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! :-)

Good Girl

I have to say that Nadia always seems to be very well behaved in church. She never makes a peep, and she usually sleeps through the sermon (pastors might not like it if adults do that, but they certainly don't mind if babies do!). I have been "church shopping" lately. I thought I'd keep going to the same church as although we live farther away in terms of miles, it still takes about 25 minutes to get to church as it has the past 4 years since we are traveling on an Interstate highway most of the way now. Well we decided it would be better if we went to a church closer to home. Part of the reason is that we are both spending a lot more time on the road traveling to school than we did the past 4 years. Additionally, if we keep going to the same church, I doubt we'll meet anyone who lives less than 30 minutes away from us. I would like to make some friends who live closer than that. I also think I'll be more involved if we lived closer. Of course this has been a very hard decision to make as I love the church I've been a member of the past 4 years. I've really enjoyed singing in the choir, playing in the handbell choir, playing my flute regularly, and participating in ladies Bible study. They also have a wonderful pastor, a great library that is continually stocked with new books that I enjoy reading, and I completely agree with the church's doctrinal statement. I also was really touched at how people prayed so fervently during the IVF process and pregnancy. I've never in my life had so many people at church praying for me, and their prayers were answered!!! So in the past two months I've visited 3 different churches (3 different denominations actually). One was only 1.1 miles from our home. Let me tell you that was a big plus, but in the end I don't think I'll pick that church although I might have Nadia go to AWANA there on Wednesday nights when she is old enough as I don't see a reason to take her to AWANA at the church I think I'll join since it's farther away. So probably this next Sunday will be my last going to the church I've been going to since July 2004. We have our Christmas concert at the 8:00 and 10:45 services. I am playing two flute solos and also playing a couple of songs with the handbell choir. It's going to be emotional for me I am sure. I was a bit emotional last week when we went there as everyone loves to see Nadia when we go there. As one choir member said to me,"She's our baby." Although people at these other churches tell me how well behaved she is and how cute she is, they don't have the attachment to her that the folks at my church do since they prayed for her for so long.

Last night Nadia woke up every 4 hours instead of every 2 hours which was appreciated. She cried when I put her down after nursing her each time which she usually doesn't do, but altogether she didn't cry very much last night. I did let her get up for the day at 5:55am though which is earlier than I'd like. Yesterday and today her first nap was over an hour (closer to 90 minutes) so maybe we have finally broken the 45 minute nap barrier? We shall see. I was going to go to an early service this morning, but since her nap was twice as long as I expected it to be and I didn't want to wake her, I went to a later service. That was probably a good thing as the roads were snow covered this morning.

Nadia LOVES to stand, and she will stand for quite a long period of time these days. The people around me at church this morning were amazed at how long she stood on my lap during church. Sometimes she laughs she is so happy to be standing (not at church though, thankfully). She supports her weight very well. She also is getting closer to sitting without assistance. She can hold her own for a few seconds now, and she's using her hands a lot more to hold toys in her bouncer and gym. She hasn't been rolling over or cooing as much lately; we really miss the cooing! She still laughs when Mommy eats her belly or cheeks. :-)

Take-Along Songs

The two books that Nadia has the longest attention span for are "Farm Songs" and "I Love You Songs" which each have an accompanying CD. I have other books that came with CDs such as Sing With Me's "25 Silly Songs" and "25 Nursery Songs," but those books are not board books and although they are also large books the majority of each page is devoted to the music for the song. The Take Along Songs books feature nice large pictures and only the lyrics are on each page. Although I play the other CD's while she's playing in her gym, the books themselves don't grab her attention (at this age anyhow). Well I am getting a bit weary of the Farm and I Love You songs as we do those each multiple times a day. I had purchased them at Ollies for I think $3.99 each (CD + book for that price). I looked online today and found that there were 7 total titles in the series. I know I had purchased at least one of the other titles as a gift for one of my sister's children, but I hadn't purchased an extra one for myself. I should have! Well since these books are SUCH a hit with Nadia, I thought it would be well worth paying a little more than I did at Ollie's to buy the other ones. I was able to buy 4 other titles in the series on eBay for about $10 each (including s/h). The only one I couldn't find anywhere was Bible Songs. Well I found used copies of it without the CD, but I only want to buy it if it comes with the CD. Yesterday when I was buying a book for another family member I needed to spend a little more to qualify for free shipping, so I bought a set of 4 Curious George board books for Nadia. So I am done Christmas shopping for her. Of course she won't really be in to opening presents until Christmas 2009, but Paul said we still needed to buy her a few gifts. I think though I won't wrap up all of the Take Along Songs books as Mommy really would like a new one ASAP to add some variety. I don't want to wait until Christmas! Hopefully she'll like these new ones (Learning Songs, Silly Songs, Bedtime Songs, and Songs That Go) as much as she likes the two we already have.

Last night involved a LOT of crying on Nadia's part. She keeps waking up every 2 hours but the soonest I will feed her is every 4 hours. The first time she cried for about an hour and I finally caved and fed her although it wasn't quite 4 hours yet. Thankfully the other two times she woke up too soon she only cried for a few minutes (less than 5) and went back to sleep. The good news is she didn't get up for the day until 7:10am and I only fed her twice during those 11 1/2 hours (she went down at 7:45pm), and she was fine with nursing those two times (which is the norm but that other night she wanted a bottle at 4am so I wasn't sure what to expect last night). The frustrating part is she used to have a stretch of 5-7 hours and that has disappeared. Also, although I might not be getting up, those stretches when she cries are still "awake" times for Mommy so the longest stretch I'm getting these days is 2 hours. Ugh.

700th post

Well it's been almost 2 years since I started this blog (12/22/06). I thought it would be about our experiences adopting 2 children from Ukraine plus one newborn in the US, but so far it's turned out to be about our little Nadia from a FET.
Thanksgiving was really special last year since I was pregnant and also got to see my sister, Yvonne, and her family whom I hadn't seen in awhile. This one was also very special since it was Nadia’s first Thanksgiving! We enjoyed spending time in person with both of our families the last two days plus some time with my sisters’ families via webcam. We sang Happy Birthday to Joe over the webcams as it was his birthday yesterday, enjoyed hearing Susie (age 4) and Jenna (age 6) read books, and got to see our 3 day old nephew, Nathan, for the first time as well. Speaking of books, my mom was impressed with how long Nadia will sit on someone’s lap and look at a book while the music that accompanies the book is being played on the CD player. I often go through two books at a time with her, and each book has 10 songs (most with multiple verses). She studies each page of the book intently and is content to stay on one page for an extended period of time.

My parents and brother were at our house from 1:30pm on Wednesday to 1:50pm on Thursday. I cooked a turkey dinner for them on Wed (including stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, pies, and ice cream). They ate leftovers from that meal on Thursday before they left so they still got to eat turkey on Thanksgiving. :-) I usually love to make yeast bread for holidays, but with a baby I went the easy route and just bought rolls and pies that were ready to go in the oven. My mom made the gravy as that’s not my specialty. Paul’s sil (Millie) cooked a great meal yesterday that we enjoyed with Paul’s family. Of course both families enjoyed seeing Nadia. :-) On Thursday I got to play games with my dad. I beat him in Boggle twice (twice we played to 200 points), and I would have beat him in Racko if we had stuck with the plan to play to 200, but when I saw the official rules say to play to 500 I suggested we play to 250, and he was the first to pass the 250 mark so he beat me in Racko. I am looking forward to playing Boggle with more people at Christmas. It’s my favorite game!

Today I am hoping to get Nadia back on schedule. I didn’t want my parents or brother to be kept awake while she cried it out on Wed pm so that meant I fed her almost every 2 hours and also let her get up for the day at 5am although lately I hadn’t been letting her get up before 7am. This then through her nap schedule off although thankfully she slept as we drove to and from Paul’s brother’s house (70 minutes each way). I had gotten her down to 8 ounces a day of formula (she had been up to 12 a day), but last night after I changed a poopy diaper at 4am she just refused to nurse so Paul gave her a bottle instead. I constantly go back and forth between wanting to wean her off of formula since I’ll be home with her for a month in between the semesters and bottles won’t be necessary, and then other times I just get so stressed about it I just feel like telling myself it doesn’t matter how much formula she gets each day and not to worry about it.

I did 2 loads of laundry and a little shopping online this morning, and next on my list is to do some grading. Between Paul’s family and my family, I have 22 people to buy Christmas presents for this year. I am about half-way done thanks to some shopping I did many months ago. I am one of those people who NEVER goes shopping on Black Friday. The bargains appeal to me, but the crowds do not, and now with getting up throughout the night to feed Nadia, the idea of shopping before dawn is completely unappealing. Well I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving, and for those of you who participate in Black Friday, I hope you had fun shopping! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Of course we should count our blessings all throughout the year and not just on Thanksgiving, but on this day I would like to remember some of the many answers to prayer we've seen in the past 12 months.

1. The top of the list is definitely NADIA!!! At this time last year, I was pregnant which was already a huge miracle, and our prayers for a safe pregnancy were answered.
2. Good health - Paul, Nadia, and I have been healthy - not something to take for granted.
3. Paul was accepted into Penn State's PhD program - our top choice!
4. I am able to keep working which is necessary financially, yet Nadia is able to stay at home and be cared for by her parents (and grandparents upon occasion).
5. I was granted tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor in August.
6. Gas prices have come down under $2 which is a big help to us given how many miles we each drive every week.
7. Paul is an excellent father; he even doesn't mind changing (wet) diapers! :-)

Strike Two

Well I had a better shot at getting her to smile for her last photos. That time she was smiling, cooing, and laughing all the time I was shopping in Walmart prior to her photos. Then she was smiled out. This time she had no smiles At All. Actually she started to cry a few times. She was tired as she wouldn't go to sleep when I put her down earlier, and then she fell asleep in the car, but the trip is only 15 minutes so she was interrupted from her nap. We were late on top of it so we had to wait a long time as we technically had missed our appt. I tried to do too much prior to 9:30am - shower and get myself all done up, bathe Nadia and get her all dressed up, give Paul a haircut, and stuff the turkey and get it in the oven. The last photo that I like of Nadia & I is from August. Barely any have been taken since then of she & I. It's been even longer since we've had any of the 3 of us. I plan to ask Wendy to take some of us in December when we're in MD. The poses we bought were the top two. They were the best of the 11 poses they took. I think we'll wait til she's 1 year old to try professional photographs again. Hopefully she'll smile then!!

Christmas Cards

The Christmas cards I ordered from Snapfish came in the mail. Paul picked the picture with her in the red dress, and I picked the picture used in the blue card. Thanks for telling us about this deal, Erica! For those of you on my Christmas letter mailing list, if you prefer one of these two cards, feel free to let me know so I can send you the one you like better. :-)

Today I picked up the two items from the frame shop. I'll post pics of them later this week. They turned out well (they sure better have for the fortune it cost to frame them!).

Paul & I worked on unpacking the boxes in his office today. I'll take pics of that as well. Everything else has been unpacked for awhile now, and once his books are unpacked we'll be done unpacking. Yay!

Of all the teachers I had from K-11th grade, Kathy Brown was one of my three most favorite. We've been praying for several weeks for her to be able to receive a heart transplant; they said she would only be "healthy" enough to be eligible to receive one for six months. PTL she got "the call" last night and had the surgery today. We are praying her body will accept this new heart. In 1992 I came back to teach at the school where I had been a student in grades 4-8, and she was my principal the 2 years I taught at that school. She was a great boss. I really hope and pray this heart transplant surgery is a success!!!

5 Months Old!

Today my little girl turned 5 months old. She is growing up so fast! Her hair that has been coming in lately on top is blonde, and the hair in the back that she was born with is still dark brown. Her eyes are still blue, and her laughter is still the sweetest sound in the world to me. She laughs louder and longer these days. Daddy says Mommy does the best job at getting her to laugh. She is grabbing at things more these days, loves standing up (with assistance of course), thinks patty cake is a great game to play with feet or hands, and has recently discovered that the thumb on her left hand is as yummy as the one on her right hand. She's forgotten how to say "hi" - she had gotten to the point where she'd usually say it when I'd say "say Hi," but now she doesn't say it at all. I'm working on teaching her to clap her hands. She still loves music. Mommy gets a kick out of hearing Daddy sing to Nadia rather frequently (since Daddy is a bit on the tone deaf side of things...he makes a "joyful noise").

I'm determined to shift her "get up time" to at least 7am. This morning I went and got her at 6:30am as she had already been crying for about an hour. She had been fed at 4am so I knew she wasn't hungry when she woke up at 5:30, but she just didn't want to go back to sleep. I know part of the problem is I have not been consistent, but I plan on being consistent from now on with not letting her get up for the day too early. I am also making sure she doesn't go down as early at night. Last night I put her down at 7pm for example.

I'm glad tomorrow is the only day I am going to work this week, and I am looking forward to spending time with our families on Wednesday and Thursday! Wed. morning we are getting our photos taken. I trimmed her nails again this morning so that hopefully she won't scratch her face between now and then, and I hope she SMILES for the photographer!! I was torn where to get them done. The photos were cheaper at Walmart, and I like some of the size options better, but I think the quality was better at Sears. We are going to a different Sears this time. I think it really comes down to the photographer; so hopefully we'll have a good one Wednesday morning! Paul is going to wear a long sleeve black collared knit shirt, I am going to wear a long sleeve red sweater, and Nadia is going to wear a short sleeved dress that is black on top and then has a Christmas plaid the rest of the way down. I think I'll have her wear red tights and black patent shoes as well. I love dressing my little doll baby up!!! In this last photo she's wearing a size 9 month sleeper and the sleeves don't even need to be rolled! She now weighs a little over 14 lbs.