No title needed for these pictures...

At 5 months old...
she loves her toes!!!
She loves her baths.
She typically goes down easily at night (for me). Won't go down easily for daddy.
She holds her head up really well for tummy time.
Sits with that 'triangle' pose...for a short bit - then falls over.
She is getting up 3 times a night to eat (Argh!)
She is still completely breastfed - no solids yet.
She LOVES daycare - gives Lynne huge smiles each morning.
She rolls over belly to back. Has gone back to belly once (but nobody saw it).
She is starting to reach out to people (mainly me!)
She's a busy body and is more interested in the world around her than in breastfeeding.
Smiles constantly (as long as she's feeling well).
Yet she has a very strong temper.
Her hands are always in her mouth ... and she drools constantly.
She babbles and can make growling sounds.

A few random pictures...

Just a few pics from the past week...

Playing cards with Grandma...


Duck Butt! (and Aunt Megan)


Mmm...Corn! ha ha ha!


Sweet slumber...

RSV update

Laura saw Dr. Snedeker on Monday. Her ears looked good. She was smiley... and she's on the mend! Still has a tad bit of her nasal congestion hanging on, but her cough is nearly all gone. She even slept lying flat in her crib last night...it's been about a week since she did that!


And...I don't think my little girl is starving any... she gained an ounce a day since her last visit. Monday she was 15#6oz.

Sick update

Took Laura to the doctor's today... she started putting her hands up by her ears so we were thinking maybe ear infection?

Nope. We were wrong. It's RSV! Yikes!

She's doing very well with it though. Still no fever and she actually hasn't had any tylenol in 2 days. Just lots of humidified air, lots of TLC and elevated to sleep at night.

We go back Monday for a recheck.

Oh, and she weighs 15#3oz!

Week long catch up...if I can remember...

Ah, what a week it's been. Being on call and being a mom definitely don't mesh well! Laura has been sleeping poorly (waking up lots) for the past month or so....I think her 4 month growth spurt lasted a full month long! Then last wednesday night...she decided to sleep from 9:30-3:30! woohoo! a 6 hour stretch of sleep! :) ... BUT... did I get to take advantage of that time and get some solid sleep myself? Nope. Had to go out from 10-11:30pm and do an assessment for being on call! Grr! And usually being on call isn't bad overnight, but it seems this week, everyone has been needy during the night :)

Took Laura swimming again on Saturday morning. Rachel and Logan went with us. Laura was in for maybe 15 minutes, then got hungry. Got out to feed her and by the time she was done eating, Logan was shivering and Laura had passed out asleep on my lap. Ended that play date pretty early. came home and got some lunch and Laura grabbed a 45 minute nap. Then it was off to a baby shower for Tracy... and typically, Laura would be happy and smiling, but she screamed and fussed the whole 2.5 hours we were there!

I have a really good idea what was going on with her now... she got the sickies that all the kids at daycare have had for the past 2 weeks. Saturday evening she started in with this loose sounding cough :( Besides taking a long time to quiet her down for bed and naps though, she's tolerating it pretty well. No fever. We were at Richie's parents house on Sunday afternoon and poor Laura cried practically the whole time we were there. Got her home and gave her some tylenol and once she finally calmed down she was in bed for the night.

Luckily though, her cold isn't keeping her awake overnight much. Last night she was up 3 times to eat but I think that's because during the day she's been so unhappy that she's just taking enough to take away the real hungry feeling and not eating much. She's teething too...I'm pretty sure. Chowing down on her fists, drooling a LOT and stuffing any/all toys in her mouth.

This morning Laura woke up with a head full of stuffies along with the loose cough. I couldn't send her to daycare feeling all sick...I'd call out from work it I sounded like that, so we're both home today. No doctor visit though. Like I said - no fever, lungs sound clear...she just doesn't feel well :(

Oh, but in the exciting news category... she rolled over back to front yesterday! Nobody saw it though! I put her on her back (naked) in her room and went to change my clothes...I came back and she was on her belly!

Off to get her...she's crying - just woke up from a nap.

Last night...

The evening was long, but our overnight was much nicer!

Laura was very fussy last evening. After I laid her down to sleep at 8:30, she popped back awake a little after 9pm and it took a good half hour to calm her enough to have her to sleep again. She'd cry, and whimper, and then be quiet sucking her paci for little bit...then cycle again - cry, whimper, quiet... over and over and over. I finally thought maybe she was in pain (teething?) and we gave her some tylenol. A bit more rocking and then I laid her on her belly on a pillow on my lap and she was OUT! Konked out and only woke up 3 times overnight to eat. She did get up at 5:30am and wanted to be wide awake. I went out onto the couch with her... she wouldn't sleep lying on her back in my arms... but as soon as I turned her onto her belly against mine, she konked out and we slept until 6:45... hmmm... I think she's starting to like her belly time...

Naked Tummy Time

She's holding her head up so well now!



And a big yawn... not sure if she was bored with tummy time... or Richie's baseball game he was playing on the PS2....

Bumbo

I decided to snap a few pictures of Laura using her bumbo...she's nearly too big for it. Those chunky thighs aren't going to fit in it much longer. I put her in it in the morning when I'm getting ready in the bathroom after Richie's left for the day.

"I got my feet!"

Getting Bigger... But still looking quite small...

Oh. My. Goodness. ... How cute is that smile!?!

She outgrew the little blue tub and has been upgraded to her blow up ducky tub. She can't sit unassisted yet, but this tub allows her to have more of her body in the water... if only she'd leave her feet in the water!


Doesn't she look tiny here? We tried her out in her highchair on Sunday evening while Richie's parents were over for dinner. Laura actually sat and chewed on some toys for a good 20 minutes - just long enough for us all to enjoy dinner together. I love the cute little smirk she has here...

Hmmm...

I wonder if it was something I ate that is making Laura uncomfortable... Lynne said that she did the same thing today at daycare - screamed out and as soon as the bubble was up she was happy again.

Would meatloaf, baked potatoes, green beans and a green salad cause gas? (I had it 2 days in a row)... or... was it the soup for lunch on sat and sun that had a hint of chili peppers in it? I thought it was pretty normal foods (not too spicy or garlicy), but maybe not...

We'll try chicken parm tonight and see if the night is any better!

Oh, Laura rolled front to back again today...about 5 times after we got home tonight. Got one of them on video camera too :) We haven't been as good as we should have been with the video...but we're trying to get more things on there.

Wow! What a night!

I don't know why... but Laura is having a really rough time at night lately...

Last night I can't count how many times she was up...
7:30 ate and in bed
9pm: up to eat
10pm: up to eat
10:25pm: just up - popped paci back in
10:50pm: CRYING - huge burp
12midnight: up to eat
1am: just up - brought her out to the couch to sleep with me
2:20am: up to eat
3am - CRYING - huge burp - all the crying even woke Rich up
3:30am - she had been changed and fed and was back to sleep
5:30am - up to eat
6am - fussing - big burp - brought her into bed with us...and she let us sleep until 6:45

Oy...if this is what "sleeping like a baby" is...then I don't want to ever do that!

I'm not sure why all of a sudden she's getting big burps in the middle of the night. She never used to. I never even used to try to get a burp out - but now I do (try) and it doesn't come up...and it ends up waking us all up a short while later...

I don't think she's anymore hungry(overnight) than she's been the past few weeks because she still only ate 4 times out of all those times awake...

I haven't read any super supportive articles about starting solids helping a baby sleep better at night - so we're not going to jump to trying that. What I've read is that a lot of people start solids thinking it'll help, but that it doesn't - it's just this phase that 4 month olds go through...

So, we'll just go with the flow...

Lil' Swimmer...

We took Laura swimming today... her first ever time in the pool. Richie and I are determined to expose her to the water and hope she likes it!



The pool itself wasn't too chilly and it felt really refreshing. She enjoyed it some of the swim, but we didn't really get any big smiles or giggles out of her while she was in there.

Swimming must make you hungry though - she screamed and needed to eat after being in for maybe 15 minutes. Then she was fairly content again, but kept alternating from content...

...to screaming... And she REALLY screamed after she was dunked. (Yes, we dunked our 4 month old...) We used to dunk the babies in the swim lessons too.

Some pics of the fun...





And glad to be all done and getting warm...

Cutie Patootie!

So, did Miss Laura tell you what she did today!?! She rolled over! Yep, one time from tummy to back. Her daddy and Papa saw her...but mommy and Grammie missed it and then we couldn't get her to do it again. I'll have to keep a super close eye on her now... she'll be rolling...then crawling... then walking... oh my! :)



(4 months, 1 week, 6 days old)

Tummy Time

Notice the new railing behind Laura? She was doing a bit of tummy time watching her daddy work on that this past weekend. It's such a nice improvement over the old metal railings that were there. They had 6 inch spacing but these new sturdy oak railings have a much safer spacing of just about 3 inches.

Laura doesn't LOVE tummy time, but she'll tolerate it for a few minutes at a time.

Finding body parts...

I talked about how Laura found her hands...and then her feet...

Well, now she has discovered her tongue!
Last evening I fed her and when she was done, she looked up at me and got a huge grin on her face and just stuck her tongue out and flicked me... then smiled...then flicked me again. I started giggling, and it just led to a viscious cycle of her flicking and smiling...me giggling, her giggling...more flicking...you get the point. All this was well and good because we were just playing ~after~ she had already eaten...

Well, then this morning before work she wanted to do the same thing over again...but she didn't want to eat first! Argh! She was just too cute flicking and playing away! I ended up having to set her down and finish getting ready and then I went back about 10 minutes later and had to bring her into the dark quiet nursery to nurse her... and I couldn't look down at her or she'd start in again with the smiling and tongue flicking! ... I have a very distractable nursing baby!

We did have a better night last night... she was only up two times :)
1:20am and 5am... at least I got two 3.5 hour stretches of sleep... I'm hoping for at least the same again...and being that it's 9:10 now, I'm off to feed my munchkin and then crawl into bed myself...

3am

Well, I hope that our nights start to get better REALLY soon. I'm exhausted...

For the past 2 weeks, Laura has been up a lot each night (2-4 times)... to start with, it was more typically 2-3 times each night with a few 4x/night thrown in here and there... then 3 nights ago she had 2 nights in a row where she was up at 11, 1, 3, and 5... Friday morning after all that she was up for the day at 5:40. At that point, I had Richie get up with her. I needed to get some sleep...
Saturday night she was up 4 times again - roughly those same times too. Eating at each one.
THEN...last night, I don't know what happened, but she was up EVERY hour (except 3am)... 11:45ish for a pacifier pop, 12:45ish for a feeding, 1 something for a pacifier pop, 2:45ish for a feeding, 4:10ish for a feeding, 5:30 for a pacifier pop, and then up for the day at 6:56... UGH! She uses a pacifier to fall asleep for each nap and for each night, but she has NEVER needed it in the middle of the night to fall back to sleep. Last night's pattern looks like she was waking up at the end of each sleep cycle and not being able to fall back to sleep.
I'm ready for at least 2 hours of solid sleep! (Doesn't that sound like the craziest plea ever?!)

...what happened to my child who was a good sleeper? I'm ready for this "phase" to pass... and they say it will..."this too shall pass"...