She's 5 months old!

Samaya just turned 5 months old yesterday! She's growing like crazy, already wearing 6-9 month clothes! She is almost crawling. She gets on all fours and then tries to scoot but ultimately lands on her face. I'm guessing she will be crawling in the next few weeks. To answer everyone's question: No, she is not sleeping through the night, much to my chagrin. It's 3am and she's playing in her co-sleeper right now. We slept for a little while around 12am but now she's in full party mode. We even put a little rice cereal in her bottle at nights. It. Doesn't. Work. At least on my child. Apparently, it's extra fuel. Kinda like Red Bull with her daddy. Thankfully, we still do shifts with her at night. Sometimes we get crazy and keep her in bed with us. The only problem is that we never establish who's going to get her when she wakes up. So when she wakes up, it's like the battle of the wills: who will get her first and who will pretend to stay sleeping? Who should get her first, the one closest to her? Since I gave birth to her, does that ever give me a free pass? Do we decide by a rousing game of Rock, Paper, Scissors? I suppose we should've discussed that before we went down the co-sleeping road.
She had her first taste of carrots and sweet potatoes. She absolutely LOVED them! Something tells me that she's going to be quite the eater. She would get really angry when I took the spoon away. When I brought it close to her, she would grab my hands and hold on for dear life. She sucked down those 3 ounces in record time. It was very cute. Next on the menu: peas. I have a feeling she will love them too.
She thinks the cats are fascinating. Earlier tonight Zoe was next to us on the floor. Samaya kept putting out her hand and Z was rubbing against her. She probably loves the texture of the fur. For the most part, she's very gentle. I have witnessed her pulling out a handful of hair but the cats don't seem to mind. They have no idea what's in store in the next few years.
Samaya is still intrigued with ceiling fans. Her newest trick is blowing bubbles. She also loves guys. She just stares at Rick and thinks he hung the moon. Our friend Bonita watched her the other weekend and she said that Samaya was in love with her sons and husband. She is also quite entertained with her cousin, Karl.
Here's a link of Samaya http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVxekxFY8fo

I apologize for the lack of posts as of late. I promise I will try and cut my shower time to 3 minutes and post more often.
Samaya is almost 4 months old! She is so much fun. She rarely cries, only when it's feeding time. I'm pretty sure I know where she gets that from. I'm not gonna mention anything about her dad and how cranky he can get when he needs to refuel.
She's added lots of hobbies to her resume over the last few months. Her number one favorite is staring at the ceiling fan. The other day Rick was in front of her and she was just smiling and laughing. He thought he was the funniest man alive! He moved over a little bit and she was still laughing. He quickly realized that she was being entertained by the fan and not him. He was a bit crushed but I think he's slowly getting over it. She also found her voice. She will talk and sing to you if you start singing first. She eventually builds up to a full on scream. I'm sure the neighborhood canines are somewhere cowering, trying to figure out why their ears are bleeding. It's really cute now but I can only imagine bringing her to the grocery and watching the shopper's reactions when she belts out one of her signature shrieks.
Samaya also loves to watch TV. She and Rick love to watch movies together. I'm proud to say that she watched her first (of many) Bruce Lee movie and was totally intrigued. Yo Gabba Gabba is another winner with her. I like it but it's a little strange. Hey, if it keeps her entertained and quiet, it can't be THAT bad. But those songs do have a way of burrowing in your little head for days.
Samaya can turn over onto her stomach. She stands up, too. One of our friends told us that she will become "bow legged" if she starts trying to walk too soon. I've never heard that one before. Thoughts?
Overall, these past few months have been quite an amazing journey. There's no way to prepare for it. I never thought I could function on 3 hours of sleep, had no idea the laundry and dishes would quadruple and never knew my breastpump has the potential to put me to sleep with it's repeating sounds. But I do know for sure that I am in love with an adorable, cuddly 13 pounder, my husband is the most patient and kind man on the planet and I'm the luckiest, happiest sleep deprived girl in the world!

She's 8 weeks old!

I can't believe how time has flown by. Yesterday she had her 8 week check-up. She is 11 lbs and 11 oz! She got 3 shots and cried like I've never heard her before. I couldn't watch. Rick had to hold her arms. I was in the corner peeking trying to hide my tears.
She's smiling a lot and tries to talk to us. She sleeps on my chest or in my arms and is the cuddliest thing in the world! I love to hear all the cute sounds she makes when she's sleeping. She laughs in her sleep, too. Like full on belly laughs where her entire body shakes. It's the most hilarious thing ever. She loves being naked. Even when she was first born, we would swaddle her and she would break free in no time at all. When we put socks on her, they disappear in seconds. Ceiling fans are the most intriguing things for her. She rarely cries, the only time she does is when she's hungry. Lately, she sleeps about 3 hours at a time. At night Rick and I stay up with her in shifts. One of us stays up til 2 or 3am while the other one sleeps. After that, we switch. It really makes sense to do that so both of us get at least 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. It's fabulous!
I went back to work a couple of weeks ago. The nice thing about our job is that we work alternating schedules so she is with one of us during the week. On Saturdays when we both work, Sean watches her. She loves visiting with her and actually thanks US when she keeps her! That woman is the best!

This sums up our days together

What a month!

I can't believe it's already been over a month! Samaya is growing every day and makes us laugh constantly. We decided we no longer need cable TV. She's much more entertaining. At her 1st doctor's appt, she weighed 8lbs 8oz. That was 2 weeks ago. I'm betting she's close to 10lbs. She's a great eater. She takes after her daddy. Her eyes are getting lighter and her hair is starting to get a little wavy.
Florence and Herman came down from SC after Christmas and stayed for about 5 days. It was so nice visiting with them and I know they were excited to meet their granddaughter! We had a great time but it went by way too fast. They were a tremendous help, too. Florence was wonderful! She helped with the laundry, dishes, making meals, shopping and letting me relax and get some much needed rest. They even got Samaya and I out of the house a couple of times! I know Rick was very excited to have them here as well. It's really tough for all of us being so far away from each other. We will definitely plan more trips to SC and I'm sure they will be back to visit sooner than later. They know that they are welcome here anytime.

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a great holiday and New Year's. We celebrated like all new parents: barely staying up past midnight, covered in baby vomit and changing diapers til the early morn...Ahhh. I couldn't imagine spending it any other way!

Isn't she lovely?