Always changing

Well, I've decided that I am no longer going to get my hopes up about any new "trends". Lynsey is always changing, so this idea that I'm going to get to a point where she is consistent is becoming a bit of a pipe dream. She's getting older, so she gets better with age, but I don't know if I have been able to successfully do anything to help her sleep longer. This last week she has decided that she wants to socialize with me at 4 in the morning. It's sad really, because she doesn't know any better - she just wants to be with her mom and she doesn't know that 4am is not the time for that! So she coos and squeals in her crib until I come to her and as soon as she sees me she just kicks and smiles with excitement, only to be disappointed to find out that I'm there to wrap her back up and give her soother back to her. Last night I put her in a baby sleeping bag so she couldn't kick her covers off, and let her cry when she woke up. It wasn't as bad as I thought - she cried for 20 minutes only. I know I said in a previous post that Brian and I were opposed to the "cry it out" method, but she's gotten a bit older and her crying at night has changed a bit. We'll see how it goes - I want her to make that final step to sleeping through the night.

On a brighter note, she's a great eater! I started feeding her baby food this week and she has quite the appetite:). She didn't immediately like the sweet potatoes, but warmed up to them, and she loved the peas. It's really fun feeding her different foods - I feel like she's growing up so much! I also got her a Baby Bjorn active carrier and she seems to love sucking on the front of it. So convenient - this soft thing right in front of her mouth that never falls away! We went to Home Depot today and she was in there for over an hour and did great. She gets impatient in her stroller sometimes, so it's nice to have a backup on walks and in the mall that doesn't kill my back.

Brian is working away in the basement! We had some drywall estimaters in this week and are waiting for a few quotes to make a decision. We are hoping that he can finish the electrical this week and the drywall can go in at the start of next week. Mudding and taping done two weeks later, and we're at the painting stage! That we are doing ourselves. It will be a lot of work, but I figure it's doable in a week or so. Then the carpet goes in and it's a livable space! We will get the finishing done shortly after, but at least we can start moving some stuff down there and have a decent spare room space again.

On the move!

Well Lynsey made some progress this week. On Thursday night while I was at a movie with friends, she spotted a toy a few feet away. She decided that she wanted that toy and put her legs under her and pushed herself forward until she reached her goal! I'm sorry that I wasn't there to see it, but I'm happy for Brian that he was able to catch it. I will probably see most of her "firsts" because I am with her the most, so I'll give him this one:). She is by no means crawling, but it seems when she is determined to get somewhere she will get there. Very exciting!

So an update on the sleeping thing. Much better! This last week has been great in that area. She still wakes up during the night sometimes, but I haven't sat up with her for 4 or 5 nights. Basically we just pop her soother in, wrap her back up, and even though she's still awake when we leave her, she falls asleep on her own! I can only hope that this is not just a fad but her learning how to sleep! Her naps are also for the most part much better. She now sleeps an uninterrupted hour and 45 minutes in the morning, sometimes even a bit longer. The afternoon isn't too consistent yet, but one step at a time. My conclusion about my sleep experiment a few weeks ago is that it was a success. Still not perfect, but continually getting better. Unfortunately, I think she is teething because she is whining a lot more when she's awake and she just attacks our fingers when we put them in her mouth. Nothing poking through yet, though. Hopefully soon!

Sleep . . . need sleep . . .

Okay, so my glass is a touch emptier than it was last week. The naps are going okay - not a huge improvement, but she is having good days amongst her average ones so I would say it is a bit better. Her nights, on the other hand, leave something to be desired. Some nights, she sleeps from 9 until 7:30, which is great - I would rather she sleep until 9 of course, but you can't have everything. Some nights, she gets up around 3 or 4 and is awake for an hour, hour and a half, for no reason. She is just awake. Some might think this is because she is sleeping more during the day, but I don't actually think that is what's wrong. She started doing this before her naps improved. I think she is awakened by gas and then decides that since she's up anyway she might as well kick and play. This would be fine if she didn't need one of us there to watch her. I think she is learning how to sleep through the night without waking up, it's just a slow process. She used to get up because she needed to eat, so now that she doesn't need to eat anymore, it's like something is missing from her life. The amount of time she's awake has been getting progressively shorter so I do have some hope that this is a transitional phase she will get through. I am more tired now than I was when she was a newborn, so I really hope she does get through it!

Onto more interesting things! She is starting to have some really funny expressions. You can definitely see her personality developing. She doesn't sit yet without support, although she can for short periods of time if she decides to. I can see it when she does sit on her own that she is strong enough and even has pretty good balance, but she just leans forward right away and topples over. Once she decides that this is an advantageous position she will be more determined, I think. She is definitely interested in crawling as well. Yesterday I lifted her stomach off the ground and she actually put her knees under her and her hands in front and pushed forward (doing a faceplant of course). She definitely hasn't coordinated the motion of crawling, but she is very interested in the prospect of moving. Good for her, bad for me:(.

For those of you who haven't already figured this out, one of my reasons for keeping this blog is so I can keep track of Lynsey's development until I can get caught up in her scrapbook/baby book. I hope I haven't bored too many of you with my journal-like entries.

What? Lynsey's getting on a schedule??

Of course, since I THINK that Lynsey is getting on a schedule I'm sure that she will be off it ASAP. Isn't that what babies do? Make their parents think they are starting to do something regularly so as to get their hopes up, then they dash them quickly with a few days of complete turmoil. Oh, well - my glass is half full!

As I talked about in my last post, we are trying to get Lynsey to start napping better. This week has been what I would call a success in that department. Over the course of the week, she is crying less often and for shorter periods of time - I've even let her cry through sometimes when she wakes up after 45 minutes and she only cried for 3 or 4 minutes! She has two big naps a day now with a small catnap somewhere in there when she needs it. She is still not sleeping straight through her naps, but I think she will get there. I have also stopped feeding her at night, as it seems she doesn't need it anymore. She still wakes up, but a few times we have let her whine and she actually fell back asleep on her own. Usually I still have to go in to wrap her back up and give her soother back to her, but I think she is learning to soothe herself back to sleep. Like I said - I'm optimistic that she is turning a corner. Not feeding her at night makes it a lot easier to schedule her feedings for the day. All in all, she is getting much easier to take care of as she gets older. With her longer naps she is happier for a longer time, and as she gets older she is starting to like her Exersaucer more as well as her other toys. She is getting a lot better at sitting - still not steady but a lot straighter.

I have started to try and organize Lynsey's scrapbook and realized that I have taken way too many pictures and she will need two scrapbooks for the first 6 months of her life - at least! This will be a huge project for me which I am sort of looking forward to, but will enjoy more once the basement is finished and I have a space where I can keep all the scrapbook stuff out and organized. Brian and his dad are out right now picking up electical supplies, so we'll see how far they get. The framing is almost done, and once the electrical is done, we can start hiring people which will be a lot faster than Brian doing it himself!

Easter in Edmonton - time to roll over!

Wouldn't you know that the day after my last post, Lynsey decided it was time to roll over! We went to Martin and Angie's on Good Friday to hang out with my southern Alberta family, and Lynsey had a very hyper day. She would hardly sit still all day! She was just playing on the floor by our feet reaching for Brian's pantleg when Brian noticed that she wanted to roll over to her tummy so I moved my feet and sure enough! She did it a couple of times that day and she hasn't looked back. A week later, she is doing it consistently when I put her in her gym. It's kind of a pain because she doesn't know how to roll to her back yet so she complains after a few minutes and I have to flip her back onto her back (only to have her roll back to her tummy 30 seconds later). One thing has become very clear in the last week or so - she is going to be a very busy girl. Her little legs are kicking a mile a minute and when she's on her tummy and I lift her off the ground a few inches, her legs are definitely ready to take off crawling! Her arms just aren't there yet. Something tells me that I will be child-proofing our house a bit sooner than I had planned. I guess we'll see!

I have had a nasty sore throat for the last couple of days, but I got some antibiotics yesterday and am feeling MUCH better today. What a relief! I really didn't want Lynsey to get it and so far so good on that front. I think I'm now ready to commit to getting Lynsey on a napping schedule. I've been on the fence for the last little while, not really ready to commit to doing anything consistently to get her to nap better. I've tried a bunch of different things here and there but I think I've finally come up with a strategy that both Brian and I are comfortable with. Lynsey's problem has been that she doesn't sleep for longer than 45 minutes at a time, even though she really needs to. It was sort of working for her, but lately I've noticed that she gets whiney really soon after her nap and I need to put her back down again. This is leading to a lot of catnaps, which is not what we want for her now that she is nearly 5 months old. Today is really the first day I've executed my plan, but today was a success so I'm encouraged! Talk to me tomorrow and I might have a different plan lol. No, I really want to be consistent. I'm putting her in her crib on her stomach (this eliminates a lot of kicking and she seems to sleep a bit better as well) and I stay with her for a few minutes, stroking her head, singing, etc. I then leave the room for a maximum of 5 minutes and if she's still crying go back and repeat soothing technique without picking her up. Today I only had to go back in a few times - quite surprising actually! Brian and I talking about the "crying it out" method and we just weren't sure if we were comfortable with it, so we sort of came up with a compromise. I have let her cry it out before, but she just becomes unmanageable if she cries for too long. Anyway, like I said it worked today (she has slept for 2 hours now, although I did have to give her soother to her half an hour ago) so I will keep you posted on my resolve. I do feel like I need to stick with something - I am too easily swayed by a failed attempt. So I am making it public so I make myself keep it up!

Back in the Jolly Jumper:)

Our little Lynsey is back in her jolly jumper again! Hurray! And she's jumping more than ever! It seems like a milestone has now been reached - she is basically back to her pre-fall state. She is so determined! She has started sitting on her own when she's on our laps! On the floor she can sit on her own for a little bit, but she's definitely more steady when she's on our lap. She still leans forward quite a bit, but I think it won't be long and she'll be up straighter. She's still doing her crunchies, but still no rolling over! I think she has discovered that we are trying to get her to roll onto her tummy and she actually offers resistance. It could be a while before she rolls over. Oh well - we will keep working on it! Another thing she started doing in the last week and a half or so is grabbing her toes and legs. She loves being naked because she gets a better grip that way:). Her appetite for rice cereal keeps increasing - I'm going to introduce oatmeal cereal into her diet really soon. She is getting better and better at entertaining herself, although some days she is more high-maintenance than others.

Workin' on those abs!

That would be Lynsey, not me (if she does get a six-pack it will most certainly be the result of hard work and not because of any genes that we have passed down to her).

Ever since her leg started feeling better, she has started doing crunchies when she's lying down - a lot. She had started doing this sometimes before her leg got broken, but she was obviously not able to do that while she was in her harness. It seems she is making up for lost muscle-building time now - we can hardly get her to lay flat in the bathtub! She still hasn't rolled over, but we are working on that with her - I don't think it will be long.

The cereal experiment seems to be a success - with the exception of one night, she has gone 8 - 9 hours between night feedings since we started. I'm giving it to her in the mornings now as well, although she doesn't seem as crazy about it in the mornings as she does in the evenings. I put her in her highchair for the first time yesterday and she looked so funny in it - still a bit small! I discovered the shoulder straps this morning and it worked a lot better. She also tried out her new Exersaucer yesterday, since the surgeon told us it was now okay to start putting weight on her leg. He says that now we just let nature take it's course to straighten out her leg. Apparently she will have a bit of inequality in leg length for a little while, but he says it will not affect her walking or any other development at all. Of course when I hear leg length inequality I think she's be walking lop-sided, but apparently 60% of people have uneven leg lengths and they don't even know it. He did say though that she would only have this inequality "for a little while" so I'm taking that to mean that it will even out over time. I guess we'll see. In any case, she is thrilled to have mobility back and is working away at strengthening her muscles. Our biggest challenge now is figuring out a sleep schedule for her. She sleeps long at night, but now I would like it if she would have somewhat regular naptimes. One step at a time I guess!