Not so teeny

Well, we started pulling out the 9-month clothes this past week. My husband had pulled out a cute little outfit a little over a week ago, but it was way too summery and it was only supposed to be, umm, 50 degrees or something outside. It came out again, though, since we had a 76 degree day, and it fit like a dream. I'd looked at the 9-month sleepers about two weeks ago, asking Hubby if he thought it might fit baby, since her 6-month sleepers were getting too short in the leg, but he said, nooo, looks too long still. Out of curiosity, I put one on her a few nights ago... and it fit like a dream. That makes part of me a little sad! So I'm packing up her 6-month ones, because really, it's too short in the legs, though the onsies are still kind of okay. And I was thinking about her little tiny newborn clothes, and how ginormous I thought her 3-6 month sleeper was... my little girl is growing up.

Today she rolled on to her belly and started pushing her torso off the ground! She doesn't get real far before she starts scooting backwards, since we still have her on a slippery play mat. I had visions of her starting to scoot and crawl around... yikes. I better get ready for that, quick, because I am definitely not ready now.

And random funny story: I saw some baby foods on sale when I went to get her some oatmeal, so I decided to try a few new vegetables out. Tonight I pulled out the squash, and I thought it smelled pretty good - kind of a mix of the yummy-smelling carrots and sweet potatoes, both of which she loves. She took a bite of the squash, her eyes got kind of wide, and she opened her mouth in that adorable "feed me" kind of way that she usually does with carrots (she loooooves carrots) or foods she likes. She did this for a few bites before she looked almost like she was gagging. And boy, did she not open her mouth after a few more bites with that grossed-out face. Hah! I was totally fooled! Maybe she was too. I might try a few bites tomorrow.

Here is that adorable 9-month outfit: it has a little skirt! Also, that little grin just kills me.

A hairy situation

We had a little incident with the vacuum the other week where it was accidentally placed over a sock while the hose was being used for some detail work... and the sock got sucked up and the vacuum stopped whirring. Fortunately we're pretty sure only the belt broke. Unfortunately this belt has been a complete pain to find. Fortunately I vacuumed possibly the day before this incident. Unfortunately, baby has been pulling out increasing amounts of my hair. Today she even started pulling it out with her toes (as I nibble on her tummy after diaper changes). Gross. Hair everywhere. Even worse, we have baby on the floor a lot. Hair all over baby's toys, play mat, you name it, there's probably a stray hair or two to be found on it. 

On a completely different note, two papers and one essay test is all that stands between me and (temporary) freedom. I haven't completely decided yet if I'm going to do my last class(es) independent study or during the summer term - if I can get a high enough score on the physical science exam, I could keep the credit hours and take my other class free with a scholarship. Even if I don't take physical science, I could still potentially get leftover pell grant money to help pay for tuition. If I can stand to be in 2+ hours of class a few times a week. Oh, this baby. So... I might still do the course independent study. Just so I don't have to commit to class hours and due dates. 

Also. I don't exactly know where my camera cord is so I haven't downloaded many new pictures since my last update. And the pictures I've been taking haven't been super high quality. But what is this blog with out my cute baby? So here's one I took of an outfit I especially enjoyed. Overalls that were too long and a smidgeon too small around baby's adorable chubby gut. Which is a shame - I may not put her in those cute overalls ever again.

PS. I only really put those bows on her head for church and pictures. Occasionally events like wedding receptions. I find they don't stay on her head well enough during daily activities, especially with nursing. So I put it on her head and then took it off shortly after the picture. :-)

Giggling

I have a confession: I love my little baby. (Surprise!) No, that isn't my confession... but I loved that my baby was little and squishy, and back when she first started smiling, I occasionally wished that once she started to laugh, she would just stay that age forever. I take it back, though. It's so fun to see her talking and rolling and getting strong and sitting up and eating baby food... She's a pretty fun kid.

Also, I started doing (more) regular naps in the crib (thanks, Kandra, for the encouragement). She doesn't usually sleep very long, but she does sleep three times a day, so that's something. I figure as we get more used to nap time, she'll sleep longer than half an hour. Tonight I was a total sucker and let her sleep while I held her, and she slept at least an hour not long before bedtime. She stayed up a tiny bit longer than usual, but went right to sleep (or if she didn't, she didn't make much noise). Poor little tired baby.

In other news, I only have one more class period to attend this semester. Hooray! Unfortunately, I have two papers due in the next week, one on Wednesday and the other Friday. They shouldn't be too bad, I just have to crank them out. And, as I was discussing with another mother today, at this point I just want to pass. So I would like to make them excellent papers (especially one of them), I just also only really care about passing. The other mother told me, mostly jokingly, "D's get degrees." It's probably a good thing that these two papers are essentially a third of my grade in each class, or I would be sorely tempted not to do them. Ten percent? Pssh, I could totally take off ten percent of my grade. Thirty percent plus, though, that is waaay too much to just blow off.

But I just want to play with my baaaaaby. (And maybe use my extra time to clean the house instead of procrastinate my homework.)

Our little piggyback shorty. 

(She hit dad on the head, which is why his expression looks like that. All the other pictures were blurry.)

I discovered she likes to sleep on her side, like she's nursing. Though... in this picture... I put her down like that. Still cute.

She reached for my plate when I was done.

Though she later got frustrated when she tried to eat it and it wouldn't bend to her will.

Sleep training

So I've made an attempt at letting baby girl "cry it out" lately, because I don't know why she keeps waking up, and I can only assume it's because she is so used to being held and loved by us. I really wish I knew what was the problem, because that would be easier to fix. Since I don't, though, I just decided to try my hand at sleep training.

Here at BYU, most of the professors are big on attachment theory. Thus, I'm rather fond of it myself. So I never imagined using a cry it out technique, because I wouldn't want my baby to feel like I wouldn't be there for her. Turns out I was just making assumptions about what Ferber's cry it out method was, because he very reasonably points out that it isn't beneficial for either the parent or the child to suddenly withdraw all comfort at bedtime/throughout the night.

So, here's a basic sum-up from what I've learned/read about Ferber's technique in the past few days:

- The idea is to help baby learn to fall asleep on her own. So I put her down awake.
- When I walk away, she usually cries. I have a plan, though, of how long I wait before going back to check on her.
- I check on her and comfort her briefly without picking her up. Mostly I reassure myself that she's okay.
- Each night I wait a little longer before checking on her, and also throughout the night, I'll check on her after longer time periods (at first I waited five minutes, then seven, then ten. Now I'll usually wait eight minutes, or even longer if she stops for a minute).

By now, we're doing pretty good. She isn't waking up every hour or two, which is SO nice. She was still super tired tonight, but we've also had some changing bedtimes lately which I'm sure doesn't help. I think I'm supposed to use the same method for nap times, I just haven't been very good about having a "set" nap time.

I think one of the hardest things for me (aside from, you know, letting her cry) is that I secretly really love holding my sleeping baby. Which might be why I have such a hard time with naps... I let her nurse herself to sleep and just snuggle her for a while. Yeah... I'm so good at consistency.

It's that time again...

Time for a procrastination blog post! Yes, I am working on an assignment. I just finished a good chunk of it, and I'm pretty excited by how it's turning out. So, the logical conclusion is to take that energy and write a blog post, right? I thought so, too.

Baby girl and I had a couple adventures yesterday - we weren't at home very much. I had to take her to campus for my class, but it all worked out. (She even made some new friends in my second class!) And then we headed up to Taylorsville for a wedding reception after class. We didn't get back until I think... 8:30? I was hoping to get her to bed between 8:30 and 9, but since she slept most/all of the way up to Taylorsville and at least half the way back, I wasn't sure I'd be doing either of us any favors by trying to get her back to sleep right away. So she went to bed at 10, and went down with hardly a peep. Only up once last night to eat. (My thoughts on Ferber's sleep-training method should be coming soon...) Got up about the same time she usually does, between 7:30 and 8.

Mostly I told that story because tonight she was sitting with her dad (so I could do my homework) and she started falling asleep at 8! Actually, I started her little solid food meal around 6:45, and between making little batches of oatmeal and feeding her somewhat distracted self, Gary wasn't finished until 7:30 or so, after which he bathed her. Because she was gross. I nursed her after, and I could tell she was about to doze off, so I stopped nursing and sat her up and bounced her a bit. It was cute, though, watching her nodding off in Hubby's arms.

She did wake up about an hour later, but we let her cry for a bit, and she's back to sleep now. Poor, tired little girl. She was a pretty busy girl today, too, and so didn't get prime napping time. Hopefully she'll still sleep until 7:30 or 8... that's my only concern, really.

Oh, and happy 6 months to my little angel baby.

Who by the way likes to sit up on her own these days. We took her to Texas Roadhouse tonight and at one point I had her sitting on the bench of the booth next to me. It was super precious, because she's so little, but I had this funny moment where I realized she would be sitting next to me (or dad) in a booth for a long time, and mostly not as small as she is now.

Oh boy, I love being a mom.

Carrot Face

I have a little baby who absolutely loves carrots. I've had her get pretty enthusiastic about her cereal, but never any of the fruits and veggies. She kept reaching for more! Now, a certain amount got on her bib, face, hands, and pants... but I think maybe even with all the smearing, she ate double of anything else she's tried (cereal excluded). Here I was wondering if she just wasn't really into solids yet, and I just wasn't giving her the right ones! Right when I opened it, even I thought they smelled delicious, almost like pumpkin. I kept checking the label to make sure they were really carrots, and only carrots. I want whatever carrots Gerber uses. Seriously.

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of her carroty face. I especially wish I'd captured the moment that she got a little glob on her eyelashes. Cute.

In other news, even though we still haven't figured out sleep, she keeps me going with her smiles. I thought as I was wiping carrot off her face just now that taking care of Baby is definitely my favorite part of the day. Cleaning the house, going through school, and everything else probably has more noticeable reward, but this little girl is my favorite.

Who needs sleep?

This post is mostly to make myself feel better.

My daughter was a wonderful sleeper, up until shortly after she hit 4 months. We figure she had a bit of constipation, so she would wake up with the effort of trying to excrete. Then she had another UTI (actually, she might have had the UTI the whole time), and then she had surgery. Whew. It's been interesting.

Lately, though, she's been even worse than she was the past month and a half. I thought maybe all my bad sleep-training habits had finally caught up with me, but when I thought I'd start letting her cry a little, I noticed it got worse. Her cries, to me, sounded so much like pain. And I thought she was in pain.

Tonight, my husband finally noticed it too. I wasn't making it up! When he went to rub a little vaseline on where her ureter comes out (where she had her surgery), he noticed it looked a little red. We're going to call on Monday to see what we can or should do about it. Poor little girl. I thought I noticed her crying a few days ago when the ureter was draining (quick anatomy review - the ureter is the tube from which the kidney drains into the bladder. Baby's got two - one wasn't draining hardly at all, so they moved it out to the skin. Weird, I know), and I think she even seemed to flinch when I went to rub vaseline on it once. The only trouble is that she doesn't do it every time - I see the ureter drain and she's just doing her thing. But it did look a little red to me last night. Maybe it's swollen? I don't know.

Anyway. It makes me feel a little better as a mother that I haven't simply failed at helping my baby to sleep. I still have some work to do in the sleep training department, but I feel somewhat justified in my actions for now. Who's going to turn away a baby in pain? Not me, that's for sure. I love my little girl. Even if she does persistently scream every two hours or so.

(Confession: I've taken to brief periods of co-sleeping with the little girl because I'm too tired to stay up with her until she won't scream when I put her down. Not the best three-hour stretches of my life, but possibly better than the less-than-two I've been getting.)

But you know she makes it all better the next day. <3

Doing alright

We had a little procedure done on Friday morning. After a somewhat trying week, Baby was surprisingly chipper that morning. Not so much that afternoon. But look! We had to put her in baby scrubs, which were pretty awesome.

Primary Children's is an excellent facility, by the way; I was quite impressed by the accommodations for waiting  families and how they handled everything. We got in quite early, and though we were told they'd try and keep her over night (when we first discussed the surgery back in January), the doctor decided to just watch her a few hours and send her home after she'd had some fluids. We were home that afternoon.

Poor baby... she was very lethargic and whenever we had to move her, she'd cry as if in pain. Fortunately, today has been much better, and she even began smiling this evening, more like her normal self. Unfortunately, she developed a fever so the doctor had to stick a catheter in her. :-( I can only imagine how not-good that felt after her surgery.

The other good news is that she had normal weight gain this week. I don't know how much fluid is left in her from the IV yesterday, but even before surgery, her weight gain was right on track. What a relief! Even if I do have to deal with the occasional bottle and the pumping. Maybe if she's doing real well at her 6 month checkup, I can drop the formula-enhanced bottles. At least I know she can kind of take a bottle. Much easier to leave her with a sitter this way.

You know what else has been good news in all this? I've learned that A) people are really nice and B) I have friends. Excellent friends. Maybe it sounds silly, but I wasn't sure I had anyone nearby that I felt I could just hang out with. Turns out I do! I am surrounded by excellent people.

Plenty to worry about

I don't know how some women do it. Moms who go to school and/or go to work, yet still manage to be good moms (and get the dishes done, I bet!). I only feel capable of doing one or the other, though I more than likely have horrible time-management skills. Normally I'm not big into the comparison game, but in motherhood, I play the worst kind: I compare to the way I imagine all mothers must be.

On the other hand, I realize some of my struggles are a little out of the ordinary. She is having surgery this week  (the first of two). I had yet another doctor appointment today where I found out she still hasn't gained back the weight she lost from her most recent UTI, and in fact she probably should've gained 6-12 ounces in the past two weeks and she only gained 3. We've been to the pediatrician 4 times in the past month. So today, instead of dedicatedly tackling the 40+ pages of reading I have left and possibly starting on the 5 journal article reviews due in a week, I spent the past two hours looking into how I could help my baby gain weight, wondering if my milk supply was low, and considering making an appointment with a lactation consultant. Or maybe her surgery will help her feel better, so she'll be able to eat and grow normally.

I just want to take my baby out for a walk on a beautiful day, but I haven't even mentioned all the housework I've neglected. Guess I just need to work on my mad babywearing skillz.

Oh, well - with a face like this, what do I really have to complain about?

And now for something completely different!

I put my baby down in her crib for a nap (already asleep) and turned on the baby monitor, getting ready to do some of my neglected housework. It was silent, so imagine my surprise when I walked into the room and saw this:

Once again, though... with a face like that, who really cares?

Also, I got these cute little baby hair things in a set with a headband. The headband is too small, and she never really had enough hair for the hair things, but I decided to give it a go anyway.

Hee. Maybe one day she'll get some hair.

Give Peas a Chance

After almost a week of successful rice cereal feedings, I finally got off my duff and cooked up some peas for baby to try. I now understand the appeal of jarred baby food. Also, turns out my immersion blender is not the finest at pureeing. The good news is that baby ate peas!

However, I'm thinking she hasn't decided if she actually likes them or not.

We'll try again today, though. I had to make more than enough so my immersion blender could actually blend the peas. (Which I may have learned through frustrating experience a few days ago.)

All we are saying is give peas a chance....