Sleepin' Like a Baby

Okay, so I realize this is a totally unflattering picture of me, but I had to do it. This is just one of a few pictures Charlie has taken to illustrate how much alike we are. Notice the way we both throw our arm out to the side? Scary. There's another one that just didn't make the cut that shows both of us with our arms thrown above our heads, sound asleep next to each other...too cute.

Sophia is successfully sleeping through the night...hooray! This has truly made the last two weeks so much better! She goes down about 10-11 and usually sleeps until about 6 am, although it is now almost 7 and I'm still waiting for her to awaken! Hooray! The best part, I didn't even have to do the whole "let her cry" thing. Once we started waking her to eat every three hours, she gets enough food and she's tired enough that she just sleeps. We've had a bump here and there when she might have been starving and we put her to bed early, she wakes up early, but overall this is just so nice to move to the next level! Hopefully she will move into sleeping just a bit longer and I can finally start getting back to the point where I feel somewhat rested...we can only hope!

All Thumbs

The play mat is the place to be for fun!

Have you seen my awesome Taggie?

Those hanging animals are really fascinating!

Sophia has officially found her thumb and loves every second of it! She has always been inclined to suck it when it grazed past her lips, but now she knows where to find it and often uses it to fall asleep or comfort herself. Charlie is all about it, as the pacifier is prone to fall out and she can't replace it, the thumb is a different story. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about it. I mean, you can cut up and take away a pacifier, not so with a thumb. Plus, I've seen too many kids pass through my classroom still sucking their thumbs. I of course vow never to be that parent, but I've already discovered sometimes things don't go according to MY plan!



Her two favorite toys right now are her play mat and her Taggie. She loves to wiggle and play on her play mat. She will giggle, kick her feet and bat at the little animals all day long! She is so cute because she makes little squealing noises and wiggles and giggles the whole time, it is adorable! The lights are her favorite part, she will stare at them all day long! She also uses it to practice rolling over. She is getting closer every day after our one false alarm. She just can't figure out how to get her arm out of the way to make the final descent onto her tummy, and quite frankly, I'm quite happy right now with her NOT knowing!



For those of you not familiar with a Taggie, it is apparently one of those crazy baby crazes! Jill and I found one on one of our many shopping trips and truly, we mocked it. It is a little blanket that has "tags" sticking out all over it for kids to grab, etc. Well, her mom who is super crafty made Sophia her very own Taggie. It is WAY better than any store bought one because it has her name on it and of course it was made with love! Anyway, I must admit I should eat my words because my child loves this thing. It's perfect size for her to grab and chew and she can hold it. She is really into grabbing but because she's still learning she can't hold onto anything that is too thick or heavy. So, Taggie to the rescue, I guess!

sick!

Well, thankfully it's me that's sick and not Sophia. AND...we hope to keep it that way! Unfortunately I woke up early Sat. morning with quite the flu bug. It was then I realized I neglected to get my flu shot like the pediatrician suggested...whoops. I'm not really sure where I got it, I don't know anyone who's sick and obviously Sophia doesn't attend day care, so it's curious. I have been going to Baby Boot Camp, so it's quite possible I picked it up from one of those people, but I'd sure like to give it back! It's day three and I'm still not back up to par. Thankfully Sophia doesn't yet show any flu symptoms so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Charlie looked up on the Internet about breastfeeding while sick and it turns out you should keep it up. Those antibodies sure are magical! The article also went on to say that often the breastfeeding baby is the only one in the house who doesn't get sick. Again, we're keeping our fingers crossed!

Needless to say we were not able to get our tree this weekend, but Charlie got to spend LOTS of quality time with his baby girl! He has been so helpful and generous with his time and not complained at all about his virtually 48 hours straight of Baby. Although, I will say that I think it gave him a new perspective on my day-to-day. If I'm not better by tomorrow, I may actually have to call the doctor...yikes!

Scheduling

Mmmm, babies taste gooooood!

Proud Pappas!

Well, we've been working on her schedule for the better part of a week. The doctor said to wake her every 3-4 hours to eat. Well, this continues to be a challenge. I thought that maybe since she wasn't so tiny anymore, it might be easier to wake her up. Oh how I was wrong! Unfortunately, like her mother, this child will choose sleep over all else. Yesterday was a particularly sleepy day for Sophia and that resulted in her NOT sleeping through the night. However, the night before she did in fact sleep from 10:30 pm to 6 am. The funny part is she probably would have slept a little longer but paranoid me got her up anyway (she was wiggling and making noise, I didn't wake her up) and she barely ate! She took 2 oz and it was a struggle to get in two more!



Last weekend we went to see our friends Greg and Julie in Lawrence. Their Justin just turned one and was very fascinated by Sophia as demonstrated in the above pictures! We had a great time and we love having play dates because right now they're really more for us. We hope to get our Christmas tree up this weekend and that means adorable pics of Sophia and the tree are sure to follow!

News from the Doc

Sophia had her 2 month check-up today, a little late, but at least we got there! She is gaining weight very nicely...woo hoo! She's up to 12 lbs 10 oz and I think most of it is in her thighs! She's in about the 80th percentile for her height, weight and head measurements, so that's good.

We also talked to him about her schedule, or lack there of I should say. He gave us some tips to do in the next couple weeks. He also said that if she's not sleeping through the night in about 2 more weeks that I need to let her cry it out. Hmmm, this sounds so good in theory. AND, I know that it is what's best and what will be easiest in the long run, but honestly, I really hope we don't have to get to that point because I'm not sure I'll be so good at listening to the crying without doing the consoling.

She got 4 boosters today too and I was very strong that I didn't cry with Sophia b/c let me tell you that it really did break my heart to see her so upset! She was so serene and playful one minute and then all hell broke loose the second that first needle went in! At least it was quick and I was able to calm her down fairly quickly afterwards.

We rounded out the day by shopping at the Carter's Outlet. I have learned this is a bad place to go, especially with my mother! We found so many irresistible deals, especially with everything between 50-70% off! I went in there for some sleep sacks (the greatest baby invention ever, by the way) and came out with oh, so much more! But I am under the opinion that fashion should be a right and not a privilege, so it's all okay! :)

Matchy Matchy!

Grandma Sue with her girls!

Julie now loves Baby Cousin!

Nick with his ladies!

Grandma Sue made the kids adorable sweatshirts for Christmas. Everyone looked so cute and we will get lots of wear out of it with cold weather on its way!

Update on rolling over...I don't think it happened. After further assessment, I think she was on the edge of the rug and she just sort of tumbled down the little hill and ended up on her tummy. She didn't manage the feat again for the rest of the day, so I figured it must have been a close call, but not the real thing!

Lastly, I got a very strange message on the last posting, it's in some foreign language. If anyone can help me figure out who it's from and/or what it says give it a try!

Sleep, Baby Sleep!

Sophia is 10 weeks old today. Many of you told me to just hang on until 2 months because things would get better...well, I'm still waiting!!! Okay, it's not that bad, but I must admit I haven't noticed a great change either.

She is sleeping longer through the night, but we're still inconsistent and still getting up a couple of times. The past few nights, she has gone further between feedings, but still not as long as I would like. Plus, she won't eat past 8 or 9pm so I'm destined to get up again at like 1-2am. If only I could get her to eat later!

She is awake a lot longer during the day and is very alert. She likes to play and listen to mommy sing. This however, will probably change since I have the worst singing voice ever and am probably tone deaf. Luckily she doesn't know that yet, and you can't mess up the ABC song too bad anyway.

She is very close to rolling over and I expect any time to go into her room in the middle of the night and find her on her tummy! Yikes!

She is growing and changing so much! Sometimes I want her to hurry up and sleep through the night and then I think, no wait, I want to keep her a baby forever!

OH MY GOD!!!! She just rolled over, as I'm typing...holy cow! Well, actually, I'm not sure, she happens to be on a slight incline, so maybe that pushed her over, so to speak. I'll keep you posted on this subject!