COLD!

These next pictures show Gwen's new hat and gloves. It is cold here and we now have to gear up before going outside.

Rolling over

I want to start out saying WAR EAGLE!!! Ok, but seriously, while I think it is great Gwen is rolling over, it is not great because she wakes up and is in the corner of the crib on her stomach and it irritates her so she starts crying, (sometimes with limbs hanging out of the crib). This requires one of us to move her back because she apparently can't roll over on her own. She has already woken up twice since we put her down at 6p and it is not even 10p. I hope this trend does not continue all night! If it does we are in for not much sleep. How long will this phase last?

Question?

Is it a bad sign when the people at the liquor store remember your baby? I don't think if I went in by myself they would recognize me, they commented on how she has grown and asked about Eric. Do you think we have a problem? Or do you think most people don't walk down to the liquor store with their stroller?

Intresting side notes

So during the meet Miss Gwen, we received a Wonder kids CD, (toddler version), that I started listening to with Gwen. It is a very cute CD, several religious song and then I stumbled across this song called Goosey, Goosey Gander these are the lyrics.

Goosey, goosey, gander
Whither do you wander
Upstairs, downstairs
In my ladies chamber?
There I met an old man
Who would not say his prayers
I took him by the left leg
And threw him down the stairs

Um, WHAT? Just for not saying his prayers you thought it was a good idea to throw him down the stairs? (The second verse is an old maid sitting in her chair so she threw them down the stairs. The forth verse is a young girl that didn't comb her hair.) I am not sure that this is the message I want to Gwen to have.
In other news, the I might have a problem, I am so proud when Gwen goes to the Dr and she such a superstar. I mean if anyone has seen the back of my cross-stitches they know I have a problem, is it perfectionism? Do you think this will lead me to be one of those Mothers that everyone hates that compares their child to other children and talk about how much better my children than others. Eric once told me if I started to go a little wonky from staying-at-home he was going to send me to visit my Mom for a head-fix. I guess the first step is admitting you have a problem. How will I ever make any friends if I keep this attitude up?
Anyway I really watched Gwen today, I mean I watch her everyday, but today I watched her for new things that she can do. While at the Dr's office the nurse practitioner sat her up and Gwen sat there for a couple minutes before she leaned. She wasn't sitting 'pretty', up straight, she was leaning towards her feet. So, back to today, while she was laying on her tummy I noticed she is starting to pull her legs in and push her butt up. She is also pushing up with her arms. So I figure if I put Mr. Starfish far enough away she will start crawling toward him, but I don't think I want her to start crawling...we have far too many stairs with fair too little safety gates.

Dr.'s appt

Today's Dr appointment is over. The verdict is:
15lb 8 oz (75-90%)
25 in (75%)
The nurse practitioner said that she is acting like a 6mon old, she wouldn't be surprised if Gwen will be crawling by the next visit! AH! Mommy needs some safety equipment! Since we will be seeing both Grandmas before the next visit, we will see if you will see out little tyke crawling. The nurse also recommended Eric & I get flu shots, since Gwen is too young...ick!
So Liesa was closest in the weight department (with a guess of 15lbs)
Ellen & AhMa had the height correct!
I forgot to mention yesterday when I went to get her in her crib after her nap she had gone perpendicular from how I put her in and she was on her tummy, she wasn't upset either, she was just cooing and looking around.

New stuff

Tomorrow is Gwen's 4 month check-up, thanks for all who guessed a weight and height. I think she might be closer to 15 lbs then 14. She also had a growth spurt, so I think she might be closer to 26 in. We will see. Today instead of going to Stroller Strides I went to the FMH thing I went to in Sept. They had a woman their talking about Baby Signs. I have an interest in teaching Gwen baby signs, I have actually already started incorporating sign language into our daily life, using the few signs I have learned. The woman talking today was a little odd, but she apparently leads a play group with other Moms incorporating sign language for babies, which I found out is different than sign language for adults. I guess it is much the same as adult sign language, they just use some words in 'baby sign language' that is easier for a baby's lack of motor control than adult sign language. The woman talking holds a play group every Monday to help facilitate the baby signs, I think it wouldn't hurt to try, meet some more Moms (plus its free). I have a cousin that is a sign language interpreter and when I was in WI my cousin Kelly had taught Lily signs and she was using them, it was so cute. Megan mentioned a website to use to get some signs, but I forgot the website that had the information. Maybe, some kind person (who sent me a lovely letter this week) could email me the website.

We have been pretty busy this week. Miss Gwen has been taking 2 naps this week, only 45 minutes at a time. As soon as she wakes up I usually have my shoes on and we go somewhere. As you can see from the following picture I have started using the 'ribbon blanket', we used to use the other white blanket, but I found her eating the ends and found pieces of it in her mouth. That means, new blanket! She has started holding on to it and looking at it.

I am pretty sure that Gwen's car toy is possessed, the little $1 toy I got from the Nearly New Kids sale, has gone off the last 2 nights at about 5p, by gone off I mean plays music. It has a remote, so I am wondering if one of the kids playing outside had something that caused it to start playing, very spooky!
In other news, I saw the funniest thing today. Someone backed into the grocery store cart container, then left his car their. I drove by (just to make sure that my eyes weren't deceiving me.) He actually left his car there, my question is, how did he not see it. I mean it actually had carts in there, how could you not see the thing, it has a roof and bright red sides?!? But, made me giggle.
Have I mentioned that Gwen started giggling, I mean she has been giggling for a while, but Sunday she really started what sounded like a real giggle, Eric and I have been trying to reproduce that giggle with much success! It is nice to have more sounds than crying coming from her mouth. We stopped by Eric's work today after the FMH group for lunch and she charmed everyone there.
I went back to WW. Goodness, I have a lot of work to do. But, I guess that is to be expected, I get lazy and irresponsible about eating, it was especially hard when Gwen was incredibly fussy. But, now that she is sleeping and going to bed early, eating has become easier. I really have no excuse.
Sometime tomorrow I will try to get online and let you know about Gwen's appointment. There is still time (until I post tomorrow) to get your guess for height and weight in!

Happy Birthday and other things!

Thanks everyone who has estimated weights and heights so far! There is still time to estimate. Friday turned out to be a gorgeous day. In the 70s, so Eric decided he wanted to go hit some golf balls at the driving range. Gwen and I went with him, because it was so nice outside.

Saturday Eric had to do take pictures for his marketing class project. For some reason Gwen thought she would like to be involved. She thought the pictures would be better if she held her lottery ticket at the same time.

She was pretty tired after all that work.

(no babies were hurt or drunk during the making of these pictures!)

Eric turned 30 on Sunday. As I have mentioned before, I think these birthdays that end in 0s are really all the milestones we have left in life, so I baked him a cake, a real cake not one of those Betty Crocker ones, (side note, that is the kind of cake Eric wants, I prefer to make them, I think they taste better, but, he got his cake and ate it to, today at work they brought in a 'homemade' Betty Crocker cake).

Eric asked since he is so busy with work and school we defer his 30th birthday celebration until next year. I couldn't resist though, I asked our friends Brian & Reyna to watch Gwen (sorry she was sleeping, well almost, she was crying when we left, but she did eventually go to sleep). As you can see I had fun making the cake! I told Eric on the way to dinner that we weren't allowed to talk about Gwen, school, or work during dinner, and we actually succeeded and had a very nice dinner at Mealey's a very nice restaurant, the next town over. I was worried in the beginning it wasn't going to go well, because our waiter made the conversation awkward in the beginning, but it did go well, we ate to much and had a great time.

So, you are probably anxiously awaiting the sleep report! Gwen took 2 naps today in her crib. I decided that I was tired of the laying down thing with her, she just doesn't sleep well next to me anyway. She cried both times, but slept for 45 minutes. Tonight she went down without any fuss. I don't know if this is the start of a trend with her, but I hope so. Tonight I really took my time with the quieting down with her. I even spent a little extra time nursing her and I didn't actually put her in the bed until 6:15, the last couple nights were closer to 5:30 and she just cried a lot. I think 6p might be her actual bed time, so I am going to do my best and keep that fairly constant. I just hope she will eventually start sleeping more than 45 minutes during the day at a time. I know that will happen eventually, but I am the impatient sort!

4 months

Today Gwen is 4 months. Wow time has flown by! I spent most of last night writing in Gwen's baby book. Man, there is so much in there that I don't really remember and she is only 4 months. There are been some momentous changes in Gwen since my last monthly update. She is sleeping in her room, in her crib. That is exciting. (as we speak she is napping in her crib). She can sit up, but she leans...I guess most people say slide. She stares at her fingers and coos and smiles and talks to me so much. I am afraid she is going to give my cousin Sammy a run for her money in the talking department! I think she is testing her voice, so funny and cute. She rolls over and enjoys spending time on her tummy. She also still enjoys standing.
Today would also be my Dad's birthday. Hard to believe that we are already in November. I still think of my Dad often, weird that one of Gwen's monthly anniversaries would happen on my Dad's birthday. In my Dad's honor we will be sponsoring a contest on the blog (he loved a reason to bet), Thurs is her four month Dr's appointment. I am going to ask you to guesstimate the weight...price is right rules (for those of you that don't know that means closest to weight, without going over, don't worry, I didn't know either until I met Eric). She was 12lbs 15oz at last appointment beginning of Oct. You can email me or just put your answer in the comment section. The winner may receive more than just bragging rights. If you are feeling ... you can also guess height, she was 23 3/4in. at the last appointment. We will probably have some pictures from this weekend that we take in honor of my father. Some thing he would enjoy I think.

Here are some pictures. The piano ones are from this morning. The sucking on my finger is from yesterday. She was apparently VERY hungry!

Guess what!

She's napping, all by herself, in her crib! (and it only took about 17min of crying!) I am so excited...we are going to visit Eric for lunch in celebration. This post might be the last post about sleeping, but if I don't write about her sleeping habits, what is left to write about? I am sure you don't want to hear about her diaper and we have that feeding thing under control. I know that this nap is a small victory, we will see if she goes down for the next nap as easily. This is a day by day battle, that can be thrown off by any small event. But, I am hopeful that if we can get this napping thing down, she can start staying up later at night so Eric can see her.

15 minutes!

Hi all! Today was a pretty good day. We woke up at 3am, and 7am. 7 appeared to be our wake up time, so I got Gwen out of bed after 20 minutes of praying she would go back to sleep, but we had stroller strides today so I got her up and ready. On the way home from Stroller Strides Gwen feel asleep. She continued to sleep in the car seat after we got home. I tried to get her to go back to sleep after that, but there was little to no interest. We played for a while, tummy time and read. (the pictures are from this tummy time session, Eric said they are classics.) I then laid down with her at about 12:30 she slept until about 3:45. More play time, then I put her down for a bed. She only cried for 15 minutes! Just yesterday I was wondering if she was ever going to cry for less than 40 minutes...alleluia! Maybe soon I will be able to get her to sleep in her crib for naps! It is so hard to put her down for sleep, she smiles at me then gives me this pitiful look when she realizes I am shutting the door. Oh well, it must be done, she is obviously tired.

PS we were very chatty again today. I suspect that is because we are getting the right amount of sleep.

Update & pictures

So I thought I would upload some pictures for you since it has been several days since you have seen any pictures, but first I am going through the boring sleep stuff. Today, we took 2 naps, only because I laid down next to her to let her sleep. The afternoon nap I tried to lay her down in the crib, but she cried again for a long time. If she is going to sleep on her own, she seems to need about 40min to cry it out. I was hoping that her time crying would decrease tonight, but she had fallen asleep in my arms, she was still non-nutritively sucking, I pulled her off and she immediately woke up and started crying. UGH! I don't know what to do about the naps, I think she needs to sleep in the cribs for her naps, but I am not as anxious about her having to lay down with her, because I know that in the evening she will go to sleep early. I still would like her to get to sleep in the crib though and without as much fuss. Today she was a much improved baby from the last couple of days. She wasn't so zoned all day and she was very chatty. We went shopping and she chatted in the car the whole way home.
Without further ado...picture time! This is the scene I happened upon the other day. Gwen enjoys spending time on her tummy. She doesn't roll over immediately and she lasts longer then the 5 minutes she used to last before crying.

The following picture shows proof that Gwen does actually sleep in her crib at night. Here she is in her 'sleep sack'. If you need to talk to me the next couple of days, you will probably find me sitting at the computer staring at this picture while I listen to her cry.
Tonight Eric and I did our civic duty and voted. I had half a mind not to vote, I am quite tired of getting the phone calls, so much so I hung up on 'Barbara' whoever she was, she didn't give me her last name and she might have actually been a real person and not a recording. Sorry Barbara, but I had already voted so I didn't need your reminder. Eric came home early today so as to avoid the lines at our polling station. We walked over to the elementary school, in the drizzle and voted. I carried Gwen, who was fixated on the electronic screen, which reminded me of when I was little I would go with my parents when they voted. My Mom says that I would go in with both my parents while they voted and one time I informed my Dad that that is not who my Mom voted for. So much for privacy.
Since Gwen was so interested in the process, she somehow received a sticker. :) By the way she is so funny when I pull out the camera she smiles, but usually after the camera flashes.
If you would like to see some pictures of Gwen at Brian & Reyna's shower please click the link to the left that says Riley Anne.

Tuesday sleep update

Last night sleep was heavenly. Gwen cried for sometime less than 45 minutes, I don't know when she fell asleep. I put her to sleep at 6p at about 6:45 I asked Eric to turn on the monitor, and there was no noise, we looked at each other perplexed...Eric asked, do you have the monitor on? I said, yes other was it would make that horrid noise (although I did doubt myself). She woke up at 1am and 7am. I guess 7am was her waking up time for the day, I put her back in her crib hoping she would go back to sleep, Eric went in and picked her up at about 7:45. I tried to lay her down again at 8:30, Eric picked her up again. (Do you sense a theme?) He is about to leave for work, so I should be able to try to get her to sleep again. She is pretty funny though, I was listening to her talk to herself trying to stay awake! Have a great day, update later.

Monday morning sleep update

Gwen is sleeping soundly in her crib! She woke up at 3am, I went into her room to find her just laying in her crib, looking around. I think it took her more than an hour to go back to sleep, but she didn't really cry, well she did. It was actually humorous, her crying woke up Eric and he started tapping me to let me know she was crying (as if I didn't hear it), I explained to him, she had already been feed. She wasn't 'protest crying', she sighed at one point, Eric and I had to stiffle our laughs so she couldn't hear us. She woke up again at 7am, I feed her again and now she is back to sleep, it pains me that I have to go upstairs and wake her so we can get going to Stroller Strides (probably explains why I am writing this post instead of moving along) I will let you know how todays napping goes.

Sunday sleep update

Today was a terrible day for naps. Gwen fell asleep at Church in the sling, after that, could not really get her to nap at ALL! Even when I laid down with her. As it was yesterday, she was pretty much in a daze. Today, I again put her down to sleep at 6, after 1.5hrs she was asleep. Hopefully she will sleep 'through the night', Dr's definition, a 5+ hour stretch. I hope it will be 2 5hour stretches. Tonight I put her to sleep in her 'sleep sack', her room is not as warm as we would like. Yesterday, Eric and I hung out, tonight Eric and I have hung out a little, but I am also cleaning and picking up the house! YEAH! It feels like I should be going to bed, like it has been night for a long time, with the blasted daylight savings times and putting Gwen to sleep so early, I feel like its midnight (it is only 9p!) I will hopefully going to bed early. I have to say, I do not enjoy being awaken by Gwen crying, I much prefer the other, but then I probably get more sound sleep not having her in the room, I guess it is 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other, yes? We can only hope that some time in the near future Gwen will go down to sleep without so much crying. Bless her heart, it breaks my heart to leave her in her room, when I put her down to sleep, she is quite charming, my theory is because she wants to stay up later, she is cooing and smiling, distracted by things in her room instead of settling down. Stayed tuned for tomorrow's exciting sleep update.

Sleep update

Gwen slept until 1:30 this morning! YEA! The rest of the night was not so easy, she woke up every 2 hours after that, I think that is more out of habit than actual hunger, so possibly I will have Eric check on her at 4am. At 4 she had rolled herself to the other side of the crib, maybe she just needed to be reassured that was ok? Have a great day!

100 posts!

Yes, this is my 100th post. Pretty exciting. Guess what, it is 8pm and Gwen is asleep in her crib, in her room! She only cried for about an 1.5 hour. So, I have decided that Gwen's lack of sleep is a problem for our entire family. I have finally gotten tired of having to lay down with Gwen to get her to nap, she doesn't really nap well anyways. Tonight we started sleep training Gwen. This is going to be tough, but fortunately we have 3 floors, if we go to the bottom floor, I can't actually here her crying (I send Eric up to check, I know she can sense/smell me). After reading my latest sleep book (I know, the scientist in me can not help reading feverishly about a subject) I think that it is possible our extremely fussy baby is this way from a lack of sleep, so we have started sleep training. Basically sleep training just means that we, I am going to try to get Gwen on a schedule. The schedule won't have to be incredibly rigid, we just have to keep sleep logs and watch her for periods of fussiness and put her down for naps after approximately 2 hours of being awake. I am still allowed to breastfeed her to sleep, but hopefully, when I put her down in the awake state she will EVENTUALLY learn how to sleep on her own/self-soothe. I know that she can sleep for long periods at night, she has done it previously, but lately I have gotten into some bad habits with Gwen, now I have to go through the hard process of getting her to sleep on her own. I hope that this will only take 4-5 days, but it could take more. So, keep us in your prayers. As I mention prayers, I would like to mention Gwen's godmother's niece & nephew were born this last week at 27 weeks, if you could keep them in your prayers, we would appreciate it.

As I mentioned previously, this is the 100th post, we should celebrate with many pictures, yes? This first series contains pictures from Halloween. It was pretty warm here, and Gwen was fussy, we didn't keep her in her costume long, we only have this one picture from the actual day, no action shots.

More exersaucer pictures, for your enjoyment. I don't know if I have mentioned that Gwen is starting to become more purposeful with her grabbing things. I was trying to get a picture of her picking up this little block. And just today, I noticed that she is starting to move around in the excersaucer! How exciting. It seems everyday we learn something new about the exersaucer. The little house actually makes noises when you press the button on the chimney, Eric has programmed one of the sequences with him saying "Hello Stinky". I feel the middle picture of this sequence is a look I am going to receive many times in my lifetime.

It has started to get cold here, the only hat that we have in the house that fits her, is this one that says 1yr. Eric thinks it makes her look like the Dough Boy.

This last picture is from today. We went to Brian & Reyna's baby shower today (their website is linked in my link section). Gwen was a very content baby, went to anyone that wanted to hold her and didn't make a sound. She was quite tired though, so she just looked kind of dazed, but at least she didn't cry!

Happy Halloween!

It is crazy picture Halloween! Gwen with the sewer of the costume, aka Aunt Ellen, and cousin Pete! (Taken last week in WI)

Gwen's party pictures. There were more children at the party, these pictures were taken at the end...we had several pumpkins. Eleven Moms in all, I think. The little girl next to Gwen, Abby is another birthday buddy, whenever I see her, I am amazed they were born on the same day, Gwen is so much bigger. Abby is long and lean, Gwen is solid!

Here are some pictures I took, trying to make our house look like a photo studio. This will probably work out better when she can stand or sit on her own. Enjoy our little stinker!

And the winner is...

Miss Gwen! She won the costume contest at our Mother's group. I didn't know there was a contest, but pictures of Gwen in her costume will be posted tomorrow. This picture was taken the yesterday, as you can see she loves getting zerberted.

Gwen has started holding things briefly.

Here is a picture of the 3 fingers in the mouth.

Our determined girl trying to get into stuff and put it in her mouth.