Sit up straight!

On Friday, I was happily going through our standard bedtime routine. Bath, blow dry baby (cool air of course), diaper, PJs, swaddle. Swaddle. I was about to wrap Katherine up when Stephen said, "Um, aren't we going to try unswaddling?" I looked at him. Weakly. Tears in my eyes. Really? Tonight? Isn't it too soon? Do we need another week of one arm out? Can we sleep another night, maybe two? Maybe 18 years? No. Don't be weak... I can do this. Out came the "baby bag" we bought for her last November soon after we found out I was pregnant. She looked so cute. So innocent... What would become of the night?

Thankfully, nothing. She slept. Through the night! Unswaddled. Did I sleep? No. I was so worried about her flipping onto her belly I watched the video monitor most of the night. When she'd turn over, I'd go flip her back over. She was relentless with sleeping on her belly. Since there's no talking during the middle of the night, I couldn't explain to her why that was illegal, so I continued to flip her over. Pleading in my head... Please stay on your back. Either she didn't hear me, or she didn't care what I had to say. Night two I resolved that if she flipped onto her belly I wouldn't immediately go in and turn her back over. For the most part, I didn't. But it was hard. I needed to keep checking to then make sure she was breathing.

It was a long couple of nights. Finally I called the nurse line at her pediatricians office. They'd tell me what to do!!! I explained to the nurse what was happening. Even explained that she can only roll over one way. From her back, from her left side. That's it - no other rolling. She said, once they start rolling over you can let them go. In disbelief I said really? What about SIDS? She said (laughing), "Well unless you stand guard over the crib all night you're not going to be able to stop her." EEEK. Was she here? How did she know??

I'm going to listen to Nurse Funny and let Katherine sleep on her belly. Nurse Funny says it's fine. But don't you worry, I'll be asking Dr Hewitt when I see him next!!!

We gave peas another chance. While I won't say Katherine loves them, she tolerates them. She ate her three containers of peas over three days with no ill effect. Except the face of ICK for the first few spoonfuls. She tried pears for the first time this week. My oh my were they a hit!!! That night at dinner she had half a container of peas and a FULL container of pears. I couldn't put them in her mouth fast enough. Wait till she tries ice cream... Oh wait. She's had that. Wait till she tries whipped cream... Hm. Had that too.... Wait till she gets more than Daddy's finger dipped in ice cream or whipped cream!!!

Our biggest news of the week came as a shock to both Katherine and I. On Sunday we were sitting on the sofa and as I've done for the last few weeks I tried to get her to sit. We need to practice that sort of stuff. Typical to previous practice sessions she tipped over after about two seconds. Then I thought... Hm. I wonder whether she'd do any better on the floor. SHE SAT!!! Stayed right there. No tipping, nothing!! Just sat and smiled up at me, like DUH Mom. Put me on something stable and see what I can do!!! What did I do? Layed her down and ran for the camera. Silly readers. :) We're very proud of her sitting accomplishment. You should have heard her teachers when I showed them on Monday. You'd have thought she won a Pulitzer. :) How cute!!!!

New artwork has been posted to Artsonia. My little Picasa Jr gave Stephen and I a picture of a turkey for Thanksgiving. :)

And here are our pictures for the week. We took some new pictures of Katherine with the life size Panda bear that her Aunt Patty bought for her. For those that saw the pictures from when she was a week or so old - these are quite possibly cuter than the first set. She LOVES the bear and thinks it's quite fun to play with. And of course, there's a morning picture of her, on her belly. She wasn't pleased with the photo session at 7am. :P Ooops.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/ICanSitUp#

Happy Thanksgiving!! Love to all!! xoxo ~ The Aleksza Family

Give Peas a Chance

We did. And they didn't go well. We're going to attempt peas again, but I'll say they didn't go over nearly as well as the oatmeal or carrots did. No siree. While the jury is still out on whether peas will make the cut, Stephen is holding onto hope that Katherine will grow to Looooooove peas. If you were to ask Stephen, the little round green things have been banished from our house. While I won't say they've been banished from the house, they are banished from my food. I'm a grown up now. I don't have to eat peas if I don't want to!!! AND I can still have my pudding pop. (Did you really thing the last time I posted about it would be the ONLY time you'd hear about the peas and pudding pop?? Come on now... It's been 20+ years... One mere blog mention does not erase the scars of my youth!!) I do hope however that I do not pass my pea disdain onto my daughter. For they are her Daddy's veggie of choice. Well that and fungus... and who eats that anyway? (No childhood scar there... just a straight up YUCK factor.) Give peas a chance... well, we'll consider another go round. :)

Last week I told you that Katherine rolled over for the first time. This week she rolled over for the first time... while sleeping. Thursday morning I went into her room to wake her up. I walk in and look at her and think... Hm. There's something fishy here. I couldn't immediately put my finger on it. She was still sleeping... okay, not that unusual (she's my daughter after all)... What is it? OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I scream. STEPHEN!!!! Come see what your daughter has done. (I'm sure that won't be the first time or only time I yell those words.) He comes in and looks and says "What?!" LOOK, I say... She's on her belly!!! It's at this point Katherine wakes up and begins giving us what we can only describe as a turtle look. Her head poking out of the swaddle blanket and her doing her best to hold her head up, while having no arms/hands to support herself. (Remember, she's still swaddled!!!) We discuss how she's going to need to be unswaddled. Weren't we just discussing that a few days ago? Yup. And the day is upon us. I'm not ready. It's too soon. Meanwhile, Katherine continues to watch this exchange. We realize at the same time AAAHHH, she's still on her belly and flip her over. Yup. Parents of the Year. *sigh* So, we resolve to read Dr Karp's chapter on weaning off of swaddling.

The book says that to wean a baby off of swaddling you unwrap one arm from the swaddle. One arm. Hm. Curious. Ok. We can try that. Tonight? On a Thursday? How about we try it on Friday night. That sounds much better!! Alas, we probably should have just gone with it on Thursday night. Instead of sleeping fitfully through the night, instead I'm waking up every hour or so to check the video monitor to make sure she's not on her belly. Why you ask? Because I've been sufficiently traumatized by the SIDS statistics. I must NOT let her sleep on her belly.

Friday night we unswaddled one arm. Apparently the WRONG arm. Why? Well it made it easier for her to roll over. You see, she has a problem when she rolls over. She can only roll one way. From her back to her left side. That it. And even that takes some effort as she can't figure out what to do with her arm when she's trying to roll over. With her arm straight at her side it makes rolling over WAY easy. And so the night begins. Stephen didn't even make it out of her room a few times, and she was back onto her belly. Leave her there? Again, I say SIDS, not to mention that when she would wake up she'd start SCREAMING because she was on her belly... The only thing worse is getting her vaccines. Saturday night I got wise to her ways and we switched up. Swaddle the other arm. She's not able to roll over again now. Well, at least she still has the challenge of what to do with the arm. She hasn't rolled over in her crib, during the night, since. Whew. Crisis suspended. I'm not foolish to think it's averted.

When do we unswaddle the other arm? I don't know. Don't rush me.

Katherine's also getting quite, um, active in her Jumparoo and ExerSaucer. Yes, active. Good word. In her Jumparoo our little darling gets air. Truly. Her hair flies up in the air when she jumps. It's really quite amusing. Baby can jump!!! She doesn't quite understand (no matter how many times I tell her) that the ExerSaucer doesn't have the same functionality as the Jumparoo. So she tries to jump in that too. Instead of getting air she rocks the thing like crazy!!! Ms Lisa told me today that she can move the little ExerSaucer like thing at daycare across the floor by jumping. Isn't that special??

Here are some pictures from the last week of events.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/MiscPictures02#

This week we're getting ready for the great Thanksgiving festivities. We're looking forward to seeing all of the family members who are coming to town. Stephen's already begun cooking and prepping some things. This weekend we plan to start another round of things that can be prepared/frozen in advance of the big day.

Oh, and for those curious about our "Black Friday" shopping... This year's not looking too spectacular. Stephen's actually said (out loud!!!) that maybe we'll just stay home. WOW!! It's got to be pretty crappy. It's his favorite shopping day of the year. He anticipates it for months... we have spreadsheets, calculations, rebate tracking... Stay home??? I don't think it's possible!!!

5 months old & Suspended from School

Katherine is officially five months old today!! Yay!!! And yesterday, she was suspended from school for the first time. Okay. Maybe not "suspended" but I had to go pick her up because the principal (aka Director) called and said come get your daughter. Why? Fever. Her teacher said she had a fever of 101. When I arrived to pick her up she was napping. Her teacher said she was acting unusual all day. I asked how so and she said her personality totally changed. Really? Why? "Because she was quiet." YIKES!!!! Is my daughter known as the big mouth? Um. Apparently, yes. Yes, she is.

So I packed her up and we came home. By the time we got home it was 99.8. I'll remind you of the hospital/fever incident that resulted in 102 fever at home, at the hospital: 99. So I feel for Miss Shawn. I think Katherine has some Tibetan Monk in her. (See link below.)

http://warofillusions.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/harvard-gazette-report-on-tibetan-monks-who-can-heat-up-their-bodies-at-will/

By this morning she had a normal temp. But alas, school rules are no daycare until you've been fever free for 24 hours. While I appreciate this as a parent and am glad they enforce it to help alleviate sick kids in school I say... So help me understand then how Katherine's been sick since she started daycare? And poor Stephen's been sick since (as he says) two weeks before we left on vacation. Which coincidentally matches up to when Katherine started daycare. Curious I say, curious. So today I worked from home and took care of little miss. She was quite helpful on my conference calls (she gave her opinions on a few of them) and helped me type some emails while sitting on my lap. She likes holding the CTRL key down which I'm sure you know "controls" all sorts of short cuts. Needless to say there were some situations I had no idea I could get myself into, and as a matter of fact, I didn't get myself into them. My 5 month old daughter did. She's computer savvy already!! And I again said, where's the Mensa application?

Another major event of last week was Katherine rolled over for the first time. The night before we agreed that she was very close. We said within a week. Ok, a week, 24 hours... we could just tell it was getting closer! So for this very momentous, monumental, oh my goodness event who saw it? No one. Katherine was laying on the floor on her back playing while I turned my back to get her laundry out of the dryer. I come back 30 seconds later and she's on her belly. I screamed and RAN for the camera. Stephen, was sitting on the sofa saying "what?" as I screamed running SHE ROLLED OVER!!!! She did it. She actually rolled over. I took three all important pictures before unpinning her arm that was inconveniently stuck under her. She hasn't quite figured out how to roll over without an arm stuck. Then I willed her for the next 45 minutes BEGGING her to roll over. Did she you ask? No. No, no no!!!! But I knew she could. So the next night we tried again. Do it do it do it I begged. Did she? No. Saturday was my day. In my head I thought I might hear music the first time I SAW her do it. Queue the Hallmark music for our moment. Someone must have forgotten the CD. There wasn't any music, but there were 2 huge grins... mine in a proud Mommy moment and hers, until she realized she was on her belly.

Katherine's menu has expanded!!! She really likes oatmeal with bananas but the real winner so far is carrots. She does cheers for carrots! Ever since she started eating some food she's rather disinterested in bottles. Never the less, bottles will continue for at least another 7 months. Next up... I think we might try PEAS!!!! (And of course we'll have to wear the bib Aunt RoRo bought that says "Give Peas a Chance")

http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/YummyFood#

(This link also includes the I JUST ROLLED OVER pictures.) :)

Katherine has increased the chatting she does. Um. It's really more like yelling now. She's loud. Very loud. As I mentioned previously, her teachers knew she was sick because "she was quiet". Yikes. My daughter is known as a big mouth, already. *sigh* What have I done??? She's so loud sometimes you can't hear your own thoughts. Last night she and I were having a little Mommy & Me time (translation, she was yelling and I was telling her stories) and she was so loud Stephen couldn't hear the TV. He reverted to closed captioning the TV so he could get through the 15 minutes of TV he'd been trying to watch for 45 minutes. Oh me, oh my. It's just a phase, right?! Will Stephen be forever more required to "read" his TV shows???

We think she might be getting a tooth. But then, we might be overreacting first time parents. She's drooling like CRAZY!! And she's putting everything in her mouth including her hands (which are illegal). Hands may NOT go in the mouth. Ug. I'm wondering however if the pacifier will really be taken away at 6 months. I'm already (one month till D-day) thinking I don't think I'm ready for that. :P The person who said to take it away at 6 months was one of the (cranky, mean, dreadful, add a few more adjectives here) lactation consultants. Harrumph. AND, Stephen's threatening to unswaddle her. I'm not so sure I'm ready for that either. She's going to wake up 100 times a night. I'm scared!!! Can't she stay swaddled until she heads off to college? Then her roommate will have to deal with it. I think that's the best idea I've had all day. I'm sure Dr Karp will help us. Apparently there's a chapter in his book dedicated to the weaning off swaddling. I do so love Dr Karp. He's our hero. Well he and the inventor of the Kiddopotomus swaddleme blankets.

OH MY, and I almost forgot. Katherine brought home her first piece of artwork. Impressive. I am so fond of it I posted it to her own little art website. http://www.artsonia.com/ - She is Katherine1242. If you like you can sign up for her fanclub. :) The girl's got MAD skills. Just look how she stayed right in the center, nearly all within the lines. That tells me she'll be focused when she's older. Occasionally show a "crazy side" (noted by the two marks outside the lines) but otherwise a sweet centered girl. :) Mommy/Art Interpreter. Just take me to the art museum. I'll tell you what it all means!!! hehe

Yup, I'm a silly Mom! I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a Mommy!!!

A week of many "Firsts"!

So many firsts...

- First Halloween
- First family day trip (To the Outer Banks)
- First time Katherine set her toes in the ocean
- First time Katherine touched sand
- First time Katherine went to see "grass" (I'll explain later)
- First time Katherine visited a Coach store! :P
- First time change for daylight savings :-/
- First time Mommy caught her chewing on her crib

On Friday we celebrated Katherine's first Halloween. I think it went pretty well! We decided to dress her up in the bumble bee costume for school and the pumpkin costume for trick or treat time. The thought was the pumpkin costume was more like a fleece sleeper rather than a costume so it would be snuggly warm for her... and it was!! Katherine sat on the porch with Stephen and I and gave out candy. She didn't get scared by any costumes!! Yay!! Who could really be scared of a super hero or princess though? :) We had somewhere around 125 trick or treaters. My guess is a little more. We went through almost 3 bags of candy (128 pieces), a box of 100 blow pops and 5-6 containers of play-doh. We had to run out on Friday to get play-doh for the little girl who told us last year "I'm allergic to chocolate and nuts." Okaaaayyyy... All I had was chocolate!!! This year, we were prepared. And ya know what? She didn't show!!! Or at least this year she didn't tell me she was allergic!

The kids were very amusing with (err, without?) Katherine. Most of the parents would say, "oh look at the pumpkin!!" and the kids would say ahuh and their eyes would never leave the candy bowl. I'm pretty sure none of them knew there was a baby on the porch. The candy was at her feet... No need to look beyond that. One little boy's mom was talking about Katherine, asking how old "he" was (sitting in a pink bouncy seat?!) and the little boy was agreeing the whole time with his mom. Stephen was watching him and he just stared at the candy and when he thought we were not looking dug in and grabbed some more! teehee

Below are some of the pictures we took of Katherine's first Halloween:
http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/KatherineSFirstHalloween#

On Saturday we decided when we woke up to take a day trip. Spur of the moment!! So, an hour and a half later when we actually left the house we were off to the Outer Banks. We didn't quite remember how long of a drive it was. Let's just summarize with one word: LONG! The drive out seemed to take 6 days. When we finally got there we drove down one of the main strips in Kitty Hawk. Just as we were getting ready to turn around Stephen saw the sign for the First Flight location... So off we went. Katherine's first trip to see grass. What does that mean you ask? Well, Stephen loooooves to visit places of historical significance. i.e. A war happened here 100 years ago. Or someone did something here 100 years ago. Now it's just grass. A memorial, marker and museum might be on the property, but essentially you're there to look at grass. It doesn't fascinate me as it does Stephen. He loves him some grass. My favorite historical trip that we took was to the Battleship North Carolina. At least I think it was a battle ship. I thought that was a terrific trip. One there was no grass to see, but more importantly, the man giving us the tour of the ship actually served on the ship. He remembered when a plane flew into the side of the ship. He remembered when the area that is now the cafeteria to the tourists was an officers mess. That was absolutely fascinating to me because he could relay real stories. And it was special because in a few years it won't be possible to get a tour from a person who served on the battleship. Kitty Hawk First Flight... My take away was the first flight was short. The second not much better. The third, clearly they were on to something. :)

After the location of the first flight, thank you Wright brothers, we were off to the beach. I thought it would be fun to have Katherine stick her toes in the sand. Plus she needed to eat. Picnic time!!!!! We walked onto the beach and immediately noticed all of the tire tracks. That's not something I recall from my days on the Cape May beach. No tire tracks. Hm. Were we to be run over by some man in a truck in search of the best fishing location?? Would they really run over three of us without seeing us? We decided no. They'd HAVE to see us. So we sat and fed little miss. She was quite fussy. I think it might have been because of the ocean sounds. She knows at home that's the sound for bedtime. I don't think she was ready for sleeping so she was fighting the noise.... It's like baby hypnosis. Oh, and maybe Daddy hypnosis. He falls asleep to the sound too. After her bottle we went down to the water's edge. Stephen wanted to dip her toes in the ocean. Before you call child services let me say that Stephen tested the water temperature. It was fine. I even took off my shoes and socks to participate with Katherine. Stephen didn't need to. The wave came up and got him, shoes and socks on. :) The first wave Katherine was fine with. The second... hm, not so sure about this. By the third, she was convinced it was a non-starter. She punished me for it by puking on me. No, I'm not calling it spit up. It was an "event". Spit up doesn't convey what she unleashed. The worst is that she just opens her mouth and it falls out. And she smiles the whole time. Like haha. Stinks to be Mommy!!!

After that we did some investigation of time shares. We keep thinking it's a possibility, but then aren't sure we're prepared for that level of pressure. Where do you buy? Do you have to buy a red week? Who do you buy from? What's a good price? How come some are $500 and another for the same week at the same location is $5000? What gives? Fortunately the place we visited didn't have a high pressure environment. In fact, I don't think there was a sales rep there. The security guard showed us one of the "properties". Thank goodness. We're weak. Which was displayed a short while later when we visited the Coach outlet store.

Ok. It's a coach OUTLET. That means cheap. Seriously. I even go directly to the clearance shelves in the Coach store. How much cheaper can you get? And don't suggest China Town in NY. They aren't cheaper! Well, they are for big bags but I wanted one that would match the diaper bag that Sofi and Nicole bought me. I mean you need to accessorize, right? Fortunately, they not only had a bag to match but it happened to be one of the ones on clearance. JACKPOT!!! And for $40 who can resist? Maybe you can... I could not. I'm weak.

Pictures from our trip to the beach:
http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/DayAtTheBeach#

The trip home was uneventful. Katherine slept most of the way home which was great, considering it was her bedtime. I was concerned about the whole daylight savings time thing, and apparently, I had reason to be concerned. My normal wake up call at 7:15/7:30 was promptly provided at 6:15/6:30. I thought maybe when I'd told her on Saturday night that she needed to check the clock before she cried, that it might work. Shockingly, it didn't. So now we're trying to adjust to DST being, well, not DST. It's not pleasant. Sunday she napped for maybe, total, one hour. Do you know what happens when an almost 5 month old doesn't get a nap? You do, right? Not pretty. Bedtime and feeding times... Also, not pretty. How does one tell an almost 5 month old that the time has changed and therefore what she believes is time to eat is really an hour too early. I've tried logic, bribing, a new toy... It's not working. *sigh*

Yesterday Katherine also learned the art of getting Mommy to buy something that I didn't plan on buying her. We were in Target and she was facinated by a red christmas doll baby. So I took it off the little rack it was hanging on and showed it to her. She promptly put the dolls foot in her mouth. I didn't have time to react. I couldn't put a slobbery doll back on the rack so it came home with us. I've given it some thought and that's a pretty good way to get what you want. Had I known about that before we went to the Coach store... Well, let's just say my mouth might have found it's way to a cute pink and brown purse I saw too. :P Okay, you think me chewing on something is gross... Katherine might have found the strap of the pink and brown purse quite yummy!! I can't help what she chews!!! (See below.)

And finally our last first for the week.... Katherine chewing her crib. Yup. Chewing it. Each morning I find her with her head in the top left corner of the crib. This morning I walked in while she was in the act. CHEWING on the railing of the crib. I'd done research to find something to put on the top of the crib as I figured she'd be a woodchuck like I was in my infancy. She is, but she's beaten me to the punch and I don't have a solution. Instead her "lifetime" bed will have chew marks when she takes it to her new home for her and her husband to sleep on. Let her explain THAT to her husband.