In Bailey's room

I finished Bailey's room a few weeks ago. Yes, it had been "finished" once before, meaning we had painted the room downstairs intended for Bailey to move into once she started sleeping through the night. Tyler had given me permission to do pink and so I picked pink and purple for the walls. Unfortunately, I didn't like it, and again, Tyler was willing to bear with me. But I knew the time was coming soon to move her out of the attached room to ours and into the one designated hers downstairs.

I wanted not a gender neutral room, but one that wasn't overwhelmingly feminine. I picked out some stencils online and ordered them and used leftover paint from some of the original colors as well as from Caiden's blue room. And this time I absolutely love the room. It feels perfect! I realize it's still not all matchy-matchy as far as furniture and design, but I love the colors now and the feel of it.



She started sleeping through the night almost the exact week of her 1-year-birthday. She occasionally does an early morning wake-up around 5:30 or 6:30, but has now been a pretty consistent sleeper until about 7:30 am 5-6 nights per week. I can't help but wonder if its because the room downstairs is a bit darker and more removed from the action upstairs after bedtime. But I honestly think it was just perfect timing, she finally just hit that period where she can sleep through the whole night. I don't regret keeping her up in the attached room for just past her entire first year and I don't think I could have done anything to ease the sleeping problems that were so persistent for so long.



She's such a beautiful dreamer!

All Her Favorite Fruit

And does she ever whisper in his ear all her favorite fruit
And all the most exotic places they are cultivated
And I'd like to take her there, rather than this train
And if I weren't a civil servant, I'd have a place in the colonies

from Camper Van Beethoven's "All Her Favorite Fruit"


Okay, I know it's a love song, a sexy one, but I have to say that it's perfect for Bailey. All she wants to eat is fruit for the last 2 weeks, won't touch a cracker, cookie, vegetable, cheese, or anything else hardly. So I show her on our world map where the fruits come from and all the places I wish I could go with her someday. And we have fun even when I'm frustrated that that's all she eats.

Bailey's First Year

Click through to see the "scrapbook" I created of Bailey's first year, I made it to read like a children's story to document all of her major milestones.

Already becoming so Bailey

It's amazing to me how Bailey has already developed so much personality and individuality. She just hit 11 months and part of me already has anxiety about the 1 year mark and what that means (I'm thinking of titling that blog "365 sleepless nights"). But I do love getting to know her and who she is and more about who she will be as she becomes more of her own person!

Right now Bailey's favorite thing to do is still to unload a drawer, cabinet, bag, purse, etc. as seen in this photo:


Her favorite place to be is anywhere outside.

She says "Uh-oh" and "ball" really well and clearly understands what each of them means. She points up in the air every time she hears an airplane even when we are indoors. She "barks" back at the dogs when she hears one outside.

She still just has the bottom two teeth, but is anxious to eat anything and everything in sight, especially if it is going in someone's mouth. I can see the beginnings of one of her top teeth now and I think it won't be too long before it breaks through.

She still hasn't slept through the night. (Well one time she did, when we were camping, but I do not count what was an extreme outlier in her patterns, and anyway I couldn't sleep out of paranoia about the fact that she was actually still sleeping. That and also because her all-time worst night of sleeping was also on a camping trip. The two nights pretty much just cancel each other out.)

She takes two naps a day on days where I care for her at home though she's a bit more stubborn about doing it on day-care days, those days she might take a short snooze in the car when Daddy picks her up. I would like her to sleep through the night of course, but I've stopped hoping for it and stopped thinking it was entirely realistic though common at this age. I am dealing with it quite well I think except that I've become a bit neurotic about the way the sheets should be on the bed. : )

Bailey is starting to give cuddles more and more too despite the fact that she's such a wiggle worm at play. She occasionally will draw back from me and then lean in and lay her head down on my shoulder. It's so sweet. My friend Katie took these photos of Bailey giving me a hug outside a restaurant the other day and also one that really captured Bailey's bright blue eyes and white hair and tan arms. Thank you Katie I love these!

Walking, Talking Baby Doll

Check out Bailey's walking and talking skills over on Tyler's blog here. He put together a few videos we've taken of her walking and her attempts to talk on the phone, though I'm not sure where she got the idea to hold the phone all the way behind her head. She is already a better walker and will be running before we know it I'm sure.

She is getting more and more grown up every day. I took this the other day of her playing with her high chair, she played there for a long time just chatting away about something. Her hair is getting longer and thicker too, but it is so incredibly light that it hardly shows up in pictures at all.

Evidence of Independence

See my post below about how if you have ears that stick out it means you are fiercely independent.

I am on the right, with the ears that stick out to there.



Check out Bailey's ears, perhaps this is why she still doesn't sleep through the night--she has a mind of her own!

Peekaboo 2

Yes I know I already posted a video of her playing peekaboo, but this is just too irresistable!



She was 9 months old on Tuesday. She weights 17 pounds and 1 ounce now (in the 20th percentile), and measures 27.5 inches long (the 50th percentile for height). I'm so impressed with what a happy baby she is, how smiley she is to everyone and how playful and full of life and energy she is, even if diapering her is like wrestling a crocodile!

Flesh-seeking Kangaroo

Before Bailey was born, I read about "Kangaroo Care" for babies. It's just a sort of philosophy that children need skin to skin contact with parents and that giving it to them makes them happier, and helps them feel more safe. Kangaroo care involves holding your baby and playing with your baby while you're both naked to have as much skin to skin contact as possible. Mostly just laying on mine or daddy's chest, or being held belly to belly.

Perhaps this practice has made her the grabbiest, pinchiest, slappiest baby ever. When she's nursing she has windmill arm going on one side, just around and around to touch whatever is in reach. When I'm rocking her to sleep she grabs at my neck and sleeves, always looking for some skin, even when she's not hungry. When we're swimming and I'm holding her she blows on my shoulders. She always reaches out to grab Caiden's or Daddy's face or anyone else that gets close enough to her. She pinches noses and chins and necks and scratches too. She's never trying to hurt you but she can be pretty strong.

So maybe it was the Kangaroo Care or just taking after me. Whenever I complain to Tyler that he hasn't touched me enough he'll say, "But I hug you all the time" and I'll tell him "no no no, you have to touch my skin." What can I say? Bailey knows what she wants. So fair warning to those who hold her. She's a pincher/scratcher. But she's adorable and cute and kisses too!

Happy Easter!

Where's Bailey?

Peekaboo!

Learning to Play Catch

When I started to roll the ball with Bailey I really couldn't believe that she could, or even that she wanted to try to roll it back to me. She impresses me all the time with the things she wants to do and is learning to do!

AND she plays an instrument

Cute and talented!




Also, check out her head tilt action.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What is half a year?

Half a year is not enough time to keep you from waking me up 2-4 times a night.
Half a year is more than enough time to wait to hear you say ma ma ma ma ma ma.
Half a year is not enough time to not miss you when I'm away just a few hours.
Half a year is more than enough time to memorize how your body feels against mine, even as it changes from stick legs to thunder thighs and then to crawling ones.
Half a year is not enough time to forget how many hours I was in labor.
Half a year is more than enough time to return the CD April lent me for the hospital trip. (Um, did you want that back?)
Half a year, half a lifetime, is not enough time to give you all the love I want to.
Half a year, half a minute, is more than enough time to fall hopelessly in love with you.

More cereal please Mommy

I just love the way it feels on my chin!

To Cry or not to Cry

Yes I cry a lot, but this is not about me. This is about Bailey. Who is a very happy baby, who never fusses unless she's tired or hungry. Except at night. At night she is much more temperamental. In fact, more temperamental than any other baby her age that I've heard of. I'm talking 4 to 6 awakenings at night.

Bailey is not a good sleeper and never has been. And for the last 4 weeks I've been trying to change that, to help her learn how to soothe herself to sleep so that her frequent night awakenings don't require my assistance to go back to sleep. Sure she does still need to eat at least once in the night, but the story seems to be that she's waking up for attention also, as evident by wakings just after feedings.

Encouraged by her doctor at her 4 month visit, I began testing the waters of letting her cry a bit. With more and more people telling me of their good experiences with BabyWise or the Weissbluth book on sleep, I felt further encouraged to get Bailey started on a good sleep schedule. Most of the literature says to give it a good 2 weeks.

Over the last 4 weeks I've seen some improvements in her sleep, less awakenings at night and longer sleep periods. But I've also experienced nights where I listened to her cry for 90 minutes, and got up nearly every 30 minutes to help soothe her back to sleep. At first I was "visiting" her in her crib, as recommended by her doctor and others. These visits would be to calm her down and then leave again so she can put herself to sleep. However, it took several minutes to calm her down and although I wouldn't pick her up, she began expecting me to stay there, hand on her cheek, bent over the crib railing.

If the visits didn't prove effective, I'd pick her up and rock her or feed her back to sleep after 1 hour of crying. My doctor didn't believe that Bailey could cry for a full hour. Well she cried that long so many times that I think she learned a tolerance for an hour of crying. Now I'm not one to enjoy listening to my baby cry when I'm steps away and can get her back to sleep in minutes with a certain body part. But I was warned that if I did, she would learn to wake up for that even if she didn't need it.

So I'm still working on the sleep training as they call it. I have every right to have given up after 2 weeks, and believe me I've told myself I would many mornings, but I don't want to have wasted those tears of hers and mine, and each night I see an improvement in one area and maybe a drawback in another. She may sleep a rare 6 hours before her first awakening but then be up several times after that. Or she may cry for 90 minutes on her first awakening only to wake 2 hours later to be fed, but then go an uninterrupted 3.5 hours in the early am which is unheard of.

I keep doing it because overall, there have been minor improvements for the cost of those tears. And because each day I tell myself I'll just try one more night and then I re-read the passage pertaining to what I need and tell myself I've just got to keep doing it.

And nothing sucks more than this.

Perfecting an art

In this case, that art is spitting.

Bailey blue eyes

Though I can't speak with 100% surety, I'm now pretty sure that Bailey's eyes are going to be blue. I love to dress her in blue to show them off even more. They are so beautiful! Why don't they make more blue little girl clothes?

It must have been a good Christmas

Apparently Bailey enjoyed Christmas so much that she has learned to make fun squealing noises. I'm hoping she'll be asleep when we ring in the New Year, but she's practicing her squeals anyway.

Serious about sledding

Bailey: "Should I hold really still?"

Caiden: "This is AWESOME!"

Bailey: "What did we just do Mom?"

Bailey: "I'm not sure yet if that was fun, but I'm glad you're holding me now."