Top.Mail.Ru
Phoenix Ashes — LiveJournal
? ?
< rewind | 0 - 10 |  
Phoenix [userpic]

Ten Months Old

December 11th, 2013 (02:24 pm)

I regret not doing a 9-month entry, and I don't want to miss out on a 10-month one too. So much has been happening!

Weight / Length - 16lb 2oz; 27.5 inches

Eating - One of the biggest changes is that Kierra now takes formula from a sippy cup. At her 9-month appointment on October 30th, the doctor was AGAIN unhappy with her weight and again pushed us to make her drink formula. This time, I mixed some pureed pear in with the formula... and she accepted it! For the first time in her life! Over the course of those first two weeks, I slowly decreased the amount of pear in the cup... and now she's drinking straight-up formula. THANK GOD. She takes about 15-18 oz a day, bit by bit because she usually just sips and flings the cup away to do more exploring and playing. x_x

Still, I'm super thankful she's drinking formula because by now, my nursing supply has TANKED. She's basically just nursing as a snuggly, comforting routine by now. 4 times a day: once when she wakes up for the day, when she wakes up fro her two naps, and just before bed. I'd like to keep this up through the winter at the very least, so she can benefit from the antibodies passed along through the breastmilk. I'm sure my boobs can limp along for a few more months, specially now that I'm not so stressed about the dwindling supply being her only nutrition anymore.

As for solids, we're into finger foods now, which means Kierra is eating dinner with us now. We haven't branched out too far yet, but we're getting there.

Sleeping - Another huge change! A few days after she started drinking formula, she began to SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT. Now it's about half and half, some nights we don't hear a peep and some she's up just once. On the nights that she sleeps through, she goes for about 9 1/2 hours and wakes up for the day at 4:30 or so. Unfortunately, there's no putting her back to bed after 4:30ish. x_x When she wakes up at night, usually around 2 or 3am, she takes about 3-4oz of formula, flips through a book, and goes back to sleep after about 30 to 50 minutes. THANK YOU JESUS.

She now has two solid naps, and a pretty predictable schedule! It shifts around a little, but a pretty typical day for us has her going down for first nap around 8:30, sleeping about 1.5 to 2 hours, down again around 2pm, sleeping about 1.5 hours, and bedtime around 7pm. Her bedtime routine is diaper, pajamas, upstairs to her bedroom to read a book in the glider chair, nursing (where she gets super relaxed and sleepy), then I hold her and sing our bedtime song while she cuddles up on my shoulder. ;3; That bedtime routine was the first time she'd ever really snuggled with me, and it still makes me feel the warm fuzzies in my heart. (She now gives hugs and snuggles while playing, but bedtime is still special.)

Clothes - Mostly 9-month clothes with a few 12-month ones too! We have some nice fleecy footie pajamas at night, and several different onesie and pants outfits for daytime. She can't wear those marvelous footie pants during the day anymore because they flap off her feet when she crawls and she gets tripped up. I'll miss you, footie pants! She doesn't really wear shoes yet, but that should be coming soon.

Diapers - We're finally up to Pampers Swaddlers size 3! For the past month, I've been using all disposables to try to combat a crazy-persistent diaper rash with gunky rash creams. Every time I thought I'd gotten rid of it, it would come right back as soon as we went back to cloth, even with frequent changing. It's looking really good right now, so I'm hoping we can go back to cloth soon and save some money!

Personality / Behaviors - I still can't believe it, but Kierra has become very cuddly! She likes to drape herself over me and give hugs while we play on the floor. It's so sweet! She also laughs out loud more often now, which is really fun.

She absolutely loves performing for an audience now, and enjoys getting reactions out of people. When you ask her "How big is Kierra?" she grins and flings her arms up over her head. Sometimes she throws her hands up out of the blue, and wants you to sing out "Soooo big!" and clap for her. Once you're clapping, she claps along - one hand open and one fist closed.

New Milestones - Over the past two months, she's gotten so far!

Crawling. This is an "old" milestone, but in October Kierra began to crawl up on all fours instead of her previous "army crawl." She's FAST. And she reminds me of a baby sea turtle racing to the shore.

Pulling up to standing. Also from October. She only got "stuck" in a standing position in her crib twice, lol. She had pulled up on the crib bars after I put her down for a nap and was crying and crying. When I went in to see why she was fighting the nap so hard, I found her stranded and unable to figure out how to get back down onto the mattress! (I immediately dreaded the idea of her doing this at all hours of the night, but thankfully she never did.) By now, she's a pro and getting up and getting back down again.

Sitting up by herself. I think the only reason she was "late" to the sitting party is because we could never get her to sit still! But she finally realized that sitting allows her to have both hands free while staying upright - double win!

Waving hello and bye-bye. She usually waves if you ask her to wave hello, or she might take the initiative and wave on her own. We have a goodbye routine when Tom goes off to work, and now when Kierra sees him start to pack up to go, she starts waving enthusiastically, like a silent "BYE-BYE BYE-BYE BYE-BYE!!!" She does wave goodbye to other people yet.

Walking while holding our fingers. She can go on FOREVER this way!

Cruising. This is the thing where babies walk all over your living room, using furniture for support. This one is a bit newer, and she's still kind of doing the sideways shuffle to get around, but she does it often.

Phoenix [userpic]

Eight Months Old!

September 29th, 2013 (02:48 pm)


Weight / Length - ??

Eating - Nursing 6 times a day: every 3.5 to 4 hours, soon after each wake-up, plus just before bed at night. We tried sweet potatoes early on in the month and they are a HUGE hit!



The only other new food this month was green beans. We tried them yesterday and they did NOT go over well.



Sleeping - Sleeping TANKED this month. We're still at 3 naps per day, but now we're lucky if those naps last a full hour, which is frustrating because she'd been doing 1- to 2-hour naps through the summer. Nighttimes became 3-5 wake-ups per night, with each wake-up prompting half an hour to two hours of her screaming and shrieking. The first week of Sept, we thought she must be teething: the sleep disruptions were coming so violently and out of the blue! But here we are at the end of the month and still no teeth. I was going insane this month trying to figure out what she needed or what else I could try. Naps have gotten kind of hairy, too, producing this horrible sleep-deficit cycle that has contributed to her poor sleeping. Yeeeeg. As of the past two nights, Kierra's slept comparatively well again, so maybe we're on our way out?

There is supposed to be an 8-month sleep regression. Even though Kierra's current bad sleeping phase started about a month ago, I also remember that her "4-month sleep regression" seemed to start at least half a month "early" too. So maybe it is/was just that? Or maybe she needs more food during the day (and when I added a fifth solids "meal" to her schedule, she did seem to sleep better). Or maybe she's getting chilly since the nights are getting cooler and she's no longer swaddled and her arms/hands are out (although we now have a heater in her room that we turn on low around midnight). Or maybe she IS feeling her upcoming teeth moving around under her gums and it hurts (since when she seemed SUPER screamy I tried tylenol and it seemed to buy us a little extra sleep time). Or maybe it's the whole wonder week leap or a related developmental thing (as she started crawling right around when this started and I've heard that babies will practice crawling/standing/sitting/playing/whatever in the middle of the night when working on a new ability). Or maybe it's separation anxiety crashing in whenever she wakes up (because hooooly crap, has she ever been clinging to me this past month, crying if Tom takes her from me, and very upset if I'm not RIGHT THERE with her). I DON'T KNOW. This is what makes babies magical. *stabbing my eyes out*

Clothes - 6- and 9-month clothes! It's getting cooler, so we're using a lot of footie pajamas again. I'm on the lookout for 9-month long-sleeve jumper outfits for the upcoming months. I also bought some shoes at a huge used-baby-goods sale yesterday, and I'm trying to wrap my mind around Kierra actually wearing shoes soon. *_*

Diapers - Using just one Pampers Swaddlers size 2 per day for overnight. During the day, we use my OsoCozy unbleached Birdseye flats with Bumkins flushable liners (cut in half, perfect!) and my Thirsties Duo Wrap covers. I'm a little concerned at the amount of effort she now needs to poop. I try to feed non-constipating stuff and keep her fluids high, but sometimes pooping makes her cry. :(

Appearance - Her head keeps getting fuzzier! On top, she's very blond and has about 10 hairs that are super long compared to the rest. Toward the base of her skull, she's more dirty blond. Her eyes are still blue-grey, and again, I'm hoping they stay this color because they're pretty.

Personality / Behaviors - Separation anxiety, what what? This month, it's been all mommy all the time. -_- If I put her down to play on the floor? I'd better have a super good plan to get her interested in playing or she just crawls into my leg and wraps her mouth around my kneecap while crying. If I give her to Tom? She clutches at me desperately, then cries piteously like I just sold her to circus people. (But the very moment that I take her back from Tom, the cries vanish like they never happened and she is grinning at him like "Haha, escaped you! I got my MOMMY!")

She's pretty good with people she's not used to as long as they give her some time to warm up first. As long as I hold her securely until she's more sure of them, she'll eventually smile at the new person and once she's smiled at them and leaned forward a bit, I can usually pass her over for them to hold her for a few minutes before she wants to come back to me.

She's been pretty moody this month, but I guess there were very few days where she was just a total crank all the way through. Even on her cranky, needy days she gives us some smiles and good times. And she'll hug and cuddle me several times a day now!!! (And sometimes she swoops in and tries to give me hickies when I least expect it!) She's never even remotely been cuddly, so this is surprising and really, really sweet.

In general, this little girl's personality keeps looking bigger and bigger. She is going to be an unstoppable force of nature. o_o

New Milestones - Crawling! Usually her belly is still on the ground, so maybe it's not "official" crawling yet, but she is FAST. She's been doing this all month long and uses her arms and knees to skitter forward at shocking speeds. For the past two weeks or so, she's been pushing all the way onto her hands and knees and will rock in place that way - often lifting one hand to reach for or play with something while maintaining her balance. She's also becoming an all-terrain baby and will crawl right over us if we're sitting or laying on the floor.

Sitting!! Finally! (We have to put her in a sitting position, but she maintains it herself until she eventually loses interest and crawls away.) She finally realized that sitting leaves both hands free to explore and play. She was trying to play with a strap on her car seat and we sat her up next to it. She decided this was the Best Thing Ever and has been happily sitting ever since. She can usually bend, reach, and twist while successfully maintaining her balance now.

Mommy Stuff - Most days go pretty smoothly, even if the nights are nightmarish. The difference between being home with her now versus staying home with her through Tom's last semester is HUGE. I remember how I'd count down the hours and try not to look at the clock too often, how I was basically trapped inside with her, nursing every hour or less, having to hold her through endless screaming, holding her through naps where I couldn't so much as twitch, and me crying as many days as not. Now we go out into the yard to watch cars, go for stroller rides, read books, have floor time, and she takes her naps in her very own crib in her very own room while I get commissions and artwork done.

Speaking of artwork, I just mailed in my cards for the Dark Zodiac set. Now I'm working on a base card for a set I'm super excited about (but not sure if I can announce since I haven't seen the artist list made public yet). Also, a base card for an upcoming 2014 set that is also going to be crazy fun! I'm really happy that I was able to move a lot of my AP card blanks during my summer commissions, so once I'm in a good spot with these two base cards, I'll be opening up all card commissions again! I added a portrait card option at a lower price than my usual rates, too. :)

Phoenix [userpic]

Seven Months Old!

August 29th, 2013 (08:02 am)


Weight / Length - 26.5 inches long

Eating - I've been making all her cereals and pureed foods myself. We're currently doing three fruit-and-cereal (oats + rice + formula + purèed fruit) meals plus one yogurt-and-fruit (no formula in this one, to really play with flavors) "snack" each day. We've added bananas (she LOVES these), avocados, and peaches to her repertoire. So far, she hasn't rejected any foods and continues to be an astonishingly good spoon-feeder. She opens her mouth wide after swallowing each spoonful - MORE PLEASE! I was going to also try sweet potato and green beans, but haven't gotten around to it yet. We'll be doing the sweet potato in just a few days!

Nursing every 3.5 to 4 hours, soon after each wake-up plus just before bed at night. (I'd like to keep the bedtime nursing session even as she gets older and drops other feeds. It's a snuggly part of our bedtime routine.)

Nursing has gone better this month. I finally gave up on trying to nurse Kierra anywhere downstairs (where Isis would, without fail, materialize and make a horrible racket to get attention which distracted Kierra in ways that badly hurt the nips and caused the entire session to be short and problematic). So NOW I'm nursing in a gliding chair in the nursery, door closed, fan on for white noise. And it's WORKING. I'm so relieved. x_x Kierra's become such a good nurser again that I'm even hopeful we can keep going after she teethes (something which I couldn't even IMAGINE before, as she has been so horribly rough on me).

Sleeping - Kierra's naps continue to go smoothly! She still naps three times per day, with 2.5 hours of wake-time between. Her naps are usually 1.5 hours long.

Nighttimes have been absolutely transformed in the past few weeks. Kierra now only wakes once or twice each night!! I can hardly believe it. Seriously, this is huge. Even when we moved her into the nursery mid-month - still in the pack 'n play - her sleep was not affected in the slightest. She only nurses once a night (usually between 12am and 2am) and then usually goes right back to sleep until 5am or so. (By "or so," I mean anywhere from 4am to 5:30am. Ugh.)

On the 26th, I tried leaving one arm out of her swaddle for the first nap of the day. It went off without a hitch and she's been sleeping that way since! On the 30th (Friday, so that possible bad nights don't hit Tom on a workday) I'll be transferring her from the PnP to her crib. (Currently the PnP is pushed right up next to the crib so that it should be a slightly easier transition.) If/when that goes well, in a few days or so, I'll try napping her with both arms free and her swaddle sack wings wrapped around her waist. Fingers crossed, but I'm feeling hopeful!

Clothes - We're using all 6-month clothes and they're a great fit, still rather roomy. We have a few 9-month clothes waiting in the wings, but have no need for them yet.

Diapers - Using just one Pampers Swaddlers size 2 per day for overnight. During the day, we use my OsoCozy unbleached Birdseye flats with Bumkins flushable liners (cut in half, perfect!) and my Thirsties Duo Wrap covers. Cloth diapering is even easier and cleaner now that she's on solids! She's definitely a smellier pooper now, and I always make sure to change poopy diapers ASAP. She poops a lot less than before, though!

Appearance - A tiny bit more hair, still dirty blond, and same grey eyes still. In general I still see her as a little tiny baby... but then every so often I've really, really looked at her (like when she's playing on Tom) and been struck by how much bigger and older she is now!

Personality / Behaviors - She loves reading now! Before, she was sometimes interested and loved turning the pages herself, but really didn't want to sit still for long. Now, she actually reaches for books herself and makes super happy noises when I sit her on my lap and start reading the book she has just gone for. And she still loves turning the pages, of course. The coolest thing happened when we were reading Ten Little Ladybugs two days ago. It's a count-down book and every two-page spread ends with: "then there were..." Well, this time, as soon as Kierra heard "and then there were..." she squealed with glee, reached for the page herself without any prompting, and turned to the next page! She did that for the next five pages, too! XD I was really impressed!

Kierra's still kind of a cranker, though. (I actually got to snap only three photos for her 7-month entry before she had this major meltdown out of the blue.) They say this age (30 weeks) is where separation anxiety starts to kick in. But it also seems to me that already-super-active baby has become HYPER-active in the past two weeks. She wants to be everywhere at once, do everything, see everything. If you try to carry her, she continuously rotates 360˚ in your arms. And you get elbowed in the trachea multiple times for your efforts. If you put her down, she may army-crawl, become thoroughly engrossed in a toy or some random object like her diaper wipes container, or scream her head off until you pick her up and she elbows you in the trachea some more. She also seems to make her "complainy" whine/moan CONSTANTLY and I seriously think I'm starting to lose what little sanity I had left. That sound is now an almost constant background noise in my life. It's even more frustrating because I can't tell what she does want - nothing I do seems to really satisfy her. Bleh.

Fortunately, she LOVES the outdoors. Whether it's looking out a window, sitting out on the porch with me, or going for a stroller ride, going outside with her is actually pretty much GUARANTEED to stop her cranking immediately. If you even just take her over to the living room window, she'll just burst into this ginormous smile. She also loves CARS. A cranky spell can be decimated by taking her up the street to watch the light residential traffic go by. When she hears a car, she perks right up and starts searching for it. When she sees it, she gets excited. And her eyes are glued to it until she can't see it anymore, or until another car catches her attention.

New Milestones - We're right on the brink of all-out crawling! For the past week, Kierra's been experimenting with forward motion and she's becoming more confident and more likely to move forward to grab something she wants. What she does now is apparently called the army crawl: dragging herself forward with her arms. She kind of looks like a mermaid moving on land... or a torso-zombie. >_>

Still not doing that great about sitting up. She used to fight tooth and nail when I tried to sit her down. She's shown us several times before that she CAN sit and maintain her balance on occasion... but usually she's just way too squirmy and wants to reach and move and just ends up on the floor again immediately. I think she's finally beginning to realize that sitting up allows her to use both of her hands, though. She's not fighting it quite so much anymore, but still not really taking to it yet, either. She will finally sit through an entire book (sometimes for two or three readings of said book!) which is a huge improvement in and of itself!

Mommy Stuff - We started using the jogging stroller for actual running last week! And it went very well! It's slightly awkward to run while pushing the stroller, but the BOB stroller is very light on the go. I can do 2 or 3 miles at a time with the stroller for now, and I can't quite tell if Kierra is acting like it's just any other stroller ride or if she actually does seem slightly more interested in what's going on. Either way, I'm super thankful that we can do this now! UNH is back in session, so Tom started teaching again on Monday. At least with the jogging stroller, my exercise attempts won't take such a huge hit.


Phoenix [userpic]

A night in the life

August 7th, 2013 (08:33 am)
drained

mood: drained

While nights have gotten MUCH better than they used to be, I still struggle to find something constructive to say when friends ask how I'm doing. "Exhausted" has probably far exceeded its usage limit, and if I want them to keep talking to me in the future I expect that I have to be more creative than that. To help explain why I still slip and belt out "brain-dead" in answer to that question, here's a run-down of last night: a typical two-wake-up night. Wake-ups for Kierra; not for the adults.

7:30pm: Kierra falls asleep after only a few minutes of cooing to herself. So far so good!

8:15pm: I sneak into bed like a professional ninja. Since her pack'n'play is right next to my side of the bed (there's, like, 8 inches of floorspace between us) I climb up from the foot of the bed much like Spider-man. With my head on my pillow, I gaze upon my baby daughter through the mesh side of the pack'n'play with a mixture of love and fear before I conk out from sheer exhaustion.

9pm: Tom flounders into bed beside me. This used to wake me up, but hasn't for the past 2 months.

9:30pm: SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH... Isis has come out from where she's been hiding and presumably sleeping for the past 3 hours despite our best efforts to keep her up and in the open as long as possible after dinner. I stare at Kierra through the side of the PnP, willing her to stay asleep. Tom gives me a long-suffering look and waits to see if Isis will decide to jump on the bed and go to sleep, something she hasn't done in weeks. SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH... Isis continues to destroy my comic book boxes at the foot of the PnP. I shoot intense beams of pure willpower from my eyeballs at the sleeping baby, not daring to blink. Tom sighs, gets up, and goes out into the hallway, the triumphant cat prancing ahead of him. Do not blink. Kierra slowly shifts her feet. Do not blink. More foot movement... then nothing. I make myself close my eyes and hope for the best.

10:15pm: Jolted awake by Kierra crying, which is an unusual way for her to wake up in the middle of the night. I take a peek and see she's wrestled her hands upward inside her sleepsack swaddle wings and has her hands in her face. Redo her swaddle. She seems really sleepy and limp, so I try to rock her and put her back to bed. She fusses a bit, then gets pissed off. I get her again and nurse her. Halfway through, I see Isis float in through the door. Beeline to the comic book boxes next to me. And. SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH. Kierra jerks, still nursing, half-asleep. I jab at Tom and he stares at me blankly. I pantomime Isis scratching. Then she does it again. Kierra tries to turn toward the sound. Tom gets up and Isis flies out into the hallway as he follows her out. In a minute, I faintly hear the cardboard barrier going up on the stairs, shutting Isis down on the first floor and out of our bedroom. Tom comes back, I pop a sleeping Kierra off the boob, wait two minutes, and carefully put her back in the PnP. Back in bed, I watch her for a moment from my pillow and then go comatose. This wake-up only lasted about 15 minutes, yaaay.

3:45am: Wake up to happily burbling baby. I get her and nurse her. She claws at me the whole time through the bottom of her swaddle wings. I flip the very awake baby and switch sides. There is a distant clawing sound and then I hear the cardboard barrier collapse and tumble down the stairs. In a moment, Isis floats into the bedroom and goes to Tom's side of the room, quiet for now. Kierra is still awake, so I try to rock her and put her back in the PnP. She starts talking to herself, signifying that she will most likely NOT be going to sleep in the next hour or so. I pull a pillow on top of my head. SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH. Tom wakes up and gives me a confused look that says "How on earth did the cat get in?" He grabs the iPad and sits on the floor with the cat for the next 5 minutes, trying to keep her from scratching anything loudly enough to alert the baby to our presence. Wtf... okaaay... I scoot over to his side of the bed and discover that there - farther away from the baby and much closer to the fan - Kierra seems so much quieter than she does on my side of the bed (where I am about a foot away from her). (Side note: I try to tell Tom this in the morning and he rolls his eyes and scoffs loudly and tells me how ridiculous that is. If it's so ridiculous, why won't he switch sides of the bed with me...?)

Kierra finally gets pissed off enough that Tom picks her up and starts to bouncing her. Isis starts in on the dresser drawers. It's 4:15am. I wait until Tom is in a position that Kierra can't see me and sneak out of the room, knowing that Isis will follow. I collapse on the couch in our kitchen (long story) and snuggle up under a blanket, knowing that Isis wants food and so will not go back upstairs while someone (me) is in the food-room. The ceiling squeaks as Tom paces with Kierra directly overhead. Isis is suspiciously quiet and I can't see her in the dark room. After several minutes, I hear SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE. This sound means that Isis has crapped on the floor (directly next to the mud-room litterbox. which I just cleaned that evening and is still totally clean) and is pretending to bury her poop on the vinyl with imaginary sand. I still can't smell anything yet and I can't even comprehend moving, so I don't. A few minutes later the smell assaults me and I bury my face in the blanket.

Faintly, I hear someone on the stairs. When I look up, Tom is in the doorway. "She's asleep," he says. It's 4:35am. I go upstairs with him, locking Isis in the entryway room with our coats and shoes and my plants and the stroller. I immediately regret it as I imagine her destroying everything. But I know she won't be in there long because there's no way Kierra sleeps in past 6:30 at most. Tom and I cuddle in bed, trying to go back to sleep. I feel myself relax and almost on cue, Kierra starts fussing. Tom crawls over me and rocks her gently. She goes back to sleep after about 2 minutes. And then so do we!

5:30am: Happy baby babbles! Ohgod so tired. I let Kierra babble for a few minutes, then roll over to get her. I am greeted with HUMONGOUS baby smiles of unbridled baby glee! Happy baby is ready to start the day. Since Tom took her yesterday morning, I take her downstairs to let him try to sleep some more. We let Isis out of the entryway, where absolutely nothing was harmed as far as I can tell. I feed Isis and start making oat and pear cereal for Kierra. And clean up cat shit.

Phoenix [userpic]

Next Step

August 3rd, 2013 (03:59 pm)
amused

mood: amused

Aced our pediatrician appointment on Thursday! Kierra gained a pound in just under a month, so now she's 13lb 6oz and 26 inches. The pedi listed some foods we can try this month: sweet potato, avocado, banana, full-fat yogurt. Tom got super excited about the yogurt option and for some reason he's been dying to give her avocado (something I don't think he's ever tried). I'm really excited about giving her new foods, since she's been such a champ about her cereal this whole time. I'm also a little nervous because OMG she's growing up already and eating new things and she doesn't totally rely on me for nursing anymore! Feels like such a big step!

Yesterday, Kierra had a slight fever and was definitely not feeling well. She took two HUGE naps during the daytime, and then had an atrocious start to the night. Nothing we did helped a bit! She was definitely still feverish and so screamy. Thankfully, today the fever seems to be gone and she's feeling much better.

And so we decided to try out some yogurt on her today! We had the foresight to record the venture for posterity. The best part is actually at 1:25 where we switched to her usual oat cereal after several successful spoonfuls of yogurt. XD

Phoenix [userpic]

Is insanity catching?

July 31st, 2013 (07:33 am)
exhausted

mood: exhausted

I'm not sure how to feel about nights anymore. For the past 10 days or so, Kierra's only been waking up twice per night with a few minor deviations from an actual honest-to-god sleep pattern. This sounds better than it feels, though. Often, she'll wake up around 4:30 to 5am and be totally up for the day. We've tried putting her back down, we've even occasionally abandoned the put-down strategy in abject desperation to try rocking her to sleep. No dice. She is UP and will just fight sleep for an entire two-hour wake-cycle (getting more and more pissed off) if you try to stick with it. Additionally, about 50% of the time, she'll STAY awake during one of her middle-of-the-night wakings and first babble and then cry for anywhere between half an hour to an hour and a half. -_- Since Tom refuses to agree to move the pack'n'play into the nursery until after our mid-August trip, all of this happens directly in my ear and is driving me insane.

Last night was one of those nights. Down at 7pm, up to nurse at 10:30, back asleep for 45 minutes, and then wide awake for an hour and a half. Then she slept from 12:45 to 3:30, nursed back to sleep, and was fully awake for the day at 4:40am.

After we were up with her for that hour and a half around midnight and we finally all got back to sleep, I actually DREAMT that she was awake and crying and keeping us up for hours.

So, as I've told friends before, there's a reason my bedtime is at 8pm. And I'm still taking on a sleep deficit. And although I know, logically, she'll get older and older and eventually sleep better, it's honestly impossible for me to wrap my brain around that and accept that it will ever actually happen. However, I have the same trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that she'll have hair one day.

Phoenix [userpic]

A little quiet time

July 30th, 2013 (07:39 am)

Well, since I can count on regular naps, I think I can try to keep more frequent journals. I'll even try to keep it more interesting than "Day 182: Still exhausted." (Kierra IS 182 days old today.) :B

Went to meditation last night, for the first time since Kierra was born. It was nice to see the ladies again, and Tom came with me so we could show Kierra off beforehand. Stranger anxiety is definitely beginning to set in. She even cried when Tom's parents tried to hold her too soon after arriving for their last twice-monthly visit. Thankfully, she seems to be okay as long as we keep a little distance between her and new people (aka people who are not Mommy or Daddy) so she can stare sat them from the safety of our arms for 5 to 10 minutes. Once she's started to offer smiles at them, we can get a little closer to make sure she's comfortable with them. After that, we're probably okay to make the hand-off successfully as long as we stay within arms reach for a bit.

Meditation was nice, but rushed a bit between baby things beforehand and me needing to head out by 6:15pm to get Kierra nursed and ready for bed. I haven't had that kind of quiet in, oh, 6 months or so. It was very nice. :D A little difficult, trying to get back to the whole "stillness of mind" place. I did finally get there by envisioning slow waves going in and out on a beach in time with my breath. I'm looking forward to going again soon (hopefully next week!) since Kierra's nap-times are a bit more predictable and her evenings are usually pretty drama-free these days.

I should have the opportunity to borrow some Pema Chödron books next time, which is cool because I've been trying to get my hands on them through the library but even inter-library loan has failed me. On a related note, thanks to the Overdrive e-book library app, I've read about 35 books since February! Most of them were read during countless middle-of-the-night nursing sessions, sleepless nights trying to get Kierra back to sleep, and the innumerable naps that I used to have to hold her through. Now that she's been napping on her own for over a month, my reading time has actually fallen off since I'm using the free time to do artwork again! More on artwork later. Don't want to burn through the entire current naptime by rambling!

Phoenix [userpic]

Six Months Old!

July 29th, 2013 (08:35 am)

Dear Kierra -

There's no way you're 6 months. Really? Really?? 6-month-old babies seemed so... OLD to me when I was sitting at home with a brand-spanking-new newborn. Like it was some mythical milestone that was so far into the future I could barely wrap my mind around it. But here you are! You're such an active girl, and an arms-wide-open, eager participant in every single thing around you. You are a serious go-getter and one determined person!


CLICK TO READ MORE ABOUT KIERRACollapse )

Phoenix [userpic]

Five Months Old!

June 29th, 2013 (12:44 pm)

Dear Kierra -

This has been a BIG month for us all! Several wonderful break-throughs in our daily routines, no small amount of stress, and also several weeks of one very happy and pleasant baby! Huzzah!! We took our first car trip to Gramma and Grampa's house (3 hours away). The baby we took was the 4-month-old baby from the previous entry, and she shrieked and screamed bloody murder for over 2.5 hours of that trip! But we really did a lot of work at Gramma's (really, I did the planning and the work, and it worked because I had total support from my wonderful in-laws) and it's almost like we took a completely different baby back home with us - you! You have really transformed this month, and it's so hard to believe that you've been with us for five whole months altogether. Daddy and I have been looking back at your birth photos and shaking our heads in wonder. How small that newborn baby looked in our arms! (But hey, I'm not nostalgic enough yet to forget that it's been ROUGH bunch of months!)


CLICK TO READ MORE ABOUT WHAT KIERRA IS UP TO...Collapse )


First taste of rice cereal!

Phoenix [userpic]

Four Months Old!

May 29th, 2013 (09:32 am)

Dear Kierra -

You're four months old! It's crazy watching you grow and learn about your body, your abilities, and your environment, especially as your personality continues to emerge. Sometimes we can see such a leap in your abilities even from week to week, which is just amazing. You continue to show us what a determined person you are; you know what you want to do and you work hard to achieve it!

CLICK HERE TO READ WHAT KIERRA IS UP TO...Collapse )



< rewind | 0 - 10 |