This weekend we gave her rice cereal for the first time. I had the spoon with her first bite about an inch from her lips when she grabbed the spoon and popped it right in her mouth! She got the hang of it right away and really seemed to enjoy it. We'll try green beans later this week.
She's doing all kinds of tricks lately. She is an old pro at sitting up and in the past couple of weeks has gotten VERY good at army crawling around the house. She doesn't have good hands-and-knees form, but man she can get around regardless!
She's still huge - not sure how long she is, but a couple weeks ago we went to the doctor for a little rash and she was at 18 lbs, 4 oz. I think she's just a solid girl all around, but generally slim as she doesn't have the "buddha belly" many of my friends' babies have.
We get comments all the time about how good she is. She adores crowds of people. She's perfectly content to be passed from family member to friend to family member to friend. She almost never cries and only rarely fusses.
I read enough infertility-blogs-turned-happy-ending blogs to know that parenting an infant is not always easy or pleasant. Not that parenting Jodie is easy per se, but I honestly expected it to harder. I expected to be more exhausted, more frustrated, more wistful of my "freedom". I know how lucky we are to have a large network of local family and friends who are eager to babysit anytime and all of whom are absolutely smitten by our baby girl. I know we are also blessed with a good sleeper who has a good, happy temperament and who is easily soothed and satisfied. And I think another part of it is how infertility shaped our mentality. I am so grateful, every day. Maybe if getting pregnant had been easy, I would have more quickly forgotten how lucky we are, and I would be more prone to frustration when she blows out a third diaper in a day, or when she's crying as I'm doing the nasal aspirator on her.
Anyway... lest you think that EVERYTHING in my life is sunshine and rainbows, I do wonder if my sex drive will ever return. Poor Champ... and I see how parenting is hard on marriages. I think we're doing just fine, but it's so easy to nitpick on each other and get annoyed with each other. Like why is it my job to wash bottles every day? I already have to a couple of hours every day pumping and nursing, why is it assumed that bottle washing is my designated job? Or why is it assumed that he can make plans without checking with me to see I can watch Jodie but I always feel the need to let him know and check with him before I make plans? Is that just a male thing? Minor problems. But it is an adjustment on the marriage.
