Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Reflection

Ahhh, as the year comes to a close, I'd like to reflect on some things that only being a mom do I realize/experience...
1. I am consumed with poop. Not only was I so concerned about my dogs' bowel movements when they were pups (not sure why now..) but now I am concerned about whether D has pooped during the course of the day. I tailor her diet to ensure ease of poop. It pains me to see her straining.
2. On that same note, did you know that when you use disposable diapers, you are supposed to dispose of the poop in the toilet before you toss the diaper in the trash? Yes, that is proper handling of dirty diapers. So, that being said, D's poop is pretty solid so ya gotta love when the poop hits the water and the toilet water backsplashes onto my face. Awesome.
3. I have an odd obsession with trying to save money on diapers. I only just realized that I often do not like to change D's diaper unless it has soaked up 500 lbs of urine. Until it is practically dragging on the floor. Uhh, G has since really set me straight.
4. Sleep? What is sleep? Who needs to carry those recyclable grocery bags when surely you can store all the groceries in the bags that sit under my eyes.
5. Babies are SMART. I know (and D knows) when I have reached my limit in tolerance with her. (Yeah, I have my moments) And I am always surprised in those moments when G comes to rescue D. When he is lovingly picking her up, she will look over at me and she KNOWS and can feel the daggers that are shooting out of my eyes at her. I see the realization coming over her face. She knows, but is not saddened by it. It is sort of a "Hmm, oh well." sort of of look that I get from her.
6. There are so many parents that will say, "Ooh, cherish those baby moments" Nah, I don't think so. I look forward to every knew development in D and can't wait until she is walking on her own, talking to express her feelings, eating on her own. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can't wait until she's independent! I will cry tears of JOY when she finally walks out the door at 18 and says, "Bye mom! I'm off to college!" Hah!
7. Chicks and puppies are still better than babies, but ooh, do I love my child. There are moments in the wee night hours, when D has woken up for whatever reason and needs to be cuddled that I feel the most love for her. Her warm little body and cute little sleepy sighs.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

By george, I think I've got it!

Light bulb over the head here. Since D doesn't like her food pureed anymore but only has 2 bottom teeth and two half teeth on top, she can't get all her necessary nutrients by just little pieces of solid food. So, now I make solids and mix it in with the purees! Hahah! I am so proud of myself. I mean, I'm pretty sure that is obvious...I'm just slow to the starting gate, but hey, at least I got there.
Yes, Dillon now gets her morning oatmeal with blueberries mixed in and a side of some blueberries for her to pick at. Her lunch today was pureed lamb with solid pieces of eggplant! She ate the whole thing! And peas and sweet potato to pick at. Dinner was fish that her daddy made her with green and yellow squash puree! Genius! Genius! Can you tell how excited I am?
Yes. I'm pretty excited.
Now I'm off to try and figure out what I'm going to have to cook up and pack for our trip to Utah this Sunday.

Precious

Hmmm...the most precious sound...a baby's yawn when she is snoozing on her mommy's body. Oooh, soo cute. :o)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Back!

Oooh, alas. What a slacker I am. Here I was saying how Julie & Julia inspired me and then I slack off for what? Three days? To my credit, I have been sick and just exhausted.
Uh-oh, baby just got up. Well, I'll let her play around in her crib for a bit before I run in to get her.
Like I said, she's been being more physical about her assertiveness and will spit out her food when we feed her. She only likes big people food or when we feed her food in chunks. Which is great! Thanks for letting me know it's time to move on from pureed food D! You are so smart!!
Anyhow...but now I am always perplexed over what to feed her next that will be soft enough for her to chew yet, no so soft that she mushes it in her fingers and just plays with it instead of eating it.
We have to get beyond peas and carrots and squash. Oh, she's been eating a lot of blueberries...
Why am I always so perplexed?? Do other mothers have this problem? Oh, perhaps not because they just follow the Stages in pre-prepared baby food! Duh, why didn't I think of that? Oh, perhaps because I only work part-time, from home and I have no excuse for not being able to provide my daughter a proper diet. Shucks! Does anyone want to hire me so I can get away?
Heheh! I jest....
Okay, now I really have to go get D. Bye for now!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Julie & Julia

Siiigh..I have been neglecting my little blog and now, watching Julie & Julia, it has sparked me right back up! I need to get back onto this little blog.
How will I remember all the little things that drive me CRAZY about D right now? How her loudness both grates my nerves and makes me laugh...
So D has now decided she wants to voice her opinion when it comes to eating. She is not obediently just taking food into her mouth and swallowing as I feed it to her. Now, she spits when she is not happy. Or maybe she is spitting b/c she is happy and could care less about eating. Perhaps this child does not understand that this food I feed her is sustenance and if she doesn't eat, she will just go hungry. After all, there is always her milk.
Hmm, not sure what is going on, but it certainly makes for a VERY messy dining experience every time we feed her. Mostly lunches and dinners because I only feed her pureed fruit in the mornings with yogurt and she seems to never really mind fruit. She likes when I feed her french toast too, or rather when I make her french toast and she can feed herself.
G announced today, "Maybe D just wants to be able to feed herself. Maybe she just doesn't like pureed food anymore." Well, darling, that is all good and well, however, the baby has but two baby teeth on her bottom shelf. She can hardly just eat what we eat. Poor babe.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Brothers & Sisters

You know...I'd love to meet the writers for Brothers & Sisters because they are SO good at pinpointing character flaws, that are often just part of being human.
As I am watching this evening, all of a sudden, I get an epiphany - are all Nora's (the mother) kids messed up because she is so messed up?? Greg replies, "Yes."
I mean, it slowly unfolds in my mind that in most of the episodes, her daughters exhibit minor character flaws that leave them very messed up when it comes to relationships and then this episode deals with Nora's own messed up relationship!
It's crazy! However, I am pretty bad ass when it comes to relationships (hehe!) so hopefully, some of that will rub off onto Dillon and she won't be some whiney sappy girl running around with a senseless broken heart. Of course, if she reads this blog, she certainly now will not be such. :o)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Eating habits

When I am feeding D, I sometimes wonder, does how her food is prepared now influence her food preferences in the future? What I mean is...as I am feeding D, I notice that I tend to prepare her food the way I eat mine - in separate portions. I might put the food in the same bowl, but the avocado stays in its section, the rice cereal in its and whatever else. She gets fruit at the end after she's eaten everything else.
However, lately I've been mixing it all up just because I think baby food makers do that. Don't they serve chicken and corn and stuff like that?
And that's when I start thinking, well, will this influence her habits later? Because as my best friend and I always notice and laugh about over Thanksgiving is how we load our plates. I get the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc. Put gravy on the turkey, mashed potatoes, etc and eat all the food separately. My best friend, on the other hand, puts it all in a big pile on her plate because she likes to eat everything all together in a big lump. Did her mom mix everything all together to feed to her when she was a babe?
Not sure, but we shall see. Personally, now that I am writing this, I think D is still too young to have this affect her. But, despite the fact that I do tend to mix all together more so now, I still notice that it all starts out separate still.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Hmm...attachment parenting?

You know...as much as I would never be a big proponent of attachment parenting (wearing my child 24/7 makes me shudder), I see how this kind of thing could really have positive effects on the child. Lately, I have taken to slinging D around with me instead of putting her in her strollers. She seems to really love it. It really puts her in better spirits and she certainly smiles a lot more when she is on my body. She actually really dislikes being in her car seat, but will be happy to get in it after I've been carrying her around when we are out. It's quite crazy and I bet here I am again digging my own grave - instead of getting her more acclimated to her stroller by having her spend more time in it, I am carrying her around everywhere...what is wrong with me?

Bobble head?

Are most babies prone to falling over onto their heads or am I just a negligent mother? Can anyone answer me that riddle? Lately, I am finding D (under my watch) falling over and hitting her head quite a bit. Boohoo!
I mean, she seems to be less coordinated, of course when she is tired. But, today, she fell over onto her face! Ouch! Waaaah! And mind you, I was sitting right next to her! It's not like I was not paying attention to her. Silly active girl.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Mischief

I swear babies are born with an innate sense for mischief. I see Dillon's wheels turning when she crawls over to the bookshelf and knocks a set of books to the floor. She knocks them down then looks over at me to see if she can get a reaction. If not, then she moves over and does the same, while simultaneously issuing a squeal of delight. Again, no response from mommy and then she moves onto other things. But in that time, I see it in her eyes that she loves to leave a room like a tornado's hit it. Too funny!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

It's Dillon vs Fido

The part of Dillon being played by Dillon and the part of Fido being played by yours truly. Yes. I wake up and I take the dogs out...I pick up their poop then I come home and feed them.
Then I feed Dillon and while I am doing so she throws her toys all around the kitchen floor and what do I do? Well, I fetch them of course. Yup, that is my morning activity. Fetching after Dillon. Feed, feed, fetch. Feed, fetch, feed fetch. Fetch. Then if all goes well, I finish feeding her and then I pick up her poop too!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Saying No

Dillon is soo funny! She totally understands the word no and it is so funny to see when she has something in her mouth or near her mouth and I say, "No!" She gets startled and immediately tosses that thing away. It's the funniest sight!
This morning, I was so pleased to see that she crawled over to a cord (which she looves - all cords) and she was pulling on in it. We were both saying, "No, no Dillon. Don't touch that." And she knows the word so she sits there for a minute and then she gets up on her hands and feet and crawls over the cord. I love when she gets up on her hands and feet! So, she walks over it and then crawls over to the wall where there is a spot of sunshine and hangs out there for a bit. The she crawls on back and when she gets to the cord, she doesn't even stop! She just goes back on her hands and feet and crawls right over the cord! Amazing! Our little Dillon is so smart! :o)

Curses...

Oh whyyy is Dillon like me? As far as sleep and energy is concerned. :o) She is like the energizer bunny. She just goes and goes. She speeds from room to room as she maneuvers on her little hands and knees. It is surely the cutest but she's fast!
I love to hear the little padding sounds her little hands make as she is determinedly traveling from one spot to the other.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Sleep...

I just met up with a mom's group here in East Nashville today. It was surprising to learn that every new mommy frets over the baby's sleep habits. In fact, all three of us moms were lamenting about how our babies hate naps and really don't know how to happily just fall asleep wherever they are at. Heheeh!
These mommy groups are kind of fun!
And now speaking of sleep. Dillon has been waking up in the middle of the night every so often to cry and eat and be cuddled. Am I not feeding enough?? Uggh, I spent all of today trying to stuff her with food. Aaaack! Now I'm starting to fret about bringing more variety into her diet! Aaack! When will she start getting teeth? I feel like she can eat more if she has a tooth or two.
Uuuggggh! Motherhood is not for me. So much responsibility! What has happened to my carefree life from two years ago?? Bebopping around NYC drinking my face off and having a jolly good time? Waaaah...
Now my days are filled with..."How much has she eaten today?" "Has she pooped?" "Oh no, is she getting too much soy in her body since she is on soy formula?" "What more can she eat?" "Do I need to get things for her to climb on and over in her room?"
It's enough to drive a girl to drink! But drink I cannot...b/c what if she wakes up in the middle of the night to be cuddled?? I need my rest to function the next day! Add to that, her spells of no napping. Exhausting, I say!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Solids for baby

Gosh, I'm a bit perplexed over this solids feeding for baby. I make the food and I feel like I am not expanding her food choices enough. I mean...golly...how does one plan meals?? And it's so hard to determine what foods are appropriate for her age, knowing she still has no teeth.
Y'know, my friend C was telling me about her friend who goes to the grocery store only once a month and she plans the entire month's meals. She even writes down all dinners for the month on a calendar so her husband knows exactly what he's getting for dinner every night! OMG! Now, that's talent. I am in charge of only D's food. G handles food for us, or we collaborate but we wing it. Now, even though I am only in charge of D's food, I can hardly keep it all straight. I don't even know what she's going to have for breakfast that day, let alone lunch or dinner or any other meal for that week! It's crazy!
Btw, do you know how many yellow/orange foods are out there?? This is how I try to plan D's meals. I try to make sure she is eating more than one color of food so I hate when I only have let's say pumpkin and sweet potato..booorrring. I like to add a bit of green so I will give her peas or green beans or avocado. 'Course I try not to overkill on the avo either but it's so hard b/c avo is so EASY. I hate when I get stumped and have sweet potato, winter squash...a cauliflower/tomato/basil concoction that happens to be orange...what ELSE is there?? I just bought a purple sweet potato just to change up the color palette.
I have not introduced potato to D. It's just such a boring, no value added starch. No thanks.
She got turnips for dinner tonight. That was fun. Hmmm...I need to get more creative.

Thank you for sleeping...

D...thank you for sleeping all night the other night. I really appreciate it. Considering the two nights prior you were acting really weird.
First night, she wakes up around 11pm, crying like she was dying. So I go down to comfort her. She snoozes, I put her down, she starts crying. I pick her up and rock her some more...she snoozes, I put her down. She cries. So, I exit the room and let her cry for a bit. 10 minutes later she is having a minor meltdown...so, I make some formula, head back to her room. Feed her, she eats EIGHT oz which is a lot for her at that hour. I rock her, she snoozes, I put her down and again she cries. So, now because I love her so much and can't understand why she is so sad, I am holding her (I am now reminded of her younger days when she only slept on my body...) and proceed to lay down on the floor, on my back with her on my chest as she sleeps peacefully.
Finally, she is totally out and I get to put her in her crib and walk back up to my bed at 2am. Sweet.
The following night, she again wakes up in the middle of the night around 2am and wants to be rocked and cuddled. Zzzzzzz... I cuddle and feed her. All is good. I am hoping she is not developing a habit and Yippee! The third night, she sleeps all the way through the night and has been doing so!
Phew!!

Traveling

Oh man, I've been slaackin on this blog! Let's do some catching up. While Dillon was sick, we had to make a trip to Pittsburgh! For Tom's book signing - Nordstrom Guide to Men's Style - at Nordstrom Ross Park Mall. Despite the fact that she was sick, she was a CHAMP!
She traveled well AND let my friend Lori hold her and play with her. Could be the fact that I handed her to Lori and Lori immediately took her to a stuffed doll and bought it for her...Or it could be that Lori has the magic touch. :o)
But then, D also let my friend Tiffany hold her later on at Tiff's house! Whaaat?? Who is this new baby who is so friendly? hehe.
She's usually so mommy-centric. It's embarrassing.
But all in all we had a great time meeting up with friends in Pittsburgh. And now D is all better!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Sick

And now...D is sick. :o) Heheh. Guess that's what will happen when you bring babies around other babies/toddlers. The good thing is, while she clearly has something - her nose is running non-stop - she does not have a fever and is in great spirits and still has a good appetite!
Hopefully, this is an indication of how she will deal with colds in the future! A chip off the old block! It's all psychological I say. It's all in your head. If you think you're sick, then you are sick and you will go through all the miserable symptoms. But if you forget that you are sick and just ignore it, then it will just pass. Of course, I do up my Vitamin C and I THRIVE on hot water with lemon and honey whenever I feel like I might be coming down with something. And it works!!
I hope D gets better by tomorrow...today is her second day and she is a lot less snotty. We are flying in a plane tomorrow...so fingers crossed she kicks this thing by today!!

My gym

We just took Dillon to a My Gym class last week. It's like a Gymboree but privately owned here in the posh neighborhood of Brentwood in Nashville. Dillon LOOVED it. The class time was right around her nap time, but I thought she could just nap in the car on the way out there. Which she did so that really wasn't a very long nap. But, when she woke up she was so excited to see all the bright primary colors and the gym apparatuses. Oh, she loved it. They had a sing along in a circle to start the class and she was all smiles doing hand gestures with daddy. It was great!
We are going to try out the actual Gymboree in Brentwood next week as their prices are a bit lower and they have more options for classes.
Socialization is fun! They actually have a part near the end of classtime that is called separation time. It's where all the babies/toddlers are placed in the center of the room with toys, etc and the parents are supposed to sit along the wall so the babies get used to being away from their parents. Uhh, because Greg is so paranoid about germs, we clearly didn't do that part very well. Of course, we weren't sure how it was done, and I did let the instructor take Dillon and put her in the center, but I was hovering nearby and when I actually got up I noticed that all the parents were really far away..on the outskirts of the play area. Yes...of course. It's called separation time...I'll be better about that next time (hopefully sans G) since D really needs to learn to separate from us!!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Bad mommy

I'm guilty. I'm guilty of being a bad mommy and fostering bad habits in my babies. Yes, I have three babies - Dillon and Boulder and Rocky. And what is the bad habit that I am fostering?
Wanting food when I am eating. I am so guilty of eating something and if it's okay for them to have, I will give them a little piece.
So, now Boulder always seems to mill around the kitchen and sort of "beg" when I am snacking.
And Dillon now, as I am holding her, if I am eating, she looks up expectantly so I can feed her a little sampling too. Eeeks!! I am so bad...

It's the Dillon show!

I can't tell you enough how much we loove our Summer Infant Day and Night video monitor! I mean, I love being able to see what she's doing when she's supposed to be sleeping.
We just got back from an activity filled morning/afternoon and G just put D in her crib. She was already asleep in her car seat so the transition sometimes is a little tricky. We have to be very careful or else she wakes up (as she did this time), but she still NEEDS to nap.
So we're watching her. She is now hanging over on top of her plush giraffe toy and smacking the crib with an overhand motion. And now she is sitting straight up and playing with her elephant toy with ribbons all around it. She is grasping it, then forcefully bringing it to her face and biting it. Very funny.
She's now moved all around her crib and her back is now towards us. It has now been 21 minutes since G put her down in her crib. Umm...baby..that's not good. You need to nap...
Usually, she'll move around a bit and then eventually fall asleep. We'll see if it turns out such this time. How can she not be tired?? We even had My Gym class this morning - chock full of bright colors and fun activities. Heck, I'm ready for a nap.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Yeah won ton!

Can I mention again how much I love the food mill?? Mine's a Kidco Food Mill. I made won tons for dinner last night and ground one up in the food mill for Dillon! She loved it and I loved it!
Hmm, what else can I grind up in there?
Well, actually, she really loves to pick up her own food to eat now so I give her pieces of avocado, cheerios, now will start giving her sweet potato and broccoli, maybe some beans...while I feed her.
She actually even gets mad if she can't pick up her own food.
Which brings me to another topic - her communication skills! Oh, poor dear, if only she could speak so that we understand. There are often times when I can tell she is yelling at us because she is not happy with what we are doing. It's so comical. I love when she gets to that stage. Hehehe.
And when she is bored with her current task and wants to be picked up, she yells out. It's a different yell than when she is reprimanding us which is a string of harsh unintelligible words. She is so funny right now.

Sixth sense?

Does D have a sixth sense about what/how I am feeling?? I swear, that night that I wrote the previous post about loving her so much and not minding waking up in the middle of the night to feed her and snuggle with her, she gave us a doozy!
She awoke at 3am, crying for dear life. I went down and fed her, then rocked her. She was asleep when I started to put her back in her crib but then wailed when I put her down so I picked her up to rock her some more. So, I rocked her some more, put her down but then she started crying again. This time, I left her room to let her cry it out a bit. She fell asleep. But then woke up again not 20 minutes later! Crying for dear life again, which is totally uncharacteristic.
G asked if he should go down to rock her. Sure! So, he went down. Was rocking her for maybe 5/10 minutes before I hear him say, "Babe..." So I head downstairs and he hands her to me. Apparently, his brand of rocking wasn't satisfactory to her this morning. So, here I am again and now she is practically hysterical from crying and hiccuping now. I had to sing to her to calm her down (there's that singing again..) and then rocked her and then just sat and held her for a bit while she slept. Finally, at 5:30am I'm able to put her back in her crib.
Whaaat? Is she crazy? Where's her tooth if she's going to be that fussy??
Yeah..that's what I get for writing about how much I love her to death!! :oD

Monday, September 21, 2009

Shallow

Am I really that shallow that when Dillon was just an eating, crying, pooping blob (just a few months ago) I wanted nothing to do with her..and now at 7 months I can't get enough of her. Yes, it's true...Her personality is really blossoming and she is so cute now that she is able to sort of communicate, she smiles and starts babbling really loudly and curtly when she is really upset at us which is really funny. Anyhoooo, now when I am holding her at 3am (yes, that still happens once in a blue moon) and rocking her to sleep, I just can't stop thinking how much I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this little child. I tell her silently in my head how wonderful she is and how much I adore her.
Yes, it's ridiculous. Four months ago, I couldn't get her off my body fast enough. Couldn't wait to get her sleeping in her crib and wanted to kill her when I had to rock her to sleep. Now, I just snuggle with her and snuggle with her. Oh yeah...now I stand around sometimes and practice (what I know of) the cha-cha-cha and some form of waltz dancing that I try to remember from cotillion (back in 5th grade??) because that is what lulls her to sleep. She is back on the I DON'T WANT TO NAP stage..."But it's more fun hanging out with you guys.." "Don't leeeeaaave me in here...I don't want to miss a THING!" That is my baby translation for you of what she is saying when her little face crumbles into a big frown and big crocodile tears immediately squeeze out when we drop her off in her crib. Awww...poor baby. :o)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Oh the temper...

Temper, temper this little one has...
She loves to feed herself. But only if it's easy and she can grasp onto things easily. For instance, she's into her Cheerios b/c she can grasp them and get them into her mouth. She is not so into her avocado pieces that I put on her table because they slip out of her fingers and she's not quite coordinated enough to pick them up lightly. And then she gets all frustrated and starts to yell and cry.

I just look at her very blase-like and say, "There's no need to cry..." Blah...so unfazed by her crying.

G asked me once, "Why is she upset? Is it because she can't get to her food?"

My response was, "who the heck knows why she's upset..." with a casual shrug of my shoulders.

If I were to get upset every time this girl cried, well, then I would just be a little basketcase. I mean, for the most part she's a great girl. She seldom ever cries for real. BUT, she will cry when put down for a nap. She will cry when you put her in the car seat if she doesn't feel like she wants to be in it. She will cry when she can't get to something whether it's while she is crawling or sitting. She will cry if you take something away from her.

But, I just ignore her and then she stops. :oD Hehe! This training thing is kind of fun. I love exercising my power over her. Muaahhh hahaha.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Cheerios

I have been giving Dillon Cheerios on recommendation by a friend. It's to help her with dexterity and picking up objects with her fingers. Just what is it about Cheerios that gives them their addictive quality?? I am now eating Cheerios like it's going out of style. I'm really digging them.
Dillon is doing really well with her Cheerios and it's helping her to chew her food more so now I can give her pieces of avocado and she understands to chew it before swallowing. Isn't that nice??

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Food mill

I am kind of digging my Kidco food mill! It's kind of awesome! It's just this plastic tube doo-hicky that has a funnel and a plastic sieve on top with a rotating metal blunt blade.
You put cooked food into the funnel, put the sieve/blade cover over and then rotate away as you push the food down into the funnel and viola! You have coarsely mashed food!

I love it!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The sleep

I still can't believe that Dillon actually sleeps through the night! She goes to bed around 7:30/8pm and sleeps until 5:30/6am. But when she wakes up at 5:30, she doesn't even make a peep. She plays and rolls around in her crib. Sometimes, she cat naps and then around 6am or more then she starts getting a bit louder. How do babies have such internal time clocks?
Dillon was so funny today. I had plans to go to the International Food Festival at 11am and that usually works with D's nap schedule. She'll go down for a nap around 8/9am and sleep until 10/11am. Not today. She went down for her nap at 8am and woke up at 8:40am.
Sooo, I basically just said, "Well, she's just going to have to adjust to our schedule and just sleep wherever we happen to be." No crib nap.
As expected, she stayed up all morning and then when we got in the car to go to the Fair, she started wailing, going berserko. Me, I apologized for my horrible singing, but had to sing to calm her down. Mary, my friend, then also sang to her and played with her. The thing is, she is just soo tired but doesn't quite know how to fall asleep in the car on her own and of course if someone else is back there, she just wants to play.
Eh, she ended up falling asleep in her stroller for an hour! Yeay! But, then again when I was placing her in her car seat to go home, she's wailing again. Wailed all the way home (it's maybe a 10/15 min drive). This girl...she is somethin' else.
I must work on that. I must work to fix her car problem. Maybe I should stop sitting in the back with her?? Hmmm...

Thursday, September 10, 2009

No singing..

What did I tell you before? In a previous post? I said, in order to train your child to sit well in a car and learn how to just chill and enjoy the car ride, maybe fall asleep in the car you should NOT sit in the back with the baby...
Yes, that is what I did early on because I was stupid and G and I had the luxury of both being home with the baby so of course, when we exit the house we are all always together. Awww, what a happy family. Not so much. Not so much good for baby. She now HATES, I repeat, HATES being in her car seat. Sure, she is a good baby so she tolerates it mostly. But, there are days where she just has a major meltdown and goes berzerko for the entire car ride. Really?? Really, Dillon? Are you for real??
So, another thing you should not do, is try to sing to your baby to calm her down. Because that is what I did and now guess what usually can work when she is fussy in her car seat? Yes, singing...That is fine when I am in the car with her by myself...or with G even. I don't care if he hears me singing in my off beat, cat cry sort of voice. But, lordy, sometimes we have guests in the car! And then I have to sit and sing. Mortifying! Just mortifying. For myself and for our guests. Ohh, the things this baby puts me through.
Hmm, next on my list - how to get her to relax in the car...how can I accomplish that? More rides with just me and her? Hmm...hmm...she is always challenging me, this little one.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sitting up!

Yesterday morning, Dillon woke up around 5:30am. As I've said before I try not to let her get up until after 6am so if she wakes up before then, I usually just ignore her. Buuut, since she didn't finish her full 8 oz of formula the night before I thought I'd just run into her room, feed her her bottle and then put her right back to bed.
Well, when I walked into her room to get her, she was sitting up!! I was so surprised and excited that I let her day start at 5:30!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Toe jam

Has any other mother experienced toe jam in her little one's toes? Or am I just the only grossly negligent mother who lets her daughter's toes gather toe jam?
Well, let me tell you then, I am pretty surprised how pungently STINKY a baby of 7 months old's toe jam is! Eeesh..I mean, she hardly even has any toenail, but somehow she is able to gather some stinky stuff under there. I'll have to be more diligent about cutting her toe nails.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

I mean really...

Dillon insists on getting up early. She just can't seem to make it to 6am except on some rare occasions. Once G commented on how it's kind of nice to get up early. We certainly get a lot more accomplished.
Sure, but I really would enjoy just having that last half hour of sleep. D, can you please just sleep until 6:30 or 7am?? Take for instance this morning. She wakes up at 5:50am. I get up to tend to her, but then she's decided that - You know what? I'm kind of tired. I think I'll go back to bed...(she's yawning and yawning...it's 7am)
So here she is, back in bed sleeping peacefully while I then, take a shower, walk the dogs, water the plants and have sent out about a dozen emails and done some Internet research. I mean, by about 7am, my day has to start. I can't go back to sleep.
So, it would certainly be nice if D would be kind enough to let me start my day at 7am and NOT 5:50am. Sigh....

Monday, August 31, 2009

Trying to get a couple posts in...

Since I can't seem to find time otherwise.
I was out the other day, taking care of my other babies (the boys) and we had friends coming over. Dillon has hung out with Kelani and Jim before and actually has been very friendly with Kelani.
But, I don't know if I've shared this before, but apparently, out in California Dillon developed a neediness for mommy whenever she is sad, tired, scared, whatever. Daddy just will not do. Weird.
Anyhooo, when I get home I see Dillon playing on the couch with Kelani which I fully expected. But then she started to sputter and cry with a little sad face. She wanted ME! So weird.
And then I am told by Kelani that Dillon, though she let others occupy her time never once cracked a smile. She just tolerated. But once she saw the dogs run in, she was so excited and then when I picked her up, then she smiled and laughed.
Wow, who knew?? I'm sure this will all change once she gets to know the real me...hahaha. When she is in her teens and we are again battling by arguing. She will come to realize that Daddy's her man. :oD Hahaha!!

Battle of wills

The other night, Dillon and I had a battle of the wills. She cried and cried and I ignored. She had woken up at 2am and I fed her. She ate. She had been randomly waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason (to eat?...but no, that's not allowed anymore..) and I have been indulging her. But, I finally decided to put a stop to this nonsense so we battled it out at 4:06am. She wailed until 4:46am on the dot and then promptly fell asleep.
And so now we forever after sleep through the night. :o)
Well, not totally. She still tries to pull her antics every so often and I just reach over and turn the volume down and ignore her. Sometimes, you just have to put your foot down. Of course, I firmly believe that they sleep better if they are not waking up in the middle of the night for whatever reason, whether it be to eat or just for some cuddling so the sooner she learns this, the better it is...for all of us.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

It's the pot calling the kettle black

That would be me I'm referring to...do y'all remember a while back when I was blogging that G always runs to pick D up whenever she cries...and he is spoiling her. Well, I am finding that I seem to always be picking her up and carrying her and holding her. Maybe not so much when she is fussing and crying but just when I feel like it. Tsk! Tsk!
She will be sitting around or in her Jumperoo and I will say, "Ma-Ma bao!" Which means, "Mama pick up?" in Chinese.
I swear it's because I say that every time I pick her up that now, when she is distraught or feeling shy and doesn't want to be held by strangers, she looks over and says, "Ma-Ma..Ma-Ma".
I mean, am I crazy? I think most babies tend to start off saying, "Papa" or "baba" when they start forming words and baby babbling, which she also does...but she does also say "Ma-Ma".
By the way, both Papa and baba mean father...papa in English and baba in Chinese! So unfair...

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Discovering something new

I often wonder what goes through D's head when she just sits and zones while watching her little hand open and close. Or when she is sitting on the floor playing and all of a sudden will smile and laugh a little for no apparent reason. Is she just happy?
In any case, whatever she is doing, she is really very cute. I realize I sound ridiculous because I am so in love with this child, but she really is very cute! Hah!
The other day, she discovered a whistling sound. I bought her some blocks that come in different shapes - circle, cube, X, triangle and they have a hole in the middle. So, she picks up the block and holds it up to her mouth and blows short breaths into it. It's pretty funny and she is so intrigued by it! Oh the wonders of discovery for her....

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Back to Nashville

We just returned back from Dillon's West Coast debut! Well, we got back on Sunday and she is now back in the swing of things. She did great on the plane all three times and she did great socializing...for the most part.
For some reason, she had a couple meltdowns in the car in LA. Once was when my mother was sitting back there with her. She literally went BANANAS, wailing at the top of her lungs, inconsolable, boogies flying everywhere and really...not making a very good impression on the old mom there. Sigh. Oh well. Then she had the SAME meltdown when I was sitting in the back with her another day. Really weird. I can only attribute it to the fact that she may have been EXTREMELY tired and pissed off that I was sitting in back with her but not cuddling her. She had a fit and then, all of a sudden decided she was over her fit (20 looong minutes later) and just stopped and started chewing on her toy and acted as if nothing happened. As I think back to it now, I am laughing but at the time...I was a bit frantic.
Poor D is just not an LA girl. She's not used to being on long car rides and just "going with the flow..." I'm gonna have to start driving around in circles to get her into the groove. Hah! Not.
Travelling with a baby is quite tiring, not to mention the amount of things you have to pack! Well, we won't have to pack the car seat base for NYC cuz we'll just walk or take public transportation, but otherwise, we need to back the car seat base, the stroller, the car seat, a pack n'play if we don't have a crib at our destination...plus her clothes, her bibs, towels, formula bottles, etc, etc, etc. Whew! Can't wait until she's on solids for good then she can just eat what we eat.
The night she got home, she had a little bit of a difficult time going down. I put her down at 6:30pm, she woke up crying at 7, rocked her back to sleep, then at 8, same thing, then at 9, same thing. Then at 9:30 I went in with a bottle, fed her, put her back to sleep and then she was fine. Slept until 6am the next day. By Monday, she was fine.
Yup, she's a fine traveller! We're off to the doctor's tomorrow for her 6 months wellness visit. Can't wait to see how much she weighs and how long she might be. She definitely feels heavier to me.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Squirmy Mcsquirmison

Dillon loooves to squirm these days. She will not sit still to take her bottle, sometimes insisting on flipping her head back so she is drinking upside down (am I concerned about the blood rushing to her head? Well, yes, but she has strong neck and back muscle now so she will fight it if I try to reposition her).
And, whether she is eating solids or drinking her formula, if she hears one noise (like the dogs walking or Greg moving around) she whips her head around to check out the noise. Messy, messy.
She also really likes to reach for her bottle on her own to feed herself, though she hasn't quite grasped the concept of feeding herself nor does she have the strength to hold the bottle, really. But, it's fun letting her practice. She'll whip the bottle out of her mouth and sit up, then reach for the bottle to put in her mouth but doesn't want to lean back in order for the milk to flow...so she chews on the nipple...I think this must just be fun and games to her. It cracks me up.

Monday, August 3, 2009

New skills...

Whoa, has it been THAT long since I've written in here? For shame, for shame. Dillon has been growing by leaps and bounds, acquiring new skills and just getting to be a lot of fun. Her new skill lately has been to grab things and then toss them on the ground with a forceful jolt of her hand. And when I am rocking her for her nap, that translates to grabbing a handful of mommy's hair and pulling it out of her head. Ouch! Thankfully, I am usually pretty good about keeping an elastic around my wrist to tie my hair up to prevent that.
However, last night, I forgot and as I am feeding her her bottle for bedtime, she is playing with my hair as it hangs in my face. I know there is a slight chance that she will pull it, but...what can I do? She tugged at it a little bit, but mostly just ran her fingers, her little hand back and forth through the strands. Very cute!
I've decided to get rid of Dillon's nighttime feedings. I just feel like she doesn't need them anymore...they were so sporadic and she mostly only drank 4 oz each time anyway. So...while Greg was away last week, I implemented my plan and just let her fuss/cry when she woke up. AND, the other thing that I've decided is waking up anytime before 6am is not allowed either so again, I would just let her do whatever she was doing (at 4, 5, 5:30am), whether it's playing or falling back asleep and pick her up only around 6am.
And now she sleeps until 7/8am-ish! I'm kinda cool with that!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Naps!

Oh, the naps. We should talk about the naps again...Dillon varies between two to three naps a day. And I don't go crazy (new me) when she misses a nap (usually the 3/4pm nap), but I am super surprised that she can stay up for nearly FOUR hours between naps sometimes! Mostly, they say that babies around 4-6 months of age can only stay up for 2.5 hours at the most.
Of course, I realize why she would much rather hang out with us than sleep. All day long all we do is entertain her and make her laugh. Who wouldn't prefer that? I hate sleeping!!
Dillon is growing pretty fast these days, I think. She seems to be getting longer though people still always say, "She's so tiny..." when they meet her and learn that she is 5 months old. So, off I go AGAIN to shop online for her...the shopping never ends. Wheee!! I LOVE shopping!!

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Farm

We took Dillon to the farm today to check out some cows (we are cowboarding - meaning we own part of a cow and now we can buy raw milk), the sheep and some chickens! She had such a fun time. She loved the chickens!
Apparently, raw milk is good for babies. The woman at the farm talked about how this one woman had a preemie (born at 26 weeks) and after the baby left the hospital, she still had an underdeveloped esophagus (or something like that) and had a gag reflex if she ate anything solid. So, she fed her daughter raw milk ONLY until she was 6 years old at which point the girl measured up to par for all percentages in height and weight. When the drs asked what kind of milk the mother had been feeding the daughter, the mother replied, "raw milk." The doctor's reply was to look at the little girl and say, "you are a very lucky little girl." Whoa! What? That is amazing.
Also, Debbie, the owner of the farm also had celtic sea salt from France that has 100% of the minerals intact. It's the only sea salt that is dried in the sun and dried in clay vats...as opposed to cement that can leak minerals. AND, because it has all the minerals necessary for your body, there was a man who ate it in place of the regular salt you buy at the grocery stores and he cured his high blood pressure!
It was quite an educational day for us!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Yeah...new blog name

Yes, Genius I am not. If I didn't want G to know I had a blog, then I probably shouldn't have named it and titled it Dillon's mom...
Anyhooo...I like this blog name better because certainly I would rather hatch an egg than have a baby!
A) the chick incubates in an egg outside the body. There is no gross malformations of the body to incubate a chick. Which leads me to
B) a hen just sits on the egg to incubate it until it is ready to hatch. I can do that. I'm really good at sitting in one spot for long periods of time. Just get me a crochet needle, some yarn, a couple of good books and a stack of magazines! AND, if a girlfriend should call up to invite me for some cocktails, I could stick the egg under a heat lamp in my stead, go have drinks and just come back and resume where I left off! Genius! :o)
C) a chick pops out of her egg ready to conquer the world! Sure, her mother might hunt and peck for her for a little bit (I'm not even sure about that), but the girl is on her own two feet from the get go! Hey, that's pretty talented. Soo often I think, "Gee Dillon why can't you run to the fridge and get yourself something to eat?"

Okay, okay. All that aside, D is at a pretty fun age right now. We are constantly cracking up at her. She does the funniest things. Sadly, oftentimes I am thinking about the funny things while I am putting her down for her bedtime and then I crack up and startle her out of her sleepy state. Drats! So then I have to divert my mind to something more serious...like...algebra. (?? Where'd that come from??)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The case of the missing flop

Isn't lovely to be able to watch the progress of a baby's development.
Your baby... "Ahhh, cherish these moments," they say, "they are but so
fleeting."
Yes, so fleeting. These monumental moments that span for a few days
sometimes, as in now. Dillon has so cleverly mastered her flip yet has
yet to discover her flop. The sheer frustration wakes her up and upon
being assisted with a flop from mom, she is then even more confused
and so upset now she can't get herself back to sleep. After much
cuddling from mom she manages...until a couple hours later where she
is once again flipping without her flop. She's so fond of her new
trick, she likes to practice in her sleep. Sometimes, she will just
sleep on her stomach, too tired to continue practicing. But other
times, the frustration gets to her and then mommy comes into
play...again.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Baby

Well, I must admit that it is quite incredible to see Dillon's growth these days. I mean, I'm not enamored with the whole process by any means but I am intrigued. It is fun to see how she is discovering her feet and hands, when she zones in on her fingers and then zones out on her toes. I often wonder, what must be going through her little mind - What are these things that are connected to my body and how funny that I can make them move like that.
She seems to grow and change every day and I think just now we are really starting to understand what her cries mean (well, it's either she's tired or she's hungry - depending on how many hours she's been up) and what happens when she is overtired - TOUGH to put down...(Ohhh, now I get it when they say it will take a lot longer to put her down if she is overtired.) Well, it just takes perseverance, I think.
I am a lot more lax now on her schedule though I am still mindful of it. And, I am diligent about keeping up with her solids/bottles/diapers/sleep via trixietracker.com I mean D-I-L-I-G-E-N-T. I can't live without knowing exactly how much time has transpired, etc. However, now that we seem to be exiting the house a lot to do a lot of random things, I don't always log her sleep times in the car or stroller because that's not really great sleep anyway. I am also not very rigid when it comes to her bedtime anymore. It's anywhere around 6:30p - 8p. We just judge by her signs of tiredness and oftentimes we have her out so long she'll miss a nap here and there so will recover a bit later in the day to go to bed at a specific time. Baby steps for me....baby steps for me not to be so militant. Though I still catch myself getting frustrated with her sometimes if she does not go down for naps. Then I feel bad because it's not her fault. It's that we've messed with her schedule and made her overtired.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Solids

D is on solids and has now tried pear, apple, banana and avocado. She likes avo the best. So much waiting goes into babies...I wish I could feed her everything! She clearly wants to try everything. When we bring her out to eat, she leans in towards us when we are eating and wants what we are having. She now loves to hold her own cup when we feed her water. The girl is an independent!
It is odd that all pediatricians tell you to start your baby on rice cereal. Rice cereal constipates. Why can't we start them out on oatmeal cereal? Apparently because oats have a slight allergic tendency? But everyone that I have spoken to that has fed their baby rice cereal has found that it constipates the baby and they are so strained when they are making their hard little poops. I am going to start D on oatmeal today.
Uh, started her on carrots yesterday and was so excited that the steamed carrots smelled like roasted yams. And then realized that it smelled that way b/c my boiler pot had run out of water and I had a cake of carrot juice blackening the bottom of my pan? Whoops!
ALSO our baby food book gave us a little tidbit that a little fat (like a pat of butter) helps the body absorb the beta carotene in the carrots! But we didn't have butter so G suggested coconut oil WHICH BY THE WAY upon further investigation turns out is a much better and healthier fat source than butter! Yeayy! So excited!! Off to grind my oatmeal.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Some days will be like this...

Tonight, D did not seem to want to go to sleep. I put her down to sleep for the night and she started crying after milling around in her crib for a bit. Not anything to be alarmed about but then 30 minutes later, her cries have escalated and she is wailing. So sad. So I went in and tried to soothe her. Picked her up and then just brought her out to play with her a little more - for the next 10 minutes.
As we are walking back to her bedroom, she starts wailing. Then cries some more, gets a bit drowsy but still cries some more, loudly too. Ooh, poor baby. I finally put her down in her crib when she calmed down a bit and then she fell asleep. Whoa...craziness.
Meanwhile, she had a great day with naps. Every time I put her down for her nap, I put her down with her eyes wide open. She just tosses around a bit and then falls asleep! No crying!
I guess one can't ever expect a full 24 hour easy day, right? Whhhhyyyy...

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Now we're cookin'

Yes! Now I'm more interested in my daughter. Dillon, at close to 5 months IS a fun age! Yup, I would have another baby if she'd come out of my womb and be 5 months already. At this age, she laughs all the time, she is super alert and has the cutest hand/arm, feet gestures and great facial expressions.
It's really quite incredible to see how she develops every day. As mentioned before, she is not swaddled anymore so it's fun to watch her in the video monitor while she sleeps. When she is moving around while trying to get to sleep, she will wiggle all around her crib and we put these two rolled up hand towels by her head because she seems to seek those for comfort when we first put her in, but, as she is rolling around, she'll grab those, unroll them and use them to cover her head or her whole face. It's comical.
I'm thinking about cutting out all nighttime wakings for Dillon...when she wakes up to eat at night she only takes in about 3-4 ozs. That's not really worth it to me to be waking up, I think. We'll see. I'm gonna track her intake for the next couple of days...oh wait, we are headed up to St. Louis again so there will be no sleep training there. Well, it will be good for me to gauge how much she is really taking in during those nighttime wakings and just stop them altogether. I really think she just wakes up in the middle of the night for some snuggling. It's cute and she's cute when she is eating and sleeping at night and I do love snuggling with her, but, eh. Sleep is better. She gets plenty of snuggles during the day. :o)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Are all babies super loud?

Or is it just mine...because she takes after me? Dillon has now really found her voice and is not shy about using it. She yells when she is bored, when she is hungry, even when she is just testing out her new voice!
I took her with me to the store today. Had her with me in the dressing room and she's sitting there talking and yappin, but we're not talkin' the gentle babbling of any old baby girl, no, we are talkin, like, Fran Drescher type yappin. The whole store heard her. So much so that when I came out, the two old gentlemen running the store commented, What's the baby cryin about?
To which I calmly replied, "Oh, she's not crying. She's just talking." And smiled sweetly.
Oh that Dillon...
She is REALLY loud these days. And Greg says, Honey, I think it's time we tell Dillon that we don't respond to yelling. You know, just say to her, "Dillon, we don't yell."
To which I responded, "Oh yeah...that's really gonna work when she doesn't even know her own name..." haha!
She is too funny.

Unswaddled - day two

Oh...I knew it was too good to be true. :oD
I mean, sure, D is still a great baby but I guess the only reason why she was so agreeable the first day was because she was so super tired from a long weekend away.
Yesterday was a bit of a battle. She went down begrudgingly for her naps (for one, she cried about 30+ minutes before actually falling asleep), but now her naps seems shorter because she's not swaddled. That's okay. She'll learn.
this morning, which would make it day three, she refused to sleep. She has been crying and hanging in her crib for almost 40 minutes now. Of course, Greg can't take it so he went in rock her to sleep. I mean, it might be self defeating, but oh well...
She slept fine last night. I'm really glad that she is unswaddled anyway so whatever...here we go again. Basically, having a baby just entails A LOT of crying if you want to make any improvements. Well, unless, like the lady who cleans our house, her son slept all the time. She had to wake him to feed him...and he's still a sleeper. Fine. I'm glad that Dillon won't be a sleeper when she grows up cuz I'm not a sleeper.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Unswaddled - night one

I might have the best daughter in the world. Tonight is her first
night sleeping without her swaddle and she went down without one peep.
Fell asleep on the bottle and fidgeted a bit as I put her down but
then just went right to sleep!
She woke herself up around 10pm because she flipped onto her stomach
and doesn't yet know how to flip back. I went in and turned her back
onto her back, stroked her a bit and left the room. Sure, she cried a
bit but got herself back to sleep. She's the best.

Babies and milestones

I'm beginning to think that all babies are the same and really not too much work needs to be done to get them to reach their milestones? Dillon recently has been fighting out of her swaddle, but now she knows how to turn over onto her stomach, but can't turn back around. This is not alarming, though because she also knows how to position her head so she's not suffocating.
In any case, we'd like to just get rid of the swaddle since she gets out of it and then wakes herself up.
Ooh, this weekend was a bit challenging because we spent the holiday weekend at Greg's parents and his sister flew in Saturday night with her 3 year old and 1 1/2 year old. Eeks! So, while Dillon was getting out of her swaddle and turning around, I am trying to get her to not make a lot of noise in the middle of the night (like, 4am) and wake up the whole household. That equals me staying up from 4am - 5:30am rocking her, putting her down, picking her back up when she cries. Oh my...so tiring. I mean, what an inopportune weekend for her to be practicing her shenanigans. I was so glad to be going back home on Sunday.
In the car ride home I said to Greg, "We are unswaddling her and I am going balls out. I am not going to take steps as most people do with first swaddling with one arm out...then two..."
I just don't have the patience for that. She will learn to sleep unswaddled if she has to sit there and cry for her naps...
Well, guess what? She is going down for her naps just fine! Totally unswaddled! She was just ready for it.
And, I was equally impressed with Dillon this weekend as we were super busy with meeting up with Greg's friends and their babies and then with his entire family. All schedules were off and we just winged it. And she did great. She did not fuss or cry. She was totally happy to be in the mix, didn't matter what time it was. Though her bedtime is usually 7pm, she had a late nap one night and woke up around 6:50pm. She was crying and her eyes were closed as she is not used to actually waking up after going down for bedtime and yet, we just picked her up and took her out to G's aunt's house and she was fine. Didn't go to bed until around 9pm and never once fussed. Was all smiles in fact.
I am now really excited for LA and NY! Yeayy!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Yoga...

So, when I was preggers greg's sister was nice enough to send us two DVDs. One was happiest baby on the block and the other was pregnancy yoga with rainbow mars.
I'm not a huge fan of yoga so I didn't really use that disc. Greg had mentioned it a couple times and in encouragement he and his sister kept saying, "the key to a calm baby is yoga..." And my response was always, "the key to a calm baby is a calm mother and lots of love...not yoga"
So yesterday I had the chance to point out, "see? The key to a calm baby is not yoga..."
And Greg said, "well, she wasn't calm in the beginning.."
To which I responded, "uh because she was starving....um, also because you were pushing the breastfeeding thing."
Silence. Yup, I got the last word on that one. Hah!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Out for the day

D and I went out together today. I wanted just some Mommy and Dillon time so I packed Dillon up and took her with me to watch my gf, Courtney try on wedding dresses. Dillon fell asleep in the car on the way to the bridal salon. At the salon, she was so good but there was this one point where I was kind of taking a break from feeding her rice cereal and I'm talking away with our other gf, Adrienne and really not looking at Dillon at all. Could've been a good five minutes, but all of a sudden, poor baby just burst into tears! No warning sqwawk, nothing. Just burst into tears. Awww, her little mouth just turned into a frown and little tears squeezed out of her eyes. Awww...don't know what made her cry but she was fine after I picked her up. Could it have been that I wasn't paying attention to her?
Oooh, she was so good today. After the salon, I packed her back into the car to take her to meet daddy for lunch. She fell asleep in the car and slept a little bit in the restaurant. When she woke up, she just played with her toy quietly and hung out even though it was like, 900 degrees in the restaurant (A/C wasn't working properly) and you probably could've fried an egg on poor bao bae's head. I was quite proud of her.
I wish I lived in a city where my friends were around. I mean, yeah, I could go and join one of those mommy and me classes, but I'm really not interested in making any new friends. I just want to hang out with my friends. I don't miss socializing. I miss my friends. Sigh...well, we'll be travelling soon. The problem is I still can't take one thing out of the equation - Greg. :oD
haha! Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with Greg, but I'm tired of sharing Bao Bae with Greg. I want to cart her around with just me and do girl things with my girl friends! I want to be alone with my daughter and my friends. I don't want a break from Dillon. I want a break from Greg...

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Solids

We just had Dillon's four month wellness dr appt. She is now able to start solids! A little rice cereal to start and then gradually adding in applesauce, pear sauce and mashed bananas. Let the good times roll...
Hehee! We are a foodie family after all. She might as well start! Dillon has seemed a bit curious lately anyhow. She stares intently when I drink from a glass in front of her. Sooo, since we are now starting her on rice cereal and that can sometimes cause constipation, I also started to introduce her to drinking water from a glass! Oh, it's so cute. She loves it. Of course, she still doesn't quite understand the concept, but she loves that I am taking the glass that I am drinking from and putting it to her lips for a sip. She likes it so much that today when Greg tried it, she got excited when she saw the glass in front of her face!
She is so curious! I love it. It is a good sign that she will not be a picky eater and that she will want to try everything that we eat. At least I hope so...obviously, if she turns out not to be curious and is actually fussy, I will disown her. Or lock her in her room and starve her...hahahah...

Michelle Obama

Vogue magazine had an article on Michelle Obama. Andre Leon Talley penned it. In the article, Andre asked Jill Biden about MB as a mother. The tail end of what she said was, "...you only need to be around her girls for a few seconds to know what an incredible mom she is." If I could be described in those words based on someone being around Dillon, I would be satisfied.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Parenting

Since when did we jump off the wagon and allow Dillon to parent herself? For the past couple of nights, we have not seriously put Dillon down for her 3pm nap b/c she cries and cries and then when we go get her, she is smiling. So we say to each other, "I guess she doesn't want to sleep." And we carry on...until around 5pm when she is clearly just exhausted...she is still interested in being with us (obvi) but her eyes are all puffy and tired looking and she's just overtired.
Oh, wait...I know when we decided to let Dillon govern herself. When Greg decided that he can't listen to her cry.
I have of course come to my senses since then and lay down the law with Greg. Dillon does not get to decide whether or not she wants to go down for a nap. She can cry for the entire hour if she doesn't want to nap, but she is going into her crib from 3pm - 4pm. Sooner or later, she will understand that that is naptime.
Hello? Genius that I am. She is getting older now and with that, she is more interested in being with us and being entertained than left alone in her crib to sleep. And now that she is older, her cries are getting louder and more varied. She cries all different kinds of cries to try and get us in there. I ignore. Greg is pained.
Yesterday, she cried for about 15 minutes, but felt like an hour to Greg since she usually only protest cries for about 2 minutes. He was all upset. I could've cared less, really. I know she needs her naps so I don't even hear her cries. My response to him was, "then go next door to the Perlmutter's house. We are not going in to get her." and lo and behold, she went right to sleep.
Therein lies the difference between mothers and fathers. Mothers love their children and want to do what's best for them even if it pains us. Fathers, on the other hand, are weak and just want their children to be happy all the time and will do anything to achieve it. Smiling and happy, which is why you will see at malls and outdoor recreation areas, kids with their fathers usually have chocolate stains on their fingers, lollipop stains around their mouths..and they are wired and crazed....
Again, last night, Dillon cried when I put her to bed. Cried and cried which is unusual for her. Greg says, "Should I go in and rock her a little?" I replied, "Only if you want to still be rocking her to sleep when she is 35 lbs plus..." Yeah, that made him reconsider.
However, I did run in there to see if maybe she was still hungry. Held her for a bit and then put her to bed. And that was that. :oD

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Indicative of our personalities

Greg says to me yesterday, "I think it's amazing how much she's grown since we've brought her home. Don't you? It's quite interesting that we see more of her personality by the day."
My response was, "Yeah...but, eh, I can take it or leave it. If I could fast forward to 2 years old, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
Greg says, rather irritatedly, "Whatever."
And then I am struck by the fact that this conversation and observation is very indicative of our respective personalities. Greg is very intrigued by the process of how things come to be while I could care less about the process. I just want to get there already.
Take for instance, a green plant that turns pink once it gets to a certain maturity. Greg would be interested in what makes that green plant turn pink and why at that certain maturity and not sooner. He would do research on how that plant came to be, etc. I, on the other hand, will have bought that plant just because it turns pink and just will it to turn pink already and when it does, be happy that it did.
I am just not interested in the day to day developments of an infant. If Dillon were to all of a sudden wake up with her two front teeth in already I would not be sad that I didn't get to see her crying and the little teeth budglings coming in. Not necessary. Nope. Skip the whole fever and crying and sadness that comes with teething? Yeah, perfectly fine with me. And if someone else who went through it wanted to tell me about it, I'll take her word for it but again, totally not necessary.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Four months

They say that at three months everything gets better. It's true. Everything does get better at three months. But I think at four months, everything jives better. Maybe it's because at four months, mother and baby have reached an understanding of each other (baby actually understanding anything at all) AND mom's body is actually getting back to shape. Now, I'm sure there might be some women out there that have been able to whip back into shape even before four months, but I'm certainly not one of them. I have not stepped foot into a gym since this baby was born. I "trained" for the mini-tri for about a month, maybe and that was just getting out for a jog a couple times a week and then nothing after the tri. And you know what? I feel pretty good about my shape right now. Errrm..it's certainly not back where it used to be..and it NEEDS to get back there so the hundreds of dollars that I've spent on my denim collection doesn't go to wash, but all in all, I feel pretty good. Now, if my neighbor would just stop lollygagging and get my hula hoop made, I could work on my waist a bit more since doing sit ups is just so out of the question for me.
Oh, and last night...took Greg 45 minutes to put the little darling to bed. Poor baby...maybe she's starting to teeth?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Whoa Nellie!

What is going on...if sleep begets sleep, then there is something wrong with Dillon...yesterday, she took three good naps. By good naps I mean between 1.5 and 2hours each time. Put her down for bed around 7:45p. She woke up at 1am to feed and then woke up at 4am! WHAAT? Girl, what is going on? Well, she did work entirely out of her swaddle so maybe that woke her up? And prevented her from going back to sleep? Not sure.
Anyhooo...tonight has been a doozy. Put her down for bed at 6pm. She wakes up half an hour later crying. I go in b/c at this point I feel like she knows how to self soothe so if she is crying, she must be feeling bad or is still hungry or something. Tried putting her back down...cried. Tried putting her back to sleep again...woke up when I put her down. Cried and cried and cried...took a breather around 7:40. We thought she'd fallen asleep. No such luck. Poor thing still crying. Greg is now in there holding her and rocking her. Maybe she will fall asleep now.
Uh-oh..she is getting rather heavy and rather long..hope she doesn't need this rocking bit for much longer...otherwise, Greg will have to rock her to sleep each time. I am too short. :o) And too weak. :oD

Have I lost my mind?

Today as I was folding our day old laundered sheets, I'm looking at them thinking, "These are really wrinkled. I should iron them..." WHAAT? Have I lost my mind?? Iron sheets? Who do I think I am? June Cleaver?
Perhaps because I can't gain perfection over this child, I am redirecting my perfectionism? Hehe. Not that I've EVER strove for perfection in anything...ho hum...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Loves...

I love that Dillon wraps her little arms around my neck when I pick her up.
I love that she now likes to put everything in her mouth. So, when I pick her up she looks into my eyes and opens her mouth on my chin.
I love that she loves to smile and laugh.

Signs of times to come...Dillon screams bloody murder when I have her on her changing table after a bath and I am putting her onesie on her. She always thinks we are swaddling her for a nap when she is placed on her changing table. Yesterday, she was screaming and I just kept looking at her and calmly saying, "Do not scream. I will not pick you up if you scream. Screaming is not necessary..." So, she calmed down a bit and then I picked her up. Well, as I was walking out of the room, she let out two loud screams. Sort of like a, "I will scream if I want! And you will pick me up!"
Haha! Yup, a sign of times to come.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Back to Dillon

This girl is driving me crazy...last night, she literally was NUUURSING her bottle. She would just sort of suck on the bottle then pause then hang out and then when I would then try to burp her, she would root on me again so I think she's still hungry and try to feed her. Oh my goodness! This went on for like half an hour!! I am beginning to think she KNOWS that if she keeps feeding, then I will keep holding her?? Is that possible? Can she form that kind of thought in her mind?
Certainly not...
This afternoon. Trying to put her down for her nap. Start time: 12:30pm. She starts rooting. Okay, I feed her. She takes in 4 ozs. Then roots again. Give her another 2 ozs. She roots again. I then make another bottle of 4 ozs. This one she is taking in a lot slower. She seems like she is nodding off to sleep but every time I pull her up to burp her, she is rooting again! OMG...she has pooped twice while I am holding her...still eating. It's now coming up on 1:30. AN HOUR it is taking me to put her down and she is not having any of it. Refuses to go down. Is talking, rooting, laughing. I am seriously ready to murder her b/c she has been awake since oh..about 9:30am. Finally, I finish feeding her the 4 more ozs (!!) and just put her down in her crib. Hello? I probably should've just done that from the get go. I put her down. She wails, screams bloody murder for half and hour and finally falls asleep around 2pm. Really? Who IS this girl? Aaaackkkk!! Anyhoooo...note to self. Just put her down when it is nap time, right?? Let her cry. Oh my...

Sidebar 2

Hi, so is this blog now my personal blog?? Not about baby? Hehe. Mayyyybe.
The other day, I'm at Whole Foods buying some ground pork. The guy behind the counter says, "Ni hao" (How are you in Chinese). I respond, "Hen hao, shieh shieh!" (Very good, thank you! in Chinese). And then I proceed to ask the guy, "How did you know I was Chinese? And not Japanese..." His reply, "Well, when I was about five years old, our neighbor was Chinese. Mr. Chang and he practically raised me...and I'll tell you what. You can't tell a Chinese person just by looking at them. You have to listen to them when they are speaking English. Their accents are different."
I looked at him and said, "That's right! But...I don't have an accent." Hello? Who is this jokester?
His reply (looking rather embarrassed I might add), "Are you ABC?" (acronym for American Born Chinese)
I say, "Yes." And we both just kind of smile at each other. Whaaattteeeevver, son.
Nashville...

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Looking in the mirror

Through Dillon I am realizing that I am a) quite anal and b) quite controlling and c) that my world is not the world according to Belinda anymore. It's the world according to Dillon and that world includes Greg and his points of view because he is her father.
I don't dictate what goes on in my life anymore. Case in point. I'm sure I've mentioned on this blog several times how I'd like to give up breast feeding. I just don't make ample amounts of milk, we always have to supplement and for a while, Greg's pro-bf stance had me feeling a bit guilty until one day I thought and stated, "I am weaning Dillon off breastfeeding." Why? Because I hate not knowing how much she is getting. I want her strictly on formula so I can monitor/dictate how much she is eating and get her on a schedule. I said, "This is not a discussion. I just don't want to do it anymore." So, Greg was like, "Okaaaay...."
When Dillon woke up from her nap (she usually gets the boob), I went and picked her up and proceeded to pop a bottle in her mouth. She started crying. She was so sad. The boob went right in. I am currently now still breastfeeding. :o)
As far as controlling how much she eats, that could still be addressed (so I thought). She can have the boob, but I will just feed her formula after and a specified amount each time so she is getting a specified amount at regular intervals. (I need some structure in my life!) Well, according to Dillon, I don't need structure in my life. She does not take the bottle after she breastfeeds. She cries out when she is hungry and she will eat however much she wants when she wants.
Case in point, the other night at 4am, Dillon took in 8.5 ozs! That's a record amount for her in one sitting and at 4am no less. Well, that same day then she ate no more formula until about 3pm that day whereas normally she takes in formula before she takes a nap each time she takes a nap (3 times a day). Yes, as I was packing her up to go out in the car, she decides she's hungry so as I am standing there feeding her formula while she is in her car seat I am realizing that I need to just let go and go with the flow...and that thought - that my life is now the World According to Dillon just made me laugh out loud. She really is something...and having to take a good hard look at myself in the mirror is really eye-opening as well. ;o)
Sure, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but I sure as heck am trying.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Sidebar

Funny sidebar story. Greg just had his backyard relandscaped and there is this beautiful Japanese maple tree that sits off to the side. He's placed a Buddha statue underneath it.
So, the other day he says to me, "Honey, Boulder came out back with me today and guess where he peed?"
Me, after some thought, "the Japanese maple?"
Greg: "No, he walked right over and peed on the Buddha."...hello?? Whady I tell those of you who know my Boulder theory...
For those of you who don't know, my Boulder theory is that he was once a priest in his past life. How do I know this? Because back in NY, he would always stop at churches on his walks, he loves to kiss (lick) little kids and he loves to look up girls' skirts. And now this! Peeing on the Buddha!!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Does it ever end?

The unpredictability of it all...for two days D went down at 7pm, slept til 7am. Sweet! For the past two days, she's been so tired, she went to bed around 6:30 - 7pm-ish and then last night woke up at 11:30p for a feeding. Tonight, 10:30p for a feeding! What?? That is a mere 3 hours after she is put down. That is just not acceptable.
Oh, but it is...isn't it? Isn't that just the nature of babies?
And you see why I've never set goals for myself? Because when you don't achieve them, you get disappointed. I was so looking forward to having possibly achieved a manageable bedtime (the 7pm - 7am) and then I get my hopes up...only to be disappointed. Sad.
I keep trying to look back to see what were the steps that I took during the day when she was going down at 7? Better naps? Not necessarily..better feeds? Not necessarily. I just don't get it.
Well, tomorrow - another day...another trial and error mission.
I mean, why bother going down at a decent hour to get some sleep? That would just be too much to ask for. Errmmm, went to bed at 9pm tonight. That's a rarity for me and look at what it got me? Right back up to feed at 10:30p. Grrrr...

Ohhhh...but the disappointment certainly disappears the moment I see this cutie face! Never mind that in the middle of the night, I get so mad sometimes I feel like I want to throw her down the stairs (luckily, her room is on the ground level. Heh). Awww...she's so cute. Is that conceited of me to say about my own daughter??

I'm obsessed with buying Dillon new toys to help her development. I
rather like this "tummy time" play mat. She certainly enjoys it more
than just being on the bed

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Coolest website!

I just found the coolest website (again, fishing online for nap suggestions, all the message boards, etc..) www.trixietracker.com! Every new mom should log onto this website!
It tracks your baby's diapers, bottles, naps, and some other stuff I can't remember. I just started on it AND it has an iPhone app which is even cooler.
It's ridiculous the amount of tracking one has to do with a newborn...and then you just keep doing it, and doing it...IF you are anal like me? Or does everyone do it? I don't know. :oD
Last night, D again went down at 7pm, up at 4:15am for feed, slept until 7:15am. I'll take it!! Yeayy!
D is growing so fast. And she is so much fun right now. While I have a good amount of girlfriends here who are enamored with D, I really, really wish I lived in LA so my LA friends could spend time with D. It's just wrong that they have not yet seen her. Grrrr...

Monday, June 8, 2009

Magic window part 2

Did I say Dillon's magic window is 3 hours? Scratch that. I think that's wrong...who knows what it is. I actually don't think there's any rhyme or reason to this girl. Of course, that might be might be my fault as well b/c a parent is supposed to establish some sort of schedule or routine that the baby can count on. Well, if you know me, you know I can't do anything the same twice. I can't ever even remember what I did the first time so that makes it very hard to establish any sort of pattern/routine, etc. Sigh.
What I AM good at though, is perplexing over my daughter's sleep habits...heheh.
Interestingly enough, I put her down around 7pm last night and she slept until 3:45am. Whaaat?! Weird. I fed her and then she slept until 7am. She might have slept for longer but Greg was anxious to see her before he left on a business trip.
Yup! It's just Dillon and mommy for the next three days..hmm..could be a lot of crying going on again. Has anyone noticed my parenting style now? It's a lot of crying. Good thing Dillon never remembers it when she wakes up or even just as she is being picked up. Smiles all around for everyone! :o)
There was an episode on House once. Where the patient (played by Mos Def) was rendered speechless and motionless. He heard everything that was going on around him and could feel whatever was happening to him, but could not vocalize what he was feeling! Oh, it was torturous. It was as if you were looking through a glass window and could see things happening that you could not prevent no matter how loud you screamed. As I was lying awake in bed one night, I was thinking, "That must be what babies feel like. They know what they want, yet they can't vocalize it." Imagine little Dillon sitting in her chair. She is yelling because she is hungry and all she gets is her mother and father staring at her smiling and making silly faces and grinning at her. And, she's thinking, "Stop making those stupid faces! I'm hungry! I'm hungry! Someone feed me!" And after about 10 minutes of the shenanigans, we finally grab a bottle and feed her. And, she's thinking, "Finally...idiots." Hahahah!!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Hamsters

My friend Trina visited me over Memorial Day weekend. I was just thinking about a comment she made that was so funny! One morning, I came down and said something like, "Ughh, don't know what D's problem is. She woke up twice last night to eat."
Trina: "Why can't they just come up with a milk drip that hangs in baby's cribs like those water feeders that hang in hamster's cages. Then when she wakes up hungry in the middle of the night, she can just turn her head and suckle a little milk..."
Hilaaariiioousss! Hahhaa! Brilliant no?
I love my friends. :o)

Magic time?

I think I might've found Dillon's magic time...her sweet spot. I think it might run on 3 hours?? Whereas the books say a baby's waking time should be 1.5 - 2 hours max with 2hours being the time she should already be in bed. I think that might not be so with Dillon.
Why do I think that? Because it seems like when I try to put her down within 2 hours, oftentimes she is fighting me. Wait, or is she? It's very hard to keep track nowadays...It's hard to keep track of anything, really what with the continuous lack of sleep I get.
Oh, all my fault, certainly! Like I said, Dillon goes down at 6pm and sleeps until 6am the next morning with one nighttime feed. A normal/logical person would sleep when she sleeps or at least go to bed at a decent hour like 8pm...or even 9pm. No...not me...I stay up until 10ish..sometimes later. I don't know what my problem is. And, now can I really blame a child who might take after me and not want to sleep? Ever?
Anyhoooo I've realized that I might have taken this mothering thing a little too seriously. (What? Me? Who? No...) After emailing with another gf of mine about her daughter's napping habits and she literally did say to me, "Don't be so anal", I have taken a step back to relax a bit.
We had a lovely engagement party for our friends (and neighbors) Courtney and Andrew at our house today! Party was from 1-6pm. Dillon had one nap around 9am that only lasted an hour...mind you, she woke up this morning at 5:15am and just kind of kicked it in her crib (since I was trying to ignore her to see if she's go back to sleep..and naturally, she didn't). But at least she wasn't crying or anything.
I then tried to put her down around 2 and she only slept until about 2:26 (maybe because of all the noise?) So, she just sort of hung out and got passed around from person to person until her bath/bedtime and she was GREAT! Did not fuss once, was totally alert and intently staring at everyone. Smiling and just chilling! I was so proud. :o)
And, no problem getting to sleep either. I mean really? What is my problem? I need to just relax...

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Empty Nest

I'm sitting here thinking, "Why would mothers have Empty Nest syndrome?" I mean, I've only known Dillon for almost four months now and I can't wait for her to scream, "See ya later mom! I'm off to college!!"
Hahah! Actually, when I was bitching and moaning about Dillon sleeping on me and blah de blah I had a lot of my friends (moms) say, "Oh, don't be so quick to get her off your body. It is all so fleeting and you will miss her snuggliness..." Of course, I immediately thought, "Heck no! I will never miss this girl sleeping on me.."
Weellllll....bite my tongue. The other day, a quite tired little Dillon had fallen asleep while feeding on my breast. When she finished and I straightened her up, she just fell right on my chest and was sleeping with her little head snuggled into my neck and lo and behold, my heart turned just a little mushy and I wistfully remembered how she used to sleep on me and was missing it just a bit...

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Baffling

I am perpetually baffled by the baby. All babies...last night Dillon slept from 6pm all the way through to 4:45am! At which time, she got a feeding and then I put her right back in her bed because I certainly was not going to let her get up at 5:15am. She went back to sleep until 7:15! Yippee! That was amazing. However, I'm sure it was just a fluke. I mean, I was sure she would wake up shortly after going down because she had not eaten a lot during the day and had missed some naps! Whatever happened to "sleep begets sleep"? Simply baffling.
And another thing - EVERY time Dillon cries her lungs out (for an hour) after we put her in her crib, the minute we pick her up, she is trying her DARNDEST to make eye contact with us so she can smile and coo. I mean, that used to be our gauge. "Well, if she is smiling, then she must be rested."
I'm not so sure that's the case anymore because she always completely misses her 3pm naps! But 3 month olds are supposed to have three naps a day! Babies need to sleep after being up for 2 hours MAX. WTF? This is so confusing.
I mean, she cries from 3pm to 4pm and then we can't take it anymore and we go in and pick her up and keep her up until bedtime. She goes down fine. Sometimes, she falls asleep before being able to eat her whole bottle of formula...and then I say, "Oh, well...because I can't get her to nap I guess I will just pay for it in nighttime feeding.." But, yesterday wasn't like that. She slept all the way through.
However, two days ago similar no napping situation. She goes down around 5:40pm, wakes up at 9pm to eat, then again at 4am to eat.
Sigh...

Friday, May 29, 2009

Interesting...to me, at least

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child states, "Sleep begets sleep", so the better your child naps, the better he will sleep at night. But, of course, every child is different so you have to determine what is a good nap for just your child I guess.
For the first part of this week, we were trying to put Dillon down a little later - 7pm instead of 6pm b/c we thought maybe that would help her to sleep through the night better (less hours to get through). While, just before that decision, she was kind of sleeping through the night with one feeding but then waking up around 5:30 or 6am every day (which I am a big fan of, Greg, not so much). But with the 7pm bedtime, she was STILL getting up for two feedings! once at 11pm/12am and then again at 4am. I think she's just used to getting up and feeding at 4am. Weirdest thing.
So, I said, let's just put her back to the 6pm bedtime. I put her to bed last night at 6pm and she slept through the night with one feeding! Amazing. I don't know if that's a fluke or not, but we shall see...of course, I am so wired to listen for her grunts and sighs that I still don't sleep that well b/c I am subconsciously just waiting for her to wake up at 4am to feed. Aaargh!
I must say, I do sleep a bit better, but not the best. Great sleep probably won't come until she's about...oh 18 and off to college? haah!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Uhh..visit dillonmarie.blogspot.com lately?

Did anyone just see Greg's recent posting on his daughter's website? That last sentence is so mushy...
I mean, I love to hear her laugh too but would I let the whole world know? No. Heheeh.
So...it's so random but it seems as if Dillon has really regressed. She refuses to go down for naps and cries and cries and cries. I have a sneaking suspicion that when Greg watches Dillon (which he has been doing a lot of since NYC), he spoils her. Carries her all the time and holds her until she good and asleep before putting her in her crib, which, by the way goes against standards for having your child learn how to self soothe.
Meanwhile...I must be the worst mother in the world. I STILL cannot tell what Dillon means when she cries. I think it must be because we feed her so much throughout the day that she never has a hungry cry??? Could that be it? I'm convinced that when she cries it's just to let us know she disapproves of what we are doing. Like, CRRYYY, don't leave me in this chair! CRRRYY, where are you guys? I need some entertainment! CRRYY, I'm tired.
Hehehe!

Monday, May 18, 2009

First time away

I went to New York for 24 hours. My first time leaving my darling daughter and I was a bit teary-eyed. Of course, that was only for a second til I stepped foot off of the plane and onto my beloved New York City!! I love that city...though to be honest, I really wished Dillon and Greg could've been with me and that we were there for longer.
We will definitely be going back in August (when Dillon can hold her head up on her own). :o)
Besides meeting up with my friends, I, of course spent the rest of my time shopping for Dillon and Greg. My bag was a whole lot fuller on the way back than on the way there. I'm gonna have to pack an extra bag the next time I go out there.
Lord, let me never be the sort of person who just talks about my baby...errr...though I think I did A LOT of talking about Dillon. But, then again, even before having the baby I was never one to be caught up on current events. Maybe I should resolve to change that. :o)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Baby #2

Hahaha...did someone think we were onto Baby #2? Never! Well, one should never say never right?
Everyone is right. 3 months is the magical age. I am so in love with Dillon right now. I am pretty sure a lot has to do with the fact that she is not on my body 24/7 and that she sleeps in her crib and sleeps well through the night and is so smart and loves to talk and has discovered how to make pppfft noises with her mouth and does it all the time...and gets mad at us when we are not paying attention to her and is so content when she is in the center of things and gets to sit up and look around and learn things and see her environment.
Am I being ridiculous right now? Yeah. I am. I'm getting a LITTLE bit obsessed with my little one and I guess some people might call it the "Change". Have I experienced the "Change". Why...quite possibly so.
Do I think I would consider a second child? Eh, not at this moment but now I know why people DO have second children! It's because they must sit there and think, Now I know what I am doing! If I have a second child, I would do it all differently and smarter...and then they go and get pregnant and it all starts all over again - the great unknown because HELLLLOO?? Every baby is different! The first three months will always be torture and unpredictable. And if this first child has 10 years off my youthful appearance, the second child will surely do the same! Hah!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Pavlov

Funny how raising a baby is sort of like a series of Pavlovian experiments, right? We do things to condition or babies. Dillon has learned to sleep on her own. We have a nighttime routine - bath, play, feed and sleep and I play white noise in the background. When she goes through this sequence, she knows it's nighttime and sleeptime.
We are having a hard time getting her to go down for naps during the day though. Although, we have a different set of a lesser sequence, swaddle, a little bit of food (to keep her belly full) and rockabye baby CD, rather than white noise. Supposedly, she will eventually be conditioned so that when she hears the rockabye CD, it will indicate naptime to her and make her sleepy. However, I am guessing that right about now, the Rockabye CD indicates extensive amounts of crying..heheh.
It's a lot of a cause and effect type thing.
Now, don't get me wrong here. It is interesting and all that but...had I wanted to be a scientist (a la Pavlov), I would've studied to become one. Hehehe.

Sleep training

Before sleep training...


After sleep training...hahah..

Sunday, May 10, 2009

I think it's working

Daddy came home Friday night. I think Dillon might've smelled his scent and decided she would try to send her pleas to him to come pick her up. So, she didn't go down so well after her early morning feeding but we just let her cry and it was fine.
Saturday, we decided to start feeding her some formula before putting her down for her naps. Sure, most books say that's a no-no b/c then she associates sleep with eating beforehand, blah, blah. But I felt we had to do this in order to properly train her because otherwise, she'd get hungry whilst crying and that just doesn't help anyone. So, having had her belly full, she did go down pretty well for her naps, but then didn't nap for a long time. That's okay...however, throughout the day, she did seem to wake up still tired and a bit cranky though she did manage to squeeze out a couple smiles for us. I was also a little bit annoyed that at her 3pm nap she only napped for half an hour even though I know her belly was full and she could sleep for longer. Also, if she is crying when she wakes up and I pick her up, doesn't that negatively affect her training? Hmmm...
Anyhoo, she cried a little bit when I put her down to sleep for the night (again, I think it's the daddy thing. I think all babies will try to pull one over on any new person that is around), but she only cried for maybe 10, maybe 20 minutes. She also cried a little bit at the midnight feeding and at the 3am feeding but only for a couple of minutes. You can't fault a girl for tryin' to get some attention. Haha! It's just indicative of how smart she is and if you're not careful, you could really get taken advantage of!
At 5am, she woke up again. Mind you, I just put her down with a full belly at 3am so when Greg asked if he should go get her, I said, no. Just ignore her. She needs to go back to sleep and she did! Slept until 7am!
And, now for her morning nap, she has been sleeping since about 8:58am (after crying for about 20 minutes) and it's now 10:09am! Yeayyy! Progress! Progress!!
It's true what people say. It's really interesting to watch your child progress! Now, when she cries, I don't even flinch. She's learning!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

And so it continues

I keep forgetting that we are trying to undo 3 months worth of spoiling. Rome wasn't built in one day...
D will have her good times and her not so great times. Yesterday, Tina and I had a slight breakdown moment where we were both questioning what we were doing. Losing sight of the goal and that we've really come so far but we can't expect her to just take to sleeping on her own within a matter of days. D is really good at crying...and for a good long period. So, when we were both sitting around wringing our hands, Tina was good and talked me through the crying, reminding me of our progress so far and that it just takes time. Our little girl is extremely smart and really hates not being held. It's fine. She never remembers the crying episode and always wakes up with a smile. In fact, she seems to be thriving more now, smiling, laughing, cooing, trying to talk and always moving. My alternative would be to carry her forever...uh, no thanks. Carry on. :o)
Tina then remembers that she has a close gf that is a professional nanny! So she called her up for reassurance and we're all good.
D is best at night. She is sleeping so well at night now, but our nap times aren't so great. She cries and cries and cries. She is crying now as I am typing, but I know she's fed, she's dry and she's comfortable.
A video monitor is KEY for this kind of endeavor. It allows me to see if D is starting to wind down from her crying based on whether or not her legs are kicking. If she is crying and her legs have stopped moving then I know she will fall asleep very shortly...most of the time. Again, as always with babies, nothing is guaranteed and every day, every hour is different.
Sigh...

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Mother's instinct

It's so funny that before Greg left for his business trip, he says, "Honey, I'm really glad that Tina's staying to help out, but if she ever suggests anything that doesn't sit right with you, don't be afraid to just say no. I know how hard it is for you to say no to people. You're Dillon's mom. Trust yourself." Does he know who he's talking to? Um, hehehe! Surprise! Yes, it IS hard for me to say no to people. Once (at band camp..ha!) when we were out walking, some new neighbors came out and we said hello. The woman swooped in and was like, "Oooh! What a cute baby!" And proceeded to reach out her hand to touch her face. Err..hello? Not supposed to do that. I was aghast but speechless. Didn't want to be rude, and well, she did use the back of her hand very gently...
Greg was none too happy with me. "Belinda, don't ever let a stranger touch our daughter. What is wrong with you?" Me, rather sheepishly, "Well, I didn't want to be rude..." Greg: It was rude of her to touch the baby. Don't let anyone do that again. Whooopsies! Agreed!!
Anyhow, yes. I am beginning to find my groove as Dillon's mom. I do listen to Tina but I think sometimes her suggestions might not be the best so I just don't do it. She's kind and doesn't force the issue. She is soo good, that Tina. And I guess I am just now starting to realize that baby rearing is not cut in stone. All books, website, etc can't be expected to be followed to a T! I am only just now realizing this from talking to my other wonderful gf, Jennifer who is an amazing mom to new twins and a three year old. She just does whatever works and you know what? That works for me!! hehehe! I know, I know...sounds pretty stupid, but I gotta tell ya. This baby thing is the HARDEST I have ever worked for anything. Copious amounts of reading (textbook like which I hate), research, loss of sleep from thinking so much...rolling my eyes now.
I DO know what's best for Dilly because I LOVE HER! Yup! Took almost three months for this little peanut to grow on me but she has.