Anna updates!

Where did the time go?! Anna will be ONE in A MONTH!

I have totally failed at keeping this thing up to date. I am too busy chasing around these pretty girls, I guess!
Anyway, Anna turned 11 months old today! She is getting way too big. We started trying to teach her to raise her arms when we ask her how big she is. As in, "Soooo big!" She will sometimes raise her arms up and flap them around like a bird. It is a start!

My little girl is still pretty little. She weighs about 16 lbs, which I believe is how much her big sis weighed at 11 months. But Anna seems to have a little bit more baby chub on her legs. Not much though!

Anna LOVES eating. Loves it. She eats anything I put in front of her. She eats the fruit and veggie purees I make for her and also little finger foods. She also loves her puffs and yogurt bites. I wonder how long this non-picky thing will last...
ALSO! She finally got a tooth! Like, today! It finally poked through! It looks like there are a couple more that are going to poke through soon too. Eleven months old and girlfriend got herself a fancy new tooth! This might explain her HORRIBLE sleep habits the last few nights. Which brings me to...

Anna hates sleep. Or at least hates having a decent amount of consecutive hours of sleep. We thought Elizabeth was a terrible sleeper! I can count on one hand the number of times she has slept through the night. (I can probably count them on 3 fingers.) At least Lizzie would have a few weeks here and there where she would sleep all night.

Anna still wakes up around every 3 hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. The last few nights, there were times where she would wake up every half hour. The only real change is the time that she sleeps. We went through a stage where she wouldn't go to sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning. That one was rough. Then for a while it was between 12 and 1 AM. Right now, for the most part, she goes to sleep between 10:30 and 11:30, which is so significantly better. The time is coming soon where she will get "sleep trained." I'm already dreading it.

Anna is still nursing, which I am super proud of. My goal is a year, just like with Elizabeth, and we are almost there!! I ended up nursing for 14 months (and one day) with Liz, so we'll see how long I can go this time. I am worried about my supply though. The tricky thing with breastfeeding is you have no idea how much they are actually getting. Also, since Anna never sleeps, I haven't been able to get an extra pumping session in the middle of the night to build up my freezer stash. So my "stash," which is in quotes because it can't really be called a stash, is about 4 bottles worth. Not good!

I think she's getting pretty close to walking. Not tomorrow or anything, but soon-ish. She can stand for several seconds at a time, then will slowly sit down (or sometimes plop on her butt).  She walks around as long as she is holding on to something, like the couch or my fingers.

I think Anna's favorite game lately is fetch. She throws something, we fetch it. It is hilarious! For now, anyway. Even if I'm not handing her something, sometimes she'll reach for whatever is in my hand(for example, her binky), and then throw it on the floor.

OH, and she also sticks her tongue out now when I do!  It is super hilarious. 

Since I have been such a failure at updating this thing, here is a list of random "Anna Firsts" that I have stored on a note in my phone. Hey, at least I did that!

• At 3 weeks 5 days, she smiled! 
• At 8 weeks, she giggled.  Such a beautiful sound!
• November 10th - 2 months old - she rolled over from stomach to back
• January 1st - 3.5 months - she found her feet! Love this.
• At 4 months old, she cried when I leave the room.  Don't love this so much.  But I do a little bit.  She's a mama's girl. :)
• January 26th - 4.5 months - she rolled over from back to stomach
• March 3rd - almost 6 months - ate baby food (baby oatmeal) for the first time!
• 7 months old - rolled everywhere!  She could roll across any room.  Also, she could sit up unassisted, but tipped easily.
• 7.5 months - Pulled herself up to sitting position all by her little self.
• Around 8 months - she pulled herself up to her knees
• Also at 8 months, she started waving bye bye! Sort of.
• At 8.5 months, she pulled herself up to her feet!  She also began crawling on May 25th!  Look out world.
• At 9 months old, she started saying "Bup!" all the time.  Love love love it.
• 9.5 months - she started dancing!!  Also, she started giving high fives. So cute.
• July 19th - 10 months - she stood up on her own for 2-3 seconds at a time. 

LOVE this little girl!!!

Introducing Binky Giraffey

This is going to be a long, boring post about something that nobody else will probably ever care about but that I want to remember forever. So here goes. I am a little embarrassed to actually say this out loud (or... type it out), but Elizabeth has STILL been using her binky. Her binky has always been her "lovey." She never had a stuffed animal or blanket that she brought with her everywhere. She just wanted her binkys. However many she could fit in her teeny hands. However, for a very, very long time, she has only had them at night and nap time. And I have been terrified, dreading the day when it is time to take away her binkys. Which is why she's 3 years old and still had them.

Transitioning to an only bed time binky was actually super easy. One day I asked if she wanted to leave her binky in her crib after her nap, and she just turned and tossed it back in the crib. From that day on, she only had it when she was sleeping.

Lately though, she's been more dependent on her binkys. She'll go get them from her room and bring them out to the rest of the house. I'll tell her that binkys are for bed time, so she tells me she's sleepy and she'll lay down wherever she's at to go to bed.

My baby girl with her binky. I am so going to miss her binky face.

About a week ago I started talking to her about sending her binkys to a new baby who needs them and about going to the store to get a stuffed animal that we can name Binky. That way she can still have a Binky to sleep with. (Got this idea from my cousin who still sleeps with a big horse named Pacifier. :) She said to this idea, "I want to get a giraffe." Okay then.

The other day we were at the store and came across this big display of pillow pets. She said, "Look at all those animals named Binky!!" There were several giraffes in the mix, so I grabbed one and she just cuddled with it. Looks like we found our Binky! Wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it'll do.

I wasn't exactly sure when this whole Binky switch was going to happen, but tonight the issue was kind of forced. A tear was discovered in the one binky that we found, the pink one that seems to be her favorite these days. The other two, "green and yellow binky" and "butterfly binky," were no where to be found. I asked Lizzie if she wanted to sleep with her new Binky giraffe tonight so we could send her binkys to a new baby, and she grinned and ran to the kitchen to get the giraffe off the table.

This picture shows all her beloved binkys: pink binky, green and yellow binky, and butterfly binky. Also, she is sleeping on her rocking chair like a little weirdo.

I started reading stories while we had this giant giraffe sitting with us. Only one time did she say that she wanted her binkys, and I just reminded her she had her Binky giraffe to sleep with instead. She seemed fine with that. At one point she told me the giraffe's name is Binky Giraffey.

Lizzie with Mr. Binky Giraffey

She actually did really good. Well.... other than not being at all tired and getting up constantly. She kept standing at her door saying she wanted her mommy and I lost track of the number of times I went in there to lay her back down, but she never again mentioned wanting her binkys.

She finally settled down on the floor (her new favorite spot to sleep) and fell asleep. One time I watched on the video monitor as she sat up and looked around like she was searching for her binkys. My heart broke just a little right then and I instantly regretted this whole thing. Then she laid back down on Binky Giraffey and fell right back to sleep. Maybe this won't be as hard as I thought it was going to be...

So very proud of my big girl.

Big Girl Bed!

Switching from a crib to a big girl bed is something I had been worried about for quite some time. Ever since shortly after Elizabeth's 1st birthday, when she FINALLY became a decent sleeper, and FINALLY started sleeping through the night consistently, I have been in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.

Elizabeth goes to bed around 9:00 PM and stays in bed until around 9:00 AM. It. is. awesome. So of course, the not knowing what will happen when she is released from the confines of her crib is super scary. Would we never sleep again?!

Finally, at only a couple weeks away from turning three years old, we converted her crib into a big girl toddler bed last night.

First night actually went great. SO great. I am very cautiously optimistic about this whole big girl bed thing. Time will tell!

May 13th, 2010 - Day 14

Here is my little girl wearing her daddy's shoes while sporting her super cool new monkey jammies. Right after this picture was taken, she folded AND put away that whole hamper of clothes! (A mom can dream, right?)

This is a picture of my sweet little girl sleeping like a weirdo. =)

I loooooove my video monitor!

May 7th, 2010 - Day 8

Today Nate and I got to go on a date while Gammie watched Lizard! (We went to Spaghetti Works and to see "Date Night" which was really quite funny!)

Lizzie is still feeling pretty crummy. :( She does okay after getting motrin or tylenol. And for the last few days she has been clinging like a monkey when she gets put down for her nap. Then she cries for anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. I don't know why. :(

In this picture, Elizabeth looks so little just lounging on the couch. =)

A Day in the Life of Lizzie

Being a toddler these days is hard work. (Oh my gosh, that is the first time I've called her a toddler. She's so stinkin big!) There is lots of play time and sleeping, more play time, eating, more sleeping, more eating, even more play time... It's exhausting! This is a glimpse into the life of my little toddler (tear!) around 15.5 months old.

Lately my little monster sweetie wakes up around 7:30. Her dad and I take turns with the morning shift, which in Nate's case is from whenever she wakes up to whenever he has to go to work (or around 9:00 usually). After Lizzie finishes her bottle, she plays in her "baby jail" for a while and watches Nick Jr. She giggles along with Jack's Big Music Show the most and dances along usually whenever there is music on (which is often).

After playing for about an hour, I make her breakfast, which is usually something like rice cereal mixed with apple sauce or a banana and a waffle, etc. If I'm feeding her the cereal, I usually won't put her in the high chair. She'll run around and play and come back for bites, or I guess depending on how hungry she is, she'll stand right in front of me as I'm shoveling bites in.

Then we have more play time! Play time consists of hiding binkys in whatever toy has a little hole in it, standing on whatever toy that she can stand on, climbing on anything and everything, dancing in front of the fridge along with her barnyard animals, reading, reading, reading, books, reading, etc, etc, etc. Right now she is loving pillows. She'll roll all around the pillows we put on the floor for her. She'll run and jump into them and today she was banging her head into the pillow and laughing so hard. Hi-lar-ious. And right now she is LOVING running around the moving boxes we have stacked up in the kitchen (oh yeah, we're moving! That is a whole different post..) We'll chase each other around the boxes as I peek around and say "peek a boo!" and she laughs and laughs and laughs. Her laugh is my super favoritest sound in the world, by the way.

This is a video of Lizzie running around the boxes AND dancing in front of the fridge.

These pictures are examples of Lizzie climbing on stuff.

As I said in the previous post, her naps have been a little weird lately. She is still taking two naps per day, but now the first one is at 11:00 ish instead of 9:30 and the second one is around 4:00 instead of 2:30. She usually does really good going down for naps, but sometimes she'll stand up and cry and I have to go in and break her heart (breaking her heart consists of going in, hugging her, telling her I love her and that it is time for nap, and then leaving) before she'll lay down and go to sleep. And one time, yesterday actually, breaking her heart didn't work. There's only so much I can stand. She got out of her second nap yesterday.

After nap #1, we eat lunch. I really need to find some new things to feed my girl for lunch. Right now she definitely gets her fill of Gerber toddler meals. She also gets turkey hot dogs every once in a while and loves spaghetti. She has whatever fruits and veggies we have at the moment. Today she had peas and blueberries with her lunch. Peaches are always a favorite with her. She loves most of her fruits and vegetables. She scarfs them. It is so funny watching her and also worries me a little because she clearly isn't chewing (or gumming) her food at all.

Elizabeth after lunch.

After lunch, we have more play time. During play time, I also put her to work. Yes, I know she is only one year old, but she has chores. She "helps" me with the laundry by taking all the clothes (dirty or clean) out of a hamper or basket and then putting them back in the hamper or basket. She likes to "help" with the dishes by climbing onto the dish washer. And actually, she's pretty good at putting stuff away. For example, right now her clean clothes are folded and perched on the arm of the love seat outside of her room, waiting to be put away. A little bit ago, she grabbed a couple balls of rolled up socks and ran around with them for a bit. Then she went back over to the love seat and put them back! Then one ornery ball of socks fell off a couple times, but my little persistant baby girl kept picking them up and putting them back until they stayed there. She'll also put her blocks back in the canvas bag if we do the first couple, and she has been very good about putting my keys away in her toy box.

After Lizzie saw me sorting some of her old clothes in different boxes, she found this box and pulled some clothes out of her hamper. Then she was pulling the box around the house.

Then we pretty much repeat the nap-meal-play part of the schedule with her second nap, supper, and play time. If it is a bath day, I will give her a bath usually in the afternoon. She loves her baths. Loves them. At long as I don't try to clean her. She gets irritated at that part. Actually, she doesn't mind the hair scrubbing and body washing, she just really doesn't like the hair rinsing. She won't tilt her head back yet so water gets in her eyes no matter how hard I try to prevent it. She would probably stay in the tub for hours if I let her. I usually have to heat the water up a couple times and end up taking her out before she's ready. She isn't happy about that part either.

Getting her clean on.

After supper, we have more play time until its time to get ready for bed. First thing on her bedtime routine check list is a bottle. Not sure when we'll break her of the bottle, but probably won't be in the immediate future. Then she gets her diaper changed and gets changed into her PJs. Then one of us will go brush her four teeth. This is so fun! She takes her binky out and opens her mouth real wide. Then we try to brush while she just tries to suck the tooth paste off of the little finger brush. So cute!

Then we make sure we have at least 2 binkies. One for her mouth and the other(s) for her to hold on to. Just recently I have been able to say, "Go find your binkies!" and she will! Then either Nate or I will go read to her, always ending with the "I Love You, Sleepyhead" book. "I Love You, Sleepyhead" is supposed to be the winding down, calming book, where all the animal mommies are telling their animal babies goodnight. It is really a cute book. Well Lizzie thinks it is hilarious to "boop" the animals. She leans forward and bonks her head on the pictures and of course we have to say "boop!" every single time, even if we are in the middle of a sentence. And if she leans town and holds her head on the picture, we say "booooooooop" until she lifts her head up. It is awesome and fun is definitely had by all. She laughs soooo hard (and as I mentioned earlier, her laugh is the best sound EVER). Unfortunately, this usually results in Lizzie getting the hiccups so the poor kid has to go to bed with hiccups!

After storytime, she turns around and lays her head on my shoulder while we have cuddle and prayer time. In addition to our prayer every night, I always say the "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, may angels watch me through the night, and wake me in the morning light" prayer. The last week or so, when I say the "pray the Lord my soul to keep" part, she giggles. I don't know why, but it is so freakin cute and she has me giggling for the rest of the prayer.

Then I lay her down as I tell her to sleep good and have sweet dreams and that I love her so, so much. I leave the room and she usually just rolls over and goes to sleep.

She is so amazing.

Fifteen Months!

Elizabeth turned 15 months old last Friday and had her check up today. I hate hate HATE when she has to get shots! But these were the last ones until she's FIVE!!! Not counting the annual flu shot and the Hep A shot whenever we decide to do that. But other than that... FIVE!


She is such a big girl now because she was weighed fully clothed on the big girl scale! She weighed around 22 lbs - which is about the 35th percentile!! That is a huge improvement from being under the 3rd percentile not so very long ago! I am so proud of her for gaining some chub. And she was about 30.5" long. She's grown a little over 10" in 15 months. What a good girl! =)

Doc said everything looks good. She's not really talking yet (well, using real words anyway - she "talks" a ton) but he's not concerned. Said we'll see how she's doing at 18 months. At her 12 month check up, she sat on my lap and let him look her over without so much as a fuss. Today however, she wasn't as easy going. She cried and squirmed and tried to get down and run away. Little punk.

As far as everything else that's going on with my little Lizard, she's doing wonderful. She finally got her two front teeth. One came in on New Year's Eve and the other came in a week or so later. I have the exact dates in her baby book. So now she has four teeth! And oh boy does she grind those teeth. Wow. Funny thing though is that it drives her daddy way more crazy than it does her mom. hahahahaha....

She is still doing really good with putting herself to sleep. Naptimes are getting a little weird. I think she's transitioning to one nap a day instead of two. But then the last few days she's taken two naps (although not as long as usual) so I don't know what she's doing. She is also sleeping in a little later (Thank You God!), waking up anywhere from 7:30 - 8:45 am! Sooooo much better than 6:30!!

Updates

Elizabeth has been doing AWESOME at the whole putting herself to sleep thing. It just amazes me! Now when we lay her down in the crib, she won't even make a peep. She'll turn over onto her tummy and go to sleep! Okay, about 95% of the time she does this. There are a few exceptions where she'll stand up and fuss before she lays down and goes to sleep. But that is so rare. I am so proud of my baby girl!!

This morning Elizabeth came up to me with a binky in her mouth and one in her hand. She climbed into my lap and just cuddled, so I knew it must be nap time. I took her to our rocking chair to read her a couple stories, but she just stayed laying on my shoulder instead of turning around to look at the books. It was sooo wonderful. She is the best cuddler in the whole world. The only time she'll cuddle for more than 2.5 seconds at a time is right before bed/nap time and right after she wakes up. Normally she is a girl on the go. She's got things to do, doggy water dishes to explore. So when she is in the cuddly mood, I take advantage. My baby girl and I sit and snuggle until eventually, she'll get down and start playing with her toys.

I don't think I ever did an official post when Lizzie started walking, sooo...

ELIZABETH IS WALKING!!! =D

Okay, she's been walking for a while, I just feel bad that I haven't written about it yet. :) She started taking several steps around her birthday, and right after that started walking half way across rooms. Then she would drop to her hands and knees and crawl because that was faster. By 12.5 months, she was walking more than she was crawling. She'd crawl a little bit then stand up and off she went. And now she's practically running. It is SO CUTE seeing this tiny little short person walking around like a "growed up." She's getting so stinking big!

OH, and she still only has two teeth. FOURTEEN MONTHS old and still only has the two bottom teeth! I'm pretty sure there are more teeth in there! She fools us often and we think she's teething only for no teeth to ever appear. However... we are cautiously optimistic this time! ;) I just checked her gums the other day and thought I saw some white there, but then later I couldn't see it, so I thought she'd gotten me again! Trickster. But last night when Nate was brushing her 2 teeth, he got a good look at her gums. He saw white! I tried to see but she wouldn't let me, so she got her teeth brushed again! HA. White! Definitely! So we'll see how long it takes for those little stinkers to actually poke through. Hopefully not too long! Fingers crossed...

Sleep success!!!

Well, we did it... we let her cry it out. Almost 2 weeks ago, she started putting herself to sleep. At first, she was NOT thrilled. In fact, she was pretty pissed off.

I got the book "Sleeping Through the Night" by Jodi Mindell and read it in one afternoon. That very night, we put our new knowledge to use. The book said to expect crying for about 45 minutes the first night, or up to 2 hours for stubborn kids. We were expecting the full two hours.

It was decided that Nate would be the one to break her heart, I mean, put her to bed on the first night. We did her bedtime routine and then Nate took her in the bedroom for story/cuddle time. Then he put her in the crib, said good night, I love you, etc.... and left.

After the initial look of shock, she cried. And cried. And cried. I cried right along with her. The first night, we checked on her a total of three times (every five-six minutes). I went first, then Nate, then me again. After 22 minutes, she laid down! Within three minutes of laying down, she was sleeping! She fell asleep in almost HALF the time the book said it would take! (I LOVE my video monitor, by the way. Really don't know how we functioned without it.)

The book said to expect around an hour of crying the second night. It said something about how the kid is thinking, "Okay, last night was a fluke. Tonight I really mean it." Or something along those lines. I thought that was funny and pretty scary sounding. So we prepared ourselves for lots and lots of crying. It was decided again that Nate would put her to bed. I just wasn't prepared to do it yet. After story time, he put in her the crib, said good night, I love you, etc, and left.... my precious little baby girl, who I am sooo very proud of, cried for less than a minute before laying down. She squirmed around a little and then fell asleep! We were SOOO impressed with our daughter.

Since then, she cries for around 10 seconds or less when she goes to bed. And Nate doesn't have to do it all by himself anymore. I de-wussed myself on the fourth night and managed to put her to bed. My heart was breaking as I was reading the last book and I was trying, pretty unsuccessfully, to hold back tears. After a day or two, when she caught on, it was especially heart breaking reading to her before a nap or bedtime. She'd cry every time a story would end, and then be okay when I picked up another book. And she'd whimper throughout the last book that we always read before we put her down. She is so dang smart. She doesn't really do this anymore, thankfully. She does reach for more books though.

We started doing this "sleep training" at nap times about a week ago. It was really hard on all involved at first. She didn't care for it. But we got through it and now for the most part, she goes down for naps pretty good.

Before we "trained" her, putting her to bed, for naps and at bedtime, was sometimes an hour long (or more) ordeal. And then sometimes it didn't take very long. After the bedtime routine, and the story/cuddle time, we'd have to pace the floor or sit in the rocking chair until she fell asleep. Then slowly, oh-so-carefully put her in the crib, silently pleading with her to not wake up when we lay her down. The pleading rarely worked. Sometimes she'd stay asleep, but a lot of times she'd wake up the first couple times we would lay her down. She'd wake up enough to realize that she was in her crib and then would start crying, stand up, reach for us... we'd start over. Rocking... pacing... taking shifts, waiting for her to fall asleep. Etc etc etc.

For a while, she slept through the night. She didn't sleep in like her mother would like her to, but she slept until around 7:30. But recently, she had been waking up a lot in the middle of the night. Usually Nate or I would just have to go in there and pick her up and she'd be out within seconds. And then we repeat the pleading to not wake up when we lay her down again. And sometimes she wouldn't go back to sleep until she ate again. It was like she wanted to go back to sleep but just didn't know how to do it by herself.

Now, however, is a different story. Now my wondeful little baby girl sleeps through the night. Yep. You read that right. She sleeps through the night!! Anywhere from 9-11 hours straight, without waking up!! Well, without needing us to put her back to sleep anyway. She will sometimes wake up, maybe sit or stand up, maybe even cry or fuss for a minute, but she puts herself back to sleep. She'll find her binky and lay back down. Its incredible. We haven't had to go in there to put her back to sleep since before Day 1 of this new sleeping situation. (By the way, this book says that if the baby has night wakings, you can put the baby back to sleep as you normally would, so pacing, rocking, etc. They don't need to keep crying it out all night.) But, we haven't had to!

Putting our daughter to bed is no longer such a chore. We don't fight over who's turn it is. It is actully really nice to have that special cuddle time while we read books before she goes to bed. I don't cry (as much) when we put her down. She still cries for the 10 seconds or less, but I'll take it. Of course there are times that she will even cry for a minute or so, and we realize that there will probably be setbacks from time to time for various reasons. That's okay. Because right now, our baby girl is sleeping!

Updates

It hit me recently that I need to start seriously planning Elizabeth's 1 year birthday party. Huh? How can that be?? She will be 10 months old on Saturday - in 2 days! It is so weird to me that she is getting so old. She's like this big girl now instead of my tiny baby.

I was recording something of her the other day on the video camera and the tape ran out. It rewound to the beginning and I pressed play. Up pops little 8 week old Elizabeth. How is that the same child who is practically climbing up the walls now?? How did that little baby on the camcorder grow up so fast? I was watching the tape as my mom and I were trying to get her to laugh on film, just mesmerized by how little and different she was then, when big girl Lizzie pops up in front of me and says, "Uhh!" As in, "Pay attention to me, woman!" How is this the same child??

This girl is everywhere now. She is the world's fastest crawler. She gets into EVERYTHING. She climbs up anything that is taller than she is (which is pretty much everything because she's pretty short). Her favorite things to play with are non-toy items. She bops along to music. She STILL doesn't have any teeth! I'm afraid that five are going to come in at once. And I think that changing her diaper really should be considered for an Olympic sport.

As far as the sleeping situation goes, she is doing better (this week anyway). She goes back and forth. Some nights she'll sleep all night (like last night - 10 hours straight!) and some nights she'll wake up in the middle of the night and won't go back to sleep for 2 hours. And getting her to go to sleep is quite a chore sometimes. Especially for naps. We still have to rock/pace/hold her until she falls asleep. I long for the day when we can give her a kiss and put her in the crib where she falls asleep on her own. I really hope this day is in the very near future.

I took some tips from a few different baby sleep books and those have helped tremendously. Her bedtime routine before included nursing to sleep (or drowsy and then pacing or rocking until asleep.) But we wanted to get away from that. We don't want her to think she needs to eat in order to fall asleep. So now she eats out in the living room, then gets her diaper changed, put into jammies, then story time, then pace/rock to sleep. I do think it has gotten better, with some exceptions here and there.

I am still breastfeeding and am still planning on weaning around a year. My goal was always to go to a year and I am proud of myself for making it this far. It is hard work! Not that I don't love it. I am just looking forward to having my body to myself again! But I am sure I will miss it like crazy once she is done. That's how I roll.

Elizabeth is still eating the purees I make for her. She has done great with everything she's given (except recently she spits out her bananas). She is a champion eater so far, but I know that won't last. So we are enjoying it for now! With as much food as that girl eats, I don't understand how she is so little!

Speaking of which, she had her 9 month doctor appointment on July 28th. She weighed 15 lbs 10 oz, which is in the 6th-ish percentile and was 26.5" long, which is in the 20-25th percentile. Her doctor said she is doing great! Everyone was happy that she didn't have to get shots at this appointment. Not looking forward to her 1 year checkup...

One last cute thing: She is still using 0+ month pacifiers. When we stuck a 6+ month one in her mouth, she looked perplexed and spun it around like it didn't feel right. Now she just spits it out. What a weird kid. =)

Reality Show Idea

I have a fantastic idea for a new reality show. There are shows that teach dogs to behave, shows that teach parents how to control their kids, some where people lose weight, switch spouses, and compete in singing and dancing competitions. There are shows where people eat bugs for money, compete for modeling gigs, and follow teenagers around while they lounge on a beach. I think its time for a reality show that can teach babies to sleep all night.

Seriously. Experts can go into a house and teach the baby to sleep through the night and teach the parents how to get the baby to sleep through the night. How great would this be?! They could use no-cry solutions, cry it out, Ferber, etc, depending on what the parents prefer or what the particular baby responds to better. They could call it, "So You Think You Can't Sleep" or "America's Next Top Sleeper." I, for one, would watch this show religiously.

And also, I volunteer to be featured on the first episode.

The girl hates sleep!

Which really stinks, because her father and I LOVE sleep. Every once in a while, she'll tease us with sleeping all night, or at least a really large portion of the night. Then it is right back to getting up multiple times per night. I don't know what happened! She was doing SO WELL.

Last night was horrible. I hadn't fallen asleep yet when she woke up. Got her back down and I got to lay down for 15 minutes before she woke up again. This continued until 3:30ish. After waking up once more around 6:00, she slept in until around 8:00.

There were days not too long ago that she was regularly sleeping 8-10 hours straight at night. Now we're lucky if we get three hours. I know this could all change by next week. Or hell, by tonight. Or it might not ever change. *gulp*


Although she has gotten a little better since she's figured out how to roll around in her sleep. Sleeping on her side or tummy (I'm not too fond of this...) has been helping a lot. And her naps have improved greatly. She consistantly got 30-45 minute naps before, and now has been getting at least an hour and fifteen minutes for her late morning nap. Often times more. Woot!

So turns out my daughter is a long time member of the "Sleep is for Wussies" club. Here's to hoping I can get ahold of her membership card and tear it to shreds. =)


Here's my angel sleeping peacefully a few months ago. Now I wouldn't dare go into her room while she's sleeping to snap a picture!

Sleep update...

Last night did not go better. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was worse. Longest stretch of sleep was 1.75 hours.

Sleeping through the night = FAIL

Tonight is night #4 of Elizabeth's new schedule. After reading most of "The No Cry Sleep Solution" and skimming through "Heathy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," we are trying to fix Lizzie's sleep schedule.

The 1st night SUCKED. Or at least the first part of it did. She thought she was taking a nap when we put her to bed at 7:45, so she woke up about 40 minutes later. It took us 3 hours to get her to go back to sleep! She's used to her 11:30-12:00 bedtime. There were several times where she had fallen asleep, but as soon as we lay her down in the crib- wide eyes. So Nate and I spent those 3 hours in Lizzie's room, in the dark, taking turns rocking her.

The 2nd night she did so good! She went to bed at 8:45 (we figured before 8:00 was too early still). She fussed about 45 minutes later and Nate rocked her back to sleep before she woke up fully. Then she woke up every few hours to nurse, with the longest stretch being 4.5 hours!

Now the 3rd night, last night, was worse than the first. We are thinking that she had a stomach ache or teething pains causing her to wake up a lot. She woke up soooo many times. We have been keeping track of when she's sleeping and I couldn't keep up. All I wrote was, "Woke up several hundred times after 12:00." I fed her and put her down in the crib at 7:00 am. I went back to bed and was woken up later by Lizzie crying again. I looked at the clock and it was 7:09. She slept for 9 whole freakin minutes.

I hope tonight goes better...

I miss sleep...

Dang do I miss Lizzie being able to sleep on her tummy! Long gone are the days where she slept 5-6 hours at a time! The last few nights its been closer to 2-3 hours at a time. I think she's also going through a growth spurt, so she's eating constantly. I bet she grows a foot this week.

My milk supply still isn't where I want it to be, but its better than it was. I went back to the lactation consultant this week - Lizzie weighed 11 lbs 7 oz and ate 3 oz pretty quickly. A lot better!

By the way, my favorite sound ever is Elizabeth's laughter. I could listen to that all day long.



Here is Elizabeth's 3 month picture!



13 weeks, 1 day (Three months today!)

Happy New Year!

Well, we have started Elizabeth's 1st New Year! She's very excited, I can tell.

Thursday night (Jan 1st), Lizzie slept ALL NIGHT. And all morning and part of the afternoon. She fell asleep around 12:30 am and she slept until 2:30 in the afternoon! Well, I shouldn't say she slept that whole time, but she was able to self sooth and fall back to sleep on her own every time. Finally once when she was stirring, I picked her up to feed her before she could fall asleep again!

One of the times I checked on her, she was half awake. She gave me this huge smile and then sucked on her finger for a few seconds. She's so dang cute.

Oh, and another time I checked on her, she had her arm out of her sleeper. Not just out of her swaddle, but out of neck hole in her sleeper! I have no idea how she did that! I put her arm back in the sleeper and reswaddled her and she feel right back to sleep. Silly girl.

11 weeks, 5 days

A visit to the doctor

Well, these last few days have been fun. Elizabeth takes after her mom in that she can't sleep on her back. Which means that none of us are getting any sleep.



On Friday, we didn't put Lizzie down at all. I was terrified to leave her in her crib. Mom stayed the night with us and we took shifts getting up to sooth her and put her pacifier back in.



Elizabeth's regular pediatrician is out of town, so we made an appointment with another one. He put Lizzie on a medication for reflux (Zantac) and prescribed an apnea monitor and said she should stay the night one night in the hospital for a sleep study.

Then someone from Children's Hospital brought the apnea monitor to our house and showed us how to use it. It involves putting sensors on Lizzie's sides under her arm pits and a band that goes around her chest to hold them on, with wires hanging down that plug into the monitor. He said that she should wear it 23 hours/day unless we hear differently from the doctor. So I called his office and was really surprised when he got on the phone himself! (One of the reasons we didn't go to this doc in the first place is because his office is so busy.) He said that right now she only needs to wear the monitor when she is sleeping away from supervision. So basically at night. If she has another "episode" however, she'll have to start wearing it 23 hours/day.

All I have to say is she better not have another "episode!" She is already soooo grounded.

Meanwhile, to make our week a little more fun, Nate had to get emergency surgery tonight. Last night he started complaining of a stomach ache. It kept getting worse throughout the night and today. He spent most of Lizzie's appointment in the bathroom throwing up. Turns out he had appendicitis. He's out of surgery now and is doing well.

Here's to no medical emergencies in 2009!

Thank You, God

Around 6:00 am Friday morning, Elizabeth's motion monitor (AngelCare) alarm went off. Before I really knew what was happening, Nate was already running to her room.

I immediately followed him, and by the time I got in there, he had already flipped her over (yeah, she used to sleep on her stomach) was shaking her and yelling, "Baby! Baby!" and "She's not breathing!" No response. He kept shaking her and yelling, "Baby!"

I ran over to flip the light on. I ran back to the crib and realized the light still wasn't on. So I ran back and flipped the light on. I realized later that I probably opened her door the first time. Apparently I wasn't thinking straight or something.

In the meantime, Nate was still yelling and shaking her. He breathed into her mouth. Nothing. He breathed into her mouth a second time. I reached out and did about five chest compressions. Then she finally started squirming. Wow.

This whole ordeal from her alarm going off to her coming to was probably about 20 seconds. It felt like an eternity. I have never been more scared of anything in my entire life. She was pretty out of it for a while. Nate picked her up first and held her. I was shaking too bad. She was squirmy and wiggling around, but didn't cry for a while. I think I sat down before Nate gave her to me, but I'm not sure.

I fed her and changed her diaper and clothes, just wanting to keep her awake. She wanted to go back to sleep so bad, but I was way too scared to let her. She had a really weak cry for about 5 seconds. Boy was that a beautiful sound.

The on call nurse told us to go to the ER since Elizabeth wasn't breathing for over 30 seconds. They did all kinds of tests on her - chest x-rays, blood sugar, oxygen, complete blood screen, etc. They couldn't find anything wrong. Everything was perfect. By the way, she did NOT like getting her foot poked for the blood tests or getting her temperature taken. She let out some good loud healthy cries, which were heartbreaking and wonderful to hear.

I thank God that she's okay and for the AngelCare monitor. The ER doctor told us this would have been a classic case of SIDS and that this monitor is the best money we've ever spent. It makes me nauseous to imagine what we would have woken up to in the morning if we didn't have that monitor.

What I am thankful for!

I am so excited! Lizzie slept from midnight to 5:30 am on Thursday night! Then she woke up for a feeding and went back to sleep at 6:30, and slept until about 10:00. Yay! By the way, Thursday was Elizabeth's first Thanksgiving. Guess what I'm thankful for?! (Among many other things, of course.) =)

Then last night she slept from 1:30-6:30, then from 7:30-10:30 ish. Hey, I'll take it!

In other news, in the last week or so, Lizzie is getting much better at holding her head up. Her neck is getting quite strong! So cute. She is also smiling way more often and is absolutely the most gorgeous girl I have ever seen.

Oh, and we are also planning a trip out to Las Vegas in February! Elizabeth will be about 3 1/2 months old. I am excited and nervous at the same time. Traveling with a 3 1/2 month old! Eek!

6 weeks 3 days

Sucky night time routine

I mentioned in the last entry what time Elizabeth goes to bed. To expand: For the last couple weeks, Elizabeth will fall asleep around 11:00 PM or so for about 20-30 minutes. Then she'll wake up and stay up until 3:30-4:00 in the morning! Then she'll usually sleep until around 9:00.

Last night we tried keeping her awake during the evening. Boy was she not happy with me! But apparently that didn't matter because she ended up taking her 20 minute nap anyway and didn't go to bed until almost 4:00.

I just hope she gets her nights and days straightened out soon.

5w6d