Zoe's Music

I added a new feature to my blog. On the right hand side you can now click "Play" on the FineTune box to hear some of the music we play for Zoe to help her relax. Also, you can click on the down arrow in the top left corner of the box and choose "User Profile". Once in there you can listen to any of the playlists that Mike and I have put together.

Friends

I have been really blessed in my life to have great friends. This year I have been able to reconnect with some of them and it has been a blast!

In June Lisa, Stephanie, Kellye and I met up for a fun weekend. We watched old Drill Team tapes and reminisced about the good ol' times.

This is a picture of us in High School...


Here we are recreating the picture...


And here we are with all of our cute kids (Kellye holding Bennett, Stephanie holding Jada, Lisa with Logan (Kellye's other son) in front, Me holding Zoe with Cole (Lisa's son) in front).


Then this past weekend I was able to go to my friend Lori's wedding in Georgia. Lori and I were childhood friends...her family moved away when we were 12. We didn't see each other again until 2001 when Lori and her mom surprised me and came to my wedding! And then I got to go to her wedding this weekend. We had a great time and look how beautiful (and happy) Lori is!



Our friends have such a big influence on who we are and what we do. I'm excited (and a little scared) to see who Zoe chooses as her friends. If she's as lucky as I have been, I believe she has some great times ahead for her.

Silly Zoe

It seems like Zoe is 'baby' talking more and more each day. It's so fun because she's so serious about what she's saying and then right in the middle of saying something she'll crack up laughing which makes me laugh. Then we just end up laughing back and forth at each other. When she talks though she mumbles and spits and sounds like the Tasmanian Devil. It's really funny (especially when Mike starts talking back to her in the same Taz voice).

Another funny thing Zoe has been doing lately is when I lay her down on her diaper changing pad she will automatically put her legs up in the air (that's not the funny part). Then once I get her diaper off she'll put her right leg down but will leave her left leg up in the air. She won't put her leg down until the very end when I'm picking her back up (that's the funny part).


Zoe's favorite thing these days is this new rocking chair Grandma got her. This is where I feed Zoe now and she LOVES it when I rock her after she's through eating. She'll just talk away, laugh, and eat her burp cloth/my shirt/her shirt/whatever she can get in her mouth. But then after she's finished saying what she needs to say she'll just lay her head down on my shoulder and suck her thumb. It's very sweet.

Changing Rooms

Sunday night was a big, scary moment for me and Mike. We finally decided it was time for Zoe to sleep in her own room. Ahh! I thought I wouldn't sleep at all that night but I actually only woke up a few times to check the monitors, and I only got up one time to go physically check on the peanut. Then Tuesday night she slept through the ENTIRE night--from 8:00pm until 7:00am! I think this is the beginning of her being able to sleep all the way through the night (right now she usually wakes up one time around 5:00am).

I've been scared to let Zoe be so far away from us and I think it stems from an incident in the hospital. When Zoe was a day old the nurse had just brought her in to us from the nursery and when I went to pick her up I noticed there was spit up just sitting in her mouth (she couldn't breath). The nurse VERY quickly suctioned it out and everything was fine. But Zoe just sat there, didn't choke, cough...nothing. I've been afraid of that happening again but I think she's old enough now that she would turn her head or cough if it did happen.

Zoe Michelle

In a previous post I discussed how we came up with the name Zoe. What I have never mentioned though is why we chose Michelle for her middle name. My middle name is Michelle, but that's not the whole reason. I was named after my Aunt Michelle.

Aunt Michelle passed away last year after a long battle with Breast Cancer. She was fun, strong, and feisty. My favorite memories of her are when we played Catch Phrase.

My brother, Scott (who just ran his first ultra marathon!), is running 50 miles in honor of our Aunt Michelle! Please check out his Relay for Life site and help him meet his goal. You may also want to send him a word of encouragement...he'll need it.

Fun Weekend

Zoe had a busy weekend.

On Friday Zoe had her very first slumber party at Aunt Lisa's and Aunt Megan's. The visit started out as a day trip but we decided to make it a slumber party when some much needed rain came through the area (didn't want to risk driving Zoe home in the rain).



Then on Saturday Zoe got to watch a Texas A&M football game. Gig 'em!


On Sunday Zoe got to go to church. She likes getting all dressed up for church.

4 Months!

Update from Zoe's 4 month check-up with the doctor today:

Weight: 10lbs (was 5lbs 9oz at birth)
Height: 21.5" (was 16" at birth)
Head Circumference: 41.5cm (not sure what it was at birth)
All these still fall behind on the charts (compared to other babies her age), but she is growing just fine at her own rate. Yeah!

Zoe got her 4 month immunization shots today. She cried so hard that she popped a blood vessel in her left eye. It's a tiny red spot and the nurse said it'll go away on its own. Poor thing.

Next visit is in 2 months. We'll talk about starting Zoe on rice cereal then. Whoa.

Development update:

Zoe can fall asleep on her own now (thanks to all of you who gave me ideas and tips!). During the day she sleeps swaddled in her Miracle Blanket in the car seat with the hood down (so that it will be darker for her). At night she sleeps in her co-sleeper. She will usually cry for a couple minutes before falling asleep. Often though, she falls asleep without even crying.

Zoe loves to coo, squeal, and laugh. She laughs a lot. It's fun.

Zoe reaches for things now. When I'm feeding her she plays with my mouth and nose. When Mike and I read to her she plays with the book. She loves this rattle in the picture because she can wrap her fingers around it. She always tries to eat it.

Zoe used to suck on a finger or two. Now she likes to put all four fingers in her mouth and suck on them. It's so cute! She doesn't only like to suck on her fingers though. She puts everything in her mouth that she can get to it (burp cloth, blanket, flash card, rattle, any toy). We stopped trying to give her a pacifier because she never was interested in it. So I guess we'll deal with getting her to stop sucking her thumb/finger(s) down the road.

When I'm feeding Zoe she is SO not interested in eating. She keeps looking around, playing with her hands, trying to talk while sucking on the bottle. Sometimes I have to swaddle her so that she'll stay still and eat.

Zoe can sit up on her own, with no support, for a couple seconds. Actually, the longest has been about 30 seconds.

Zoe fits into her 0-3 month clothes now but can still wear a lot of her new born sizes. Her feet are still too small for size 1 shoes. She wears a size 1 diaper now.

Zoe 'baby' talks ALL the time. She gets SO excited when Mike and I talk back to her. This is the look she gives every time she's about to say something really important. I say important because she gets this really excited look in her eyes and her shoulders come up before she talks then go down when she says it, her eyes do this fun roll thing, and the excitement in her eyes is just so fun.

One year

It was exactly one year ago today that I found out I was pregnant with Zoe. Who knew that I would end up with such a cute bundle of joy?!

Vision Test and Admissions

I took Zoe in to the Children's Developmental Services office today for a vision test and admissions. She passed the vision test with flying colors. The lady held her cell phone in front of Zoe and moved it around, checking to see how Zoe could track things. She then held a light up (similar to the kind doctors use to check the eyes and ears) to see how Zoe reacted to light. The light would flash and Zoe would blink or look for it.

The admissions part was really quick. They got our financial information to determine where we fall on a financial responsibility scale of 'how much can we afford to pay'. The initial evaluations are free for us (the county pays for it) but if Zoe needs any kind of help (such as physical therapy) then we will be responsible for a certain percent of the cost.

Our next visit will be October 8th. This will be a complete evaluation of Zoe at home. I'm looking forward to it.

This afternoon we have Zoe's 4 month checkup with the doctor. I'll give an update when we get back from there.

Visit to the Doctor

Zoe woke up this morning crying harder than usual, like there was something wrong. She also sounded really congested. She had a pink nose and her eyes were glossy, but she did not have a fever. When I fed her it sounded like she was having a hard time breathing out of her nose because of the congestion. Then she vomited during the feeding. A little while later she vomited again as I was giving her her Zantac. So I called her doctor to have him see her today.

When I left for the doctor about an hour later, Zoe didn't sound congested at all (maybe she got it all out with the vomit), she was acting more herself, and she was able to have a good, 4oz., feeding. But I wanted the doctor to take a look at her anyways.

Her lungs are clear. The back of her throat is a little red but the doctor said that could just be from the vomiting. Her ears look okay. No temperature. She weighs 10lbs 4oz with all her clothes and diaper on (they were just checking to make sure she hadn't lost weight...we'll do a real weight check on Monday).

The doctor said there is a stomach bug going around and Zoe may have it which is causing the vomiting and fussiness. So he said to just keep things as is and if she continues to vomit to give her some Pedialyte. And of course, if we're still worried over the weekend (or become more worried) bring her in again. I love that her doctor's office has a weekend sick clinic.

I think whatever it was is gone now. Zoe is eating well today and she's just as playful as ever.

We have her 4 month visit scheduled for Monday. That visit will include shots (ugh).

Children's Developmental Services

I mentioned in a previous post that Zoe's pediatrician referred us to the local Children's Developmental Services because he was a little concerned about Zoe's head lagging when we pull her up by her arms and also because Zoe sometimes tends to leave her arms by her side instead of using them to explore.

Today a Service Coordinator came to our home and explained the program to us. She started by having me just talk about Zoe--explaining what she likes to do, what she doesn't like, what a typical day is like with her...she pretty much now knows everything there is to know about Zoe. She then set up an appointment for us to go to the office for a vision test (hearing test completed at the hospital when Zoe was born is sufficient) and for admissions. Then we have another appointment where an Occupational Therapist will come out to our home to evaluate Zoe.

The first 45 days of the program are focused on evaluating Zoe. Then they will determine if she qualifies for the program. If she does qualify, they will provide a physical therapist, etc. to help in whatever area we need. It's pretty cool.

Even if Zoe isn't determined to have a special need and doesn't qualify, the program will still give us ideas on how to help Zoe develop. So it's a win-win for us.

Here are the aspects of the program:
-Services that build on a child's strengths and prevent developmental delays from becoming more severe

-Encouragement of growth in physical, cognitive, communication, social, and self-help skills and abilities

-Prevention of the development of additional disabling conditions or delays

-A reduction of family stress

-A reduced need for special education services once the child reaches school age

The Service Coordinator said they even have a nutritionist who can help us with Zoe's feedings. Yeah!

More details to come after next Monday's visit to the office.

Not Quite Big Enough

Zoe got a new toy. It's a really great Baby Einstein activity center. The only problem is that Zoe isn't quite big enough for it.


The phone book helps.



Her arms can't quite reach the toys but Zoe loves sitting in it and watching me or Mike move the things around for her. I'm not sure if she gets a kick out of the toys or watching us make fools of ourselves.

Visit to Georgia

We took Zoe to Georgia for the holiday weekend to visit her cousins Madison and Ethan, Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jim, and Nana Lynn. She had a great time.

One thing we discovered is that Zoe is going through a "I only want mommy" stage. She won't let anybody feed her except me. Others can hold her, sometimes, and really only if you play/sing songs/make faces at her.


Zoe, Aunt Rachel, and Ethan


Ethan and Zoe

Graduating

Zoe has graduated from Newborn diapers to 'Ones'. She's growing!