I’ve been wanting to keep some more diary-like records of Lucy’s activities lately. I keep telling Jon I need to get a new journal, and then he says, “Why don’t you just write about it on the blog?” Yeah, why don’t I?
There is a risk that these entries might be a little bit redundant, but look at them like summaries of Lucy’s activities. We’ll see if I can keep up with doing these regularly. (The “most recent one”:/news/2006/the-lucy-files-month-4-day-5/ was almost two months ago!)
Here’s a snapshot of what Lucy has been like this week:
p{color:gray}. Photo: Lucy is good at grabbing anything within reach, even snagging the drawstring on Papa’s fleece!
We’ve got a curious little girl in our house! Lucy is constantly looking around, reaching out to grab things, and chewing on anything she can get her hands on. We have to be much more careful these days about sitting her on our laps at the table (with knives, forks, and messy dishes), not to mention the hazards of my having long hair or Papa’s wearing glasses! She has taken a particular interest in sucking on the labels on her bibs these days. You can even see the change in the way she has been enjoying the toy bar on her swing lately. She especially likes to lean forward and chew on it — quite a feat while the swing is moving back and forth!
Lucy has been enjoying spending time on the playmat, rolling back and forth and wiggling herself around. She really seems to prefer rolling from back to front these days. We moved our coffee table out of the dining room last week, and Lucy has been enjoying having more space for rolling and flopping. We have sat her up a few times in the Boppy, too, which she seems to like until she pitches forward onto her belly. Lucy sometimes kicks like she is trying to crawl, but she doesn’t really get it yet. It looks more like she is trying to swim.
Friday evening, we brought up the high chair and put her in it for the first time. We put lots of toys on the tray for her, since she isn’t eating any solids yet. She liked it for about five minutes (hey, it’s a start). I bet it will get more interesting once there are veggies smeared all over the tray. I cooked some sweet potatoes, puréed them, and froze them in icecube trays to get ready — my first baby-food cooking experience!
Lucy will occasionally have a totally bizarre night. This Monday, I put Lucy down to bed at 7:30, and she cried some, so I went to visit her. Every time I went in to comfort her, she just would smile away. Finally, I just got her up at 8:15 and fed her. She was so awake! I put her on the playmat to try to wear her out. At the end, I did our “dream feed” to help her fell asleep around 10 pm. A night owl in the making?
Other things to note:
* Lucy first started taking all of her naps in the crib on Sept 11, 2006. We also began reading to Lucy at almost all of her naptimes on this day. Lucy’s favorite book is “_Baby Faces_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789436507/octothorppres-20. This one, she actually looks at for a few seconds before gnawing on it.
* We bought “The Amazing Miracle Blanket”:http://miracleblanket.com/ to prevent “Baby Houdini”:/news/2006/baby-houdini/ from wiggling out of her swaddle. We had our doubts, but it totally works! Lucy started sleeping in it on Sept 27 and has never looked back. Totally worth the $30.
* Lucy had another bizarre night on Monday, October 2. She actually did fall asleep, but then woke up after 45 min and was totally awake. (She often wakes after being asleep for 45 minutes at night. We are working on solutions to this!) There was a huge thunderstorm raging, which could have been bothering her — since it was certainly bothering me! I got her up and we sat outside and watched the thunderstorm for a little while. We made a memory.
What a wonderful photo with this entry! Lucia is so eager and her smile is so big. What a joy to experience life with such a person. And it will only get better in the days ahead when she declares that she is ready for her own model railroad!
Ann,
I have yet another question for you and your readers…
We started Madelyn on bottles and the breast from birth, because I knew I had to return to work at 2 weeks. But in May I became a stay at home (work from home) mom and stopped giving to bottle, I didn’t think anything of it. Now Maddy is going to day care 1 to 2 days a week and won’t take a bottle or eat table food. Do you are anyone have ideas on getting to switch over to the bottle?
She will take a sippy cup of water, not milk…no tricking this one, she spits the milk at you if you try that. And the “when she gets hungry she will take it” doesn’t work either, she will hold out the entire day for the boob.
I am starting to get worried that I won’t be able to ween her ever.
Well Katrina – I can’t help you in terms of reintroducing the bottle – Benjamin was horrible with the bottle until I ran out of milk due to pregnancy at which point he started taking it again (at 9 months of age). He was fairly proficient with a sippy cup so we started trying to get him to take formula out of a cup around 10 – 11 months so that we could wean him off the bottle, but he would not take formula from anything other than the bottle. Our solution was, once he turned one year old, we eliminated one bottle every couple of days (you could do one a week too if you have problems with engorgement) and replaced that feeding with regular milk in a straw cup (we decided to do sippy cups for water, straw cups for milk, that way at least he could indicate which one he wanted by pointing and he didn’t feel like we were trying to “trick” him into drinking the milk by disguising it in what had previously always had water).
Anyway – over the course of about 3 weeks we eliminated all bottles and only gave milk in a cup. For a while (maybe a month or two) he was not getting quite as much milk as they recommend (16 oz a day for a 1 year old), but he gradually increased his consumption and now drinks plenty of milk. In the meantime, I gave him extra cheese and things like that to supplement his calcium intake.
So, if all else fails you could do something similar once she turns one, only instead of replacing bottles you would be replacing nursing sessions.
Katrina, I don’t have a lot of wisdom for you. I like Nicole’s suggestions. Lucy always took the bottle fine, maybe because Jon almost always feeds her the bottle, and perhaps that helps since I’m not a distraction? Who knows. I bet you won’t be nursing Maddy when she is in high school, so at some point she’ll stop. :)
Nicole, I have to say that I am eagerly awaiting news of the new baby! If you have time, shoot us a comment to let us know that you are in labor — or email me and I’ll post it. We are praying for you!
Well Ann, I would love to post telling you I’m in labor, but alas, so far nothing! The baby is due Saturday, but I guess I wouldn’t be too surprised if she was late (Benjamin was 5 days late and only arrived then because I was induced). But you never know, I suppose, so if anything happens I’ll be sure to let you know (or at least send you an email after the fact depending on how quickly anything happens).
Thanks for thinking and praying for us!
Hi everyone – as requested, here’s an update. I’m currently sitting in the hospital waiting to be induced. I went for my regular appointment and they checked the amniotic fluid and it is low, so I am being induced today. We are just waiting for a room to open up and then they’ll start the IV and we’ll be on our way.
So, expect baby girl to arrive today or tomorrow at the latest!
Nicole
We will be thinking of you Nicole, and family. May things go speedy for you today!
Nicole Wetzel
Good luck Nicole. I hope it goes well, I know the process and it can be way harder than all natural. But however it happens it is great because you get a baby!!
Oooh, goody! Nicole, we are praying for you! I know you had to be induced with Benjamin, too — I hope it goes just as smoothly for you this time. Keep us posted as you can!
Well, Ella Renee Harlow has arrived! She was born last night at 9:59pm after a very quick and intense labor. They weren’t able to admit me to the hospital until 3pm because they were backlogged with deliveries, so I was a bit worried that it would take more than 1 day (Benjamin took 2 days of inducing), but I went into active labor around 6:30pm and she arrived 3 1/2 hours later.
She weighs 6lbs 6 oz and is 20 inches long. She has a dark head of hair and blue eyes.
We are all doing well, although a bit tired!
Congratulations Nicole! We’ll be praying for peace and good rest for the whole family.
Congratulations Nicole! And greetings to little Ella. What a pretty name. :)
Ella is a beautiful name. Congrats to all. We will be praying for you in this transition from three to four. Enjoy you little one!