Awesome Art

 

Here is another art project that Violet "made" for me last week. Gotta love the expression her face - she's like "what the hell are you doing to me?"

And here is a fantastic letter from our beloved Sophia down the street.

 

Good Morning Violet II

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Happy Baby

Wednesday night and she's still sleeping on her own in her crib all night (waking up twice to eat). Happy Mommy too!

Lots of laundry

Friday, after dealing with an impressive side poop explosion, I discovered the difference between spit up and throw up. They said I'd know and they were right. Daycare had given V some formula because they thought she was crying for more food. I think she actually had a little bug because when we brought her home, she gagged and all the formula came right back up requiring and immediate Violet and mommy wardrobe changes. I could tell that little V wasn't herself - she seemed a little quieter and paler than usual. After I got all our clothes changed I wanted to soothe her so I sat down and nursed her before reading that was the LAST thing you're supposed to do. Midway into boob 2, everything came right back up again - an impressive amount for such a little girl. This time it was directly into the bathtub for both of us. So I had a brief taste of what it's like when your kid is sick - not fun at all and pretty scary. I wasn't sure how to take her temperature either, but when I figured it out, she didn't have any fever which was a relief. She went right to bed at 7:30pm. Not wanting vomit in my bed, I resolved to nurse her and then put her back in her crib all night - and it worked! She still awoke at 10:30pm, 1:30am and 4:30am for food, but she nursed for 15 minutes and went right back to sleep in her crib. I think we both slept better in our own beds. She seemed completely fine the next day. I've also discovered that if I really think she's sleepy and put her down in her crib, I can let her cry for a just a few minutes and she WILL go to sleep! It feels kind of mean to let her cry, but it also feel good to be in charge around here. V NEEDS her sleep, so I'm convinced that putting her down early for bed and making sure she gets her naps is important. We'll see if I can maintain the actual getting up in the middle of the night thing. I felt pretty good the next day - it might be better getting up for 2 15-minute feedings than waking up every hour and trying to sleep with V attached to me. We'll see. Anyway, there was LOTS of laundry to do this weekend.

Multi-tasking

As a mom, I've learned that one must take multi-tasking to a new level. I check email and order diapers and groceries while nursing. I've learned how to turn bottle washing into a fun game for a baby who loves running water and songs about counting things. When I attended some lactation classes back in August, I met a woman with a 3 month old (which seemed like an ancient baby at the time) who told us that she pumped while she drove to work to save time. At the time, I thought this was completely outrageous and told her that she better not be on her cell phone too! Well, last night, I had a meeting until 5pm and anxious as usual to get little V at the end of the day, I decided to give pumping and driving a try. Why not? It takes about 15 minutes to get to day care and 15 minutes to pump! Plus, I recently got a "hands free expressions" bustier which does an excellent job of holding the boob flanges in place. So I went to my car and assembled all of the parts (5 connections per boob) in the parking lot, praying that no one would see me. It was nice and dark out, however the darkness added kind of an extra creepy feeling to what I was doing. While it was only 34 degrees, my heated seats and a scarf kept me warm. The seat belt even fit fairly well between the flanges. When I arrived at day care 15 minutes later, I had 4 oz of freshly expressed milk which I managed not to spill when I disassembled the whole set up in the daycare parking lot, desperately trying again not to let anyone see. Verdict? Pumping and driving is WAY too dangerous. While I was not on my cell phone, just the pumping was definitely distracting and who knows what would have happened if, god forbid, the air bags had gone off or if one of the 5 connections failed and milk started spewing everywhere. I'm drawing a line at this potential time saver - pumping and driving should be illegal.

The scene this morning

It is a really gross day in Boston this morning. After schleping
through all the slush, It's nice to drob off Violet into such a fun
circle!

Growing!

When Violet first received these adorable outfits from a very kind cousin, it was hard to imagine them ever fitting. Well, today I tried them on, and what do you know, they fit! Today was V's 4 month check up and she's officially doubled her birth weight. Moving into the 75th percentile, she now weights 15 lbs. She's off the chart in height at 26 1/2 inches. No wonder she's fitting into some 6 month clothes already!

The pediatrician and I talked a lot about sleep or lack there of. Violet is still waking up every 2-3 hours at night. She suggested that I put her down a bit earlier because babies get so easily over tired and then don't sleep well. It's tough to put her down at 7pm when we get home at 6pm. That's just not much play time, but I do want her to get good sleep. The earlier bed time didn't work tonight because I think she was so exhausted at day care that she fell asleep at 3:45pm and kept sleeping right through the car ride home until 6:30pm....sigh. I was bad last night and kept her out way too late because I was experimenting with taking her over to a friend's house for dinner. It was just too interesting for her and she couldn't go to sleep and then turned into a basket case. We'll just try bed time at 7pm again tomorrow night and hopefully she'll start sleeping some longer stretches soon.

4 months

Dear Violet,

Today you are 4 months and 3 days old. Every day you are getting more and more animated and expressive. You've started talking up a storm and last night you went to sleep talking and woke up talking. Today when I picked you up at day care you were talking to all your friends and you and I had an entire conversation on the car ride home. You have a dear, sweet little voice that I just want to listen to forever. Even though I don't entirely speak Violet yet, I'm learning. You are learning how to sleep in your crib. You still really like to sleep with me, but you are also learning that it is nice to have your own space and sometimes you sleep better in your own bed. Since you like to roll over and over and over now, I think the crib is a safe place for you to sleep. Hopefully you won't get your little leg caught in the crib bars again like you did tonight. This morning you slept there from 5-8am! I still miss you dearly every day when I have to go to work, but you are doing well at daycare, taking decent naps and even doing art projects like the one above! You have relationships with people that I don't even know - they swoon over you when we arrive in the morning. This morning you just smiled and smiled at everyone we passed, so I can see why you're so popular! I'm a very lucky person to have you as my daughter.

Love,

Mommy