So I had a wonderful 30th birthday. It was everything I wanted. We had an excellent dinner at Drew's, I had great company, delicious homemade cake, amazing and thoughtful presents and Anna stayed home with Aunt Jeanie for play & bedtime and was a good girl - even letting us transfer her from being sound asleep to the carseat to the crib with minimal problems. Since we were all trying to kick that cold, I took her home with us that night instead of staying at Gram's - which was the original plan - a FULL night sleep for mommy! She instead got to leave daycare early on Friday for some playtime with Gram, we spent Saturday swimming at Bob & Gene's and then Doug and I left her for her overnight slumber party. Aunt Lisa came into town, we went out into Sea Bright for dinner and drinks with our old crew and had a great time. Come midnight we felt like we were turning into pumpkins and didn't make it too much longer. Everything was just so nice, laid back and EASY - exactly what I wanted. No big 'to do' - birthdays just aren't my thing (even 30th birthdays!). Then Sunday we spent a few hours at the beach before picking up our munchkin for some play before Aunt Lisa had to hit the road back to Virginia.
All in all, a really great weekend. It really is great when things come together!
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| Birthday dinner at Drew's |
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| our family shot ;) |
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| apple cheeks |
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| The new baby prison, installed on my birthday! |
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| Picnic lunch in Holmdel Park |
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| HAPPY! |
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| out to dinner in Sea Bright |
Otherwise we have been battling some serious sleep problems lately. Ever since the shots in July and the cold that followed - something seems to have switched in her brain. She no longer has big long silent, restful stretches at night like she used to. And not only that, she's waking up SCREAMING bloody murder. Nothing we do seems to help. We've done it all. More food during the day (thinking maybe she was starving when she woke up - but since I night-weaned we aren't going down that road again if we can help it), going to her to comfort her, rock her, sing, cuddle, etc. We've tried letting her cry (all she does is immediately stand up, SCREAM and cry for upwards of an hour and a half with no end in sight & never sits back down, even if we do this for days)... finally we end up giving in and I have been sleeping with her on the couch in her room. At first I thought it was because she couldn't breathe (has had a stuffy nose for about a week or so... possibly due to teething - that one front tooth is CLOSE), so I had her on an incline on my chest and she seemed to be able to settle down and fall back to sleep. But some nights even us going to her to try to help is NOT helping. She is screaming just as hard. I am quite literally at my wit's end and feel like we'll never get out of this phase. I know that isn't true and nothing can last forever, but when you're in it - it really does! I hope that whatever is happening will slowly start to change. I'm going on a month here of interrupted sleep after months of a good baby and it's killing us. I know we'll have to sleep train again and hopefully it won't be as hard as I'm imagining. It's painful to hear her flipping out, you think something has GOT to be wrong... So I called the doctor's office today to have them refill & update her Zantac prescription. We'll give it a shot. Only thing that we can all really think, if she's crying for us - for attention - and we come to her and the crying still doesn't stop, then maybe she's in pain & laying down in the dark with a burning esophagus sounds pretty terrible to me. I mean I did it for 9 months while pregnant, so I know how awful it can be. Do they make Baby Tums?
ANYWAY.....
So the weekend after my birthday we headed up to Rhode Island for a family visit since we haven't be able to head up that way since February! It was a quick trip (as they always seem to be) but thankfully we were able to see the ENTIRE family while we were there. Grandma and Grandpa D had everyone over for a cook-out, which turned into an indoors party since the weather kind of stunk. Anna had fun, but I could tell she was overwhelmed with all the new faces & voices. If I was in the room she made a beeline to me and wanted to crawl all over me, be held, etc. It was hard to stay away (so she would play with others) especially since I wanted to see everyone too! I know as she gets older these situations will be easier and easier for her. She LOVED being in RI with Grandma and Grandpa and all the fun bears and singing stuffed animals she was finding around the house were so much fun for her. She especially loved "Tim", a bear we named that hangs out on a tiny chair in the kitchen. She would squeal and screech and hug and kiss him. It was amazing and very cute. She did okay sleeping the first night and really crappy the second night, but again - this is pretty much the norm lately and although it was rough, I was still expecting it.
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| twins here |
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| someone loves grandma and grandpa! |
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| snuggle! |
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| happy girl! |
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| I was aiming for a pic with Grandpa, but she was being so shy! |
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| me & my munchkin |
Also while we were in town, we got to meet Marc & Jill's new baby, Sam. I was so enamored with his super tininess (6lbs!) that I didn't get to take a picture, but trust me - he was amazing. Marc & Jill make cute, tiny boys and we were so happy to meet him. Anna seemed ENORMOUS! compared to him, she was full of sounds, yelling and squirming. At one point he started to do the little newborn squawk/cry and Anna's lip quivered and looked to me like "Mommy, help him!" it was so sad and so cute. Very excited to get to see baby Sam, big brother Jack and Marc & Jill again when we head back to RI.....
...... this weekend! We'll be leaving Thursday night around 7ish or so, to avoid traffic and a screaming baby (more on that later). Our friends Scott & Brittney are getting married in CT this weekend, only 40 minutes or so away from Westerly! So we'll head up Thursday night, spend Friday with Grandma & Grandpa before we both head to the rehearsal dinner (Doug is in the wedding), I'll come back after the dinner and Doug will stay with another groomsman for the night so he's there bright and early for groomsman duties. Saturday afternoon I'll pack up and head to the hotel for the wedding and Anna will have her first overnight with Grandma and Grandpa D! I know she is very excited and has been talking a lot about her upcoming visit. She plans to do a lot of crawling, exploring, pulling up to a stand on everything she can get into, giving Grandma lots of heart attacks, possibly going for a walk in the stroller around the neighborhood, and sleeping like an angel. So she says. We'll see.
Doug and I cannot WAIT for a night out, a fancy one at that - and a night in a fancy hotel! Like we say, even if Anna is bad and doesn't sleep - it's one night for the people watching her and they can go back to their normal lives the next day. Sorry if it stinks, just imagine doing it every day (maybe that'll make it easier!! ;)
Let's see what else..
This week will be busy. Off Monday, work 3 days, off 4 days, etc. I like my new work schedule. We've moved to 4 "half" days - Tuesday through Friday from 9 to 3. It gives me more time in the morning to get us ready, up and out of bed and to daycare without feeling so rushed (which I absolutely hate). Then at the end of the day I have time to put her down for a nap at home (since daycare cannot seem to do anything right, much less give her any sort of good naptime routine) and I'm able to get ready for the next day, prep dinner stuff, give her dinner, etc. It's much less rushed but somehow feels like I am at work more even though it is the same amount of hours as before. We'll see how it goes but I think I really like this new schedule.
This past weekend we got to go to the Yankee game with my dad in a fancy, fancy suite from a customer/friend of his. It was SO awesome. We didn't hit any traffic on a Friday night (amazing), we had the suite to ourselves for over an hour (awesome), the people who did show up were fun and nice, the food was plentiful and delicious, the (expensive) wine was flowing, and I had a baby-free night out! Gram stayed home with Anna, had a great time playing, and eventually snuggling in the middle of the night (per usual). It was a good game- the Yanks won 6 to 4 vs. Boston.
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| the view of the suite when you walked in |
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| Doug in the outside seats |
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| me in the outside seats |
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| us and our fancy wine |
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| the delightful hotdog machine, Doug was in love |
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| us before the game was over |
Also, I just ordered Anna's new carseat for my car, the "big girl" seat, which will take her through the next couple years. It will be rear-facing for at least another year, although it depends on your babies height/size. NJ law is that the child must be rear-facing until 1 year. I guess we'll see from there. Lately she has been absolutely HATING the car - screaming like a mad woman anytime we are in the car for longer than 5 minutes. It's insane. She used to be happy, would likely fall asleep, was mostly quiet or babbled to herself and now she is nuts. Everything about her lately is nuts. She has a BIG personality. We're in for it. So after some thought, I decided to pull the trigger on the new seat and maybe we'll see some change. Maybe she's uncomfortable? Maybe she's just a stubborn bitc... I mean, maybe she's just stubborn.
So we are trying to stay positive around here. Any tips or tricks or words of (nice) advice would be great. Some babies just don't sleep well, despite your best efforts. We do everything "right" according to the books. Routine, routine, routine. Happy, healthy bedtime attitude. Good naps at home. White noise. Loveys in the bed. Pacifier (although god will that be another nighttime thing to break at some point..), a cool sleep environment, relaxing massage with lotion before bed. The going to sleep part isn't bad, it's the STAYING ASLEEP part that stinks. Who knows?! Thank God she is happy 99% of the time otherwise and is super cute, adventurous, brave, stubborn, and constantly on-the-go - because that helps make up for the terrible nights we've been encountering!
Currently (for posterity):
Wearing Size 3 diapers. (and hating diaper changing)
Mostly wears 12 Month clothes from Carter's. Most 9-month onesies still fit but it won't be long. All her shorts are like booty-shorts so we went to get some extra 12-month'ers.
Bedtime is typically between 7 and 7:30 every night. We typically are out of bed at 7am to start the day.
Likes bath time 90% of the time. The other 10% she is trying to escape.
Loves listening to music, dancing, singing and clapping. Sometimes a little Beyonce or Lady Gaga will really get her out of a bad mood if I sing, clap and dance like a fool enough. (Sir Paul McCartney is her all-time favorite and "Hey Jude" is the only thing guaranteed to keep her quiet in the car on repeat, repeat, repeat. Girl's got good taste.)
Loves: carrots, oatmeal, banana, blueberries and her new thing: baby yogurt! Is IN LOVE and this morning ate almost the entire container. Loves standing up on the back of the kitchen chairs. Loves peekaboo. Loves getting tickled. Loves any and all shiny things. Shiny things = necklaces, iPhones, iPads, spectacles, sunglasses, computers, papers, magazines, mommy's jewelry of all kinds. Pretty much shiny = anything she shouldn't have.
Is getting very very good at drinking out of her sippy cup. Gets the idea, doesn't always get the cup directly into the mouth correctly for drinking. Can't wait till there's something in there other than water! (we'll give that time. No need for juice just yet)
Hates: waking up in the middle of the night. You leaving her alone for too long. The car. Getting dressed.
Currently seems to have red hair. Lots of comments about that from strangers. Can't wait to see what becomes of the red hair.
Currently has blue eyes and according to the Internet - it seems blue is here to stay.
Loves getting picked up from daycare - the SMILE I get every day is like no other smile on Earth. like "YOU AGAIN?! AMAZING! MY MOM IS HERE!"
Loves raspberry'ing. If you do one, she will do it bigger, louder and wetter.
Also loves kissing and hugging. Also very wet.
So that's that with us. We'll be back soon with more pics and updates. Hopefully sooner than 3 weeks from now! Can't believe summer is almost gone. So much for this year's tan. I'll get you next year!!
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| someone got new shoes to protect those feet from all her adventuring |
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| Trying Yo-Baby yogurt for the first time.. and loving it! |
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| happy little piggy! |
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| 2.5 hour nap on the way home from RI |
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| a tiny nap on the way to RI. Hilarious sleepy-face. |
