Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Valentines 2014

We’re not big celebrators of Valentines Day, but we do typically like to go to a nice dinner or do something out of the ordinary to at least acknowledge the celebration of love (and the celebration of our original anniversary! I can’t believe it’s been 8 years since we met at Benson’s on Dickson Street and shared their special Valentines Day drink, a Baby Maker, in 2006!)

Nora and I walked to meet the Dad at his office, which is quickly becoming a Friday tradition since he tends to get off a little bit earlier than the standard 7 pm, and then we all walked home together making a few quick stops along the way. Once home, we bathed our little love baby and put her to bed. She gifted me with a straight seven hours of sleep that night! (And she didn’t cry when we put her to bed! I think we had to go in there twice to tell her night night and hand her the little lovey that we’ve been putting to bed with her, but there was no bouncing, ssshhing required, and she didn’t wake crying after 45 minutes. Once she was out, she was out!) What a Valentines gift!

Once the baby was in bed, Luke and I used Valentines Day as an excuse to stuff ourselves silly on pizza paired with a bottle of Prosecco that we bought in Florence this summer and a couple of decadent deserts that we shared along with tiny sips of port wine that we bought in Porto during our visit in October 2012. Nothing too extravagant, but it was fun and a little bit festive.

However, the real point of this post is just to share a few first Valentines Day pictures of my favorite girl. Enjoy!

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Nora: 4 Months

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Weight/Length: 6.28 kg/13 lbs 14 oz and 64 cm/25 inches.Her weight fell a little bit below the line that she had been following on her growth chart. However, the doctor said that this was common with breastfed babies who tend to be leaner than those receiving formula and that she was healthy and no need to worry about or change anything.
Medical Issues: Nada. We are so thankful to have such a healthy baby girl.

Sleep: Nora naps 3 or 4 times a day depending on how long the naps are, what time she woke up, etc. But there’s really no consistency here. Sometimes she sleeps 45 minutes and others 2 hours. Most of the time, she wakes up happy, even after 45 minutes, so I guess she’s getting what she needs. And since she’s sleeping so much at night, she really doesn’t need more than about 3-3.5 hours of daytime sleep. Unless we’re out and about and she naps in her stroller, which I try to save for the weekends or the last nap of the day, she takes most every nap unswaddled in the crib and with white noise. The loud apartment noises get her every time, especially as she’s trying to fall asleep. (I’m also the crazy lady that put a sticker not to ring the bell on our buzzer downstairs. If it’s really for us, then life is life, and I’d deal with it if she wakes. However, multiple random people, like the mailman for example, come every day and buzz all the doors simultaneously until someone lets them in. Our neighbor is always home and always answers it, so it was really annoying me that it would wake her for no reason.) We moved to just a sleep sack from the swaddle once she rolled over. I find her on her side in the crib all the time now, so I’m glad we already made that transition. I’m working really hard to get her to fall asleep on her own. Sometimes it works like a charm, and she’s out in 2 minutes with no crying. Others there’s too much crying, and I have to go in to soothe her. I typically have to pick her up in order to calm her down but try to put her back down before she’s completely asleep. I wish she’d do it on her own (with zero crying!!!) every time, so we’re going to keep working at it. I think the key is putting her down when she’s drowsy but not overtired, which is difficult because she doesn’t really have any obvious sleepy signals until it’s too late, and she’s crying. Then she’s nearly inconsolable.

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She’s moved to an earlier bedtime here recently and is normally asleep before 8. She goes down relatively easily, but without fail, she wakes crying about 45 minutes or so after falling asleep. Then we (hopefully Luke is home at this point to help me!) spend an hour (sometimes more) going in and out to soothe her. I’ve tried feeding her upon that first waking, and it might have reduced the time we spent going in and out but didn’t solve the problem. I’ve tried putting her down earlier and cutting the amount of time she’s awake prior to bedtime, and nothing seems to make a difference (though the longer she was awake, the worse the crying was). I know she can put herself to sleep because she does it for lots of naps, but it seems harder for her in the evenings.

She’s usually in her crib for nighttime sleep for about 12 hours, give or take an hour some days. A good night is if she sleeps 5 hours, wakes to eat, 4 hours, eats and then another 3. However, a lot of nights I don’t get that 5 hour stretch, and she’ll be up every 3 or 4 hours to eat. She normally goes straight back to sleep, so it’s not bad. If we can just get her to go to sleep and stay asleep the first time we put her down instead of taking all evening, I’ll have no complaints. 

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Clothes: 3 months still fit the best, but I’ve started putting her in some 3-6 month stuff just for more variety. Tops fit okay, but pants are a little big still.  She’s still wearing all her size 3 month pajamas, but we’ve pretty much retired all 0-3 and newborn sizes except for a few gowns that are a little more giving. Smile.

Diet: Still 100% breastfed, usually eating 7-8 times a day and completely refusing the bottle. She seems to eat really fast and normally a feeding doesn’t even last 15 minutes. I’m not sure if she’s just gotten really efficient, if she gets distracted or if I’m trying to feed her too often, but she definitely is done when she’s done. We continue to try a bottle with never any luck. And now we’ve actually fed her twice with a syringe because I was sick of wasting milk! She drinks it just fine, and get this, tries to suck the syringe. No clue why she won’t suck a bottle; it’s so weird.

Baby Gear: I love our stroller, and Nora seems to as well. She’ll sit in it for quite a while and take pretty good naps when we’re out and about. We’ve also been using the Baby Bjorn quite a bit for quick trips out or just to get her out of the stroller if we’re out for a long time. It’s so simple to get on, and you can easily do it by yourself. She still loves her kick and play mat, and we’re starting to use the exercauser some, but she’s still a bit small. She’ll sit in the Bumbo but not for very long, and she’s started trying to push herself out of it so I have to be careful where I put her and stay right by it. It’ll be nice when she can sit up by herself because that’s what she really wants to do!

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Milestones: First laugh and rolling over more and more, though she doesn’t go from tummy to back. If I put her on a blanket and leave the room for a minute, she’ll be in a totally different position when I get back! She rocks and rolls and twists herself around!

Likes: Bath time, silly noises (but not too loud or scary), singing, her hands, white noise, her feet (which she’s just started to discover and grab with her hands!), any type of glowing screen (I have to keep the TV off, or she’d just sit and stare at it all day!), Being out and about (that’s why I’m ready for warm weather! The cold is such a deterrent for me to get us out of the house.)

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Dislikes: Sleeping (I swear sometimes she cries just when we walk into the room!), Loud noises that startle her, bottles, pacifiers. She also gets way more sensitive if she’s too tired and doesn’t like much of anything.

Nicknames: Chicky, Neeny, Neeny Bopper, Nori and Nor

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Mama’s Thoughts:  We have more good days than bad days, some longer than others, but weekends are always the best because we get the dad home with us. No matter how the day went, I always love this girl more than anything, miss her the most while she’s sleeping peacefully and wake up ready to see her again. “Guard me, Jesus, through the night and wake me with the morning light.” Amen. 

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PS, Jesus: Also help her not to wake crying after 45 minutes but to sleep peacefully through until she’s ready to eat again. Smile

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Little Baby Laugh

Nora has had a few tentative little laughs, and I finally caught it on camera! You have to be sneaky with the camera because if she sees it, her attention switches from whatever cute little thing you’re trying to capture to watching the phone.

One of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard. I can’t watch it without laughing myself!

PS: Her first laugh was at about midnight or 1 am on Sunday, January 9. We’d been at Jose Carlos’s house for his birthday party, and Nora fell asleep in the Boba on the way home. Once we got home, we laid her on the changing table, and I was telling Luke, “Let’s just change her, feed her and try to put her straight to bed. Don’t talk to her too much or play with her.” She just looked up at us from the changing table and did that little laugh…kinda like “Yeah, right! That’s what you think is going to happen!” Ha! Despite the laugh, though, she did go straight to sleep and slept 7-8 hours straight that night!