Nora's First Steps Caught On Camera!!

Nora's Rock Star Birthday Bash

My project with her monthly elephant pictures:

Is she rolling her eyes at me already??

It's safe to say she likes cake.

Family Shot

It's fun to be one!

Nora's First Clam Bake

We've been going to this clam bake every year for a while now.. at the last one I was SUPER pregnant.. this year I got to enjoy myself.. HA :)
Me & Nora, Erin & Aaden. We were in a rush on the way out the door, and I couldn't find her bathing suit. Oh well.



This looks typical... Nora doing something cute (or just simply DOING something), while I snap away!

Baby Girl is growing up too fast

Here is her 11 month picture.. even though it was two weeks ago... wow I am so bad at this!


Especially since yesterday we got her 1yr pictures taken! Here's a favorite one!

AAAHH I can't believe we are done with Miss Elephant pictures!! (Although I may take one more on her actual birthday just for kicks)

She is getting smarter and smarter, and changing every day. Just this week she began eating - and enjoying - her Stage 3 jar foods (the ones with the chunks.. finally tolerating something from a jar that's not totally pureed!) although I don't want that to last too long, because I want her to be solely on table food soon. Also drinking from a sippy cup- we've been working on that for a while too, but she usually just chews on the spout. I even put away all the bottles (we never even had to buy the 8oz bottles.. just a few of those little ones). And waving! As expected from Nora, she has the daintiest, girliest little wave. Sometimes she only uses her pointer finger and thumb.. like she's pinching you hello/goodbye. :)

She also started TOTALLY sleeping through the night recently.. no wake-ups at all, not even to cry herself back to sleep. This week I have had a few FULL night's sleep.. first time in nearly a year. Far too long, but I knew it would happen eventually. It took my body a couple nights to adjust to it - I would wake up at her normal times and she would be fast asleep.

And in two weeks, I can say that I nursed Nora exclusively for a whole year. It has been so much work, but more than worth it. I love it, and it saved me a LOT of money on formula! Lots of moms say "Oh after a year, my food bill goes way down because I'm not buying formula anymore".. but in my case, it will go UP because of all the milk we'll be buying! It will be nice, though, to not have to worry about where to go to feed her if we're out and about, or have to walk out of the room at a party and miss some of the fun. It will be sad to end this chapter of Nora's life, but I'm also looking forward to moving on and watching her continue to grow!

Nora's new DOC band

It's going really well.. I created a 2nd blog just for our DOC band journey (as if I have time for that)... www.norawearsacrown.blogspot.com Check there for pics and updates.

10 Months Old

Finally crawling, and one bottom tooth has popped through! I can't believe how fast she is changing. Her second DOC band comes on tomorrow.. wish us luck!

My Sleeping Beauty

Be still my heart...

Table Food!

Finally I can break out the puffs and yogurt melts I bought her at Easter! :) I've been trying for a while to give her solid food (actual food, not just purees) but she wanted nothing to do with it. But at dinner the other night, she grabbed a piece of bread and went to town! She was a little annoyed that I wouldn't let her shove the whole thing in her mouth but she quickly got used to tiny pieces. She now tries anything I give her - blueberries, banana (both with help from Mommy.. too slimy for her little fingers), pancakes, bread... now to try more! Considering she can already lick clean two jars of purees, I'm thinking my peanut won't be tiny for much longer..

Nora is 9 months old!

I only wish pregnancy went bv as fast as these last nine months! (And yes, I'm aware I missed her 8 month pictures.. by the time I realized it, well, it was yesterday).
Nora's 9 month stats: 16 pounds / 15th percentile, 28 inches / 70th percentile. Still not crawling, but can get to where she wants to go for the most part, by scooching and rolling. No teeth yet, and barely some peach fuzz on her head! No words but she has a LOT to say! John and I often find ourselves asking each other "What did you say??" if we are trying to have a conversation - Nora likes to join in. Loud.

Here's her 9 month pic and a another from today that I just think is fun. :)

Nora babbling

One day she wasn't doing this at all, the next it was full-on babble!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Sleepy Little Jailbird

She must have been trying to escape!

Coasting along

I feel like nothing too exciting has been happening lately - which is totally fine with me. We are just enjoying life as a family of three. I am back to work (mixed feelings about it, but as they say "The grass is greener on the other side".. and I know I am doing the right thing for all of us).. and Nora just keeps on growing! Still a peanut though. Her personality is really starting to come through, and I love watching her learn new things every day. Life is good!! Here are a couple pictures of my sweet and sassy girl.

7 months old! And her first Easter

Pretty self-explanatory pics. :)

What a great week!

Nora 'graduated' from her DOC band yesterday, and today is a beautiful St. Patrick's Day. This is my last week as a non-working parent. I'm looking forward to start work on Monday, and I'm sure Nora will enjoy having a little friend. (Not that she has a shortage of playdate buddies, by any means! But the more the merrier!). The first two pictures are from today, and the last one is from yesterday at her very last appointment! She was a perfect little patient, as usual.

Happy Half Birthday, my little Princess.. *sniffle sniffle*

6 Months Old??!!??

First of all, I'm not sure if anyone is even reading this blog.. haha.. since I have Nora's life story on Facebook, in pictures. But I still continue to post because it's a good way for me to document her 'current events' in writing.


Where is the time going?? I didn't even have time to write a blog entry after her 5 month visit! February has been a busy month. Lots of birthdays, and I was pretty sick for a week (there are no sick days when you're a mom!).

At Nora's 5 month visit she was 13lbs 4oz and 26". Here's her 5 month photo (isn't her dress the cutest? It's from Janie and Jack, and was a Christmas gift.. I just love it):

We recently started her on solids. Mostly baby oatmeal which she loves, and we've slowly been introducing other foods. So far she loves squash and pears, but could do without the green beans. (I don't blame her, they smell disgusting). She still ate them, but couldn't finish the whole thing and had a look on her face like "Mom, why are you doing this to me?".

Everyone asks me how she sleeps at night, and I've pretty much been saying she doesn't... well she does, but she's up every 3 hours. Needless to say I'm exhausted, so a few days ago I had this idea - to give her a bowl of oatmeal before bed - and VOILA! Since starting that, she only wakes up ONCE at night. (Knock on wood).

The other day was her 6 month appointment and she is now 13lbs 13oz and (still) 26". I guess she decided to use this month to fill herself out a little bit. :) I'll post again in a few days after I take her 6 month pictures. (And yes, I have to take the pictures on the actual 'monthday').

I'll leave you with another picture 'professionally' done at Picture People. She doesn't sit up yet and hates being on her stomach, so it's actually my arms holding her up under the sheet.. I can totally tell. Lesson learned, I won't get pictures done again until she can sit up! (But I wish I had gotten them done when she was REALLY little.. oh well) I tried to post a video too but blogger isn't letting me. :(

Before and After pics of the DOC band

I wasted no time decorating the band.. there was no way I was going to leave it scary white!

On a side note, we are doing well with the DOC band so far. I say "we" because I think it's harder on me than it is on her.
When she's awake she doesn't even notice it, but once she gets tired she gets fussier than usual and gets super cuddly/clingy. Nora is not typically a cuddly baby (when she's tired she'd rather be put down), but now she only wants to fall asleep on my shoulder. It breaks my heart that she doesn't feel secure yet to fall asleep on her own in the helmet, but at the same time I am reeeally enjoying the extra cuddles.

Also, if I have her sitting up, her head sometimes falls foward (just a teeny bit) like she doesn't know how to handle the extra weight. (It may be mean, but I find this a little funny). The helmet only weighs 4oz but I wonder how that feels on her tiny head.

I didn't keep her in the helmet for the whole night because for the first 2 days I'm supposed to check her head every 3 hours for red marks. But for the few hours she was in it, she slept really well. So proud of my little girl! We had a very successful first day.

Just some cute pictures for the blog

Enjoying the last few days of her non-helmet head :)

Let the reshaping journey begin!

We found out a month ago that Nora has brachycephaly with plagiocephaly. (And no, I haven't attempted to pronounce them either). Basically, a flat head. It was evident very early on - I think it had something to do with the way she was laying in the womb. She couldn't move her head to the right, so she would always lay on the left side of her head. We were finally given exercises to do, which helped tremendously, but the damage was already done.

Nora will need to wear what is called a DOC band. For more info, the website is www.cranialtech.com. She will need to wear it 23 hours a day for about 8 weeks. I will be taking her today for her 'digital imaging' - sizing her for the band. A week later we will go back to pick up the band and start counting down the days to a nice round head!

We wanted to start treatment as early as possible. Cranial Tech starts treatment at 3 months, but our insurance won't cover it until 4 months. She will be about 4.5 months at the start of treament, so I think we got a nice head start! The website says if treatment is started before 5 months of age, you can start to see a difference in just one week.

The technician said there would be no major problems if we didn't go ahead with treatment, but it would mainly be a cosmetic problem. She would have trouble wearing glasses, helmets, etc as she gets older. So I figure, 2 or 3 months out of our lives will not kill us and she will thank us later for it.

I will need to take her to the office in Paramus once a week during this time, so they can re-shape the DOC band to fit, as her head goes back to a more normal shape over time.

Please keep Nora in your thoughts and prayers, that she will adjust well to the DOC band and not be bothered by it. They say 90-something percent of babies (I forget the exact number) don't even notice it after the first 5 minutes, so hopefully she will fall under that category.

The band is white, ugly and plain - but as you can see from the website, you can go to town decorating it. I'm sure I will be making a stop to Michael's for some ideas!