Super(tired)model

Today was our first professional photo shoot with Ellie and me. We went to a local place, Studio This Is. Goofy name, I know. They do mostly wedding photography, but were open to taking pics of us. Our day started off poorly with Ellie missing an hour of sleep and then fighting her morning nap. Then, our appointment was at 11, and by rights, she should have gone down for another nap around 12 or 12:30. She was a pretty good sport, but spent about 80% of her time with her hands in her mouth. And, she started getting fussy about noon. As it was, she fell asleep in the stroller while I was waiting for lunch at the coffee shop next door.

She hasn't done that in a very very long time. And, she's still asleep in her crib over an hour later. Part of me wants to go start on another project, but another part of me knows this is too good to be true and she'll wake up just as soon as I get started doing something else. So, even though she hasn't moved a muscle since she got comfy in her crib, I'm probably just going to wait it out. The cat is doing her level best to wake Ellie by racing up and down the hall. If she keeps it up, it won't be long now.

With luck, the proofs from the photo shoot should be online by Tuesday. Depending on the security, I'll try to post a link.

Just When You Think You've Got a Routine....

Helping Dad with the wirestrippers.

I just reviewed my last post and can't believe that was only a week ago. Since that post, Ellie has suddenly caught onto sleeping in her crib – although as I write she is fighting bedtime with all her might.

We finally installed our blackout curtains in the nursery (although the black trash bags worked better, these look nicer). I've been catching Ellie's sleepy windows. And, she's been going to sleep relatively quickly with little fuss MOST of the time. Usually, her first nap is about an hour after she wakes up, or halfway through my breakfast. Then, she sleeps around 11 or 12, and around 2, and then we make a final push to meet our quota around 4. Most of her naps are about 30 minutes. Every now and then, she'll go 45 minutes or her record of 1 hour and 15 minutes. That's why we're currently at about 4 naps. However, according to the sleep book I'm reading (slowly), naps of less than an hour or naps with motion (ie. in the car, the swing, the baby carrier, etc) aren't very restful. I find that troubling since that's about all the sleep she gets during the day. Her last nap usually starts in the crib and ends in the Ergo carrier. For some reason, she can sleep in that about 95% of the time. For hours. Today, I had to wake her up so she didn't sleep into bedtime. Now, I'm thinking I still let her sleep too long. She was NOT happy with me when I woke her.

Okay, she is finally asleep. A mere 55 minutes past "bedtime", which is 8 pm. Usually, we start nursing around 7:40 so she's in bed around 8 and generally asleep by 8:30. Tonight, she had no real appetite and then threw up when I kept trying to get her to eat more. So, we changed her clothes (for the second time) and sleep sack and then I put her to bed. I think I need to move her max nap time to 2.5 hours before bed instead of the 2 hours I currently use. The book I'm reading also suggested that short naps mean that she's overtired and needs to go to bed earlier. So, I think we'll start inching bedtime up this weekend until we notice improvement. Supposedly, we may see her sleep 10-12 hours straight through. That makes my boobs hurt just thinking about it. She slept 8.5 hours straight last night and I thought I was going to burst. But, I'm sure I'll adjust.

Other than sleep, her eating has changed drastically also. Last week, she was eating 2.5 hours a day. The last few days, she's barely nursed an hour or hour and a half. She snacks for 6-8 minutes on a side and then starts arching her back and giving the boob dirty looks. She doesn't seem overly gassy, so I'm not sure what's going on. Her attitude is still mostly sunny though, so I'm guessing she's getting enough to eat. Still, I am willing to bet her weight gain has slowed significantly.

She was playing with Daddy the other day and he got some beginner giggles. See the video below.

Sneezy Visits the Doctor

Today marked day 16 of the sniffles and congestion. So, we went to see Dr. L. We were running 5 minutes late, but I didn't stress because I knew he'd be later. The parking lot and waiting room were unusually sparse, so I held out a little hope that we'd be in and out in less than an hour. I was close. We got in the room pretty quickly, but then waited forever to get a quick 5 minute consult and a script for medicine if she got worse instead of better. Basically, she could be in the 10% of cold sufferers who takes longer than 10 days to recover, or she could have a sinus infection. Either way, I think she's started to recover since most of her sneezes are pretty dry now.

The highlight of the visit was getting another weigh-in. Ellie now weighs 12.5 pounds. She's climbing the charts to the 13th percentile! So, the fact that she's been eating another half-hour a day seems to be paying off.

A little tongue for the camera

Otherwise, we're kind of in a holding pattern. Ellie has gotten on a rough nap schedule, but has to be forced into them with the Ergo carrier. Mom's back is starting to ache from approximately 3 hours of wearing Baby each day. However, Ellie is getting about 13-14 hours of sleep a day and is a happy girl for the most part. So, I'm just hoping that she grows out of the clingy nap phase at no later than 6 months. I have a sleep book to start reading again that has been highly recommended by several mommy friends. I keep trying the crib nap, but it has only worked when she was already pretty deeply asleep from the car. Even then, she doesn't recover after she startles herself awake the first time, so they're generally 30 minutes or less.

Sniffles and Adventures in Napping

Ellie is going on 9 days with a moderately runny nose. I think it might be allergies. She's avoided a fever and her snot is clear, but it's also persistent. We missed the Y one day and had Grandma watch her a couple other times, but she doesn't seem to have improved or gotten worse. So, I took her to Childwatch today and they didn't say anything, even though she seemed to get really congested sounding right before we left the house. I've decided that the bulb syringes are just about useless, although using a little saline does help loosen things up. As disgusting as it sounds, I've actually tried the Nose Frida, which is a manual snot sucker (ie. Mom sucks on one end and opposite end fits at baby's nostril). Ellie doesn't like it at all, but I seem to be getting a little better at it. It's easier to clean than a bulb syringe also.

Over the weekend, P covered Ellie's windows in black plastic to try out a theory that she might sleep longer in the mornings if she didn't see the growing light and maybe she'd be able to nap in her crib during the day. Well, the real blackout curtains should be in tomorrow, but I don't think they'll work either. She still wakes up for the morning around 6:30 or 7. And, while she did nap in her crib today, it took her crying for an hour to get a 30 minute nap. After discussing with some other moms on Facebook, I'm going to try transitioning her from her Ergo carrier to the crib once she's asleep. Maybe that way we can wean her off that particular crutch. It'd certainly help my back if we could. A few other friends of mine indicated they had similar challenges with their kids and that Ellie might grow out of it by around 6 months if not before. Still, I need to read a couple sleep books and see if I can pick up any tips. I'm kinda sick of reading baby books though. So much of it seems common sense, and there are so many caveats since every child is different.

Lately, Ellie has been spreading out her feedings and lengthening most of them to 20 0r 30 minutes. It's allowed us to develop a schedule of sorts. If I can just get her to fall asleep in her crib we'll be golden. In other news, she's started sleeping on her right side. Because she's been improving on the rolling front, I replaced her birdie bumper with a breathable mesh one just until she gets more independent and reliable about rolling. I laid her down Saturday on her left side and she flipped over onto her tummy, which she didn't enjoy. Sunday, she repeated the trick during tummy time with slightly better results. However, she usually doesn't initiate the rolling, so I've been trying to help her out just to get her comfortable with it, and she seems almost there. She actually rested her head without crying tonight, which to me indicates that she's getting stronger and enjoying being on her belly a little more.

Four Month Check-up

Tuesday was Ellie's four month appointment. She got a couple more shots and a quick review by the pediatrician. I'm beginning to think I may look for a new ped. He finds a way to suggest prayer every visit. We always end up waiting for a long stretch either before we go back or once we're in a room. Last time, I had a question for the doctor and we began to think he'd forgotten about us. It took about 30 minutes to wait for him and about 30 seconds to ask the question and get the answer. When we ask questions though, he does take the time to answer, he just seems to jet through the exam. He rattles off the questions and barely seems to take in the answer. It's tempting to give him a nonsensical answer sometime just to see if he'd pick up on it. Otherwise, he's a nice guy.

The thing I'm learning about doctors is that perhaps I need to ask even more people's opinions and always interview more than one. What a pain. But, I suppose if I'm going to be picky.... As far as Ellie's stats go, she isn't as big as I thought. She's barely 10 lbs. 2 oz., which puts her in the 2nd percentile for the US. Her head is finally filling out her hats, some are too small now, but she's apparently in the 11th percentile. But, taking after her parents, her height is 25.25 inches, putting her in the 81st percentile. So, surprise surprise, she's already tall and skinny. We started transitioning to size 2 diapers (12-18 lbs.) a couple weeks ago, so I thought she was about 13 pounds. So, all my guesses are apparently way way off base. When P told me what percentile she was in, I was scared the ped would tell us to supplement. However, he didn't so apparently she looked healthy enough otherwise. She's wearing mostly 6 month clothes and a few 9 month onesies. She'll be transitioning to 9 month sleepers soon though because she's already maxing out the length. I'm finding that there are certain brands that seem more accurate for her sizing. Gerber runs small. Circo and Carter's are just about perfect. Dwell Studio, sold through Target, which I really like, is unfortunately sized for fat short babies. She's got a few short sleeve Dwell onesies that I'm not sure she'll wear because the weather is very slow to warm so far. And, I can't really find long sleeve onesies locally anymore.

We've been focusing a lot on sleep schedules and tummy time lately. I keep up with a few other mothers on FB whose kids are about the same age as Ellie. Many of them are already rolling, so it lit a fire under me to work with her. And, the ped has been mentioning sleep schedules since our 1 month appointment, so I've been trying to get naps sorted. I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. She does NOT like to nap in her crib. We've been trying modified cry-it-out, where you go in to soothe her every 5 minutes. I almost think it would be kinder to leave her for longer (like 20 minutes) and only go in to take her out. Going in every 5 minutes, especially during the day, seems to just give her false hope and make her more upset when you leave again. It's heartbreaking. We tried a morning and afternoon nap, and only succeeded in passing time unpleasantly and working Ellie into hysterical fits of crying twice. So, my new strategy is to keep trying the lie down awake maneuver at bedtime and just keep working on semi-regular naps any way I can get them during the day. So far, the swing, sleeping on me, the carseat–if we're driving around, and the Ergo carrier are the best bets. She slept an hour on me after trying for an hour to sleep in the crib. This afternoon, I only made it about 20 minutes before rescuing her to try napping in the Ergo. It took nearly that long to calm her down after each attempt. She slept almost 2 hours in the Ergo.

Those are our most pressing concerns at the moment. The child watch ladies at the Y seem to look forward to seeing her. Two or three of them have commented on what a good baby she is (so long as she's caught up on sleep). I've been working out 3 days a week and have seen some results. I've gone down a size (since I stopped wearing stretchy pants exclusively) and am now just about 13 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. I feel pretty good and have noticed the cardio getting easier. I even feel somewhat peppy leaving the Y, usually not on days I work with the trainer though. For me, the key has been tracking my food intake with Sparkpeople.com. It's been a real eye-opener to learn what foods are calorically loaded and just how much a serving is for a lot of things. As a result, I don't load up on cheese nearly as much as I used to. It's more a garnish now. And, I have cut back on huge breakfasts and sweets. I really caved in during the third trimester and started knocking back serious quantities of milkshakes and brownies. And, I'm trying to get my 8 glasses of water because suddenly, if I don't my skin gets drier. I think my milk supply decreases also, but I can't really quantify that.

I'm still trying to find time to do some "mommy time". I haven't written thank you notes for gifts after Ellie was born. And, I'm getting to the point where I need to cut out some of my volunteer commitments. I'm a member of 3 groups and I may have to fall back to a bare minimum worker bee in at least one. I find I like staying home with P and little E evenings and weekends. We switch off shifts so each of us gets cuddle time and time to take care of personal projects like the vegetable garden, cooking, working in the woodshop, or doing pro bono design work. My office is a wreck since I only get to work on it in small snatches of time. The only thing I'm getting lots of is time to watch TV series on Netflix streaming. That and reading books is about all I can manage during the many hours I seem to spend each day nursing and holding a sleeping bebe. So, there are some good shows out there. Most, have been cancelled after only one or two seasons. Some of the ones I like are; Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, The Dollhouse, Pushing Daisies, Eureka, and show of the moment, Bones. I may be forgetting one or two...

Auntie C posted a few more pics from her camera of our Texas trip. You can see all of them here.

Here's a recent photo of Ellie eating her sock. I'll see if we can get some better photos this weekend. I have a couple videos also, but I'll have to post them on FB or maybe the photo gallery.

Ellie eating her foot. To date, it's her best party trick.

Texas Trip

Last week, we traveled to Texas to visit my family. We went to the Riverwalk in San Antonio since P REALLY REALLY wanted to go. He liked it, so I'm sure we'll be going back. I was just glad to get some good TexMex cheese enchiladas. Not these Mexican jobs up here. Unless the cheese is cheddar, it's just not the same. We also visited my grandmother up in Austin and ended the day standing in line for the iPad2 and hanging out with some old friends. Saturday, we hung out with my family and my Aunt D and picked up a summer wardrobe for P. Sunday, we headed back. It felt like a really short trip, but we squeezed a lot into it and it was long enough that I was really glad to get home. 

Ellie is growing. She has her 4 month appointment in a week and a half. I'm hoping to get her sleep schedule ironed out by then. I feel as though I've procrastinated my homework. I've been reading other blogs and forums trying to figure out what works for other moms. So far, it looks as though I'm not alone in my random "a la cart" style napping. However, from what I can tell, schedules are better in the long run. So, we've moved bed time up to 8:30 with the intention to get it to 8. She sleeps 7-8 hours most nights, followed by 2 1-1.5 hour naps to wake for good around 8. Today, I decided to try the 2-3-4 (named after the number of hours between sleep periods) schedule. I started trying for a nap around 9:45. She finally fell asleep in her crib around 10:30 (after a lot of fussing). I'm considering getting some darker curtains to go over her shades, but don't really want to make her light dependent. Following this schedule, her next nap should be around 2-2:30. If I can get her to nap for a couple hours, that will put her perfectly on schedule for an 8:30 bedtime. I expect I'll have to use the Ergo carrier. That's about the only way I can get a long nap out of her. Thank goodness our bedtime routine is down.

Ellie's hair is starting to grow. It's darkened some, but she's still blonde. She may end up a brunette though. P and I were both towheads into elementary school. Her eyelashes have just a bit of curl to them now. We've started using cloth diapers in earnest. But, in disposables we're moving up to a size 2. I have a pack of size 1's I need to send back to Amazon. Between that, and the fact that we've moved up to size 3-6 mos. in clothes, I'd estimate Ellie is around 13 pounds. She's holding up her neck well most of the time, so we don't have quite the problem getting milk stuck in her neck folds. She drools and bubbles like a fountain, so bibs are pretty much mandatory these days, although she does a pretty decent job mopping her own face if you give her a cloth diaper. 

We took our first walk yesterday with the stroller. The weather was cloudy in the 60's with a bit of wind. We may take the dogs next time. Today looks even prettier.

Mom, Dad and little e

Four generations at Great Grandma's house

Having dinner with friends at Jasper's in the Domain

Smiling for the paparazzi

In the plane flying to Texas

Milestone: Napping in the Crib

Ellie is almost 14 weeks now (tomorrow) and took her first crib nap today. Up to now, she's only napped in arms, swings, bouncy seats, and carseats. She has always woken up the minute I try to lay her down. Always. So, I'm pretty stoked and hope she'll do an afternoon nap too. Once we get this trick down, maybe we can get on a nap schedule before our next doctor's appointment so I don't have to "disappoint" Dr. L.

Another good sign was that two nights ago, I was able to lay her down for the night semi-drowsy and she made her way to sleep on her own. I've started reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, but I'm hoping we can figure this out before I get to the end of it.

Also, I developed a cold Sunday afternoon and am hoping that it passes quickly. I've always been able to treat myself before and doing this without sudafed is definitely not for sissies.  I feel a little better than yesterday, so hopefully I'm on the road to recovery. Ellie has been eating and sleeping more than usual, so maybe she's trying to fight off infection too. So far, she doesn't share any of my symptoms. We are due to go to Texas soon and I really don't want to do it with a sick baby.