lazy sunday afternoon.

A few photos from our afternoon -- we had just finished singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know It."

2 funny things.

1. Lorelei loves to be tickled with hair. I don't know why, but she seems to find it relaxing. In fact, if she's a little upset, it can turn her mood right back around.



2. Lorelei has slept for 8 hours in a row for three nights now. After her shots yesterday, she was pretty out of it, sleeping a lot more than usual and being very unhappy when she was awake. I woke up at 4:15am and heard her grumbling, but she fell back asleep. I woke Jason up to ask what he thought I should do and we agreed I should wake her up to eat. 25 minutes later, she fell asleep on my shoulder, but I was worried that her head felt hot, so I carried her back in to our bedroom to ask Jason what I should do. Here's the transcript of our conversation.

Courtney: Jason?
Jason: (grunt) Yeah?
Courtney: Should I take Lorelei's temperature or give her more Tylenol?
Jason: (heavy breathing)
Courtney: (rubs Jason's back with her one free hand) Jason?
Jason: (grunt) Yeah?
Courtney: Should I take Lorelei's temperature or give her more Tylenol?
Jason: Yeah, I'd give her more time.
Courtney: Jason, I know you're sleeping, but I need to ask you a question, okay?
Jason: What? What?
Courtney: Should I take Lorelei's temperature or give her more Tylenol?
Jason: Yeah, I'd feed her.
Courtney: Jason, I just fed her for 25 minutes. I need to know if I should wake her up to take her temperature or give her more Tylenol.
Jason: Wait, what time is it?

Word of advice to Lorelei, if you ever read this: in the middle of the night, if there is an emergency, wake your mom up first!

2 month check-up.

Lorelei had her two-month "well child" doctor's visit today. The doctor says she is, in fact, well. She weighs 11 pounds, 12 ounces, is 22.5 inches long, and her head circumference is 15 inches -- which puts her into the 50th, 25th, and 25th percentiles respectively (this is up from 5th, 15th-ish, and 5th at birth). All other reflexes and whatever else the doctor looks for seemed to be normal.

Lorelei was very happy at her appointment, looking at all of the medical equipment, kicking her feet, and enjoying squirming around on the doctor's table...that is, until her vaccinations. I have never heard her cry like that before! Jason was all talk beforehand ("Shots don't even really hurt -- what's the big deal?"), but when the needle came out, he mouthed "I'm scared!" at me and he was very startled by how upset she was. I tried to nurse her right away for comfort, but she was too upset to even do that! Poor little baby!

TRUE happiness.

This morning, 7:15am.

I had just finished nursing Lorelei a little before 7. She fell asleep, so I gently wrapped her and laid her in her crib, then snuck back to bed. I was exhausted from being up too late the night before and so I buried myself under the covers and tried to fall back asleep as quickly as I could. But then I heard something.

I looked at the baby monitor. Lorelei seemed to be awake -- but she wasn't making sounds of distress. She was cooing! I was curious as to what was going on, so I climbed out of bed and went back to her room. There she was, staring up at her mobile, squirming with happiness and cooing. She must have woken up after being conked out from nursing and was happy to see her favorite "toy" (she could stare at it for hours!).

I walked over to her crib, figuring she was up and I should probably be on call to spend some time playing with her. I looked over the side of the crib and Lorelei looked straight up at me, making eye contact. Then she gave me the biggest grin I've ever seen and started squealing and kicking her feet. I picked her up and she snuggled into my chest.

What a wonderful reason to get back out of bed! If only every morning could be as snuggly and happy as this morning -- I would give up an extra hour or two of sleep for that much happiness any day.

Lorelei, blurry because she is flailing and squirming with delight

to sleep, perchance to dream.

Now that our breastfeeding woes are (mostly) over, Lorelei and I are onto our new battle: sleep.


Lorelei busting out of her swaddle-wrap, 7 1/2 weeks old

For about the first six weeks, Lorelei was pretty consistent with her sleeping. She would have the occasional off day or two (like during growth spurts), but mostly she would nurse and then go to sleep with a regular interval of 3 hours in between feedings. Sometimes at night she would "cluster feed" and then, starting at about 11 or 12, go for 4 hours, but that was pretty rare.

Then, all of a sudden at about 7 weeks of age, she started napping really poorly. Waking up 45, 30, or 20 minutes into her nap! Because of our breastfeeding issues, I struggled with determining if she was waking up due to hunger. After about a week, though, it's pretty clear that she's doing this because she's sleep-deprived!

Now that she's socially aware, Lorelei wants to be awake as much as possible. When she was only a few weeks old, she would fall asleep anywhere and anytime she needed to so we didn't have to worry about "keeping her up." But now that she is so excited about the world around her, she needs help to get to sleep and we have to watch her every move to make sure that she is whisked into her crib the moment she starts to seem drowsy. This is very difficult to do when you are having fun with her -- especially for dads. :)

The positive side to this is that Lorelei is sleeping much better at night now -- going 5 or 6 hours in between feedings. But I bet she would sleep even more soundly if we could get her nap schedule to even out. As Dr. Weissbluth says, "Sleep begets sleep" -- the more well-rested our little girl is, the better she'll sleep.

It's interesting to me how the science of sleeping gets so wrapped up into parenting styles. Good sleep is good sleep, no matter what kind of parent you want to be. The parent-directed and the attachment parenting "camps" seem to want to point fingers of blame and shame. But no matter if you have your kid on a feeding schedule or have a family bed and nurse 10 times a night, if you put your child in daycare or carry her in a sling all day, she still needs to sleep! There's so much research on the importance of sleep for adolescents and adults -- how could people deny that good quality sleep is what's healthiest for infants, who are in an extremely rapid and fragile state of development?

So we're in crisis-response mode here. Mission: Baby Sleep. It means less playtime with Lorelei temporarily -- but if that means a healthier, happier baby in the long run, that's a sacrifice we're going to have to make!


Lorelei, looking angelic in her sleep on 7/4/2011



8 weeks old.

Today I am 8 weeks old. Here's what I can do!

Squeal and laugh a little bit.

"Talk" in some vowel sounds with maybe a "goo" thrown in once or twice for good measure.

Smile at my parents, at toys, and when I'm having my diaper changed or when I'm being swaddled before sleeping.

Bat at objects hanging down near me.

Stare at everything -- pictures on the wall, my owl mobile, and especially my parents.

Kick my feet with wild abandon like I am trying to run away.

Lift my head and a little bit of my chest and hold it there steadily so I can stare straight ahead (I won't do this on command, though, so don't get your hopes up that I'll do it when you want me to!)

Keep my head steady when my parents hold me upright, and I'm starting to be able to do it when they pull me to a sitting position, too.

Stand up and put some weight on my legs and feet when my parents support me under my arms.

Wear some of my 0-3 month clothes -- I am really filling out!

Sleep...sometimes, when I'm not busy doing other things. I absolutely love being alive and I'm so fascinated by the world around me I just can't bear to miss any minute of it!

once again, lorelei the live version.

Here's another set of videos of what Lorelei's been up to lately.

This one is a compilation of her new tricks: batting at things, cooing, and smiling (we can't yet capture her big ear-to-ear grin on camera, so I guess you'll have to see it in person by coming to visit!).



Here's a long-ish one of story time with Dad before bed.



And here's a short little one Jason tried to take of Lorelei smiling that was not so successful!

farmer's market.

Today we ventured out to the DeKalb Farmer's Market with our friends John and Mandy. Lorelei slept for part of the time, and when she was awake, Mandy did a great job of shielding her from the sun.

John and Mandy are moving to Iowa City in a few weeks so John can pursue his doctorate and become a famous choral conductor. We'll miss them here in DeKalb!

out on the town.

Lorelei had her first big outing today -- I took her to church to see our minister on his last Sunday before his 4-month sabbatical. This of course meant that I got up hours early to get myself and her ready to leave. I will never ever roll my eyes at mothers and little kids arriving late to events ever again.

Miraculously, Lorelei woke at the perfect time to eat and get to church on time. And once we were there, she was a little doll! She slept through part of the service (wish it had been more) and was quiet through the rest, and then she was happy and alert for a while afterwards so everyone could ooh and aah over her at the potluck lunch. She got a little fussy at the end because she was missing her good nap time and was starting to get hungry -- but otherwise she was perfect.

Once we got home, I nursed her and then Jason took on the gargantuan task of putting her to sleep while I took a nap myself.

My only regret? Not bringing the camera to church. It was a gorgeous, sunny morning and it would have been so fun to have photos of her being held and loved by everyone. I tried to take some photos this afternoon of her darling little outfit, at least -- she wasn't super happy about it but we did our best!

(Finally happy while I was changing her diaper? Babies are crazy!)

best laid plans.

(2nd post for today...but too good not to share.)

Lorelei woke herself up from her nap with a gas bubble in her tummy. After a short nursing session, she went back to sleep, only to spit up again. I decided that she needed to be upright for a while, so I put a cloth on my shoulder and took her out to the living room so I could hold her and watch my new/old favorite show. I had a feeling she was going to spit up again, so I carefully laid down a burp cloth right behind me in case she spit past my shoulder.

30 seconds later:

Here's the little culprit.

selective memory.

It seems like some of the parents I go to for advice have a selective memory problem. "Oh, I guess so," they respond when you ask if it was hard dealing with the 5-6th week peak fussiness stage. "Maybe, I can't remember," they say when you try to find out if they, too, spent hours crying in the shower. "Yeah, but then it gets better," they always say when you ask if the first two months were as hard on them as it is on you.

I've always had a problem with selective memory of the other variety. When I was a little girl, my mom started a tradition of including "3 good things" in my nightly prayers so I would go to sleep remembering what was good that day rather than what was bad, which was what I tended to focus on.

So, here's how we want to remember you in your 6th week, Lorelei, playing in the afternoon sun with your dad, cooing and moving all around and being a very cute little baby.



We will try very hard not to remember that you decided to go through a growth spurt the day the power went out and your mom was diagnosed with mastitis and how, even though she needed to be sleeping to build strength and get rid of the impending infection, you insisted on eating every hour on the hour and refused to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. We will try to forget how you screamed at the top of your lungs when we picked you up, tried to feed you, didn't feed you, tried to hold you, tried to put you down, or did pretty much anything at all. We will try to forget how tired we were and how confused we were about what to do with you because, well, that's what good parents are supposed to do.

4th of July outing.

Lorelei went out for a walk this morning in her little bonnet, which fits her pretty well now. We then had a terrible time getting her settled back down for a nap...one step forward, two steps back. How do you take a baby out of a Moby without waking her up?

Anyway, here are the pics, both of which are rather blurry -- I think I'm going to need to start saving my pennies for a new, better camera!

happy anniversary to us.

6 years ago today, we got married on a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon. We celebrated with another brunch out (thanks, Sam and Sara) at the Hillside Restaurant in DeKalb. Lorelei surprised us by sleeping the whole time (well, not so much a surprise since it was during the daytime -- her current preferred time for sleeping, much to our chagrin).

a whale of a time.

Lorelei broke in her new bathtub last night -- she loved splashing around in it, despite her deer-in-headlights look in this picture: