Darlin’ at 10.5 months

Here we are way down South for the holidays, and I thought I’d record The Darlin’s newest tricks.

Mobility: She can crawl lightning fast , although still prefers to walk.  She took her first independent steps this week!  She’s better and better at just standing by herself — strong little leggies.  She loves to push a little push ‘n ride vehicle around my parents’ house, especially when one of her adoring adults is positioned in front of her.

Language: We have a new word: “ooof ooof!” at the dogs!  She has also been saying “baby” a lot this week, but I’m not sure what the meaning is.  She continues with “mama” and, to a lesser extent, “dadda.”

Training: Darlin’ has done really well with “no” on this trip.  She hasn’t been a terror around the Christmas tree, although she has had a hard time resisting dog food.  Now that she understands “no,” it’s been useful to apply it to new situations, such as when she’s trying to roll while being changed.  Before the trip, I worked with her on laying her head down on my shoulder.  I thought this would be useful for the flight, especially takeoff and landing, when she needs to be in that position for safety.  I only really used it once on the trip down (she was asleep or being calm enough anyway at other times), but that one landing made the training worthwhile.

Sleep: Darlin’ was sleeping through the night before the trip, but she did regress after we arrived.  The first night was the worst.  She woke at 10; I offered her a bottle, which she drained.  She woke at 1:00; I rocked awhile and let her fuss awhile.  The other nights were bettter.  I chose to offer a bottle when she woke, and she usually took it.  On night 5, she slept all the way through, just in time to move from my in-laws to my parents’ house.  After a couple of nights with one waking, she’s been sleeping through the night here too.

Naps have been on track — 2 per day, anywhere from 45-90 minutes.

Interests: She continues to love music.  My sister is a professional violinist, and my mom got a mandolin for Christmas, so there has been no lack!  She is obsessed with a new book my brother gave her, “Row Your Boast.”  The dog is always riveting as well.  The best thing is all the adoring relatives 24/7.  She will be sad sad sad to be back home with nobody but Mama all day!

Sleeping Through the Night: 9 months

“Progress is a spiral,” or so I’ve heard; I think it’s very true for us.  Shortly after turning 9 months, Darlin’ slept through the night on her own, four different nights in just over a week.  Then we traveled for Thanksgiving, and she didn’t sleep through the night at all while we were gone.  It was over Thanksgiving that I stopped the Domperidone, which lead to weaning.  By the time we were back home, there was hardly any milk at all even at the night feed, so I felt the time was right eliminate all night feeding.

The first night, she only cried for 20 minutes, then slept til morning.  Not bad!  The next few nights went well also, with little crying.  Then, 5 nights into it, she started waking up for long periods in the night, unable to go back to sleep.  The first night, I didn’t go in to her.  She cried, fussed, and made noise for 1.5 hours before going back to sleep!  It was torture listening to her.  The next night, she woke up at 5 a.m. and fussed until 6:15, when I went in with a bottle, which she sucked down.

Time to put on my problem-solving hat.

Was she hungry?  This was my first theory.  I decided that if she woke the next night, I would just get up and feed her.  She did and I did.  She eagerly drank a whole bottle, reinforcing my waking from hunger theory.  But then she did not quickly return to sleep after the feeding, which one would expect when a baby wakes from hunger.  In fact, she stayed awake, rolling around and making noise more or less happily for over an hour.  The next night, I put Darlin’ down for bed at 5:30 pm., but she didn’t go to sleep until 7!  She cried and cried; Literal Boy and I both went in separately to calm her down.  Once I rocked and shushed her she was all smiles.  It was just like she wasn’t sleepy.  That night we heard not a peep from 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.

Huh.  DING!  What if her bedtime was now too early?  That would explain the early wakeups!  So last night I put her down at 6:30 p.m.  She slept from 7-7 again!  Ta-da!  Interestingly, her naps were just perfect the past two days after those good night sleeps.

Alas, perfection cannot be sustained.  This afternoon, she took a rockstar nap from 2-4.  I contemplated waking her earlier, but the last time I woke her she was grouchy all afternoon, and I was trying to get a lot done while she slept.  We put her to bed at 7 p.m., but she didn’t go to sleep until 8.  I think I will wake her by 7:30 tomorrow even if she’s still asleep in order to get back on track.

4 hours seems to be the new waketime length between the second nap and bedtime.  Uh-oh.  We can’t extend waketime much more and keep two naps.  I really hope Darlin’ is not one of those who drops that second nap early!

Anyway, the bottom line is that I think we’re finally, pretty much, fingers-crossed, sleeping through the night!

Thanksgiving 2009: Many Culinary Firsts

Let’s see, she had turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, a real butter cookies, two Wendy’s french fries — all over the Thanksgiving holiday!  She loved it all.  Since we’ve returned she’s had hummus, grapes, and Cotswold cheese for the first time.  Now I just need to work on the green veggies . . .

The Darlin’ Waves!

She’s waving reliably, clearly, and without prompting.  It’s SO STINKIN’ CUTE!  When did this start?  I’m not quite sure.  The day after she turned 9 months, we were participating in a research study, and I mentioned to the researcher that she was starting to wave.  The researcher sort of dismissed it, saying “it’s early for that.”  But no, she really was starting to wave!  At first, we would wave her arm for her, then she would keep going.  Now, at 9.5 months, she’s a pro, waving back when waved to.

I pulled the plug on breastfeeding

Over Thanksgiving, I decided to stop taking Domperidone.  I told Literal Boy that the image that best describes my breasfeeding experience the past few months is this: my milk supply has been life support, kept just barely going by the full dosage of Domperidone.  My baby wasn’t keeping it up, I’d given up frequent pumping for supply, and goodness knows my body wasn’t lifting a finger to help.  I was tired of fighting weight loss (it seems that high prolactin levels are associated with weight gain or difficulty losing weight) and I was tired of having no libido (again, high prolatin levels supposedly will do that to you).  So I stopped.  Just quit.  Didn’t even finish out the few dozen pills I have left.

And my milk supply VANISHED seemingly overnight.  Waaaah.  I nursed The Little Darlin’ this morning, but I don’t believe she got more than a few drops.  I nursed her at  a.m. too, and at least she got enough to wet her whistle.  Since I won’t start giving her bottles at 3 a.m., we are about to eliminate that night feeding entirely.  Sob, sob.  I feel terribly nostalgic about those night feedings; I haven’t minded them in a couple of months.  I’ve treasured them, and for good reason: you never realize how  quickly they will be gone.

I did it.  I walked off the cliff.  I surrendered.  I laid down my sword.

I’m tasting life on the other side.  And truth be told, it’s not so bad.

Flying with Baby: 9 months

The Little Darlin’ and I made the long flight home for Thanksgiving; Literal Boy will follow on Tuesday.  Although we have flown several times with Darlin’, this was our first flight in three months, and our first flight since she has started crawling, standing, and cruising.  That’s why I was a bit nervous all week.  In all, it wasn’t so bad.  The major difference between this trip and previous trips was that Darlin’ slept NOT ONE WINK.

Our trip consisted of two 2-hour legs with a 1.5-hr layover.   We had a 11:10 a.m. flight, so there was time for Darlin’ to catch a 45-minute nap before leaving for the airport.  Her naps are generally around 9 and 1, so unfortunately, her second nap would have timed exactly with our layover, which was my chance to feed her lunch.  By the time I fed her, she had missed her sleepy window.  Even so, I was hopeful that she would conk out for 20 minutes on the next flight.  No such luck.

By the time we arrived at our destination, it was 4 p.m. CST, and she had been awake since 9:30 a.m. EST.  Nevertheless, Darlin’ was in excellent spirits, a testament to her sunshiny and adaptable personality.  It was at this point in our travel plans that things really fell apart.  My mother-in-law picked us up at the airport, and my plan was to go to her house, feed Darlin’ dinner, then have my brother pick us up and drive us to my parents’ house, which is 1.5 hours away.  My error was not communicating to my 21-year-old brother that we really needed to be picked up NO LATER than 6 p.m.  Because I thought his arrival was imminent, I did not put Darlin’ down for a nap; I planned on her sleeping in the car.  We waited, and waited, and waited; I couldn’t get through on brother’s cell phone.  He finally showed up at 8 p.m.!   At that point, my 9-month-old had been awake for 11.5 hours straight!

The poor thing had been pushed beyond what she could bear.  She fitfully dozed and fussed during the drive to my parents’, then woke every 2 hours until 4 a.m., crying inconsolably.  The following day, she took two super long naps, then cried over an hour before getting to sleep at last.  Thankfully, by Sunday she seemed to be back on track.

This is the sort of thing that makes Disclaimer Girl feel like a terrible mother.  However, there were many factors out of my control:

1.) I didn’t know she wouldn’t sleep at all during travel.

2.) I thought my brother was going to arrive sooner.

3.) I couldn’t get ahold of my brother via cell phone to know his actual arrival time.

The moral of the story: never ever let your baby stay up 11 + hours straight.  It is cruel.  And, be very specific with 21-year-old brothers, who think 10 p.m. is an early bedtime.

Milestone: Sleeping Through the Night

On Tuesday, The Little Darling slept through the night (12 hours straight) for the first time ever!  She went to bed around 6:15 and woke up at 6:20, although she played happily in her crib until 6:45.  I woke up at 5:50 and couldn’t go back to sleep.  I had had the most consecutive hours of sleep in 9 months, and I was leaking like crazy all over the sheets.  The next night she woke at 3:30 for a feeding, though, so it might have been a random event.  Still, my baby is growing up!

Lunch on the Go: 8 months

I need to feed Darlin’ away from home twice a week usually (one at playgroup, the other when we’re just out for lunch).  I am finally getting it down to a science.  Here are a couple of tips I have discovered that make my life easier:

Skip-Hop Bottle Bag — I don’t use it for bottles as I prefer to mix a bottle on the spot, but this little bag is perfect for packing baby’s lunch. It can fit a small container of yogurt, a jar of babyfood, spoon, small tupperware of puffs, a few teething crackers, individual wet wipe packets, bib, and sippy cup of water — everything we need. The bag itself is small enough to fit inside my larger diaper bad, or it has a convenient shoulder strap to carry alone.

Babyfood cubes keep yogurt cold – The Litter Darlin’s lunch these usually includes plain yogurt mixed with homemade sweet potatoes and cinnamon.  I’ve found that if I place a cube or two of sweet potato into a small container with yogurt, the food cube thaws perfectly and keeps the yogurt nice and cool 1-2 hours later.  That way Darlin’ can have her homemade lunch even though we are out and about. I like to feed her the yogurt because she needs the extra calories, fat, and protein; plus, she likes how it tastes and eats more willingly if babyfood is mixed with yogurt.  If it doesn’t work out to pack this, I pack instead an Earth’s Best Wholesome Breakfast, since I know she will eat that.

Pack Extra Finger Foods — In particular, finger foods that take her longer to eat are best, allowing me to finish my meal.  Extras are necessary due to the inevitable dropping things on the floor; whereas at home or a friend’s house I would just give it back to her, I don’t want to do that at, say, Chipotle.

Dinin’ Out with Darlin’: 0-8.5 months

I was recently observing to Literal Boy that we have gone through four distinct phases in dining out with our Darlin’.

Stage #1: There was a brief time back in the day when Darlin’ too one really long nap in the midday.  Now, the first four weeks I was not up to getting out at all, but during the fifth week, my Mom came back and she and I got out quite a bit.  We had many adventures, including being unable to get the carseat out of the stroller and back into the car at the mall.  (Fortunately, we were near to Literal Boy’s office, so he came to the rescue.)  This rookie mom learned a lot that week.  Anyway, we would wait until she went to sleep (these were the days when getting her to go to sleep was not an Olympic sport), pop her into the car, and go on a 3-4 hour outing.  She would sleep the WHOLE TIME.  Getting in and out of car, in and out of stores, through lunch at Panera — she SLEPT.  At least for that one golden week.  :)

 

Stage #2: This stage began at 5 weeks and lasted up until around 3.5 months.  This was the stage when Darlin’ would do one of two things:  a) go to sleep in the maya wrap sling for 25 minutes, just long enough for me to shovel food into my mouth with one hand, IF I timed it so that it was naptime anyway — not too hard since her waketime was only 1.5 hours at that point or   b) nurse/hang out at the breast under my Bebe au Lait nursing cover for a good 20-30 minutes, allowing me to shovel food in with the free arm.

Stage #3: From 3.5 months – 6 months, dining out with Darlin’ was stressful and exhausting.  No longer content to nurse, no longer fitting in the sling to nap, we were left to wrestle our squirmy worm in our laps.  She rolled, she wiggled, she squealed, she yelled, she demanded that we get up and walk her around periodically.  Stage 3 included our trip to Ireland, where we had to eat out virtually every meal.  Let me tell you, it was no fun.  It was so no fun that the last night of our trip, I entrusted my firstborn 5-month-old to a total stranger in a foreign country — a staff babysitter at the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt — so that Literal Boy and I could eat in peace at the Gordon Ramsey restaurant in the hotel.  It was so worth it.

Stage #4: Since 6 months, we have been in a golden age of dining out.  Now that Darlin’ can sit in a highchair and eat food, dining out has become fun again!  We choose noisy and colorful places,  I pack sanitizing wipes for the highchair and table along with plenty of finger foods and a couple toys, and we’re set.  She doesn’t always last the whole dinner in the highchair, and I still have to eat quickly, but it’s enjoyable.  Darlin’ and I go out for lunch together once a week or so, and it’s fun.

Proficient Crawler at Last!

Although Darlin’ has been crawling for over a month, she has not liked to crawl, and usually only done it with much protest and out of necessity. Today is the first day when she has consistently used crawling to get around, without complaint, over a period of several hours.  You go girl!