Scott and I have started running (see our widgets to the right). It's been a few years since he's run regularly; I've never exercised much, despite some pretty serious health issues that would really benefit from it. I've just never enjoyed it, but now that I have Clara to think about, I want to suck it up and get in shape so I have the energy to keep up with her! Plus, it will instill good habits in her early on to see us exercise and eventually get involved herself. Scott is doing some of his running with her in the BOB stroller. Now THAT is a workout!
don't worry Mom, I didn't get mugged
I'm also trying to force myself to have a little bit of a life outside the baby. This is hard for me since I work all the time and really don't get to spend much time with her, but I know it's important. For Scott's birthday last week, we went to dinner and my friend from work Brandi babysat Clara. Brandi has 2 kids and I trust her 100%, but I was worried Clara would freak out being left with a "stranger" (she'd previously only been babysat by my mom). Well, she did perfectly fine and we had a nice dinner. Totally worried for nothing. Just a couple of days later, Brandi and I went to a local art studio called Easely Amused, which is kind of like paint-by-numbers for grown-ups, with alcohol. It was a blast, and not just because of the pitcher of chocolate martinis Scott sent with us! That was the first time I hadn't put Clara to bed in many months, but we all survived, obviously :)
Clara is now 11 months old. She's staying up a little later, usually til about 7:30, and sleeping til about 7 am. She still takes 2 naps. She nurses twice a day and has about 1.5 bottles during the day, plus assorted solids. She's cutting down on her milk intake so much that I'm starting to think I will have to donate milk before it spoils (after 12 months in the deep freeze - but we have more than 2000 ounces I believe). She'll probably have enough breastmilk to last her until she's nearly 2, which is crazy, but awesome!
At 11 months, her favorite food is mandarin oranges (Sundia brand in the fresh section). She is obsessed with books and our cats. She's not walking yet but can stand up for awhile without holding on to anything and can stand up from sitting now.
Her bday party is going to be rock and roll themed and I cannot WAIT to post all about it!
sharing blocks with Bailey (who is less than amused)
yes, I'm this happy even with a busted nose
my first Christmas ornament! (from Little Sapling @ etsy)
clara (and dada) received this hilarious report card from swimming a couple of weeks ago:
I love that the only two options are "yes" and "improving." ha ha.
things have been hectic and we're behind on picture taking. it's hard to get good pictures of an almost-toddler, as she's always in motion.
best photo op of the week - passed out in the car after music class (still clutching a drumstick)
some random updates:
she finally says mama! still doesn't know what mama or dada mean, though.
she is suddenly, totally obsessed with books. favorites include: little bee (a finger puppet book), squishy turtle and friends, clifford's first halloween, fuzzy bee and friends, and the very hungry caterpillar. she has a strange aversion to dr. seuss' ABCs (one of scott's childhood faves).
she loves the sound of fallen oak leaves crinkling underfoot.
she doesn't understand daylight saving's time and is therefore waking up at 5 am now (at least I get to spend more time with her before work?).
she's perfectly capable of holding her own bottle but would much rather you do it.
current nicknames include: miss booga, baby bizzle, little biscuit.
thanks for visiting our blog and we hope you have a great week :)
Though my (dismal) productivity at work is not to blame, I've felt so busy lately. Summer is almost over, and Scott will be starting night classes 5 nights a week in August. This means I will need to either go to work early so I can leave early, be super productive when I'm there, or plan on working at night after Clara goes to bed. Not a big deal, but I need a serious motivational kick in the rear to get there. In the meantime, we're getting ready to go to the beach and getting ready to put our house on the market sometime this fall. I only think I'm busy now!
Mommy loves me so much that she's willing to show her frizzy weekend
hair to the world so you can see a cute picture of me swinging.
Clara has started napping better during the day and also sleeping even longer at night. She always sleeps at least 11 hours overnight now. This sounds great in theory, but it means I spend even less time with her, which is lame to the max. I've slacked badly on picture-taking as of late, and on organizing/printing her photos. I haven't touched her baby book in months. It's hard to commit time to those things that I could spend hanging out with her, and when she's asleep, I'm usually doing something else like blogging or planning her birthday party for January (embarrassing but true).
My stroller fan can't cool me down because I have my
hands in it all the time.
So sadly, I only have a couple of photos from this past week. I promise to reform! We're probably going to move away from spoon-feeding purees and try some baby-led-weaning soon, so that should provide lots of interesting (and funny) photographic and video evidence for the blog. Oh, and I must capture how well she's sitting up now for y'all. It makes me so proud and sad at the same time!
Like most newborns (especially breastfed newborns), Clara was awake to eat every 2-3 hours at night for the first couple of months. Miraculously, at 9 weeks, she started sleeping 8 hours straight every night, and soon she was up to 10 hours straight. If you've seen her sausage-like arms and legs and chubby cheeks, you know she was getting plenty to eat; so, we just counted our blessings and let the girl sleep as long as she wanted.
Come 4 months, Clara was still sleeping basically 8 or 9 PM - 6 AM, but all of a sudden it was hard to get her to go to sleep. She'd fall asleep on my shoulder after nursing, but when I put her in the crib, she'd flip out. It was taking an hour or so and numerous attempts to get her to settle down. Before this happened, I would've told you I'd NEVER let her "cry it out," but I started reading up on sleep training, and realized two things: (1) we'd just been lucky from 9 weeks to 4 months -- now she was becoming more aware of our existence, and would naturally freak out if she fell asleep on our shoulders and woke up alone, on her back in the cold, hard crib, (2) "cry it out," or some variation thereof, is pretty much the only thing the mainstream experts say works (other than letting the baby sleep with you, which is something we're not willing to do indefinitely for a variety of reasons).
Sometimes she plays so hard, she falls asleep on her playmat.
"Ferberizing" is the most common method. You put her in the crib sleepy but awake, let her cry for a few minutes, check on her and tell her everything is OK, then the next time wait a few more minutes before going back in there, etc. etc. Here's how it worked for us:
Night 1: Cried for 45 minutes, checked on her twice, picked her up once. Then nursed her a little more and put her back in the crib. Cried for 10 minutes then fell asleep.
Night 2: Cried for 10 minutes then fell asleep.
Night 3: Cried for 45 minutes before falling asleep. We checked on her twice but never picked her up.
Night 4: Cried for 2-3 minutes then fell asleep.
Night 5: Cried for about 5 second then fell asleep.
Night 6: Cried for about 10 seconds then fell asleep.
Night 7: Cried for about 2 seconds then fell asleep.
Night 8: No crying!
I hated to let her cry AT ALL, but ultimately bought in to the idea that a good night's sleep over a long period of time is better for her than crying for a few minutes a few nights is bad for her. Of course maybe it's just easy to say that because this WORKED for us. Who knows?!
My baby, asleep tonight in her crib.
We've also started putting her in the crib for naps, and that's going well. We wanted to wean her off of naps in the swing before she gets too big for it. (Clara has always slept in her crib at night, but often rejected it during the day.)
In the last few days, she's been going to bed a little earlier (7 PM) and waking up a little earlier (5-5:30 AM). She always nurses as soon as she gets up, then helps me feed the pets, and plays on her playmat while I eat breakfast. Then, we wake up Daddy and they start their day while I get ready for work.
It's very hard for me to leave in the mornings, and many times I can't resist helping feed Clara her morning fruit or just watching her and Scott playing sweetly. This morning, we had mangoes*(WARNING: this video is ridiculously long and boring for anyone other than Clara's parents or grandparents):
Clara thought it would be fun to feed herself...
What do I do with this?
Yummy!
I got MOST of it in my mouth, Daddy...
I love you, Mango Daddy!
After mangoes, Clara and Scott took turns making funny noises:
Then I nursed her again, put her in the crib for a nap, and headed to work with a smile on my face.
-G.
*we had a very juicy mango, and just peeled it and put the cut-up pieces in a mini food processor, squeezed in a bit more juice from the pit, and gave it a whirl to create a delicious puree. you could add a little water or formula/breastmilk if your mango isn't so ripe.
