3 Months Old and Counting

Well, little Julia was three months old on Friday. And 13 weeks old on Thursday. We've started leaving her arm out of the swaddle at night and it is going very smoothly. Which is a good thing because she is almost out of the the darn thing every morning. We will most likely switch to one of those miracle blanket things in the next week or two. I would try with nothing at all but I worry that she would get cold and that with all of the kicking she does she would wake herself up all night long.

She is winning the Nap Wars. For awhile things were looking better, but the last two weeks have been just awful. She is only sleeping for 30 minutes, then waking up screaming and crying and refuses to go back to sleep unless she is held. And that is the morning nap. The afternoon nap is even worse. It is becoming very frustrating as all of the sleep experts say that this is the time when she should be napping better, not worse. Plus it makes her so cranky by the end of the day that we end up putting her to bed earlier and earlier. Which just makes her wake up earlier in the morning and the whole vicious cycle continues. She is also sliding back to eating every two hours as well, which means she is not eating as well when she does eat. I don't know what is going to happen when she starts daycare. I think that they will have their hands full with her. Especially because she refuses a pacifier and sucking on her hand only gets her more worked up. I will have to ask her teacher how he deals with getting difficult babies to nap. I can see when she is tired, but if I try to wind her down when she first starting acting sleepy, she gets more worked up. And if I wait too long she is too worked up. The pediatrician said not to worry until she was four months old, but I cannot help but worry.

I've started getting pictures ready for her teacher to put together in a poster for her at school. She is in the Treefrogs group and I am going to make her a little onesie with a picture of a tree frog. I don't think she will appreciate it now, but she will when she is older. At least it will make for a cute picture. We've got this one last week at home, then it is back to work for me. I am going to try biking to and from the UW to see if that would be a faster way to get back over at lunchtime and nurse Julia. Plus it would be good exercise for me. Here are some newer pictures...

Big smiles for Daddy

What is that black thing they keep pointing at me?

Holding her head up high!

Dad and Julia on Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Well, it is Dan's first Father's Day and he is doing what every father should do: napping on the couch while listening to the US Open. He has requested stuffed shells for dinner, which is most doable. We haven't done much today. We bought a couple of cupcakes at the bake sale after church for dessert, played with the baby, talked to his folks back in Maryland, and now Dad and Julia are taking naps. He is resting up for his big talk next Saturday, while Julia was rubbing her eyes in obvious need of sleep.

Julia turned 12 weeks old this past week and is still amazing us. She goes down easier for naps now, with only 5 minutes of fussing before drifting off to sleep. We moved her to the crib on Friday night and she seems to be doing well there on her own. We had to put the pack n'play mattress into the crib so that her little well was still present. Although I told Dan that I suspected when she woke up in the middle of the night, she was using the little well and the suspended nature of the bassinett to rock herself back to sleep. She has been better about taking a bottle the last week too, taking almost 3 oz yesterday! So I think that she will be fine when she gets to daycare. In any case the pediatrician thinks that she will start solids sometime between 4 and 5 months anyway, so will have plenty of milk in her rice cereal.
It is hard to believe that in two more weeks I will be back at work and she will be in daycare. Just another little step towards her becoming independent from me. I read a book this week called "Mothershock" and it summed up the ambivalence I am feeling about returning to work. While I was pregnant, Julia was completely dependent on me; we were the same person. Once she was born she started moving away from me. Every day she becomes more and more separate from me and needing me less. True, it is a slow event of incrementally small steps, but they are there nonetheless.

This week will be more difficult I think, only because it is going to be all Mommy, all the time. Dan is at a conference, which is being held in Seattle. Unfortunately the talks go until about 11pm every night. So there will be no breaks for me or breaks for Julia. Thank goodness we have our PEPS meeting on Tuesday night. Here are some pictures from when family was visiting last week...

Julia and Mom at Mt. St. Helens, Silver Lake

Auntie Em and Julia at the Seattle Japanese Garden

Julia and Grandpa near Kerry Park

The whole Family at Seattle Japanese Garden, courtesy of Tom

Four generations: Gramma, Granny, Julia, and Me

Julia's Baptism

We had a big event this past weekend. Julia was baptized at our parish here in Seattle! Lots of family attended, with Gramma and Grandpa Meier flying in from Cincinnati. Joining them were Uncle Tom, Auntie Em, Granny and Papa. Dan's brother Bobby was the godfather and Emily was the godmother. We also had Granddad Klein and GrandPam come up from San Francisco by way of Portland. And the Olympia Beusches drove up from Olympia to share in the celebration (we loved Ed's sentiment in the card....'isn't it great to be a Catholic?'. Julia looked so precious in the white heirloom baptismal gown. It was handsewn for my mom by Granny when she was born and all of the Greene children and grandchildren have worn it. So now it starts in on the third generation. It was amazing to see the fine detail and handiwork that went into making the gown. And Julia loved all of the attention she received as I dressed her. She was a champ during the baptism, only stirring when the water was poured onto her head, then falling back asleep.
While everyone was here we took advantage of the weather to drive down to Mt. St. Helens and see the volcano smoking. Dan and his family took a helicopter ride over the crater and also spotted some elk roaming the mountainside. I turned Julia front side out in the Moby and she seemed to like that. We saw some ducks and a bullfrog as well as the volcano. We also went to the arboreteum and the Seattle Japanese Gardens, which she also seemed to enjoy. At least a little bit. It was great to see everyone and to watch Julia playing with her relatives (and smiling for other people).

Other news in the childraising arena: She drank a whole 2 oz from a bottle given to her by Dan today! We will meet her daycare teacher next week and are looking forward to that. She has been a little easier to get to take a nap during the day (today being the exception), but she still only sleeps for 40-50 minutes. I guess that is all she needs? Or at least all she thinks that she needs. Here are some pictures from this past week....12 weeks old tomorrow!!!

All ready to get wet!!!

Now we can relax: the dunking is over!

At Johnston Ridge Observatory, Mt. St. Helens with Emily

Playing with Gramma...this must have been before the tummy time!

Ten Weeks and the Nap Wars

Well, another month has passed (actually more than a month, but who is counting?). It is hard to believe that we have come this far. There are a few things that I want to remember about Julia's second month of life: her first smile, how she smiles when I sing her wake up song in the morning, the moment I discovered she no longer fit into some of her newborn clothes, and how excited she looks when we start to play with one another. Her smiles are more and more frequent and she is starting to stay awake and look around when we go outside which is so nice to see. She actually stayed awake through the entire mass on Sunday night and even smiled at our friend Carol sitting behind us. So now we have outside proof that she smiles.

In my enthusiasm for babywearing, I bought another babywearing device, the Moby Wrap (www.mobywrap.com). I saw my friend Lisa wearing her baby Talia in one and it looked so darn comfortable. I thought about making one, but then I realized several things:

1. it is almost impossible to find good apparel fabric in any fabric store in the US
2. I have no time to sew
3. I am not experienced in pattern drafting.
4. I have no time to sew.
5. By the time I had found good fabric, paid for it, and drove back home, it would have cost the same to buy it from a local store.
6. I have no time to sew.

So I bought one. And it is darn comfortable. A little bit tricky to get the hang of putting on, but darn comfortable. I still love the sling for running errands that require the car though because it is much easier to put on. I will have to take a picture of the two of us in the Moby and post it. I also discovered today that it is possible to sew with Julia in the sling. I probably shouldn't iron any seams with her in it, but I can operate the sewing machine while she hugs close to me.
On to the nap wars. Since Julia will be going to daycare in another five weeks or so, I decided she should learn how to take a nap by herself. Some days it was easy; she inexplicably fell asleep in my arms (or Dan's) and would be placed gently in the crib to sleep blissfully for two hours. Other days I could only get her to sleep by wearing her (which I still love to do). And the worst days she didn't nap at all unless we went on a walk. So far we have not had much success with the structured nap. Today we attempted the nap and after 1.5 hours of shushing and patting I gave up. After she ate again, I tried again. But she just smiled and started laughing when I started shushing her. And I couldn't help but laugh back. So we played for a little bit, then I tried again when she got a little cranky and started making her tired cry. She fell asleep and stayed asleep for about 30 minutes. Then she woke up and couldn't resettle. So I told her she did a good job, put her in the sling, and starting singing to her. She relaxed, held onto my shirt, nestled up against me and smiled as she fell back asleep. How could I ask for anything more?

I have pictures to post, but they will have to wait until tomorrow's attempted sleep session. She may be sleeping through the night now (9pm to 5:30am feedings), but I am still tired. And 5:30am is early. I cannot wait until summer solstice is past us.