And Baby Girl Makes Four

Hello again!  I thought since we've now been a family of 4 for 7 months now, it would be a good time to start blogging again.  Actually, 7 months ago would've probably been a better time but, hey, it is what it is :-)  

Our sweet Callie came into the world on November 5th, 2013.  Her "full" name is Calista Kathryn.  She weighed 6lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long with big, blue eyes and red hair.  And let me tell you...she is a feisty one!!!  Here is a pic of her from a few days ago.  I love the look on her face because it is so "her".....

Since I have 7 months of pictures to catch you up on, let's get started shall we?

Callie's first picture.  She came into the world after 20 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing.  I ended up being induced at 40 weeks, 1 day because my OB didn't want me going too far past my due date because of my age.  I really wanted to go drug-free, but once my water broke, I just couldn't hang.  The contractions after my water breaking were so intense that every single muscle in my body was shaking uncontrollably.  I kept trying to breathe through them but I just couldn't get air.  It was like trying to breathe through a straw.  So, I gave in and had the epidural.....which made me vomit repeatedly the entire time I was pushing.  Good times.  This little sweet potato was more than worth it though...

 

Here she is at 4 days old.  I have a whole series of pictures like this of her examining her hands.  I swear this kid has never been a "baby lump".  She has been very alert and very aware of everything since she was born.  Which made her newborn photo shoot a real treat...ha!  The photographer said she was the most "challenging" baby she had ever worked with.  Like I said....fiesty!!!

I love this picture.  I think she was a week old here.  This is one of the few pictures I have of her sleeping.  Her little face is so darn precious.

This one just cracks me up.  I think she was 6 weeks old here.

Two months old.

Cuteness at almost 3 months.

Four months.

Five months.  This, my friends, is when my child began to crawl.  She started with army crawling a few days before she turned 5 months and was full-on hands and knees crawling by 5.5 months!!!  Trying to keep up with Ben I suppose.

 Another picture taken between 5 and 6 months.

The day she turned 6 months, we began to introduce solids.  Here Ben is feeding her avocado.  We decided to try baby-led weaning, which is a British term that basically just means slowly giving the baby the same foods that we eat (no purees, no "baby" foods) and letting them lead the way on what they are ready for.  However, after offering multiple foods that Callie subsequently hated, we decided to switch to purees instead.  She LOVES the purees.  So, that's what we're doing for now.

Two weeks after she began crawling, she decided to start pulling up on furniture.  Yikes.

And now, at 7 months, she cruises along the furniture and can stand on her own without holding onto anything for a few seconds before she falls down.

So, there you have it.  The first 7 months of Callie's life in a nutshell.  Ben, by the way, has been a fantastic big brother.  I'll do a separate post about him.  He has a lot of big boy stuff going on :-)  Looking forward to blogging again!!  More to come!

Brooke