Aurora - Nine Months

Height :: 28 1/2" (80%)

Weight :: 18 lbs 10 oz (50%)

Head :: 18 1/4" (95%)

She's mobile! She finally figured out that she can move herself and hasn't stopped since.



The other day I started her bath and plopped her down on the floor before running into our bedroom to grab my pj's. I came back in to find her hanging over the bathtub watching the water fill up. What a way to find out your daughter can stand! Yikes.




Still no teeth. We keep thinking that she is teething, but nothing has broken through yet.




She eats pretty much anything we put in front of her, but I think more of it ends up on the floor than in her mouth.



Finally going to sleep on her own in her crib. After a last feed, bath and some books we put her in her crib and sing to her from the hallway.




Naps are getting better too.  Since we have started getting her to fall asleep in the crib she has been able to take solo naps that last longer than 20-30 minutes.  She is currently taking two naps of about 60 minutes.

Aurora - Eight Months

18 pounds 5 ounces

Aurora - Seven Months

17 pounds 11 ounces

At seven months Aurora is starting to look like a little girl and not just a baby. How fast they grow!

Aurora - Six Months

Height 27 1/2" (97%)

Weight 17 pounds 5 ounces (75%)

Head Circumference 44.5 cm  (95%)

I can't believe Aurora is already six months old!

She is sitting up all on her very own  
and rolling all over, she is no longer stationary!  

Aurora doing her mini push up.
She is thinking she might want to start crawling soon (she really really wants to get those dogs!) 

She is talking up a storm. She spent most of the month saying "ma-ma" (melt...) and has just started with "ba-ba"

Still looks like she might be teething, but no sign of actual teeth yet.  Just putting EVERYTHING in her mouth  
So ready to start solids.  She has started getting really angry when we are eating that we aren't sharing with her.  The spoon trick only worked so long...

We have started "bedtime" a bit earlier and that has seemed to help get her to sleep a little faster.  We start bath time around 6:15 and then she's usually asleep around 7:30 or 8:00  

Naps are still a struggle, but they are starting to be more on the 30 minute side than the 20 (small victories!) 

Aurora - Five Months

 

Weighs 16 pounds 6 ounces  
Loves to talk. Loves to smile and laugh -- especially at Daddy. Mom is sort of old news these days...

Loves to be with Mommy and Daddy doing pretty much anything and everything they are doing. She has even helped Daddy mow the lawn a few times ;)

Still exclusively breastfed, but is starting to show interest in solids. She has already tried to swipe food off my plate a few times  

Her favorite toys right now are a spoon and a cup. She particularly likes a cup filled with water to stick her tongue into

Has mastered rolling over, although she still gets stuck on her belly when she is really tired  

Sitting up unassisted for short periods of time. She can sit up for about a minute or so until she gets distracted

Still sleeping in bed with Mommy and Daddy, although we have started putting her down in her crib for naps and at night until we go to bed

Still fighting sleep. Bedtime starts at 7 and she sleeps from around 9pm to 6:30.  

She wakes up twice to nurse.  

Hates to nap -- guess she is related to her Daddy! She generally pulls 3 or 4 20-ish minute naps

And finally I will leave you with a picture of what Aurora looked like exactly one year ago

Totally amazing the difference a year makes!

I can't wait to see what the next year will hold :)

Aurora - Early Stats

Birth

7 lbs 1 oz
APGAR one minute - 8
APGAR five minutes - 9

3 days

6 lbs 12 oz

19"

34 1/2 cm

3 weeks

8 lbs 10 oz

21 1/4"

37cm

7 weeks

10 lbs 10 oz

22"

39 cm

3 months

13 lbs 4 oz (75th)

24 3/4" (90th)

41 cm (75th)

4 months

15 lbs (75th)

26" (95th)

42.5 cm (80th)

Aurora's Birth Story

Aurora Lynn McCord was born Sunday evening at 6:18pm. She is a perfect 7 pounds 1 ounce and 19 1/2 inches long.

Matt and I woke up Sunday morning around 9am. We stayed in bed for a little while just talking and I remember thinking that we should enjoy this because it could be our last time. How true!

We were still in bed at 9:30 when my water broke. They aren't kidding when they call it a gush, I am definitely glad I wasn't out in public somewhere! We took showers and packed up the last few things in our bags and headed up to the birth center so I could get antibiotics (being GBS positive). We stopped on the way to get bagel sandwiches and by the time we arrived I was apparently having a few small contractions that the monitors picked up but I still wasn't feeling much of anything. I got my antibiotics around 11:30am and the midwives sent us home.

We got home and I was still not feeling much. I think I had a few small contractions in the car but nothing major. Matt went to finish staining the changing table and I cleaned up the house. Unfortunately I didn't get very far before the contractions picked up big time. They were super intense and I never had more than a few minutes between them. I just paced around the house until it was time to go back to the birth center for more antibiotics. I had no idea how far along I was but I remember thinking if my labor got much more intense I was going to be in trouble. In hindsight I should have known that this meant I was in transition, especially since right about this time I got threw up in the kitchen sink. It was classic Matt to yell, "in the garbage disposal!" when he figured out where I was headed ;)

Oddly, things got a little better when we got in the car. I think it had more to do with the fact that I had already gone through transition though because usually people say labor is worse in the car. When we arrived at the birth center around 3:30pm I was 9.5cm and they told me I was free to start pushing whenever I felt like it. I got in the tub and started pushing… and pushing… and pushing. I'm not sure you were quite ready though because I never felt the urge to push and it seemed to take FOREVER. After a while the midwives got me out of the tub and we tried a ton of different positions to try to move you down. Then at 6:18pm baby girl Aurora was born. Never for a second during my pregnancy had I doubted we were having a girl.

Our little family of three snuggled in bed together at the birth center for 12 hours before heading home. Poor dad had to drive his new baby girl home in a horrible rain storm, but we made it safely. What a crazy, awesome day!