I say this, fully expecting to come back in 10ish months and take it back

I can't wait until Penny is older.

I know, I know. You'll tell me to enjoy the baby phase, they grow so fast, time flies, you'll look back one day and miss this, yada yada yada.

You're right. Time does fly and one day I'll look back on this phase with nostalgia and a tinge of sadness.

Today is not that day.

I love, love, love my baby girl. But I am SO DONE with this phase. Ready to move on to walking and talking. Ready to have her tell me exactly what she wants (not that she'd necessarily always get it), ready for her to be able to play on her own for a little while, ready for swinging at the park, actually reading books together, and "no mommy" & "I love you".

So ready.

When those things happen, I'll come back to this post and probably say to myself "gosh, I miss the baby phase, when she would just sit in one place and not talk back".

Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

But with all of that said, I'm ready.

Almost 4 months old!

Sleep... and motherhood

First off, I have to say that I'm glad The Simpsons have changed up their opening credits. It's about time!

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about sleep lately. We're actually getting some, so that's nice, but it would be nice to get more. However, I read an article by a sleep expert about sleep expectations (especially about how many hours a day infants actually need) and it has dashed any hopes that we'll be getting our lazy Sunday mornings back. Not that I was really expecting to get them back anyway, it was just wishful thinking.

According to the sleep guru, babies Penelope's age need (this is, of course, on average) 13 hours of sleep a day. Generally this means 8 1/2 at night and 4 1/2 during the day, which is broken out between 3-4 daily naps. Penny doesn't quite fit this model, but she's pretty close. We get 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep from about 8pm to 3-4am and then she'll sleep until 7 or 8am. Technically this second stretch could be called a nap.

Nap #2 is usually around 10:30 and lasts an half an or so. So that's about 11 1/2 for the day so far. An afternoon nap around 1pm can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, and a late nap around 5pm usually only lasts a half an hour to 45 minutes. Then we're back to bedtime. So all in all, she gets between 12 & 14 hours of sleep a day. Pretty good!

Now, if we could condense her naps into 2 longer stretches of sleep I would be ecstatic. This would help once I start Grad school next month and need time to read/study/do homework. If we can't make that work then I'll have to be creative with study time...

I did want to end this post with some thoughts about motherhood, but I'm going to take advantage of Penelope's sleep & Bryan being out of the house for softball and watch some of my especially girly TV shows that I've DVR'd.

It's Wednesday

Wednesday is Mom's Group days, and this week was especially nifty because there were two "new" babies! Simon is 22 days old and Will is 16 days old. They were so little! How quickly you forget that infant stage (although Penny was never quite as small as they were, they're both in the low 7lb range and she was 7.15 at birth). Still, she was at one point almost as small as they are and I'm surprised how much I've forgotten!

So here's an "old" picture just to remind everyone that the Jolly Green Giant Baby used to actually fit into newborn clothing:



Speaking of getting big, we're going to have to get rid of all of her 6 month sized clothing soon. We've already axed the 6 month footie pajamas, but the onesies were still ok for awhile. They're now a little on the snug side (length-wise, she still doesn't fill them out width-wise). I am both amused and frustrated by this - while I love it that she's tall, it's frustrating to have to constantly buy clothes... and baby clothes aren't cheap. I think a trip to the thrift store is in order, since she's only going to fit into them for a couple of months I can't justify spending a ton on new clothes.

Speaking of new, Penny is now rolling over from front to back. Sometimes she gets stuck halfway, but she's doing pretty well. Still sitting up for a minute or two before she falls over, but that'll take time... chatty as ever and she LOVES her daddy. She loves me too, but she lights up when she sees him. It's adorable :)

Oh, I start Grad school in April (did I mention that already? I forget...). I'm both excited and a little nervous, when the heck am I going to study?

Things I want to talk about later: insurance, the dog park, the evils of candy, & baseball.

Talking with Daddy

Penelope and Bryan are currently having a rather extensive conversation. It goes something like this:

P: Gah
B: Gah
P: Oooh
B: Oooh Ah
P: Ah
B: Ooh-yaa
P: Wahhhh
B: Baaahhh
P: Ohya
B: Oh?
P: Oah-ahhh

etc.

It's hilarious

How much do we like our doctor?

This much:


Actually, she doesn't cry for her pediatrician and she cried for 15 seconds when she got her shots. She just doesn't like waiting for the doctor to come in.

The promised update & more!

*Sitting up
So Penelope has started sitting up on her own! It's generally only for 30-90 seconds at a time, and she tends to lean forward like she's doing baby yoga but it still counts! Tuesday night Linden's dad (Nick) took a picture when we had people over for "traditional St. Patty's Day fajitas" so when he e-mails it to me I'll post it.

*Shots, round II
Tomorrow we go in for our next round of shots. I'm annoyed with our pediatricain's office because during Shots round I, I asked for certain shots and P's immunization record isn't marked with one of the ones I chose. So either they gave her the wrong shot OR they marked it wrong on the immunization card. Either way I'm Not. Happy.

*Diaper rash and why it is my mortal enemy
I have tried everything to get rid of Penny's diaper rash. Well, practically everything. I have some new suggestions from friends and we see the Pediatrician tomorrow so between the two we should hopefully have this cured by the weekend. She doesn't seem bothered by it, but it frustrates me to no end...

*The importance of friends with kids
I love having friends with kids, especially when they're around Penny's age (I love my friend's older kids too!). It's nice to have playdates where the babies can "play" and the mommies can talk in complete sentences for once :)

*The importance of friends without kids
It's easy to get so wrapped up in parenthood that you neglect friendships with your childless friends (I dislike that phrase tho - it implies that there's something wrong with not having kids). Anyway, Bryan and I are going to make more of an effort to stay in touch with our friends who don't have kids - I want them to be a part of Penny's life too and sometimes it's nice to talk to someone who doesn't have kids. It's a different perspective...

*Books everyone should read
There are a lot, but right now I'm reading Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. It's about all the things your History book got wrong about U.S. History (and many of the things it omitted). It's absolutely fascinating!

One last thing: Last night Penny slept from 8:30am-6:30am! We're hoping for a repeat tonight, but I won't hold my breath.

PS - I want this: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/e203/index.cfm?pkey=xsrd0m1|16|||0|||||||baby%20food&cm_src=SCH

Some cute:

Soon I will actually update...

Things I'll be talking about in this future post:
*Sitting up
*Shots, round II
*Diaper rash and why it is my mortal enemy
*The importance of friends with kids
*The importance of friends without kids
*Books everyone should read

For now, however, you get CUTE
(In her size 12 month jeans... yes 12 months)

Fun at the Zoo

A real update later...

Astronomers declare February no longer a month

Hilarious!!------Emboldened by their success in declaring Pluto not a planet, the International Astronomical Union determined this week by a close vote that February is too short to be considered a true month. It has, however, been granted the newly created status of “dwarf month.” It shares this dubious distinction with several other calendar time spans...

read more | digg story

We're walking! (sort of)

So today Bryan and I decided to put Penelope in the baby walker to see how she likes it. She did!

Here's some video - choppy editing is my fault :)

Sitting Up

So Penny isn't quite sitting up on her own, but she's giving it the 'ole college try!



This was the same day as her laugh, but it took me awhile to get it all together.

Bad dreams?

I think Penelope is having bad dreams about getting her nose suctioned (to get out the goop).

Still sick

So we're on Day 5 of this cold. Bryan and I are trying to decide if we think it's just a lingering bug or if all her congestion is due to an allergy onset. I really hope it's not allergies, I would be super upset if we had to find new homes for our pets. While they're sometimes a pain in the butt, I LOVE our animals (ok, so maybe I don't love the cat - but I certainly don't want to get rid of her).

Ever since she got sick she's been having some sleep issues. Sleeping in her crib makes her more congested (I'm 99.9% sure that it's due to laying flat on her back) so we've brought her swing into our room and she sleeps in that. It puts her at a slight angle, so she gets less stuffy. However she still wakes up 3 times a night - which is what she was doing 2 months ago. So I feel like we've taken a huge step backwards in the sleeping department, but hopefully we'll go back to our awesome 1 waking once she's feeling better.

Last night she went to bed at 8, woke up at 9, was back down at 9:30, woke up at 2, down at 2:30 (my best guess, B took that shift), back up again at 5, down at 5:10 and up for the day at 6. It's now 8 and she's asleep. I hope she sleeps until at least 9:30.

I'm going to need some serious coffee today.

Your Daily Dose of Cute

This is today during Tummy Time. Penny did pretty well considering she was still sick, although her congestion is slowly going away. I really hope she's less mucous-y tomorrow, poor baby HATES the nose suction thingy.

Sick Baby :(

So Saturday after we got back from Reno, Penny's nose started running and she was a little congested. We took her temperature (very slight fever - 99.9), gave her some infant Tylenol, suctioned the heck out of her nose, and cuddled her a lot. Sunday she seemed to be doing better until about mid-day and then her breathing started to get really loud, although she didn't seem to be bothered by it too much. She did get a little fussy near dusk, but cheered up when Bryan got home from golf (she LOVES her Daddy).

Monday morning she seemed much better, and I thought we were in the clear!

Last night was not fun - for her or us - she woke up every 3-4 hours (which doesn't seem all that bad, but considering that she had been getting 6 in a row at night her sleep has been almost halved). Her breathing sounds awful - and it's just her nose, her lungs sound clear (although I don't have a stethoscope, nor am I trained in any of that but to my untrained ear it sounds just like nasal congestion).

My Mom (who shall now be nominated for sainthood) dropped off some infant saline drops this morning. I'm going to try them once P wakes up from her nap... I currently have the humidifier and the air purifier running in P's room. I hope the humming noise they both make lulls her to sleep for longer than her normal 45 minute nap, poor baby NEEDS to sleep.

Thank goodness this is only a cold. I would be a wreck if it was anything more serious. I think she's handling the cold much better than I am, I feel like crying whenever I see her poor stuffed up face (this morning her right eye was red and puppy this morning too - my poor baby!). Being a mom is nerve racking.

Welcome to the world Ava & Luke

So on February 28th, my cousin (technically my 1st cousin once removed) and his wife Jennifer welcomed two beautiful babies into this world - Ava & Luke.

Jen had a really difficult pregnancy with debilitating morning sickness that kept her in and out of the hospital. If that wasn't difficult enough, during a routine ultrasound, it was discovered that Luke had a hole in his heart and his arteries were switched. This meant that very soon after delivery Luke would need heart surgery.

So on Feb. 28th (which I believe was 6 weeks before her due date), Jen had a c-section. Ava weighed 3lb.9oz,16.5" & Luke was 3lbs15oz., 18.5"

On March 3rd, Luke was airlifted to a hospital in LA for his surgery, his chest was left open for 24 hours because of swelling, but is now closed. He is on an external pacemaker. There are two additional holes, but so far he's doing well, they're hoping he'll be transferred back to the same hospital as his sister soon. Hopefully Ava will be released in the next few weeks (once she hits 4.8lbs).

Jennifer and Wade (my cousin) are doing as well as can be expected (I haven't actually talked to them, but have heard it through the grapevine). I would call but I know that they're probably exhausted - they commute back and forth to the two hospitals every day to see their babies.

Anyway - if you have ANY good thoughts/wishes to share, please send them to Luke, Ava, Jennifer, & Wade. Hopefully my Aunt Lila (Wade's mom) will get a chance to take/send some pictures, I'm sure they're both absolutely beautiful.

So to little Luke & Ava: I'm thinking about you both, and I want you to know that I love you so much! Stay strong - Penny and I can't wait to meet you both!

The weekend and a general update

So this weekend Bryan, Penny, & I headed up to Reno for my cousin Lisa's wedding. We went up a day early so we could spend some time with B's family since we don't get to see them all that often. The trip is about 2 1/2 hours and it went really well - Miss P sleeps like a champ in her carseat (yea!) and Harley-Quinn (our puppy) is a good traveler also. We didn't have to stop once we hit the road and Penelope woke up just as we got there, sweet as can be after her long nap.

It was really nice to visit with B's family - we stayed at his grandparents house (Grandpa built it himself and it's beautiful!). Penelope was a huge flirt the whole time and was quite taken with her great-grandparents.

Here's a picture of Penny and her great-grandpa Smith


We didn't get any of her and great-grandma this time around, although here's one of her & great-grandma from Christmas:


Amazing how much a couple of months makes!

Anyway, Lisa's wedding was a lot of fun too, even though we were only able to stay until the first dance. We were hoping Penny could sleep through most of the reception, but it was a tad too noisy and she was getting a little crabby. So we left, but not before we were able to visit with my cousins. All of us second cousins grew up together, we would spend summers at my great-uncle's cabin in Butte Meadows and we all have really fond memories of camping trips there. Once we all got older, visits happened less often, but now that we're all getting married & having kids I think we'll see each other more often. My cousin Jason has a 19 month old son named Tyson, Lisa just got married, Terra gets married in May, Michael is engaged... I forgot to pry into Chrissy's love life. I'll have to do that in May at Terra's wedding :) Jodee has been with Ken for what seems like decades. Jeffery, Sam, Ian, & Savannah are the last of the "big" cousins, and Savannah is going to be a senior in High School (I can remember when she was born, that makes me feel so old!).

The "little" cousins are (in age order): Macy, Reece, Hailey, Payton, Riley, Dakota, & baby-girl due in June. I hope I got that age-order right! It's pretty close at least.

Alright - on to everything Penelope.

She's laughing more often, it's pretty cute. She loves to laugh at the baby in the mirror. Actually, she loves to talk to the baby in the mirror. Come to think of it, she just loves to talk. This morning I had her on her play-mat while I finished my breakfast, I have a baby mirror attached to one of those annoying arches that blast terrible kiddie music when you pull the rings (the mirror block the rings, P doesn't like them anyway and the music makes me want to claw my ears). Anyway, she was chatting away at the baby in the mirror for 5 whole minutes - with only brief pauses to catch her breath. Gah-goo-bah!

It was really flipping cute. I'll get it on video one day.

I do have more video to upload, but I haven't gotten the chance to cut/edit it. Maybe I'll be able to do that during P's naps this week. She's finally started to get herself on a schedule. So I have at least 2 (generally more like 3) stretches of 30-45 minutes every morning and afternoon to get stuff done. Lately that's just been laundry & catching up on my recorded Ellen shows (ha!) but now that I'm current with Ellen I'll have to make it a priority to edit video.

Tomorrow I go to Kaplan University to check out their Masters/Teacher Credentialing program. I really hope this pans out b/c it will get me to my educational goals while allowing me to keep P out of daycare for awhile longer.

Ok, almost time to pick up the kidlets - I haven't seen them since Wednesday and I miss them!

3 month birthday!

So tomorrow Penny turns 3 months old! In some ways it seems like I gave birth just yesterday, but in many more ways it seems like I've been doing this for ages :) I'll pretend it's because I'm such a natural at parenting.

So at 3 months Miss P is 26" long and 15.7lbs. She's off the growth charts!

We're going to my cousin Lisa's wedding this weekend - so I'll post pictures when I get back!

Yesterday

So I mentioned it briefly in my "50 Things" post, but here's the 411 on yesterday's meltdown.

Penny went down for her morning lap without too much trouble, but woke up early very upset. I changed her and attempted to feed her, she would take the bottle and then spit it out and scream. I burped her (to no avail), changed positions, changed her again, attempted more food, took her temperature in her ear & rectally (no fever), sang, walked, bounced, tried the pacifier, tried feeding again, and called my mom, the doctor's office, my midwives, Alisha, and texted Bryan, Sarah, & Teresa.

I also tried ice, teething rings, & massaging her gums just in case it was teething.

Nothing. She continued to scream. And I'm talking about serious screaming. I had never hear her sound like that before and I really hope I never hear it again - it scared me. By the time Bryan got home I was in tears.

I finally got a hold of someone at the Pediatrician's office and they told us to come in at 2 (it was noon).

Bryan had gotten her to calm down a little. I don't know if that's because of the homeopathic medicine we had given her for teething babies, because she was exhausted from crying, because she wasn't in pain anymore, or because she was with daddy. But at least she slept a little. She also took a bottle from him (thank goodness) so by the time we got to the Ped's office she was right as rain and flirty.

Our pediatrician was both unhelpful and condescending. He told me to try all of the things I had already tried (you mean you feed her when she's fussy? What a novel concept!) and I don't think he understood the type of screaming I had been dealing with. Ordinary crying I can handle because (through the process of elimination) I can figure out what she wants/needs. But this was different - and I don't think anyone (other than moms of infants) can understand because you really have to hear it to 'get' it. It's the kind of crying that tears up your heart into itty bitty pieces and strews them all over the floor. It sucks.

The good news is that she doesn't have an ear infection, isn't really teething (as far as we can tell), and is otherwise a perfectly healthy 3 month old.

She was fine the rest of the night and just peachy today.

I really hope yesterday was a fluke.

50 Things

1. Today I dropped off my grad school app! (technically it's for the CSUS teacher credentialing program). I should know by April if I got in...
2. We may have found new insurance and on paper it looks a heck of a lot better than our old plan and it's cheaper.
3. Yesterday was a bad day - Penelope decided that it would be totally awesome to scream bloody murder for almost 4 straight hours. Luckily Bryan came home early and we took her to the Pediatrician. They couldn't find anything wrong (no ear infection, no swollen gums, no temperature). She stopped crying by the time we got to the Ped's office and smiled at her pediatrician the whole time. Stinker.
4. Our pediatrician sounds like Gonzo. It's really annoying.
5. There's nothing like Chai Tea on a rainy day
6. I'm not a huge fan of the rain, but I'm glad it's here - we need it!
7. Bryan and I now have Life Insurance - I feel like a grown up :)
8. It took me almost a month, but I finished a book!
9. We have to do our taxes this week... I have a feeling they're going to be a headache.
10. Penelope now weighs just over 15 pounds.
11. I had to go through P's closet again and get rid of all of her 6 month sized clothes. Our Amazon baby is now in 9 month sleepers.
12. I'm really looking forward to Mom's group tomorrow. I may make the ladies cookies!
13. I made banana bread last night with wheat flour. It's not a sweet that way, but I feel less guilty when I pig out and eat 2 large slices.
14. My brother starts bartending school next week - which hopefully means he'll have a job by next month. Hooray!

This is hard. I don't know if I can get to 50.

15. I'm totally committed to doing baby signs with Penny. I've already started forming her hands into certain signs (like hungry & eat). I know she's too young to be able to make them or even really know what I'm doing, but I figure that it can't hurt to start super early.
16. I miss the gym :( we canceled my membership b/c it wasn't really in our budget. Good to save money, but I find myself less motivated to work out if I don't have a gym membership.
17. Lisa's wedding is the weekend - I can't wait to see everyone!!
18. I have three weddings to go to this year, Lisa's, Terra's, & Tazz's
19. Hopefully this means next year Penny will have some new cousins to play with *wink wink*
20. Except for Tazz, it's ok if he doesn't breed (*lol*)
21. Just found out that the IUD isn't covered by our current (and super crappy) insurance. Well crap. I can't do hormonal birth control and we got pregnant using a diaphragm. What the heck am I supposed to do?!?!?
22. Have I mentioned how much I HATE America's healthcare system?
23. Although I don't know how much better any other system is. I hear great things, but who knows how true all of that is...
24. My new favorite pen is an ultra fine sharpie.
25. Almost time to go pick up the kidlets! Maybe I'll post the other 25 things later (providing I can think of 25 more).

I have a migraine

That is all.

I hate shopping for heath insurance

We're trying to find a new health insurance plan. The one at B's work is going to go up soon and the costs are getting out of hand - plus our insurance sucks. I HATE our coverage. Although I doubt we'll be able to afford anything resembling good coverage. It's tempting to only get Penelope covered and then just hope neither Bryan or I get sick, but that's not being very responsible - we need to stay healthy too. *sigh* I really, really hate health insurance in America.

I'm actually hoping we can afford a Kaiser plan. I know that there are a lot of people who hate Kaiser, but I never had a problem with them when I was growing up - they're familiar & I like that. Blue Shield HMO (what we have now) is frustratingly slow...

Although we may save some money if we decline maternity coverage. If I get pregnant again we're going to go with our midwives, so I really don't need maternity coverage. Odds are that no matter what plan we go with the midwives would be cheaper than a hospital delivery anyway. Besides, I loved my home-birth and don't want to labor any other way (unless, of course, it becomes medically necessary).

Anyway - the whole thing is giving me a headache. I have to actually make some phone calls this week because I have NO IDEA what half of the terms means and what kind of coverage we actually need.

Being a grownup sucks sometimes :(