Happy Holidays!

We are getting ready to hop on our flight back to Maine. I cannot wait to see our families, but the flights and the bitter cold have me nervous. December has been a great month for Paige. She continues to use her potty (albeit somewhat sporadically) and has mastered walking whilst holding onto someone's fingers. She can really move quite fast at this point. She loves to roll back and forth, but still doesn't try to use it as a means to get from point a to point b. She is also babbling away and starting to 'jabber' a bit as well.

Its been an incredible year, and we have a whole lot to be thankful for.

First Words?

Paige is a very verbal gal, and has been babbling for months. In the last couple of months she has started imitating vocal inflections. Then, last weekend she started doing something very cool. We were in the back seat on the way back from our friends' house in Truckee and Paige was babbling her usual "blah blah blah, ba ba ba." I started making the sounds she was making, but changing them slightly to bebe (baby) and bibi (bye bye). Paige imitated the sounds I made. Yesterday and today when I waived and said bye bye, she waived and said bye bye too. Then, this afternoon when I went in to pick her up after her nap, I said hi and she said hi right back. It was amazing. I realize these probably don't count as actual words, just like when she calls out Mamama and night, she's not really calling to me; but this is close. She understands that "hi" and "bye bye" go with waiving because she waives when she says them. I am positive she does not realize that hi is a greeting and bye bye is what you say when you or someone else leaves. This is a video of Paige chilling on her potty and waiving bye bye.

The other very silly thing Paige has started to do is "smile" for the camera. I put smile in quotes because the face she makes is hilarious. She squints her eyes (in anticipation of the flash) and gives a giant toothless smile. She LOVES the camera.

A Musical Genius

Since her birth, Paige has responded very positively to music. She sang along with me when she was smaller, and still smiles and calms when I sing her "You Are My Sunshine." Lately, she has been very excited by both musical instruments as well as toys that play music. Her favorite is a demo of Christmas tunes that her little toy keyboard plays. First is a video of her insanely funny reaction to the keyboard demo followed by a video of her playing the maraca.

November

Paige is 8.5 months and recently celebrated her first Thanksgiving. November was an exciting month for our little Peach. She ran in her first Turkey Trot, began using her potty, and began walking assisted by either Mommy or Daddy. She also started playing games such as patty cake, peek-a-boo, and a funny little chase game where she helps either Mommy or Daddy chase or be chased by the other.

Its amazing to see her changing and growing. She is still babbling away and using Mama and Papa although they aren't actually associated with me or Dave. She is pointing and turning pages in her books. She also gets very interested in tiny details such as a knot in a string or a scratch on her mat, and will spend several minutes quietly examining whatever it is. She is also waiving and clapping, and one of the highlights of the month for me was walking in after a day at work and seeing Paige start laughing, waiving to me and then clapping.

Oh yes, and the potty. Dave and I were amazed with the whole concept of elimination communication when we saw it in effect with Sora. We loved the idea, but never really got past making sound effects when Paige pooped or peed. Sarah told me that she had a little potty that she put under Sora while she was breastfeeding, so I bought Paige a little potty. It is red and adorable, and Paige initially hated it and cried when we put her on it. Obviously, I did not want Paige to be traumatized by the potty, so I ditched the idea. Then, about a month ago our nanny started putting Paige on the potty and reading to her or playing with her. Paige didn't mind it, and over the last few weeks has started going to the bathroom on her potty pretty consistently. She still goes in her diaper as well, but she is pooping and peeing in the potty every day. I have to say, Paige on her potty is about the cutest thing ever.

On the crawling and teeth front, we still have neither. Paige is objecting to being on her belly less, and is raising her hips and doing the Cobra, but she prefers holding on to my fingers and walking around the house. As for the teeth, I've been made fun of enough for my 5 months worth of false alarms. I am now keeping my mouth shut until the child has a mouth full of teeth.

Like Mother Like Daughter

I came across some old photos when I was last back in Maine. After several months of failing to see any resemblance between Paige and either me or Dave, it was fun to see some photos of me as a baby. I'll let others judge for themselves, but I think I see some resemblance. I also came across a photo of my mother with my older sister at the same age I am now.

A Change I Can Believe In

It is a pivotal moment in American history. Tonight we elected a man who is not just an African American or a Democrat, but a leader who believes our children deserve better than the world as it is now, and who offers us the hope that change is on the way. This is a photo of my little future leader of America on her very first election day. Some day I will get to tell her that in her own little way she helped make history on this incredible day :)

Happy Halloween!

After a bout with a very nasty stomach bug, all of us recovered in time to enjoy some Halloween festivities. I was terrified I would not have the opportunity to dress Paige in her very sweet jack-o-lantern costume, but thanks to an impromptu get-together with some other parents and babies, Paige got to fashion her very first Halloween costume after all.

In developmental news, Paige is still not crawling and still not attempting to crawl. She also still has no teeth. However, since recovering from the stomach flu, she has developed a bit of separation anxiety. She is still a very social baby, but it is interesting to see her developing definite preferences for people. She also stares at people she does not know (or even people she does know, but who are not Mom or Dad) for a very long time before (maybe) smiling at them. She is much quicker to smile and flirt if I am holding her.

In extremely positive news, she has started taking longer naps, which is incredible. Many days she takes two one hour naps. Unless or until you have had a baby who does not nap, you cannot imagine the wonder of actually having a baby free hour to get things done. I used to get a half hour if I was lucky. Many days she took a handful of 15-20 minute naps. Now, I can actually put her down in her crib when she seems tired (but is still wide awake), give her the little pink blanket she has adopted as a "lovey" and she puts herself to sleep. Its amazing. Night sleep is still hit or miss. Last night she woke up twice. A few days ago she was up every 1-2 hours. Still, Dave and I have worked out a system whereby he takes nighttime wake ups prior to 2am and I take them after. This has allowed both of us to get enough sleep that even on her worst nights, we are both still able to function the next day. Its not perfect, but it works for us.

Autumn In SF

The months have absolutely flown by. Its hard to believe our little Peach is 7.5 months old! Due to a horrific battle with the stomach flu (which we all lost, badly) poor Paige missed her first ever Halloween party, and her poor mommy missed out on her most legitimate opportunity to dress Paige in her costume. Admittedly, I'm crazy for the holidays, and having a baby to dress up might just add a whole new level to the insanity. To get in the mood for all things autumn, we took Paige to the pumpkin patch on 7th Avenue and Lawton. Its basically a vacant lot where they put down some hay bails, a bunch of pumpkins, and some scarecrows, and it is magnificent. I have been dying to go for years, and wasted no time taking Paige over for some photo opps.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

One of the many things I love about San Francisco is the wealth of cheap and free musical entertainment. One of the highlights of our year is the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. Dave and I have made the trek every year we've lived in SF, and seen a lot of great music, but we agreed this year was our favorite. We didn't run around trying to see all of the musicians we loved playing at various stages, and as a result we missed some amazing acts. Instead, we stayed in one spot each day, set up our little leaf shade, and played with the babies. It was a great weekend. On a side note, Paige is at the point now where she is really grabbing at things she wants, including other people's heads. Before, we always joked that she was like a gentle giant, much bigger than the other babies, but very gentle with them. Now the gentle is gone, and I actually have to worry about her man-handling the smaller babies, and the toddlers and adults for that matter.

Starting Solids

We got the go ahead from Paige's pediatrician to start solids at around 5 months given her advanced size and weight and because she was already sitting up by herself unassisted. Emotionally, I was not at all ready, so we held off until she was about 5.5 months. At that point, she was so interested in food that I finally gave in. After a few stops and starts, again mostly due to my feelings regarding Paige growing up (yes, even enough to eat food), she started in earnest at about 6 months. Some of her favorites have been pears, bananas, and sweet potatoes, but she will happily eat just about anything. This is a video of her enjoying a banana and papaya smoothie.

On Meeting Family

In August we took Paige back to Maine to visit all of the family members she had not yet met. Paige and I flew back by ourselves a week ahead of Dave and my sister Halley. It was a red-eye and I had no idea what to expect, but Paige was incredible. She was smiley and charming up until take-off and then slept for the entire flight. No one around us knew she was even there. The woman next to us was so enchanted that she held Paige for me while I ate breakfast and watched our bags when Paige had a giant poo. This girl is going places, I'm telling you. This is a clip of Paige enjoying time with her grandparents, some of her aunts and uncles, and several of her cousins. Being around all of the "bigger" kids (e.g. age 3 and up) was great for Paige. They intimidated her for about 30 seconds with all of their jumping and screaming, but after that she LOVED every second of it. Since we've been back from the trip Paige has been much more interested in bigger kids than babies. Its probably just as well since she has started being a little rough and she is about double the size of all the other babies :)

She Loves to Sing

Paige has been very verbal since day one. She has made lots of sounds, and seems eager to communicate. The best was when we realized that she liked to sing along with us when we sang to her. Here is a clip of her very pretty singing voice. Paige is about 12 weeks old. Please ignore her mama's off-tune warbling, she's a bit rusty ;)

The Baby Monster Loves The Bath!

Paige took an immediate affinity to the bath, and once she figured out that she was the one doing the splashing, there was no stopping her! This is Paige at about 12 weeks splashing away.

Let's Go To the Park

I was up and about quickly after Paige was born. In hindsight, probably a bit too quickly. Due to the fact that I was totally stir crazy, we also had Paige out of the house and interacting with the world by about two weeks old. At four weeks she got to experience the wonder of Golden Gate Park.

She's Cross-Eyed And Bald

So starting at about 3 weeks, Paige went through kind of an aesthetically difficult stage. She was cross-eyed, she started losing all of her hair (in a male pattern baldness kind of way), and developed acne. However, she also started smiling. It was a big, real smile; but thanks to the disbelievers who kept telling me it was gas, I remained unsure until about week 4 when I got a smile so big and so sweet it made me cry. Here is a little clip of Paige at 3 weeks chatting with her Papa.

Paige May Crawl After All

As much as I like to joke about the fact that Paige prefers to lounge and sit over actually moving, she is actually working on crawling. She seems to work on each of the skills in stages. For example, she has been working on the leg motions and strength by very slowly turning herself from her belly to her back. She lays her head on her outstretched arm and then pushes herself over. Its all very slow and controlled. She has also been working on the Cobra yoga position. Today she was trying to put it all together. Here is a little video. The harder she worked at moving forward the further back she ended up pushing herself. She was so frustrated, poor girl.

Our Angel

From the very first day, her sucking instinct was very strong. She was and is the very definition of a comfort nurser. For the first week she spent most of her waking moments nursing and then fussing because of gas. My mom was the first to give her a pacifier. I hate pacifiers and wanted to be upset, but then I looked at Paige resting so peacefully and sucking away. Needless to say, but 3 weeks old we gave in to the evil pacifier and Nuk became a regular word in our vocabulary.

The Swaddle

Paige spent her first several weeks sleeping on my chest. It wasn't until the pediatrician scolded me and pointed out that her sleeping on me wasn't a lasting solution that we really gave the swaddle a chance. While she easily busted out of most of the blankets, the velcro on this bad boy did the trick. We affectionately referred to it as her straight-jacket.

She's Just Tan

Paige developed jaundice in her first few days of life. In the fog of exhaustion I thought she just had her daddy's coloring. In hindsight and based on the photographic evidence, she was bright yellow. Thank goodness for my mother and my midwife. It was nothing a few sunbaths couldn't cure, but it was my first humbling 'first time mom' blunder.

The First Days

I was born at home at a time when the idea of homebirth was was still virtually unheard of. As a child, I was always ambivalent about the circumstances surrounding my birth. It was yet another thing (and there was a long list) that made my sisters and me different from the other kids. It was not until I became pregnant. and actually rather late in my pregnancy, that I began to really consider and embrace my own passage into the world. Once I began to consider a homebith as an option for Paige's birth, I immediately felt a peace I had not felt for most of the pregnancy. I did not have to deal with the fear over the 'safety' of a homebirth that many expectant mothers experience, because I innately knew the birth would be safe.

Although in the end Paige was born at St. Luke's, I did get to experience 36 hours of laboring at home. I passed through the excitement of the early contractions, and breathed and meditated through the intense contractions that accompanied dialation. Unfortunately, after 36 hours of labor, 6+ hours of vomiting, and a less than relieving stint in the birthing tub, I remained only 5cm dialated. In the end, my labor was 56 hours. It turned out the little lass was posterior, which caused the labor to stall. Repeatedly. I made a calculated decision to transfer at the 36 hour point because I knew I only had a finite reserve of strength. I had been vomiting long enough that I was dehydrated and could not hold anything down long enough to accumulate any calories. I knew I could either continue on at home and risk being unable to push, or transfer to the hospital for some pain relief while I continued to dialated. It wasn't an easy decision, and there were many tears shed. I really was mourning the homebirth I was so looking forward to, but I knew the decision was the right one.

The staff at St. Luke's is incredible. The midwives there checked me when we finally got checked in a situated and somehow in all of the hustle and bustle of traveling the 5 blocks to the hospital I had increased to 7cm. At that point, the labor nurse and midwife, knowing that I was a homebirth transfer, actually encouraged me to continue laboring naturally. Feeling rejuvinated by their confidance, I labored for another 4 hours with no pain medication. Sadly, I did not progress at all during that time and when they began talking about pitocin, I knew there was no way I could continue without some kind of rest. At that point I had been up for two straight days, besides the 15 seconds I was passing out in between contractions (it really was passing out, my mother had to hold my head up in the birth tub because it would go under water).

After receiving the epidural I slept for several hours. My labor continued along slowly while I managed to sleep. Due to an unfortunate timing problem with the anestheseologist it wore off just as I entered into transition, so I started vomiting again, and was on my back on the table, but I give them a pass, it was a busy night.

Not surprisingly, after all of this, Paige appeared with a great deal of molding. Although we (of course) found her beautiful, there were no disillusions, she looked like an alien. Her hands and feet were giant and then there was that cone-head...

Despite my fears over the effects of the epidural, Paige began rooting the second she was placed on my chest. I was so drugged up and exhausted I could not provide much help which resulted in hickeys on my breast where the poor girl was trying to latch on. The good news for both of us was that when the epidural wore off about an hour later, I got to breast feed her in a quiet dark room. It was in that quiet moment I knew I was in love.

The Beginning

Paige Ellen Snyder, named for my grandmother Ellen Miller. My grandma died when I was 21, shortly before my college graduation. In her last few years senility set in and the woman who was once a teacher and taught me so much could no longer remember whether she just made coffee. Despite losing much of her short term memory, she remembered my graduation and asked my uncle and mother to drive her from Maine to Vermont to attend. She passed away in her home a week before I graduated. My grandmother's death was the first I experienced and I was deeply affected. Although I had planned to continue living in Burlington, Vermont, I suddenly doubted my choice. When my mother asked if I would consider returning to Maine to live with my aunt for a short time until I knew for sure what I wanted to do, I agreed. Two days after returning to Maine, I met the love of my life. Dave and I often talk about my grandmother and our mutual belief that she had a hand in our union. It seemed only fitting that our daughter share her name.

In August of this year we brought Paige to Maine to meet her family. It was at this visit that my mother told me that she met a woman who claimed to be a medium. My mother told the woman that I was coming to visit with my daughter (my mother's first grandchild). The woman replied that my mother's mother, the same grandmother who brought Dave and I together, was always with Paige. She also said that Paige's generation will be a generation of grace and change.

Paige was born at 2:15am on March 15, 2008. She was 8lbs 1 oz and 21.5 inches long.

Where have I been?

Paige Ellen Snyder is now almost seven months old. Recently, my friend Sam asked for Paige's blog address so she could link it to her daughter Silver's. I'm guessing she mistakenly believed Paige had a blog because I send around online photo albums so frequently. This mistake led me to wonder why Paige doesn't have a blog. After all, I love to talk about her, she is one of the funniest people I know, and I know I'm never going to get around to making that Baby Book my mother told me to make so I would never forget all of Paige's precious first moments.

Since I'm already 6 3/4 months behind in documenting this amazing little girl's life, and since the only thing I seem to be able to do consistently is take ridiculously large numbers of photographs, I decided to make Paige's blog largely a photographic one. Enjoy.