Back to Work and Learning New Things

We survived! My first week back to work, that is :) Was it fun? No. Did I cry every night? Maybe. But we did it, and I am sure we can do the next 10 weeks too! Lucy actually fared far better than I did. Our nanny is wonderful and so good with her, and I feel so comfortable knowing that Lucy is at home. We are super lucky too because Andrew is able to check in at lunch every day. Our nanny also sends me texts and pictures throughout the day so I feel very in the loop. I love to see how she dresses Lucy every day!

Our new schedule is EXHAUSTING! I get up at 5, pump, shower and get dressed, feed Lucy and am at the door by 6:30. I get to school by 7 and have half an hour to get set up for the day. Then, I teach from 7:30-2:30, pumping three times in there. There is NO time to do anything and I think my stress level is impacting how much milk I get when I pump. Hopefully I will settle in and be able to produce more this week. I see my kiddos off at by 3:00, leave school by 3:15, home by 3:45. I feed and play with Lucy until between 6:30 and 7 (boo for not a whole lot of time with her!), then we do her bath and bedtime routine. She still is not sleeping well at all, so on a good night it takes until 8 to get her to bed (don't even ask about a bad night!). At 8, I eat dinner, wash bottles and pump parts, prepare bottles for the next day, and pack my lunch for school. THEN, I finally get to prepare my lessons and activities for the next day. I try to be in bed by 10. In theory, I would get 7 hours of sleep, but Lucy is still waking every hour. I am one tired mama! :)

We are actually going to see her pediatrician on Monday to see if we can get to the bottom of this sleep thing. She does well in her swing - it is just when we lay her flat on her back. She screams and screams like she is in pain. She wakes up from a deep sleep screaming. It is almost like she can't transition from one sleep cycle to the next. My poor baby :( Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this soon!

In other news, Lucy has hit this amazing developmental growth spurt! She is learning all kinds of new things and gets so proud of herself! She has been rolling from belly to back for awhile now, but it always required this great production. Now, as soon as she is put on her tummy, she flops right over, and then gets this HUGE grin on her face! She has also learned how to splash in the bath tub! It is the funniest thing. She will wait until the cup of water is being poured over her and then just flail her arms and legs as fast as she can! Silly girl! She entered the phase of "I must taste everything" and now puts everything in her mouth. If we hold a toy up to her face, she grabs it and pulls it in close to "kiss" it! On Friday, she even tried tasting her toes! I don't thinks she liked them too much!

Another big new thing for Lucy is her new carseat! She has hated hated hated her infant seat since day 1, so we finally just bought a convertible to see if she would like it more. We figured we were going to need one anyone, and if it makes riding more pleasant for her, why not? We got the Graco MyRide65, and we love it! Lucy did great her first trip out in it, and although she wasn't a huge fan yesterday, we are hopeful that the angle of this seat makes her much more comfortable.

I need to download newest pictures... stay tuned for those!

Who Needs Sleep?

Well... I do. :) And Daddy and the dogs wouldn't mind it either. So why oh why are we up all night?

Lucy, the love and light of my life, has many good qualities. Her little personality is developing so much. She is so smart and strong and wonderful. However, sleep is not her thing. She is a

terrible sleeper. Pretty much from the beginning, she has had sleep issues. She hated to be on

her back for the first 6 weeks of her life. So she slept in her swing. Then, we tried to get her to sleep in her bassinet. No dice. We tried to get her to sleep in her crib. No dice. Bassinet again. Nope. Finally, we ended up letting her sleep in our bed. Not ideal and none of us were happy with it, but at least she was sleeping. A few weeks ago, we decided we needed to move her back to her crib. In preparing to go back to work, I needed her to be in her crib or else I was afraid she would be 6 months old before we could make the move!

We used to put Lucy down between 9 and 10 - basically around the time we were winding down for the night. Even when sleeping in our bed, she would scream throughout her last nursing session of the night - pulling on and off, fussing, grunting, crying. It really wasn't pleasant for anyone and I felt so bad that the end of my poor baby's day was so traumatic. After doing some reading and internet searching, I decided that we were letting her get overtired. She always always always want(ed) to take a nap between 630 and 7 - and we would wake her up so she would "go to bed." Then the fussing and crankiness would ensue. Light bulb moment - she was ready for bed, not a nap! We started doing her bedtime routine at the first signs of tiredness and she is so much more fun to put to sleep now! No more screaming - just eating and rocking! Love it!

One hurdle crossed - but we still have major problems. Lucy will sleep from 7-10 (actually the past two nights she was woken up half an hour after going down and then we had to do the whole rock/nurse thing again!) but after 10 she has been waking up every.single.hour. Seriously - every hour between 10 and 6. Holy exhausting! Everyone at the T household is running on fumes. We swaddle her, we play white noise, she has a velour crib sheet, her mattress is inclined - what more can we do? It is frustrating, to say the least. She isn't waking up hungry

(she eats maybe two or three of those EIGHT wakings) but she is definitely waking up crying. We try just rubbing her tummy or quietly letting her know we are there, but if we don't pick her up, her cries escalate to all out wails - which increases the amount of time we are all awake.

Poor Lucy :( Last night, Andrew put our sleep position wedge thing in her crib around 130, and that bought us a 3 hour stretch! We will definitely be trying that again tonight in hopes that we can all get more sleep!

Even though our nights are long, our days with Lucy are so much fun. She is smiling at everything and learning new things every day. She still hates her carseat and stroller, so there's a good chance that Lucy is going to get her "big girl" carseat this weekend! We think she might like it better because it sits a little more upright, and our monkey is always trying to sit up! It can be rear facing for up to 40 pounds, too, so I think she will still be perfectly safe!

We are sadly getting ready for the end of my maternity leave, but we still feel very lucky to have found such a great nanny! Do you think she will have fun with this little girl or what? :)

Great news!! and some updates :)

I would love love love love love love love LOVE to be able to stay home with Lucy every day, but unfortunately the time for me to go back to work is fast approaching. I have two weeks left with my little lady and I plan on soaking them up and soaking her in.

Before Lucy was even born, she was on the waiting list at three different daycares. One of the daycares (the best one, the greatest one, the perfect one) is literally right next door to my school, and even though it seemed highly unlikely they would have a mid-year opening, I was still optimistic and hopeful that Lucy would get a spot there. It would have been great - I could have nursed her lunch, dropped her off at the last possible minute, and picked her up right after dismissal. She could have come to my classroom to finish up any work before we went home. However - that was too good to be true! :) She is still on the wait list there, and IF I do go back to work next year, there is a very strong possibility she will spend her days there.

Even once I knew that daycare was out, I wasn't too worried because she got a spot at a center near our house. We had toured this center late in my pregnancy and they seemed good. Not great. Not wonderful. But good. The biggest downside is how far a drive it is from my school - it took me 37 minutes to get there the day we toured. Because Andrew travels around so much, I hated the though of her being sick and it taking so long for me to get to her. Plus, it meant it would be that much longer before I get to see her every afternoon.

Once Lucy was born and we started to get to know her little personality, I started to get really nervous about sending her to daycare. She is not world's best sleeper (ha!), she naps in her swing every day, and she hates hates hates riding in the car. I didn't want her to have to start and end her day doing things she hates. Plus, she was going to have to share attention with three other babies (this center has a 4:1 ratio). Andrew and I started tossing around the idea of hiring a nanny, and the more we thought about it, the better it sounded. Not only would Lucy be able to stay at her house every day, but Andrew will be able to see her most days when he comes home for lunch! It also means we won't be paying for childcare over the summer when we don't need it!

We interviewed several people by phone and two people in person and I am thrilled that we have found someone who I think will be just perfect! She is 25, getting married in June, very sweet and has wonderful references. When we met her, she took to Lucy right away and seemed very comfortable holding her, talking to her, just being around her. She is going to come over next week one day to "play," and then babysit for us one evening to troubleshoot any possible issues. I feel so good that Lucy is going to get to stay in her comfortable home with someone who will love her and care for her. Our nanny even promised to send me hourly text messages and pictures - do you think she picked up on my neurotic tendencies? :) SO - even though I hate the thought of leaving my sweet monkey, I am happy with our solution. And it is only three months. I can do three months. Then we will reassess!

In other big news - Lucy's cousin is here! My brother and his wife had a sweet baby girl on Monday! It will be so fun in July when we get the babies together :)

Lucy is still not sleeping well at night and logistically I am starting to get worried. I have not slept longer than two hours at time in a week (which means she hasn't either!). She isn't waking up hungry all of these times, although she will usually nurse just a little. I have put her new super soft sheet (just like her changing pad cover) in her crib and we are going to give it the old college try again this weekend. I really don't mind waking up with her at night, but I do wish she would give us at least one good long stretch. I am worried that she isn't getting enough nighttime sleep. I wish she had an instruction manual! :)

Even in our sleep deprived state, Lucy is still such a joy! She is generally a happy smiley baby when she is awake (as long as we stay home... she still hates her carseat which leads trips out to be a little hectic!). She is starting to show a lot of interest in her toys that light up, especially her little laptop! It is hilarious to watch her with such concentration as she "works." We spend most evenings playing this way and laughing with our peanut!

I know she looks floppy in this picture, but she really does a great job of sitting up in her Bumbo!

I'm a dork :)

Lucy and I played around and did a vlog update on Friday... check it out! :)

*And excuse the nursing tank on me and Lucy's jammies... it was a lazy day!

Sleeping FAIL

Remember that big news? About my great sleeper? hmmm... well, not so much :)

Lucy is on a sleeping strike now. She has decided that it is WAY more fun to stay up all day and all night and get super over-tired and scream. Mommy and Daddy don't think it is so fun.

Poor little Lucy got her 2 month vaccines on Friday. I can't say enough good things about our pediatrician and the nurse. The nurse seriously had those shots over with so fast I didn't even know she had done them. Poor Lucy didn't even cry until she was finished, but she was so sad. She opened her mouth to scream but was so upset, no sound came out. She just turned bright purple and then a few seconds later, super sad screams. I was very proud of her, though - she calmed down as soon as I fed her and then took a LONG nap. She was pretty fussy for the next three days, so I know she wasn't feeling great. Poor baby.

As for her sleeping strike, we don't really know what to do at this point. She hates to be swaddled. HATES IT. She spends so much time fighting it that it almost isn't worth it to swaddle her anymore. On the other hand, when she isn't swaddled, she wakes herself up by flailing her arms. Its pretty frustrating. Last week (Feb. 2 to be exact) we had some minor success with getting her to sleep in her crib. She only did two hour stretches, but it was a start. Since then, though, she screams as soon as we put her on her back. She falls asleep fine in my arms, but the minute we lie her down, it all goes downhill. She won't sleep in her pack and play anymore, either. Sunday night we were so tired we just lugged her swing upstairs and let her sleep in it (which she hasn't done at night for about three weeks). She did pretty well, but then refused to nap in it on Monday. And her swing is the only place she will nap! Arg. That little Lucy is an enigma. Last night we let her sleep in bed with us. Not ideal, but we all got some

rest. I feel sure this saga is to be continued! :)

*I should say that I don't by any means expect Lucy to be sleeping through the night at this point. She is still a tiny baby and breastfed babies digest their food much faster than formula-fed babies. I don't want to give her formula or add anything to her food to make her sleep longer. I just would like for her to go back to having at least one fourish hour stretch of sleep.*

Lucy is still a smiling machine. She loves to smile at Andrew and she tries to mimic him when he sticks his tongue out at her. She's pretty cute! She has been sitting in her Bumbo seat for short periods of time, and still loves playing on her playmat. We think she is getting pretty close to being able to laugh! Sometimes she smiles so big and with such an open mouth it rea

lly looks like she is laughing - she just needs some sound to go with it!

BIG NEWS!!

I love Lucy. Everybody knows that. But her sleeping habits were leaving a little to be desired. She only liked to sleep in her swing, or even better, in someone's arms. Okay during the day, but night was a whole different story. She was super restless in her swing and always managed to maneuver herself into a very uncomfortable-looking position. Lucy hated the swaddle. HATED. Even in the hospital she didn't like having her arms pinned down. She liked sleeping on her belly, but I am a nervous nellie and while she was sleeping peacefully, I was up every 3o minutes making sure she was still breathing! Needless to say, we weren't getting much sleep! :)

Well... ta dah! Something clicked for my beautiful baby this week and she is now sleeping in her bassinet on her BACK swaddled! YAY!! The past four nights in a row she has slept four and a half hours, up to eat, and then back down! I am so, so proud of her. I feel much less nervous with her on her back so I am getting more sleep too!

Lucy is 8 weeks old and I think we are really starting to get into our groove. She had a really rough day on Tuesday (super fussy, and I could not make her happy) but the rest of this week she was awesome! She has been playing a ton on her new playmat, smiling and cooing like crazy, and even - dare I say it - not screaming her head off when she is riding in the car! (Thankfully, some online advice I got really seemed to do the trick! I roll down the window and let the cool air and white noise soothe her!)

Lucy and Mommy ventured out to the mall this week and also had a playdate with Gavin! Then, Friday night brought Lucy's first snow! We went out, but it was soooo cold. She didn't like it!

She is getting to be so much fun! She still loves her baths, loves playing, and is a huge smiler! She is also working on laughing - she opens her mouth super wide while she's smiling and makes happy squeals! And... yesterday, she rolled belly to back! She has her two month pediatrician appointment on Friday (shots... yuck!) and I can't wait to see how big she's gotten!

Almost 7 Weeks!

I can't believe Lucy will be 7 weeks on Saturday! (Doesn't it seem like all my posts begin with I can't believe...) She is getting so big and is so much more alert and lots and lots of fun.

Lucy is definitely a morning baby, which is so weird because I definitely wouldn't qualify either Andrew or myself as a morning person. After we get out of bed and she eats, she is so much fun! She plays on her mat and coos and smiles and is generally happy. It is so cute! However, if she misses her 930ish nap, watch out! The wrath of Lucy is not to messed with! She still takes most of her naps (who am I kidding, all of her naps) either in her swing or on a person, but we are starting to make some progress getting her to sleep in the bassinet part of her pack and play. Andrew and I keep talking about taking the plunge and putting her to bed in her crib, but we're both chicken :) She just seems so tiny when she is in there and the crib is this huge, massive space. We'll get there!

I think her evening fussiness *may* starting to wane a little bit, although I am probably going to regret writing that. We are going to try moving bedtime up a little earlier because I think a lot of her evening crankiness has to do with being over tired. She apparently doesn't think she needs an evening nap anymore!

Miss Lucy still hates her car seat, so going places is a little stressful but we have gone out the past 9 days in a row! Hopefully she will start to get used to it!

We are on Operation Thumb Sucking Watch 2010 - she is trying so hard to figure out how to get her thumb in her mouth! For now, she sticks her fist in her mouth and smacks her gums together (loudly) and moves it all around, but she still hasn't figured out the right angle. It is adorable! She has also started to develop a strong grip on things - she will hold on to my shirt with both hands while she eats, or her blanket in her swing, and even Andrew's hands as he holds her bottle.

And now... for something even better than a picture of Lucy, check out this talking baby! I love her!