3 Naps

I figured that we would be dropping a nap now that Nadia's naps are getting longer, and sure enough the last two days she's only had 3 naps even though she's been home all day (sometimes she misses naps because we're away from home). She's not 100% consistent as to which two are the long ones, but she is pretty consistent in having two long (meaning greater than an hour) and one short (45 minutes or less) a day. I would say that her total time sleeping during naps per day has actually increased a little.

Last night I was able to keep her up until 7:45pm, but most nights it seems that she is ready to conk out by 6:30pm. Going to bed later last night didn't help any in terms of when her first feeding was like I had hoped it would. Thankfully if she wakes up prior to when I'll feed her, she only cries maybe 2 minutes and then goes back to sleep. However that is not the case later in the night. Tuesday night I fed her a second time to see if doing so would enable her to sleep until 7am. It did no good whatsoever as she woke up only an hour later and then cried off and on for a long period of time until I went and got her at 6:30am. So last night I decided not to go get her until 7am. She cried quite a bit. I was about to cave at 6:30am, but just as I went to get her she fell asleep and slept almost an hour more. So she didn't really get up out of bed until almost 7:30am which is very late for her, LOL! I am hoping if I am consistent about not feeding her a second time and not letting her get up before 7am that there won't be so much crying involved. There are more and more times these days that she goes down for a nap or for bed without any crying which is very nice. I really don't like to hear her cry!!

We put lights and the star on our Christmas tree tonight. We've never had a tree this long before decorating it, and we still didn't finish. I am just lacking the desire to do it. Paul is taking the lead, and usually I'm the motivated one when it comes to decorating. I feel like a Scrooge or Grinch, but I'm just tired to be quite honest.

Snugli and Sleep

 

I did a little decorating this morning - put the Christmas tablecloth on the dining room table, put a wreath on the front door, put out the Christmas welcome mats, and put the skirt under the tree. I also started working on preparing for my spring courses by revising the syllabus of the course I have taught before (this will be my 9th semester teaching it). We also went grocery shopping. I took the Snugli. That works so much better to use that to carry Nadia as then I still have my two hands free. She likes facing out and seeing everything in the store.

The sleep update would be that yesterday we had a new record for the longest nap in a crib as her morning nap was 5 minutes shy of 2 hours long. Go Nadia! This morning she woke up after only 40 minutes but instead of going to get her ASAP as I usually do, I decided to let her cry up to 5 minutes and sure enough she fell back asleep in that time frame and slept another 45 minutes. She is now taking 2 longer naps and 2 shorter naps a day as long as her schedule isn't interrupted due to church or shopping or whatever. I can't say things are going better at night though. There is a lot of crying going on. I nursed her once last night at 1am (6 hours after she went down) and finally got her at 6am although she had been awake for quite awhile before that (crying off and on). I can't sleep through her crying any more even if her door and my door are shut. Her voice has gotten louder! I think I'd actually get more sleep if I kept nursing her twice as then she'd go back to sleep and my day wouldn't have to start quite so early, but I know she really doesn't need the milk as when I do nurse her that one time she only nurses a few short minutes and then falls asleep. I wanted to work on shifting the one feeding to 8 hours after she goes down, but she woke up a couple of times prior to 1am so I was thinking 6 hours was good enough last night. I love her soooooooooo much and would rather be not getting a good night's sleep than have empty arms like I did prior to her arrival, but let me tell you I am so looking forward to the night when I finally get to sleep through the night. I didn't realize it might be 6 months or more before that happened!

Upside Down

Well Nadia's newest pleasures include flipping herself backwards so her head is upside down, playing with her feet, and standing while holding on to something (for just a few seconds). Of the three activities I just mentioned, her favorite by FAR is being upside down. She's the backbend queen!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got a lot done today in terms of cleaning, wrapping presents, catching up on email, etc. I also did some more Christmas shopping. I have only 5 people left to shop for. Of course the best parts of the day were "talking" with Nadia, listening to her laugh, etc. :-)

Hard to leave

This morning we had our Christmas program at church at 8:00 and 10:45. Paul & Nadia were there at the 8:00 service. My mom was going to come (from MD), but she's been sick and of course didn't want to pass the bug on to Nadia. I played my flute for two songs and with the handbells for four songs. It was very emotional for me as who knows when I'll play handbells again. I had played in high school and then again after I graduated from college, but I didn't play them from 1994-2004. Who knows when I might play them again. I did play my flute a lot at this church also. I used to do flute solos at other churches, but at this church the senior choir and handbell choir directors picked songs that had flute solos quite a few times a year, so I have played my flute a lot more here. I will miss that also. Plus it takes awhile (for me anyhow) to make friends at a new church. It touches my heart sooo much to see how much everyone there loves Nadia. I will miss that. I'm such a wimp; I still have only told two people (the senior pastor and one friend) that I'm leaving. I plan to tell the handbell choir at our Christmas party on Saturday night. Pray I actually have the guts to do so. I know it wouldn't be right just to fade away without saying anything. Since the church has 2 services, it is possible to stop going and most people not realize it. No one has asked me where I've been lately, but I know the handbell choir would notice my absence although even if I kept going to that church I couldn't be in the bell choir starting in January as I'm teaching on the night we rehearse. I plan to join the choir at the new church. At least I get to keep singing in a choir. Not every church has a choir.

Visiting other churches has reminded me again of all the little ways churches vary from each other such as how dressed up they do or don't get, what style of music (choruses or hymns, praise band or piano/organ, etc.), do they sing the doxology after collecting the offering each week, how often do they take communion in a year, do they clap during the service, do families take babies into the service or put them in the nursery, etc. Sometimes it hasn't been really emotionally hard to leave a church, but this time it is hard. I think the preaching is excellent, love the music, and have made friends. However, there is only one person in the church whom I really have contact with outside of the church walls, and she says we'll still keep in touch even though we won't be in handbell choir together any more. I am grateful for that. She's a dear friend. :-)

Yesterday afternoon I finished grading papers. YAHOO! Tomorrow I am going to focus on cleaning the house - something I have been neglecting lately. Another goal for tomorrow is to start pumping after every feeding. I am going to try that for a few days to see if I can get my milk supply up. I can tell it's going in the wrong direction right now. If I can't, I might switch 100% to formula as it's not worth the stress even though I start to feel like a failure which isn't a good feeling. I really would love to nurse her until she's 12 months old, but maybe 6 months is as far as we'll go. We shall see if I can turn things around this week or not.

Tomorrow I also need to figure out what schedule to request for fall 2009. I already put my request for the summer in last week. Our department chair is setting the summer and fall 2009 schedules on Tuesday. He asked me on Friday if I am going to be FT in the fall. I couldn't believe I need to make that decision already. Paul and I talked about it this weekend, and we're hoping I can stay PT. I want to be home with our "peanut" as much as possible!!!! However, it's not a guarantee that the President will approve my request for childrearing leave (when I ask for it - I won't ask for a few months); so I want to figure out what schedule would be best if I had to be FT. I know I want 2 night classes in case my request is approved and I continue to have a PT schedule. For the summer schedule I asked to teach two classes (6 credits). I said I preferred to teach one class each session (there are 2 summer sessions), and I preferred to teach classes that meet two nights a week (5-8pm). I think my chair will grant those requests.

Yesterday we got our Christmas tree. As soon as it's decorated, I'll take some photos. In our previous homes we had the tree in a room where we saw it frequently, but in this house it's in our living room which we aren't in that often. We were surprised how expensive the trees were around here given we are surounded by Christmas tree farms. We paid about twice as much as we paid the last few years for a tree. We might need to get an artificial one in the future. I don't think Paul has ever had an artificial tree. Hopefully Nadia will enjoy looking at the tree once we get the lights up on it

Christmas Luncheon

Yesterday was a two trip day to work again, but the second trip was with Nadia as it was just for a 2pm luncheon at an Italian restaurant. We were there for 1 hour and 45 minutes, and she was great. She slept on the way there, and then was awake most of the time at the restaurant. She slept in my arms the last few minutes and then eventually fell back asleep in the car on the way home (cried quite a bit first). I dressed her up in the same outfit she had her Christmas photo taken in, and she looked adorable! Her first two naps yesterday were again 90 minutes each, and due to the luncheon those were the only naps taken in a crib yesterday. So she went to bed a little earlier (6pm).

I let her cry the first few times she woke up last night (first was 11pm), and each time she fell back asleep after crying less than 5 minutes. I nursed her when she woke up at 2:45am (almost 9 hours since she had gone down). Again she nursed a very short while and fell back asleep so this confirms in my mind she could go 12 hours without being nursed. The next time she woke up was 6am, and I let her get up then since I had put her down at 6pm the night before. So last night was just a one feeding night!

This morning I am headed off to dress rehearsal at church which starts at 8:30am for our Christmas program tomorrow morning. Today I plan to finish grading papers - only a few left! I also think we'll get our Christmas tree today. I am not really in the mood, but if we don't get it soon it doesn't make sense to get one at all. I think Nadia will like looking at the pretty lights, and we don't have to worry about her taking down ornaments until next year.

Daddy's Little Girl

Yesterday Nadia's first and second naps were each 90 minutes long. AMAZING!!! I had gotten some grading done, and I figured Nadia didn't need 4 naps since the first 2 were twice as long as usual, so I decided we'd go shopping. In the first store she was fine with being pushed around in the stroller, but that wore off part way through the second store. I need to start taking the Snugli with me or find another sling. The sling I used at first she doesn't like any more as that one doesn't allow her to look out which is what she likes to do. My wrist was killing me by the end of my shopping trip, and it was a challenge to carry my purchases in one hand and her in the other (particularly at Borders). I went to 3 stores. After Borders I made a quick stop at Dairy Queen (also inside the mall) for a Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard - my favorite which I hadn't had in many months.

Speaking of my wrist, I am wondering if I should go to a doctor. I am really glad I went to the dentist regarding my mouth pain. I really am convinced this tooth has been a problem in the past (such as in the spring). Although the root canal wasn't fun, I am very glad I had it done (well it's not complete but I already am free of pain). So I wonder if it would be the same about my wrist - that I'd be glad I went to a doctor. There are many nights it keeps me up as it hurts so much and I can't find a position where it's comfortable. In the morning (or when I get up to nurse in the middle of the night), I cannot even move any of my fingers in that hand at first.

Before we left on the shopping trip, I put the Giants hoodie on Nadia for the first time. It actually fit quite well which surprised me as it is size 12 months. So of course I had to pose her with her Daddy. The lady who rang up our purchases at Borders was very pleased to see Nadia's jacket as she is also a Giants fan. :-)

During the shopping trip Nadia got very tired as usually I put her down after she's been awake for 90-120 minutes. She did sleep on the way home but that was for only 15 minutes. So when we got home I thought she'd go down for a third and final (45 minute) nap as she had been up for 3 hours at that point. She woke up when I got her out of the car so I nursed her and then put her down but she cried. I nursed her some more and put her down again and she cried some more. So I figured she didn't need a nap. Surprisingly she was in a good mood and played nicely until almost 7pm when I put her down. That means aside from a 15 minute nap in the car she had been up for almost 6 hours straight. Yikes that's never happened! I am thinking that the norm for the next while will be that she'll have two long naps and one short one, but today she just had two long ones (as 15 minutes doesn't count as a nap in my book). It is SUCH a relief to me that now she is getting so good at taking naps. I'll be able to get more done (or get a decent nap myself) if I have 90 minutes rather than just 45. Hopefully she'll take a good nap for Paul this morning so he can get more studying done while I'm teaching my last class of the semester.

Last night her first stretch was almost 7 hours. She didn't cry At All when she went down a little before 7pm and didn't cry at all until she woke up a little before 2am. Yay! She cried a little(maybe 2 minutes) when I put her down after nursing her. Unfortunately the next stretch was only a little more than 3 hours and letting her cry didn't work so eventually I went and nursed her at 5:40, and she was WIDE awake and not ready to go back to bed so her day started earlier than I'd like it to, but we'll keep working on that. Yesterday she did better in that regard. However the fact she slept 7 hours the first stretch was very good! Go Nadia! :-)

Make that Two

Yesterday I do believe is the first day Nadia ever took two naps in her crib that were both greater than an hour long. The 2nd nap of the day was 90 minutes, and the 3rd nap of the day was 75 minutes long. WOOHOO! The 1st and 4th naps were 45 minutes or less as expected. I think two longer naps a day is the most she'll ever have. I would like to say I used the extra time I had to make a lot of progress with my grading, but I ended up working on our Christmas cards/letters instead. They are now in the mail! I wish I had ordered a few more cards. Also, I probably should have ordered 40 of the one with the photo Paul picked instead of 20 of two different designs as everyone seems to favor his choice. I'll just go with whatever he picks next year. :-)
Last night I made sure Nadia's belly was really full before she went to bed. I nursed her and offered her a bottle in case I didn't have enough milk to fill her belly which proved to be true as she drank several ounces of formula. She woke up as expected 4 hours after I put her down, but I let her cry and she cried only about 5 minutes and went back to sleep. YAY! She woke up again 2 hours later, and I decided to nurse her because I wasn't sleeping anyhow as I was too full of milk. The next time she woke up was after 6am. I let her coo in bed for awhile, and then decided to go get her at 6:40 even though it wasn't quite 7:00 as again I was very ready to nurse her as it had been about 5 hours since I had finished nursing her the last time. So I am very glad we only had one feeding (1:05-1:25am), and I am quite certain in the near future we can get her down to zero feedings. I want to make the transition a bit gradual in part for my body's sake. I honestly think she doesn't need the milk as she falls asleep after only nursing a couple of minutes. I think she's just getting up out of habit; so that's a habit I'd like to break over the next maybe week or so. For now I am going to stick with that the first feeding can be no sooner than 6 hours after she goes down. This is very exciting progress to me!

As I was looking through older pictures of Nadia yesterday, I realized that some changes happen in such a way that if you are seeing a child every day you don't really notice them. My mom noticed when they were up here for Thanksgiving that Nadia's belly button is no where near as noticeable as before (although it's still an outie). Another example would be her hair. Looking at photos I was amazed at how much hair she used to have. I didn't notice it falling out. She didn't lose all of it as the part in the very back at the bottom is still dark and long (what would go over the collar of a dress). I think part of why she still seems to have less hair than she did at birth is the new hair that has been coming in is much lighter in color.

Nadia's morning nap has already been 75 minutes long, and she's still asleep! Well I'd better get back to grading papers. I did get some done already this morning. I am determined to make significant headway today!

Family Dollar

I am not sure why, but I have not been one to shop at Dollar Stores. I would say in my entire life I've been inside one less than 5 times, and it's been probably 10 years since I went inside one. Well I got a coupon in the mail for $5 of a $25 purchase, and there's a Family Dollar store in our town (less than 5 minutes from home) right across from where I've been grocery shopping lately. So yesterday I went there with Nadia after going grocery shopping and put a variety of items in my cart such as 3 picture frames for $5 for the half-bathroom little shelf above the toilet that's been sitting empty, a shirt/short set for $3 for Nadia next summer (size 12 months), two different play food sets (total of 80 pieces for $10), and a dress up set ("high heels", necklace, purse, earrings, and hat) for $5. It's fun shopping for Nadia! These toys are obviously not for her now, but I'll store them in her closet for future use. Well after the cashier rang up my purchases I handed her my credit card only to find out that they don't take credit cards - cash or debit card only. Although I don't usually carry much cash, I normally would have had enough to pay for these items, but Paul had just borrowed some of my cash the day before. So I only had $20 on me which wasn't enough. How embarassing! She set aside my bag full of purchases, and I returned a few hours later on my way to work and bought the items. I am so used to paying for everything with my credit card (I pay the bill off completely each month), that it caught me off guard to not be able to use it. The next time I go there, I'll be sure to have more cash in my wallet!

I was tempted to let Nadia cry last night, but Paul said she wouldn't take the bottle much while I was at school yesterday, and she was in bed before I got home from class. I did let her cry the first time she woke up to see what would happen (4 hours after she'd gone down) and she only cried a few minutes (less than 5) and was back asleep, but then she woke up crying again 30 minutes later. So I went in her room and discovered she was on her belly. I know Daddy put her in bed on her back. She did nurse vigorously at first, so I think she was actually hungry although again she fell asleep after not too many minutes of nursing but then was upset when I put her in the crib. I think tonight I'm going to try not nursing her during the night and see what happens as I'll be home the rest of the day today, and tomorrow I'll be home as well so if tonight is a rough night I can get a nap tomorrow. Plus I can nurse her before she goes to bed tonight and first thing in the morning tomorrow which I can't always do.

I have only ONE day left of class - Friday morning. WOOHOO! I don't mean to make it sound like I don't enjoy teaching. I do! However, I am not so keen on leaving the house at 6:40am when I am up twice during the night. Plus I can't say that spending 80 minutes a day on the road thrills me either. Friday is going to be a double trip day, but unlike most trips, Nadia will be coming with me the 2nd time as the department is meeting at an Italian restaurant at 2pm for our December faculty meeting. I don't think the Dean can ban her from attending a meeting off campus.

In the photos I posted yesterday, you might actually get a glimpse of one of Nadia's other new "skills" - the art of pulling up her pant legs. She hasn't taken off her socks yet, but she does frequently reach down and hike her pant legs up. Mommy certainly tries to keep her legs covered in this cold weather. :-)

Paul was wanting some photos for his new desk at PSU. He has a desk now that he's in a research group. I was picking out some photos to put in the frame, and I ran across some from when she first came home from the hospital. Wow has she grown. I know babies are supposed to double their birth weight by 6 months. Well she doubled hers BEFORE she hit 4 months. It really shows if you look at this photo from July 3 and compare it to December 3. Those legs were so thin, and now they're so chubby! I wish I could go back in time and hold her once more when she was my little munchkin.

Well I should get back to grading papers. Yesterday Nadia's morning nap was back to 45 minutes, and her first nap this morning was even shorter than that. Right now she's been asleep for more than an hour so I am glad she's back to one longer nap. It would have been better for Paul if the long one was while he was watching her, but there's not much I can do about that! He even kept her up for 1 hour 45 minutes (instead of the usual 1 hour 30 minutes), but that didn't seem to help (that time anyhow).

Sleeping and Nursing

Last night Nadia's first stretch was 6 hours. YAY!!! I went to bed shortly after getting home from handbells, so I got almost 4 hours straight myself which was appreciated. Then she woke up 3 hours later, but I let her cry (less than 5 minutes) and she then slept another hour. Then I nursed her and put her back to bed and she slept a little more than an hour so she didn't get up for the day until 7:05 am. One thing I've noticed lately is she doesn't nurse for very long at a time during the night. Lately she's been barely sucking at all so I'll think she's ready to go back to bed, but then she'll cry. So I'll let her nurse a little more but the vigorous sucking doesn't last long At All. So then I put her back in bed (usually she cries for a few minutes). Last night I noticed this was true even after she had gone 6 hours. This makes me think she's not really that hungry, right? If she was hungry she'd be more serious about nursing. So maybe I should let her cry even if she's gone 6 hours and see what happens. From how little she is actually nursing during the night, I think she could go 12 hours without nursing even though she's still waking up 3 times on average during that time span and acting like she MUST be fed (I've only been feeding her twice a night).

Sometimes I still struggle with the whole CIO thing, but then when I go in to get her (on a night when I've let her cry) and she's beaming at the sight of me, I know it's not hurting her any. When my brother was here for Thanksgiving and she was crying prior to a nap, he said something like "where's your compassion?" It's true at first glance it seems uncompassionate to let a baby cry without going to her, but I said actually what she needs is sleep so I am being compassionate by doing what is necessary so that she gets the sleep she needs. Still it's hard at times to listen to her cry at night. My first instinct IS to go rock her, nurse her, whatever, but as we're approaching 6 months (can you believe it?), I think it's reasonable to expect her to STTN (about 12 hours) although Weissbluth says some don't do than until closer to 9 months.

Morning Nap

Well now that we've had three days in a row where the morning nap was about 90 minutes long, I feel safe in saying the 45 minute morning nap is no longer the norm. Yay! The other naps of the day are still 45 minutes, but I imagine in time she'll begin to have a longer afternoon nap as well. Right now the only times she has a long afternoon nap are when I let her take it on the boppy on my lap. As for the night time, I am wondering when we'll have a stretch longer than 4 hours again. I appreciate being down to two feedings a night, but let me tell you I would be thrilled to start getting more hours of uninterrupted sleep. I am open to suggestions!!!

I want to take some photos this week that show Nadia's new skills. So today's photo shows her increased ability to use her hands. She grabbed on to the ring with both hands all by herself. :-)

It was hard to go back to school today, but the good news is that Friday is the last day of classes for me and Tuesday is my only day of final exams next week. The end is in sight! A few of our neighbors have put up their Christmas decorations already. Normally we get our tree the day after Thanksgiving. I have to admit although I am already enjoying listening to Christmas music, I have no desire at the moment to decorate the house or a tree. We shall see if I muster the energy later. I think between the move and having a little baby, I am tired. Probably I should be taking my iron supplement also. I am likely still anemic. I haven't been taking it for fear of the side effect, but maybe having more energy would be worth any side effect there might be. I still think sleep would be the most helpful! :-)