I went in for a kiss picture and came out with a little tongue. Girl's a good kisser :)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Momma's big day #2
And I thought yesterday was the best day of the week?!! Well actually it still was, but today was pretty fantastic too. Today my baby showed me how much she is growing up. I have been really working with her on her playmat recently, trying to help her get used to laying down and strengthening her back muscles during tummy time. Until recently, she's been sleeping in her carrier for her reflux, so being upright all the time hasn't left her much time to play on her back or stomach. Since we have been in Roanoke, I have been doing playmat time at least 3-4 times a day. She still hates tummy time, but has really started to enjoy laying on her back. Well today during this time, she did something that only a momma could get this excited about. She reached for her first toy today all on her own! I was playing with her and looked away for just a moment. When I looked back she had hold of her new dangling butterfly. I thought at first it was a flook, but she let go of it, played with me then reached back up and grabbed hold of it again. She did it a few times and I freaked!! I got excited and clapped which caused her to get so excited too! Her eyes were huge like she was just as shocked at herself. I thought I might be pushing it, but she had done so well, I decided to go ahead with tummy time then too. The other day she lifted her head a little a few times but not for too long. Today, she totally lifted her head on her own and held it there!! I yelled at my mom to make sure she saw it too so I had someone else to vouch for her. Baby girl hated every minute of it, and let me know. Man did she yell at me. But I was too excited to feel bad for her, lol! I think my sticking with it everyday despite her fits might finally be paying off! :) Finally, things really are really paying off and working out. She was pretty tired after her big accomplishments and needed to go to bed. I took her to her bed and was fully prepared for night 4 of cry it out, but I literally laid her down and she was out. So far, 3 hours later, she is still fast asleep. Little girl wore herself out. It was a big day! Daddy will be so proud when he finds out.
I went in for a kiss picture and came out with a little tongue. Girl's a good kisser :)
I went in for a kiss picture and came out with a little tongue. Girl's a good kisser :)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Fantastic surprise!
All day I kept thinking, "Well its been a week since I've heard from him. One week closer to the end. I bet they won't let him call again until Christmas." I had pretty much settled in my head that I wouldn't hear his voice for a while. Pretty much that is, but of course I still keep my cell phone glued to my hand as much as possible. Tonight I was just about to give Cheyanne her bath when I realized I'd left my cell phone in my bedroom. I thought for a moment, "Oh he won't call. And I'll just call anyone else back after her bath." But as I got her undressed, I thought again, "But if he calls and I miss it, I'll just die." So I wrapped her in a towel and headed back to my room to grab my phone. I cross my heart and hope to die that as soon as I picked up my phone off the bed, it rang and sure enough a picture of a baby hand in a daddy hand (his facebook picture) popped up on my screen! BAHHH! Talk about going with your gut feelings! It was too perfect.
We were able to talk for a few minutes, a little less rushed than last phone call. But, we were still on a time limit, so we filled in gaps as much as possible. This phone call wasn't actually a casual call but was meant strictly for "business" but we finagled that one a little. He has started to get mail. I've been writing him everyday with printed pictures of the baby mostly. He has received three so far, so it looks like the mail runs about a week behind. He said he doesn't get much time to write, that is only allowed at night when lights are off and only has certain days he can mail out anything. So, like I said before, if you do get a chance to write him, please do, but don't expect much in return. He said mail is so nice. I think it helps keep spirits up, especially right now. I'm sure he'll have plenty of stories to share when he's out in a couple months. Maybe I'll even let him guest blog a few times to share some!
So that's been my night. My husband called and my baby went down for night 3 with just 20 minutes of crying. YAY! My heart is happy right now.
_________________
And speaking of baby...
I couldn't resist. Someone has found a few new rolls! I could just eat her up.
We were able to talk for a few minutes, a little less rushed than last phone call. But, we were still on a time limit, so we filled in gaps as much as possible. This phone call wasn't actually a casual call but was meant strictly for "business" but we finagled that one a little. He has started to get mail. I've been writing him everyday with printed pictures of the baby mostly. He has received three so far, so it looks like the mail runs about a week behind. He said he doesn't get much time to write, that is only allowed at night when lights are off and only has certain days he can mail out anything. So, like I said before, if you do get a chance to write him, please do, but don't expect much in return. He said mail is so nice. I think it helps keep spirits up, especially right now. I'm sure he'll have plenty of stories to share when he's out in a couple months. Maybe I'll even let him guest blog a few times to share some!
So that's been my night. My husband called and my baby went down for night 3 with just 20 minutes of crying. YAY! My heart is happy right now.
_________________
And speaking of baby...
I couldn't resist. Someone has found a few new rolls! I could just eat her up.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Cry It Out night two
Oh. My. Word. Can my little girl cry? Last night Mission "Cry It Out Before Bedtime In Your Bassinet" was sort of a success. I mean she finally fell asleep, which was the ultimate goal. Twenty minutes of crying led to 6.5 hours of sleep for both mommy and baby! HALLELUJAH! Well I guess technically 3.5 of those hours I was actually asleep, but shoot, it felt like longer and I'll still take it! Most I've slept at one time in over nine months now! Last night, really my mom did it. I couldn't totally handle it. My poor hysterical baby finally wore herself out. But tonight, I was determined I could do this myself.
Tonight is night two. Cry-fest lasted 18 minutes and out she went. I sat by her bassinet and in 3-4 minute increments I would sit up and put her pacifier back in. That would calm her down for a few moments to catch her breath then back at it she went. Then in 3-4 minutes again, I would do it all over. One final time, my mom walked in when I had just put her pacifier in and told me to take a breather for a minute. We switched. I walked out and don't you know that she fell to sleep. Immediately. I hate pacifiers, but the kid's got a serious sucking fascination right now. Only when she is tired does she ever actually take her pacifier, so at this point, anything to calm her down I'm all for. OK, so Moms, any suggestions in this area? How did you do it? Did you let them cry it out straight or did you intervene at all? I need some pro advice. Below is a photo from tonight's cry it out attempt.
That little hand in the air broke my heart! Reaching for anything! SAVE ME MOMMA! Uuugh...
Tonight is night two. Cry-fest lasted 18 minutes and out she went. I sat by her bassinet and in 3-4 minute increments I would sit up and put her pacifier back in. That would calm her down for a few moments to catch her breath then back at it she went. Then in 3-4 minutes again, I would do it all over. One final time, my mom walked in when I had just put her pacifier in and told me to take a breather for a minute. We switched. I walked out and don't you know that she fell to sleep. Immediately. I hate pacifiers, but the kid's got a serious sucking fascination right now. Only when she is tired does she ever actually take her pacifier, so at this point, anything to calm her down I'm all for. OK, so Moms, any suggestions in this area? How did you do it? Did you let them cry it out straight or did you intervene at all? I need some pro advice. Below is a photo from tonight's cry it out attempt.
That little hand in the air broke my heart! Reaching for anything! SAVE ME MOMMA! Uuugh...
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Girl's Got Lungs
My little sweet Peapod is one loud little sweet Peapod when she wants to be. And wow has she wanted to practice her loudness recently. She can range from a giggle to a throat crackle laugh to a full blown Mary Poppins "PPPAAAAAAAAHHHHH" laugh all in a split second. You do know what I'm talking about right? I hope so. If not, you should really refresh your childhood days and turn on the classic.
Her laughs are absolutely contagious!
But not only is laughter a strong suit of hers. Within that same split second- Crying. Crying has become a common occurrence for my angel. Not just a little lip quiver cry (which she mastered long ago to pull at my heart strings) but she has found that the thunderous screams from the deep depths below get her some serious attention. I mean the girl can scream bloody murder. My heart breaks a little every time, which by my calculations means that my heart should now be 1/237698472965747947th the size it was prior to September 16th. Most of the time recently, she has been really dealing with her reflux and gas. Gas up and gas out are constant, both again VERY loud. Anyone else have a baby that has dealt with such severe gas pains? And the reflux, while in the morning is totally manageable, at night its a whole other story. Those two or so hours before I give her her nightly dosage, she is one very unhappy camper.
Since being home, I have decided to start getting her on some kind of schedule. I keep hearing about all my friends with babies that already sleep through the night, never cries when learning to be in her new bed, blah blah blah ;) Love you all... but trying to get a baby who doesn't want to sleep on a sleep schedule?... I was not prepared for this. But, thank god for my mom. She has been there 100% helping me establish some kind of pattern for Cheyanne at nights. Even though its not the same every night, its a work in progress that is getting us somewhere. Although my baby still would always much rather eat than sleep, which she has been proving the last few nights by waking up every two hours to nurse. UGH! How are we backtracking? We were at 4 hour stints at night just last week! Now 2? What the? Good thing she is usually easy to get back to sleep, that is until about 5am when she is A.W.A.K.E and ready to talk my ear off. If I can wake myself up enough to appreciate it, I actually really enjoy those moments with her because she is nothing but smiles and babble. Oh only if I could push it a couple hours later. We might be implementing the family rule soon. What family rule? Oh the 7.0.0. rule. No one is allowed out of bed until that clock turns to 7.0.0. That or Aunt T is going to have a really good buddy at 5am when she gets here for Christmas! ;)
But I digress. I've read that Chey is at the age now that I can start working with her to cry it out a little, so that is our goal now. Again, thank god for my mom. I have started with crying it out for 1 minute, then two minutes, then all the way up to ten (all on my own). She hit ten minutes with no end in site this afternoon so I gave in. (I'm a pushover). But with Mom here tonight, we did it. I put her down and she cried. So, mom came in to save me. I sat on the bed while she sat at the bassinet. The baby cried for I don't know how long. Boy did she get angry! I never knew babies could get so angry. But finally after about 20 minutes of serious crying, she started to wear down. With about a minute of sleepy yelps, she finally gave in and called it a night. Now I don't expect for that to be it and for her to sleep like a little angel for now on, but it sure did give me hope. It showed me that she can actually cry it out and that she won't cry for.e.ver. So far, she's still asleep. Granted it has only been an hour. But maybe tonight will be better. And maybe tomorrow night will be even better.
You see how tired she gets.
____________________
And here's a picture from Cyber Monday. I am teaching her well. Shop shop shop.
Her laughs are absolutely contagious!
But not only is laughter a strong suit of hers. Within that same split second- Crying. Crying has become a common occurrence for my angel. Not just a little lip quiver cry (which she mastered long ago to pull at my heart strings) but she has found that the thunderous screams from the deep depths below get her some serious attention. I mean the girl can scream bloody murder. My heart breaks a little every time, which by my calculations means that my heart should now be 1/237698472965747947th the size it was prior to September 16th. Most of the time recently, she has been really dealing with her reflux and gas. Gas up and gas out are constant, both again VERY loud. Anyone else have a baby that has dealt with such severe gas pains? And the reflux, while in the morning is totally manageable, at night its a whole other story. Those two or so hours before I give her her nightly dosage, she is one very unhappy camper.
Since being home, I have decided to start getting her on some kind of schedule. I keep hearing about all my friends with babies that already sleep through the night, never cries when learning to be in her new bed, blah blah blah ;) Love you all... but trying to get a baby who doesn't want to sleep on a sleep schedule?... I was not prepared for this. But, thank god for my mom. She has been there 100% helping me establish some kind of pattern for Cheyanne at nights. Even though its not the same every night, its a work in progress that is getting us somewhere. Although my baby still would always much rather eat than sleep, which she has been proving the last few nights by waking up every two hours to nurse. UGH! How are we backtracking? We were at 4 hour stints at night just last week! Now 2? What the? Good thing she is usually easy to get back to sleep, that is until about 5am when she is A.W.A.K.E and ready to talk my ear off. If I can wake myself up enough to appreciate it, I actually really enjoy those moments with her because she is nothing but smiles and babble. Oh only if I could push it a couple hours later. We might be implementing the family rule soon. What family rule? Oh the 7.0.0. rule. No one is allowed out of bed until that clock turns to 7.0.0. That or Aunt T is going to have a really good buddy at 5am when she gets here for Christmas! ;)
But I digress. I've read that Chey is at the age now that I can start working with her to cry it out a little, so that is our goal now. Again, thank god for my mom. I have started with crying it out for 1 minute, then two minutes, then all the way up to ten (all on my own). She hit ten minutes with no end in site this afternoon so I gave in. (I'm a pushover). But with Mom here tonight, we did it. I put her down and she cried. So, mom came in to save me. I sat on the bed while she sat at the bassinet. The baby cried for I don't know how long. Boy did she get angry! I never knew babies could get so angry. But finally after about 20 minutes of serious crying, she started to wear down. With about a minute of sleepy yelps, she finally gave in and called it a night. Now I don't expect for that to be it and for her to sleep like a little angel for now on, but it sure did give me hope. It showed me that she can actually cry it out and that she won't cry for.e.ver. So far, she's still asleep. Granted it has only been an hour. But maybe tonight will be better. And maybe tomorrow night will be even better.
You see how tired she gets.
____________________
And here's a picture from Cyber Monday. I am teaching her well. Shop shop shop.
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