as women) I keep meaning to ask Grandma Jill if she also has patches of rough skin to see if my theory holds.
She has survived her first cold, which Francesca has been really worried about. We all had a virus come through, but Tilly managed to only get a little bit sniffly, not even enough to disturb her when she nursed, just enough to spray two jets of snot when she sneezed. Francesca reminded me that Oliver had had a cold when he was very tiny, and was theorizing that that was the reason he had croup all through his young childhood colds. So we're thankful Tilly's first cold was mild.
Francesca and I are still pretty exhausted. Tilly sleeps pretty well, although she tends to have an awake period around 5am, but the other nursing sessions aren't to disturbing (to me at least). But between the 3 children we seem to be up a lot of the night. Hopefully the boys will sleep more soundly as we get further from the cold.
She has been fussier lately, I don't know if it's the cold or just the age but she's gotten frustrated with the different ways I've been holding her. But there is one way that is pretty guaranteed to make her happy, when I hold face down across my forearm, she loves it. Then I hold her feet soul to soul with my other hand. She also loves laying on her belly, and happily falls asleep that way, if she's not getting frustrated doing pushups.
We play the game of calling to her and seeing if she can find us with her eyes to focus on us. The boys still are very proud of being big brothers. Onward ho!

3 and a half weeks

Life is going by fast. Tilly is growing fast and strong, gaining maybe a pound a week. She is a very calm baby, not getting upset, onlyl occasionally a little protest about a diaper change. She's also very grunty, all night long she seems to be making noise, not sure if she's uncomfortable or just trying to figure out how her insides work. When she first came she seemed to calm if we sang to her. I feel like I can almost garauntee I can put her to sleep if I hold her and march, so maybe she lives up to her name: Strength in battle, our little valkerie. Finn is starting to feel a little jealous, he's not liking that someone is always holding her. (He has also been sad that he himself won't be able to give birth) But overall we're adjusting well. Oliver tells everyone that he trained her to hold onto his finger. The first few weeks she was still breathing quickly, but we took her in and the Doctors weren't worried. I am not getting nearly as much time in babyland as I would like. Still, the chances when I get to just sit and hold her, or in the middle of the night when I'm patting her back down after changing her, are very sweet. I feel like she looks intelligent, when she stares into my eyes it feels like there are gears turning, at least until she makes one of her funny cross eyed looks. One of her most common expressions is a very tiny mouth, like she's trying to learn to whistle. She's very strong, able to hold her head up for a good amount of time, ever since she was born. Francesca has commented that her head was smaller than that boys, so maybe it's not that she's exceptionally strong, maybe she just doesn't have as much weight to contend with. Commonly, I change her at 11 when I go to bed, 1am and then she grunts for an hour keeping me u, then Finn calls me in at 4 and needs me to sleep in his bed, then Francesca changes her at 5, Oliver wakes up at 7:30 and gleefully goes and visits everyone, waking up Finn who now literally kicks me out of bed, so I go and switch with Francesca I cuddle Rose while she cuddles Finn, and then we're off and running into a new day. Starting to find the balance, a few weeks until school starts, we're all doing well overall.

Finn practicing with a sling

Matilda Rosalia

Matilda Rosalia, we are all doing well, Mama and baby and the rest of us are happy and running around crazy. I don't want to spend anymore time posting because I want to spend it with her, sorry. 

 

1st outing

last outing while still inside

everyone helping with labor in their own way

 meeting the new sister

 new parents again

 proud big brother

1st reading book