Our love continues to grow

I have always heard parents say that as each day passes, their love for their child continues to grow. I had heard it, but not truly understood it. Now I do.

J continues to amaze and amuse us daily. Her accomplishments grow with each passing day. She is beginning to spend a lot more of her day amusing her self- whether it's talking, or trying out a new skill she's learning. Her latest is trying to get her hands to work. J is at the point, where she knows she wants something, but just doesn't have the hand control to bring it to her mouth- so she brings her mouth to it. This ends in her being bent over in half a lot as her tongue reaches out of her mouth for what ever toy it was she wants to chew on.

Her fine motor skills are just starting to improve too. By this, I mean her hands aren't in constant fists as much any more. It's truly amazing to watch her spend 5 minutes just trying to get her hand to pull a toy towards her.

Full Eyes

For the first time today, in over 4 months (and I think that's being generous) I looked in the mirror and my eyes were the same size. A tell tale sign that I'm getting enough sleep. What an amazing feeling this is!

We are still going full force with the sleep training at night, and although we're in the midst of a slight set back (J's been waking up these past 2 nights around 3:30 and crying on and off until about 6), she is able to self sooth herself (whether it takes her 25 min. to remember this is another story). Chris and I still hear here (or I really should say, Chris still hears her- I've been taking antihistamines for my "allergies", which help me sleep through a hurricane). But it has gotten a lot easier for us to listen to as well. It's the knowledge that J now has the tools to do it, and we just have to give her the time to use them.

Spring is in the air!

This past week and weekend were absolutely beautiful, giving us all a nice taste of what's to come these next few months! It was so wonderful to get J outside, and not to worry about the cold / having a place to feed her / change her / etc.

Let the sun shine! :)

Playing with her Taggie. One of J's fav't places to play is on the changing table. We have a bunch of her toys and animals hanging down above her, and she's at the point now where she can kick at them.

Out for brunch!

When we are outside, this is how we often have to feed her- covered up. J would much rather look around her then eat. Even doing this, we're lucky to get about 3oz's into her at a time... there is just to much for her to do!

At the park with Nana and Grandpa!

Completely exhausted after a long day on the roof deck!

CIO

After a week of getting Ms. J to skip her middle of the night feed, we started to let her Cry it Out this week. The first night wasn't to bad- I'm not even sure she cried. We often hear these "phantom" cries in the middle of the night, and I think that's what I heard.
However, last night, she was letting loose. So much so, that she is horse this morning. Talk about breaking a parent's heart. But at least we know that the girl has perseverance!

We have to adjust the dream feed a bit now (dream feed means a feeding that is given basically while the baby is still sleeping- we give it to her any where from 10pm-12am). We've been trying different times, seeing which one will work the best. Nothing has shone through as great quite yet, but we'll keep adjusting until we find it! We also have perseverance!

** Added note- By the 3rd night, J as sleeping through the night! She slept from 8pm-7am! on her 4th night it was 7pm-5:30am. She just made us very happy parents!

St. Patty's Day

Jocelyn and I headed up to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in mid-town today. We took the subway up to 72nd on the west side and walked through Central Park. The parade was great, and up that far, it's mostly parents and their kids. We hung out by the parade for about 30 min and then found a bench right inside the Park to listen to the bagpipes and watch the world go by.

ShamRock and Roll!

Listen to some 'pipes'!

Checking it all out

Absolutely exhausted after a long day!

Blackout of 2010

With all the big storms this year, it's surprising that we only lost the power once. We were out at my Mom's house this weekend, and because of the high winds and all the rain (almost 4 inches!), the power went out sat. night. It didn't come back on until Sunday evening, but we made the best of it! The candles were lite, the tea was made, and an intense Scrabble game was played!

Flat head

We went to the doctor yesterday for J's monthly checkup and we were told that J is developing a flat head. My thoughts "A flat head?! How is that possible, we do everything right?" which of course, we are obviously missed some things.

I just couldn't believe the feelings of inadequacy that have occurred. She is rested, fed, happy... but has a flat head! How could we have missed this "crucial" part of her well-being? We have her sleeping on her back because we were told this prevents SID's, but now, this preventative measure, has caused flattening. We go outside everyday to get fresh air, but now having her lay in the stroller is making her head flat. She enjoys her bouncy chair (one of the few things that can keep her attention), but now doing that, is making her head flat.

Sometimes, as a parent, I guess you just feel like you can't win.

the MET

For my birthday, we headed up to the MET. We've been in the city now for almost 3 years, and we have yet to get to a lot of these museums, so there's no time like the present!

J was very inspired by the Van Gogh- 2 drools up!

Some things we love...

We use this blog not only as a place to keep everyone updated, but as a sort of computerized baby book for J. So as time seems to be flying by, I want to remember a few things that I love so much about our little girl.

- J has just found her fingers. Now, all she wants to do is suck on them- including when the bottle is in her mouth! This causes her great distress when she stops getting the milk b/c her fingers are in the way.

- She loves to suck on her fingers with one hand, and play with the top of her head with the other.

- If you talk to her while she is eating, she'll talk to you back- smiling and getting milk all down her face.

- She will spend a good 20 minutes practicing her voice. She tries out the different volumes, the various tones and sounds.

- When she's really tired, I'll hold her to settle her down. Right when she's about to go 'out', she'll bury her face even deeper into my arm.

- How she will cry and complain about being put into the Bumbo seat for longer then 5 min, but will sit contentedly in mommy's legs (figure 4 style) for over 30 min.

- A spot she likes right now is sitting in the Bumbo seat in the kitchen, watching chris and I cook (and for those of you who know how small our kitchen is, this is quite the feat!)

night #1- dropping the final feed

Last night we began working on dropping J's final nighttime feed. She usually woke up around 2:30am, would eat, maybe 3 ounces and then fall back asleep. That one feed wasn't all that awful, and we probably wouldn't have done anything about it for awhile, but a few times a week, J would also decide to wake up at 12, 1, 3, 4 & 5am, just to say hi. Those were pretty awful.

Just by chance, Saturday night, J chose to sleep through the night all on her own (from 8-6am), which just reaffirmed that she was ready to drop this feeding.

She woke up around 2 and Chris soothed her for awhile, that didn't help, so he gave her some water. That semi-worked, but really we just had to let her work it out. We would watch the clock for 5 minutes, go in, pop her binky back in, tell her we loved her, and leave. It took about 2 hours of on and off again crying, but she did fall asleep and stayed that way until 7am.

Let's hope Day 2 goes even better!

Love those Baby Blues! J's been doing a lot of drooling lately, getting ready for some of those teeth to come in!

The Bumbo Seat- Now that she's a "big girl" she spends a lot of time sitting up and watching the world go by.

J's first BBQ over at Aunt Missy & Uncle Marks!

Another one bites the dust

Yesterday, J and I said our prayers, and thank goodness we did because we had our first car accident. I was driving back to long island to drop off our little Silver Bullet (a Honda civic) at my parents house. . As we exited the Wantagh Pkwy, I reached back to try and get the binky into J's mouth. As I did that, the woman in front of me stopped short.... and you can imagine the rest.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it looks like the end of the line for our Bullet. I wish I could say that this was the first car accident for both Chris and I, but it's far from it. Let's just say, someone else will be teaching J to drive...!