Hellooooo! Wow, it’s been over 2 weeks since I posted. Can you tell things have been a little Crazy Town around here? That’s an understatement, but seriously…life is a crazy, beautiful tornado right now. I’m soaking up every every second with her as I can possibly squeeze into one day. I can’t believe she will be half a year in less than 3 weeks.
I’ll start with something different this time – a mommy milestone. I had my first girl’s night out last week. My first night out alone in over 5 months. That means I showered, people! And I wore clean clothing. I also put on make-up and blow-dried my hair. It was exhausting! I had a rough sleep the night before, but I’m glad I made the effort to go out. Adriana doesn’t take a bottle so it’s been challenging getting out on my own, but now that she goes to bed around 6:30-7:30pm I figured I could sneak out for dinner with the girls. We picked a restaurant that was close to home which was a good plan because I had to leave a bit early. But still, I consider a few hours out with friends a big success. I had a blast and felt so uplifted the next day. Eric gets out every week for volleyball, so it was nice to be able to do something on my own too. We are going to try and make it a regular occurrence.
We’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch these past two weeks which is why I haven’t had a chance to post. Adriana is going through so much! Teething is ramping up and I think she’s knee deep in another leap. She’s been needier, crying more, sleeping less, and just seems off many days. But it’s for a reason of course – she is changing so much. Every day I’m like…holy crap this girl is determined. If she can’t do something she wants to do it over and over again until she does, all while frustrating herself entirely. I feel like she has a stubborn streak in her just like her mama!
The biggest news this week is that she discovered how to roll in her crib with her sleep suit on! Cue new parent freak out. Of course, we are all told to sleep babies on their backs these days, so when they start naturally sleeping on their tummy it feels super scary (at least for me). I proceeded to text my mama friends and family members asking for advice. hah. They are like…girl…chill. It’s normal. (said in the nicest way possible of course). I’ve been spending most of the week staring at the baby monitor and sneaking into her nursery to make sure her airways are free and her head isn’t pointing directly into the mattress. Like all the baby stages, I know that this just takes some getting used to and we’ll be fine, but I do kinda miss the days when we could just put her in her bassinet/crib and she’d stay in one spot! The photo collage (above) that I took during nap time one day kinda makes me die laughing. She is such a squirmy girl! And she even knows to smile for the camera. Good grief. We’re now sleeping her in the fleece Halo, but she absolutely hates it. I mean hates it. She’s definitely a baby who likes to be tightly bundled up and the Halo gives her a bit too much freedom for her own liking. Hopefully she gets used to it with time.
This is how our nights (and naptimes) have gone this week: Adriana is put on her back in the crib. She immediately rolls onto her tummy, then she cries out of frustration, rolls back, kicks the crib rails, rotates, cries, chews her hand, rotates, creates a puddle of drool on the crib sheet, etc. with her finally ending up on her tummy to sleep at long last. She does seem to love sleeping on her tummy, but when she wakes up she’s frustrated and cries which I think is a combo of not being used to waking up on her tummy and also her teething pain ramping up. We’ve been waking up 5….6…7…8 times a night this week. I don’t even know how I’m typing right now because my brain is lagging about 5 minutes behind my finger strokes. I’m hoping once she gets used to the tummy sleeping a bit more the frequent screaming wake-ups will diminish and we will get back into a better routine again!
Funny story – one night I woke up to her crying and I checked the monitor and all I saw were her FEET in the monitor! Being half asleep I kinda freaked out and was soooo confused. When I went to her nursery I realized she had rotated herself a full 180 degrees! How in the world? Babies are so funny!
Breastfeeding: Still going strong! Her nursing duration has decreased a lot per session these days. Sometimes she’s done in 4-5 minutes, other times she wants to feed for 15 minutes. It really depends. My plan is to exclusively breastfeed until 6 months and slowly introduce solids thereafter. I’m thinking her first food might be pureed avocado with breast milk mixed in. Sounds delicious, right? lol. Eric and I are going to have a video camera set up so we can capture her first bites. I am so pumped!!
Loves: putting her feet in her mouth (this is new, lol), sticking out her tongue really far while squeaking (also new this week), blowing bubbles, looking in mirrors, being tickled under her chin, babbling, rolling as soon as she’s placed on her back, playing airplane, diaper changes, chewing her hands and teethers, her daddy, squealing at the top of her lungs, playing in the jumparoo (her fav thing ever), big Sophie, falling asleep on me after nursing, body slams, grabbing toys/my hair/my face, her baby doll who laughs when you squeeze her, activity centre, sitting in her big girl high chair at the table with us, looking all around during nursing and playing with my bra and shirts, begin sung to (she thinks mama’s voice is quite funny and she laughs every time I sing twinkle, twinkle little star), watching the cat, and soft crinkle books.
Not much love for: bottles, when she gets too tired, middle of the night diaper changes, having shirts put on over her head (the look of horror on her face kills me every time), the cold outdoors, vitamin D drops (she makes this funny face), cold body lotion, getting her ears, nose, or chin rolls cleaned. ;)
Weight/height: She is now over 15 pounds and 26.5 inches in length. I can’t get over how tall she is! And her chubby thighs and elastic band wrists kill me. I was looking at pictures of her as a 1 week old and my jaw dropped. I can’t believe she was once that tiny. I just want to cry…and have 6 more of her! She is now wearing 6-9 month clothing (it depends on the brand), but I’m packing up more and more 6 month sleepers as the days go by.
Oh – her fauxhawk has officially turned into a combover. I die. You know the saying “business in the front and party in the back?” Well hers is “party on the top and old, balding man in the back” heh.
Exercise: I’m happy that despite the craziness going on I’ve been really consistent with workouts lately. They are my sanity-savers. I’ve starting doing a mix of hill walking and running. I’m still doing core work (safe for diastasis recti) about 3 times per week for 5 minutes or so. My core is finally feeling stronger, but I still have a way to go. I haven’t done much strength work lately, but I want to get back into that too. I’m sure as spring approaches I’ll feel more motivated.
Reading: My friend shared this post on parenting lasts called “The Last Time” and I pretty much cried all the tears.
Just a head’s up – I might switch back to updates every 2 weeks now, but I’m just going to play it by ear. If I feel like I have things to share I will pop in. It will depend on the week! You can always check out what we’re up to on Instagram – @theglowspot
Ok, drop me a line and let me know how things are going with you! Any new milestones to share? Challenging weeks? Leaps? New teeth? First words? First steps???
Or maybe you want to share a funny crib story yourself? What antics have your babies/toddlers gotten up to over the years? Tell me what we have to look forward to…
My daughter used to spin 180 in her pack n play before she could even roll. We never figured out how she did it but we thought it was hilarious. We called her curly (like the 3 stooges). Our newest addition came 9 days ago. He was pretty severely tongue tied. After many tears from me we finally had it fixed yesterday. He keeps playing with his new tongue. It’s so funny. He also wants to do nothing but nurse now. Did Adriana do that too or is it just my crazy boy?
I feel you on the tie – we had hers assessed (and then released) after 6-8 weeks of agony! She was always a long feeder since birth – it wasn’t uncommon for her to feed for 45-60 minutes as a newborn (ouch!). haha. It all evened out though. Two weeks after the tie release things got SO much better and nursing became pain free most sessions. Now it’s a non-issue. Congrats on your new baby! I hope nursing continues to improve!
That is too funny about your little “Curly” – I don’t know how they do it! I’m a little scared for when she’s pulling herself up to stand in the crib. That’s when things will get really interesting I’m sure!
I have a 5 month old born a couple days after yours
She is also waking 5 or 6 times a night and leaving me exhausted so I feel your pain. Love reading your posts; they make this process seem a lot less lonely!
Sorry to hear you are going through this too. Strength in numbers, right? I’m so happy you enjoy my posts…thanks for the kind words! Hope your sleep improves soon! I hear 6 months is a great age.
Oh man. Tummy sleeping is definitely scary! I don’t have kids but I used to nanny for a baby girl (a bit older than Adriana). Not only was she a tummy sleeper — she also BURIED her face in her blankie (a thick fleece one, no less). She would not sleep any other way. I was so concerned at first (for all the obvious reasons), as were her parents. But she just would not fall asleep on her back, or without the blanket. So…. what can you do?? They tried, I tried, but nothing would work. I can’t count how many times I would look at the baby monitor, see her face-down in the blanket and rush to check… and she was just snoooooooozing so peacefully! Lol.
Glad to hear you got a girls night in!!
Angela,
This is SO us right now! We’re out of control with the rolling over and chewing our fingers off. If Liza can stick her whole hand in the mouth she totally would. She does not like chew toys, so her hands are chapped most of the time, which means that I have to put Vaseline on them whenever they are not in her mouth (1% of the time). She’s a belly sleeper all the way and has been for the past two weeks. At first, she kept getting frustrated when she’d roll over on her belly, and until she figured it out a few days ago, she’d literally sleep ON.HER.FACE. So I would tiptoe in during the night and turn her head so she’d sleep on either cheek. So scary. And so fun to watch them figure it all out. Time moves too fast, I can’t believe they’ll both be 6 months in no time!
Hi Lana, Sorry you are going through this too! I don’t feel so alone knowing someone else is going through the same thing. It is scary for sure. I hope it gets better for both of us! And yes, I seriously can’t believe 6 months is around the corner.
I’ve been following along for a long time. Thank you for sharing your journey!
I just have to share this story. I have a 13 month old son. We planned to give him avocado, also, as his first food at six months. The day finally came and we were so excited for our squish to finally taste some real food! I mashed the avacado with some milk… and daddy was holding him while I gave him that first bite. Squish took the bite, looked at me and then daddy… then barfed all over both of us!
Haha, we felt bad for him but it was honestly pretty humorous! I think it was the texture that he didn’t like along with a new taste! He’s always had a strong gag reflex also. It took time but he now loves his avacado:)
Anyhow, best of luck! Love reading your mama posts.
haha oh my goodness that is so funny!! Poor lil guy. I wouldn’t be surprised by anything at this point. ;) I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes! My guess is that she’s going to make a face and spit it out much like she tries with the D drops.
My son has been rotating in his crib since around 2 months (180+ degrees), but he hasn’t rolled over in the crib yet. It cracked me up (& scared me!) the first time I saw his feet in the monitor instead of his head. It still cracks me up! I’m sure I’ll panic when I find him on his tummy– it’s just what us moms do! :-)
That’s awesome you got to have a girls’ night!
Love these updates…& Adrianna is a cutie.
I nodded my head through this whole post smiling and laughing. My baby boy who is 6.5 months old is very similar. He never rolled in his baby magic sleep suit, but he was rolling all during the day, so one night I didn’t put him in it and he immediately rolled over and went to sleep on his stomach. Totally freaked me out! Now he sleeps on his stomach always but he does the same thing where he wakes up crying on his stomach a bit confused at times. He still nurses once, but mostly twice, most nights. I’m trying to kick that midnight feeding but it’s tough! He wakes up like clockwork!
You might have already gotten this suggestion about getting your baby girl to take a bottle, but have you tried leaving for an extended period of time. Just a few hours. My boy wouldn’t take a bottle until close to 5 months and I literally had to be gone (I ran errands for a few hours) for him to consider taking it. It was like he knew if he wanted to eat, the bottle was the only option. I was really worried because I was going back to work in a week, but turns out when the pressure was on, he took it! Best of luck!
I hope in your next update you are getting more sleep (and me too haha!)
Love your posts even though my lil guy is 7! Our first feeding was a total non event. Except – he EXCELLED at pushing the spoon out and away! I was so shocked. I imagined a baby would be attracted to food – and ours was not. Made for some great pics though!
Yep, the rolling. They don’t stop spinning, rolling, and moving. My son is 16 months now and it’s pretty funny to watch him sleep. Now he bunches up all his blankets and animals in his crib and lays on top of them, face down, straight in the blankets. His legs still are tucked up under him, into his chest and his arms wrap around the pile of blankets like he’s hugging them.
When he was about 4 months old and started rolling, I rolled up thin blankets and placed them under the crib sheet, but on top of the mattress to create kind of a “bolster” to prevent my son from rolling over in the crib. Since the blankets were under the sheet, they stayed put, and didn’t create suffocation or entanglement hazards. I did this for about a month, until he was comfortable rolling back and forth between his tummy and back, and by then he could decide how he wanted to sleep. This article explains it too (plus there are many more if you do a google search):
http://www.parenthacks.com/2007/10/bath-towel-bols.html
my little girl is just a few days younger than yours and we are also going through this new belly sleeping thing! she has only started doing it in the last week (it’s also the only time she flips to her belly) and she freaks out every time. I’m also amazed at how much ground she can cover in her crib! I put her to bed in the top center and ends up facing the other direction, on her belly, all the way in the bottom corner. squirmy squirrel!
I just wanted to say I love your baby updates. Our lo’s are exactly the same age so I look forward to reading these posts where I can say ‘yep, that’s exactly what im going through.’ With sleep. Doesn’t help make me feel less tired but it’s nice to feel like it’s a regular baby thing and not just mine. Also fun to see how similar they are with the rolling and babbling. Keep the updates coming :)
I’ve been checking for new posts every day for the last week or so. Lol. It’s one of the highlights of my boring pre-birth mat leave life. I’m 36.5 weeks and starting to feel done and ready for the crazy awesome gong show that is new parenthood. I’m sure I’ll be referring back to your baby posts as I go along. I just can’t get enough of them.
Hi Angela,
Your baby girl is just beautiful! My little guy didn’t start teething till 9 months, but we used homeopathic drops called Camilia by Boiron – they are so magical and really worked for us. Helps with pain as well as the restlessness/fretfulness they get (poor little guys!). You can find them at most health food stores or most pharmacies or even loblaws (I’m in Ottawa). Good luck!
Hi Angela!
I wonder if you could share a little bit more about your diastasis recti and what exercises youve been doing that youve found helpful? I had a separation after my first that never fully healed and am now pregnant with my second. I would love to be better informed on what to do the second time post partum….I feel like i got so much conflicting advice from people. My nurse actually told me to keep doing planks, and I found out only much later that they were making it worse! Anyway, I’m just curious what you are doing. DR is something I never heard anyone talk about during my pregnancy and rarely hear about even now and I feel like, at least in the states, doctors are not necessarily very informed about it. Thank you in advance!
Good for you for going out! I don’t do it nearly enough.
My little one just turned 6 months old and Adriana is pretty much doing everything he’s doing right now. The screeching is back! It’s funny, but man is it loud! And putting feet in the mouth has turned into literally chewing on his toes; it’s hilarious! We also experienced the 180, a while back before he was rolling. It was pretty dark in the room so I was totally freaked out when I went to pick him up and he was the opposite way from how I laid him down! It was spooky for a minute! Ha!
We just had our 6 month check up yesterday and the NPR that we see made me feel better about his sleep. It’s stuff that I know, deep down, but it’s just nice to hear it from someone like that. She said only about 50% of 6 month olds STTN and that it sounds like everything I’m doing to work on it is great. He will sleep longer when he’s ready. I felt like I had permission to stop stressing about it. Sure, I want more sleep, but worrying non-stop about whether I’m doing the right things isn’t helping anything.
I also have a 2 yr old (28 months) and he sleeps fine now, most nights. I know that this baby is my last, so maybe that makes it easier to get through the rough times. I know just how fleeting this time is. They are precious and amazing at every age and stage.
…and regarding the whole new world that is feeding solids, I wish you a fun, laid-back adventure! I hope Adriana likes the avocado! We just started last weekend and went with pureed sweet potato. My little guy was very serious about it – he kept a furrowed brow, trying to figure out what was going on, I guess, and just grabbed the spoon from me and shoved it in his mouth! So funny! On the second day he was not so interested. Baby steps.
One thing is for sure, I will be much more relaxed this time than I was with my first baby. Feeding solids was just about as stressful for me as the whole sleep thing. I was so excited to try Baby Led Weaning. I wanted him to love it. I’m a foodie (hence my love of your blog!) and my relationship with food has been unhealthy at times. I have a little too much emotion tied up in it, in general. And I think that’s why I had such a hard time with it when my first baby wasn’t interested in food for the first couple months that we tried. Everyone wanted to see him eat. I had grand visions of how it would be. He just wasn’t interested. I would get upset about it, thinking something could be wrong with him. I mean, none of my friends had been through this. But then again, everyone I know feeds rice cereal at 4 months. (Everyone I know had their baby CIO at a young age and does just about everything different from me. It’s hard being the odd man out, even when I’m comfortable with my choices!). I gave up on BLW and tried purees which he didn’t want either. I really agonized over it, even though I fully knew “under one, just for fun”, and that he was more than fine with breast milk. When people say things like “maybe he’s going to be one of those kids with an aversion to texture and wont eat normal food” blah blah blah… it can really get into your head!
But then, at about 8.5 months, he had a taste of guacamole and he loved it! He wanted more and more! My heart sang! From then on, I gave him more flavor. Not just plain avocado. I added cumin, lime, and even a tough of salt. He quickly became a very adventurous eater! Babaganoush! Curried potatoes and peas! It was so easy to feed him what we were eating (of course we ate lots of baby friendly meals, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!). And all my worries were a thing of the past.
I think BLW is great, but I was a little too uptight about it, worrying that spoon feeding was force feeding. Just like all parenting, it’s not black and white. With my first, I didn’t want to do purees, wanted him to like all the vegetables before doing anything sweet, all these rules… I’ve learned to let go a little with my second child. I’m sure that feeding some purees isn’t going to result in a person that gorges himself, and starting with sweet potato doesn’t mean he’ll only like sweets. We eat healthy, home cooked food everyday and eat as a family and ultimately I think that will shape the way they treat food in the future.
I’m sharing this because I wish I had heard a similar story. Just knowing that a baby may not be ready wasn’t enough for me, I guess. I wish someone could have shared a story like this at that time, to really drive it home for me. Don’t let feeding your baby be too emotionally charged. Just let it be. 2 months or so can feel like a long time while you’re deep in it, but looking back, it’s nothing.
I had decided with this baby that, even though I didn’t really want to, we’d do rice cereal first (at 6 months) because something in me just really didn’t want him to reject solids like his brother did, even though I told myself I’d be more laid back this time. I guess I thought there was more of a chance that he’s like it more than vegetables. Well, just a couple days before the big day, I read that babies don’t have enough of the enzyme in their tummies needed to digest grains until about 2 years old! It’s just what I needed to hear. We’ll be sticking with fruit and veg, lots of fat, and skipping the processed “fortified” stuff. (on Dear Olive’s post from last week, CC Food, (a lovely blog), she linked to a good blog about feeding baby).
Sorry for the novel!
Thank you for sharing! I too agree there can be a lot of pressure for babies to take to solids right away. I LOVE the saying “under one just for fun” It’s so true that food is an exploration at this point. That really takes the pressure off! Every baby is so unique.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience Lori. I just wanted to let you know how helpful it was for me! I’m just starting BLW with my first and your advice that it’s not all black and white and don’t get too emotionally charged was exactly what I needed to hear. It definitely helps to hear other’s experiences. Thank you!
Oh my goodness this is basically our life right now too! I told my husband I feel like a science experiment to see what little sleep the human body can function on ;) We also have a two year old who is getting her two year molars and therefore not sleeping well for a while there. Gah!
I can tell you that the sleep schedule/hormones/life gets easier as the months go by. We seem to hit our stride when baby is a year old, and sleep disturbances are few and far in between after that (except for those pesky two year molars, haha!)
I appreciate you sharing your experiences on this space. I, too, feel more “normal” when I hear other’s stories in the same season of life :)
I haven’t read the other comments, so perhaps someone else asked you this? Why would you put her in something she hates to sleep in? I looked at the link and hey, I would hate being in a sack/bag, too! If you know she hates it?
hah a very good question! I should have explained it more. We decided to try the Halo sleep sack because we’re worried about her rolling in the Merlin suit since it’s quite restrictive and sometimes her arms get stuck underneath her. The Halo sleep sacks are popular because their arms are free, but the babies are still kept warm from the fleece. From what I read, it’s pretty common for babies not to like them when they transition from the swaddle or Merlin to something a lot less restrictive. My gut tells me she will be fine with it soon…today I already noticed that she’s warming up to it! So we’ll see. The other option we tried is to put her in the crib with no sack or suit, but she fussed just as much. All trial and error at this point! hah.
Just wondering…what if you put her in a swaddle-like wrap but leave her arms free? Wouldn’t that satisfy her desire to be tightly wrapped?
Thank you all for sharing your stories! Love reading them :)
I love reading your updates. My little guy is the same age and we are experiencing similar milestones here too. He is a tummy sleeper and sleeps in a sleep sac too. Good for you for getting out and seeing friends at night. The first time is always a bit overwhelming. Wishing you a good night of solid sleep!