Food, Real Food!

And suddenly, she's eating table food.



Little Miss R, 9 1/2 months old now, just today decided to sample some of my oatmeal for breakfast, and wanted to try some noodles for lunch. I guess I need to put more effort into choosing healthy foods for lunch now instead of just grabbing whatever's available. Someday R will notice that her ramen noodles aren't smeared in the same yellow, sodium-laden seasoning as mine, and that's when we'll really be in trouble. We'd do better to stay away from the ramen I think. ^_^



Like the rest of the country we had snowfall recently, and this time we were ready for it! The last time it snowed was on Christmas. We didn't have a snowsuit for R then, so this was her first experience going outside and sitting in the fluffy whiteness. She wasn't impressed overall.


We didn't have boots for her, so I put sandwich baggies over her Hello Kitty slippers. Kawaii!!



I finished the crochet project I had been working on. It's a blanket buddy for R. It was going to be a birthday present, but since it's a bunny, I figure it's more Easter appropriate. I've given it to the Easter Bunny for safekeeping.

And on a final note...



Don't they look so adorable??

I Got Stuff Done This Morning. Why?

R wakes up to eat around 6:30 every morning. Senpai has to be up at that time anyway to get ready for work, so he takes care of feeding her, changing her diaper, and getting her to fall back asleep. I have to wake up, too, but my only responsibility that early in the morning is to get my butt out of bed and go downstairs to pump breast milk. Sometimes (most times) I require more than one prod from Senpai to get me up. Once I'm done pumping I can slide back into bed to fulfill my daily sleep requirements and not be a zombie, until R wakes up again and then we're both up for the day.

Except it hasn't been that easy this past week. She'd been fussy as Senpai put her back in bed, and she hadn't been able to fall back to sleep for more than an hour. So for me, instead of sliding back under the covers and slowly drifting back to sleep, I'd hear fitful noises on the baby monitor, get up to soothe her, get back into bed only to have to get up again 10 minutes later, repeat, repeat, repeat for an hour. It was frustrating to me because yes, I could still get back in bed, but I like to stay there! Up and down, up and down, under the covers, never falling back to sleep was such a tease. Today I was done with it. I decided to just stay up and get morning stuff taken care of until she woke up. I ate breakfast, took a shower, assembled an outfit from some new clothes I had bought, washed dishes, moved laundry over... hey, why isn't she awake yet?

I think what had been happening this week is that last Friday we increased her milk dosage to 7 oz every 4 hours. She had been on 5 oz every 3 (really 2 1/2) hours, but Friday morning she was RAVENOUSLY hungry and finished 9 oz on the spot. Then she wasn't hungry again until 3 1/2 hours later. I was thrilled! I could finally get her on a 4 hour schedule! In my enthusiasm to get her to last for such a longer time, I thought 7 oz might be a good amount of milk. Turns out it was TOO much, as she started spitting up after every feeding (she usually doesn't). There was a lot of spit up. On Wednesday I cut her daytime feedings back to 6 oz thereby eliminating the spit up, but I still had Senpai feed her 7 oz in the morning because I wanted to make sure she had a full tummy to fall asleep with. The fussy mornings continued. Today we got our acts together and Senpai fed her 6 oz. Heh heh, yeah. Guess who was out like a light and stayed out until 9:40?

I wish I had gone back to bed.

The Long Night's Rest

And just like that, the midnight feed is gone. This past week instead of drinking 4 oz and sleeping peacefully through the diaper change as she had been, R would only drink 1 oz of milk and wake up very upset during the diaper change. I had to admit that the midnight feed was starting to do more harm than good.

Senpai and I decided that we'd eliminate it on Friday. When Friday night came around and R was sound asleep in her crib, Senpai asked, "Why aren't you in bed yet?"

"It's only 10:00 pm... I'm used to going to sleep at 2 am."

He wasn't swayed, "Why aren't you in bed yet?"

"Yeah... I should go to bed," and I slept. It was wonderful. R woke up at 3:00 and 3:30 am, but she was easily lulled back to sleep with the pacifier. We expected that to happen again last night, but she surprised us by not waking up at all until her feeding time at 6. Now we have an easy, long night's rest.

Ah, if only I could grasp the secret to easy daytime naps, we'll be set.

The Midnight Feed

Following the advice of The Baby Whisperer, we started giving R "dreamfeeds" to keep her asleep through the night. Basically, we feed and change the baby before she wakes up, so that she does not in fact wake up. The midnight feed is my domain, and Senpai takes care of 6 am.

Can I tell you how much I love the midnight feed? She is asleep, blissfully asleep, and cooperative. I haven't told you yet, but R has colic. HAD colic, actually, she is growing out of it. For the most part she is better, but there are some days/nights when she just has to get at least an hour of screaming in, whether for old times' sake, or to drive Senpai and I up the wall, or both. She may scream so hard that she can't calm down to eat and therefore chokes on the milk she so desperately wants. But I tell you what, there is none of that at midnight, none! I just gently pick her up out of her crib, ease us down into the glider chair, slip the nipple into her mouth, and she sucks to her little heart's content. After a diaper change and some light taps on the back to encourage burps, I settle us back into the chair, rest my feet on the matching gliding ottoman, and taste heaven. My beautiful little baby girl, snuggled up against my chest, heart to heart... it brings tears to my eyes to think of it. Such a peaceful moment, night after night. She doesn't pull away and lean her head back to stare at the ceiling fan, or rock back and forth to let out a belch. There's no fuss, no tears. Just sweet baby sleep, right there in my arms, with beautiful baby dreams.

What do babies dream about? Fresh milk, warm snuggles, clean tush? She must be in heaven, too.

I haven't figured out when I'm supposed to stop the midnight feed, but I'm not looking forward to it. I imagine it ends when I get tired of doing it. In that case, R's boyfriend will protest my coming over to their apartment and sticking a bottle in her mouth while she's wide awake, finishing a midterm paper on her laptop. "Thanks, Mom, that was just what I needed!" Lol!