To Sleep Or Not To Sleep

Our sleep/play schedule has been a little off the past couple weeks.  Baby A's learning spurt has also been on the rise (kinda like a growth spurt).  Soo....the few (albeit long) naps we've had have been few and far between...  And with the move, needless to say, I crave every nap she can get in.  Usually, Baby A absolutely HAS to nurse to sleep.  This afternoon, however, I was getting slightly annoyed at her new game of nursing, then crawling around and playing, like she's not tired at all.  There have been a couple previous times I have tried to escape before she falls asleep (to no avail).  Today, I tried it again, and surprisingly it worked!  I walked around the house for about 10 minutes and didn't hear a peep.  I was actually a little worried, so I checked on her, and she was passed out.  :-)

Because of her 2+ hour nap, it took her a little while to start showing signs it was time for bed.  Unfortunately, not even the bedtime routine could make her calm down.  She resisted sleep until around 1030.....(normal bedtime is around 730).  At one point I tried the same method of leaving her to fall asleep on her own.  It didn't work the second time...  In fact, she was actually a bit more clingy than normal, finally falling asleep drooped across my stomach.

I don't really understand what the difference was, as she seemed content for me to leave at nap time.  Maybe she senses that naps are quite short, where bedtime goes for a while.  Or maybe she's becoming afraid of the dark? (Except it wasn't quite dark out when I left the room.)

Who knows.  One day she will be secure enough to fall asleep like a big girl.  Until then, I'm content to have extended downtime with her (even if it's boring or annoying).

Sleep Talking

LOL
Baby A talks in her sleep, just like daddy!
:-D

Graduation...

...to sitting like a big girl in the stroller!

The jogger still looks like it swallows her alive (we tried once before, right when she was starting to sit up on her own).  :-)  She'll grow into it.

We met up with baby R and mommy at the park today.  Baby R is a few weeks older and has also graduated to sitting forward.  When we took the babies out to play, they got super excited to see each other.  It was so cute!  I doubt they actually recognized each other, as the last time we were able to hang out was almost two months ago.  I love how babies love other babies.  "Hey, you're my size!"

2nd Tooth

It hasn't hatched, yet, but you can see it!!

Attitude-wise, she hasn't been deathly cranky, like last time when we were on vacation.

What she has been, is clingy.  I left her for an hour and a half with my mom, and came back to nonstop tears and begging to be nursed.

I won't deny that it's a nice feeling to be wanted.  But, omg.

Teething

O

M

G

Teething has officially started.

That probably gives enough info about our week so far.

:-D

Honestly, I could see it being much worse.  Baby A isn't crying so much as babbling and muh-muh-muhing nonstop.  She is obviously in pain, though, and there were two nights (not tonight, thank goodness) where I had to give her acetaminophen to be able to go to sleep.

I'm not really sure what I should expect.  All I knew was that I was terrified for this phase to begin.  I am also incredibly grateful that baby A and I did not fly to join my man at his overseas job training.  If we did, we were planning on leaving today.  Terrible timing.  I'm okay playing this out here.  I know, Not what you were expecting to hear.  But really, would you want to travel with a teething infant?

My man will be back in less than 4 weeks for a visit!!

Please, oh please bring back one of the chargers so I can use the camera again :-)

(the camera on my oh-so-outdated phone is less than gratifying...)

Changing Taste Buds

Baby A's taste for food has been constantly changing.  She is growing pickier every day.  She loves food SO MUCH.  However, the baby food sometimes just doesn't kick it for her.  She actually doesn't care so much for super sweet food, like applesauce.  She loves peas and green beans.  The more fresh or more warm the food, the better.  Even better is when the food comes directly from another person's plate.  And no matter how much she likes the food, please don't give it too more than once or twice in a day: she will refuse it until she forgets she's tried it before.

:-D

She is starting to show signs of teething, but with no teeth yet, I don't feel comfortable giving her super solid food, like whole green beans.  No matter how soft I can get them, they don't dissolve in your mouth. 

HOWEVER, today, we discovered cantaloupe!  Bananas (which make constipation--boo!) and avocados only go so far.  Even though quite sweet, when ripe, it is soft enough for baby A to gum to death.

:-)

Score!

First Signs

I know it can be hard to tell what or even if a baby is signing, well, anything, but tonight baby A gave the definite sign for milk!

I am so completely stoked!  It's not the first sign she's 'made', but it's a pretty important sign.

I'm praying super hard that she will keep using it.

It makes life so much simpler when you can communicate.  :-)

Sitting Up

Oo! Oo!

So baby A has been sitting up better (on her own!) without toppling over!

She can't pull herself up to a sitting position, yet (obviously), but if I set her down, now she stays!

I'm super excited, because the more she sits up (and rolls over), the more she can do more things by herself!  This frees me up to get more things done around the house. (Yes!)

(Maybe soon she'll start crawling!  For those who may think this will make things worse, I challenge you to watch baby A from sunrise to sunset.  See how much you get done around my house, then we'll talk.)

Drama Queen

Today was baby A's 6-month check-up.  Along with check-ups come vaccinations.  And taking temperatures through the tush.  And getting weighed.

Now, baby A's never cared for their way of taking temps, but she has dealt with it okay.

Today, maybe she just needed more sleep last night, but she freaked out during temp-time.  Then got mad when laid on the scale.  She wiggled so much that we couldn't get an accurate read until she calmed down a little.  She was pretty much only consoled as long as I held her.

Anytime I put her down, anywhere, she would instantly start screaming.

The shots were obviously the biggest deal.

After I got her dressed to leave, I took off my sweatshirt, and she started crying more.  I just hope she didn't think it was my time for shots... :-(

Poor thing...

She took a couple good naps later today, thank goodness.

Life is amazing after a nap.  :-)

(Not so much queen drama!)

Foot Fetish

I know it sounds incredibly gross, but I think it's terribly adorable when babies chew on their feet.

Baby A has finally started sucking feet!!!!!!

I'm sure it's mostly my fault.  :-)

I play with her feet and guide her feet that way when cleaning her nappy area.

This past week, she's been pulling them closer herself, and in the past couple of days has started chewing on them.  Even when they're clad with socks.

A couple of weeks ago I found the cutest little pair of crocs for her. (now I'm not really into baby shoes--as baby A tends to kick them off within seconds of putting them on, but I couldn't resist--and these stay on relatively well)  Apparently baby A is fond of the crocs as well, as whenever she wears them, she attacks them with force (with her hands and mouth).

I think my little foot fetish-er is cute  :-)

Anti-Social

As much as baby A LOVES to be social, there are just some times that she does not.

Who can blame her? There are times I'd rather be home in sweats than out having look my best and chat it up with strangers (which she does on a daily basis).

We went to watch cousin M's ballet recital today.  Go M!

All went well until 2 minutes into the first performance (a good 3 performances before M's group was on).

Baby A was little keen on the darkness of the concert hall, and more upset by the loud music.

The amount of time it took to calm her down outside, one would have thought a ghost had frightened her or maybe that she was teething.

Whatever the reason, we sat the rest of the performances outside the hall, and sometimes outside the building.

Yay! for being smart to carpool, so that I couldn't leave and instead entertain a cranky baby for 30ish minutes.  This may seem little time for you...I handle cranky minutes all day, and have many tricks up my sleeve already...most of them laying at home...or in the bag I left beside my dad back in the concert hall...which also held my phone.

:-D

Oh well, lesson learned.

No more concert halls.

This goes on the list along with no more: eating sit-down in restaurants, leaving baby A with others for more than 2 hours, eating/drinking caffeine past noon, wearing hair down, ...etc.

Socialize Till You Drop

Baby A is a socialite.  There is no denying it.

When I finally pried her out of bed at 8:30 this morning, she went almost non-stop until bedtime (19:30).

There were a couple of 5 minute naps in the car, maybe 2 minutes more at auntie L's, and say 30 minutes more at home.

In between these naps?  We jogged with miss L and little O.  We met up with some mommy's for a 2hr-ish play-date.  We hung out with auntie L, uncle D, and cousins X and M.  We cleaned up a little around the house, ate dinner, had some mommy-and-me time, and took our night-night bath.

I'm exhausted. (granted this is a few hours later---my 'me' time)

I honestly don't know how she lasted so long.

I tried to help her sleep a couple times.  And she usually naps in the jogging stroller.

No more naps around friends.

Friends are interesting.

Friends are fun to play with.  Grab at.  Blow bubbles at.  Giggle and coo at.

I think maybe tomorrow I may need a nap though, then maybe we can play the game of 'see who can sleep the longest'.

Gloating

I don't normally like to gloat.  However, having a baby has made me proud on numerous occasions.

Today, a lady told me that baby A seemed very alert.  She actually thought that baby A was 9 or 10 months old.  She's only 6 months.  :-)

That's my social butterfly, baby A.

gDiapers

So I had my first cloth diapering meet up.

:-D

I heart gDiapers!

My dear friend M and her little baby A (same name as my baby A! just spelled differently, and about 4 months younger) have decided to give cloth diapering a go.

Now, I'm no expert in cloth diapering.  I'm learning as we're going.  And every day is a new learning experience.  :-)

BUT, so far, I love it.

Every family has diapers that work best for them (and it could possibly be disposables!).  I am under the firm belief that cloth diapers work best when you have the style that fits your family best.  GDiapers fit our family amazingly.  (I believe I've raved about them before, so I won't go on.  But if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask!)

Dear M was very curious about cloth diapers in general and more specifically in gDiapers (when I showed baby A's to her).  I sent her home with our entire stash of small gDiapers as well as a couple other styles baby A has grown out of (always best to experiment!).

Here's to dear M and family finding what works best for them!

My camera still doesn't work, so this isn't my baby A-but still a cute pic!

4 Month Check-up

Baby A had her check-up today, and man was she a trooper!

Well...even with the initial crying with the immunizations, she got over it and was her smiling self in no time.  :-)

She's always a total hit with the nurses, kind of like those baby boys that everyone says will break women's hearts. LOL

At least she knows how to charm people into smiling.  :-D

Man, and she's a big one.  Only 4 months, and she's 26 inches long.  She's not fat by any means, but mommy's milk is definitely acting like steroids.  :-D

I'm not a bragger...but today, I'll be proud.  :-)

Girl Stewie

Besides calling her the Demon Child (because she's so incredibly sweet!), my man has also labeled baby A as the girl version of Stewie.  Really, though, she is.  Well, it seems, sometimes....

Reason for claim to fame?  She literally scratched out part of my eye.  She was sick, granted.  We had just tried snuffing saline drops up her nose and suctioning the residue, true.  Anyone would hate that.  She swung her arms violently.  A mad woman!  My eyelids did not react fast enough, and then one of her fingernails took out, what the optometrist said was, the largest chunk of eye he'd ever seen.

In reality, there are something like four or five layers to your eye (I am not an eye expert).  Baby A sunk through the 1st layer, stopped when she hit the 2nd layer (which is incredibly tough, like teflon or something), and scooped across.  From the picture he took, it looked like the entire bottom-nose corner of my eye was missing.  Fortunately, the iris was spared.

I should have asked for the picture of my eye.  It was really cool!

(I was that little girl who liked to dig in dirt and collect worms with the boys.)

It's taken a week or so for the soreness and inflammation to fully go away, but it barely took three days to heal enough so they could take the contact bandage off.  Go eye!  

The optometrist also said that they see people all the time for scratches from babies and dogs...and sometimes cats and mascara wands.  :-)

I shouldn't laugh...

...I learned my lesson.

Diaper Bag!

I was given the idea this week to go through my diaper bag and spill the contents--so I can report to other mothers/mothers-to-be what I carry--to exchange ideas.

(I am on another computer without my pictures...when I can get my computer back online, I will try to post the pictures of my bags.)

So, here is my diaper bag.

Well, the two of them.

Currently, I'm using a small day-backpacking backpack.  The larger messenger-style bag does get carried on occasion, but I found I fill it up too much.  It can get really heavy, and I have lost many things in its vast depths.

So, I'll start with the backpack.

Inside the main pocket, I carry two smaller pockets; one for extra clothing (two onesies, one pair of pants, two pairs of socks), one for emergency needs (alcohol swabs, nail clippers, etc.).  I also stuff my nursing cover and any extra items in this pocket.

In the open pocket I stack a travel changing pad (with wipes and extra gdiaper plastic pockets/disposable diapers), a larger pocket with cloth diaper inserts, and a wet bag.  Sometimes, I also put my personal nail file and extra disposable diapers/swimmers in this pocket.

In the smaller front pocket, I carry baby-safe hand lotion, baby bum lotion, an extra set of keys, two extra gdiapers, and extra items as I see fit.

In the small outer pocket on the front, I carry a pair of socks (these usually get worn as gloves if it's cold, or if baby A starts scratching herself).  I also stuff the car keys and/or cell in this pocket when out.

In the water pack compartment on the back (using an actual water pack might be nice...) I stick extra cloth diaper inserts.

In the cinches along the sides, I roll up a blanket and a sling (baby carrier), and put one on each side.  If the wet bag gets too big (or if I have to use a plastic walmart bag), I'll tie it to one of the cinches.

In the elastic straps on the main straps, I pull a burp rag through at least one.

If you can't tell, I'm an organization freak...

The larger diaper bag tends to get very disorganized--although I have more individual pockets for the many random items now, that going back to it may be easier.  The one nice thing about the larger diaper bag, is there is a computer sleeve, which I use for papers picked up at the pediatricians office.  It also has more pockets, which I use for things like hand sanitizer and and small first aid kit (with band-aids, etc.).

Et, la.

I hope this has given you a few ideas.  If you have any ideas of your own, please feel free to share!

1st Museum Tour

Yay! for free first Sundays at the Hunter Museum!

Mom and I took baby A there for her first introduction to the world of art.

Oh believe you me, there will be many more :-)

Already a people watcher, she was in heaven (as long as we kept moving).

Not to mention all the 'pictures' to look at (she tended to like the more colorful ones, of course).

She just chilled in the swing, gnawing on either one of her hands or the swing (slobber everywhere!).

She was so content that one of the curators was fascinated by her, saying she was the most well-behaved baby she'd ever seen.

I'd like to invite her to my house around nap time--or anywhere around nap time.

Need of sleep can make a child not-so-content.

But, yes, I was so super proud of how well she did in a museum setting.

I'd like to hope that that behavior will stick.

:-D

Squeals

Baby A found her vocal cords several weeks ago--which is really cool.
Until this past week or so when she's been discovering how high her vocal cords can go.
Our ears hurt.
lol
Oh man, this gets better, right????

Toys With Batteries...

...can be really annoying to fix.

I am well aware of the safety features of screwing batteries in hard to reach places.

But ........... they make me want to say not-so-nice things sometimes.

Baby A's walker has a sound toy that needs its sound to work.

I've been putting it off for ages...because I have to go find the screwdriver, take part of the tray apart, and then put it back together after switching batteries (not to mention we were out of batteries-but not much of an incentive to hurry and buy them).

It's finally done, though not without getting battery shavings in my eye from having to lie on my back under the walker and dig the batteries out with the screwdriver (at a very awkward angle).

(I should think that would be a safety hazard to the parent...)

Oye vay