Halloween!

personality

It is so interesting to me to hear from more seasoned mamas that their little ones' personalities were pretty much set from Day One. You think you're going to mold and shape this child into the something specific - maybe a better version of yourself or sans the parts of you that you and the rest of the world could do with out...only to discover that the bun comes out of the oven pretty much done.

The way I've been looking at it is that I'm getting to know her, not making her into something. As I get to know this sweet little creature, I notice little things that make her who she is.

She is strong-willed. With the tiny bit of power she has - her voice and the ability to swat things, turn away from things, grab things, and stiffen her entire body to avoid being put into the car seat - she does with full effort. The look of determination on her face when she tries (often successfully) to put the bink back in her mouth) is so focused and adult-like. She knows what she wants. Now, do WE always know what she wants - no way. But she does.

She lacks patience. Some babies, when you remove the bottle to wipe their mouth or burp them, they whine or make sucking faces or look concerned or disappointed. My kid? She screams. LOUD. And immediately. But as soon as you give her what she wants, she's happy.

She gets bored easily. Mobiles and toys hold her attention for about 30 seconds.

She likes music (usually cries when it stops.)

She amuses herself. Sometimes, I'll find her in her crib or co-sleeper, awake from her last nap and she is just gurgling and laughing. She seriously cracks herself up. And when she sees me coming to get her, she laughs really hard like "Haha, hey, Mom, you've got to hear this joke I just made up."

She enjoys being around people. Unless she is hungry or tired, she is happy to see just about anyone. She is generous with smiles.

She has anger management issues. She has no scale - it's mostly either totally content and happy or full-blown RAGE. This usually only happens when she is very hungry or very tired.

She is a morning person - we can't figure out how that happened but this little peanut is just a barrel full of laughs and smiles in the a.m.

The good news is the more I get to know her, the more I love her.

the present that came in the mail...

...can be seen on my daughter's head...



Thanks Jess - I think we have just the right mix of feminine flair and Steelers pride. I especially enjoy how the center is actually a bottle cap. Nothing says baby bow like the lid of a beer.

Friends

I am really grateful for our friends. My only issue is that we live so far from most of the good ones. Both far in the "across town" sense as well as the "four large states away" sense.

Today the Edders and Borlands came over (shout out to both as they apparently are faithful lemonscarlet readers) and we had a lovely time. Kevin and I just ate the delicious homemade soup that was brought to us - I didn't know chicken soup could be that good, seriously. Anyway, it was really nice to spend the time together.

Another friend sent us a great present for Cassidy - a Steelers headband that is a huge bow almost as big as her head with a Steelers bottle cap in the center. It is hilarious and fabulous. I am having trouble getting new pictures off my camera and onto the computer. Will post one soon.

Cassidy is entering a few new chapters in her life. For one thing she is now sleeping in her crib, at least until her 4 or 5am feeding at which point she goes in the co-sleeper. People keep saying how they got SO MUCH more sleep once their kid started sleeping in the crib and out of their room - so far this is NOT true. I am hoping we just need a solid week or so to get her used to it. Currently she is not a big fan. She isn't screaming all night or anything - just fussing a lot more frequently - enough to make us get up and check on her, put her bink back in , etc.

Perhaps this is TMI - I am sure she will love reading this when she is about 16, but she has also been having a lot of trouble going number 2. Poor thing. It's so funny though how at a certain age, things become "private" but how babies use their entire bodies, stiffening their legs, letting their face get red, grunting, etc. to umm, move things along. We have had to give her some juice every few days to assist in the process, as per doc's suggestion, and then of course we get explosive poop. We had this today and Kevin was on diaper duty. I watched over his shoulder and helpfully said "That's what Jenny McCarthy calls 'shit up the back' in Baby Laughs" Kevin stares at me for a second and says "Really? How'd she come up with that one?" Yeah, there wasn't too much about that book that was especially original or clever.

Cassidy now blows raspberries in response. It's really amazing when your baby does anything on cue. Granted, she only does this about half the time - sometimes, she loves it and will do it back and forth like 10 times. Other times it's like she doesn't remember how or doesn't care. She also seems like she is trying to wave, again, only sometimes. She likes watching the fish in the fish tank and she does not like waiting for her bottle or taking a break to burp.

I am irrationally worried about Swine Flu. I think Kevin and I are both going to get the vaccine. Is it available yet? Not the live one in the nose spray, the actual shot.

I guess that's the 14 week update. She is looking exra cute these days.

new hair, hopefully not mom hair

I got my hair cut, colored and styled straight yesterday.

Have a look-see.

Burp cloth name contest and killer kitty

I was thinking this morning as my 3-month old bundle of cute barfed on me for the third time, totally missing the burp cloth, AGAIN. See, she does this thing where she burps and about 3 full seconds later, a huge waterfall of slightly digested formula comes tumbling out. I know it's coming, so I've got the burp cloth all ready to go, held in front of her mouth and chin, to catch said liquid before it ends up on her outfit, my shirt, m pants, the Boppy pillow and the carpet (yes, there have been incidents where one little baby barf has ended up on all of those things, somehow.) But right at the very last second, she, seemingly on purpose, turns her head so that nary a drop ends up on the burp cloth. So, my big revelation this morning: Why do they call it a burp cloth? It is clearly a barf cloth. And it doesn't work too well for that, either, apparently. Maybe it should be called a wiping up the barf cloth, because that is the main use we get out of it. Anyone have any catchier ideas?

Also, I think our cat is trying to kill us. See, Henry is extremely friendly, but also a cat that has a lot of emotional needs. He likes to be ON you, preferably, with RIGHT NEXT TO YOU as a reasonable alternative. He does not understand why Cassidy does not pet him when he rubs against her foot and he does not appreciate all of the attention going her way. In the early days, when Cassidy would wake up at the drop of a pin, I have to admit that Henry got locked in the basement a couple of times. (After a few particularly boisterous meows announcing he had woken up from his nap or simply entered the room, resulting in a previously sleeping baby tranforming into a shrieking baby.)

Well, I can tell you one thing I know about cats. They don't get mad; they get even. I have heard some interesting stories about cats who unwillingly become big brothers or sisters to human babies. I have heard of laundry being urinated on, cribs becoming litter boxes. Henry, apparently is too refined to use his own excrement to make a point. He's not giving any warning, either. It's on like Donkey Kong. I have noticed that in addition to giving us dirty looks and turning his back on us, he has started leaving his toys, strategically placed on the stairs. He does this at night so that the chances are higher than I will trip and fall on them, tumbling to my death while carrying the baby downstairs in the morning. I believe I have seen a look of disappointment cross his face when I have successfully navigated Toy Death Stairs the past few mornings. I am concerned he is plotting to ramp up his efforts.

I am thinking we had better switch to the wet food and be a little more liberal with the Greenie Treats...that is, if we value our lives. Can you see the danger in his eyes?

eat-play-sleep

Well, I didn't want to post about it until we'd really given it a real shot. See, we read the book On Becoming Babywise. It's kind of controversial, largely, from what I can gather, because it used to present the theory in the form of hardcore rules about when the baby is allowed to eat, sleep and play. Apparently it used to tell you that if your baby was screaming its head off in the middle of the night, even if he/she hadn't eaten in 7 hours that you absolutely were not allowed to feed them and that they had to cry it out. The version I have, the tone is pretty flexible, really, and it doesn't say anything about letting the baby cry it out unles I missed that part.

So, as you know, we decided to try it. We, at about 6 weeks, we got Cassidy on a flexible schedule where she would eat a full feeding, then stay awake for a little and then take a nap. The first thing we realized is that she was tired. We weren't letting her nap enough before - with the schedule, it helped us to see something we couldn't without it and that was that she needed much more sleep throughout the day than we were encouraging her to have. (She needs some help falling asleep, so she wouldn't just go to sleep on her own; instead, she cried.)

Almost immediately, she began to have a much more predictable schedule. She ate every 2.5-3 hours and stayed up for a little, then went down for a nap (we rock her or just hold her until she falls asleep) and she would nap until she woke up. She also very quickly started sleeping much better, and in much longer stretches at night.

Within a week, she was going to bed at 8pm, and sleeping until about 3am. She would wake up, eat and go right back to sleep. It has been over 5 weeks and she is still on that same schedule. She sleeps from 8pm-3 or 4am, eats and goes right back to sleep until 7 or 8am. She does fuss a little between 5am and 6am, but she doesn't cry or anything. She just grunts and whines for a little bit. It's just a matter of patting her and maybe putting her bink back in. This morning, she fussed for about 30 minutes from 5:30am-6 and then went back to sleep and she was still asleep at 8am.

The book would say that she should be sleeping through the night by now, but I actually don't agree that she should go from 8pm-8am with no food at this age and I think 1 middle of the night feeding is no big deal (especially since I'm not the one that does it, hahaha.)

So, I know that some people seem to feel that this book is controversial, but I just can't figure out why. We've never denied her food, we've never forced her to stay awake when she's been tired, we've never let her cry it out (except for a minute here and there and that's only because I'm in the bathroom or getting a bottle ready or something) and the book doesn't say those things. The book does talk about how the baby shouldn't be the center of your world, and on one hand, I see what they're saying, but on the other hand, I think it's fine to focus on the baby and prioritize them above all else. That's not why we went with the Babywise eat-play-sleep theory. We went with it because a number of people (who we can relate to and whose kids we really like) have used that book and recommend it. We were having issues and what we were doing wasn't working. So we tried this and it worked. Probably doesn't work for everyone. And you can probably easily go overboard with some of the stuff.

Currently, we are blessed with a very easy 3 month old. She eats well (more spit up lately but no reflux or anything.) She sleeps very well at night. I can get her to fall asleep for a nap in about 2 minutes when she is tired. She is really into riding in the car, likes the grocery store and other outings. She laughs and smiles so much, it makes me want to just eat her up! It was so hard at first, I thought we'd never make it. But we are in a phase right now where we are sailing smooth and I am sooo grateful.