Digestive Personifying (3/07)

Hannah's personality continued to develop and shine through in March of 2007. She was a sweet, social, happy, loving and funny baby. She always attracted a lot of attention when we went out, and she showed her enjoyment of it by smiling back at everyone who smiled at her. We took Hannah to the SF Zoo for the first time this month. She was a little young to understand the animals, but we enjoyed being out in the world with her.

March was also the month when Hannah stopped drinking breast milk and started on solid foods. Her first meals were organic oatmeal, and we gradually added fruits and vegetables to her diet. Her favorite food around this time was peas, but she pretty much ate everything we gave her, including carrots, squash, spinach and whatever other concoctions Earth's Best made available. I even tried making some homemade concoctions that Hannah ate for a while but eventually grew out of.

With the solid foods came....you guessed it, solid shizzle. And lest you forget, shizzle out of water, whether it comes from a dog, adult, or adorable little girl, stinks just the same. My dormant gag reflex was beginning to awaken.

Shizzler (2/07)

As all our friends told us, once the 3 month mark passed, things started to get dramatically better. But we discovered an odd thing about Hannah around this time. Every time we took her somewhere, she had a habit of making poop, regardless of whether she'd pooped before we left the house. Whether we took her to a family meal, or out to breakfast or lunch, she would invariably soil her shorts every time! Maybe she was just so relieved to be out of the house and experiencing the world that she just couldn't control herself. That aspect of her is straight-up Landow. Ironically, around this time, with her bald head, she also started looking like both Buddy and David Landow, my grandfather and uncle, respectively. Ode to the Landows!

Sweet Boiba (1/07)

When the New Year rolled in, Hannah started to became more of a person and less of a fragile infant. We started to see elements of her personality come out. She was happy, social, curious, and just about the sweetest little girl you could imagine. Maria was great with giving her tummy time and singing to her constantly. Her favorite song around this time was Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and every time we sang it or played it on CD, Hannah would brighten up with a big smile.

January is also the month that Maria went back to work and Linda, Hannah's Nanny, started taking care of her during the day. Linda did a great job taking care of Hannah from day one, always playing with her, singing songs, teaching her things, and taking her for walks along the water. Maria worked from home at the time, so she got to sneak away for a quick kiss or hug with Hannah, but it's always been a challenge managing our careers and raising Hannah. We're very fortunate to have Linda though, as she loves Hannah very much.

Hannah weighed 12lb 1oz, was 24.75 inches long, and her head was 42cm.

A New Day (12/06)

This was it...the 3 month mark. Hannah was going to leave our bed, move to her crib, and sleep through the night. We loved having her sleep with us, but we desperately needed sleep. The magical 3 month mark is what kept us going up to this point.

December was a fun month. Hannah started getting more vocal, babbling different things, including my favorite word "da da." We also took her on her first road trip this month, to Monterey, to meet our friends Erez, Maya and their baby Lia.

Towards the end of the month, we were invited to Rusty and Patti's holiday party. This was going to be our first night out (you can tell by the pictures in the slide show), and also Hannah's first night in her crib.

Without much ado, we put Hannah to bed in her crib and left for the night while Maria's parents babysat. When we came home, Hannah was still sleeping. When we got into bed, Hannah was still sleeping. And she didn't make a peep until after 6am the following morning.

We had done it. The rough part was over and we could now gradually start getting back to normal. That first night of sleep was just wonderful, as it was the first tangible moment where we could feel that things were going to get much much better.

Looking back over my blog entries for the first 3 months of Hannah's life, I realize that sleep is a constant theme in my writing. Both our sleep (or lack thereof) and Hannah's sleep. In retrospect, this was the hardest part of adjusting to life as parents. It wasn't hard to love Hannah, or change a diaper, or learn how to soothe her. But it was very challenging to figure out how to do all these things, and handle the responsibilities of our own lives, without much sleep. I cannot possibly overstate how much better we started to feel after Hannah made it through her first night without waking up. It really felt like a new day from that moment on, so much so that when we look at pictures from those first few months, we hardly remember those long days and nights in the beginning of Hannah's life.

Here Comes the Sun (11/06)

As November rolled in, we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hannah started getting more interactive, smiling frequently, and her stretches of sleep grew longer and longer, although napping was still a challenge. We also had lots of visitors this month, and we took Hannah to San Francisco for the first time.

During our first Thanksgiving with Hannah, we had plenty to give thanks for. We celebrated the holiday with our friends and family at our house. My mom, Maria's parents, Uncle D, Jake and Yaling, Lora, Sasha, Misha, Ali and Uncle Jared all joined us. Hannah wasn't quite sure why everyone was in her space, but she enjoyed all the activity and love she got that night.

We were told over and over again that after 3 months, everything would improve drastically, so the turn of the month was filled with anticipation.

Passing the 2hr Mark (10/20/06 thru 10/31/06)

Moving Hannah into our bed was the right move. We could roll over to feed or comfort her and didn't have to get in and out of bed every time she made a sound. Gradually, things started to get better as she gained some weight and started adjusting to the world. Instead of 2hrs max of continuous sleep, we started to get 3 or 4 before she would wake up. While this doesn't seem like much, it made a big difference, and helped us realize that there was hope on the horizon.

Because Hannah was still very new, we had many visitors during this time, and Hannah was surrounded with love all the time. Babushka and Dedushka were regular visitors, and Nana No-Ninnies came up frequently as well. Also Aunt Stephanie, Kathryn, Amy and others.

October 31 was also Hannah's first Halloween, and like all parents, we treated her like our doll, and dressed her as a pumpkin.

Hannah weighed 7lbs 14oz, was 21 inches long, and her head measured 36cm.

Get into the Groove (10/1/06 thru 10/15/06)

After the first couple of weeks, and a half dozen lactation consultants, we finally found our groove and started to settle into a routine with Hannah. While I can't say we ever adjusted to the lack of sleep those first few months, we made do. And as you can see from the pictures, we had lots of help from Maria's parents, my mom, and some of Maria's friends.

Two things we did during these early weeks made a huge difference in our quality of life. First, we decided that the Bassinet we bought was a piece of junk and that Hannah wasn't comfortable in it, so we moved her into our king size bed. She had plenty of room in between us, we had one of those things to make sure she didn't roll over, and it made things much easier for us throughout the night. Okay, it made things much easier for Maria, as she was the one who handled nighttime duty since I was working. But I loved having her so close by.

The second thing we did was put Hannah in her swing for her naps. To this day she's not a great napper, but swaddling her and putting in her swing (which was in our closet--the darkest room in our house) was pretty effective. Outsiders might have thought we were abusive or crazy, but it worked, and Hannah (like all babies) did much better when she was able to sleep.

All in all, Hannah was a good baby--even from the very beginning. She never cried all that much, was alert and curious from the moment she arrived, and always let us kiss, hug and hold her as much as we wanted. That doesn't last forever, so we're cherishing it while it does.