A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

 
At least, I'm pretty sure when this was taken. Most Sundays we go to the 11am service at church now; Grace wakes up from her first nap right around the time we need to be heading out the door, so we do a quick diaper change, throw some clothes on her (gently, of course!) and buckle her in her carseat. This last Sunday, Caleb and I were volunteering in the nursery, so we spent a couple hours playing with Gracie and her other young friends, then back in the carseat for the trip home.

We've developed a tradition of Taco Bell for lunch on Sunday, because as soon as we get home it's naptime for Grace again, and it's nice not to spend her nap making lunch. Some days she naps a good two hours, but frequently just an hour or so, during which Caleb and I crash on the couches with our books or the laptop. Afterwards, we have fun reading books, lounging on the floor, and often walk her down to the park. (It's sweet, there's a small park with baby swings just a 5 minute walk from our condo). By 6:30, she's ready for dinner and bed, and then we pull out the pizza, ice cream and a movie. Ah, it's a good life! :-D

The Littlest Bookworm

Of the Bell family at least. This is Grace's newest favorite activity, and much easier on Mama than emptying the changing table! We keep a basket of books next to the glider in her nursery, and she'll pull herself up on the basket and then stand there taking the books out one by one. She'll spend 15 minutes at a time just sitting in the floor flipping pages back and forth. Sometimes she'll open one book, stare at a page intently, then grab another and quickly flip through a page or two, then move on to a third. I could swear she's searching for something sometimes! And other times she'll sit with the same book flipping through the pages; we'd think she was a genius early reader, if it weren't for the book being upside down.

She's Sleeping!

Grace is finally starting to sleep through the night! Again. That is, she slept through the night several times right around four months. I actually cried the first time she did; I rather enjoyed her needing me! Little did I know... :-)

But for the past three months, she's been getting up two to three times a night to nurse, and sometimes it was taking an hour or two to get her back to sleep. All of which meant very little sleep for Mommy. Caleb was awesome; he started getting up with her at 6:30, and I'd get the bulk of my sleep from then until 10 or so. We finally reached the breaking point though, and decided it was time to try something different. For the last two weeks now, I've stopped nursing her at night, and most evenings Caleb has been putting her down to sleep. It's not perfect, but several times now she's slept for 10 or 11 hours straight. :-) :-) :-)

Tonight I nursed her down though as Caleb was working late, so we'll see how this goes...

Crawling and Standing and More, oh my!

Exactly two weeks ago today, March 26, to be exact, Grace started crawling while we were video chatting with Gramps and Nana. Ok, technically, Caleb was talking with them while I was halfway working on dinner. She started scooching forward, reaching with her arms and dragging her little body behind, and in a few more minutes she was up on all fours doing a real baby crawl!

And just over a week later, she pulled herself up to stand for the very first time. My mom was here visiting and Caleb was working from home as our car was in the shop, so she had quite the cheering audience for her subsequent performances. We're most proud of our little Gracie, but realizing we've got our work cut out for us over the next couple months!

One of her favorite challenges now is trying to pull herself up on the rocking ottoman that goes with the glider in the nursery. She's pretty good at keeping her balance as it rocks back and forth, but a few times it's caught her off guard and down she goes. She's a brave little girl though, and gets right back up to try again!

Thank God for Grandmas!

My mom just flew back home this afternoon after staying a week, and it was so wonderful having an extra set of hands around! Ok, and I admit it - I still enjoy being babied too. :-D We were having some sleepless nights, and she was great about changing diapers at 4 in the morning and sending me back to bed. Most of the time though Grace won't have anyone but her Mommy in the middle of the night, and she'll just scream if somebody else tries to pick her up. During the day she's a very happy baby, but I think her little brain's working overtime right now to process all the new things she's learning.

Now Caleb, Grace and I are really looking forward to having his Mom and Sarah-Jean up in just a couple more months. And hopefully Grace will be sleeping a little more by then!

Nap Time Woes

Just when I thought Grace was "really" sleeping through the night, we're back to skipping naps and waking up every two to three hours. Again. I'm thinking I should start journaling more and see if I can't track her sleeping schedule to something one of us is eating, but if anyone has any more ideas to try, we'd love to hear them!

She did take a lovely two hour nap this morning though, and it was awesome! I actually mopped the floor for the first time in months, including all the green beans and carrots and butternut squash that have been hiding out under her highchair.

Seven Months and Counting...

It goes by so fast! Grace was 30 weeks last Saturday, and seven months on Monday. And we're now happily on the other side of a very fussy, but oh-so-productive "wonder week" period. For three weeks or so, I was really starting to wonder if I could do this mother-thing for another 18 years. Grace got sick, then I came down with something, and what with the sleep deprivation and all, it took much longer than normal to shake it off. And then Grace totally stopped napping for a week or two. (Was it really only a week? It seemed like ages!) We thought she had really bad acid reflux (and she does have some, but not as bad as we thought) that was waking her up, but once her second tooth broke through, things got much easier.

I never realized how much I need her naps! Last week I was too tired to cope well with an awake-yet-very-tired-baby, and Grace and I explored much of the Eastside as the only time I could get her to sleep was riding in her carseat. We'd load up in the morning, and I'd drive for a couple hours and let her get a good nap in. I found some pretty little parks I hadn't seen before, and when she was really out I'd stop and read for awhile. By the time we got back home we were both refreshed enough we could make it until Daddy was off work. Sometimes I really wonder how women manage with more than one child!

It's funny how quickly things change though; this week has been just delightful. Grace started sleeping again (at night, and occassionally napping!), and she's just been so sweet and happy and excited to learn and explore. Just yesterday she discovered she could clap her hands together, and she just looked so proud of herself! Last night we put her down in her crib, and she lay there awhile clapping her hands together, with this huge grin on her face. Sometimes she misses, and that's even cuter.

I've been reading how babies go through mental "growth spurts" where they're really needy and fussy and don't sleep for a few weeks while their minds are working on some new skill, and I totally believe it. And it really helps when in the middle of those times to remember it's just a phase and won't last forever. Indeed, someday I'll think they were all too short.

Life at 4am

For the third or forth night in a room, Caleb and I are up again at 4 in the morning. He's been wonderful at helping out with these night-time wakings - it's really hard calming a crying baby when you haven't quite gotten two hours of sleep yet.

Grace has really been struggling with acid reflux this week, and her naps are down to about 5 minutes at a time, unless she's in the carseat. So the last couple days, Grace and I've been sight-seeing the Eastside. We're all pretty exhausted though, so if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!

-Laura

Grace's Fifth Month

I can't believe how the time flies by! Grace is about 5 and a half months now, and it's been an amazing few weeks!

Around January 5th or 6th, she started rolling from her back to her tummy, and she's discovered she'd much prefer sleeping on her side or tummy than her back . After being inundated with "babies must be put to sleep on their backs or they'll succomb to SIDS" for so long, this was a little alarming at first. As soon as I'd put her down on her back, she'd roll right back over. But I figure Caleb and I both slept on our tummies as babes, and we seem to be ok, so we'll let her be. :-) Unfortunately, she hasn't quite got the hang of the tummy-to-back flip, so when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she'll cry until one of us rolls her back over. And she only rolls to her left side.

It's really cute though when she wakes up happy; some mornings when I peak in her room she'll be propped up on her elbows just looking around and talking to herself. And man, she loves to talk! Especially during church service.

Speaking of talking, she's officially babbling! Especially when she's mad, we get a string of "Mamamamamama!" I'd been thinking I heard a "mama" sound every once in awhile for a few weeks now, but early last week she really started going for it. And within a day or two, we were hearing some "Dadadadada"s too. Needless to say, we are two very proud parents.

She's just about mastered the art of sitting as well; she can hold herself up for a few minutes at a time, before she starts slowly tilting to the side. Sometimes she'll topple over backwards and look a bit startled for a second, but then she'll go right back to happily playing with whatever object her hands have found now. All this moving about has made diaper changing a bit more challenging, so we've started keeping a special "diaper changing" toy. And as long as she's got her little yellow duckie to suck on, she'll generally hold still long enough to at least get the diaper fastened.

And lastly, Grace tasted her first "solid" about a week ago. I'm not convinced rice cereal should count as a solid, as her first feeding was about the consistency of split pea soup, but it comes in a spoon which she finds quite thrilling. She is most determined she can feed herself, and getting the spoon to her mouth while dodging her hands and keeping it's full load would keep any fighter pilot on their toes.