Ten Weeks Old!

 And another 10-week picture... because I'll have the "I just can't decide" platter. Thanks!

Weight: I'm guessing anywhere between 10 1/2 and 11 pounds at this point... which would mean that we've doubled our birth weight! Way to go, little Lizzie!

Sleep: Sleep this week is super. I've decided that parenting is such a "learn as you go" type of thing. You go through trial and error, and do a lot of 'critical thinking' about your little one's personality to determine what works and what doesn't (at least, what works and what doesn't this week :)). Anyway, last week I mentioned how I wanted to get back into more of the routine where I put her down for a nap when she starts to yawn, in hopes of getting better naps and a happier baby. And guess what? It's worked quite well, really. But at times, I was still getting these little 30-minute naps, which isn't conducive to having a happy baby. So I did a lot of reading and a lot of mommy-consulting about what to do to help baby put herself to sleep (both when naptime begins and if she wakes prematurely, in the middle of a nap). I've ruled out the "cry it out" method for us -- it may work for some parents, and that's totally great -- but for me, it's just not right. So what we've been trying is what I've been hearing other mommies have done and what I've read to be the "No-Cry Sleep Solution". Here's what it's all about:

We rock her, lullaby her, love her, until she's almost completely asleep. Then we put her down just barely awake, rub her tummy and stay with her until those little eyes close. Sometimes this does require us to pick her up again to settle her back down if she gets fussy and restless, but we're okay with that because she's still learning.

If she wakes up in the middle of her nap and fusses, we go in, put her pacifier back into her mouth or rub her tummy, and walk out. If she fusses again, we do the same thing. Today, this happened probably 10 times before she decided she'd go back to sleep. But I'm a stay-at-home mommy for the next five or so weeks, so the beauty of it is that I have the time to do this right now. Anyway, it seems to be working for us... especially because when she has woken mid-nap and we've used this strategy, she goes back to sleep for another two or so hours afterward.

So overall, she's napping a nice one and a half to two hour nap in the morning and a three hour nap in the afternoon, with another cat nap at night before going to bed. At night, she's sleeping great. Still on her usual schedule of sleeping four hours, then three hours, then another three hours before waking up for the day.

Medical Issues: We've cut out gas drops completely, and baby girl seems to be doing just fine without them :) Yahoo!

Clothes: Still hanging out in our newborn clothes. I've been testing the waters on our 0 to 3 month clothes, but they're all still way too big!

Socialite!: Lizzie got to meet some pretty special people in our lives this week, so that was pretty awesome. Hanging out with her usual crowd at the YMCA while I hit up yoga classes and also spending some time with her Grandmas, Grandpas and aunties as well.

Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively.

Baby Gear Love: We are loving our play gym this week! Lizzie Bear is finally starting to take an interest in it, especially the mirror, and doesn't get mad when we put her underneath it anymore! We're still loving our swaddle blankets, as well as a nifty sound machine that my grandma gave us. Sleep Sheep is still in heavy use at night, but he has an automatic off after 45 minutes, and the sound machine is constant, which makes it perfect for nap time, so that's gotten some pretty heavy use.

Crying: The crying has gotten so much better. She just gets fussy when she's tired and hungry now, but she is still a bit more "sensitive" at night and cries more easily then.

Mommy News: Last week I mentioned that I was going to start making her headbands rather than buying them... so I put my nose to the grindstone today during one of her three-hour naps and made a whole bunch of them!

I've also been having second thoughts about going back to work. I think this is coming just because it seems like school is getting so close now. And it's not that I don't love my job -- I do! And I love the people I work with. But I just keep picturing myself dropping Lizzie off and walking out the door without her. It breaks my heart! And I don't want to miss out on her, either. Sad, sad. I know it'll be fine. I just might need to wear waterproof mascara and have a fanny pack with Kleenex around my waist those first few days!

Milestones: Her smiles and coos become more frequent all the time :) She also discovered herself in the mirror on her play gym! She loves to look at herself and smile and talk. It is too sweet!

Nine Weeks Old!

Weight: My best guess is around nine and a half pounds. When I did my nifty scale trick yesterday, I first got that she was nine and a half pounds, and when I did it a second time, it said 10 pounds... so I'm guessing we're around nine and a half, up from almost nine pounds last Monday at her two month check up.

Sleep: Remember how I was all bragging up my baby and my mad parenting skills last week because I thought I'd had Little Miss all figured out? Well, God sure knows how to humble a lady, because we have no sleep schedule at the moment! This last week, her daytime snoozin' has been erratic, to say the least. The most I'd been getting out of her for naps was 30 minutes... 30 minutes! So we went from three hours naps last week, to half hour naps this week. Sheesh!

Which wouldn't be a problem, if she were happy when she woke up.

But she's not.

More on that later.

Anyway, luckily, I've  been keeping a little journal for her since last week, and I noticed a trend. When I stop paying attention to her "sleep cues" (or encourage her to stay up a little longer, even after I notice the yawns, because I don't think she can possibly be tired yet!), she has crummy naps. However, when I am mindful of those little yawns, she naps like a dream (i.e. today... yay me!). It seems baby girl has trouble staying up for longer than an hour and a half at a time, because after that, she gets cranky. And I think overtired -- because when I consulted my friend, Dr. Google, about crummy baby naps, "he" shared with me that if a baby is overtired, they won't sleep long enough to come out of being overtired -- does that make sense? Well anyway, I decided to go with this and with what my little sleep diary was telling me, and whaddya know? Today, she's sleeping like a champ for naps. She took a one-hour nap this morning (after sleeping in until 9:20... whoa!) and is going on two and a half hours for her afternoon nap. Wowza. Let's hope my revelation is for real, and I'm not just getting lucky today :)

Her nighttime sleeping generally remains the same, with a four hour stint in the beginning, and then another three hour stretch, and finally another two or three hours after that. She and I did have a few mornings where we battled from 3:30 to 4:30, but that seems to have passed.

The big question I'm struggling with at this point is: When should she honestly be putting herself to sleep/self soothing? And how do we do that? I'm having slight panic attacks of letting her "cry it out", but maybe that's how it goes? Help, mommas!

Medical Issues: We're still using gas drops after each feeding, except in the overnight hours. I did introduce Gripe Water one evening this week because her gas issues seemed to be bothering her.

Clothes: Newborn items are still our friend, and still working on growing into a few things. Still haven't outgrown much, but our pants are starting to get a little short! So we might have to start wearing our 0 to 3 month pants because of that. We'll see.

Socialite!: Lucky babe got to meet some of our college friends over the weekend at a wedding in the Twin Cities! They loved her, and she equally loved them ;) It was so fun to see some of those faces again. I love friendships that don't change, no matter the time or miles that separate you.

But this is about her, not me, so enough about that.

Lucky girl also got to meet a dear friend of mine and her daughter yesterday. They stopped by to visit on their way from Fargo to the Outlet Mall in Albertville. We had a short but sweet visit and they got to snuggle Lizzie Bear all up :)


Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively.

Baby Gear Love: Still loving our Sleep Sheep and SwaddleMe swaddlers. She's also taken a real liking to her Snuggabunny Swing. She loves looking up at the little birds that rotate around while she rides in it. It is so sweet to watch :)

Crying: As mentioned previously, sleep has become an issue again simply because poor sweet baby isn't a happy girl when she wakes up from one of her cat naps. She wakes up crying, and she doesn't hardly stop long enough for us to enjoy her -- which makes me feel  bad because she's not getting fun interaction, but instead some bouncing or some "shhh"ing in her ear (I promise we're not mean... just read Happiest Baby on the Block and you'll get it) just to keep her from crying. When she does get enough sleep, she's a complete dream boat and full of smiles and coos. She is a sweet, sweet, sweet baby! But everyone needs good sleep to be in a happy mood, including this little one!

Mommy News: If you haven't noticed by photos of my little lady, I have a slight obsession with headbands for her. I've invested a fair amount of money in them, thanks to Etsy and VeryJane, and I've decided that's foolish. I mean, really -- how tough is it to make a cute headband, especially with Pinterest tutorials galore? So gone are the days of paying for headbands, because I'm opening up my very own sweatshop in my very own living room, with myself as the sole worker. Now let's hope I can find the time to finish a few :)

Also: the baby clothes obsession continues. BabyGap, stop making cute clothes already!

Milestones: The smiles and coos just keep coming and keep getting sweeter and sweeter! Yesterday I was singing to her, and she joined in and "sang" along :) It was so. Darn. Cute!

Eight Weeks Old!

 Weight: Baby girl is officially eight pounds, fourteen ounces... so not quite breaking that nine pound mark yet. I seriously look at my sweet girl multiple times a day and honestly wonder, "people push out babies your size or larger? How?!" It's hard to imagine having a newborn the size of my two-month old!

Sleep: Lizzie girl is starting to fall into more of a routine now, which has been awesome. I don't want to brag (mostly because she'll probably end up falling out of this routine next week or something and then I'll feel like a fool!), but I've made some changes after seeing her doctor on Monday and also after reading The Happiest Baby Guide to Sleep by Dr. Harvey Karp (read it? You must if you're a mommy or mommy-to-be of an infant!) and I really think it's made some amazing changes around our house. More on that later. Anyway, back to sleep: she wakes around eight, eats and "plays" with me for about an hour and a half, and then goes down for a nap that lasts a couple of hours. She wakes again to eat and play for another hour to hour and a half, and then goes back down for a nap for a couple of hours. Basically, long story short: this routine pretty much goes on the entire day, with her naps becoming shorter and her awake time becomes longer as we get into the evening/nighttime hours. She's still sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed at night, and tends to sleep her usual: four hours for her first stretch, three hours for the next, and another three hours or so after that. This provides me with plenty of time to get in a full eight hours :)

I should also mention that when we saw her doctor on Monday, I inquired about when she should be "putting herself to sleep". He said it really should start happening soon, and that we should think about putting her in her crib when she's drowsy and allowing her to cry for a little bit before rescuing her, to see if she will start to put herself to sleep. Now, I knew I wasn't totally ready for that yet. I mean, she's still my baby! But I know he's right. So I picked up that Happiest Baby book I mentioned earlier that I had gotten at the library a couple of weeks ago and read half of it in a couple of days and learned a lot about how to get your baby to be "good" at that skill. So for the past four days, I've been getting Lizzie to sleep, then putting her in her crib, allowing her (or causing her) to wake up just a teensy bit, and then shaking the crib just a bit to soothe her back to sleep. I should also mention that I purchased a "Sleep Sheep" to help with adding white noise, which also helps her stay in a deep sleep. Anyway, the purpose of this rigamarole is that when she wakes up that teensy bit, she has to put herself back to sleep on her own... and though it was tough for her to do the first few days (and we had to repeat the process four or five times in a row with me picking her up and soothing her in between before obtaining success...), she's got a report card of 100% today as far as putting herself to sleep goes. Now, we haven't done the whole, set her down while awake but drowsy and walk out of the room yet, but that will come. Baby steps :)

Medical Issues: We've been talking about gas troubles the last few weeks and I'm hoping we've figured out how to curb them. After hearing and feeling little gas bubbles in her tummy and having a cranky baby, we decided to try out gas drops. Every time baby eats (except when I feed her at night since it would be too much fumbling around), I give her a little dose. Though they don't work for everyone, I do think they are helping her a lot. We don't feel or hear those gas bubbles as much now, and she's getting rid of gas in a much less painful manner (we can easily tell by how she no longer struggles and turns red... so sad!). We did also buy "Gripe Water" but haven't used it yet because of the success with the gas drops.

We also had our two-month shots on Monday :( It was definitely the most heartbreaking moment of mommyhood yet! I read somewhere that you should talk to your baby before they give shots because it distracts them, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. Here I was, giving her smiles and talking sweet to her, and then BAM! Stabbed in the thighs times two, plus one more to back it up! Poor baby girl's face at the moment of impact is a face I hope she never has to make again... and that poor little silent cry! AH! Burned into mommy's memory. So it was sad, and there were tears from both of Andy's girls after Lizzie got her shots. But I fed her right afterward, gave her some tylenol four hours after the shots (our clinic's recommendation) because her legs were definitely sensitive and baby girl was wimpery, and she slept a good seven hours (save when I woke her to eat)... and when I woke her around seven that night to eat, my sweet girl was back to normal! We got lots and lots of smiles and had one happy sweet baby on our hands :) We survived two-month shots... hooray!

Clothes: Still hanging out in our newborn items. We haven't outgrown much of anything yet (just those coming-home-from-the-hospital jammies :( ), but we're still too little to get into our 0 to 3 month jammies... they are huge on us! Poor girl just swims in them! Maybe in a few weeks.

Socialite!: The Fourth of July was this last week, so sweet girl got lots of socializing in. She got to meet some cousins of mine that she hasn't met before and got lots of snuggles from everyone. My best friend from high school also made her way through town on Saturday, so Lizzie was lucky enough to spend some time and get some cuddles from her, too! And I mention this every week, but the girls at the YMCA drop-in childcare continue to be her biggest fans! They love when she has her eyes open when I drop her off so they can talk to her and snuggle her, too!

Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively.

Baby Gear Love: So many new things! We are back to loving our SwaddleMe blankets because that's what Dr. Harvey Karp (author of my new favorite book that I've mentioned three times now!) recommends to help baby sleep longer. My ultimate favorite, however, is our new Sleep Sheep. Love it! We had it on our registry but didn't receive it, and since it was $20 and didn't seem like a necessity, I opted not to pick it up until now. However, Dr. Harvey Karp (again!) recommended white noise to help soothe baby and also help her sleep longer -- so I knew just what to get to help us in that category! Plus I'd read other, very positive, parent reviews on a lot of blogs I read about Sleep Sheep. Anyway, he's become our new best friend and is always on the "rain" setting. (Sidenote: we got the Travel Sleep Sheep, as our Target didn't carry the full-size version. Full-size has a sound setting for "Mother's Heartbeat", while the travel version replaces that with whale sounds? Whatever. Anyway, I would have preferred full-size, but it's not that big of a deal. My only complaint about our Sleep Sheep is that it has a 23 or 45-minute automatic timer, which means it switches off after that. I'm not a big fan of this, as I'd like the option for it to be continuous for naptime. At night we have a fan going to still offer some white noise, but during naptime otherwise it's quiet. Anyway, that's my quick review of our Travel Sleep Sheep).

Crying: After a couple of rough weeks of a crying baby in the evening hours and Lizzie's doctor confirming that she does, indeed, have colic (I was definitely in denial!), I decided we needed to make some changes. I had already purchased gas drops (love them!) and Gripe Water (which we have yet to use) the day before her appointment, but afterward is when I picked up Sleep Sheep and started reading my new favorite book. Her doctor also suggested that maybe she's getting too overstimulated (I'll get to a revelation about this in "Mommy News"). So anyway, like I said, we made some changes... and, my friends, these changes have made a world of a difference! We have a totally different baby living in our house this week! Let me explain...

I'd been in denial about what a yawn from my sweet baby meant. I assumed that, like adults, babies sometimes yawn randomly throughout the day. Doesn't mean we need naps necessarily. But, go figure, if a baby yawns, that's one sign (amongst a few) that he or she is tired. Duh, mommy. So that was my first revelation: if she's yawning, put her down for a nap. This has made a huge difference. Instead of bouncing baby on my lap, singing her happy songs and pulling out toys to make her "happy" (and, ironically, just making her more angry!), I swaddle her up, turn on Sleep Sheep, sing some lullabies and rock her until she's asleep (which isn't long because she's yawning because she's tired. Duh, again!). Then when she wakes, she's rejuvenated and much happier... so I get smiles and love when she's awake rather than wails and cries! Love it! I think I just didn't think she could possibly be tired again for a nap, so I wouldn't put her to sleep... and they say that by the time your baby's eyelids start to droop, if you're not in the process of putting them to sleep, you've pushed them too far. So I'm learning to watch for her "tired" signs.

Our nighttime hours are a little more tricky, as I don't want to put her down for a nap at 8:00 at night, nor do I want to put her down to sleep for the night just yet. However, her doctor pointed out that maybe one reason she's crying at night could be because she's demanding to cluster feed (basically "stocking up" her tummy with milk so she can sleep longer). So I've been more sensitive to that and offering her opportunities to eat, and that seems to help. However the crying has been a lot better at night now, so we haven't had to worry about it as much.

So anyway, here're my theories: One: the gas drops have helped alleviate some gas pain and we now have a happier baby! Two: I've stopped "training" my baby and stopped overwhelming her with toys and play gyms and nursery rhymes and now we have a happier baby! Three: She was overtired before, and now I'm letting her sleep and so now we have a happier baby! Or four: a combination of all of the above.

I'm voting reason four :)

Mommy News: As I mentioned, my doctor said Lizzie could be getting overstimulated throughout the day. He also explained that it seems like I'm "training" my baby. Ha! We all got a good chuckle out of that :) Because I feel like it's true! But here's why: I've read a lot of parenting books and so many of them say that every moment your baby is awake is your opportunity to shape them and help them learn and grow... so I've felt like I need to constantly be entertaining her, or trying to get her to track a toy with her eyes, or to try to get her to coo more and smile more and to make sure she feels wanted and loved by my being in her face and smiling at her. Now, I realize, that's not true. Babies can have some downtime... in fact, they need some downtime where Mom isn't throwing an annoying, hot pink, jingling butterfly is their face (a common occurrence in our house prior to this week...)! So I've stepped back and tried to give her a little space. And I truly feel like this has helped her to be happier and less stimulated as well. I think I just want her to be on-track developmentally and I worry that she won't be if I'm not doing those things. But, again, she needs that time when she's not being bombarded with songs and toys. Live and learn, friends... live and learn.

Aside from that, with our newfound napping schedule during the day and the swaddle + Sleep Sheep combination, I've found myself with a whole lot more free-time... which means I've been taking a baby monitor out on my deck and reading books in the sunshine :) At first I was engrossed in The Happiest Baby Guide to Sleep (new favorite, remember? How annoyed are you by this yet? Ha!), but I've since moved on. Now I'm reading a book called Summer's Child by Diane Chamberlain. Seriously, if you're not usually a reader (or if you are!), read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain and you'll be hooked on this author. She. Is. Awesome. Anyway, the point is, I've been really enjoying having the opportunity to read again and the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine as well.

Milestones: We survived our two-month shots... yay!

LOTS of smiles this week :) LOVE it! I swear there was even a giggle today... :)

Seven Weeks Old!

Weight: This week I'm guessing around nine pounds, but we'll find out for sure at her two-month (what?!) appointment on Monday.

Sleep: Baby girl is evening out her nighttime sleep pattern a little for me. It's pretty much routine now that she sleeps in two, four-hour chunks now, and then goes back to sleep one more time for a couple of hours before waking up for the day (which ends up being around eight or nine o'clock), which I'm really happy with. I don't feel short on sleep in the least.

In the daytime hours, she's more up in the air -- which is fine, because it really doesn't matter or affect much. This week, she tended to wake around eight and then not nap again until around noon -- which really surprises me! She's got a lot of steam after her 10 or so hours of sleep overnight! She'll then fall asleep and pretty much stay napping until around five, just waking to eat once in that five hour time frame before falling back to sleep. Once she wakes at five, all bets are off! A few nights this week, she stayed up all evening until 10 or so. Some nights, she cat naps a few times for 15-30 minutes and then wakes up again. She's been falling asleep for good around 9:30 or 10 each night, so we try to get her in her jammies and in a fresh diaper as soon as we see her getting drowsy. That way, we don't have to wake her at the risk of having her end up feeling refreshed and energized enough to stay up another two hours :)

Medical Issues: She still seems to have some gas trouble some days, but not always. We'll visit with her doctor about it on Monday and see what he thinks. I guess I don't feel that it's a major issue, but when she's in the middle of feeling sad about it, I do start to feel like it is a major issue. Does that make sense? Basically, I'm finicky because I don't like hearing my baby cry :(

Clothes:Newborn clothes continue to be our friend at this point! Still working on getting into some of our bigger newborn sizes. She is, however, starting to outgrow her newborn jammies because she's getting too long for them. Unfortunately, her 0 to 3 month jams are way too big! Guess we might end up having to swim in our 0 to 3 months for a little while if the newborns get much more uncomfortable!

Socialite!: We made our usual stops this week: hung out at the Y at the drop-in childcare, where she continues to be a well-behaved little lady; went to watch the Bachelorette with Grandma and Auntie Jenny on Monday night; baby girl even took in her first-ever Vikingland Band Festival on Sunday! Lizzie also met her Great Grandma Janice for the first time a couple of weekends ago, and Great Grandpa Jack came to see Lizzie again too. Lizzie also ventured to my Old Navy store last Saturday and met a few of my co-workers there. She also met some more family members on my side of the family at a surprise birthday party for my great aunt.

Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively, not using bottles.

Baby Gear Love: Something I realized that I've never mentioned is our stroller! We were so lucky to receive it as a gift from my brother and sister-in-law, who needed a double stroller with their new addition who arrived in early June. It's the Contours Options stroller, and we love it! Baby girl and I take walks every single day in it, and half of the days during the week, we also take a walk in the evening with Daddy. The stroller pushes so nicely and so smooth. It's definitely getting lots of use!

Crying: Oofsch. I'm afraid, my friends, that our time on cloud nine, has ceased. Though Lizzie girl is a dream during the daytime hours, right around 6:30 every night her fussy time kicks in to high gear. It typically lasts until 8:30 and consists of us doing every trick in the book until she's tired of each one, and then starting over with them again. I'm not so sure that it's colic really, because it's not a constant cry that can't be calmed. This girl can be calmed... she just wants you to change up the routine every three to five minutes! And if you don't, she'll let you know. Anyway, I would say we're in about week two of this new change. My mom says it might last three or four weeks... so I figure we've got another two ahead of us! Slowly we're learning some strategies that seem to last for longer than three minutes -- she really likes to have her legs pedaled while singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and also likes to be set up really high on our shoulder. The second one I like, because sometimes I feel guilty that she's not getting any tummy time in the evenings since she's fussy, so this kind of serves as tummy time because she has to hold her own head up like that.

Mommy News: I taught my first Pilates class at the Y this week since going on leave, and it was great! I think everyone who attended was surprised that it was Pilates because the people who filled in for me taught yoga during that time -- so I'm not sure how they felt about it being switched on them, but hopefully they enjoyed and hopefully they'll return in the coming weeks.

Lizzie's fussiness at night gives me all kinds of mommy guilt. I feel guilty that we're not playing with her while she fusses because we're just trying to keep her happy during this time frame. I feel guilty and afraid that people will think she's a naughty girl because she cries, when really, she's not naughty! I promise! I feel guilty because I think she's crying because she feels like we don't love her and aren't doing what she needs. I know this isn't true, because I've read lots of books about "the witching hour" when babies get fussy at night, but the thought still sneaks in there.

Mommy is also having a very hard time not buying this little girl skinny jeans. Ah! It's like a disease! So far, she's got four pair waiting for her when she's in 3 to 6 month clothes. Let's hope I can be strong from here on out...

Milestones: More smiles this week! They're slowly coming, more and more often :) But just when we think we've figured out how to get a smile every time, she decides that particular thing we were doing just isn't all that funny or fabulous anymore. Dang! So we try new things and get more smiles... the work to figure it out is totally worth the reward! We can't wait to see more of them and to hear some giggles!

Baby girl also spoke in a sentence this week while we were on a walk one night! Okay, so maybe her sentence was made up of baby oohs and aahs, but still. It was so cute!

I also put her in her bassinet in a sitting up position (propped against the walls, of course!) and she stayed there for probably 15 seconds! I was impressed, and promptly took a picture to send to Daddy at work, who was even more astounded than me!

On a sad milestone note, I think we've almost outgrown the jammies we wore home from the hospital :( Sad day for Mommy!