Weaning and sleeping

So as Penelope's first birthday approaches, so does the end of bottles... we're not going to quit cold turkey (which just makes Pen sound like a formula junkie) but we are going to start the weaning process. In a way we already have - P is down to 3 bottles a day and those generally coincide with her nap schedule. She has one around 9:30 and naps around 10, has one at 2 and generally naps around 2:30, and then has her bedtime bottle right before she goes to sleep.

At the height of bottle consumption she was at 6 a day (I think) so we've cut her formula intake in half. This means, of course, that she eats more solids throughout the day. She has three meals and two snacks a day - and sometimes those snacks are bottles at this point. So eventually those snacks will be just solids and she'll drink water or milk with meals. She already gets whole milk with breakfast and she really seems to like it, so that's good.

By the end of the month I'd like to cut down to 2 bottles - maybe just morning and night. By February I'd like her to be down to just the nighttime bottle and before the next baby comes I'd like for her to be off bottles completely.

We'll see how this goes. If she's really resistant then I'll reevaluate... I don't want the transition to be traumatic. But I also don't want to have two babies on bottles (hopefully breastfeeding will work this time, but I know that at some point pumping/bottle feeding will be necessary since I'll have to go back to work and will have to student teach in the Fall). The thought of two babies on bottles (even part-time) fills me with dread and makes the hand on my skin weep. Bottle washing is hell on your skin.

So if Penny can be off bottle before April I will be a very, very happy mama. The nighttime bottle will be the hardest - for us both - so we'll see if milk in a sippy plus a bedtime story will do the trick. It's the last one I want to get rid of so I have some time before I have to worry about it. She may surprise me and wean on her own, she is getting more independent when it comes to eating (which is a whole 'nother post).

This of course brings me to sleeping. She's been doing well, sleeping from 8-6:30 or 7, except the last week or so she's woken up at night and needed to come into bed with us. I say needed, but it's really just easiest for us - I'm sure I could make her stay in her crib and she'd sleep eventually but I'm not comfortable with letting her cry (it works well for some moms & families, but it's not for us). I know that it's her 2nd molar that's bothering her; and maybe the third molar as well. I admit that I enjoy waking up next to her in the morning, although I do NOT enjoy being smacked in the face in the middle of the night.

Once New Baby gets here nighttime bed transfers will have to stop - and ideally they'll stop well before then. Since we co-sleep with our new babies until they're about 3 months old, we just can't have New Baby, Penelope, and us in the same bed - there just isn't room. It's hard enough now with the three of us (plus the damn cat)... there's no way we can fit a baby into the mix. So Penny is going to have to stay in her own bed.

We contemplated getting bunk beds for Pen (so eventually the two kids could share a room) but after talking with our midwives we've decided that's not really the way we want to go... their stories of bunk bed hassles have given us a lot to think about - a lot we never really considered (like sheet changing and sick kids). So bunk beds are out. I think Bryan is just going to build a frame for a queen sized mattress that's low to the ground. P will move to the queen in her new room (which is now the "guest" room), the baby will eventually move into the nursery, and when the baby is old enough both kids will share a room. They'll either share the queen sized bed, we'll get two twins, or do some sort of trundle thing. It all depends on the gender and temperament of New Baby.

Ok, time to finish addressing the Holiday cards. I ordered 50, but I think I'll need to get more...

Pictures and video

Pictures and video from the last few days:

Penelope dancing to various songs:


Thanksgiving:
Riding her horsey (a birthday present from Great Aunt Diana & Great Uncle Bill)

Playing with blocks



Pier 39:
On the carousel

On the Pier - Alcatraz in the background


Looking at the water/sea lions




Dickens Christmas Fair:
Hanging out at Mad Sal's stage

Someone is EXHAUSTED

Firsts, Lasts, Repeat Repeat Repeat

The first year of a baby's life arguably contains the greatest amount of firsts they will experience - I mean, the whole year is full of them. We've had some fun ones this past year, and Saturday will mark the Last First (well, holiday/celebration wise). It will be Penelope's First Birthday. I am looking forward to (and slightly dreading) the event, which will take place at a local pizza parlor and is themed "Winter Onederland" (cute huh? I didn't come up with it).

Anyway it should be a lot of fun, but it will be bittersweet. My baby isn't so baby anymore...

But until then, we have a whole week of firsts left. Last week was P's first Thanksgiving, today was her first trip to Pier 39 & the Dicken's Christmas Fair. Tomorrow will be her first November 29th (I know, lame, but there's really not much else going on that day).

I have some pictures of Thanksgiving & of today, but I am WAY too tired to grab the connector cord thing for the camera and upload the pictures to post. Maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow. Maybe.

So that pretty much takes care of Firsts and Lasts... on to Repeat Repeat Repeat.

We've gotten to that LOVELY phase of childhood where Penelope LOVES to force her poor, exhausted, and only sometime patient mother to repeat EVERYTHING. She wants me to read to her now (instead of just flipping through the books) and then will have me read the same d@mn book over and over and over again. I have memorized most of the books we have in the livingroom. Thankfully my Aunt Diana gifted us with a bunch of new books so I have a lot more left to memorize (I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm very very glad for the new material - I think if I had to read "Mr. Brown Can Moo" one more time I'd need to be committed).

She also loves to have me repeat words. So tonight she would show me the blue crayon over and over again so I would tell her "blue" and then she'd laugh like it was the funniest joke in the world.

This stage is getting old - fast. It's lasted about 2 days and I am ready for it to be over already... only I have a feeling its only just begun. Oy vey.

Oh! Last week I ordered our holiday cards - hopefully they come in the mail Monday and I can get them out soon. I love the preview of them online so I hope they turn out well.

And now for a New Baby update:
New Baby has decided that he/she would like to take a more active role - by kicking the bejesus out of me morning and night (not noon, he/she sleeps then). This equals so AWESOME sleep for mama... and by awesome I mean restless. I shouldn't be surprised (and I'm not really), since Penelope did the exact same thing when she was "on the inside" <- that makes it sound like prison.

Anyway, the movement is reassuring and a little annoying. Especially since Penelope has gotten so much better at sleeping through the night (from 8pm-6:30am). I'd also like to sleep then, but find myself awake and tossing and turning most of the night. The sleep deprivation will only get worse once New Baby makes his/her appearance.

One day, when the kids are 12 & 13, I will get a full 8 hours of blissful, uninterrupted sleep. I hope. So kids, if you're reading this now, all mommy wants for Mother's Day is to be allowed to sleep in until noon. Of course, once my kids are old enough to let me sleep in I'll have morphed into my own mother and wake up without an alarm every morning at 5:30. Makes me wish I would have appreciated all the sleeping in I did as a teenager.

So kids, if you're reading this and you're currently able to sleep in on the weekends until noon then count your blessings. Appreciate every Saturday that is spent in pajamas until 3. Enjoy 12 hours of sleep while you can get it - one day you'll be older, have kids, and/or have been cursed with your Grandmother's freaky natural early morning wake-up.

Alright, off to attempt to sleep - but since New Baby is having his/her own little rave inside my uterus right now I don't really see sleep as a possibility anytime soon.

What do you think?

So when I was pregnant with Penelope I went to this website that claims to be able to show you what your kids will look like (you upload pictures of mommy & daddy and they merge them somehow, probably with magic).

Anyway, the picture they gave was for a 3-ish year old - but I figured it would be fun to compare the picture to one of Penny now.

Here's the website's prediction picture:


And here's Penelope now:


So what do you think? Relatively accurate or way off base?

Belly Belly Belly

So I haven't been as diligent this pregnancy with taking belly pictures. With Penelope I took one every four weeks until I was 30-ish weeks or so and then it was every other week or weekly (I think, it's been awhile and I'm too lazy to check my photobucket account).

Anyway, I have yet to post a belly picture this go 'round (or have I? Can't remember). Regardless, here's New Baby Belly at 20 weeks (Halfway!!!!!):



And for comparison, here's my belly with Penelope at 19 weeks:


And for fun, here's a sequence of belly pictures for New Baby:


So looking at the pics, I have to say my belly is much rounder from the get-go this time. I looked pregnant quite a bit earlier - which isn't surprising, especially considering I hadn't lost all my Penelope baby weight when I got pregnant this time around.

Happy Thanksgiving

So I have issues with Thanksgiving (like I do with many major holidays) including (but not limited to) the following:

1. There is no way that the "first" Thanksgiving happened in November. No. Freaking. Way. There is no evidence to support a November Thanksgiving, so having Thanksgiving in November seems weird and utterly arbitrary.
2. The weird cartoon-y glorification of the Puritans bugs me.
3. Culturally sanctioned gluttony is so awesome.

There's more, I assure you.

But I still participate - why? Cultural peer pressure? Family obligation? Probably a little of both... I find cultural peer pressure to be even harder to resist now that I have a baby. That's probably how a lot of cultural traditions suck you in - doing it all for the kids. You can't short your poor kids out of a day of non-stop eating now can you? Because childhood obesity is becoming a rite of passage :/

Meh.

It's really not all that bad, I do enjoy spending time with family - playing cards and watching football. So I don't hate Thanksgiving. I just have some issues with it... nothing that can't be overlooked where pie is concerned.

So Happy Thanksgiving. Look for my Christmas rant in a few weeks. That one is MUCH longer.

I shall leave you with a picture of Penelope (which I've also posted on Facebook, so many will have seen this one before but I wanted it for the blog as well).

Something from this morning...

This morning we all wake up and I ask Penny "where's my morning kiss?"

So she leans over and kisses... Daddy.

Yeah.

I eventually got my morning kiss, but he got two.