5 Month Old Pirate Baby

J bought this outfit for her in the Ukraine. When we were in Hungary last summer I noticed that most babies had similar pirate hats and wanted one for my unborn child. Now she is the Eastern European princess I envisioned her to be.

Nadia Version 0.5

On Monday Nadia turns 5 months old. As I sit here pre-emptively writing this update, I am sick with worry knowing she is downstairs sleeping on her tummy. She often does this, rolls immediately on to her stomach after I put her down. Or she finds her way to this position some time in the night. What am I supposed to do? Turn her over, thus waking her up, every time she does this? Stand guard beside her crib all night? And then when she stirs she realizes she is on her stomach and though her body knows how to roll back over on to her back (I've seen her do it several times), she hasn't yet gotten the memo that this skill is learned. So she wakes up in frustration, I feed her, put her back down and this repeats itself, these days, several times throughout the night. It doesn't help that her crib is still in our room because of the summer heat vs. our house set-up so we hear each other's every move.

Right before J left, about a million years ago, miss N got her voice back and started practicing a few consonants and even lip-buzzing. But, as with every other thing she has learned, she has cut down significantly, almost as if it was so easy it bored her very quickly. I used to worry whenever the periods of silence would begin. Now I realize it is normal. She's just doing her thang... a different thang every few weeks.

Roo is becoming a bit of a scamp. She has taken to biting my nipple and then looking up at me with a devilish grin. Thank goodness she doesn't have teeth yet. I tell her "no" severely but she continues to grin from ear to ear, clamped down on my oh-so-sensitive appendage to the point where I have to stick my finger in her mouth to unlatch the fury. After the pain subsides I can't help but laugh. It is quite funny to see and I know if J were here he would be laughing hysterically.

Also in the scamp department, sometimes I bring her to bed with me after her 4 or 5 AM wake-up. She nurses for a while and occasionally goes back to sleep but if not, she lies there after I have turned my back to her, rolling into me, clawing at my shoulder blades and kicking my kidneys. When I finally stir from my half-awake wacky dream, I turn over and look at her. There she is, craning her neck up at me and as soon as we make eye contact, she laughs, looks away and wiggles her entire body in excitement. I can't help but lean down, kiss her, and tell her good morning. Because no matter how difficult the day before was, it is always a good morning with miss N.

P.S. I am 1 lb. away from my pre-preg weight and I expect by next week to have lost that pound. So yeah, back to normal. My old clothes, my old hotness, it feels great! For all those naysayers, it can be done in 5 months, even post c-section. I know it can be done faster but I'd venture to say that re-gaining one's shape in 5 months is a bit faster than average. Granted, I don't have the time/energy constraints of a job, but I do have only unreliable-at-best childcare, no family or friends to help, and a month of single motherhood.

So just 5-8 lbs of obsessive/vanity weight to lose, but that's weight I'm always trying to shed so I'm not as worried about it. I'm going to continue my running four days a week, spinning and weight resistance training mostly cause it makes me feel good and I think I'm addicted to the high. Half-marathon here I come!

12 of 12

6:14 AM - Roo has slept "through the night" for the first time in a long time. Though 6 AM is still too early for me, these days I'm all about consecutive sleep. That's what really counts. And FYI, I put her to bed 10 hours prior on her back, this is how I usually find her the next morning.

6:53 AM- After Roo's breakfast it's time for the real breakfast of champions. O.j. and lemon yogurt with bran.

8:06 AM - Mama has had her coffee so it's time to get miss N ready for the day. Head stuck in onesie shot.

8:21AM - Now we're both dressed! (This and the next shot turned out blurry so I made them wacky to compensate.)
9:28 - Sadly Miss N is not in a perky enough mood to be awake during my run. I need her to sleep! So I walk her in the sling around the track again and again and again and again. Finally she did go to sleep long enough for me to get a couple of miles in on the treadmill. Better than nothing!

11:18 AM - Roo sits in her new chair senza tray while I make my lunch. In a couple of months she will get lunch too!

12:30 - After her liquid lunch Roo wakes from her milk-induced coma, confused.

15:55 - After our real nap (though not long enough for her-this could be a long night!), Roo sits in her car seat while I take a shower. With J gone for the month, this is the only peaceful way for me to clean myself.

16:11 - Diaper change time!

17:29 - I was planning on making fish and zucchini but based on miss N's mood I knew I wouldn't have time so here is a quickie pizza. Being a single mom (albeit temporary) exhausting!

18:12- Story time.

19:36 - Free at last. Roo is asleep (hopefully for the night - she went down very quickly so I'm suspicious that she's just napping) so now I will finish watching "Dan in Real Life." But first, posting this 12 of 12.

Top Ten Things We Learned on our Trip to Trapani (How's that for alliteration)

1. Chances are in any given car trip over two hours, one will have to stop to feed/change/calm a four month old baby.

2. Sometimes in bumper-to-bumper traffic it is necessary to take said four month old out of the car seat so permanent over-crying brain damage doesn't occur. On the part of the adults, that is.

3. Nursing a baby that hates to have a blanket over her face in public sucks and should be avoided at all costs. Especially when it's hot out.

4. Everywhere in Sicily is pretty much the same... same food, same people, same bullish, but the weather in Trapani was worth noting. Hot, but humid with a lovely sea breeze. Perfection.

5. Algae and garbage on beaches are not cool. Not cool.

6. The best way to have everyone stare at you is to carry around a baby in a sling. Seriously, it's like I was from another planet, a hilarious strange planet where there must not be any strollers.

7. There are hardly any restaurants in Trapani.

8. But the one we did find was pretty tasty.

9. Staying near a Carabinieri station means your car won't get messed with.

10. "Infant" to an Italian B&B owner apparently means 7 or 8 year old child so we got an entire apartment for the price of one room.

Happy Canada Day From a Fellow Canadian and Her Half Canadian Daughter