First Food and Jumperoo

It's an exciting time at the Baumer household! Zoe is changing so much. It's impossible to keep up with her. Although she's not quite six months, we went ahead and started solids yesterday. Everything I've read said to watch your baby and she will tell you when she's ready. She's sitting up (assisted) really well, she's lost the tongue thrust reflex, and she's been watching me very intently when I eat and reaching out for my food. All three are big signs that it's time for baby's first meal. We had so much fun and Zach captured the event on video. She did great! And she slept 12 hours last night!!! I hope it wasn't just a fluke.

I found it really hard to believe all of those moms who told me that I would feel like she was growing up too fast--but now I know what they were trying to tell me. Is it really possible that I already miss her being a newborn?? Crazy.

Currently Zoe's favorite activity is the jumperoo. She's obsessed. I took a video of her in the jumperoo in Houma while we were visiting my parents. Hilarious! Enjoy!

Bad Blogger

I know, I know. I hear it all the time. I'm terrible at updating this blog. I apologize. And no, I can't really use the "I have a baby" excuse when Lauren is totally showing me up with amazing posts about Carlyle lately (not to mention she's in her third trimester with baby boy Garrity!). So, I guess we'll just chalk it up to plain old laziness. :)

On to the main event...Zoe is now 3 1/2 months old. She's constantly babbling, which is totally adorable, and she smiles a lot, which melts my heart (of course!), and yesterday she rolled over for the first time with me cheering her on! We've been on two round trip plane rides to New Orleans to see Mumsie & Poppy and she's a wonderful traveler. For all but one of the flights, I was alone with her and she did not make me regret that decision for a second. She's sleeping like a champ, which makes my life much, much easier. We spend most days with Laurie and cousin Avery. It's been a really fun summer and I'm dreading Laurie's return to work in just a few weeks. I'm going to have to get really creative in order to not lose my mind without the adult company! Feel free to make suggestions.

About 6 weeks ago, Zoe had her modeling debut. She hated every second of it. I was bouncing around swatting at the mosquitoes and and managed to succeed in keeping them from biting baby girl. I'm sure my anxiety didn't help her relax one bit! The photographer (Jessica Hunt of Bailey Lane Photography) still managed to get a lot of great shots. Here are a few of our favorites:

Enjoy the latest video! Zoe gets a bit camera shy--I'm still trying to catch laughing & rolling over. LOVE YOU ALL!

Zoe Is Here!

I have taken a break from the blog to give ALL of my attention to our newest family member. She is amazing--just ask her Aunt Lauren--she's the best baby ever. She rarely cries and is already sleeping four to five hour stints at night. She was six weeks old yesterday and she's somewhere around 13 pounds now. She's happy and healthy and is off the growth charts for her age. The doctor says she looks more like a 3 month old. We couldn't be happier! Below are bunch of pictures and some video. Sorry for the delay in posting!! Love you all. OH, and I'm still behind on my thank you notes, so if you haven't received one--it's coming, I promise!

Brand new family! 4/2/11

Hey, I know you!

First day home.

Bath time with Aunt Lauren.

Zoe LOVES bath time!

Hanging with Mumsie.

I'm six weeks old today!

Any Day Now

I'm hoping this is my last blog post before Zoe arrives. My due date is just four days away, but I'm telling her she is more than welcome to come any time. We are definitely ready. The nursery is totally done. See the video proof below! I really love it and I'm ready to meet our baby girl. Her cousin Avery Dell Wright was born (two weeks early!) on Monday, March 21 weighing in at 6 lbs 7 oz. Laurie and Avery are doing very well and should be home from the hospital tomorrow. Have fun with the video!

Three Weeks to Due Day

It's officially been a month since my last post. I apologize for being such a slacker, but I haven't had a lot to report. Mom and baby are doing great. At this point I'm visiting the doctor once a week and all the check-ups have been good. She was breech at 34 weeks, but luckily she turned on her own and is now in the correct position--thank goodness!! My due date is three weeks from tomorrow, but I have a feeling she might be here a few days early (or maybe that's just my wishful thinking--haha.) I'm moving pretty slowly these days--the pregnancy waddle is in full effect!

Baby Bump update: 37 weeks!

Zach and I are totally ready for Zoe to arrive, both mentally and logistically. She could move into her room tomorrow and we'd be just fine. We are both really anxious to meet her and can't wait to see what (and who) she looks like. The anticipation is killing us.

Zach has put together all of the baby gear, her clothes are washed, sorted by size, and put away, and the nursery is 99% finished. We are waiting for the glider to arrive, which should be Wednesday or Thursday of next week. That will be the final piece. Now we just wait for baby girl to make her debut! Check out pics of the nursery below.

Zoe's closet

It's totally fitting that my daughter already has five pairs of shoes!

Homestretch

Zach deserves a medal for husband of the year for all of the painting he has done over the last few weeks, and I'm happy to report that we are totally done. The nursery is starting to actually look like a nursery. We are still waiting on the  glider to arrive and we are also having a wonderful old chest of drawers from Zach's family refinished for our baby girl. All of her clothes have been washed and are waiting to be put away once the dresser arrives. It was so much fun to wash and fold all of those tiny little clothes. I can't believe that in a little more than six weeks we will have a new member of the Baumer family small enough to FIT into them!

Zach in action! Yep, that's the nursery. 

The nursery in progress.

Zach and I got to see Zoe last week at the 32 week sonogram. At one point, she turned her little face toward us and gave us a BIG yawn. It was pretty amazing. As of last Thursday, they guessed her weight to be around 4 lbs., 12 oz., which puts here anywhere from 7.5 to 8 pounds at birth. Unfortunately, she is not in the "right" position just yet. She's still butt down, but the doctor said not to worry too much--she has about four weeks to turn on her own. It feels like she's doing somersaults in there, so I'm pretty sure she's got enough room to flip over.

Here's the latest on the baby bump...

33 weeks and 2 days!

And as promised, here are a few more pictures from the shower. If you want to see all of Emily's pictures, here's a link to her picasa album.

The lovely hostesses.

Me and the Natchez ladies.

The baby bump again (and my friend Emily
and if you look closely at the bottom
right corner, it's Jill's baby bump. She was
due last Sunday. Come on, Beck, we're
ready for you!)

Shower Time

My sweet, sweet childhood friends Lauren, Carrie, and Emily, and my sister-cousin Laurie threw a shower for Baby Zoe this weekend. It was wonderful to see everyone--especially those who came in from out of town--my cousin Amydell and my Aunt Connie drove all the way from Houston and my godmother Jan came from San Antonio, not to mention out of town hostesses Carrie from Natchez and Lauren from Dallas. And Mumsie (my mom) flew in from New Orleans for the occasion. We missed all of Zach's family from Indianapolis, Dayton, and Tampa very much, but I definitely understand the importance of saving those airline miles for the BIG SHOW when Zoe finally arrives! It's so incredible to see how much she is loved already. 

Three of the four baby bumps at the shower. My friend Jill
who is due in 2 weeks was also in attendance. I'll post
more pictures as soon as I get them from the photogs
Allison, Emily, and Laurie.

Check out the video below courtesy of Lauren. The desserts were amazing--all made from scratch by Laurie and Lauren. The favors were soooo adorable and delicious! YUM. Thanks, Lauren!!

In other news, Zach and I are starting to feel like we're making progress on our "to-do before baby arrives" list. We still have some painting left to do. I'll post pictures of painting in progress next weekend. The nursery color is, well, a bit bold to say the least. The official Benjamin Moore color name is Dark Salmon. Some who have seen it have raised questions, but I LOVE IT, so I guess that's what counts, right? It's kind of like choosing the name--we don't care too much if you don't like it! Haha. And for those of you who don't know, we have officially chosen a name for our little bambina. She will be Zoe Margaret Baumer. Margaret for BOTH of her grandmothers. It doesn't get more perfect than that! The biggest things going on right now are washing and sorting all of the cute little clothes we have for her and waiting for my nursery chair to arrive. I know, my priorities have changed already. 

Love you all and I'll post again soon (PROMISE!)