our week in review

It's been awhile since I've written--our schedule has been a little off this week since Daddy's been gone and we've been with Grandma and Grandpa, so I haven't been able to update, but here it goes...

Sunday Daddy left and baby and Mommy spent the morning getting ready to leave for Grandma's. They came in the afternoon and drove us up to their house (since Daddy had the only vehicle in which her car seat fits!). She wasn't too bad in the car, though she cried some until she fell asleep. That night she slept well, even in a pack 'n play. Grandma got up with her so Mommy could get a full night's sleep. Like heaven!!!

Monday Grandma and I took her shopping. She didn't last long--lots of fussing, and a HUGE scream-fest on the way home. I sat next to her in the back because I was trying to feed her, but she was so mad she wouldn't take much. She looked up with me with huge tears rolling down her bright red face, as if saying, "Mommy, why are you doing this to me???" I so wanted to take her out and hold her. I wish the car seat didn't make her so, so mad. I spent the evening on the computer researching convertible car seats! I ended up ordering one the next day. After it arrives we'll see if it makes a difference from her infant carrier (that is, if we can figure out how to install it!!)

Tuesday we didn't do much. She didn't sleep well AT ALL that day. I had forgotten to take the stroller with me, so Grandma bought an umbrella stroller to have around anyway, so we took her for lots of walks in the driveway in that, trying to keep her quiet when nothing else would satisfy her.

Wednesday we came back home. She wasn't too bad in the car, though she screamed again for 10 or 15 minutes at one point. 10 or 15 minutes isn't long, unless you're sitting right next to your screaming daughter and can't do anything about it, and then it's an eternity. It's been much easier to take care of her here, with all of her equipment (swing, exersaucer, jumpster, etc) to keep her quiet, though it was nice to relax at Grandma and Grandpa's house, too.

Today, Thursday, Grandma kept baby much of the day while Mommy went to appointments and ran errands. She was a good girl, and it was nice to get out a little bit on my own.

That's about it! No new tricks to report... she's still very into putting her hands together and then pulling them up to her mouth. She's laughing more, especially at Grandma's antics, and she's been full of smiles all week.

Daddy comes home tomorrow night. Hooray! We miss him, and I know he'll be excited to see his little girl and see how much she's grown.

well THAT'S new!!

I just peeked in on my little sweet pea and found her asleep on her side! That's definitely a new development. She's been turning over when she wakes up for a couple of weeks now, but apparently she now turns over part way in her sleep. It's fine with me....as long as she stays asleep! I sleep on my side, so I can't blame her for wanting to try it!

Another new development is bringing her hands together. She just learned this yesterday, and did it over and over and over (and over and over and over). After she brings them together she tries to bring both hands to her mouth, usually unsuccessfully. She's gotten quite talented at bringing one hand to her mouth and sucking on four or even all five fingers at a time, but she still needs some work in order to fit all ten in her mouth (though I wouldn't put it past her!).

And one more trick she's learned is to prop herself up on her forearms when she's on her tummy. I was a little worried about her tummy skills, because everytime she's on her tummy she thinks she's supposed to go to sleep. She lays her head down if she's tired or fusses if she's not. She doesn't understand that sometimes it's playtime on her tummy. But yesterday I propped her up and she stayed there and looked around for awhile. I was pleased to see that she's capable. Hopefully she'll start doing it on her own soon.

This is one strong little girl! She's almost sitting up on her own. And last night Daddy was holding her while she stood up in front of him and he let go for a second (much to my dismay!!!!!) and she stood for a second on her own. Her legs are strong and she loves to stand when you're holding her. That's why she loves her jumpster so much--she's standing. She hasn't figured out the jumping part, but it keeps her happy to stand, so I'm satisfied with that.

Daddy left early this morning and won't be back until Friday. Grandma and Grandpa will be here in a few hours to take us to their house for a few days. I'm looking forward to it (for many reasons...not the least of which is because my mom often gets up with the baby in the middle of the night and I get to take a Tylenol PM and sleep ALL NIGHT!!!!) I should mention, though, that she slept through the night last night, again, so I can't complain!!!

Side sleeping must be over.....I hear her talking. I'd better go...............

ticklish?

Last night as I was giving her a bath, I lifted up her double chin (or is it a triple chin? It's hard to tell...there are several layers!) to clean underneath. As I did that, she laughed. She hardly ever laughs! So I tried it again, and she laughed again. My thinking was that she's becoming ticklish! It was so cute. Daddy came over and tried to get her to laugh again when he did it. It didn't work. She only did it those two times, so maybe it was just a coincidence that the laughs occured when I touched her chin(s). I guess time will tell.

Daddy leaves tomorrow for West Virginia, taking the middle schoolers from our church on a mission trip. That would leave Mommy and baby to fend for ourselves, but thankfully Grandma and Grandpa are going to take care of us!! They're coming tomorrow to get us and take us up to their house for a few days, and then they're bringing us back later in the week and staying so Mommy can go to a bunch of appointments and not have to take baby! Daddy comes back next Friday. I know he'll miss his girls, and we'll miss him, too.

Here's a picture of Daddy and his girl.

arranged marriage?

So are marriages appropriate to arrange at 3 1/2 months of age? Here she is with her intended........

This is the son of my dearest friend. He's 2 1/2 weeks older than she is, and already trying to grab her hand (of course, he was also flailing his arms and slapped her in the head, so who knows if his intentions are honorable!)!! We took them to "baby laptime" at the library today, where they sing songs and read stories to infants up to 18 months.

What a precious pair.

playing dress up

Okay, I admit it, I love seeing how my sweet girl looks in different clothes (even though I know she'll look cute--she looks cute in everything, but then, I'm rather biased!!!). It's like I'm a little girl again playing dress up with my dolls, but she's my real live baby doll! (There, I've confessed my guilty pleasure....) :)

So this morning I found an outfit I forgot she had--it had been her cousin's (she has a lot of her cousin's clothes, which is such a blessing!). I tried it on to see if it still fit, because it's 0-3 months and she's almost outgrown most of those. But it fit, and then I remembered that it had a matching hat, and I tried that on as well. The result was so laughably adorable that I had to take pictures. It just makes me smile every time I look at it. Enjoy!!!

three months old

Last Sunday she was three months old. People always ask how old she is, and I never know if I should say "fourteen weeks" or "three months." She's a week older than three months, but fourteen weeks is so confusing, and it only gets worse as she gets older. When she's 6 and a half years old should I go around saying she's seventy-eight months old? We were discussing today at what point do you stop saying "X weeks" and just refer to months and eventually years. Puzzling.......

So speaking of three months, each month on her "birthday" we've taken a picture in the same chair, and will continue to do that every month this year, and then we'll probably start doing it every year on her birthday after that. So look at the pictures from the first three months. Isn't it amazing how much she's grown??? (The top two pictures are months 1 and 3, and the bottom picture is two months) Notice that her facial expression hasn't changed much......

growth spurt?

I'm wondering if she's going through a growth spurt. I just read they're common at three months. She's waking up WAY before she's scheduled to, and nothing will satisfy her except a bottle. Consequently she's eating at least one extra bottle per day.

This would be fine, except that eating is a chore for both of us. She struggles with back arching, sputtering, and problems getting her mouth attached to the bottle the right way. I struggle with keeping the bottle in her mouth as she constantly moves her head and hands around, often knocking the bottle out of her mouth, just when she's finally starting sucking on it well. I thought feeding time was supposed to be a special "bonding" time between mother and child?? Well, our feeding times are more like wrestling matches than cuddly bonding time. And adding one extra "match" into my day as she goes through a growth spurt isn't much fun. Lucky for her she makes up for it in smiles and coos at other times during the day! I still think I'll keep her, as frustrating as eating time can be sometimes!

Here's her newest toy: a jumpster--you know, those things that hang from the doorway and they jump up and down in them. She's not quite sure what to think of it yet. I think she likes it, probably because she gets to be upright, but she's still too small for it, so she doesn't last long in it without fussing, and she doesn't understand the jumping concept yet. But she turns herself around with her feet and enjoys chewing on the side of it. If nothing else, it keeps her happy for 10 or 15 minutes.

quite a gymnast

At three months old our little girl is already a gymnastic prodigy. This morning I fed her at 6 AM, put her back to bed, and went back to sleep myself. An hour or so later I woke up to the sounds of her "talking" in her crib. I went in and found her on her back again, but this time instead of crying, she was talking to her mobile. And yesterday evening I went in and found her turned completely around with her head at the opposite end of the crib from where I had placed it. No wonder I could constantly feel her moving around inside me while I was pregnant--this girl never stops!

She gave us quite a speech last night. She was in a great mood before bedtime last night, and was just jabbering away. We were able to catch a lot of it on video, without her seeing the camera. As soon as Daddy moved closer to her, though, and she saw the camera, she stopped talking. She must be camera shy, but she's certainly not shy around us.

an interruption

We came home from lunch out with some teachers I used to work with, and I put her right to bed because she hadn't slept much while we were out. She went right to sleep and slept for the first 45 minutes. Often she'll wake up a little bit after 45 minutes, fuss, and go back to sleep. However, this time I didn't hear the usual fussing, but instead some very loud crying. Unusual. I went upstairs to check on her, and found her on her back, screaming.

Wait... Let me back up... have I mentioned that she'll only sleep on her stomach? So of course when I put her to bed it was on her stomach. But I found her on her back! She flipped herself over! No wonder she woke up--what an interruption to one's sleep...flipping over for the first time in your sleep! I was excited to see that she had achieved this milestone, but she was less than thrilled, and had no qualms about telling me so. She was inconsolable for at least 15-20 minutes. Finally I found that she would sit on my lap and watch Headline News with me. While I usually don't use TV as a calming device (well, except sometimes Baby Einstein, in a fit of frustration), this really was the only thing that would work. Before too long, though, that didn't work either! I ended up having to feed her, much earlier than she was scheduled. That calmed her down for good, and she was all smiles after that, the flipping incident completely forgotten.

blowing bubbles

This is her new trick. She likes to purse her lips and blow saliva bubbles. I don't know if she's doing it on purpose because it's fun or if it's just a natural baby instinct...but it's messy! The bubbles turn into drool, which runs down her chin and into the creases of her neck! Yuck! Here's our little drooly girl. You can't really see it here, but it's there, running down the side of her face!

Speaking of bubbles, at the wedding the other day we were given a little bottle of bubbles to blow. I was holding her, so I didn't blow any, and Brian was taking a picture, so he didn't blow any, which left us with a bottle of bubbles to bring home. Yesterday I blew some for her. It was funny watching her reaction. She just stared at first, and when one landed on her face, she sucked her breath in, like she was scared, and closed her eyes really tightly. The next time I blew them, she watched them intently, and when they had all fallen and disappeared, she started kicking and waving her arms excitedly, as if shouting, "More, Mommy, more!" I blew more, and again when they were gone, she got excited. This went on for quite awhile, until I decided I had enough sticky bubble solution on my legs. I put them away for another day.

sleep, sleep, and more sleep

Oh, blessed sleep!!!!

She's slept through the night for the past three nights. Could anything be better? A happy baby whose schedule I now usually can predict and around seven hours of uninterrupted sleep at night!!!!

Yesterday was a long day--a 2+ hour trip (one way) for Daddy's friend's wedding. The wedding was at 1:30 and the reception wasn't until 6:00! We had almost four hours to kill in between, and in an unfamiliar place with a three month old who has difficulty sleeping away from her own bed, this was a difficult task. She really was as good as she could be, given the circumstances. She slept on and off in the car (she hates her car seat), and behaved VERY well during the wedding and reception, and in between as well, as we hung out at a nearby mall with some of Daddy's old friends. She reached her limit, though, around 8:30 pm, after hardly any sleep all day. We didn't get home until almost midnight, and boy was I thankful to deposit her in her crib for some real sleep. She slept without a peep until 6:30 this morning, woke up and ate, and went right back to sleep. And currently she's on nap number 2, which has lasted three hours! She's one sleepy girl!

Here's a picture of Mommy and baby at the reception yesterday. She looked so sweet, all dressed up.

giggles and sleep

The talking has returned, and has ushered in another trick....giggling! Yesterday we were at a friend's house and they have a ceiling fan up in their cathedral ceiling. She was laying on the floor staring up at it, and she started talking to it. While talking to inanimate objects is generally discouraged, I was thrilled to hear her using her vocal cords again (for a more pleasant sound than crying). Later I was playing peekaboo with her, which had her grinning big grins, and suddenly a grin turned into a giggle, and each subsequent peekaboo earned another giggle! It was the sweetest sound. There's nothing like a happy baby. (And don't worry...the fist staring is still going in full force.)

Oh, and the crib didn't work last night. But she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT in her cradle!!!! Yes, she slept through the night. This is one happy mommy, who slept from 10:30-5:15 this morning. Yes, that's early, but it's an eternity of sleep compared with the sleep we've been getting since before she was even born (when I was up all the time while 9 months pregnant). So this is a good day. A very good day. She slept through the night!!!!

One more thing....I've added a "comment" option at the bottom. Someone mentioned they'd like the opportunity to leave comments. Feel free...just make sure they're nice ones! :)

(Did I mention she slept through the night?)

out of sorts

She's stopped talking! For two days now, my sweet pea hasn't made a sound...except for crying and grunting. It's very odd. (Here she is talking to her doll...back when she was still talking) I was concerned because of this sudden change, plus the fact that she's been sleeping pretty fitfully and her diapers haven't been as full (yeah, I know...probably more than you wanted to know!), but then my brother told me today that he once read that babies do something really intensely when they first learn to do it, and then they don't do it for awhile. It's like it's being stored in their memories, and isn't accessible for awhile or something, so I'm hoping that's the case. She must be downloading the "I can talk and coo" nugget of knowledge into her brain somewhere, and has moved on to learning something else and doing that intensely instead.

So what has she moved on to? Fist-staring. Yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, my daughter can stare at her fist better than anyone on the block. She raises her right arm up in the air with her hand in a fist. Her eyes catch sight of the fist and she slowly lowers the fist closer to her face, aiming for her open mouth, but rarely hitting the target. Over and over and over and over she's been doing this.... for two days straight (the two days that she hasn't been talking, mind you!). She's gotten to be a pro. But I suppose in a few days she'll be downloading this knowledge, so it'll be absent for awhile, and perhaps she'll move onto.... oh, I don't know.... learning her rocks and minerals? No... but nothing would make her Daddy happier. Daddy's trying to teach her that she can only hold her head a certain way in order to get milk out of the bottle, but I told him it wouldn't work; she's still learning that her fist is always attached to her body. She has a long way to go!

Oh--here's another milestone. She slept in her crib for the first time yesterday afternoon. As I mentioned before, since she was born she's been sleeping in her cradle that Daddy made her. But the changing table Daddy's been building is almost done, and in order to move that into her bedroom we have to move the cradle out, so I'm trying to transition her to her crib. She hated it yesterday, and slept very poorly, so I went back to her cradle for the rest of her naps and for bedtime last night. But today she's taken two very good naps in the crib, so perhaps we're making some headway. Maybe she'll sleep in there tonight. We shall see........

mumbo bumbo

The rain didn't foil our plans for the 4th, like we thought it would. It rained all day yesterday, but around 2:30 it stopped, and the sun actually started to come out. We were able to have our picnic with our friends like we had planned.

A friend of mine just bought a "Bumbo" seat for her son--it's a foam chair that helps babies sit up before they're actually able to do it on their own. I had seen them before, but hadn't tried one out with our little one. So I put her in it last night. Here she is:

She seemed to like it pretty well. She sat in it two different times, both for 10 or 15 minutes, just looking around, enjoying a new perspective on life as a "big girl."

We're still on a quest for a picture of the perfect smile. She's almost three months old we still don't have a really good one. So in the last couple of days when Daddy's been home during her good moods, he's been trying and trying to get her to smile for the camera. Unfortunately, she smiles and smiles until she sees the camera come out, and then she stares intently at the thing, instead of looking at our faces and smiling back. Here is one of the better ones we've come up with so far. It's not outstanding, but she's still our cute, sweet girl!

timing is everything

We took her to get her pictures taken this morning. It's the first time we've had them taken, except for her newborn hospital picture. I was praying that she'd be in a good mood at 11:15, when we were scheduled to have them taken. Happily, she was in a good mood at 11:15. Sadly, they were running late and weren't ready for us at 11:15 while her good mood was taking place. We had to wait until 11:40 or so, and by that time, she had "wasted" all of her smiles on old Mom and Dad out in the waiting room, and was revving up for her fussy, "I'm tired and uncomfortable" whine. She only had one half smile left for the photographer. In the rest of the pictures she's staring wide-eyed and with an open mouth at the camera. There were still some cute pictures...just not as cute as they could've been, had they been on time and caught her when she was happy.

This morning we tried three dresses on her, trying to decide which one would be best, and wouldn't you know it, it's barely visible in the picture we chose!! She's laying on her tummy, propped up on her arm, and you can only barely get a glimpse of the shoulder strap of the dress. So much for the perfect dress! I guess it didn't really matter.

Wish I could post the picture here, but we don't get them until the 17th. When we do I'll try and scan one and post it for all to see.

predictability is a good thing

She's finally on a "schedule" of sorts. This is a very good thing. In the last couple of days I've finally stopped keeping track of her feedings, naps, and diaper changes on the chart I've been keeping since day one. Whew! What a relief! I usually know when she's going to wake up, want to eat, have a dirty diaper, take her medicine.... it makes life so much easier. I've learned when is the best time to take her out, and when it's best to stay home so she can get a good nap. I know what makes her smile and what helps her go to sleep. No, nothing is in stone, and there are always exceptions to the rule, but she's becoming predictable, and life is much easier for her mommy.

Of course, they always say that once you figure it out, they start teething, and everything changes..... I'm trying not to worry about that yet. I'm enjoying the order of things at the moment!

She's "talking" more and more. By talking I mean making lots of "ah" and "oh" types of sounds. She especially likes to talk when she's having her diaper changed! Who knew changing diapers could be so much fun!? She entertains me every time by smiling and cooing up a storm. Daddy doesn't like changing her diaper, but oh, the precious moments he misses! Here's my sweet girl talking away!

We skipped the nursery this week. We went to church this morning, and I didn't want to try her in there on a Sunday morning when it would be more crowded. Plus, it was her time to sleep, so I figured she'd sleep in our arms during the service. Well, she fell asleep in the car on the way there, but woke up as soon as we got her out. She was awake through the music and started to fuss as soon as it got quiet for the announcements. I took her into the cry room, which is dark, and she fell asleep almost immediately on my shoulder. So not only did I get to hear the entire sermon this week, I got to do it while rocking in a big leather recliner with the sweetest baby in the world asleep on my shoulder. I had the best seat in the house!