Things changing overnight

Things have totally changed overnight for us here (no pun intended!). It seems like our little baby has changed into a little girl!

She's now rolling from back to belly all the time. Although she still isn't quite sure how to get from belly to back, so she often gets 'stuck' on her belly - I'm sure she'll figure it out soon though!

She is also sitting up on her own quite well. I still have to put a pillow behind her to alleviate the head trauma of falling backwards every once and a while, but this is a skill that it seems like she mastered in all of 2 days. I'm guessing it's all the time she spends in the jolly jumper and exersaucer that got her practiced up for sitting on her own - who knows - but she love love loves it - a new way to play with her toys and look at the world!

We also have a little chatterbox on our hands now - this just started last Friday while I was in the grocery store. I'm not sure if she was bored or tired or what, but there I was pushing the cart, when she started going "Ay yayyayayayyyaayaa, Baa bababababababa, Ayyaaayayayay". It cracked me up - I was literally laughing out loud for the last 10 minutes of shopping while she just babbled away. It could be one of the coolest developments so far - I just wish I knew what she was saying, because I know it's something. She just looks at you so ernestly, babbling away, you know she's trying to tell you something.

And last but not least ... the SLEEP! It started late last week - I was nursing her upstairs in our bed and like usual, she was falling asleep, but I wasn't tired at all and the thoughts of all the things I needed to do around the house before the weekend kept running through my mind. I laid with her for a bit, then decided to take the chance of sneaking out of the bed and seeing how long she would sleep on her own. Turns out - 2 HOURS! Thus began our new nap routine for Maddie. I nurse her in our bed, wait for her to fall asleep and then sneak out. She sleeps on her own in the middle of our bed for 1-2 hours at a time. I know I need to get her into her crib for her naps - but for now I don't care. She's so much happier getting 3 solid naps a day. I'm able to get things done around the house. It's fantastic.

And on the sleep front - after considering how well she was sleeping in our bed, I started to think of how I could replicate that for her crib - so she could sleep better at night. Our bed has a soft pillow top, which in my opinion is way more comfortable than the hard-as-a-rock crib mattress that she has - and probably a big cause for the difference in sleep between our bed and the crib. I mean, she's learned to sleep 'on her own' - just not in her own bed yet. So I took the comforter blanket we had from the crib bedding set and put it down on the mattress and pulled the fitted sheet over it. Kind of like a makeshift pillow top for her crib mattress. I'm sure the SIDS police would have a field day with that, but I think she's gotten strong enough to pull her head up if she needed to.

The first night we tried this, she woke up 3 times - midnight (found her own binkie and put it back in herself and went back to sleep without me entering the room), 3:30 (for a feed) and 6:45 (to get up for the day). Last night wasn't as great - I felt like I was in and out of her room 6 times by 2am. But then she work up at 4-ish and had already put herself back to sleep before I got to her room, then up again at 6-ish (I think she's hearing Seth getting ready for work - which she'll just have to get used to). So we've finally got her spending the whole night in her crib - and hopefully these numerous night wakings will start to fade away. The crazy thing is though, is that she is actually going to bed awake - very sleepy, but awake. She rolls on her side, grabs her lovey and pets him until her eyes start to shut. From the crying of just 2 weeks ago, or the 2 hour routine of just 4 weeks ago, this is crazy different! It's like she's decided sleep isn't such a bad thing - perhaps all my hard work paid off (although I expect it's more of a 'she grew out of her sleep issue' type thing).

I'll leave you with a cute pic of our little family from Saturday night (Seth's 30th birthday party) - it was a good time and it was great to have a bunch of our friends up to visit. I miss entertaining - can't wait for the nice weather to come so we can do more of it!

xxoo.S

Busy busy

Just a mini-post as it's been a busy couple of weeks - Seth was off last week, which was really nice. Nice for me to have someone share the 'parenting' with all day, and nice for Maddie because they really got some bonding time together. Because of the crazy hours that he had with Enterprise, he really would only see her for an hour every day before she was off to bed - which isn't a lot, especially to a young baby. But after this past week, Seth can now pick her up when she's upset and comfort her (instead of having to hand her off to me) - that makes us all feel a lot better.

Debbie & Shorty came up to visit over Easter weekend - Maddie got quite spoiled by everyone (including Auntie Liz) - here's a few pics...

Maddie with her new bunny

Maddie in her bunny outfit (from Grandpa + Grandma Burke)

Maddie in her Easter Dress from Grandma + Grandpa Vallier - and her homemade sweater from Ireland! Look at those shoes - too cute! (Yes, that's a mustache you see on Seth - don't ask...)

I've uploaded more pictures to our Flickr page too if you're still dying for more pics (and I know you are!).

This weekend is Seth's 30th birthday party - I'm making tonnes of appies and we have some good friends coming over to chill, party, play some guitar hero - that kind of stuff. Let's just hope that Maddie is able to eventually sleep through it...

xxoo.S

She's a genius!

It's now been 4 nights of straight crib-sleeping for Miss Maddie. It is getting better and while I'm still up 6-7 times in the night, I was able to get her back to sleep last night without picking her up out of her crib (for those of you w/o babes reading this, that is a BIG deal for us). So it seems we are on our way to happy crib sleeping days, slowly but surely.

Now onto the genius part ... :D

On Tuesday night at some point, I think 3am-ish (the mind gets foggy and its hard to remember times when you are up and down 6+ times in the night), I heard her fussing over the monitor. It was turning into actual cries, so I got up - but had to stop in the bathroom first. That little detour meant by the time I was on my way to her room, she had stopped crying. I stood in the hallway, listening to her grunt a bit. I'm like, huh - she's doing something. So I tiptoe up to the doorway and peek in. My little genius is on her side reaching for her binkie - as I watch, she grabs it, and clumsily manages to get it into her mouth (after several attempts). She turns her head to the side, happily starts slurping away, and falls back asleep.

I was so impressed I woke Seth up to tell him how smart she was - she can self-soothe. She found her bink and put it back in her mouth on her own! We are on the road to full-nights sleep! He was a little less excited than I was. So last night, I threw 4 more binkies in her crib, thinking as long as there was one within reach, she'd do the same thing.

She didn't. But like I said above, it was a lot easier to get her back to sleep, so that is what I'll be celebrating about instead.

xxoo.S

PS - it's now 8:15am and she's still sleeping. I wish I could still be as well, but she's trained me to be awake at 7am everyday, so I couldn't sleep in past 7:30...

Shhhhh - she's sleeping

Okay - so the naps haven't gone all that well today - but we have been *trying* to keep to the Baby Whisperer schedule (feed at 7, play, sleep 9-11, feed at 11, play, sleep 1-3, feed at 3, play, sleep 5-6, feed, feed, feed, bath at 7, bed by 8) ... the only thing is that she didn't sleep for 2 hours at 1. She slept for less than 1/2 an hour. And then fussed for an hour until we 'got' her up again at 3. Makes for one tired little monkey. So by 4, I was doing everything humanly possible to make her happy while still awake. My goal was keep her awake until 4:30 (5 is what I should have been reaching for, but come on - it's the first day on a 'schedule' - we need a little flexibility). It didn't matter anyways as things went TNT by 4:15 no matter how many nibbles and butterfly kisses I gave her feet and tummy.

Knowing that all she was crying about was a little sleep, I decided not to fight her and put her in her crib. She's like, what the?!? Mom - you always ROCK me to sleep, then transport me carefully into the crib where I will sleep fitfully for 1/2 an hour. What the hell is the in the crib AWAKE shite?

And so she cried. And cried. And wailed. And screamed. And I did what the Baby Whisperer tells you to - I picked her up to soothe her and put her back down once she stopped crying. Of course she just started crying again when I did that. So then I did what my gut told me to do - I left the room and stood in my bedroom and had a little cry of my own. Then went back in and soothed her some more.

What absolutely shocked me is that she went from wailing to snuffling to asleep within 15 minutes. I mean, she was super over-tired already, but really - from wailing to snuffling to asleep in 15 minutes. I honestly would never have thought that possible. Now we just have to see how long she'll be asleep for...

xxoo.S

PS - I know this blog has turned into a mini-obsession with Maddie's sleep habits. I'm sorry about that - but honestly, that's what is plaguing my mind day and night right now. Hopefully we'll get them straightened out and my posts will become a little less one-minded and more interesting. Fingers crossed!

The cradle is officially gone

We have had Maddie sleeping next to us in our room in her cradle since the day we brought her home. I liked it at first because I could hear/see her at any point during the night, so for my new-mom-anxiety, it meant that I didn't have to get out of bed to ensure she was still alive. Then I liked it because it was a hanging-style cradle, which meant I could rock her back to sleep with some 'shhh shhh-ing' quite easily - again without having to get out of bed.

She seemed to like being able to see me when she woke up, probably also that she could hear/smell me in the middle of the night as well. For several months she slept like a dream in that cradle - I would nurse her 2-3 times a night, put her back down and back to sleep she'd go like a little princess.

Then Valentine's Day came - we decided to try to 'transition' her to the crib. That night didn't go so well, and since then, her sleep habits have been atrocious. Resulting in her going to sleep in her cradle every night like usual, but then usually coming into our bed at some point during the night - sometimes as early as midnight, sometimes not until 4-ish. I think partly to do with her age (the "4 month sleep regression" is getting a lot of blame at this point), partly to do with her size (getting too big for that little cradle), and partly to do with her growing awareness of what's around her as well as cause and effect (hey, Mommy's up there, I want to be snuggled up there too - if I cry and fuss she'll eventually break down and bring me up there!)... regardless, we finally have gotten to the point that we realize she needs to move to her own room.

Yes I said "we" up there. It's not just been crazy Mommy that's been adamant about keeping Maddie in our room so long. Daddy really likes her being in there as well. It's a cozy little family room, he says. In hindsight, we should have made the move before she hit 3 months (and got a lot more aware of things around her) - it probably would have gone completely smoothly at that point. But we didn't, so now we have the task of moving a 5+ month old out of our room, out of her cozy cradle - into her big-girl crib. Fun.

At least Seth is off this week - which will hopefully make it a little less hard on us both, since we know there will be plenty of tears throughout the night. And to prepare for it all - Seth moved the cradle out of the room into the basement yesterday. Seeing that empty space beside my side of the bed made me well up a little. But it was a good thing, didn't want the cradle still there for a fall back.

So last night was the first night of crib-only sleeping. Well - she went down at 8pm, slept until 10:30 - up for a feed. Awake again at 2am for the mid-evening party that only she was attending (that means she wasn't crying, she wasn't hungry, she was just awake and ready to play play play!). After an hour of shushing and patting, I thought I had convinced her to go back to sleep, but the minute my head hit the pillow I heard rustling over the monitor. 30 minutes later the 'playing' had escalated to crying and I had now been awake for an hour + 45 minutes. Exhaustion and weakness of character saw me picking her up and taking her into bed with me, feeding her and sleeping for another blessed 3 hours.

Okay, so not a total success story - but a good start. Okay, an 'OK' start. We'll see how the naps go today - it's now 9am and someone's fussing, so it's time to get back on schedule.

Love to all - xxoo.S

Update post

It's been a while since I posted an update and as opposed to laziness being the reason, it's actually because we've been very busy these past few weekends.

The first weekend in March we hosted friends for dinner on Saturday night. I made roast beef, whipped potatoes and a broccoli dish that turned out quite well. We hoped that Maddie would cooperate (especially as we planned on dinner at 6pm, so that we could still do her bath routine at 7:30 like always). Unfortunately the little miss was incredibly grumpy while we ate dinner, took longer than usual to go to sleep after her bath and then awoke every 45 minutes afterwards until our guests left at around midnight. It was pretty frustrating, and even after they left it took me another hour to get her down to sleep for the night.

Another *fun* turn of events that started that same Saturday was a lovely nursing strike that miss Maddie decided to go on. This means that every time I knew she was hungry and it was time for her to feed, she would start crying her head off and fight me like crazy. It took a little bit to figure out that she would fight less if I laid down with her in the bed to nurse - which is what we had to do for almost every feed for the rest of the week. Yes, that's right, this fun little nursing strike lasted a full week. I was ready to quit breastfeeding altogether and as quickly as it started, it (knock on wood) went away. I think it was probably teething (we went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't an ear infection) - but no teeth have popped through yet, and so we wait some more...

Thursday that week, we had a visit from Grandma Thompson - she came up until Monday morning, so it was a nice long visit with Maddie. We did a bit of shopping, but mainly stayed around the house. On Saturday night Grandma babysat little Maddie while Seth and I went out to dinner. We had a great dinner (even though the restaurant was surprisingly packed for all the snow we got that night). Unfortunately Maddie gave Grandma a pretty hard time the entire time we were gone - although she was asleep by the time we got home, doing little sobs in her sleep and all that drama! Oh well, as sad as it was to hear that she cried almost the entire time we were gone, on Sunday was when she gave up her nursing strike - so while it was a traumatic night for Grandma and Maddie, it was a happy Sunday for all of us as she was back to feeding properly.

After spending practically the entire week sick and in bed as much as Maddie would let me, this past weekend was again busy. I had lunch with the girls on Saturday afternoon, and then went out to dinner with Greg & Liz that night (shout out to Rob & Vone - thanks again for babysitting - woot woot!). After dinner, we headed back over to Rob & Vone's to have a few drinks (well, not me, the DD) and play some Guitar Hero. I was so nervous leaving Maddie a 2nd Saturday in a row, and apparently she did cry a fair bit, but not as much as the previous Saturday. She was actually cuddling in sleeping on Kelly when we got there - with a little homemade sign on her back that said "FURNACE!". Too funny. She is a little heat box - she gets that from her daddy!

So that catches us all up - except on the most important news. Well, 2 things actually. First - Maddie has learned to roll from her back to her front - she started doing it on Sunday, March 2nd - Seth witnessed this milestone first when she was on her playmat, reaching for one of her blocks. She doesn't do it regularly, but definitely more often than she has rolled from tummy to back.

The 2nd big news item for us is that Seth got a new job! He starts on March 24th as the District Sales Manager - Ontario for Columbia Manufacturing Ltd., a maker of skylights. So he will be taking care of all the Home Depot, Rona etc. accounts across the province after a week of training in BC. His last day with Enterprise is tomorrow morning - he should be home to us by early afternoon and then he has the rest of the week off to spend with his girls.

We have some errands we want to get done around the house this week, and Seth is going to see what he can do about buying a car. We're also planning on trying some 'sleep training' with Maddie - starting tonight actually. I expect it will be a long week - but hopefully it will be successful... yes, as you can see - we're still obsessed about the sleep here! :)

xxoo.S

Dear Miss Maddie,

Today is your 5th month birthday and I can't believe how much you have grown! I already have a list of things that I miss about you - stages you've past and I know we'll never see again. It's a cliche and I'm sure when you are getting ready to have a baby far too many people will tell you this - but it's true - enjoy every moment, because they pass quickly and you'll wish you could turn back time.

• The number one thing I miss right now is just how tiny you were. It seemed like forever I could carry you in one arm, and then *poof* you were too big for that.
  
• Growing so big means that you don't fit into the sling in a cradle anymore - and that used to be the surefire way for you to catch some zzzz's and for me to get some stuff done around the house. Now trying to wrestle you into the sling just results in a lot of tears usually, unless we do the sit up position, then you're happy as a lark.
• Again, on the size thing - how you used to fit perfectly, laying down, onto a pillow. Anyone (you weren't picky) could cuddle you on their lap laying on that pillow.
• How easy you were to keep happy - you didn't have much interest in doing a whole lot except eat, sleep and eat some more - and you'd sleep on (and for) anybody. Now you're very mommy-centric, and while I'm flattered, it makes me sad for daddy - who very much misses his naps with his little girl. And I very much miss his ability to get you to sleep back then - it's a tough job now, especially when it lies fully on my shoulders to do so.
• How arching back or crying usually just meant you were gassy - not that you wanted out of my arms (you never wanted that!) and down on the floor to play by yourself. Yes, you've grown into a very independent-minded young miss, especially for just 5 months!
• Sleep - ah, the lovely rhythm we'd fallen into - getting you into bed by 10pm, you waking up at 4 for a feed, 6 for a feed, then up by 8. It was short-lived and I didn't appreciate it enough while it lasted.
  
• Saving the best for last ... your regular once a day poops. It was like clockwork, I'd sit you up on my lap for a bit in the morning and you'd go, we'd change the dipe, and be done with it for the day. Now I wait in anticipation if today will be the day and because it's usually every 3, 4, sometimes even 5 days you go - if today is the day, it's a nightmare mess resulting in the usage of at least 5 baby wipes.

Don't get me wrong - I'm loving all these new developmental milestones that you are approaching - you know your name now (that's sooooo cool I think) regardless of who says it. You smile at absolutely everyone. You giggle (if I work really hard at it). You play play play as much as possible - grabbing at things (including the kitty), trying to roll from your back onto your stomach, sometimes achieving the tummy to back rollover. You can sit up now so well in your bumbo - no more slumping. In fact, you can almost sit up by yourself - I just help you with your balance now. You talk a lot - including screeches when you want something that you can't get/reach/have. You've started drinking from (read: playing with) a sippy cup. You started solids this weekend (rice cereal) and loved it. You wake up in the best mood - so smiley. And you smile at me from across the room if I say "hi Maddie!".

I know that in a few months I'll look back at some of these things and miss them because you'll have continued to grow up and leave some of these quirks behind. I can't believe that I thought of going back to work at 6 months - you couldn't tear me away from taking the entire year off now. I absolutely love watching you grow up and learn something new every day and am so glad that we have 7 more months of this. But am also completely blown away at how quickly these 5 months have gone.

So happy birthday sugar pop!

Love Mommy.

xxoo

Irony is...

... a baby that sleeps 1+ hour (and counting) on a day when you actually were depending on the 1/2 hour nap. Our household is currently on hold, as we had planned on being out of the house by now - on our way to Costco to do some errands/grocery shopping. A later than usual nap, combined with longer than usual, means that we are just that - on hold.

To the babysleepgods: Not that I'm complaining. Honestly - I'm not...

xxoo.S

PS - Am in the midst of reading "The No Cry Sleep Solution" and plan to start it on Monday. Will keep you all informed of the progress. This may be the future baby shower present to everyone I know... here's hoping!

Roll over milestone!

I left Maddie on the floor today playing with some toys on her tummy and went to the fridge to grab some yogurt. When I came back to the living room, there she was on her back! I put her back on her tummy and after a few minutes she had managed to roll over onto her back again.

I know I said she had rolled over before, but it was always when I was playing with her, trying to show her how. This was definitely unassisted and uncoached. Yay - milestone day!

xxoo.S

Have we turned a corner ...

s...or is it just a blip? I'm not sure - but I put lil miss Maddie down for her morning nap at 9:30 sharp - she went down in just 6 minutes (as in, went so asleep that her binkie fell out of her mouth and she didn't care) and she's STILL asleep!?! It is now 10:45 and counting...

I usually have a quick bath or shower while she has her morning nap - and so for the past 45 minutes I've been sitting here in my bathrobe deathly afraid of going into the bedroom to get clothes in fear of waking our little sleeping beauty up.

Instead I uploaded all my recent photos to Walmart for printing, checked my email, posted on friends' blogs and am now posting this. About 20 minutes ago I heard one loud cry and I thought that was that, but she seems to have fallen back to sleep...

Sorry to ramble - it's just so shocking, and a little unnerving... but don't worry, I'm not going to do anything crazy like go in and check to see if she's still breathing. At least not until 11:30...

xxoo.S

New pics posted ... oh and still no sleep

I'd love to give you all an update on the sleep and say that my 'tactics' have started to succeed ... sadly they have not. In fact I have given up entirely on the crib as I didn't want it to have a negative association for her and that seemed to be the direction we were headed in. So she takes her morning nap in the cradle and all subsequent naps have either been in my arms, on me, beside me (in the bed) or in the carseat (while we're out). I took the advice of a few friends and decided that I'd worry about breaking bad habits later and just do whatever it takes right now to get some sleep - at least for the next couple of weeks until we're all back on an even keel. So for now, we're back to getting her more sleep and hopefully we start to see that positively affecting her nighttime sleep ...

As promised, here's a few pics from the past couple of weekends (lots more uploaded on our Flickr account)....

Big smiles for her Auntie Liz

And more big smiles for Auntie Steffie (she loved all the attention for girls' weekend)!

And last, but not least, here's Maddie in her brand new baby sled (a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Vallier) - we pulled her around the backyard in it last weekend...

Maddie and I went to a movie today (love the movies for mommies idea - although I missed a bit of dialogue from all the screaming babies, but couldn't really be annoyed as Maddie was one of them a few times) - Definitely, Maybe - good chick flick. That's all the updates for now, nothing much more to tell.

xxoo.S

It is a battle and I WILL win...

We continued our quest for sleep this week - and as I realize that one can never go into battle unarmed, I decided to educate myself re: baby sleep as much as humanly possible. Apparently there is a 30 min 1st sleep that is light (i.e. easily woken) and many babes have issues falling back to sleep when they wake from this 1st cycle. However if you can get them into the 2nd cycle, it's often 1.5 hrs of a deeper sleep (that is also better for them on the growth/development shiznay). Add those 2 cycles up and what do you have? The long-lost, coveted 2 hour nap!

Okay - so now I knew what I was working towards (and knowing that this was a better sleep for her development we've now added guilt to the mix - along with frustration should I fail). Tactics that were employed include the following:

• room darkening (using both the roller blinds and dark brown drapes on her windows to block out any potential waking daylight)
• white noise (using a space heater, I would get the room nice and warm and then switch to "fan only" to keep the noise consistent)
• swaddling (was doing this arms-out for most naps before, have started to employ the arms-in approach - same as she gets for nighttime sleep)
• rocking (getting her close to sleep, droopy eyes, relaxed body - but not entirely asleep so she knows she's going to bed)
• shhhhhh-ing (both while rocking and after she's been laid down in her crib)
• lovey (not sure what this does, but has been recommended by a few ppl, so started putting her to bed with this stuffed-animal-head-with-a-blanket-body thing)
• music (Bob Marley to be specific - and only while she's being rocked to sleep - it gets turned down after she's laid down. Why Bob you ask? I'm not sure - never was a huge fan myself, but happened to put it on one day and she fell asleep magically. I understand the fact that we're all individuals in regards to taste in music - so I'm following my daughter's lead. And to be honest, Bob's growing on me now. Wow - tangent.)

This nap routine sounds a lot more complicated than it really seems to be when I'm doing it. Usually we have success in getting her to sleep in about 15 mins if I catch her right at the yawning, tired eyes stage. If I let it get to the rubbing-eyes stage I'm absolutely screwed - it then takes about 45 mins to get her to sleep.

Then, when she wakes up in 15 mins or 30 mins (depends on her mood) I rush back upstairs, pick her up, and rock her back to sleep. Then we get a bit of a longer period out of the 2nd sleep (haven't got the full 1.5 hrs yet, but hopefully soon).

Yes, this is my life. Full-on strategic battle against poor napping habits. I'm hoping this whole routine, kept consistent, will eventually teach her how to nap for longer periods and that we'll figure out an actual schedule. Who knows. I know when my mom reads this she will tut to herself, thinking, you're spoiling this child. Just let her fuss and she'll eventually go back to sleep. Lay her down on a schedule and she'll learn that it's nap time.

Well, let's face it, I'm a bit of a softie apparently (who knew - I thought the cast iron bitch in me would extend to all facets of my life, guess not). And I'm hoping, much like dog-training, that the consistency of the above routine will eventually work.

Yes, I just compared child-rearing to dog-training. That's right. I said it...

xxoo - S.

Sleep ... ha! What's that?

Yes, we are once again sleepless in our household. Naps are a thing of the past. Our bedtime routine is shot to shit. Sleeping > 3 hr chunks seems a ridiculous pipe dream.

I don't think it's the crib that did it, as we were having nap issues before that. But adding crib transition to the mix? Yeah, didn't work out so much.

Madds nighttime sleep was pretty regulated at bathtime ~ 7:30pm, massage and then sitting on my lap doing a double feed ~ 8:30pm, sleeping in a deep sleep ~ 9:30pm. From there, we'd get an uninterrupted 6 hours, and she'd get up around 4-ish for another feeding and come into bed with me to sleep until 8.

Yeah, so now we're bad to random wakings at 1am, 3am, 5am and up for the day by 7am. Wha? Oh, and with zero propensity to nap during the day (honestly - she went for 6 hours yesterday afternoon/evening without napping AT ALL) - that means I can't get a nap either, so am quickly regressing to sleepdeprivedwalkingzombie state that I was so accustomed to only a few short months ago.

So, needless to say, as of last night, she's back in the cradle beside our bed. And while she did wake up a lot last night, I was able to soothe her by a) reinsertion of binkie; b) shhhhhhhhhh-ing her; and c) rocking the cradle. It definitely helped me as I can do those 3 things in my sleep (no pun) whereas actually getting up to try to do those things in another room wakes me up (and a non-rocking crib means she has to be lifted out to be soothed, and then she refuses to go back in - why don't they make cribs that rock??).

In my desperation to figure out why we were going through this torture yesterday, I did find a website that outlined a "4 month sleep regression" stage that babes can go through - something to do with both physical and mental developments beings so fast + furious right now, that they just find it hard to sleep and life generally just sucks for a few weeks to a month. Then things get better. Then things get worse. Then things get better. Then things get worse. Then they graduate and go away to school...

xxoo S.

PS - as a side note - Seth went ice fishing for the weekend and I had my friend Stef up to visit - we had a blast and it was nice to have a girls weekend. Will post some pics soon!

Today's the big day...

We're going to put Maddie in her crib tonight to sleep. I've been putting her in her crib for naps this week - well, when she DOES nap. Which this week, isn't very often at all. And not for very long either. But I'm trying to stick with it as I'm told consistency is the key.

So I fully expect that tonight is going to be a pretty sleepless one, but we'll see how it goes. I'm not sure what's going on with our little girl this week, but it seems like her schedule was blown completely off since the weekend. She hasn't been napping properly (now I'm lucky to get 30 minutes out of her - before she was at least consistently napping 45 mins), I have to put her down asleep, not awake like I was able to before and her bedtime routine was messed up too. Luckily (knock on wood) I think we've gotten a better handle on it - at least her bedtime routine seemed back to normal last night.

She was crying a lot (poor thing) and chewing like crazy on anything we gave her, so I wonder if it was a teething episode - although it seems to have gone away and no teeth popped through (you can't even feel any buds), so that explanation doesn't make much sense anymore. Oh well, they do say once you get a routine down and working for you that they go and change things up again - maybe that's all this was? Who knows - I'm certainly no expert, just trying to follow her lead.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Enjoy the people you love today (and every day after). We're forecast to get more snow tonight just in time for Seth's drive home ... which will make for another late night (3 in a row - as if he doesn't get home late enough, now he doesn't get home before 8pm).

Love to you all!

S.

PS - you'll notice I changed the signature to "S" as opposed to "S&S" ... let's face it - we all know Seth isn't writing any of these. He doesn't even check this blog, so he has no idea what is being written on here. Haha.

Things I will miss

One of the girls in the online community I'm part of (babyfit.com) posted an interesting topic the other day - about the little things that she hopes she'll always remember about her little one. It was sweet and a lot of us joined in listing the various things that we will miss as our babies get older - there's so many, but I wanted to write some of them down on our blog so I would actually remember them (for sure this blog is going to be better for memories than the baby books). So here is my list - I will miss...

• Her little coughs she makes to get attention
• Kicking my belly as I dry her off after her bath and get her dressed
• Her sour milk breath in the mornings
• Her perfect gummy smiles - I keep taking pictures to make sure I don't forget what it looks like!
• The way she reaches out to touch my face with both her hands when I lean over her (that one is new and I love love love it)
• Her phantom sucking when she's in a deep sleep (that's her mouth + tongue doing the sucking thing, after her binkie has fallen out)
  
• The way her mouth drops open when she's totally passed out
• Her giggles - when you can get one out of her - I love these first laughing sounds
• The way she reaches out to pet the cats when they walk by now - she's finally discovered they exist!
• Her huge happy grins in the morning - I've never been a morning person but that can't help but make you smile when you see how happy someone is to see you when they wake up - makes me feel like the centre of her world

She has a few more sleepers that she's grown out of - which makes me so sad. I love seeing grow and learn new things, but it's also sad to see how quickly this time goes. I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy this baby stage so much, and now that I am, it's hard to see how quickly the time goes.

S&S

Teething + roadtrips = cranky baby

Well this past weekend wasn't one for the record books. We traveled to Kingston on Thursday evening as we had a funeral to attend on Friday morning - Seth's (maternal) grandmother passed away. It was a sad reason to have to travel that is certain, but I think Maddie's grandma Vallier enjoyed seeing her - hopefully it cheered her up some.

We had to head home on Friday night as Seth worked Saturday morning - which was a bummer. I think the trip really tired her out (and all the visiting with many relatives on very little sleep), as she ended up having a 3 hour nap on Saturday morning. I should say 'we' actually - she was acting sleepy but very cuddly around 10:30 in the morning, having been up for a couple of hours, so I brought her up to the bedroom to put her down and laid down beside her to help her settle. Well I guess I was a little tired as well, as I fell fully asleep and the next thing we knew it was 1:30 pm and Seth was home ... oops! At least she was in better spirits on Saturday with all that sleep.

Too bad we can't say the same for Sunday. We had her down for several naps in the morning, so I'm not sure what happened. I left with Liz to watch a movie (27 Dresses - it was good, but definitely rental material) at 1:30pm and when I got home at 4pm, Seth was a little down. Apparently Miss Maddie wasn't very happy most of the time and fussed a lot and generally just made it very tough on Daddy. So we let him go play video games while we played quietly upstairs.

Nothing else to report - well, except that the bookshelves are almost done. Working on getting the doors on today - which means then I can start loading them. Very exciting. It's so funny to think that Maddie will never know that front room without those bookshelves. Strange.

Gotta run as I hear rustling - she only slept for 20 mins, the little bugger. She's being fussy again today a lot - I really think she is teething now. Not sure how else to explain this behaviour, and the drooling, and the rash on her face, and the constant chewing of things...

S&S

Snowbaby

We have had a tonne of snow dumped on us in the past 36 hours - once again we look like we live in a Norman Rockwell painting - it's nice actually. I just wish Maddie was old enough to go outside and enjoy it.

After we got back from our mom group today, Madds was asleep in her carseat, so I quickly took her upstairs near the monitor and hightailed it outside to attempt to clear off some of the driveway. Seth had cleared it last night when he got home from work, but of course it snowed another 6 inches overnight. It was heavy work, but I got about 1/2 of the driveway done before I heard Maddie crying over the monitor (handy that they have a good range on them!). So I went upstairs to get our little munchkin and bundle her up for some snowy photo ops. One of our neighbours was out shoveling her driveway as well, and took this pic of me and Madds:

And after some digging in the snowbank ... here's my little snow angel:

Maddie has been really great this week - I think we are finally past whatever was bothering her last week (growth spurt? teething? who knows). She's been sleeping so well - going down for naps regularly in her cradle and sleeping for up to an hour sometimes (doesn't seem like a lot, but she's a habitual 30-minute napper, so this is a big step!).

I tried her in her Jolly Jumper yesterday (again, had tried a couple of weeks ago and she was still too small for it) ... she's still a little tiny in it, but she seems to like it and is learning quickly how her legs make her bounce!

And lastly, I'll leave you with the promised pic of our little girl in her cute little sweater dress that she wore to the Superbowl party last weekend - honestly, I know I'm biased, but does it get any more adorable??

Love to all...
S&S

4 month shots

Poor lil miss. She had her 4 month well-baby check up today, which included the 2nd round of immunization shots. I had prepared this time by giving her a dose of baby tylenol before leaving the house, but I'm not sure it helped dull the pain that much. Our poor little Madds just screamed her head off when the nurse gave her the 2 shots. She actually turned purple and stopped breathing in order to scream - it was not fun at all.

Afterwards she slept like a maniac in the drive out of Toronto - and we headed to a mommy + me movie date (saw Dead Like Her - not good). She woke up at the theatre and started to get a little scream-y there, so I gave her a dose of baby motrin and she went right back to sleep (after a little cry). Since we got home at 3:30 she's had 2 naps. I'm guessing tomorrow is going to be a quiet day for her.

She got weighed and measured at this appointment - according to their scale, she's 12 lbs 9 oz (obviously their scale is weighing her a little lighter than the one at the breastfeeding clinic - although I don't get her naked for that weigh in so perhaps that can account for the discrepancy?). And her height is now 24-1/2 inches (just over 2 feet!). The doctor is happy with her growth - she's around the 60th percentile for height and growing right on the curve for the 25th percentile in weight. So she's a bit taller than average, but much lighter than average. She's a tiny one (just like her mom ... er ... used to be).

S&S

Busy weekend, busy baby

We just got through one of our busier weekends in a while. Spent Saturday doing stuff around the house and trying to convince Maddie to sleep. I don't know what was going on this past week with our little girl, but she was really out of character. A lot of crying in the early evening. Some temper tantrums. Weird feeding habits (one day going for 4 hours at a time without eating, the next day eating every hour on the hour). In general when she wasn't sleeping or feeding, she was whiny. Like half crying, half moaning, half squealing (but not in a good way usually). And hard to console. Try to give her more food, she'd get angry. Try to cuddle her to sleep, she'd get angry. Try to leave her to play on her own, she'd get angry.

I tried using Camilia a few times (it's a homeopathic remedy for teething that has been suggested to me by a lot of moms) - I think it worked. Or we started using it just as she was coming out of this weird phase she was in.

Saturday evening we had plans to go to a friends house from some poker playing and getting together with a few couples with babes (or ones on the way). It was good, except for the first time, like ever, Maddie was not the most well-behaved person in the room. In fact, she was the crying, fussy baby. Not that I care, I realize we've gotten it super easy so far, so a few fussy nights when we're out should be expected. It's just a bit disconcerting when you're in a strange house and she's wailing and you can't do anything to calm her down ... fortunately Seth seemed to have the magic touch that night and was able to get her chilled out enough to fall asleep for a little bit. She didn't want anything to do with me - that's okay, I wasn't offended... ;)

But since we got home kinda late on Saturday night, her sleep schedule was thrown right off on Sunday and she slept most of the day away. In my lap - ha. Which means I didn't get a whole lot done around the house like I wanted to before we headed out to a Superbowl party at a friend's house. Another child-friendly event, and this time Maddie got totally dressed up for it. Will have to post the pics soon as her little sweater dress is the cutest thing you've ever seen.

The party was good and we got to see a bunch of friends we haven't seen in ages, which is always fun. Maddie was behaving much more normally last night, so she wasn't too whiny and didn't have one temper tantrum (yay!). And even though she was out later than her bedtime again last night, she seems to be back on her sleeping schedule now. Currently down for her morning nap - actually I think I hear her waking up on the monitor.

So this week we have all sorts of things on our to-do list. Her doctor appointment is tomorrow - 2nd round of immunization shots ... scary! We were planning on going to the movies (mommy + me movie thing) tomorrow afternoon, but I had forgotten we had the dr appt in town, so we'll see what kind of mood she's in afterwards. Although this time I'm going to be smart about it and give her some tylenol BEFORE she gets the shots, which will hopefully help ease up the discomfort that she felt last time.

My plan for this week is to FINALLY finish the thank you cards for all the baby presents we received. Yeah, she's four months and I still haven't sent those out - yikes. Better late than never though I guess?

At last thing on the agenda - we are truly going to attempt to get Maddie sleeping in her crib this week. For naps to start with. We'll see how that goes. I'm silly nervous about it. Maybe because I realize that it's the first step to her leaving our room and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I fully expect that she'll take the transition like a champ and I'll be the one sleepless and upset. Sad mommy.

Anyways - she definitely is awake now so I better go get her. We'll post more updates soon. Love to all!

S&S

Squealing ... oh yeah

So our little girl has more than found her voice. Lately (this week) she's really started to squeeeeeeeeeeeeal. Yeah, it's great. I don't know what makes me a worse mother...

• the fact that her squeals sometimes grate on me like fingernails on a chalkboard (only in the early evenings after a long day ... or late afternoon ... or if she has been doing it for like an hour straight)
• the fact that these new sounds mean that I can't sometimes tell if she's happy and having a grand old time, or if she's in fact, annoyed and getting angry

Now I feel like I have to work harder than before ... no fair. I thought it was supposed to get easier! ;)

S&S

PS - weighed our little Madds in at the mom group yesterday - she's up to 12 lbs 14 oz - gained 4 ounces in a week - goooooooo weight gain!