Sleep Strategies

I was reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" and got tired of being told pretty much to follow his strategies, but in the end, do what you want. That's how most of this baby stuff seems to go. There was one strategy we did use and that has worked. Dr. Weissbluth also suggests putting the baby to bed earlier to make them sleep longer. While it seems counterintuitive, it has seemed to work ~ At least this week.

I bet Dr. Weissbluth didn't suggest this strategy either in his book (I never made it all the way through), but it has helped us! We position a Nuk in each corner of the bed, so when Reagan loses them in the middle of the night, there's always one within reach. Amazingly, all four Nuks fall on the floor every night. She must really move around. The doctor also said it is okay for her to sleep with a lovey at night now, so we're starting with travel-size Marley and will eventually give her full-size Marley. Marley has an amazing calming effect on her. It must be his soft fur.

Cheap Entertainment

John and I are done buying toys. Reagan could spend hours playing with the vents on the floor and the doorstop.

Memorial Weekend

John, Reagan and I spent a quiet weekend at home for memorial weekend. "Quiet" being a relative term these days. Reagan keeps us on our toes constantly now that she's crawling and getting faster. She's drawn to the stairs and any wires that might be peeking out from behind the furniture. We now have all the doors to the rooms closed because she will either a) leave the room and head for the stairs or b) crawl into the bathroom or pantry and play with the grossest thing she can find. She loves to be where John and I are and touching whatever we are touching.

On Saturday evening we visited our friends Greg and Sarah and saw their new home. They were pretty daring to let Reagan play on their nice cream rug after she had eaten carrots for dinner. It was a gorgeous night, so we had dinner outside and let Reagan play in the grass until it got too cold.

Obviously, the blanket didn't do much good.

When I took Reagan to her six month appointment, the doctor said we should start brushing Reagan's new teeth every night with a little water. I found a soft toothbrush just for babies at Creative Kidstuff and thought we would give that a try. It claims that it helps kids get used to the feel of a toothbrush without being hard on their gums. Reagan wasn't too sure why this thing that looked like her Nuk felt so strange in her mouth.

On Sunday, Reagan and I accompanied John to the driving range. Although John claims that Reagan loves golf, I'm not so sure. She slept right through it. If you look at the left side of the picture you can see the storm clouds that formed the terrible tornado in Hugo. The storm hit just far enough north of the driving range that we didn't get wet, but could see the rain falling! I had returned home from Albertville Outlet Mall to find out that there was a terrible storm going through Albertville with hail that was strong enough to break people's windshields. I'm certainly glad that I followed through with my intent to make a quick trip up and back.

On Monday, we spent more time at home. I wish, just like every other Minnesotan, that the weather would clear up so we can finally spend time outside.

HOT

I just noticed that on our duckie bathtub picture, the water heat sensor says "HOT." If you are concerned, don't be. The water was a little warmer than lukewarm. That sensor is too sensitive in my opinion. I don't want our girl to freeze!

6 Month Pictures

Jackie put some of Reagan's six month pictures on her blog today! I already have so many that I love ~ It will be hard to decide again!

http://www.jackieboldtphotography.com/blog/

Do I Have to Eat This?

The doctor gave us the go ahead to give Reagan some cereal. We tried on Friday night for the first time and I made the cereal really runny. She didn't seem to mind it too much. In fact, she even smiled and tried to hold the spoon herself.

"This is fun, Dad!"

"I'm such a big girl now!"

I think I got a little too confident though because Saturday didn't go so well. I made the cereal a little thicker and she did not like that at all. After gagging twice, Reagan got frustrated that it wasn't coming fast enough.

"You mean I have to do this again?"

"I'm so tired of eating. Just give me the bottle."

Crawling Video

Here she goes:

We're finding that she's mostly motivated by getting her bottle or her nuk. She really likes to go after anything that makes noise too.

6 Month Appointment

Reagan had her six month appointment on Friday and all was well. We got the good news that we wanted . . . We can start feeding Reagan some solids and also ween her off of her acid reflux meds. She got more shots and I think because the doctor's appointment was during naptime, she didn't take them quite as well as she had in the past. She was 15 pounds and 25 inches long which put her in the 25th - 50th percentile for both.

Again, while waiting for the doctor to see us, Reagan had a great time playing with the paper on the exam table. This time I caught her in the act with my camera.

Two Toofers

Here's a good picture of Reagan's new teeth!

Six Months Old!

We're halfway to a year old and like all new mothers say, I can't believe Reagan's already six months old. It's amazing how fast they change in the first year! There's so much for a baby to discover after they're born. Everything you took for granted now before baby now becomes a new experience for the parents too. You forget that your baby has never felt the wind on her face or heard a dog bark and its hard to imagine what that must feel like to them. I hope John and I can continue to encourage her to savor new experiences and to keep her childhood curiousity even as she grows into adulthood.

Reagan's six month appointment is tomorrow and we're hoping that the doctor tells us lots of good news. Hopefully, he'll let us introduce some baby cereal and we're crossing our fingers that he takes her off of the acid reflux medication. That prescription is expensive! Reagan's skin has cleared up amazingly since March thanks in part to warmer weather and the large quantities of lotion we've been using on her skin, so we should have no issues there.

We had some technical difficulties as we were trying to take her six month monkey picture. She was more interested in eating the sign than taking the picture. Oh well, we got pictures of her using her six month skills at least.

One of the only pictures where she isn't going after the sign. We snuck it in right before we took the picture.

"Somebody moved my sign."

"Got it."

She only moves about a foot at a time, but she's definitely on the move. I can't even believe how much better she got at crawling from yesterday to today.

We even showed off our new sitting skills.

Just in Time . . .

It's official ~ Reagan's crawling. Looks like we put up the gate just in time.

It's been a big day . . . We've also discovered a second bottom tooth making its way through Reagan's gums and all the fussiness that comes with a new tooth. Tomorrow will be better for her hopefully.

My Friend Minnie Mouse

On Sunday night John pulled out Reagan's Minnie Mouse to entice Reagan to work on sitting up. Reagan was delighted! I don't know if it's because Minnie's about Reagan's size or if it's just easy to get Minnie's ears and nose in her mouth, but she was in hysterics over Minnie! Here's my interpretation of the conversation they were having:

"Hey! You're the same size as me!"

"Minnie, you tell such funny jokes!"

"Can I borrow your yellow shoes?"

"I love your big bow!"

(Somewhere in there she must have asked if she could eat the bow, because it went right in her mouth!)

As for the sitting up, we decided that we should start working on that skill before she started crawling all over the place. Before Friday, she was extremely wobbly and she still needed some support. By Friday night, she was much better. As you can tell from the pictures, she's pretty much got it with a supportive hand every once in a while.

Mother's Day Weekend

Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all the moms and moms to be reading this! I know I have no right to complain since I don't work on Fridays, but the weekends still seem to slip away so fast.

On Saturday, we drove to Madelia to visit my grandmother and we were all pleasantly surprised to see that she was doing much better on her new medication. It was like having the grandma that I remember back.

Four generations of Moms (I assume Reagan will be a mom eventually).

Sunday was a wonderful, relaxing family day. It started with breakfast in bed, some snuggling with my adorable little girl and Caribou coffee.

I got my first of many (I hope) handmade cards from my little girl.

I used my leverage to have John get a few things done around the house. On Friday, I had the bright idea to change things up in our living room. We moved the chaise lounge to the other side of the couch which gave us a lot more playroom for Reagan.

Our second chore was to install a gate at the top of the stairs. The gate is annoying to have to open all the time, especially when your hands are full. However, today we had some arm movement to go along with the feet and Reagan moved about 8 inches forward. If learning to sit is any indication of how fast she'll learn to crawl, she'll have it down by the end of the week.

Chicken Legs

A new definition for the phrase "Chicken Legs":

Blissfully unaware that there's a chicken strapped to her leg. I left the room for a minute and when I came back, the chicken was connected.

"Why does that darn chicken keep following me?"

"Mommy, stop taking pictures and help me, please!"

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Sunday finally ended up being a decent (not gorgeous, but decent) day outside. Since we've been couped up in the house since November, there was no way that John or I wanted to finish the spring cleaning we started on Saturday. As a kick off to summer, we went to watch Jordan Lehman play ball at Zachary Park. It was the Little League kick off Jamboree, so the games were shortened, which was good because while it was nice enough for us to be outside, but it did get kind of chilly for Reagan.Jords at bat. I was incredibly impressed with Jordy's speed. Each time he got to first, he was quick enough to steal second and even third.

At first with assistant coach, Todd (aka Jordy's dad for those of you who don't know). Seconds after I snapped this picture I turned around and Jordy had stolen second.

Pitcher's mound

Jaden and her new friend, Ben playing in the sand and dirt on the ground. To me, this looked like a messy playtime. Deb assured me that once you have three kids, you just don't care as long as they're happy. If we ever get to three kids, I hope I'm as laid back about it as Deb seems.

This is the perfect closing picture. I've had enough blogging for tonight. Happy May, Everybody!

Baby in a Box

Who needs fancy toys when she likes to play with things we already have? I was refilling the box that holds her diapers when she showed an interest in playing with it.

Our Little Pumpkin Face

It finally broke through! We have a happy baby again! Not that she was unhappy, just a little whiny sometimes. Her one tooth on the bottom reminds us of a jack o lantern face.

Socks, Jumperoo, Duck and a Long Nap

Friday started out with a surprise package for Reagan from our lovely Kansas City hosts. They sent Reagan the cutest socks. Reagan has wanted these socks her whole life! Little did she know that the packaging would be just as fun.

That afternoon, Reagan took a three hour nap, which is almost unheard of for her. It gave me plenty of time to take pictures of her sleeping and getting her surprise ready.

I love that she always has a smile on her face when she wakes up.

While Reagan slept, I cleaned and disinfected her new jumperoo. I finally gave in to having a big toy in our house. I was originally opposed to have a jumperoo or exersaucer at our house for a couple of reasons about which I feel quite strongly. Here they are for you soon to be moms:

1) They are HUGE. I could barely get it in my car, much less from the car and up the stairs. Unless you plan to have kids back to back, your baby will eventually outgrow this toy and you will need a place to store it. Kim and Bryan ~ This one's coming over to your house when baby SnackPack arrives this winter along with the swing.

2) They get even bigger if you buy one with all the bells and whistles. Some of these have so many random things attached to the tray that it's very overwhelming for an infant. If you do buy one, try to find one with less toys. It is better for a baby to concentrate and figure out one toy for a span of time than to be presented with an abundance of options and only play with each one for a second or two. No wonder more kids today have attention disorders in school. The jumperoo that we got Reagan has toys that detach, which was a key selling feature. I can take the noisy ones off.

3) Although you would think exersaucers or jumperoos would develop the muscles babies need for walking, they are actually not helpful. Because these toys have trays around the babies middle, they can't see their legs and thus, don't realize that its their legs that cause the jumping or walking.

4) Jumperoos and Exersaucers are expensive! They range from $60 to $100. I found ours at Once Upon a Child for less than half that price and it looks brand new (minus one little spot of dirt that I wiped off during my disinfecting). For the few months that she will actually be using one, it wasn't worth the price to me.

That being said, Reagan also has become mobile much sooner than I had hoped and I don't feel comfortable leaving the room if she's moving all over the floor. We have yet to get a gate (maybe next weekend) and this provides some containment. Since she is also about to crawl before she can sit up, the jumperoo at least helps to strengthen her sitting muscles. So basically what I'm saying is that sometimes you have to do what's right for you even if it goes against your strongest reasons.

Figuring it all out.

Our feet don't quite reach the floor yet.

Checking out the structure.

Reagan finally got into it tonight with a little help from John. She was giggling hysterically as he helped her bounce!

Another recommendation I would make is for Munchkin's Inflatable Duckie Bathtub (Available at Target). A few of my friends recommended this to me and we finally went and got one this weekend. Reagan wanted so badly to sit up and splash in the tub, but her other bathtub wouldn't let her sit up enough. Our bathtub is so big and this duck will be perfect for her to use until she outgrows it. A word of warning, you do have to blow it up yourself. John blew a few times and then went to get an air pump.