And She's Off

So for the last few weeks or so Bugs has been stumbling around. I hate to call it walking because, well it's not. She'll take a few steps, realize what she's doing and promptly fall down. She really started doing this around Christmas.

On Wednesday she walked a good ways holding onto the hem of my dress with no tension. She did it "alone" if you can even call it that. Then that same night she stumbled from one toy to the other about 3 or 4 steps. I'm of a firm conviction she doesn't WANT to walk. She is just accidentally doing it.  Hubs originally prediction was that Jan 28th would be the day she walked. Guess what? He was WRONG!

Bugs' first steps were on his birthday, Jan 19th, and they were at "M's" house. We are so lucky to have such a great sitter. She video taped her for us! It's not much but it's a start. I'm so not ready for this!

Goodbye Bottles!

Our old non-leaky cup.
I heart you Playtex!

Well it’s official.  The bottles are G-O-N-E! And let me tell you it’s not a moment too soon in my opinion! We have been using the Dr. Brown’s bottles and they have seven, yes SEVEN, pieces to them! Washing them has been incredibly time consuming, not to mention in addition to the drying rack they are huge space eater uppers of my very limited counter space!

We attempted to start giving Bugs a sippy cup at about 5 months, just to experiment. She did ok if she was really hungry but otherwise, she didn’t really want anything to do with it. Which was fine. So we just offered the cup and let her choose. 

At about 8 months we were full blown cup through the day thanks to “M”. She really worked with Bugs on this and did a great job. But I was reluctant to take away her night time bottle. I felt it was a comfort thing to Buggy and with starting the sleep training I just didn’t want to have to fight too many battles at one time.

So this week, “M” tells us that Bugs has chewed through her sippy and we need to provide a new one. No problem. She suggested going up a level in cups. Sure! I tell her that she has hard cups at home and does well, so I’ll get her more since she’s chewing threw the rubber ones anyway. Well “M” let’s her try the stage 4 toddler cup. AND BUGGY LOVES IT! She does great! Awesome! No more crazy impossible rubber topped cups that leak like crazy!

So last night we took away the last bottle and gave her a cup before bed. She didn’t even bat an eye! Just slugged it down, snuggled up and passed out. Really? Did that just happen? Um yeah. Have I mentioned we’re incredibly lucky??

Goodbye seven piece bottles and drying rack – I won’t miss you and your counter space invading.  See ya leaky rubber cups! Hello easy dishwasher safe, spill proof cup!  I think I love you…

Go the F*ck to Sleep!





Precious right? Oh you'd think that wouldn't you?

Oh sleeping babies! How cute they are, right? Well what do you do if your formally awesome sleeper is no longer awesomely sleeping? You try what you think will work and then you feel guilty right? Of course you do!

From the day we brought Bugs home, she’s been sleeping in her own bed, and almost through the whole night.  We were truly lucky.  She was a baby we had to wake up during the day to eat and sleeping from 11 pm – 6 am was huge! Gradually we worked our way to a 7 pm bedtime and no problems.

Well what nobody tells you is that once this dream sleeper learns to pull herself up - look out! That’s all she’s going to want to do is through a damn disco in her room - Every. Freaking. Night.  So we would rock her all the way to sleep. Every night.  Well once she can pull herself up standing you need to drop the mattress so that’s what we did. Have I ever mentioned I’m practically borderline dwarf? I’m 5’1 and trying to reach all the way over the rail to place a sleeping baby on her lowered mattress is damn near impossible. Couple that with the new “alligator death roll” out of your hands, and the formerly sleeping baby is now wide awake and screaming again.

*Sigh* This was it. Every night, rock all the way to sleep, attempt to put her down, she wakes up, start the process all over. This would go on for upwards of an hour. I couldn’t take it anymore.  At about the same time my mom was visiting and said, “You’re just going to have to let her cry it out, you used to scream and fall asleep standing up, but eventually you did it and she will too!”

Now I should also mention that our sitter “M” says “OH she goes right down for me, no fuss, no binky, no problem!” So I KNEW she was capable of doing this. The other thing is that we barely see her during the day that all that cuddle time was what I really cherished. But after getting in our snuggles, I wanted her to stay asleep and not go berserker on me.  Also I wanted her to soothe herself back to sleep in the middle of the night instead of playing the bongos on my boobs for an hour at 2 am. The cycle had to stop.

So one night we tried to put her down and let her cry it out.   And it went on for about a half hour and we couldn’t take it. We caved. And cuddled. But she was so exhausted from screaming, she crashed.  Hubs was anti-cry it out. He fought me. I begged for a compromise. I’m a new mom; I don’t know what I’m doing. If you don’t like my method, give me an alternative. He had nothing, but didn’t want to let her go.

So I researched and everything I read lead me to believe we were creating a sleep monster. She would have horrible habits and it would be because of us. So I sent did what any person would do. I tried it again. I sent Hubs to the gym, let her cry it out, and cried and asked for help to my Twitter heroes (you know who you are). It lasted approx. 17 minutes. Then nothing. I checked on her. She was out. Not too bad! Until the middle of the night she was wide awake again. But I went in – armed with 4 binks and laid on the floor next to her bed. No more middle of the night drum sessions. This is sleepy time damn it! And she partied like it was 1999 for an hour but gradually laid herself back down and back to sleep.

Over the next two weeks, she woke up a handful more times at night and the crying gradually got less and less until there were no more tears and now she is actually schootching out of my arms to get into her bed. It’s been a process for sure, and I know some people frown upon the CIO method. We tried a little of both CIO and whatever else I read on the internet and it worked.  And now I can say “I TOLD YOU SO” to Hubs (nah I wouldn’t really do that, oh who am I kidding of course I do!). But really I’m just so glad that we’re hopefully instilling good sleep habits, and that’s what’s most important. She’s still getting her evening snuggles and when I’m sad that I don’t see her much I remember that on the weekends we still have our naps!

 

You know how people tell you to

nap when she naps? Well we took that to heart! So we nap - alot and we NAP HARD!

Swims like a Fish

We knew from the beginning that Bugs loved the water.  Starting with her baths in the sink, then the pool, then the ocean, we knew she would be a fish. 

So as part of her Christmas present we signed up for Mommy/Daddy and me swim class. And bought her a new baby bikini (I'm sorry - baby two pieces are my weakness).  Hubs and I both agree that having a good relationship with the water is paramount and that eventually her knowing how to swim is vital (especially since her sitter “M” has a giant in-ground pool).

Saturday was our first lesson at the YMCA and we are taking the class with one of Hubs’ friends from college.  Over all there are maybe six babies in our class, yet it is already clear our teacher has a favorite. Seriously? These children are all less than a year old and you would think this little girl is the second coming of Michael Phelps.  Big deal she can “lie back” and not freak and put her face in the water.  

So we have to sing, fall into the pool from a sitting position, put them on their backs and bellies and blow bubbles.  Um yeah I don’t care if Bugs ever learns how to blow bubbles I am NOT sticking my mouth in that water. I’m sorry it totally skeeves me out.  There is a toddler class at the other end of the pool going on simultaneously and you can’t tell me there isn’t pee in the pool.  It’s bad enough my child is drinking her body weight in pool water (she tries to drink the bath water too so if you know how to cure this please let me know) but I refuse to stink my lips under. Go ahead and judge me Susie Swim Instructor (really her name is Susie) I am not changing my mind here. We’ll practice at home, k?

Overall Bugs LOVED it. We knew she would. And she did a really good job too! She loved the fall into pool part and she might be a natural “kicker”. I mean she kicked me constantly for nine months so this class should be a breeze right?!

First Swim Class

The Christmas Wrap-Up

Well it's better late than never right? Actually I was waiting so that I could add photos, but here is our baby's first Christmas!


The hats are Hubs and I's tradition.  And yes I made that plate on the wall in 1985!



My parents, Nene and Poppy, came to visit from the "south" (yes its cold here, you should know that you lived it for 50 some odd years) and stayed for several days. This in itself was awesome as we now had two extra pairs of hands to wrangle/control love/nurture Bugs. But also with them came all the traditions of my childhood such as Santa decorating our tree, getting up at the crack of dawn to open presents with tea and cookies, buying a new ornament each year, and Marshmallow (more on him later).   





 

 

 

When Santa decorates your tree, you have to ask permission to get up and go see it. If you get up before he’s come to visit and you see nothing, you will get nothing. That’s how it works. So you have to yell from your room “CAN I COME OUT YET?!” to your parents and they have to go see if Santa was there (I actually did that up until last year! Tradition, you know?) before you can come out.



In all our anticipation of Christmas everyone said “Oh, she’ll want the boxes more than toys!” Pfft! She didn’t even want that! She wanted nothing to do with opening presents (even though we wrapped hers in tissue paper for easy access) all she wanted was her old toys. That was until she got to her scooter! And even then she wanted to put her toys in scooters trunk instead of riding it. Hey if she’s going to clean up after herself, I’m not going to complain!



Bugs new scooter and cheesy grin we love!



Then came the grand finale. Marshmallow. I had no idea he was coming. I knew he was around somewhere. And now, now he’s at my house.  Marshmallow is a handmade rocking horse that my dad (Poppy) made for me when I was 3. And I loved him fiercely.  And Poppy saved him, restored him, and gifted him to Bugs. AND SHE LOVES HIM! Of course she does, he has tons of sharp edges and dangerous moving parts! What’s not to love right?

Overall it was a fantastic, whirlwind weekend of family and friends and lots of love, and food, can’t forget the food. (Or wine. Lots of wine.) And I can’t imagine it any other way!













There is a Teenager in that 20 lb Body

Oh what a long weekend. Perhaps this is why I feel like there is a teenager trapped inside my baby's body.  We spent Bugs first New Year's at Hubs' family cabin in the "twitterless wilderness" of Pennsylvania.  All in all it was great, a little hiking (surprisingly it was warm!) a little family time, some games, some drinking and lots of eating - it was wonderful. Even better was sleeping in until 10 am (yes you heard me, 10! I didn't even think that was possible anymore!) because my MIL snagged Bugs at 6 am both mornings so we could sleep in! It was heaven.

Well once we got home to finish our long weekend Bugs was totally out of sorts. She, like her momma, is a creature of habit and routine. Well her routine was shot to hell. Add that to more teeth (we blame everything cranky related to teething and have been since she was about 4 months old) and you have yourself the non-napping crabass baby of 2012.

So can someone please explain to me why my formally happy child is now throwing herself backwards head-first at the slightest sign of her displeasure? Our first temper tantrum.

-No remote? -throws entire body backwards and commences screaming fit for approximately 7 seconds....
-Removed her from dangerous end table? -throws entire body backwards and commences screaming fit for approximately 4 seconds....
-Placed in pack-n-play so I can pee without her injuring herself as I'm in the middle of deconstructing Christmas? -throws entire body backwards and commences screaming fit for approximately 15 seconds....

And this body throwing is not without appreciation. I mean she goes from the crawling position to backwards on her knees. This is some serious flexibility my friends. I guess if all else fails I can sell her to Cirque de Soleil. But I won't. Unless it's for a good price.