Last week my order from Barnes & Noble (thanks Nora!) came in and along with a number of books for Quinn, I got a book for myself — well for me to read and impress upon Quinn.  During one of her naps, I flipped to the section titled: “Signs Of Readiness for Solid Foods”. I carefully read all 12 signs which lead me to YES, GIVE YOUR DAUGHTER SOMETHING OTHER THAN BREAST MILK, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ALREADY.

I was perfectly content waiting another couple of weeks before we say goodbye to the pleasantries of breastmilk baby poop, and say hello to the hell of solid food poops, however it’s not really about me… but about our little 17 pounds of love.

There are actually a number of different “first” foods to choose from, at least according to the Super Baby Food book — I could choose the standard which is this. Or we could go a little crazy and feed her this or even this. I ended up going with the ol’ standby mostly because rice cereal can be mixed with breast milk and I’ve got a load of it in the freezer that I need to use up.

So a couple of days ago we took the plunge and fed her.   As she saw the spoon come close to her mouth she opened wide – because, ummm this girl will put ANYTHING in her mouth.  However, once the spoon entered her mouth and left her the tastiness of rice cereal and breast milk, her face became ver concerned — as noted in the photo above. The picture above was taken as she took that first bite of food. The feeding went pretty well and overall more food ended up in her mouth rather than on her face.

Oh yeah, and the other up-side to rice cereal is that it’s slowly initiating us into the club of “solid-food-poopy-diapers”. Cheers.

Today I went to my Mommy and Me group to decompress and give my little ray of sunshine some one-on-one baby time. Quinn loves just hangin with other babies… It’s a great hour and a half for both she and I (or rather an hour class if you’re a dope like me and show up a half hour late because you could have SWORN that the class started at 12:30, not 12 o’clock).

Anyway, Mom’s were sharing what was currently going on in their life, with their little one. It got around to me and I honestly was overcome with diarrhea-of-the-mouth. I was all… this is going on, and this, and this, and this and this and this. Oh and I feel this, and this and this, and oh, have any of you experienced this or that with your little one????? I managed to get some information from other mom’s but honestly I think I wore out my Mommy and Me welcome today — Seriously.

The last week has been very crazy for me… We had visitors all week last week which was great, but I’m exhausted. Very exhausted. On top of that, Quinn’s little list of milestones is currently overloaded with data. Too much, TOO fast…

Sitting up. She officially sits up, all by herself — “Lying down is like sooo 3 months old mom”.  So now every time I lie her down for her nap, she lifts her head and legs in an attempt to sit up.  Unfortunately, she hasn’t mastered sleeping while sitting up, so we play this game of sit up for a moment, then lie down, try to go to sleep, then wait, back up again…  look at mom, smile, then lie back down again.

Teeth. As I’ve mentioned before, she’s got two teeth, two more are following close behind. It’s appears to be a process that is very painful for my little one. Affecting her more so when she’s tired..

Food. She’s nursing nearly every 1 1/2 hours — 2 hours if I’m lucky.

Sleeping. It appears that she’s bored with sleeping all night. Waking up every other hour screaming bloody murder is much more fun than sleeping a 6-7 hour stretch. As every mother will tell you, at that exact moment you feel that you’ve got things “figured out”, everything changes leaving you feel less than adequate.

All of these milestones along with with this lovely new sleep pattern is leaving me feel less than able to cope. In fact, my tears are floating so close to the surface these days that even on a routine “bitch fest” call to Macy’s customer service — to find out WHY they are charging me for something I NEVER PURCHASED — rather than rev up my anger engine, I began crying to the Indian Call Center Agent named “Matt” who in the end did the right thing.

And finally, to top off the last couple of weeks, we are currently knee deep in a huge landscape project at home and seeing the yard in disarray it’s also become a source of stress for me.

And now that I’m 2 for 2 in wearing out welcomes…  I’m going to take a nap, just as soon as Quinn does.

On a lighter note…  Please check out my daughters impersonation of Billy Idol.

This impromptu photo op was taken in the span of 1 minute, which is exactly the length of Quinn’s attention span for this sort of thing.

On a side note: look at how well she’s sitting up, albeit with the help of her hands, and in the security of the corner of our chair.

At Quinn’s 4 month check-up we saw one of the Nurse Practitioners at the clinic.  She did the normal poke, prode and listen…  And then followed everything up with some general questions… to ensure that our perfect little girl is developing as she should. I eagerly explained that our little one was definitely teething… how she is drooling incessantly and biting on ANYTHING she can get her slippery drool covered fingers on. I also explained that at times it’s clear she’s in pain…  as she’ll just shriek out in pain and shove her hand in her mouth.

The Nurse looked at me (like every other NOOB parent they see) and plainly said, “She’s not teething.  4 month old’s drool.  She’s not teething unless you see teeth…

I called B.S. so fast… In my head. How dare she question my MOTHERLY INSTINCTS.  Of course my daughter’s teething! However in my most passive and insecure tone, I simply agreed with her and began second guessing this whole teething phenomena.

However, I feel fully vindicated. My child has not cut ONE tooth, but TWO TEETH… AT THE SAME TIME. TAKE THAT NURSE RATCHED! And what a good little girl Quinn is. Working day and night to get those teeth to the surface. Living with the throbbing pain of them charging their way to the surface. And can I just tell you how cute they are?!?! Those two little toofies… So folks, worry not; my motherly instincts are pumpin’ strong through these veins. Nurse Ratched ain’t got nuthin’ on me!