There She Grows Again!

Hannah has officially decided that she no longer wants to be a little girl. She has been taking every opportunity she can get to sleep and consequently grow. At her 2 month check-up she measured 23 1/4 inches. That appointment was on September 9th. It is now September 25th and when Kyle and I measured her two nights ago she was 25 1/4 inches long! We measured 4 times to be sure we weren't screwing up some how! 2 inches in less than a month is absolutely rediculus in my book. I had to pull out some of her 6-9 month clothes last night for her to wear. We had a fashion show/see what fits party in her room last night and I cycled out several 0-3 month and 3-6 month outfits and cycled in just as many 6-9 month outfits! This is crazy! My little girl isn't even 3 months old yet. She's not supposed to be wearing 6-9 month clothes.

The difference in sizing in baby clothes does drive me crazy however. I think it just may be worse than the sizing in women's clothes. I held up a pair of 0-3 month pants that Hannah has that she can still wear (they are getting tight and bit on the shorter side though!) in front of a pair of 3-6 month pants that I just bought her the other day and they were almost identical in size (both the waist and length) so I took the new 3-6 month pair of pants back since I didn't figure she'd get to wear them long enough to justify buying them. Too bad though because they were really cute pants and they were even on clearance :( Then I held up a different pair of 0-3 month pants that she has that fit her just right with some room to grow next to a pair of 6-9 month pants that Myrna bought her and they were exactly the same size! As a result, those 6-9 month pants are now in the rotation . Then I held up 2 different pairs of 6-9 month pants next to each other and one pair fits her a little bit baggy with a decent amount to grow into and the other pair is like 2 inches long and the waist comes up almost to her arm pits! It's so weird!

I have decided after this latest clothing adventure that I'm not buying her anything anymore that is smaller than 6-9 months unless I want her to be able to wear it the very day that I buy it and am willing for it to be questionable how much longer she will get to wear it. One of the weirdest things I think is that almost every single onesie she has (0-3m, 3-6m, and 6-9m) fits her well regardless of the size. I think I have only had to retire 3 onesies (all from the same pack) since she has been born. They fit her really well right when she was born and she grew out of them just before her last doctor's appointment.

Heather and Billie came to visit Hannah today. It was Billie's first time to meet Hannah. Billie couldn't believe how big she is. I should have told her "welcome to the club!" They both brought Hannah some more new clothes. Thankfully they are all at least 6-9 month sizes so she should hopefully be able to wear them for awhile! Let's hope so at least. Billie has now caught the baby bug and wants another little one. Hannah tends to do that to people. It's not fair really though because Hannah is so not the typical baby. I think she gives people a false impression on what parenting is like. It's like false advertising! She even makes people who have already raised their kids forget how hard having an infant was. She's like that kid that everyone hates in school who throws off the curve and makes all the other people look bad!

Well, I've been trying to post more pictures on here for two days now and blogger just won't let me. I promise to try to get some of them up on the next post.

Super Buddha

There are lots of Hannah updates today so I hope I don't forget anything! First I'll start with the title of the post since you are probably wondering already what on earth I was talking about. Super Buddha is what Kyle and I call Hannah's favorite sleeping position. I'll post a picture of it so that you can see what I'm talking about. She sleeps with the soles of her feet turned in towards each other (oftentimes touching) and her arms straight up past her head. We've noticed several variations of the Super Buddha pose such as Egyptian Buddha, Airplane Buddha, Buzz Lightyear Buddha, and many others. I'm going to attempt to capture a photo of each pose over the next few weeks and will make a photo post of them all for your viewing pleasure!

Another interesting thing we have noticed is that Hannah has a favorite toy on her mobile. This fact is quite evident as I've watched her several times and it's always the same. When I pointed it out to Kyle he saw it too. One day I was watching Hannah in her crib watching her mobile very intently. Every so often she would become very active and squeal with delight. Then she would grow anxious and start turning her head from side to side. As I watched I began to realize that this was a pattern that was recurring at set intervals. I studied her actions a little more closely and realized that she would become excited when the toy with a big orange smiley face on it would pass through her vision and then she would become anxious and begin looking for it once it was out of her range of vision. She would continue her search until the smiley appeared again and then she would get excited all over again! I'll try to post a picture of her favorite on here as well.

Wednesday, Hannah and I went shopping for her winter clothes with my friend Sarah and Hannah's buddy Evelyn. We ended up having quite the adventure. Poor Evelyn had some digestive disturbances while we were shopping and we had to make an emergency pit stop in the Macy's restroom for new clothes and a sponge bath! Hannah even had to let Evelyn borrow one of her bibs. Evelyn and Hannah seemed to get a kick out of watching Sarah and I scramble around cleaning up baby poop and searching for clean clothes and Sarah and I just had to laugh at our luck. During that shopping trip I bought Hannah a winter sleep sack. It was size 0-9 months and was huge. Well, last night Kyle put it on her at bedtime and when I came in to tell Hannah good night I noticed that her feet were all the way at the end of the sack already! The little stinker is doing it again! She's growing out of brand new clothes right after I finally take the tags off of them. That sleep sack was supposed to last her all winter! I don't think we can afford another growth spurt like this!

We also discovered this week that Hannah is officially teething. She had been showing the telltale signs for about a week (drooling, fussy, low grade fever on and off, chewing on everything) but Wednesday night we examined her mouth and we can actually see her bottom front 2 teeth just below the skin. I really hope they just go ahead and pop on through soon because this extra fussiness is for the birds. Last night the only thing that would soothe her was a cold wet wash cloth for her to chew on.

This weekend we also have a visit planned with Mike. It will be the first time he has been able to come visit us at the house. He got to visit Hannah once while she was in the hospital here in Lafayette, but this visit should be nice because we won't have nurses and doctors running in and out.

The final Hannah update is that we finally have Hannah's finalization date! On October 19th Hannah will officially become a legal Spontak! :) We have one more post placement visit on Wednesday and then our court date on the 19th is all that is left. It will be so wonderful to finally have all that paperwork completed and be done with the whole process. It was a long broken road to Hannah, but it has all been worth it. When I look at my little girl I can't even imagine how my life would have ever been complete without her. She was meant to be ours before we ever knew that our children would come to us through adoption and now I can't think of anything that could have been more perfect.

Official 2 Months Pictures!

Here are Hannah's official 2 months pictures. Our favorites are the ones in the hoodie. In case anyone cares, her outifit is entirely Old Navy fashions courtesy of Auntie Heather! :)

Pictures From Visit

Here are some of the pictures I took during Tiffany's visit. The first is Kayla and Hannah and of course the 2nd is Tiffany and Hannah. The 3rd is Tiffany's mom and Chase with Hannah. The last is Tiffany's brother with Hannah.

Visit with Tiffany

Hannah got to visit with Tiffany and her family yesterday. They all came up for lunch and a visit so our house was quite full. All together it was Tiffany, Chase, Kayla (the twins), Donna (Tiffany's mom), and Robert (Tiffany's brother). With 8 people in our house (including 2 3 year-olds) it sure seemed really small! Chase and Kayla are both very active (especially Chase) so a good portion of the visit was made up of running around after them making sure they didn't escape into the street or terrorize the pets too much! :) Tiffany brought some baby pictures of her and it was amazing how much like Tiffany Hannah looks like. Interestingly enough, I was just looking at some of my old baby pictures and Hannah also looks an awful lot like me! They brought us a framed picture of Hannah from when she was born that had the caption, "I asked God for a miracle and He gave me you." It was very sweet of them. Tiffany also filled out the pregnancy pages of Hannah's baby book. I had bought a baby book at Halmark that had removable pages that could be taken out in the case of an adoption and replaced with adoption specific pages. Since we have a close relationship with Tiffany I asked her to fill out the pregnancy pages for Hannah so that she could have both. After they all left, I read what Tiffany had wrote on Hannah's pages and it made me cry. She said that after the first time she spoke with me on the phone she knew she had chosen the perfect parents.

Sunday was the culmination of a long week for Hannah, Kyle, and I. Because Kyle has had to work late hours at work all week I've felt a bit like a single parent and I must say that I have no idea how they do it! Spending this week all by myself with Hannah with no breaks made it a bit easier for me to know how Tiffany must feel and understand how she was able to make the decision to place Hannah with us. I'm sure it was very hard for her, but she knew the realities of being a single parent and knew that adding an infant would make things even harder. Hopefully this week will be a bit more normal and we can all have a bit of a rest before Mike drops by next weekend.

I tried to post some pictures of Tiffany's visit, but for some reason Blogger doesn't like them. I'll try to post those pictures on the next update.

Getting Stronger

Well Hannah got to meet her Grandpa Barney on Sunday for the first time. He says he wants to be called Pap which is fine with us. He and Mindy brought Hannah an Ohio State blanket. Barney is trying to train her early I guess! Hannah is finally starting to get back to normal after her shots. This morning she didn't have a fever which made my day. Fortunately for me, when she did have a fever she loved the baby Tylenol. I don't know what I would have done on Saturday trying to give her medicine for the first time all by myself if she hadn't of liked it. It was stressful enough as it was. I sure didn't need her spitting it out or gagging!

Hannah is getting so much stronger every day that it's unbelievable. She's able to sit upright for much longer periods with only the boppy pillow for support (it comes up just past her pants when she's sitting) and actually seems to prefer sitting upright as opposed to laying down. Sometimes she gets fussy if I get tired of helping her sit up and lay her down if she's not ready to be done looking at things! Tummy time is also getting more fun. Yesterday she had tummy time in her play gym and actually reached out in front of her for the toys that were hanging from the wedge. Today when I put her down for tummy time she immediately pushed up on her forearms and lifted her head and chest right off the floor and held it there for 4 minutes! I checked the clock! While up there she looked around, smiled at me, cooed, and tracked toys I was moving around with her entire head! I was so proud of her! :) She's also trying to sit up on her own now when she's in a reclined position and reach for toys that are held in front of her. Today I had her propped up on our bed with some pillows while I folded clothes and she tried to sit up with so much force that she got her head, shoulders, and upper back up off the pillows several inches and held it there for a few seconds before falling back against the pillows. Then she got the idea to use the pillows kind of like her bouncer and then starting trying to bounce her way up! Later on in the day she did the same thing while in her bouncer! I don't think it will be long before she's sitting up. The one thing she is not doing yet that I fully expected her to already have mastered is rolling over. From the time we brought her home from Wishard she has been able to roll herself up onto her side and stay there, but she still hasn't even really attempted (not that I've noticed anyway) to try to roll herself from her back to her belly or from her belly to her back. I can't wait for this stage to start though. It should be fun.

Another funny thing we have noticed about her personality is that although she loves her baths, she hates getting out and getting dressed afterwards. Well, she got a baby bathrobe at one of her showers and Kyle has discovered that if we can get her into that bathrobe as soon as she is out of the tub we can (as Kyle puts it) ride the happy wave for a bit longer. It's a bit of a pain to get a wet, slippery baby into the sleeves of the robe, but it's well worth the effort. The payoff is continued giggles and smiles instead of 15 or more minutes of screaming. Then once she's all dried and has forgotten about the bath, we can put her real clothes on her without a fight. Plus, she does look awfully adorable in the robe. Now all she needs is pink fuzzy slippers to go with it and some curlers for her hair. Her great grandma was saying on Saturday that she has enough hair to get a perm! :)

Well, that's all the Hannah updates I have for today. I'm going to try to post some pictures of her visit with Barney and Mindy and a cute picture I have of her in her bathrobe.

Two Months Old

Hannah is now officially two months old. On Wednesday she went to get her two month pictures at JC Pennys and today she had her two month check-up and vaccinations. She weighed in at 12 lbs 13 oz and was 23 1/4 inches long! She's now in the 88th percentile for height and the 95th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for head circumference. The doctor says she's doing great and there's no need to be concerned about the height/weight discrepancy. He said the formula she is on is most likely making her gain more weight b/c the rice starch adds calories. Apparently she should level back out once she starts table food.

I thought that it would be no big deal seeing Hannah get her shots after having to watch her get a lumbar puncture, but my heart still bled as she screamed bloody murder each time they poked her and there was nothing I could do about it. It turns out that Hannah is one of those babies that is negatively affected by her shots. The entire rest of the day she was fussy, lethargic, had no appetite, and ran a temperature of 100.5 degrees Farenheit. It was so sad for me to see my little girl not acting like herself. :( Eventually she started to perk up a bit right before bedtime so hopefully she'll be back to her normal bubbly self tomorrow.

Tomorrow she gets to go to her first ever Mendenhall Bean Supper. That should be fun and exciting. She'll get to see her Great Grandma Clodfelter again and hopefully her Grandpa Clodfelter will be there too. On Sunday she will get to meet her Grandpa Barney and Mindy for the first time. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that she makes a good first impression!

As soon as I get her JC Penny's pictures back I'll post the official 2 month pictures. In the mean time, enjoy all the unofficial pictures of my big girl! The last picture of her in her swing is her looking pitiful after her shots. :( Even when she's sick she's cute!

Labor Day Weekend

Hannah had quite the busy Labor Day weekend. She had a visit from her Uncle Kevin and Emily, she went on a six mile walk with Mom and Dad in her stroller, got to have a picnic at the park, and ate outside on the deck with Mom and Dad in the nice weather. Hannah also has a busy week coming up. Tomorrow she turns 2 months old and gets her picture taken at JC Pennys and gets to hang out with her buddy Evelyn. Thursday she gets to go on a walk with Kristie and Friday she has her big 2 month check-up with her doctor and gets her first round of shots!

Her newest trick has been growing like crazy. I finally got all of her new clothes washed and put away and some of them she has almost outgrown already! She's now officially out of 0-3 month clothing and is almost out of 3-6 month sleepers! 3-6 month clothes without feet are ok. She's outgrown her 0-3 month socks and her 3-6 month socks and is now wearing 6-12 month socks! This girl has some BIG feet! She's been wearing lots of pants the past week since it's been nice and cool here and she looks oh so cute in her outfits. She's also had several occasions to wear her Old Navy hooded jacket that Aunt Heather gave her and she looks mighty cute in that too! I'm not sure how much longer that jacket is going to last her so I bought her a 6-9 month jacket at Walmart the other day so that I have something on hand when she finally does grow out of it. I am anxious to find out how much she weighs now and how long she is at her doctor's appointment.

Today I tried propping her up with her boppy pillow and she was able to sit up assisted by that for about 20 seconds. Her head is plenty steady now and she's raising her head and chest off of the floor during tummy time. She really enjoys being outdoors and will even sit in her bouncer on the deck while Kyle and I relax. Yesterday we finally got her a swing and so far she loves it. She is mesmerized by the floating fish that hang above it. This weekend she also moved up to taking 5 oz of formula at a time and has been downing the bottles like a pro. This switch necessitated us buying new bottles because our old bottles only held 4 oz.