the hardest thing we've had to do...

So Stella is now 15 pounds, 5 months old, and certainly not needing that 11pm, 2am, and 5am feedings before she wakes at 7am. About a month ago, she slept for 10 hours straight for about 2 weeks, and we thought we were golden, and then now, not so much.

So after consulting a myriad of baby sleep books from the library and friends (because I'm into research, that's what I do), we finally settled on a plan we thought would be ok - a "dream feed" when I go to bed (nursing in their sleep to fill up their tummies one last time) and then nothing until 6am.

2:20 am. Stella wakes up happily babbling.
2:30am. Stella starts to get frustrated that I have come in yet.
2:35am. Stella starts to cry and I go in.
2:40am. Stella continues to cry because I don't feed her.
2:42am. Aimee starts crying and cannot handle it anymore.
2:43am. Steve goes in to try his hand at comforting.
2:45am. Steve starts singing a lullaby and Stella IMMEDIATELY quiets. Amazing. She starts doing cute things like grabbing her feet and putting them to her mouth. Steve beings to laugh and starts to play with her.
2:47am. Steve realizes that he had better not play with her. Oops.
2:50am. Stella starts crying again.
2:53am. Steve turns on lullaby music and Stella stops crying.
2:59am. One more burst of tears.
3:00am. Stella is asleep.

3am - 4:30am - Steve and Aimee lie in bed wondering if they have scarred their daughter... feel guilty... try to sleep themselves... feel more guilty... then feel ok that maybe this won't have to happen too many nights in a row.

Woosh. What a night folks.

R.I.P. Kanga

She was a good kangaroo puppet.

Stella loved to eat her nose.

Unfortunately, Scupper loved to eat out her eyes. and her head.

Now Kanga is blind and has a lobotomy.... and is about four shades of dirt.
Guess we know who was pissed that he got left home by himself for a few hours on Wednesday... but to be fair, I also know who was an absent-minded mother and forgot to take Stella's toys off the couch.

Ah well. Guess Stella better get used to her stuffed animals being blind. That will make her more patient and tolerant, yes?

Cloth or not to Cloth

Okay - so weigh in on this one. ( but bear with the back story)

Here's the dilemma. I found some gDiaper biodegradable diaper inserts at the thrift store two months ago for $4/bag. They are usually $15. (They basically look like a big feminine pad). So being the woman that loves good deals, I bought them. Then I needed to find the actual cloth diaper covers that go with them. Found on craigslist and got a few more bags of inserts for cheap as well. For those of you that don't know, they are basically like doing cloth diapers without having to wash the actual diaper that gets all peed and pooed on. You can flush them (seriously!) and even if you throw them away, they biodegrade in 50 days. So in my thrift ways, I was feeling kinda green, ya know?

But then as i happily was flushing the diapers, Steve realized and reminded me that San Diego is in a water shortage and that maybe i shouldn't be wasting extra water to flush them. So i started throwing them away, b/c even so, they will biodegrade.

Well, she grew out of the cute gDiaper covers, but a friend just so happened to give me a bunch of cloth diaper covers. So thrifty me, once again, starting using the gDiaper inserts with the cloth diaper covers. It worked... and then another friend gave me 4 more bags of the inserts for free b/c her little one got a diaper rash from them. So my friends, I still have 5 bags of inserts (and at 40 diapers a bag, that should last another two months!) But now she's getting a bit too snug for the covers b/c they are smalls and only go to 15 pounds...

But i'm feeling pretty good about the whole biodegradable thing... and washing the cloth covers is no biggie.

So the dilemma:

Get the next size diaper covers, see how long i can still use the small inserts, and then move on to cloth full force. Green right? Not really... b/c we're in a water crisis and i want to be responsible on both ends.

OR

Sell the inserts on craigslist, save the covers for child #2 (whenever that is), and go back to disposables.

I feel like it's a catch 22. I'm ok washing diapers out ( i know mom, I know. but I am...) but I feel that when we're in a water situation, it doesn't seem right. HOWEVER, 500 years in a landfill for each of Stella's diapers seems bad too.

What would you do?

Group Halloween Ideas?

So since I'm "that mom" who wants to make her daughter's 1st Halloween costumes, I was thinking of a group theme... but need some help. I had thought of Alice in Wonderland - where Stella is Alice, I'm the Queen of Hearts, Steve's the Mad Hatter and Scup is the White Rabbit... (ok, with some spots).

But that Tim Burton movie is coming out next year and we weren't sure if it's too "popular"....

any suggestions? Remember, it has to include the dog! ;)

Lil' Devil

(little devil horns... dad was having fun with foam soap in the bath yesterday...)

So the wee chile who would not eat before going to bed (see below post) sucked down 4 oz from a bottle from Steve and two boobs last night. On the last slurp, she looked up at me and smiled and grinned. I think she's going to be a foodie.

So i think I'm overloading myself - so of course I have this research drive in me... and I've got a few books out of the library on baby play, baby sleep habits, how to nap, etc. etc. etc. The most recent one advocates getting the little one on a schedule - E.A.S.Y. - eat, activity, sleep, you. I really want the you part... but after trying to figure it out after a few days, I'm over it. It insists that babies need to get up at 7am (Stella gets up anywhere between 5 and 6:30), eat, play, and back to a nap by 9am. They will then sleep for 90 minutes, give or take, and repeat this process over again all day. Stella, on the other hand, eats every 2-3 hours, (not 4), takes power naps for 30 minutes and wakes up completely happy and rested, and goes to be at 6:30 and sleeps for 11-12 hours.

Um. I guess i'm going to take the books back to the library. As my friend Summer said, babies don't read the books about them.

and although Stella sounds like a "textbook baby" as far as this one lady's method is concerned, there is nothing textbook about power naps, save for the fact that this momma ain't opening up any of HER textbooks.

Aye, there's the rub.

So we wanted a smart girl...

but not this smart.

For the past three days, Stella has definitely decided she has no desire to nap or go to bed. I thought babies liked routines - or at least that's what all the books tell me. When I start to see her rub her eyes, yawn, scratch her ears, and basically give me every freaking signal that she's tired, I start to go through the ministrations. For naps, it's to the rocking chair, a bit of a pacifier to soothe her suck instinct, and then possibly a lullaby and she's out. Or that's what used to happen. The minute I sit in the rocking chair, she's like, WAIL! WAIL! I know what's happening! NO! At bedtime, we take a bath (every other night), and then when I start to put on her PJs, literally -as I'm putting on her PJs, it's WAIL! WAIL! Oh CRAP! It's BEDTIME!

NO nursing. NO singing. NO book. NO nothing. All that will calm her down is walking out of the room with her over my shoulder. Now, she's not crying or anything, but she's 14+ pounds now, and she's getting heavy... and she supposed to be in bed. She knows it, I know it... she just doesn't want to - or I am overthinking this situation?

And when we try to go back in the bedroom or sit in the rocking chair, she starts crying again. Finally, tonight, after 40 minutes of this, I finally gave her the pacifier and she just closed her eyes and gave in. In the middle of the dining room, mind you. I hate to let her cry in her crib (we tried that a bit tonight and she WAILS, i mean WAILS and gets so worked up. For you theatre buffs, it's like the silent scream from Mother Courage.)

Now maybe this is pride getting back at me. Frankly, i was getting pretty excited that I was catching her early and getting her to sleep without hardly a fuss. And now, with her not nursing before bed (and her last feed ends up usually at 5:30/6pm) I am certain she'll be waking up in the middle of the night. Oh 10 hour stretches how i miss you so.

So if anyone has any suggestions out there for poor little old us, that would be great. Needless to say, tonight I'm drinking a glass of Sauvingon Blanc after this episode.

the Dog Days of Summer

So folks, it's 95 here again today. It was 85 in the house last night when i went to bed, tossing and turning in the hot sheets. Yucko.

So we've been escaping to Dog Beach in the afternoons, to cool off ourselves as much as the dog, because taking him on an afternoon walk is basically out.

While Steve is the only one who's been donning on the bathing suit so he can coax Scupper into the water (the darn dog still doesn't want to swim), I put Stella in a bathing suit that Grammy Z gave her when she visited just to take a picture. Because hey, what do you do all day long with a 4 1/2 month old? Books, songs, rattles, and tummy time gets old after awhile.
because all babies need a two-piece right?
um, not really, but she's cute. I think maybe this weekend we'll actually try to take her to the beach and put her toesies in. I've just been so paranoid about the heat, the sun, sunscreen, sunburn, etc that we've been too chicken to take her and actually try to go swimming. So walking with Scupper and playing ball will have to suffice for right now. She loves looking at the waves and watching the other dogs play.

Back to editing a chapter of my dissertation... fun fun fun

oh and PS - don't forget to click on the Madsen Cycles link for us - they do a new contest each week and every time you click on the banner from this blog, you enter us to win a cargo bike! Woohoo!