Tummy time

Petra is consistently rolling from her back to tummy, but she's just on the verge of going the other way. She's now unswaddled in her crib for all naps and nighttime!

Nights are going well-- she's only up about once a night, and last night STTN!! 7:30-5:00! She probably would have even slept longer, but when I went to check on her at 5, she was on her tummy. Same thing happened yesterday. I flipped her over, and of course she woke up.

I have been reading and it is okay for them to choose their own sleep position once they are strong enough to roll, but it still concerns me, since SIDS peaks ~3-4 months.

First dunk

Mark took Miss P to the pool on Friday. He blew in her face to get her to hold her breath, and then DUNK! I took the video, but I am not used to doing it and didn't get her reaction. Wups-- cute anyway

Outgrowing the fussies!

I feel like Petra is outgrowing her fussiness!! She's been kind of a difficult baby since around 2w. She would cry a lot, and I couldn't really put her down for more than a few minutes. Or even hold her on my lap-- you had to be holding her while standing up! I know you can't spoil a newborn, but there were definitely times when I thought maybe I'm causing this. People would want to see her or have me bring her by, but it wasn't much fun for any of us when she'd just cry the whole time!

But I really feel like we've turned a corner. She is still fussy, but it seems like her happy times are longer. We actually went to Target today with NO meltdowns in the car seat and only a short bout of crying at the store. That is MAJOR!! I used to really not even want to leave the house with her because of the crying.

I think it is mainly because her vision has improved and now she can see stuff. She also is more interested in toys and playing, so I can sort of distract her.

Funny if she'd been in daycare, I probably would have credited them! She has about a month before she starts, so I'll at least get to enjoy her more now that we're home together!

I have a phone interview tomorrow with a job I'm really interested in, so I hope it goes well!! I am feeling like it is time to go back, though I really wish part time were more of an option.

Oh and sleep update: Unswaddled in her crib and last night she was pretty much NORMAL! She slept until about 3:30 and then was up at 6! I just hope it repeats!!

In the bumbo with coleus-- both from Mark's grandma.

Sleep Update

Well, she was up a lot more than usual last night, but it was pretty easy to get her back down, so I can't complain. And she has her usual nap schedule this morning, although it was hard to get her to sleep! Plus, she ended up sleeping on her side, not sure if I like that, but her nose/mouth were totally clear to breathe. I'm sticking with it through the weekend, though!

Project Sleep in Crib: COLD TURKEY

No more swaddle and no more swing! Now that Miss P can roll, it really isn't safe to swaddle her. And I wasn't strapping her into her swing, so that probably isn't so safe either.

She hasn't been sleeping that well since we got back from Indy, so I figured might as well just do it, since I'm not getting her to nap in long stretches or STTN anyway. I just tried it this afternoon with her nap, and OMG!!-- She's been sleeping for over an hour! It took awhile to get her down, but she's sleeping well. I'm going to keep at it over the weekend, since Mark will be home to relieve me, and hopefully she'll be done by next week!

That's how I roll!

Petra decided she would roll from back to tummy first, instead of the other way around. She was getting tired, so you might want to watch on mute! ;)



We visited Mark's family and friends in Indy over Memorial Day. Petra was her usual fussy self at times, but she was also really stimulated by all her new surroundings and people. I think that is one reason she started to roll. So proud of her!

Project Sleep in Crib: Day 3

Pretty good last night. She was a little hard to put to sleep, so I let her start out in the swing. I think it was because she didn't nap very well in the afternoon!

8-10 Petra swinging in swing
10-1 Petra in swing, not swinging!
1:30-6 Petra in crib!

Then she got tired again around 7:30, so she is napping in the swing! But pretty good. She moved off the wedge again, so I think I'm just going to take it out and see what happens...

Project Sleep in Crib: Day 2

Petra did really well last night. No SWING until this morning!!

9-3 Petra in crib
3:30-6 Petra in crib!
7-8 Petra in swing

I think if she would have slept until 7, she could have made it through the morning for her nap. But overall very good girl!! I did use a wedge in her crib last night, though I don't think it made much of a difference. She actually moved off it at some point.

"Talking" Petra

I'm unemployed and looking for a job right now, which is a little hard with a 3 month old! I just got a call that her daycare is avail at the end of June and there probably won't be a space until next year! So we'll probably put her in and HOPE I have a job by then or within a few months. Otherwise, we may take her out if the job market isn't looking so good.

Actually end of June would be pretty ideal for me to go back. I'm feeling ready, though I know it will be REALLY HARD to leave her every day, especially now that they are getting so fun and interactive. I feel like Petra grows so much every day. Lately she's been "talking" a lot and cooing at everything/everyone! I feel like the past few days it was hard to get her to nap because she is so interested in the world around her! But then she gets sooo fussy and tired.

I think today was the first day she realized I am the one who feeds her. She latched on and was staring right into my eyes and then broke out in a huge smile and then was sucking and staring at me. So cute! Normally she just sucks and doesn't seem to really notice anything else.

Here's her Talking video:
Petra Talking

Project Sleep in Crib: Day 1

Petra STTN on Sunday AND Monday! Yay, but that was with her swinging in her swing all night. I'm starting to feel like she should be outgrowing the need for the swing, but it is a crutch for us when nothing else works, so many nights I just don't want to bother. So I'm starting Crib bootcamp!

8:30 Got Petra to sleep and swaddled her in the swing
9:30 turned swing motion off
3:30 Petra awake for feeding
4:00 very sleepy Petra back in crib
6:15 Petra up for the day

Ideally, I'd like her to go 8pm - 7am, but this was pretty good for crib sleeping! I'm going to try the same thing tonight and for the next couple days. Putting her down in the swing and then moving her to the crib.

We survived!

Last week was the 3 month growth spurt, I think?! She was impossible!! She was hardly sleeping, incredibly fussy, and overall a very difficult week. I was thinking this is the new her?!

I thought it would never end and I'd have to get used to being sleep deprived and not getting anything done during the day. I wish I would have posted last week because it was hard, Hard, HARD! And I know I will never remember it and go through the same crisis next month when she has "the 4 month wakeful period"!

I was so relieved when Sunday she decided to take a long nap and even STTN last night!!! (8-7!) Whew! I'm not expecting a repeat, but yay for Miss P!! I got decent sleep until I woke up at 4 am worried about her- I finally got back to sleep at 5 am when I checked to make sure she was still breathing. Paranoid mommy!

As good of a sleeper as she is, she's back to sleeping in her swing. Hmmmm...so I need to get her back in the crib. I am not going to force the issue and honestly I don't even care if she keeps sleeping in the swing, but it makes taking her places difficult because she won't nap longer than 20 min. when laying on a flat surface. We'll get there...

on demand...

I've been feeding on demand since Day 1, and in the beginning it was tough. Can she really be hungry AGAIN?! But I've gotten much better at reading her hunger cues and knowing when she needs the boob, which isn't as often as it used to be. She doesn't take a paci, so I use it to comfort her sometimes and she loves falling asleep while/after nursing. This is all fine for me now, but I was starting to worry about how anyone else would be able to take care of her?!

But you know, when mom isn't around, she knows the boobs aren't either! She will take a paci from Daddy and even tolerate being put to sleep without too much complaining. I think it is a little more difficult for her without me, but not impossible. So hopefully if/when I go back to work, she'll adjust.

Different Baby

I swear Petra is changing so quickly! When we were in OK, she slept swaddled in a crib just fine! Good girl, but as much as I wanted to push her out of her swing and get her to STTN, it makes me sad to see her grow up. I didn't sleep in the nursery last night as usual, and I missed her!

She did great in Oklahoma. Everyone loved seeing her and holding her. I was having oversupply issues when we were traveling, which makes her choke (scary!) I wasn't pumping in the morning and she just seems to be eating less frequently. I'm trying to get her to stretch to 3 hours, but it also makes me really full and sometimes I only give her one side. I think I'm regulating now...

There were 5 babies on our side at Mark's family reunion. It was so fun to see them all together, and I felt so happy that we have Petra.

Another change-- she took a pacifier on the way home and really seemed to like it! Daddy gave it to her, so maybe she just won't take it from me when she can have the real thing? That's okay, as long as she can be soothed!

Experiments in Sleep...

So from very early on Petra has been sleeping swaddled in her baby swing. And it works-- she goes to sleep ~7-2, 3-7, 8-9:30. But we're starting to feel like this can't go on forever, so we should probably transition her out of the swing. We were also thinking about not swaddling-- she's been sucking on her fingers lately, so she may even start soothing, which would be GREAT since she won't take a paci!

We tried to do it all last night-- what a disaster! Without being swaddled, it took her forever to fall asleep. When I tried putting her in the crib, her eyes popped right open! URG! I spent about 2 hours trying to get her down and then passed her off to Mark. He was with her until about midnight. I then fed her, swaddled, and put her in the swing. She slept 12:45-6:45! which is good, but what a nightmare getting her down, and she really needs a lot more sleep than that.

I think we need to do things one at a time. So, first goal is to get her out of the swing. I've been using the timer on the swing, so she swings for about 30 min, but then just sleeps in the swing not swinging. That has been going well, so hopefully we'll be able to move her out of the swing after a week.

We're visiting Mark's family in Oklahoma soon, which we're all really looking forward to, but I do worry about how the nights will go... His cousins have babies, so I'm hoping one of them will have a swing! But minimum, she'll be swaddled for sure!!

Car Seat Update-- she has suddenly taken to the car seat!! YAY!! We've been driving around without tears and even went in the stroller in a few stores and she fell asleep!! YAY!! She also fell asleep on the way home from Grandma's and took a nap in it for a few hours!

cabin fever!!

Ugh, I really want to get out of the house sometimes, but I feel like I can't. Petra really hates her car seat, which means she hates her stroller. She can't sit up yet, so her stroller is just a frame that the car seat fits into. I wish I had taken her more places in the first few weeks to get used to it, but with the weather and cold & flu season, it really wasn't a good idea. And maybe she would still hate it?

If I put her in her car seat to go someplace, she'll be fine when she's in the car, but as soon as we get out and go into the store, she screams! which is awful if we're in Target or a restaurant or anyplace.

To go on walks, I put her in her moby wrap because we usually can't even get to the end of the block in the car seat-stroller. :( She just falls asleep in the Moby. I like wearing her, and I'm find with it for now, but I would like the option of using our stroller! Plus it is going to get kinda hot sooner or later.

My Happy Girl

She's starting to smile!! (at the end of the slideshow)

Healthy Hips!

Yay! I just got back from the specialist, and Petra DOES NOT have hip dysplasia!! Apparently the ultrasounds are notoriously wrong.

The doctor was SO NICE. He came in and examined her physically and said he didn't feel anything, but said we should do an x-ray just in case. She was a really good girl for her x-ray, and he showed me that she has totally healthy hips. He even pointed out some ball(?) that he said they sometimes don't see until 6 months. So he thought she was a very healthy girl! :) She goes back in June, just to be safe, but he didn't think she'd have any problems. And we don't have to do anything special for her.

Awesome! I'm so relieved! We would have dealt with it, but it definitely sounds like it can be a real challenge with this harness, casts, etc. I wish they had waited to let the doctor diagnose her, but now I am more aware about this condition, so if I ever see a parent with a baby that has it, I will know how to respond. I was so concerned that she would be treated differently, and that made me really sad. I also didn't like thinking about my baby in a harness or having to hold her a special way and not be able to snuggle her close. These parents are really strong for getting their kids the help they need.

I have a hip baby... (kinda bad news)

So Petra was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. At her 1 month appointment, her hip was making this clicking sound, so the pedi ordered an ultrasound.

The u/s it showed that her left leg/hip was out of socket. It is more common in girls, first born babies, and breech babies (although Petra wasn't breech). This can cause problems later on when she is walking like a limp and arthritis. She has an appointment Monday with an orthpedic pediatric specialist.

Good news is they found it early (before her bones have calcified) and it is easily treated. Since we found it now, she probably will not need surgery or major casts and just need a harness that holds her legs in a 'froggy' position, but it is still a little distressing as her mom. I just want her to be healthy and happy.

I have felt a little sad about this, and I'm sure it will be hard to see her in her harness, but I feel so lucky to have her and she is still my beautiful, perfect baby.

Some links about hip dysplasia:
http://www.hip-baby.org/index.html

Mommy meltdown

I think we're in the 6 week growth spurt. At least I hope that's what all this fussiness is about. A few days ago someone swapped my angel baby with this little devil! She is not sleeping nearly as well and it was really taking its toll.

Yesterday, I finally broke down and called Mark to come home early. He came in and I just left the house! I was crying when I left and felt really bad, but I just couldn't be around her for one more second. I was out for about 2 hours just to Kohl's and Target, but it was what I needed before I could face being a mom again.

Mark agreed she has been pretty hard to please lately, but she goes from a total pain in the ass to the most adorable baby in minutes!

9 lbs 14 oz!

At her 1 month today, Petra has gained over 2 lbs!! Yay! :)

She was visited this weekend by her Sona Mausi (my stepsister). It was great having her here! Petra got lots of cuddling and Mark and I even got a sushi date!

Oh and she hasn't slept through the night again, but still doing pretty good for a 1 moth old!