birthday greetings!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  

Hope it was a great day and that you are feeling better!

And Happy 10 months to baby girl Sydney!  Where did time go?!

Sydney:

Is an expert crawler (though she doesn't always use her knees, which is hard to explain).

Walks behind a push toy!

Has 5 teeth and 3 more peeking through!

Makes a cute yelling noise to get our attention (I'm sure this will get old fast.)

Likes to be held a lot.  Loves other babies, dolls, and tearing apart Sam's train table.

Is starting to take consistent & longer naps in her crib twice a day (finally!)

Sleeps at night in her car-seat (I'm desperate, people!)

Loves her big brother and laughs at everything he does.

Waves hello and goodbye.

LOVES "big people" food and has yet to turn down anything I've had her try (except for baby food, she doesn't like that).  She's very impatient while I prepare her food.

Greets us home from work by crawling as fast as she can toward us while giggling.

Likes her babysitter.

LOVES music and bounces up and down while clapping to the beat.

Does not like her diaper changed.

Throws herself face down on the ground thrashing her arms and legs if someone takes something from her, and by someone I mean Sam. ;)

Gives the world's best baby kisses.

Likes to climb!  On people, on furniture, on fireplaces... up an ENTIRE flight of stairs!  

Look out world!  This girl has smarts, sweetness and sass in one cute package.

sometimes dad knows best too

Well, I'm a bit hesitant to post this because I've jinxed myself before.  But we have so far had 4 nights of Sydney sleeping through the night!  I've gone 3 months with her waking 2-5x/night and me averaging 4 hours of sleep a night.  I had glimmers of hope along the way with little fixes here and there.  Each "fix" I'd post about all happy that my sleeper was about to return...not.so.much.  But now...now... she's sleeping 7:30pm - 5am.  I call that SUCCESS.  Yes, 5am is early.  But I'll take it!

So, how did it happen?  Some great insight on my part maybe?  No.  Daddy dearest had the key to success.

Tad commented that he noticed Sydney seemed to do better the later she went to bed.  I never made this correlation.  Heck, I've been too tired to notice when I need to brush my own hair.  Anyway, I wasn't convinced this insight meant she needed a later bed time because she is always rubbin' her eyes before I finally get her down.  So I started thinking and I began to wonder if maybe the later bed time was doing the trick only because it gave her more time to digest her dinner and thus causing less aggravation for her reflux.  So I decided to start feeding her dinner early at 4:30 pm, 3 hours before bed time.  Guess what, THAT NIGHT she started sleeping through the night!  HALLELUJAH!  

While it stinks she has to eat so early and later watch us while we eat dinner as a family at 6, I'm happy we have a key to help her sleep.  I'm also happy to know I finally have an understanding of her problem.  I should have suspected that this was entirely food related because our problems began when she started solids at 6 mo.  But she also started teething at that time so I just wasn't sure.  And then I started to wonder if we had a habit on our hands.  And then I got REALLY tired, making it impossible for me to really evaluate the situation well at all.  Poor baby girl has been given many doses of motrin in hopes that she'd sleep through the night in case it was her teeth bothering her.  Well, her doctor informed me last week that motrin has been known to aggravate reflux.  Lovely.  I can't believe how long it took me to figure this situation out and here I only made it worse along the way.  I suppose hindsight is always 20/20.

The great news is the Doctor ok'd the cancellation of some additional testing he ordered for Sydney.  He feels that this is a good solution to her problems and hopefully she'll outgrow the reflux and not always have to suck on teethers and avoid dairy while we indulge in front of her.

leavin' me hangin!

Sam has been such a riot lately (well, and a handful!) that I just have to write down some of these funny things he's been saying - so in the blog they go.  Today I said, "give me five!", as I put my hand out.  Sam's response: "No, I'm gonna leave you hangin' ".  WHAT?  Leave me hangin'?  Whateva kid!  I only carried you for 9 months in my belly! (Every Mom has a right to play that card, right?)

Sydney has been busy talkin' up a storm.  So again I asked Sam what she was saying and he said, "She's not saying I like cars.  She's saying I love you."  Well, I'll take that!  (You may recall from a previous post that Sam interprets Sydney's motor noises as meaning "I like cars.")

Speaking of Sydney, she had her 6 month shots today and handled them like a champ.  OK, that's a lie.  She screamed bloody murder at the mere touch of the stethoscope.  But doesn't it seem like all parents say little Johnny was "a champ" or little Jane was "a real trooper"?  It's like when people ask you, "Is she a good baby?"  What the hell kind of question is that anyway?  I mean, if she were fussy (which frankly she is sometimes - though luckily she's outgrowing that nasty reflux) am I supposed to say, "Nope, she's a bad baby"?  So, to you readers out there (hello?????), I'd like you to know that my dear Sydney is a good baby and handles shots like a champ.  *wink*wink*  At any rate, to us, she's perfect.

I wanted you to also know that I already received the paci clip that I mentioned in last Friday's post.  That sure didn't take long!  Only 3 days - and over a weekend!  Anyway, it's quite cute!!  It is smaller than I thought it would be, but I suppose the smaller chain explains why it doesn't have the "snap in half" safety feature that the longer Hanna Andersson paci clip has.  It takes more time than it should to attach the paci to it since that doll gets in the way, but luckily I shouldn't have to attach a paci to it more than once a day.

Sydney is entranced by the cute beads and it does it's job of keeping the paci off the ground - so it's a hit.  Parts of the doll are not on the paci chain itself so I worried that those beads might be at risk for falling off and become a choking hazard but they seem very secure and the company I bought them from (well, the company that Amazon routed me to) assured me that they are secure and to toss at any sign of defect.

Until next time,

Tricia

happy 6 months baby girl!

Our baby girl turned 6 months old today!  It's truly very hard for me to believe.  That newborn phase is always such a blur, isn't it?  At least for me it is.  I try my best to capture every precious moment in my memory forever.  But in the end I'm always left wondering where time went.  

Lord knows I love pictures - I took 40 today alone!  But I wish we could also somehow capture forever how things feel for us at each particular moment - her little fingers and toes, her tiny frame easily cradled in one arm, her head resting on my shoulder, the sound of her deep breaths and yawns, that newborn cry and of course that newborn smell.

I get a little sad and nostalgic when I think of the time that has passed, but then I remember how much I love who she is now.  It has been the same way with my son.  I always feel like I don't want him to grow up but each new age became my favorite for new reasons.  

The (tiny!) filmstrip above shows an age and size progression of Sydney in her little tub the hospital gave us.  The filmstrip pictures are (L-R): 3 days, 3 months, and 6 months old.  The picture of her in the middle with the over-the-top flower on her head (I couldn't resist!) was taken today at 6 months old.

Happy 6 months baby girl.  I look forward to each new milestone (but don't grow too fast, ok!).