Author: magrilless

This is the most fun I’ve had making a gift since I had time to knit. Looks good enough to eat almost!

The sleeping experiment continues. Tessa has been extraordinary at being in her crib during the night. I would say she cares not an ounce that she’s in her own room at night. She wakes up once to eat, goes right back to sleep in her swaddled blanket, then wakes up at 6 ready to start the day. Naptimes are a different story. Although she has very little problem going to sleep in her crib, she does not stay asleep. In her stroller, she’ll sleep for a couple hours; in her crib, she’ll go for a few half hour power naps during the day. This makes for an overtired and very cranky baby in the evenings. (just ask Bill; he’s been home with both girls for bedtime a couple nights this week.) So here’s hoping there’s some improvement with this as we continue to practice this week.

Tessa and I are currently in a nursing battle. She grabs hold of me while she’s eating and pulls me out of her mouth. This makes her mad when her food source goes away, and frustrates me because I have to hold her hand with my one free one. With a sock on her hand she just pushes me out of her mouth. And putting her arm in her shirt only delays this behavior when she inevitably finds her sleeve. We have a strict “no playing with your food” policy in this house, but Tess just doesn’t seem to get it.

On a purely wonderful note, she’s smiling up a storm these days and “laughing” more often. She thinks getting her cheeks pinched is pretty funny. And pretty much anything Maggie does or says makes her smile big time. The frown comes back still, but definitely not as often as it used to.

I think I’ve mentioned that Maggie is going through some developmental something that has made being her parent a bit of a challenge. Here is today, as an example of what’s been going on lately.

At 1 AM Maggie woke up crying and carrying on about something. This middle of the night tantrum lasted half an hour until she told me calmly, “I don’t want to talk Mama. I want to go to sleep.”

We made pancakes together amicably for breakfast. Then we went on a mother-daughter run to get some ya-yas out. A happy mile later, we’re in the backyard throwing toys for Eliza. When Maggie started climbing in the stroller with Tessa and trying to push it downhill, we went inside to fix lunch. Even though its food she asked for, we had to bribe her with a movie to get her to eat anything.

Just as we finished lunch, our friends from up the street came by and took Bill and Mags on a half hour bike ride followed by imaginary play in the backyard. She went happily to nap time but did not sleep a wink. Indeed she climbed up on her desk and retrieved a collage from her windowsill to rip apart. (All her books have been removed from her room because of this habit.)

We scuttled down to the park for Maggie’s first soccer game, which lasted 1.5 hours. It was pretty amusing and not what I expected. I was picturing bunch ball, all the kids running after the ball in one big group. Instead our team mostly kicked the ball and stood in place while the other team made a goal. We did manage to make a play last a couple minutes once, and our star player managed one goal in the final quarter. Maggie said she had fun, although she kind of pooped out halfway through and mostly watched from the sidelines.

Then we went to a dinner party at friends’ where Maggie ate quietly and politely and played sweetly with the other kiddos. When we got home she kicked and screamed despite some of our best distraction techniques (kitty cat role play, baby roll play, bribing, competition, two equally unappealing choices). After telling her I was pregnant again (with pajamas this time) she named it Squishy Collins, asked me to tickle her back, and was asleep within minutes.

Up. Down. Up. Down. Keeps us on our toes. And in our skinny jeans.

Tessa had her 4-month check-up yesterday. All’s hunky dory. She’s just over 12 lbs and is 23 in long. Which means she’s getting herself in proportion; both of those measurements are in the 20s for percentile. As the doctor said, “She had a little bit of extra chunk at the beginning.” And no surprise here: her head is in the upper 70s for size. Not as impressive as her sister’s 90-whatever, but we gotta get a little of me in there somewhere.

She’s chilled out a little bit over this week. Although the earnest chewing and drooling remain in effect, no other signs of teething seem forthcoming. That weeks was just one of those baby times, I guess, where your guess is as good as mine.

We’re starting a new project this week. It’s time for Tess to be in her own crib in her own room. We’ve started to wake each other up in the night for no reason except it’s noise. And naptime in her crib wouldn’t be a bad thing either, just to reinforce “crib equals sleep” and because it’s always good to start like you intend to finish. So today was the first day to try her out for a nap in her room. It took me 20 minutes of singing her favorite song to get her to fall asleep, but she did. And let me put her back to sleep after she woke up 15 minutes later. I’m guessing this will be a shorter nap than she’ll normally go in the stroller, but we have to start somewhere!

Tess was not at 100% this week. It might have been the effects of a lingering cold or the beginnings of a new one. It might have been that we were in Albuquerque for a long time and she missed her routine, her house, and her daddy. Or it might be that she is now beginning the teething thing. She certainly is chomping on things, hard and with vigor, including her pacifier which used to be for sucking. She’s drooling loads and loads, and loads. And she’s cranky much more than normal. Whatever the case, she’s gotten herself on a few crying jags that have lasted far longer than our cheerful Tessa ever has before.

But she did enjoy much of our activities in Albuquerque. Like the aquarium and an extended family picnic. And of course all the grandparent attention. She was also quite a champ in the car. 3 and a half hours could have gone really wrong with a 3-month-old. She slept the entire trip down, and we only had to stop an hour from home for her to eat on the return trip. Pretty darned good, little girl!