I could tell she was swallowing because she sucks her lower lip in.
She learned pretty quick to open up for the spoon. What a smarty pants!
See--she likes it! Smiles!!
What a cutie we have!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
First Solids!
Ok, maybe this is mundane to some people...but it's pretty exciting for me! Yesterday we introduced Lacey to rice cereal. It went better than I expected it to! I think she even swallowed more than she spit out.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
A Crazy Weekend
It is unusual for my family to actually have plans. To have plans four days in a row is unheard of. But that's what happened this weekend! Or, rather, last weekend, since it's taken me a week to post about it. :) It was lots of fun, but kind of exhausting. The craziness started Friday night when we had some friends over for dinner. I had intended on having everything ready to eat and all the dinner dishes done before our friends arrived...then I fell asleep while I was trying to put Lacey down for a nap, and nothing got done. Regardless, we had a wonderful time eating with and visiting with our friends. We also had a delicious peach-strawberry pie. :) And a whole heap of dishes that didn't actually get done until Monday.
Our excitement Saturday was to go see the new Harry Potter movie, finally. We left Lacey with a babysitter, and she was just a little angel! It's so nice that she'll take a bottle--it gives me a lot more freedom to go out and about. And my little angel baby is good for babysitters, at least early in the day before she gets fussy. And how nice that she's such a pleasant baby for sitter, since most of our babysitters are couples who haven't had kids yet, and we certainly don't want to discourage them!
Sunday was delightful--we went to a Bobo bay blessing, then hung out with friends and family to celebrate. Lacey had lots of fun playing with a houseful of people. I always enjoy spending time with family, and it's even funner (any grammar purist out there who thinks that isn't a word can bite me) now that I have a cute little baby to show off. :)
Monday, which was a holiday, after I spent Labor Day laboring to get my home neat and clean, we went to a BBQ hosted by Phil's mission president. It was fun for Phil to see some of the missionaries that he served with, and fun for him to show off his little squirt. It was also fun to look around and see how many more dates were going on than when we went to this thing last year. We handed Lacey off to one of Phil's old companions and his girlfriend, and they got some looks from people who were arriving--"No, this isn't our baby!" It made us laugh.
It was so fun to see so many friends last weekend! Exhausting, but delightful.
Our excitement Saturday was to go see the new Harry Potter movie, finally. We left Lacey with a babysitter, and she was just a little angel! It's so nice that she'll take a bottle--it gives me a lot more freedom to go out and about. And my little angel baby is good for babysitters, at least early in the day before she gets fussy. And how nice that she's such a pleasant baby for sitter, since most of our babysitters are couples who haven't had kids yet, and we certainly don't want to discourage them!
Sunday was delightful--we went to a Bobo bay blessing, then hung out with friends and family to celebrate. Lacey had lots of fun playing with a houseful of people. I always enjoy spending time with family, and it's even funner (any grammar purist out there who thinks that isn't a word can bite me) now that I have a cute little baby to show off. :)
Monday, which was a holiday, after I spent Labor Day laboring to get my home neat and clean, we went to a BBQ hosted by Phil's mission president. It was fun for Phil to see some of the missionaries that he served with, and fun for him to show off his little squirt. It was also fun to look around and see how many more dates were going on than when we went to this thing last year. We handed Lacey off to one of Phil's old companions and his girlfriend, and they got some looks from people who were arriving--"No, this isn't our baby!" It made us laugh.
It was so fun to see so many friends last weekend! Exhausting, but delightful.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sleeping
For the first three months of life, Lacey, like a typical baby, was a really good sleeper. Not that she every really slept through then night, or anything, but when she was tired, she would just fall asleep. I didn't have to worry about whether or not she was getting enough sleep, and, occasionally, I would get a good stretch of sleep at night myself. Then she turned three months old and everything changed. Instead of falling asleep when she was tired, she got fussy, and then she got over tired, and then it was extremely difficult to get her to go to sleep and stay asleep, especially for naps during the day. I was going a little crazy from the sleepless nights and fussiness during the day. I read this book, and found it to be extremely helpful:
I had no idea that my baby had to mature into sleep, or that I needed to wait until she was 4 months old to really expect her to take regular long naps during the day. The first thing I did was start putting her to bed earlier. That was helpful, since she got up at the same time in the morning regardless of when she went to bed. So now she goes to bed at about 7:30.
One of the criticisms of Dr. Weissbluth's sleep method is that it does include some crying, even quite a bit of crying if you have a difficult baby. Before Lacey was born, I told myself that I would never let her "cry it out." It did seem like an extreme method to me and I didn't want my baby to cry when there were other ways. Then frustration and sleep deprivation set in and I realized that just letting her cry it out a couple of times would be easier on both of us in the long run than trying more soothing methods which would take longer (which I tried for a little while but were too frustrating for me). I knew that I would be able to be more consistent with Dr. Weissbluth's method, which was the most important thing for teaching her how to sleep. It's effective, and it's effective fast, and that meant that I wasn't nearly so frustrated and that I've been able to get more sleep sooner myself and retain my sanity.
So now, Lacey goes to bed as soon as I put her down for the night (which I also attribute to the fact that we've had a bedtime routine since almost the day she was born), she sleeps pretty well during night (last night she went to bed at 7:30, woke up at 2:30 to eat, then again at 5:30, though I didn't get her up, so she fell asleep until about 6:30, then she ate and slept again til 7:30). We're working on not waking up between 2:30 and 6:00. She's getting good at going down for a morning nap, too. This morning she went down with 0 fussing, which is amazing to me, and it really only took a couple days of "training" to get to this point. Yay!
I don't really mean to be all in praise of a particular method of sleep training, I'm just so glad that Lacey is sleeping better and is a much better-rested, happier baby since she's getting so much better sleep, and glad that I understand better what her sleep needs are. She's such a sweetie when she's rested and happy, it's all been worth it. :)
I had no idea that my baby had to mature into sleep, or that I needed to wait until she was 4 months old to really expect her to take regular long naps during the day. The first thing I did was start putting her to bed earlier. That was helpful, since she got up at the same time in the morning regardless of when she went to bed. So now she goes to bed at about 7:30.
One of the criticisms of Dr. Weissbluth's sleep method is that it does include some crying, even quite a bit of crying if you have a difficult baby. Before Lacey was born, I told myself that I would never let her "cry it out." It did seem like an extreme method to me and I didn't want my baby to cry when there were other ways. Then frustration and sleep deprivation set in and I realized that just letting her cry it out a couple of times would be easier on both of us in the long run than trying more soothing methods which would take longer (which I tried for a little while but were too frustrating for me). I knew that I would be able to be more consistent with Dr. Weissbluth's method, which was the most important thing for teaching her how to sleep. It's effective, and it's effective fast, and that meant that I wasn't nearly so frustrated and that I've been able to get more sleep sooner myself and retain my sanity.
So now, Lacey goes to bed as soon as I put her down for the night (which I also attribute to the fact that we've had a bedtime routine since almost the day she was born), she sleeps pretty well during night (last night she went to bed at 7:30, woke up at 2:30 to eat, then again at 5:30, though I didn't get her up, so she fell asleep until about 6:30, then she ate and slept again til 7:30). We're working on not waking up between 2:30 and 6:00. She's getting good at going down for a morning nap, too. This morning she went down with 0 fussing, which is amazing to me, and it really only took a couple days of "training" to get to this point. Yay!
I don't really mean to be all in praise of a particular method of sleep training, I'm just so glad that Lacey is sleeping better and is a much better-rested, happier baby since she's getting so much better sleep, and glad that I understand better what her sleep needs are. She's such a sweetie when she's rested and happy, it's all been worth it. :)
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