Bloggin' Slacker!

I'm sorry guys - I think this is the longest blogging break I've taken in a long time!

Let me see if I can remember why and what's been going on...

Laura has been sick for about 2 weeks now. We went swimming two wednesdays ago at the LHS pool with Nicole and her kiddos and that next day Laura started getting stuffy and sneezy. Since then it's been just runny runny runny nose and a loose cough - worse in the mornings. No fever though - I'm giving it the full course of "10-14 days" and if she's not much better I'll maybe make her an appointment ... she's acting fine and napping normally. And actually, the past 2 days has been a bit better overall.

So, Laura sick = mommy and daddy under the weather too. (hmmm...I think I just read something like that over on Jen's blog about Ava!) We've both had the "stuffy head/tiredness" bug... So - that means that all I've wanted to do is crash on the couch instead of in front of the computer.

Well, that is except for last week - I was busy! I felt like a different person - I had 3 evenings out leaving daddy home with Laura and even one night AWAY! Monday I went to a scrapbooking outing. Got almost all of Feb 2008 scrapped :) Tuesday night went on a last minute conference for work - but the kicker is we traveled up to the city that night for the conference which was actaully on Wednesday. I didn't really have any problems with being away for a night. It was nice. Not something I want to do all the time obviously, but it was definitely okay to do. Don't think for one minute though that I slept for a full 8 hours. I woke up everytime the heater next to me kicked on. Grr. Friday evening I went to a pampered chef party for a couple hours and ordered lots of stoneware (can't WAIT for it to be delivered!!!) Anyways - that means Richie and Laura did bedtime alone for three nights last week... and they did wonderfully! No fussing when she went down.

She's been going down REALLY easy since we did a stint of "figure it out" ... some parents call it cry it out - I think for Laura it was "figure it out girl - you gotta do it on your own"...
Here's my post from November 6th on another board:

Tonight is our night for figuring out how to sleep. I hope I can be strong enough for it. It breaks my heart to hear her cry. She's crying as I write. Most nights she goes to bed really well - takes her bottle with me holding her and gets all sleepy eyed and off to dream land she goes - lays in her crib with her paci and is out really quickly. Tonight though, she DOWNED her bottle in like 2 minutes (larger nipple on it) and she didn't have the chance to get all sleepy eyed in my arms... so I layed her down and immediately the screaming started. Sure, I could have rocked her a lot longer (we had already snuggled for awhile before the bottle)... but I figure if she has to learn to put herself to sleep in the middle of the night, she has to learn it for bedtime too, right? Anyways - 2 nights ago, she went down great - and slept until 4am. At 4, I was going to let her figure it out - but I reasoned with myself not to saying that she had already slept through straight from 7:30 - so I got up, fed her, and she was out another 2 hours. Last night - went down great - but was up at 1am, 3am, 5:30am (to eat) and back to sleep until 6:40. So, I'm hoping she'll cry herself to sleep tonight here at bedtime (she's been in there about 20 minutes and it's a whiney fuss now)... and I'm hoping in the middle of the night she'll remember this and NOT have to cry. I think half her problem is that she won't pick up her paci and put it in her own mouth - and she dropped the one she had in her mouth over the edge of the crib (I heard it plunk) - that was about 5-7 minutes ago - if she would just lie down, she'd see there are 2 more right in the crib. ugh. I hate this part of being a parent.

Total time crying/fussing that evening was 35 minutes. We never had to let her cry in the night after that because she has slept great!!! She's typically sleeping from 7:30ish until 5ish - taking a drink at that time and going back to sleep for another hour or so.

Words she does now:
Sit (dit)
Kitty (deep loogey sounding K sound) - although sometimes it does sound like kitty!
Bye
Mama
Dada
Uh-Oh
Woof (oof)
I think that's it for now... I'm not thinking of anything else she says...

Oh, and I think our biggest update for the past few weeks of not updating ...and definitely the one that makes me most sad... She's done breastfeeding. I went away for that one night and although we were down to just a 5am nursing session, I'm convinced that day away did us in. I got back home Wednesday evening - she nursed Thursday morning and Friday morning - and has cried each time we've tried since then. ~sniffle~ I only offered Saturday and Sunday. She's clearly done. I'm glad I had the time with Laura and I'm glad I even have some pictures to look back on. I am sad though that I didn't know ahead of time that Friday morning would be our last time together. I feel like if I had known it would be the last one - I would have savored that one last experience more.
So with that I'll end this post with a poem that makes me tear up a bit.

Wean Me Gently by Cathy Cardall
I know I look so big to you, Maybe I seem too big for the needs I have.
But no matter how big we get, We still have needs that are important to us.
I know that our relationship is growing and changing, But I still need you.
I need your warmth and closeness, Especially at the end of the day When we snuggle up in bed.
Please don't get too busy for us to nurse.
I know you think I can be patient, Or find something to take the place of a nursing; A book, a glass of something, But nothing can take your place when I need you.
Sometimes just cuddling with you, Having you near me is enough.
I guess I am growing and becoming independent, But please be there.
This bond we have is so strong and so important to me, Please don't break it abruptly.
Wean me gently, Because I am your mother, And my heart is tender.