Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Some new stuff
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been over two weeks since I've blogged. What can I say?
Over the last two weeks, we have gone through some really backward sleeping patterns, but then totally regained and have leapt forward many, many steps! I thought Caroline was experiencing horrible teething pains because she seemed miserable a lot of the time and wouldn't sleep. And when I say wouldn't sleep I mean that where she used to take about 15 minutes to settle down at night and then fall asleep, this process was now taking over two hours and producing many screams, shrieks and tears. It was miserable all the way around. Not to mention my poor back was getting quite the workout from trying to comfort her using the Baby Whsperer's method of "Pick Up Put Down." Naps were also few and far between. When they did happen, they were only allowing 30-45 minutes for me to regroup. Then one day last week something happened. I'm not sure what it was, but we definitely turned a corner. She started falling asleep much, much easier, sleeping more soundly through the night than she ever has, and is back to her full night's sleep of at least 11 hours and sometimes up to 13 hours. Another positive thing is that she is now happy to hang out and play in her crib for at least a good half hour before she starts protesting and demanding that I go in and get her. This gives me time to get myself up and get her breakfast ready.
I haven't been able to put my finger on why her sleep patterns went down the tubes for a little while, but I do know that there were several factors that probably contributed to it. These things all happened within about 3 weeks of each other so I think they finally culminated and this little body was trying to roll with all these changes and it just wasn't working for her. For 5 nights in December we were in hotel rooms and completely out of any sort of routine that she was used to. When we finally got back to town it was time for her 6 month visit to her favorite kid's doctor (yeah, right!) That meant shots. That also meant we went back the following week for more shots. That doctor visit also meant he laid down the law and pretty much demanded that we ditch the swaddling. Factor in some swollen gums and mom trying to run around and do all sorts of errands and get out of the house in the beautiful weather. How would you expect anyone to deal with all this?
Well last week the weather was really crummy. Cold and lots of rain. So we spent most of the week at home. This meant that I was really able to focus on her cues for hunger and sleep and get her back into the routine I could tell she was craving. I think unswaddling was a positive factor too (eventually.) Once she got used to these wild arms that were flapping around next to her, she was able to put them to good use: finding her pacifier in the night and sticking it back in her mouth, finding her loveys at the foot of the bed in the morning so she could spend quality time with them before mom comes in - she has a newfound independence!
The other thing that she has really mastered in the last few weeks is sitting up completely on her own. She's been sitting for a long time, but was really wobbly and would fall over pretty easily - especially if a toy was involved. But now she can actually pick up a toy, play with it, watch the cat walk by and reach for him, look around to see who is watching her and still not fall over!
Over the last two weeks, we have gone through some really backward sleeping patterns, but then totally regained and have leapt forward many, many steps! I thought Caroline was experiencing horrible teething pains because she seemed miserable a lot of the time and wouldn't sleep. And when I say wouldn't sleep I mean that where she used to take about 15 minutes to settle down at night and then fall asleep, this process was now taking over two hours and producing many screams, shrieks and tears. It was miserable all the way around. Not to mention my poor back was getting quite the workout from trying to comfort her using the Baby Whsperer's method of "Pick Up Put Down." Naps were also few and far between. When they did happen, they were only allowing 30-45 minutes for me to regroup. Then one day last week something happened. I'm not sure what it was, but we definitely turned a corner. She started falling asleep much, much easier, sleeping more soundly through the night than she ever has, and is back to her full night's sleep of at least 11 hours and sometimes up to 13 hours. Another positive thing is that she is now happy to hang out and play in her crib for at least a good half hour before she starts protesting and demanding that I go in and get her. This gives me time to get myself up and get her breakfast ready.
I haven't been able to put my finger on why her sleep patterns went down the tubes for a little while, but I do know that there were several factors that probably contributed to it. These things all happened within about 3 weeks of each other so I think they finally culminated and this little body was trying to roll with all these changes and it just wasn't working for her. For 5 nights in December we were in hotel rooms and completely out of any sort of routine that she was used to. When we finally got back to town it was time for her 6 month visit to her favorite kid's doctor (yeah, right!) That meant shots. That also meant we went back the following week for more shots. That doctor visit also meant he laid down the law and pretty much demanded that we ditch the swaddling. Factor in some swollen gums and mom trying to run around and do all sorts of errands and get out of the house in the beautiful weather. How would you expect anyone to deal with all this?
Well last week the weather was really crummy. Cold and lots of rain. So we spent most of the week at home. This meant that I was really able to focus on her cues for hunger and sleep and get her back into the routine I could tell she was craving. I think unswaddling was a positive factor too (eventually.) Once she got used to these wild arms that were flapping around next to her, she was able to put them to good use: finding her pacifier in the night and sticking it back in her mouth, finding her loveys at the foot of the bed in the morning so she could spend quality time with them before mom comes in - she has a newfound independence!
The other thing that she has really mastered in the last few weeks is sitting up completely on her own. She's been sitting for a long time, but was really wobbly and would fall over pretty easily - especially if a toy was involved. But now she can actually pick up a toy, play with it, watch the cat walk by and reach for him, look around to see who is watching her and still not fall over!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Life is good
We have been enjoying the most fabulous weather here. I realize that most of the country is freezing, but you would never know it by looking at our weather. We have had temps in the 70's and sun every day since we got back from D.C. just after Christmas. It has been wonderful! Caroline and I have been taking advantage of this awesome weather by going to the park and being outside as much as possible.
Today was no exception. So we headed out to Huntington Beach for lunch. After eating, we took a stroll out on the pier. The waves were good and there were a ton of surfers out. There was also a huge number of babies/strollers out today. It was seriously like every mother with a child under the age of 12 months felt the need to go to Huntington Beach today. There were babies everywhere! As usual, Caroline turned heads and everyone was commenting on how cute the baby is.
These are taken from about midway out on the pier, looking back.
It was lunch time for Caroline while we were out there.
You know, I've lived in Southern California for a year and a half now, and I still feel like a tourist. I love this place!
Today was no exception. So we headed out to Huntington Beach for lunch. After eating, we took a stroll out on the pier. The waves were good and there were a ton of surfers out. There was also a huge number of babies/strollers out today. It was seriously like every mother with a child under the age of 12 months felt the need to go to Huntington Beach today. There were babies everywhere! As usual, Caroline turned heads and everyone was commenting on how cute the baby is.
These are taken from about midway out on the pier, looking back.
It was lunch time for Caroline while we were out there.
You know, I've lived in Southern California for a year and a half now, and I still feel like a tourist. I love this place!
Our little Gerber baby
Ever since she was born, we always hear comments that Caroline looks like a Gerber baby. She has been eating like a champ!
We started with the usual rice cereal and have expanded from there. Caroline's favorites right now are anything mixed with the cereal - especially bananas and pears. She's getting a mix of fresh fruits and veggies that I prepare for her and some jarred food. She definitely prefers fresh bananas over the jarred version. The first time she had the jarred ones, she shuddered with every bite. This is when I discovered that she likes things mixed with cereal. Rather than throw away the whole jar of bananas, I mixed it up with cereal and she gobbled it up.
I don't have any crazy food-all-over-the-face pictures because she is a pretty neat eater. She has mastered using her upper lip to scrape the food from her spoon. Jeremy has been working with her on her holding the spoon and getting it to her mouth - that's going to take more practice!
Here's a couple of pictures from when she was first experimenting with rice cereal. Like I said, she really isn't very messy. Lucky me!
We started with the usual rice cereal and have expanded from there. Caroline's favorites right now are anything mixed with the cereal - especially bananas and pears. She's getting a mix of fresh fruits and veggies that I prepare for her and some jarred food. She definitely prefers fresh bananas over the jarred version. The first time she had the jarred ones, she shuddered with every bite. This is when I discovered that she likes things mixed with cereal. Rather than throw away the whole jar of bananas, I mixed it up with cereal and she gobbled it up.
I don't have any crazy food-all-over-the-face pictures because she is a pretty neat eater. She has mastered using her upper lip to scrape the food from her spoon. Jeremy has been working with her on her holding the spoon and getting it to her mouth - that's going to take more practice!
Here's a couple of pictures from when she was first experimenting with rice cereal. Like I said, she really isn't very messy. Lucky me!
MAJOR milestone and some other milestones too
Over the last couple of months we've hit a few milestones that I figured I should update you on.
The biggest one is actually a Mommy and Daddy milestone. We have had a hard time letting go of swaddling Caroline every time she sleeps in her crib. At her four month check up her doctor recommended that we discontinue the swaddle. That night we tried. We really did. It took extra effort to get Caroline to sleep that night, but once she fell asleep she stayed asleep until about 5 a.m. When I went into check on her and put her pacifier back in her mouth, she just couldn't get settled down. So I caved. I wrapped her up again. And that was the end of not swaddling. We decided that she really needed it. Any time one or both of her arms broke out of the swaddle all it would take is for us to reswaddle her and she would immediately go back to sleep. So I admit that Jeremy and I were using her swaddle as a crutch. It was much easier to wrap her back up so that we could get a little bit extra sleep.
Fast forward to her six month appointment. We mentioned to her doctor that we were still using the swaddle and he said it was a matter of safety now that she is rolling over so much. So we had to bite the bullet. Luckily the day of her appointment was the start of the New Year weekend and Jeremy had four days off so he could help me. Caroline adapted this time remarkably well. She had trouble the first couple of nights settling down and I figured it was because she just didn't know what to do with her arms. They were flapping all over the place. I gave her a lovey for each hand so that she had something to focus on. That did the trick. We're still using the loveys, we just go in her room after she's fallen asleep and take them away. She's sleeping like a champ again!
Other milestones:
Rolling over. She's been rolling for a long time now. But since her 6 month appointment, I can't keep her contained! It's like there was some switch that flipped on December 30 and she just really grew up. She will roll all over the living room in a matter of seconds. We have already baby-proofed, but I think we need to do it again. She is into everything and can't keep her hands off of things. She grabs at everything!
Solid foods. We're having fun with this, but I'll save that for another post
Sitting up unassisted. Again, she's been doing this for awhile, but has really mastered it recently.
Talking - As I mentioned a few months ago, she's been saying "Mama." Well, before Christmas she started whispering "Papa," which is exactly what Jeremy has wanted her to call him (instead of Daddy.) She now says Mama and Papa all day long. She spent of lot of time with Papa today while I was out and after I had been gone for a few hours, Jeremy said she really started saying Mama like she was missing me. I missed her too! That will teach me to be away from her for too long!
I also think she has started to recognize her friends at our Park Days. There are a few girls about her age that are there most of the times that we go and I think she knows them now.
The biggest one is actually a Mommy and Daddy milestone. We have had a hard time letting go of swaddling Caroline every time she sleeps in her crib. At her four month check up her doctor recommended that we discontinue the swaddle. That night we tried. We really did. It took extra effort to get Caroline to sleep that night, but once she fell asleep she stayed asleep until about 5 a.m. When I went into check on her and put her pacifier back in her mouth, she just couldn't get settled down. So I caved. I wrapped her up again. And that was the end of not swaddling. We decided that she really needed it. Any time one or both of her arms broke out of the swaddle all it would take is for us to reswaddle her and she would immediately go back to sleep. So I admit that Jeremy and I were using her swaddle as a crutch. It was much easier to wrap her back up so that we could get a little bit extra sleep.
Fast forward to her six month appointment. We mentioned to her doctor that we were still using the swaddle and he said it was a matter of safety now that she is rolling over so much. So we had to bite the bullet. Luckily the day of her appointment was the start of the New Year weekend and Jeremy had four days off so he could help me. Caroline adapted this time remarkably well. She had trouble the first couple of nights settling down and I figured it was because she just didn't know what to do with her arms. They were flapping all over the place. I gave her a lovey for each hand so that she had something to focus on. That did the trick. We're still using the loveys, we just go in her room after she's fallen asleep and take them away. She's sleeping like a champ again!
Other milestones:
Rolling over. She's been rolling for a long time now. But since her 6 month appointment, I can't keep her contained! It's like there was some switch that flipped on December 30 and she just really grew up. She will roll all over the living room in a matter of seconds. We have already baby-proofed, but I think we need to do it again. She is into everything and can't keep her hands off of things. She grabs at everything!
Solid foods. We're having fun with this, but I'll save that for another post
Sitting up unassisted. Again, she's been doing this for awhile, but has really mastered it recently.
Talking - As I mentioned a few months ago, she's been saying "Mama." Well, before Christmas she started whispering "Papa," which is exactly what Jeremy has wanted her to call him (instead of Daddy.) She now says Mama and Papa all day long. She spent of lot of time with Papa today while I was out and after I had been gone for a few hours, Jeremy said she really started saying Mama like she was missing me. I missed her too! That will teach me to be away from her for too long!
I also think she has started to recognize her friends at our Park Days. There are a few girls about her age that are there most of the times that we go and I think she knows them now.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
First Christmas, Part Deux
We celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve because we were heading back to California and my brother and his family were heading back to Texas on Christmas Day.
Caroline with Grandpa and Grandma Boltz
Quick nap before dinner and presents
Dinner (notice that Fisher has two drumsticks!)
Waiting patiently for present-opening time with cousins Hunter and Fisher
Let the opening begin! It was a flurry of paper - we only got this one of Caroline, then it got crazy. She has already received her first issue of Animal Baby and loves the animal pictures.
Christmas Day we headed back over to Great Grandma's house to hang out for a bit. (Four generations)
Then we headed to Aunt Jackie's house to say goodbye to her, David, Nathan, Hunter and Fisher.
And this concludes the second part of Christmas. When we arrived back to California there were more presents to open from Grandma and Grandpa Ludyjan. It was a great Christmas!
Caroline with Grandpa and Grandma Boltz
Quick nap before dinner and presents
Dinner (notice that Fisher has two drumsticks!)
Waiting patiently for present-opening time with cousins Hunter and Fisher
Let the opening begin! It was a flurry of paper - we only got this one of Caroline, then it got crazy. She has already received her first issue of Animal Baby and loves the animal pictures.
Christmas Day we headed back over to Great Grandma's house to hang out for a bit. (Four generations)
Then we headed to Aunt Jackie's house to say goodbye to her, David, Nathan, Hunter and Fisher.
And this concludes the second part of Christmas. When we arrived back to California there were more presents to open from Grandma and Grandpa Ludyjan. It was a great Christmas!
Our trip to D.C.
This year we traveled to Alexandria, VA, for Christmas. My grandmother and sister live there and my parents and brother and his two kids joined us there. It was nice to have everyone together because it had been a long time. I hadn't seen Grandma in two years and I know she was anxious to meet Caroline.
So, we started out the Monday before Christmas on our day long journey to the east. This was Caroline's first plane trip and she did great.
We were lucky to not encounter any delays in our travel going there even though D.C. had over 20 inches of snow 2 days earlier. We did get to see all that snow though. We made a couple of trips into D.C. to tour the Capital and the American History Museum. It was cold! We were missing our warm sunny weather back home. We used the Metro as our method of transportation. It was a bit of a pain with the stroller and all those escalators (had to keep searching out the elevators), but every time we got on a train, Caroline was out like a light. It was great!
This is Caroline on the Capital tour. She was a big hit with the tour guide because she laughed at his jokes. (Not really sure if she was laughing, but he seemed to think so, so we went along with it. lol)
Our trip back home did not go as smoothly as the trip out there. I'll spare you most of the details, but it took us over 30 hours to get home and that included a night spent in Chicago without luggage. It was quite an *adventure* to say the least. Caroline held up well for the first 20 or so hours, but by the last leg of the trip she was so done with the whole thing. I was just so glad to finally get home and let her sleep in her own bed. It gave me a whole new perspective on "home sweet home." Not to mention being able to shed all our layers and go outside without wearing coats.
So, we started out the Monday before Christmas on our day long journey to the east. This was Caroline's first plane trip and she did great.
We were lucky to not encounter any delays in our travel going there even though D.C. had over 20 inches of snow 2 days earlier. We did get to see all that snow though. We made a couple of trips into D.C. to tour the Capital and the American History Museum. It was cold! We were missing our warm sunny weather back home. We used the Metro as our method of transportation. It was a bit of a pain with the stroller and all those escalators (had to keep searching out the elevators), but every time we got on a train, Caroline was out like a light. It was great!
This is Caroline on the Capital tour. She was a big hit with the tour guide because she laughed at his jokes. (Not really sure if she was laughing, but he seemed to think so, so we went along with it. lol)
Our trip back home did not go as smoothly as the trip out there. I'll spare you most of the details, but it took us over 30 hours to get home and that included a night spent in Chicago without luggage. It was quite an *adventure* to say the least. Caroline held up well for the first 20 or so hours, but by the last leg of the trip she was so done with the whole thing. I was just so glad to finally get home and let her sleep in her own bed. It gave me a whole new perspective on "home sweet home." Not to mention being able to shed all our layers and go outside without wearing coats.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
First Christmas, Part 1
Since we were traveling out of town for Christmas, we decided to open presents before we left. Caroline had a blast with tearing the paper and enjoyed her gifts.
Getting ready to start opening
Might be more fun tasting it than opening it
Coming soon: More pics, videos and Christmas Part Deux - the D.C. version!
Getting ready to start opening
Might be more fun tasting it than opening it
Coming soon: More pics, videos and Christmas Part Deux - the D.C. version!
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