Summer Fun

Rachael been enjoying her summer so far. She has been discovering freshly-cut grass, fresh air, and that screen doors are a lot more interesting than regular doors. She's been watching the local wildlife, as well as daddy mowing the lawn.

Rachael is doing so well at day care that she is moving to the next room at an earlier than usual age. She has been making regular visits to the Toddler room and each time did well. She tells us that she is no longer a "baby" and wants to hang out with the older kids. She has been much more social with the older kids than the younger ones in the Infant room. She starts on Monday and assures us that she simply must have a new wardrobe for her new class.

Rachael's Day at the Salon

Today we took Rachael to the salon to have her hair cut. Yes, she's only 10 months old, but this girl has more hair than most two or three year olds. I have been trimming her bangs out of her eyes since she was about five months old, but it was getting pretty easy to detect the "mom cut" with as much hair as she has. So, we were off to see the professionals.

Rachael did GREAT at the salon, no fussing...but enough wiggling around to make it a little challenging for Karen, the hair stylist, to work her magic. Rachael has nice EVEN bangs now (no more "mom" bangs) and even some layers. Yes, layers at 10 months. No highlights or manicures until she can pay for them herself, though! ;-)

Have a good weekend!

Happy Birthday David!

Yesterday (Friday the 13th!!) was David's 30th! Happy Birthday David! :)

Baby University

David and I often exclaim over the baby-centric things we wish we'd known earlier. Things like, if she starts crying in the middle of the night, no amount of binkie re-application will make it better--she needs to EAT. But no, we had to pay our dues, I guess. I can just imagine Rachael thinking, "man! When are they going to figure me out?!"

So here's a few bits of advice to new parents out there who might encounter some of the curveballs we've experienced. These will be elaborated upon in my new book, "What To Do When Your Baby Does Weird Stuff." ;-)

1. Your baby will not sleep laying down.
We had fun (not really) with this. Lay Rachael down, listen to her scream. We finally figured out that she'd sleep in her car seat (which apparently is dangerous, I learned later) or in her swing (not ideal but at least not flat-out dangerous). So Rachael slept in a swing or a car seat for about three months. What I wish we'd known: Rachael just wanted to be swaddled. We got her a Swaddle Me(it's a straitjacket, essentially), and as soon as she was swaddled up nice and tight, she slept in her crib just about all night. If you have this issue, get to the store immediately and buy a Swaddle Me. It will be the best $10 you will ever spend. And don't worry about thoughts of your baby being 21 and needing you to still swaddle her at night--one day Rachael just decided that she didn't need to be swaddled any more, so she kicked out of it and slept with full access to her limbs. :-)

2. Your baby is a fountain of spit up.
By the time Rachael was three weeks old, our house had a very noticeable change in fragrance...eau de vomit. She spit up a large part of everything she ate. Breast milk, formula...didn't matter (so back off, La Leche people!). Her doctor told us she had reflux (GERD) and that we'd just have to wait for her to outgrow it. Well, when she was 6 months old and still spitting up a storm (to the tune of 2-3 outfits a day), I called the doctor back and demanded a better answer than "she'll get over it." She'd already been on Zantac and we weren't noticing much improvement. What I wish we'd known: she needed formula with added rice starch. Her doctor suggested we try Enfamil AR (for 'added rice') and the difference was incredible. The spitting up wasn't gone entirely, but it was certainly cut by well over 60%, I'd say. Now, at 9.5 months, we have her off the Zantac and are managing the reflux just with diet. I really wish we'd known to try this formula months ago! All of us would have been more comfortable (and my house wouldn't smell like vomit).

I'll stop here. I know now why so many parents feel compelled to write books...one feels like *someone* should benefit from the learning curve we were on! Maybe this will help some frantic parent out there who right now is dripping in spit up or holding a screaming baby at 2am wondering why she won't sleep anywhere but her swing. Good luck!

Healthy and Independent

So I've said this before, but now I really mean it: the sickness cloud has finally lifted. For the first time in many weeks, I think all three humans and all three felines are actually healthy. Whew!

Anyway...

So Rachael is cruising around the house now. She'll walk herself around tables, along the fireplace, the sofa...but her favorite thing is to grab mom or dad's hands and walk all around the house. She just giggles while she's walking...maybe because walking, even if assisted, allows her such freedom to explore. She crawls when necessary, but she definitely prefers to be upright. I suspect it won't be long before she's toddling around on her own two feet, unassisted. Luckily we have the house fairly baby-proofed by this point. We still try to barricade her into the room we're in so we can keep an eye on her, but she's quick to find means of escape into other rooms. We've come to recognize this one giggle of hers that ONLY means on thing: "I'm OUTTA here!!"

Here's a pic of our girl on the go.

My Baby is BACK!

Rachael clearly read my post yesterday...sensed my desperation...because she slept all night!! She needed a two-second binkie-reapplication once (which I have zero memory of...thanks David for taking care of that!) but didn't get up again until 0630. Hurrah!

I don't feel 100% back to my old self yet, but sleeping for 9 hours last night did me a world of good. Another few nights of this and maybe my sore throat and achy body will go away.

Hurrah!

Need....To....Sleep....

An exhausted mother's plea:

Rachael, I know you still have a stuffy nose from last week's illness, and I know that is the reason behind your severely confused sleep schedule. But I beg you: PLEASE SLEEP TONIGHT. Momma is about to fall asleep at her desk at work because you haven't let her sleep for, oh, about 6 days now. Two hours at a time is just not going to cut it. You're a big girl now and big girls sleep all through the night.

I type this, baby girl, while you are blissfully sleeping away the afternoon at daycare. Do the right thing tonight, though--give momma and daddy at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Love,
Your Over-Tired Mom

Yes friends--it really has been about 6 days since David and I have gotten anything resembling a decent night's sleep. This situation might have been acceptable when I was on maternity leave and could (hahahaha) "sleep when she sleeps" (do people really do that? I did laundry when she slept). Anyway, perhaps this is payback for having a baby who, at 4 weeks old, slept about 8 hours at night. In any case, Rachael is on day four of her antibiotic treatment for the infection she had (we all had some sort of evil sinus thing), and she's still dealing with the nasal fallout (literally) of the illness. I wish she knew how to blow her nose!

I know she's just uncomfortable and--worst of all fates--unable to comfort herself with her Binkie, but David and I both feel like the living dead the last few days. We find ourselves trying to reason with her in the middle of the night ("c'mon Rach--don't you want to feel well rested in the morning?"), which is kinda pathetic, and we are breaking all of the rules we learned in the Baby Sleep books we've poured over. We're offering her food (big no-no in the eyes of the Baby Sleep experts), we've picked her up and rocked her until her nose clears (another no-no)...but as soon as we put her back down, she starts to howl again. And yes--we've tried putting her in her carseat and her swing to help her sleep more upright, but she won't tolerate sleeping anywhere but on her tummy these days.

And so I close this post sounding as desperate as I feel. Mr. Sandman....visit our house tonight!

Sweet Dreams to All,
Kristine