Long Week.....so far!!

We are: 5 months old!!

Well, it is only Wednesday and it has been a really long week already!! Sunday night was rough for me, I was really sad to think about leaving Ri the following morning. After a long and restless night I got up and headed off to school feeling OK. On the way home from school I was in such a good mood because I was heading home to see Ri bear.....but totally forgot that around 4pm is when she starts to get fussy!! Oh well......I was just happy to be heading home. Each day this week it has gotten easier to leave her in the morning. However, last night she was awake all night. She was just very restless.....so I was awake from 1:30 to 3:45 with her, it made for a long and tiring day today!! I think it will get better once we get in the swing of things. Plus, once she gets to daycare next week (this week her Grandma is watching her!!) she will be put on a schedule and I think things will even out.....(I hope so!!)

Another thing that is different is that we stopped giving her solids for a week. She was starting to throw fits when we would try to feed her. We tried beans and peas, she liked it at first, then a few days later she started to scream. So we gave her a break from it, in case she was not ready for solids yet. But we tried it again tonight and she loved it again!! We gave her not only oatmeal, but also sweet potatoes!! She ate a tablespoon of the oatmeal and a whole serving of sweet potatoes......then topped off 6 ounces of formula!!! Fatty Patty was a hungry girl!!

ANOTHER big event is that she is having her first overnight out of the house this coming weekend!! Joe and I have a wedding and my parents have offered to watch her for us. They will come up to pick her up, then take her to their lake house. We will see how that goes!! Hopefully she will be a good girl and they will not back out of watching her for the week in February when we go on a cruise!!

Here are some pictures and a video from the last week or so!!

She LOVES looking in mirrors!!

Eating green beans!!

Our last walk before I headed back to work.

Hanging out with her Cousin Gavin

our last day at the pool!!

This is Joe entertaining Riley while I made her dinner......

My Last Week

Well, my last full week home with Riley is going well. I have given up on the routine and the "rules". We are only sticking to the 4 hour schedule. If she wants to eat then sleep, that is fine with me. If she wants to eat then play....even better.

My mother-in-law reminded me the other day that she schedule is going to change when she gets to "school" in a week. So, I shouldn't worry too much about it. I am still really trying to stick to the eating, playing, napping.....but some days it doesn't happen that way. We are just playing a lot and enjoying all our time together.

I get really sad when I think about leaving her all the time. A day here and a day there is easy to do, but EVERYDAY will be hard for me.

Anyways....we started peas this week since she mastered the sweet potatoes. She did not really take to the beans I made, so today I bought some sweet peas and she LOVED them!! She has fallen into an eating schedule (7:30, 11:30, 3:30.....) so we are having oatmeal at 11:00, right before the bottle, then we have a veggie at night around 5:30.

We had a little visitor tonight, Uncle Tommy stopped by and spend a lot of time just lovin' on her. He could not stop hugging and kissing her. her face lit up when he walked in the house. So loved seeing him. Tomorrow we are planning to spend the afternoon with her Aunt Nicole and her cousin Gavin.

We are now rolling over and halfway through the night she is ending up on her belly. She turns around in her crib and moves a lot.....just like her daddy!! She is growing up everyday!!

A New Week, A New Idea

So.....last night Joe and I laid in bed (watching the Olympics of course!) and we started to discuss how Riley's sleeping is getting me so upset. Not only am I upset that she is going backwards in her sleep habits, but I am up all hours trying to get her back to sleep. Therefore, I have become really tired and short-tempered. (I attribute my short-temper to lack of sleep and the fact that thought of leaving Riley everyday makes me burst into tears!!) So....we discussed the routine she was on before when things were wonderful.....and it was really only an eating routine. Meaning that she only had a routine for when she ate. So I am going to go back to that type of routine this week. I am only going to worry about the 4 hour eating schedule. I am going to have her eating every 4 hours and then playing and then napping. But I am not going to worry about how long she plays or naps for. If she wants to play for 2 hours and sleep for 30 minutes, that will be fine with me. These are the only things I will be concerned with this week:
* that she eats only every 4 hours
* That she plays after she eats
* That her bedtime routine does not change at all
* that she takes 2 1-hour naps a day....if she wants longer, great!!

I want to make sure that she plays after she eats because if she eats then goes right to bed she will associate a bottle with sleeping and eventually not sleep without the bottle. The only time we give her the bottle before sleep is at bedtime, and that is part of the routine.

We are going to be getting up every morning at 7:30 (per Joe's request) so that she and he can both get on a schedule for daycare drop-off. Which means that all her feedings will be at the same time everyday: 7:30, 11:30, 3:30, 7:30.

I am also taking the advice of my friend Hayan and a)switching to oatmeal instead of rice cereal and b) feeding her the solids in the evening a bit earlier....to avoid night time gas. Hopefully this will help too.

Oh yeah.....I have a small feeling she is teething, so we got some Orajel swabs yesterday. Riley woke up this morning SCREAMING and holding her mouth, so I busted them out, swabbed her gums and within 10 minutes she was much better and fell back to sleep.

Ok, enough rambling!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Rough Week

We have not had a great week so far. Actually, I take that back, the days are great, the nights are horrible. So on Monday I began the new routine and it went wonderful. Until Tuesday......Riley got off schedule, didn't nap well all day, didn't want her cereal at night, and that even began a string of bad nights. This is how our evenings are going these days:

7:30- Bath, bottle
8:00- Bed (not a problem, just falls right asleep)
1:30- Wakes up screaming!! So I fed her since it had been over 5 hours.
3:30- Wakes up screaming--do paci duty
4:00- Wakes up screaming--do paci duty
4:30- Wakes up to play!!!
5:30- Wakes up crying again
7:30- Wakes up for the day and talks, plays, and wants to be fed.

If we could cut the 3:30-5:30 wake up times we would be in great shape!! She is wonderful during the day and is doing great on the 4 hour feeding schedule.....we just really need to work on the nights. But I have no idea what to do.....any suggestions?!?! I know she is getting enough to eat during the days....we are eating cereal in the AM with our 11:30 bottle, and getting Sweet Potatoes in the PM around 6:30. Plus all her bottles throughout the day are 6 ounces. Who knows....but suggestions are more than welcomed!! PLEASE HELP!! I head back to school in a week and I can't function like this for much longer!!

Play date, Rolling!!!, and some pictures....

We are: 19 weeks and 6 days!!

Today we had a play date with Madeline. It was great fun, although I was pretty tired so I took a 15 minute nap half way through. Madeline has some really nice shoes....check 'em out:

"Nice kicks Madeline!!"
"Go away moms....we wanna gossip!"

"Madeline, Your my best friend!!"

Here are a few other pictures over the last few days:

"Sometimes I like to sleep on my belly."

"Puppy and I enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon."

"Yeah, I don't know about this headband thing."

"I guess this is a good use for it!!"

"I am playing in my new Cocoon toy."

"Jumparoo and Mommy!!"

I now can also roll from my belly to my back!! I am so good at it too. Watch for yourself:

Setting the Alarm

Tonight I have to set my alarm. I have not had to set an alarm since the evening before my c-section!! I am beginning the new routine tomorrow morning and I want to start it at 7:30am. I think that this will help us all in the end. It will help me get ready to head back to work in 2 weeks (tear!!), it will help Riley get back on a strict routine, and it will get her ready for when Joe starts taking her to daycare. I had asked Joe if he wanted to routine to begin at 7:00 or 7:30, without hesitation he said 7:30. The reason I asked him is because when I go back to work he will be getting her up, feeding, dressing (I will leave the clothes out for him!!), and taking her off to daycare. So, I needed to know what time he wanted her up so that he can make it off to work on time every day.

If I have learned anything over the last 4 months it is that Riley is just like her mommy, she likes structure in her days!! She works best if she knows what is happening next and in what order. She knows that her days consist of a pattern: eat, play, sleep, eat, play, sleep, etc. This schedule is no different, just making a start time, which will mean that she will eat and nap at the same times everyday.

The only down side is the weekends.....she is going to want to same routine on the weekends too, so I guess no sleeping late (9am) anymore....but that is OK!! I will let you know how is goes.

We have all been sick over the weekend with colds. We feel so bad for her because she can't tell us what is bothering her and hurting. She is congested and a little fussy. Over the weekend we just did whatever she wanted to do....if she wanted to play, she played.....if she wanted to sleep, she slept.....meanwhile, Joe and I just watched the Olympics (I LOVE THE SUMMER OLYMPICS!!). She is still congested and coughing a bit. I called the doctor and talked to the nurse, she said to check her temp regularly (it is at about 99.5) and to make sure it doesn't get worst, if it does we should take her in. I am hoping that it will get better over the next day or two. I will update later on her health and routine!!

Hope everyone is getting to watch the Olympics and had a good weekend.

Making Baby Food and a new schedule

Yesterday I started making homemade baby food. It was pretty fun. I made Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans. All I had to do was boil them to get them soft. Then put them in the food processor and puree it.....adding a little water to dilute it a little. Once it is baby food consistency I placed it in ice cube trays and into the freezer. Each "ice cube" is a serving of baby food. Our doctor said to start with veggies first because fruits are much sweeter, so if I do fruits first than she may never want to eat the veggies. Although it is a bit of work, it will save us a lot of money and I can get all organic veggies and fruits. I bought 4 sweet potatoes for $2.00 and it made 40 servings!! Not too bad huh?!?!

I won't start the veggies for another week or so, we are still working on the cereal. She is not a bit fan of it. She doesn't have trouble eating it, I think she doesn't like the taste. Dr. Cross said that we should do the cereal for about a week (which it will be tomorrow) so she can get the hang of the spoon. Then we can start the veggies. But I think we will do cereal for another week.

Another big event going on over the next few weeks is a new schedule. Just when we got the other one down it is time to change it up again. Our doctor and a few books I have read says we should be doing 4/4.....four months and 4 hour feedings. So, instead of eating every 3-3 1/2 hour feedings we are now trying to change it to every 4 hours. This will get rid of one feeding a day, but she will increase her intake at each feeding. This is great for us because she was eating every 3- 3 1/2 hours and eating anything from 4-6 ounces....so we would have to make a 6 ounce bottle and at times we had to waste 2 ounces. Now she eats 6 ounces every feeding. So.....we are working on getting her used to this new eating schedule. Once we have that down (most likely tomorrow since she has adapted well yesterday and today) we will fix the rest of her schedule and we will start getting up every morning at the same time (7:30) so that we are ready for daycare in a few weeks. In order for her new schedule to work I will have to be really strict about when she naps, feds and plays. This is what we are HOPING things will look like:

7:30-eat
8-9:30/10:00-play
9:30/10:00-11:30-nap
then repeat this.

We are really working on our naps. She still does not like to nap for very long, although she took an hour nap on her belly the other day.....which meant I was checking in on her every few minutes. However, the doctor said that she is past the age of crib deaths, since she can now push herself up on her hands, can turn her head, and can almost roll over. She loves to sleep on her side too.

We are doing all this because Riley starts daycare on September 2nd. That will be one of the hardest days of my life. I know she will be totally fine, but I dont know if I will be!!

A Day on the Lake

This weekend the family (Joe, Riley, Buster, and I) headed down to my parents house, which is at Lake of the Woods. We left early Saturday morning and came back Sunday afternoon. Once we got to their house we did what we all do best....ate!! We walked up to the golf club house for some lunch, then walked back, got our suits on and headed for the boat. It started out a horrible day with clouds and the threat of rain, but quickly cleared up and became beautiful. We got on their boat (a deck boat--something between a speed boat and a pontoon boat) and hit the high seas. Riley had to wear a life vest and was not too thrilled about it. However, about 10 minutes on the water and she was sound asleep. The life jacket was a bit big on her and all you could see where her arms, legs and one eye poking out. It was pretty cute. We anchored and Joe and I got in the water while my mom and dad stayed on the boat and hung out with Riley and Buster. We had a great time and relaxed a lot. Although Riley didn't sleep well that evening, we still got to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. Here are a few pictures from our weekend.