Week in iPhone Pictures

I take too many pictures with my phone.  Ok, there's no such thing as too many, but seriously, I have a lot.  I needed an outlet for them.  Enter Amy's week in iPhone link up.  Ahhh, that's it.  The perfect way to get them out of my phone - by week!  I actually have the last two weeks here because I started this post many, many days ago, but kept getting interrupted by a little girl who doesn't take any naps.  Plus I basically have no photo-editing software, so I had to figure something out (I used Picasa).

July 15-21

Sunday: Lounging after breakfast with Grandpa.  Monday: A progression of smiles during a quick trip to visit Daddy at work.  A lovely sunset.  Tuesday:  Wearing her Ruby shirt to baby class.  Wednesday:  Squirming around on Mommy & Daddy's bed.

Thursday:  Hangin' out on the playmat, waiting for relatives to come over.  There's nothing like a freshly washed stack of diapers.  Friday:  Little Miss No-Naps strikes again!  Saturday:  Lazing in jammies.  Taking pictures of a cute outfit from Auntie Jen.  Ahhhh, finally, a nap.

July 22-28 

Sunday:  Playing with Daddy.  Monday:  Mama's bird's eye view.  An outfit that lasted about 5 minutes. Picked up some supplies at the craft store.  Trying to get away from Daddy on the yoga ball.  Somebody found her hand.  Tuesday:  Strong baby!  More hand chewing at baby class.  Handprint keepsake finally finished.

Wednesday:  A good nap.  Strollin' like a big girl.  Thursday:  Playing with her "guys".  Picnicking at the winery.  Weird-looking cloud.  Friday:  Somebody's sleeping in my bed!  Making faces.  Boppy lounging.  Saturday:  Fruity onesie.

Making these was fun!  Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up.  Go see what everybody else was up to over on Amy's blog.

Embrace the Camera

Before I embrace the camera today, lets just take a peek at how funny this picture of Ruby and Keith is:

It's like she's saying, "Um, Mom, a little help here please?"  And yes, my child is wearing "jeans" and a long sleeved onesie at the end of July.  Welcome to Washington.  Anyway...

My mom came over today, and I intended to have her take pictures of Ruby and I, but... she was sleeping most of the time!  Mom was a little bit sad, but miss grouchy-pants needed that nap.

Things have been going a little bit better on the sleep front.  Yesterday she actually slept IN HER CAR SEAT for an hour during baby class.  I couldn't believe it.  Then she slept from bedtime until, well, until about midnight because she'd busted her swaddle, but I was able to wrap her back up and she slept until 4:00 like normal.  Then after that, she slept until just before 9:00.  She woke up happy, just "talking" to herself in her crib until I came in to get her.  Which took a little while, because I was dead.

No, not actually, but I was so.freaking.tired.  See, Ruby is not the only one that hasn't been sleeping.  I've been having really poorly timed insomnia.  I usually have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep after I feed her.  Yesterday after her 4:00am feeding, I never made it back to sleep.  Barf.

I'm usually the one that puts her to bed, but she was still awake and grouchy when she finished nursing.  I was so tired, I couldn't deal.  Keith took her to her room and bounced her on the yoga ball for what he said was an hour.  It was probably about half that, but I don't even know because I fell asleep instantly.

So, here we are, embracing the camera with the only picture I took today where you couldn't see the massive dark circles under my eyes.  And trust, I made Ruby endure many a iPhone self-portrait this afternoon.  Pretty much any room we were in in the house, we took some pictures.  This is the only one I got.

I feel like I'm always making excuses for not doing a better job at embracing the camera.  But hey, at least it's happening!

Little Miss No-Naps

I don't think there's a single mom-blogger that hasn't written about sleep.

Seriously.

For the most part, we've been pretty lucky in the sleep department.  Once we got Ruby sleeping in her crib in her own room, she has been a pretty fantastic nighttime sleeper.  I know, this makes other people jealous.

I set my expectations pretty low, but she gradually stretched her first round of sleep out longer and longer (once we figured out her preferred bed time).  She's gone up to 9 hours before, but has been generally holding steady at about 8.

Naps are a whole different story.

This is the face of a child who will not sleep.

'Round here, Ruby has earned herself the nickname "Little Miss No-Naps".  Yeah, this kid hates naps.  She was doing pretty well with taking a morning nap (thank goodness, this is when I showered!), and for a while would fall asleep around 4:30 each afternoon.  In the middle, she'd catnap.

Now?  Now we're lucky if we get a 30min nap out of her.  The naps have stopped.

"Hi Mommy!  I don't care if I was yawning a minute ago and I'm all swaddled up, I'm going to keep my eyes open as wide as I can!  Isn't that funny?"

I will admit, I am not the best at picking up on her tired cues.  She can be outright yawning, however, but she still won't nap.  Keith or I will swaddle her up, and go bounce her on the yoga ball in her room, and she will plaster her eyes open as wide as they can go and just stare at you.  She doesn't even blink, I think because she's trying to keep her eyes open wide.

This makes for a very grouchy baby.

And now?  Now she's waking up more in the night!  Usually she'd go to bed around 7:30, wake up somewhere around 4:00, and then again between 6:00-7:00.  She had even been only nursing for about 5min at the 6:00 wake up, so I thought she'd be dropping that feeding soon.  Totally reasonable.  

Then she started having that first waking earlier and earlier.  Last night?  She woke up at 1:24!  Of course, she woke up again at 4:00, and 6:00.  What gives, baby?

Everything is better with sleep...

I think part of it is, she's become a champion swaddle-buster.  She even got an arm out of one of those velcro SwaddleMes.  If she gets her arms out, it's all over.  She wants them out, but she just cannot stay asleep like that.  Sigh.

Today I am trying to get her swaddled as soon as I see a single yawn.  I know with bedtime before, I was missing her cues and she would get overtired, then not sleep (seriously, do not try to put this kid to bed after 8pm, she won't have it).  This morning she took an hour nap.  Right now, she's been in her crib for 20min, but she's rolling around.  Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.  Stay asleep, Little Miss No-Naps.

And now, I'm off to go download the Wonder Weeks app for my phone.  Something tells me this may be my explanation for the lack of sleep...

Embrace the Camera

Something awesome happened.  My girl, she likes books.

I am a total bibliophile.  It is my every hope that Ruby will be someday too.  I had tried reading to her in the past... she just wasn't into it.  In the past week, however, something clicked.  She likes books!  We can sit in her chair in the nursery and read several of them at a time.  I'm in heaven.

Keith needs to work on his photography skills...

Her fave right now is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Unbelievably, I hadn't read it before she was born.  I knew it was wildly popular though, and when I was pregnant, I used some of my Scholastic Book Club teacher points to "buy" a whole bunch of books for her.  With Chicka Chika Boom Boom came Chicka Chicka 1,2,3.  She likes that one too, especially the end sheets with the numbers on them.  Love, love, love it.  She'll also tolerate Dr. Seuss books if they're not too wordy (hello Go Dog Go!), but doesn't have the attention span for the Berenstain Bears yet.

She will.  I can't wait.

Linking up with Emily today!

Ohhh, the Cuteness

Just another Wednesday, hangin' out with my girl. =)

I heart Tuesdays

I heart them because Tuesday = baby class day.  When I was pregnant, I knew for sure that I needed to get some real live mommy friends.  Bonus points if these mommies had babies Ruby's age.  The hospital I delivered at offers these parent-baby classes, broken down into three month age chunks.  Perfect.

Except I wasn't sure I was going to go.  I tend to be pretty introverted in social situations (at first anyway).  I knew I wanted to, but...  Anyway, there was another woman in our Hypnobirthing class who was getting ready to have her second child.  She spoke so highly of the parent-baby classes she'd attended with her first child, telling us that she still had great friends from there, some of whom would even be watching her older child when she went into labor!  Ok, I was sold.

Yep, she had to wear her new Ruby shirt to class today.

I waited a long time (too long) to actually go.  I think she was 6 weeks already?  But I knew from the first class that I totally loved it.  The vibe is just so totally perfect for a brand new mom, because everyone is a brand new mom.  Everyone has all the same problems and successes that you do.  Everything your baby is doing that you wonder, "could this possibly be normal?" IS normal, and all the other babies are doing it too!  Everybody is nursing, a lot of them without covers even.  I came home the first week and told Keith there were boobs and baby butts out everywhere (because we just change them right on the floor, of course), and that I loved it.  It was a totally safe place to learn to nurse in public, and just get comfortable caring for my baby out of the house.  Add to it that our facilitator is totally knowledgeable and has a very "follow the child" slant that is right up my alley, and well, I look forward to Tuesday every week.  

It is just so refreshing to experience the sisterhood of new-mommydom.  I come home every Tuesday afternoon with a sleepy baby and a positive attitude.  You can best believe if it is Tuesday you will find me at my happy place: parent-baby class.

Calendar Girl - Two Months

Not only is my girl two months old now, she's actually 10 weeks as I am writing this.  Yep, I am still not doing so well at getting her monthly update up around the time she actually turns that month.  This time, though, it wasn't for lack of trying!

Somebody tell me this girl is going to keep those blue eyes...

Baby girl turned two months on the 4th of July.  Boy, was she a grouchbaby.  It took two different attempts just to get pictures of her in her little 4th outfit, there was no way I was going to be able to do a month-onesie shoot, too.  It actually took me two different days to get these ones too, because the first time she just wasn't having it.  As a side note, I am totally a slacker and a bad mommy.  If grandma Cheryl hadn't bought her a 4th of July outfit, she would have had none.  Why didn't I think of this?  On that day my FB was blowing up with pictures of cute babies dressed up for the holiday.  I need to remember that for next time.  Holiday = photo shoot.

Speaking of photo shoot, these pictures are pretty terrible.  The exposure is horrible.  My crappy little point and shoot has a "high" ISO setting that I pretty much have to use because she moves around so fast with her hands and feet.  But it doesn't help the exposure, and I'm pretty bummed that I didn't buy a digital SLR when I could afford it.  'Cause now I can't. =(

This girl is gracing us with her smiles more and more each day!  She's also chunking up nicely.  At her 2 month well-baby visit, she weighed 10lbs. 4oz. and was 22.5" long.  It's kind of funny, so far she has gained pretty much exactly 2 pounds per month.  She also had her two month shots.  Horrible.  Actually, she cried less at first than with the Hep B last time.  We left the office, went to Whole Foods and Jimmy John's, and I thought we were all good.  Until we got to parent-baby class.  Poor girl cried HARD, like turn bright red, scream until you run out of breath hard.  It shocked the other mommies, they'd never heard her cry like that.  I had to bounce on a yoga ball with her the whole time (she even would unlatch and cry while nursing!).  At the end, she was inconsolable.  When we got home, she passed out on me.  I missed her sleepy snuggles, but I just felt so bad for her, you could tell she didn't feel well.

My suspicions were confirmed at her appointment - she has the dreaded cradle cap.  It's actually not that bad (and you can't even see it in the pictures!).  She also has a minor flat spot on the back of her head.  The pedi said hers is not a big deal at all, and should mostly correct itself when she starts sitting up.  For some reason though, I am totally devastated about this.  I feel like it's my fault, even though I hold her all the time and she hates bouncy chairs and swings and all of the other stuff people would usually plunk babies in.  I feel totally self-conscious when we go out now, like people are thinking, "Ooooh, look at that baby with the flat head!  What terrible parents she has!"  I know it's really not a big deal, but I can't help but be totally wrecked about it.  Just typing this out makes me want to cry.

Another thing that makes me want to cry?  I've been packing away the newborn clothes.  Rubes is almost totally in 0-3.  In fact, the Old Navy 0-3 stuff is even getting too short (I've found it tends to run short and wide vs. Carter's long and skinny, which is a better fit for her).  It's fun to venture into previously untouched stuff in her closet, but it kills me that she was once so tiny we had to cuff all of the sleeves and pants on the NB stuff.

At two months, Ruby still sleeps a lot, though she isn't likely to curl up on you and sleep on your shoulder anymore. *sniff*  She IS likely, however to give you a 6-8 hour stretch at night where she's asleep (maybe this is why her head is flat...).  She goes to bed around 7:30-8, waking between 2-4 to nurse, then back to sleep until around 6.  I usually (attempt to) dreamfeed her then, and she usually will go back down until 7:30-8, then is up for the day.  I noticed she needs a nap again about an hour after waking, and like to help her with this so that I can shower. =)  She also usually needs an evening nap, but catching her before she's overtired is really hard.  In between, she pretty much just catnaps.

Apparently this post was brought to you by the number 4.

At two months, she's also started to do something that is totally unnerving to me.  Warning: it's about poop.  And poop she doesn't.  Well, she does, but she went from going 4-5 times a day to going only every 3-7 days!  You'd think that'd be great, but I hate not ever knowing when it's coming.  And when it gets closer to day 7, I get worried that she won't have gone by then and I'll have to call the pedi, and they'll tell me to "help her" go.  Ick.  The nurse told me that it might be hard for her to poop while laying down (makes sense), and sure enough, the last time she went in the Beco.  Poor kid.

In spite of all the smiles, this past month has been the month of the grouchbaby.  She's pretty darn fussy most of the time.  She's decided she HATES her car seat (insert awkward/embarrassing moment while waiting at the Target pharmacy here), she grouches in the City Mini some (a paci helps with this), and by the end of the day only a bath or bouncing on the yoga ball will soothe her.  Oh, or nursing.  She still nurses like a champ.  The things she likes when not grouching though, are music, daily walks, being held (still), her crack book, the tiger/zebra thing on her activity mat, being a strongbaby (tummy time), "talking", flirting with the boys in baby class (and her daddy), reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and tooting.  Seriously, that girl can toot.

She really seems like she's turning into a "real baby"now, not so much a newborn anymore.  It's fun to be able to interact with her more, but man, she's growing up so fast!

You didn't think I forgot the crying pic, did you?