So Big

When Norah and I were in Utah a couple months ago, my grandma taught Norah a new trick. When we say, "So big!", Norah raises her arms high up over her head. Like so...

It's adorable. And that pretty much sums up this post. This little girl is getting so big!

She still loves her books. She'll sit and babble to herself while turning the pages. I love it! 

She's had this red bump on her cheek since she was about 5 months old. The doctor said it's most likely a vascular birthmark, and it will go away eventually. We'll call it her beauty mark. 

It's always fun to peek at Norah while she's asleep. She moves around so much, and often ends up in odd positions. This one is my favorite. I don't know how that's comfortable, but she was sound asleep. (And do you notice that she does actually have hair?!)

 You can just glimpse her upper front teeth in this shot. The top front four all decided to come in at once, so that's been fun for no one.

She LOVES her blankie. It's so cute how she cuddles it close to her when she picks it up. She doesn't sleep without it now.

 Norah eats almost anything. Except apricots when you cut them up in pieces for her. She eats pureed apricot just fine but made the worst sour face when she fed herself these pieces. It's the exact same thing!

Oh, and she hates broccoli. With a passion.

Other than those, she eats almost anything. Her favorites are yogurt bites, bananas, and carrots.

Our poor Mariners fans. At least they're cute.

Norah had a checkup this past Monday, at about 11 months old, and I was a little shocked at her weight stat.

Height: 29 7/8" (85th percentile). Head circumference: 18" (75th percentile). Pretty consistent with her past numbers. 

Weight: 17 lbs. 12 1/2 oz. - 25th percentile! That's down from 40th at her 6-month checkup.

I know that's not incredibly small, but I thought she had gained so much weight. There is something definitely wrong with our bathroom scale because it said she was 19 lbs. Lies! She eats so well, and she does have a bit of a gut. But then, I looked again at her arms and legs, and they really are quite scrawny. And she lacks the little rolls that other babies in our family have (i.e., Kelsey and Cohen). Oh well, she's perfect the way she is.

She crawls like a champ. She conquered going up the stairs and Grandma and Poppa Nelson's house within a week of crawling, and she pulled up at about the same time. She cruises along furniture all the time. She can even balance for maybe a second on her own, but not any longer. She doesn't really have much interest in walking, so that might be a while still. I guess she needs to bulk up her legs before she can get moving!

Long Time, No See

I wish I had a good reason for not blogging more. But I don't. Maybe I don't feel our life is that interesting, but that never stopped me from posting before.

Well, if you are interested in our lives, here is a picture recap of the past few months:

Norah sure has changed a lot since this picture was taken! She was still swaddled to go to sleep in this picture. Not anymore, thank you very much! 

Norah played the part of raccoon for Halloween this year. The cutest raccoon I've ever seen!

We actually waited until after Thanksgiving to put up our tree this year. We love Christmas around here. Every year, each family member gets to pick a new ornament for the tree. This year, we were excited to find the perfect ornament for Norah. We also added Ralphie (mine) and Perry the platypus (Rich's) to the collection.

 

Ward Christmas Party

 

Rich's Birthday

I still don't know what color her eyes are. Light brown, I guess?

 Fredrickson Family Christmas Party - Norah's first time sitting on Santa's lap

In my opinion, these are probably just about the two cutest pictures ever taken.

We did New Year's Eve with Rich's siblings (missed you, Carolyn and Aaron!). Norah even woke up to help ring in the new year. Or the neighbor's fireworks woke her up, one of the two.

Can you tell they're related? It's all in the eyes.

Norah and Kelsey are only two weeks apart. These two could hardly look more opposite. (And don't you love Norah's goofy face in this picture?)

Trey is about 4 months older than Norah. I love that she has so many cousins close to her age (there are two more on my side born in the same year, too).

Norah recently graduated to the big girl tub from the kitchen sink. She loves it. You also might be able to spot her two teeth in this picture.

One of Norah's favorite pastimes is taking everything out of her toy box. I'm completely fine with that because it means she's not getting into something off limits.

I did not pose this picture in any way. This means she's going to be a reader like her momma, right?

In non-pictured news...

Norah had two teeth pop up the day after Christmas (not a fun business to get them, let me tell you). She started crawling about halfway through January. Now I'm thinking she might walk soon, but we said that for two months about crawling, so I don't really have any idea.

Also about halfway through January, we (finally) stopped swaddling her to sleep. Just quit cold turkey. There really was only one rough night, and then maybe two weeks of keeping a hand on her while she fell asleep so she wouldn't steal the pacifier out of her own mouth. Now, we couldn't be more pleased that naptime and bedtime only involve laying her down in her crib and letting her put herself to sleep. She can sleep through the night, and has for the past five nights now, so I hope this is the new normal. She is finally a good eater, too, which I never thought that would happen. She loves both bottles and solids.

She is still kind of a skinny girl, but she has to have gained quite a bit of weight since her 6 month appointment (when she was 40th percentile for weight, 90th for height). She has experienced her first real illness, a pretty rough cold. Now I know what people mean when they say babies get cuddly when they're sick. Norah is too much of a mover to cuddle, but she barely picked up her head off my shoulder during the worst of it.

She doesn't have much hair still, but it's growing. Sometimes she even gets bedhead. She also has this little red bump on her right cheek that you can see in some of the pictures (I may or may not have edited it out in a few of them). It's been there since she was at least 3 months old. The doctor said not to worry, so we'll just wait it out, I guess. She also experienced her first plane ride and now has two round trips to Utah under her belt.

Wow, that was quite the Norah overload.

And here's to 2013 and blogging more frequently!

It Got Cold

Spokane was spoiled for most of October. The weather was wonderful - I barely needed a jacket! I could still go running in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. But now the cold has come, and I'm afraid it's here to stay. Along with the rain.

And the rain means a real trial to my running commitment. This is the week that I broke my streak.

Once Rich got home on Monday, I somehow talked myself into bundling up to go run in the cold. Rich also volunteered to come along with bundled-up Norah. I put on running tights and a long-sleeve shirt and should have gotten out the hat and gloves but forgot. We bundled Norah up in her snowsuit and got her all loaded into her car seat.

(Sorry for the crummy quality - phone picture)

Then, we walked out the door.

And saw the rain.

Upon which, we turned right back around and changed into sweats.

I stuck to my program for 10 weeks straight, but I'm afraid that's the most I can brag about. I haven't gone once this week because it's been drizzly on the nights when I've had time, and I don't run in the rain. Cold, maybe. Rain, no. Once things clear up, I hope I'll get back on track again. For now, I'm going to bundle up and snuggle with Norah.

Shout Out

Rich told me yesterday that the Gonzaga boys brought up our blog on their run. He said that one runner said, "Yeah, and I read about breastfeeding!"

I didn't think a bunch of college runners would be reading our blog, but I'm glad to have a larger audience than I thought. Sorry if I made you guys feel uncomfortable with all that nursing talk - just think of it as prep for when you're dads someday!

So, this post is just a shout out to the GU runners reading our blog. Welcome! And go Zags!

And here's adorable Norah again. I'd post a picture of her in Zag getup, but we are unfortunately lacking. We really need to get her something appropriate for cheering on the Bulldogs.

Eating

Norah has decided that nursing is just not for her. As in, she'll eat for 5 minutes and then yell and scream for another 15 until I give up. But then, she'll take a bottle right after because she's still hungry. I have no idea what brought this on, and I have never heard of this happening before (although I'm not exactly a baby expert). The doctor didn't really have any solid idea of what was going on either. Silly Norah. You are way too young for an eating disorder.

So, we are now on a (mostly) bottle-fed routine (she'll still nurse for nighttime feedings when she's too tired to really know the difference). It's not too bad, but I am pumping and pumping is more than a little annoying. My sister recently moved to pumping for her little boy, and I really admire her because she has two other crazies (her word, not mine) calling her mommy, too. It takes so much time, and I find it hard to sit still for 15-30 minutes four times a day. Plus, I usually try to do it while Norah is asleep, so that eats my precious free time. And I don't have any other kids!

Oh well. It's a decent solution to our weird little problem. Norah is eating better, and I'm a lot let less frustrated (as in I don't cry when it's time to feed Norah anymore). Plus, bottles are great when you have places to go, like church. And Rich can feed her, too. It's worth the effort. Just don't know why it's necessary.

I have this list of questions I want to ask in the next life, and this one made the list: "Heavenly Father, why did Norah decide to stop nursing? Not mad or anything, just curious."

And here's a Norah fix for the grandmas out there. She's so dang cute when she's waking up. Okay, she's so dang cute all the time.

Getting Back

I officially weigh less than Rich now. (Rich is a skinny guy, so that's kind of saying something.) This has been my goal since pregnant me passed him up. And it has arrived. Hallelujah!

Getting back in shape after pregnancy is definitely a challenge. I have never been awesome about sticking to a workout routine, just kind of running when I got on an active kick. But I knew once I had a baby, things would need to change if I was ever going to lose my bump.

The one problem with me getting back in shape is shin splints. I want to run. It's the easiest, cheapest, most convenient way I can think of to exercise. Plus, few things can compare to that feeling of a great run, where you just want to go forever and you feel like you can. However, I have always been plagued by awful shin splints, probably because my legs can't keep up with the endurance of the rest of my body. I push myself too hard too fast, and then my legs pay for it until I stop running again. Shin splints are lame.

I took my pregnancy as a time to let my legs completely heal, no lingering pain. And then I have been forcing myself to take it easy once I started running again. It's been hard because I know the rest of my body can go longer and harder than my legs, but then I remind myself how much I hate shin splints, and I'm able to calm myself back down.

I found a running program on Pinterest that's been a big help to me. The creator called it "Running for Beginniners," and, though I hate thinking of myself as a running beginner, I knew I needed to start at the very bottom if I was going to conquer shin splints.

You can find the original source here.

I know - it's extremely basic and is definitely for beginners. But, so far, it's working for me. I have stuck to this like no other exercise plan before (I'm currently on week 7 - go me!). I go 4 times a week, sometimes pushing Norah in the jogging stroller, sometimes on my own (preferred - that jogging stroller is kind of a beast). I try to take a day off after two days in a row, or else I feel my shins start to complain. I also use Nike + iPod to make goals and record my runs, and this has helped me stay accountable. I don't want Nike+ telling me I failed. No way.

I'm still not even close to being "in shape," but this plan (and the calories I use up to nurse) are going to help me get there. I look forward to the day when I can run like I used to. That's going to feel really good.

4 Months Old

Just a short update on little Norah Kate, who is currently trying to kick her way off of my lap, so this will be quick.

We went to the doctor on Thursday for her 4-month checkup, and here are the stats:

Height: 25 1/2" (90th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs. (30th percentile)
Head circumference: 16 1/4" (75th percentile)

Long and skinny is how she likes it.

Her 30th percentile showing definitely has something to do with the fact that she still hates eating. But I asked the doctor about her situation, and he told me she's perfectly fine. She hasn't dropped too far in percentiles since her 2-month appointment, so he said there's nothing to worry about. I stressed the fact that she won't eat very much, and he reassured me that she's fine. She's just a skinny girl.

I'm still going to try to remedy her non-eating attitude, though. I've been trying to pump and bottlefeed the past few days, and she seems to respond much better to a bottle. I'm pretty sure she eats double what she does nursing if I do a bottle instead. We'll see if we can keep this up.

She's kind of a crummy sleeper again, too. I think it might have something to do with her not getting enough to eat during the day, so she wakes up hungry several times at night. Hopefully, bottlefeeding will help. But if not, at least she can go back to sleep right away still. (I just wish I could say the say thing for myself.)

Norah has also rolled over several times, both ways. She is also kind of figuring the beginning of crawling. She knows how to move her legs, but she can't quite get both her top and bottom ends up at the same time. Is it wrong that I think it's cute to watch how frustrated she gets in this situation? Because it's adorable.

So that's Norah for now. Skinny. And active. Nothing too new for now.

All of a Sudden

I don't know what has changed between now and a week ago, but Norah has become one fantastic sleeper.

Well, I kind of know what has changed. The biggest sized SwaddleMe saved my life and has brought us back to one feeding during the night (and even none sometimes). This baby just needs to be swaddled, or else she startles herself awake too easily. About half the time she is able to work one of her hands up towards her mouth, but it's still swaddled in tightly so it's not a big deal.

But even more amazing is how quickly and well she falls asleep on her own now. We used to have to hold her for about half an hour any time we wanted to put her in her crib. Not anymore! She goes straight into her crib, drowsy but awake, and falls asleep ON HER OWN. I never thought that we would reach this point, but, alas, it gloriously has arrived! She fusses sometimes, but we've never had a fullout cry-it-out session. She has also started taking two great naps most days, too, without much fuss. It's wonderful!

I don't know if the Baby Whisperer's method was the solution. It might have helped, but I wasn't exactly following it religiously. Whatever brought the change, this momma is beyond grateful!

Here's something I have learned about Norah. She will only sleep if you make it quite obvious that is her only option. She never dozes in her bouncy seat. She rarely falls asleep in your arms. She'll fall asleep in the car but wakes up almost as soon as you stop moving. I don't think she'll be one of those kids who falls asleep while eating. (She'll probably be that kid that needs that gets progressively more grumpy until she reaches meltdown point.)

And here are a couple cute pictures for anyone who needs a Norah fix (maybe that's just me).

 

I believe these were taken right before a diaper blowout. And she looks so innocent.

Can you tell she was getting way too big for this SwaddleMe? In the end, it just couldn't contain her.