Sleep at last!

Justin and I decided to make our own baby food, so we got a Baby Bullet, and we LOVE it.  We gave Louise sweet potatoes a couple of weeks ago and she thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was a little worried that she would refuse rice cereal after realizing that there are more flavors out there, but she still ate it.  Then when we got home from Napa on Monday we gave her apples!  She was SO excited.  She ate 2 whole jars and started on a third.  We decided to keep feeding her until she refused so that she would experience the sensation of being full (or stuffed, in this case) and learn to know when to stop.  The first time I think she was afraid she'd never get apples again, so she ate, and ate, and ate.  When we finally stopped we could tell she was in discomfort, because she would cry, but still open her mouth and reach for the spoon.  Poor dear. :)  Now she's getting better at communicating when she's done.  She gets so excited when we put her into the high chair because she knows what's coming.  I just love her so much!

I made up a schedule for us to help with naps and feeding times (because I'm a little OCD and love schedules and lists).  I combined The Sleep Lady's ideal 6  to 8 month-old sleep schedule and T. Berry Brazelton's ideal 6 to 8 month-old feeding schedule into one, along with a list of foods to introduce at this age.  I've been trying to follow it since we got home from Napa and Louise has been doing so well!  She's been taking longer naps, sleeping 12 hours at night (from 7 pm to 8 am) with only one awakening at 4:30 to eat, and is just so, so happy!  I'm so, so happy, as well! ;)  One of my favorite things is to go get her after her naps.  She is absolutely overjoyed to see us.  It's adorable.

Louise had her 6 month check-up yesterday, and is doing well.  She's super tiny, though.  She's in the 6% for weight, and 15% for height.  But Danny wasn't concerned, so we're not either.  Like Justin says, she's happy, healthy, and energetic and doesn't look skinny.  She's just very petite.  She got her mom's height and dad's build.  Lucky girl!

It seems that everyone is pregnant or having babies these days!  I'm so excited for them all.  I just love babies and being a parent is the very best job ever.  It's what humans were made for, it's the greatest joy known to man (and woman).  I just wish that everyone could be learning what I'm learning from Justin through his classes and the fellowship!  It's just so exciting!  There are so many amazing things about infants and children being discovered (moms have known most of it for centuries, the men and scientists are slowly coming around to it ;)  ).  You all should read Justin's daddy blog, Diary of a Domestic Superman, and I'll get him to post more after school ends next week.  He's certified to do NBO's (newborn behavioral observation) now, so if you have, or are having, a new baby and want to learn about their little personality and preferences, he'd love to assist you.  They're incredible.  He has to do a certain number by September, I think, so you'll be helping him out as well.

Life is amazing.  :)    

Almost 6 Months

The last week has been really rough.  Louise has always slept like a champ, but last Saturday she suddenly decided she wanted nothing to do with it.  We used to just put her in her crib at 7 when she was awake and she'd adjust and be asleep in a matter of minutes.  Her naps were the same way.  Saturday night she just screamed and screamed.  I was afraid it was her teeth, so I put Orajel on her gums and it didn't do anything.  I fed her, changed her, wrapped her in a blanket, unwrapped her, I tried EVERYTHING.  She finally fell asleep at 10, then was awake and crying from 2 to 4.  Sunday, Easter, her naps were the same.  The longest she slept was 25 minutes.  Normally, she gets around 16 hours of sleep per day and from Saturday to Monday she got 10 or 11.  I felt SO bad for her!  She was exhausted and grumpy.  On Monday Justin and I decided that it wasn't her teeth or anything, so it was time so do something about it.  I had heard about The Sleep Lady from Rachel's blog and bought the book in preparation for this day, so we started The Shuffle on Monday night.  Monday was pretty rough on all three of us.  Justin and I had NEVER let her cry like that.  It was so hard to sit right by her and not pick her up while she was crying.  The first night was 45 minutes, the second was 30, the third 15, and last night and tonight there was NO crying.  We're so proud of Louise.  She is such a champ.  You can tell she's relieved to be able to put herself to sleep, too.  And she wakes up so happy.  She still wakes up in the night, where she didn't before, but we're working on that, and getting better everyday.  I'm so thankful for The Sleep Lady.  I also made her a little mobile to hang over her crib to help her get to sleep.  She has always slept on her stomach, but now she rolls over (another reason for her sleep troubles last week) and wakes up.  The mobile has helped a ton.

We started her on rice cereal a couple of weeks ago (which also could have added to her troubles).  She quite likes it.  From the very first time we gave it to her she has been so good at swallowing.  We should have known she was ready because she's been reaching and trying to eat everything.  And whenever I hold her and drink from my canteen she needs to try it, too.  :)

 Louise is getting so close to both sitting up and crawling (another sleep interruption).  She can sit up on her own for almost a minute before falling over. 

 She kind of has the same expression in every picture, doesn't she?  This is a very typical look for her.

 Louise and Grandpa at Babylon Mills.

 Louise was very excited about seeing her cousin Stockton.

She is such a happy girl and we are cherishing every minute with her.  We love her SO stinkin much.    

Our little growler

Louise is 5 1/2 months.  This month has brought a few new challenges.  At 4 months I could see that she was starting to put herself on a bit of a schedule, whereas before it had always been really scattered and all over, so I decided to take it and run with it.  Bad idea.  As soon as I started putting her down for her naps at a regular time each day she stopped sleeping through the night (I figure it wasn't really putting her on a schedule that threw her off, it just happened to coincide with another development, for instance, she started teething).  After about a week of this I tried stopping putting her down at a regular time, but she still didn't sleep through the night.  We're getting better at it, though.  She goes down for 3 naps around the same time each day, most of them an hour and a half or longer (before she'd only take a couple of little 20 minute naps at random times).  I put her down for the night at 7 and she wakes up around midnight to eat, then USUALLY sleeps until 7 am.  Sometimes she wakes up a few times during the night, but I've been using the Sleep Lady method to get her back to sleep, which USUALLY works well (thanks, Rachel).  I also used to struggle with finding a routine since I don't bathe her at night, but we've got our own now.  I put her in pajamas, maybe do a little infant massage, feed her, read On the Night You Were Born (such a sweet book, thanks Margaret!), sing You Are My Sunshine and rock (Justin gave me a glider for my birthday), then put her in her crib while humming.  We also have a bedtime classical playlist playing during this to relax her.

Louise is making all sorts of developments.  She rolls over all the time now (another thing making bedtime more difficult), reaches and leans toward everything, and is really experimenting with her voice.  Last month she was squealing and screeching up a storm, but this month she's all about the growl.  It's so fun.  Tonight I was over at my grandma's around bedtime, and Louise let me know in her own little way that she was ready for bed.  She would rub her eyes, grab my face with both hands and growl, then yawn.  It was pretty adorable.  When she is on her stomach she can...push (?) herself around pretty well.  It's nowhere near a crawl, but she somehow manages to be in one spot, then another when we look away and back.  Her spitting up has lessened considerably.  We're down to one outfit per day, although it gets pretty soggy at times.  She loves giving kisses, and we love it, too!  She grabs either side of your face or your hair and ear, and rubs her open mouth around on your face.  Whenever I'm holding her she has a firm grip on the back of my hair - it's her little handle.

 My MIL Margaret made her this precious outfit.  

 Kevin Nugent, author of Your Baby Is Speaking To You.

 T. Berry Brazelton, author of Touchpoints.

 She got her toys on her arm all by herself.

 "Parents everywhere are going to freak." -- Justin

Cousin Scott, 7 months older

We have so thoroughly enjoyed every stage, but this one is very exciting.  She's always learning something new.  We are loving parenthood!

I guess I should give a quick update on how Justin and I are doing...um...I'm sure something is going on...  ;)  Justin's motorcycle is finally maybe going to work!  He's been doing a ton of work on it, taking it apart, making a mess and getting all dirty, then putting it back together again (it may have been a bit more technical than that...), and he finally finished and took it to the motorcycle guy to give it a physical before Justin jumps on to see if it works.  We're so excited.  Justin, because he gets his motorcycle back and actually working, me, because I've never gotten to ride on it.  Every time Justin was going to give me a ride it would break.
Justin is somehow managing to juggle work, school, church, and family, while spending most of his time with us and still excelling in the other aspects.  He's just amazing like that.  I'm so grateful for him and how wonderful and helpful he is.  Louise is getting the best daddy ever (next to mine, of course).  We found out he did not get accepted to the U of U (stupid heads).  So now we wait to hear from the University of Washington, then plan the rest of our lives from there. :)
Justin commented recently on how every mormon woman has a mommy blog, so he decided to start a daddy blog to have an output for all of the valuable parenting information he is learning in the Napa program.  Check it out to read about a special moment we had as parents.
I've become creative!  Ok, not really.  I've just discovered iScrapbook and it's made making cards and stuff really easy.  I recently threw a bridal shower for my friend Whitney, and thoroughly loved it, although it was a lot of work.  I somehow always choose the hard way to do things.

Our last Napa trip deserves a post all on its own.  I'm too tired tonight to post any more, goodnight. :)    

4 months!

We can't believe Louise is 4 months already! She is so much fun. She's gotten really good at smiling, vocalizing, playing with her hands, making everyone love her, and a bunch of other things. She's got gigantic navy blue eyes that just make Justin and I melt. She's 24 inches and 12 lbs 13 oz. She giggled for the first time yesterday! It was the cutest thing ever.

I've started putting her to bed around 8 (she is seriously the easiest baby ever), then I get her up and feed her while she's still mostly asleep when we go to bed around midnight. Then she sleeps until around 8:30. She's so amazing.

As far as her spitting up goes, she's a ton better! She still does it a lot, but not nearly as much as she used to. She only goes through about 2 outfits a day now! We've been giving her Zantac. Hopefully she'll grow out of it soon.

We could start introducing other foods, but I want to wait until at least 6 months. I want to breastfeed for as long as possible, and I'm afraid once she figures out there's other things out there she'll lose interest.

She sure loves her Daddy.

She's got a really strong core. Daddy helps.

Cutie patootie!

Trying on Daddy's glasses.

You can see where she gets her good looks! ;)

Fresh out of the shower.

Grandpa's smelly old hat.

Louise in her blessing gown. Don't be fooled. This picture was taken 2 months after she was actually blessed, but we never got any pictures of her in her gown because right after the blessing she promptly doused the dress in spit up. I figured we'd better get a picture before she grew out of it.

Alex, AKA BUMBO-MAN!!!

She doesn't quite love the Johnny Jump-Up yet, but it's growing on her.

I love him!

Kids these days

I had the opportunity to judge an elementary talent show yesterday with my friend, Sammy Iverson, and was a little disheartened by the apparent state of kids these days. Out of 81 contestants, I would wager that over 85% of them either sang or danced to Adele, Rihana, Taylor Swift, or The Band Perry. Keep in mind that these kids are 10 and younger, 11 at the most. Shouldn't kids that age be listening to and emulating Disney princesses or superhero's? The subject matter of the songs they were singing were a little mature, even for me, an adult. Don't get me wrong, I really love Adele and Rihana, but it's a little saddening to me to hear little tiny girls, who have to have every word memorized, singing about breakups, cheating boyfriends, dying young, or "rockin' on the dance floor, actin' naughty" (Rihana, Please Don't Stop the Music). One 3rd grade girl even wrote her own depressing song about a break up and feeling unloved and lonely. Maybe worse yet is the little girls (and boys) grunge dancing to these same songs doing dance moves that were the reason I never went to the after-game high school dances.

So many kids these days aren't getting to enjoy their childhood, and I'm not sure why. Is it the parents? Is it the kids they go to school with? Is it their older siblings? Is it because they're just propped in front of the TV for hours on end while their parents watch TV shows and that's all they're exposed to? Regardless of the reasons, we've already decided to not have cable or satellite television, and I've decided to TRY to listen to my soundtracks, Disney music, classical music , or even classic rock whenever I'm in the car with my kids as much as possible when they get old enough to pay attention and understand the lyrics (I'm already having withdrawals just thinking about it, so we'll see how I do with this...). We also want to read the classics together as a family, such as the Narnia series, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Hobbit, Harry Potter (they count as classics), the Fudge books and Ramona and Beezuz by Judy Blume, The Wizard of Oz...any others?

(Stepping off my soapbox)

What are your opinions on this subject? And are there any other things we can do to protect their childhood? Am I making a big deal out of nothing?

Pictures from Napa, so far

I actually took pictures this time. If this is what it looks like in February, I can't wait to come back in the spring and summer!

Would you like to hear about our day?

Someday I think we'll laugh about this. "But it is not this day!" (LOTR reference...)

Today is day 1 in Napa. It started out ok. We were planning on leaving Toquerville at 4 am this morning, but we decided to leave yesterday night instead and stay with Zach and Shella in Henderson, which was a brilliant move. 10 hours is a TON shorter than 13. We left their house at approx. 6 am Vegas time, and Louise slept for about the first 3 hours. Justin and I took 2 hour driving/playing with Louise shifts, so we were good for about another 6 1/2 hours (add that up and it equals 9 1/2).

Well, the last half hour Louise decided she was totally done. Done, done, done. Screaming bloody murder to the point that she could barely breathe. On the way, we had taken her out of her car seat when there was little or no traffic, but the last half hour was in the city, so we couldn't take her out. It was pure torture. Poor Justin was sitting back with her at the time, so he now understands the feeling of when she looks at you with a slightly crazed look in her eye because she's trying to communicate (none too subtly) that she's had it, and you're not doing anything about it. No one will help her. Her parents, whom she trust more than anyone else to help her, won't help her. It's the worst feeling ever, and I'm sure all of you parents can relate. So anyway, while this is going on, we're trying to navigate the last of the drive and sing to her and try to distract her. When we were finally almost there, I took a wrong turn, then another wrong turn, adding another few minutes to her torture. After we finally found the place, we were all completely frazzled. I went to check in and Justin stayed with Louise to make amends.

After we got our stuff in our hotel room (which is kind of gloomy compared to our last one, with those pillows that make your head feel like it's on the floor above) we remembered some things that we forgot to bring, but there was no way we were going to put Louise back in her car seat, so we asked the front desk man how far it was to walk to Target. He said it would take about 20 minutes. That was do-able, I figured. We walked more than that around town at home and we could use a little walking around after being in the car all day. So we set out (at sunset, mind you) with the little umbrella stroller, a blanket, Justin's little camel pack, and a very large knife (which I wasn't aware of...). The beginning of the walk was fairly pleasant. It was fun to look around and see the more neighborhood-y part of Napa. Except then the sidewalk ended and we were on a busy street. So Justin was carrying the stroller that doesn't latch shut and I was carrying a sleeping baby in a huge, slippery blanket as we trekked across people's yards.

We FINALLY got to Target (way more than 20 minutes, by the way) and had a hard time finding anything we needed. Also, we realized we looked homeless: neither of us had showered because we left so early, we both had hats, Justin had a backpack on, and a stroller. After walking around forever and getting partials of what we needed, we left. It was completely dark by now, and apparently they don't believe in street lights in Napa. So there we were, me pushing a stroller with a no longer sleeping baby and Justin carrying a bag of milk and apples with his camel pack bulging (I really didn't think this thing through), exhausted from little sleep a very long walk and a very trying day, stumbling around in a pitch black foreign neighborhood with no sidewalks, and we come upon a strange man wearing all black with a hood pulled over his head and carrying something and walking really slow. I was totally freaked out. We passed him quickly and tried to joke about a traffic jam or something (no reply from him) and came to an intersection. There were cars on both sides that couldn't decide whether to wait for us to cross or not, and by then the old man was right behind me again. So we quickly started to walk across, only the blanket fell off the front of the stroller and got caught in the wheels, so it couldn't move. Of course it happened in the middle of the busy intersection with cars on both ends itching to go with a creepy old man on our heels. I panicked and called out for Justin and scooped Louise (who was starting to cry now) up in my arms and Justin grabbed the stroller and we practically ran for a couple of blocks (I'll admit I was fighting tears). Then we took a wrong turn (which ended up being better because there was a sidewalk). Now we were exhausted, cold, lost, petrified, and holding a whimpering baby, worried that the neighbors would hear and think we kidnapped her, trying to not show how scared or nervous we were so the other wouldn't be scared or nervous either.

Well, we eventually got back to the hotel, but not before deciding to never, ever do that again. Justin told me that after we passed the man the first time he had made his plan of attack involving the stroller and knife, which he carried in his hand and sleeve the rest of the way home. Have I done an adequate job of relaying our terror?