Alethea had her one month check-up today.  Her current stats are: Weight 11 lbs 14 oz, Height 22 1/2 inches, Head Circumference 16 inches.  That puts her in the 90th percentile for height, and off the charts for weight and head size.  I have a big baby!

Alethea continues to interact with us more and more.  She has an extremely cute dimpled smile and when we were playing the other day she chuckled at me when I “beeped” her nose with my finger.  She has not rolled over again since that other day, although sometimes it looks like she’s really trying.  Maybe it was a one time accident that won’t repeat itself for a while.

On the schedule front, we seem to be getting into a better rhythm of eating/sleeping which definitely helps me plan out my day and seems to help Alethea sleep at night.  She does sometimes sleep in her crib, but will still generally awake after a half hour or so.  The pediatrician said today that even though she doesn’t have projectile spit-up, she may have some reflux, which would explain why she will sleep for 3-5 hours at a time if she’s in her swing or car seat since those keep her head up above her stomach.  Last night Alethea slept for 1 1/2 hours in her crib and then started crying.  I moved her to her car seat and she slept for 3 1/2 more hours!  I could get used to getting that much sleep at night!

That’s all for the Alethea update today.  I’ve got several ideas for other posts, so stop by later this week for more to read!

Today Alethea is one month old.  Happy one-month birthday, Baby!

She has been learning quickly and we’ve been enjoying watching her smile and “talk” more each day.  However, I wasn’t quite prepared for another developmental milestone to come up so quickly: rolling over.  Today, we were playing and I put her on her stomach for some “tummy time”.  I put her hands underneath her so she could push up and look around.  Suddenly, she pushed back hard and rolled onto her back.  She looked really surprised.  I know I was!

I wasn’t sure if it really counted as rolling over by herself since I’d put her hands underneath her, so I rolled her back on her stomach and put her hands down by her sides.  Since she loves to have her hands by her face, it didn’t take long for Alethea to get her hands back under her.  Then she pushed up and rolled over again!

I wonder if this means I need to start baby-proofing the house.  Hmmm…

Peter and I took Alethea to Target two Saturdays ago to get her pictures taken at the photo studio.  Predictably she messed up two outfits before we got her out the door!  We did get some cute pictures though.  This is one of my favorites:

An update on the sleep situation: Alethea continues to resist sleeping in her crib although she has done somewhat better since we raised head of the crib (thanks for the tip Sally) and started using her sleep positioner to hold her tight.  Basically we tried to create similar conditions to her carseat since she seems to do so much better in that.

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted.  Things have been a little tiring around here lately.  Alethea had been sleeping pretty well, but the past three nights she has suddenly decided that she won’t sleep in her crib.  She will sleep in her swing, in her stroller/carseat (even if it’s not moving) and she’ll sleep if someone is holding her, but put her in her crib and the most she’ll sleep is 20 minutes.  I’ve tried everything I can think of, putting her down awake, asleep, swaddled, unswaddled, with her battery operated aquarium on, with it off and of course, fed her, changed her and sang to her.  Sigh…

So all of you out there in cyberspace what’s your advice?  How do you get an obviously tired baby to sleep in her crib?

Well, maybe “triumph” is a bit strong, but I am very excited to report that after several months of not being able to fit my wedding ring on my finger, I have finally “deswelled” enough in my hands to get my ring on!  It’s still a bit tight, but I am hopeful that I will be wearing it comfortably soon.  (Also today is the first day in a long time that my feet don’t look like those of a sumo wrestler, so that’s also good.)

Now for what you’re actually looking for, pictures:

Today Alethea is one week old.  Happy one week birthday, Baby!

Speaking of birthdays, yesterday we had two birthday parties to attend in the afternoon.  Happy 1st birthday Drew!  Happy 19th birthday Genna!

Alethea got all dressed up in a pretty outfit to attend the festivities.

Unfortunately, shortly before we left, Alethea caught Daddy of guard during changing time and managed to pee all over her pretty dress.  She wore a much less fancy outfit to the parties.  Happy Birthday anyway guys!

Elise here.  A quick update on us: We came home from the hospital yesterday.  It was soooo nice to sleep in our own bed again last night, and yes, we did actually get some sleep.  The night started out rough, but after a blow-out diaper, Alethea settled down and actually did pretty well sleeping in her own room.

Now for the main subject of this post – I wanted to let everyone know a little more about why we picked the name Alethea Margaret.

Alethea – pronounced ah-LAY-thee-ah
Many of you know that Peter and I each had a name picked out and decided to wait until B was born to pick which of the names we were going to use.  When it came time to decide I think Peter felt sorry for me after 3&1/2 hours of pushing a 10 lb baby out and we didn’t even have to argue over whose name we were going to use.

Alethea is the Greek word for “truth”.  I learned it when I was studying Greek in high-school and ever since then have thought that it would make the prettiest name for a girl.  In a culture where image is everything and what’s inside a person so often doesn’t count, I pray Alethea will always be willing to stand up for the truth.

Margaret –
Margaret is Peter’s grandmother’s name.  She passed away on April 11th and we were disappointed that she was not able to meet her first great-grandchild but we wanted to honor her memory and so Alethea’s middle name is Margaret.

Alethea with her hospital buddy Judah, who was born on Friday night. Congratulations to Sarah and Ben!