More baby Steelers pictures!

TV

Bryan and I admittedly watch too much TV. Monday nights are Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Two 1/2 Men. Tuesdays are NCIS (that's just me) and Scrubs, Wednesdays we actually don't have a show, Thursdays are Lie to Me and the Office, Fridays The Clone Wars. Sunday is Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. Every weeknight is The Daily Show, and occasionally Ellen (ok, that's me again). When Bryan has Penny for the 4am shift, the usually watch Hot Stove on the baseball channel.

So yes, too much TV.

I would like to cut back when Penny gets older. I don't want to raise a TV junkie, but man do I love my TV! Besides, some of the shows we watch aren't really appropriate for younger children. I've actually been thinking about this a lot... maybe one day soon I'll have a long post on how I feel about TV & kids, but I don't have time today (baby is starting to wake up for her morning nap and I should really take a shower today).

Schedules and Sleep

So we've been trying to get Penny to go to bed 'early' - her normal bedtime is around 10:30/11 and that's really too late. We need time in the evening to hang out and chat without also having to feed/change/play with baby.

The last few nights have been pretty successful, last night & tonight she was in bed by 8:30. The night before I think we got her down at 9. We put her in her crib for this - it's too noisy in the living room and I don't want her in our room alone (I still don't trust the cat). So she's in her own room and we have the monitor on. After she wakes up, usually around 12:30 or 1, I bring her into our room and into her bassinet for the remainder of the night. She rarely sleeps in our bed anymore, although when we sleep away from the house (like last weekend when I had two overnights at work) or if I'm super tired (like last night) I'll put her in-between us in the bed.

It looks as though we're getting a pretty good night-time schedule down. I won't claim success until next week tho, I want to give us a whole week to adjust.

A day-time schedule, however, is next to impossible. Why? Well, we're actually pretty busy during the day. Here's a sample of our schedule:

Monday - free morning, drop off Penny at 12:30 at my parents (while I go to the gym & go to work), she gets picked up around 4, I get home at 7
Tuesday - hang out with Sophia while Sarah goes to work, then errands or maybe some housecleaning, usually get home around 4
Wednesday - New Mom's Group, drop off Penny at my parents (gym & work for me), she gets picked up around 4, I get home at 7
Thursday - usually hanging out with Alisha, Sarah & their babies... or more errands if we didn't them done Tuesday
Friday - free morning, attempt house-cleaning, pick up the kids from school
Saturday & Sunday - depends on if I'm working, so sometimes she's with me and sometimes she stays at home with Bryan.

So you can see how it's not really possible to be consistent with naps during the day. She does sleep while we're out & about - but never at the same time everyday or for the same amount of time. In general, even though she doesn't get a regular day schedule, she still seems to keep the same night schedule. So I guess we're super lucky there...

So, in other news, I think we're getting close to laughing! (Did I say that already???) and she's really trying to sit up. I still think we're a way off from sitting up unassisted, I mean, she's only 2 months old. She does LOVE to stand though!

Ok, it's 9 and I should sign off. Bryan is already asleep on the couch (he's still not feeling very well) and I guess I should try and catch some extra sleep since it's likely I'll have both shifts again tonight.

Sick, sick, sick

Not Penny (thank goodness) but both Bryan and my mom are sick... B was up a couple of time last night emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet (ew) and is staying home from work this morning.

Sine he was ill, I took all the shifts last night - which sucked. But she slept relatively well, so it could have been worse. I just hope she doesn't get sick because that would be terrible.

Coffee is my friend this morning.

I never want to have twins.

Today I babysat for my friend Sarah and her 5 month old baby girl Sophia. It was only for an hour and a half, but about 15 minutes before Sarah got home both Sophia and Penelope decided to express themselves - loudly. I was walking around the house with one baby in each arm attempting to get them to stop... I failed. Eventually Sophia cried herself to sleep and I was then able to get Penny to stop. The scream-fest probably only lasted 5 minutes, but it felt like forever.

It sounds worse than it was, at one point I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror with the girls and I had to laugh. It was mildly amusing.

I'll be watching Sophia once a week - and I'm sure that next week will be less noisy :) I'll plan on going for a long walk once she wakes up and that should keep them both pretty occupied.

After Sarah got back and Penny went down for a nap, I finished the cloth wipes I started last week. When we decided to do cloth diapers, I decided not to do cloth wipes too - for whatever reason I thought that would be too much work. Now that we have a routine with our diapers, it really makes no sense to continue to use disposable wipes. Cloth wipes are cuter, better for the environment, and don't create any extra laundry so they're pretty convenient. Luckily Sarah has a super-cool sewing machine that does a surge-stitch, so I was able to make some up pretty quickly. I'll take pictures and post them at some point.

Next week Penelope has her first doctor's appointment. Should be interesting - she's technically behind on her vaccinations, but we're not going to follow the CDC's schedule anyway. I'm expecting to get a fair amount of raised eyebrows with our unconventional birth and our choice to delay vax's. Oh well.

I have more pictures and video, I just haven't gotten a chance to upload them yet... soon!

Go Steelers!!

More pictures later, but here's our newest Steelers fan!

Happy Birthday Bryan!

Today is Bryan's 35th birthday - so Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband (and Penny's fabulous daddy)!

For his birthday, Penelope decided to sleep really well last night. She was only up twice and slept in until almost 9:30. We both feel amazingly rested today - so thanks Penny!

Here's a picture of my two favorite people:


(Oh, and GO STEELERS!)