Trying New Things

The Rhodes girls have been busy lately.

I'm doing a little online article writing for a company that outsources such things, and when I'm not doing that, now that I've taken the VRA, I'm busy studying for the Virginia Praxis II. These are the last hurdles between me and a Virginia teaching license, so I'm pretty stoked. On top of all that, we've decided MJ needs more stuff.

We just bought a new baby carrier. Isn't it beautiful?

After taking MJ to the beach several times lugging her stroller, car seat, umbrella, beach bag, tent, and diaper bag (not to mention our own beach bag and towels!!), we decided we needed a better system. So, my bright idea is to strap her to one of us and pile the rest of the junk into a beach cart! This is a fabulous idea. Unfortunately, it involves buying more things. Like the afore-mentioned carrier, and a beach cart. Considering the time we will save, not having to have someone carry the stuff, someone to carry her in the heavy car seat, and someone to wait with the stroller and other junk . . . it's worth it. Now I just need to find the cart and we'll be all set. I tried the carrier out today with MJ in it. I strapped her in, pulled out the vacuum, and started cleaning. It worked so great! She got to watch everything I was doing, and I got to get something done before naptime. Why have I not done this sooner?

I'm not the only one getting things done. MJ has been busy checking off milestones over the past few weeks. On top of all the other marvelous things she can already do, lately she's been practicing grabbing both sets of toes, rolling from her back to her sides, strengthening her torso by sitting up and leaning over, and sucking her thumb. She also folds her hands together, and bending her elbows slowly brings her fists back and forth above her head, staring at them intently. The best trick, however, debuted yesterday. We were sitting behind her play mat, the square one with arches dangling brightly colored jungle animals stretching from each corner. Lately, MJ has been doing some great standing. She supports her own weight with her legs as I simply help her balance. Yesterday, I was helping her stay balanced as she was standing, when suddenly, she reached out with both hands, grabbed onto the arches, and balanced herself as I let go completely! It was amazing! MJ, at only 4 1/2 months old, was standing on her own. I never thought she'd be trying to stand before she could even sit up by herself. It's going so fast!

I'm totally obsessed with the show Modern Family, but couldn't watch during the regular season because it came on at the same time as two other things I already TiVo, so I'm catching up this summer. Today's episode featured Claire and Phil's oldest daughter, Haley, getting her driver's license. As she pulled the van out of the driveway and waved to her family standing on the lawn, her mother took several deep breaths (following the advice she gave to Haley earlier in the episode, before the driving test) and let her go. I totally lost it. I guess the take-home point is that fear is inextricably linked to parenting. Can you have parenting without fear? Where does faith come in? When I'm calling the pediatrician at 9pm to ask about a rash that has popped up out of nowhere, or in a panic because she has been crying for my parents for three straight hours, faith is often the furthest thing from my mind. I worry about everything, from how long she's been napping to why she's pressing so hard on her gums to whether or not we should start solids. Mike does too; he has asked me for reassurance at least a dozen times that her head will eventually round out and her bald spot will grow hair. There is a Laurie Berkner song that goes: "One day, I'll be a year, then I'll be two, then three, then four; but as for now I'm sittin' here, just five days old and no days more." I think that's my fear. That I'll blink and she'll be all grown up, heading out the door to start her own adventures. We worry. about. everything.

Because we love her so much.

Really Excited

It's amazing what thrills me these days.

We've been cloth diapering now for quite a while, and I still love it. I love it so much, in fact, that I realized I needed to buy some more. I went online, and found a great deal on a pre-order of the new BumGenius One Size 4.0 diapers. That's right, I'm practically shaking in anticipation of the arrival of a brand new set of cloth diapers. How my priorities have changed.

Something I do want for myself is a Kindle. Not even the Kindle DX, with its fabulously large 9.7" display, just the regular, latest generation Kindle. Not that I have time to read, but it holds something like 1500 books! Luckily for me, with the introduction of the Apple iPad, Kindle prices have dropped significantly, and there really might be one in my future. Like, in August. I do have a birthday coming up.

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment. Most people would be annoyed at having to take time for one of these visits, or maybe slightly nervous, but I look forward to them like Christmas. Going to the doctor = ALONE TIME. I actually get to spend precious minutes by myself in the car, and then time having a conversation with another adult which doesn't revolve around poopy diaper counts and the possibility of teething early. Mike's sister, Caroline, came over to babysit, and I practically sprinted out the door. Not to mention Mike called me and invited me to lunch at Hell's Kitchen with him and an old college friend. Thank goodness for getting me out of the house!

Speaking of early teething . . .

MJ's pediatrician thinks that MJ is "advanced." She's having separation anxiety whenever I leave the house. The last time Caroline babysat, the little genius screamed for a solid two straight hours. Poor Caroline. Thank goodness she's patient - and tough. The last time Mike and I left her with my parents, she screamed from 6pm - 9pm, and we got called home from our date night. Dr. Ballard says that separation anxiety is a six to nine month skill, and since she's already experiencing it now, she's "advanced." Couldn't she be advanced in a different area? Like, sit up and stack some blocks already. Screaming incessantly . . . not fun for anyone. At four months old, she's also beginning to teethe early. Poor baby is whining and groaning as she gums everything to death. She looks so miserable! Orajel to the rescue.

I think some people are more excited about MJ's toys than she is. Dad persistently danced MJ's little glowing seahorse (Seamus, I named him. How's that for a moniker, Uncle Brad?) in front of her for almost an hour yesterday. She just jabbered and chewed her hands, pretty much ignoring his attempts to entertain her with the seahorse. He then moved on to pretending to sneeze in her face, which gave her endless delight. Why even buy her toys?

MJ and I have a playdate tomorrow. We're really excited. Well, I am. Playdates are obviously more for the parents than for the babies, who typically just lie on the play mat and jabber, giving one another a cursory glance every now and then. Playdates are another of those saving graces where I get to be out of the house engaging in adult conversation. Playdate hooray!

Mike and I are church shopping. We've visited a couple since we've moved here, but we're looking for something similar to the church home we left in Ohio, which we absolutely loved. We maybe found it. The pastor just started a new series on Sunday (perfect timing!), and it's exactly what we need to hear. Funny how God does that, giving you exactly what you need even before you realize you need it. We'll definitely be back!

Baby MJ is sleeping, and I need some vitamin D. Let's see if she'll let me sit outside for an hour while she naps. I would catch up on some reading . . . if only I had a Kindle.

Gifts for Mommy & Daddy

Have you ever been so proud of someone you could just cartwheel right out the door?

Some people know how much we've been struggling lately with MJ and her sleep issues. She was doing so well in Ohio since we started Babywise: two hour naps, 10-12 hour sleeps through the night . . . how could we ask for more?

Then we moved.

Suddenly she wasn't napping at all, and had started this odd pattern of waking at 2, 4, and 6am, just to have her pacifier replaced (which had never been an issue before). Over time, her naps became more and more regulated, and she began napping longer and longer, until this past week, when she began reliably taking two 3-hour naps per day. Usually I wouldn't let her sleep that long during the day, but since she wasn't sleeping at all at night, I wanted to let her catch up a little so she wouldn't be so miserable.

Then came Wednesday night.

She went down happily at 9pm, and slept until 2:30am. Then woke again at 3am. And again at 3:30am. And again at 4am. Finally, she stayed asleep, but kept making these weird humming noises that drove me out of the bedroom and onto the couch. The monitor wasn't picking those up, so I ultimately drifted off around 4:15am.

Until 4:30, when Dad was up for work and decided that my sleeping on the couch must mean that something horrible had happened, and woke me up to ask if the baby was okay. Really?

Uuuuuuuggggghhh.

I mumbled something probably incomprehensible, and tried to fall back asleep, until then Mom was up and stomped through the house to reach the kitchen, where I swear she picked up a spoon in both hands and began spinning as fast as she could to bang as many objects as possible.

Double uuuuggghhh.

I stumbled back up to bed and managed to sleep on and off with the baby until around 9.

I think I slept a grand total of 15 minutes. Poor MJ didn't get much more.

So yesterday I decided to get tough with the naps. Even if she seemed like she was going to sleep longer, I woke her up after two hours. I also upped her formula intake, because she still seemed hungry after her usual six ounces.

She took three 2-hour naps and all of her feedings were 7oz.

Last night, she slept ten straight hours.

I, however, woke up every hour, wondering why I wasn't hearing someone demanding her pacifier be popped back into her mouth, so unfortunately was unable to take advantage of this gift of sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

In other news, cloth diapering is going GREAT. I absolutely love it. I just wish I had more of them! Six isn't enough, even though I wash every day (really, I need like ONE more), and I wish I had more covers so that when they sometimes get slightly damp (after a marathon nap, for instance), I had others ready to go. Surprisingly, even after her ten-hour snooze last night, the cover wasn't wet. Shrug.

Also, when I went back to disposables the other day because I ran out of cloth, she almost instantly got a diaper rash. I don't know if it's the chemicals in the disposables or the absorbant gel or what, but as soon as we switched back to cloth, it disappeared (with a little help from the creamy Desitin in the blue box - best stuff EVER). Maybe circumstantial, maybe cloth is just amazing. I'm going with amazing.

So, what have I learned? Babywise is the baby sleep bible, and should be followed exactly for a happy baby and happy mommy. If your baby seems hungry after a full feeding, you should probably feed her a little more. Cloth diapers are the best things ever, and I can't wait to buy more. What else is there to know?