Hikes, solo motherhood, and good company
So, Spawn was fine with the nanny when I got back. She's had cranky periods since then, but nothing like the Mother's Day screaming or Tuesday's four-hour misery. We have another date scheduled for this Sunday, and hopefully things will go more smoothly.
This week, she's discovered her feet with a vengeance and is obsessed with trying to chew on her toes. She doesn't seem to be as flexible as some babies, or she may have a very long torso like I do, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to be as easy for her to get her toes into her mouth as many pictures I've seen of other babies. But she's dedicated. She keeps at it, and sometimes she succeeds. I hope they taste good enough to be worth it.
She's also gaining a lot more manual dexterity. While before she could kick or bat at a toy or sort of hold something with both hands, now her fingers are really starting to find their own. She can grab her peacock toy and flip through the feathers. Her new cognitive game seems to be grabbing whatever I'm trying to put in her mouth and putting it in herself, then taking it out, then putting it back in, etc. etc. This goes for her bottle, her baby food spoon, her pacifier, and any stray finger of mine she happens to grab. Since I'm usually holding whatever it is, she doesn't have to deal with the weight, just the guidance. However, she's managed to take her own bottle and hold it by herself with both hands for a short time, though she can't really do this and eat effectively. On the downside, she now takes her pacifier out of her mouth, and she can't put it back in straight. Since I've usually given it to her because she's fussy, it doesn't take her long to get upset that she can't suck on it. She CAN hold it by the handle for a long time, though, and even transfer it from one hand to the other.
She's rolling over like a pro and starting to scoot herself forward by centimeters. Really need to start thinking seriously about baby-proofing the living room. It's also not clear how much longer she'll be able to sleep in her cradle, and it's going to break our hearts to have to stop using it. The sides are reasonably high, and in theory she could stay in it until she starts trying to pull up on things, but I'm not sure how comfortable we are with letting her sleep in it when she's crawling or even scooting efficiently.
We're transitioning out of swaddling at last. She's solidly outgrown her largest swaddler, and I read someplace that babies learn to self-soothe better when they can get their hands to their mouths to suck on them. When she's going to bed at night in a onesie on a cool night, sometimes I swaddle her from the waist down for warmth. OTOH, since she goes to bed with her pacifier, this has led to some weird sleep fails where she she pulls it out of her mouth and then cries because she doesn't have it.
The big negative for this week is that she's been going on nap strikes. She'll always sleep lying in my lap, but I've been trying hard not to let this happen very often. Over the course of a week or so, her naps in her cradle got shorter and shorter, and then for a couple of days she just wouldn't sleep in the cradle during the day at all. I tried putting her down "drowsy but awake," and she'd jump to alertness. I tried letting her drift off in my lap and putting her down asleep, but she'd wake up immediately. If I tried to let her settle down on her own, she'd start screaming. I really wanted the break, and she was just getting grumpier and grumpier as the day went on until she was highest-maintenance when I had the least energy/patience to deal with it. And I get pretty awful to deal with, even for myself, when I'm out of energy/patience. Those were not good days. I've taken to logging her eating and napping behavior in an attempt to get a better idea when to be more assertive, and that seemed to yield fruit this morning. Not only did I get her to nap in her cradle for a morning nap, but she slept for 1 3/4 hours! (Previously naps have been running a half our or 45 minutes.) Every day is different, and the nanny has her today and tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see how it goes.
So, that's the baby breakdown. It comes out longer than it is in my head :).
Our friend wkiri visited for a few days through Saturday. It was really nice to have the company, and it's nice that people can stay at our place even with all the baby considerations. Wkiri was especially adaptable, since Spawn had a bad night in there and woke us up crying at 4:15, 5:30, and 6. On Saturday, we took a second pass at our first baby-wearing hike on the east side of the Sandias. We attempted this hike last Saturday, and it was a mixed bag because Spawn got uncomfortable in the carrier and started crying. That was the Ergobaby carrier, which she's only just large enough to use without the infant insert -- or maybe not *quite* large enough. We attempted again with the Baby Bjorn, and that went better. She does still seem to get either uncomfortable or just sick of being in the carrier after a while. The hike and the company were very nice, and it feels good to be able to recapture another pastime we've missed from pre-baby days, even if we can't hike very aggressively due to Spawn's attention span and our current shameful out-of-shapeness.
We finally made it to the "new" Greek place near our house, which we've had our eye on for a year, and loved it. It's another place that goes on our list as a good risk for going out to lunch with the baby.
Studentbane has been out of town Sunday through today. Fortunately, knitclub came to my place on Sunday, and I was able to cart Spawn over to ljedi's place yesterday afternoon to watch TV and play video games. That was definitely sanity-preserving.
This week, she's discovered her feet with a vengeance and is obsessed with trying to chew on her toes. She doesn't seem to be as flexible as some babies, or she may have a very long torso like I do, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to be as easy for her to get her toes into her mouth as many pictures I've seen of other babies. But she's dedicated. She keeps at it, and sometimes she succeeds. I hope they taste good enough to be worth it.
She's also gaining a lot more manual dexterity. While before she could kick or bat at a toy or sort of hold something with both hands, now her fingers are really starting to find their own. She can grab her peacock toy and flip through the feathers. Her new cognitive game seems to be grabbing whatever I'm trying to put in her mouth and putting it in herself, then taking it out, then putting it back in, etc. etc. This goes for her bottle, her baby food spoon, her pacifier, and any stray finger of mine she happens to grab. Since I'm usually holding whatever it is, she doesn't have to deal with the weight, just the guidance. However, she's managed to take her own bottle and hold it by herself with both hands for a short time, though she can't really do this and eat effectively. On the downside, she now takes her pacifier out of her mouth, and she can't put it back in straight. Since I've usually given it to her because she's fussy, it doesn't take her long to get upset that she can't suck on it. She CAN hold it by the handle for a long time, though, and even transfer it from one hand to the other.
She's rolling over like a pro and starting to scoot herself forward by centimeters. Really need to start thinking seriously about baby-proofing the living room. It's also not clear how much longer she'll be able to sleep in her cradle, and it's going to break our hearts to have to stop using it. The sides are reasonably high, and in theory she could stay in it until she starts trying to pull up on things, but I'm not sure how comfortable we are with letting her sleep in it when she's crawling or even scooting efficiently.
We're transitioning out of swaddling at last. She's solidly outgrown her largest swaddler, and I read someplace that babies learn to self-soothe better when they can get their hands to their mouths to suck on them. When she's going to bed at night in a onesie on a cool night, sometimes I swaddle her from the waist down for warmth. OTOH, since she goes to bed with her pacifier, this has led to some weird sleep fails where she she pulls it out of her mouth and then cries because she doesn't have it.
The big negative for this week is that she's been going on nap strikes. She'll always sleep lying in my lap, but I've been trying hard not to let this happen very often. Over the course of a week or so, her naps in her cradle got shorter and shorter, and then for a couple of days she just wouldn't sleep in the cradle during the day at all. I tried putting her down "drowsy but awake," and she'd jump to alertness. I tried letting her drift off in my lap and putting her down asleep, but she'd wake up immediately. If I tried to let her settle down on her own, she'd start screaming. I really wanted the break, and she was just getting grumpier and grumpier as the day went on until she was highest-maintenance when I had the least energy/patience to deal with it. And I get pretty awful to deal with, even for myself, when I'm out of energy/patience. Those were not good days. I've taken to logging her eating and napping behavior in an attempt to get a better idea when to be more assertive, and that seemed to yield fruit this morning. Not only did I get her to nap in her cradle for a morning nap, but she slept for 1 3/4 hours! (Previously naps have been running a half our or 45 minutes.) Every day is different, and the nanny has her today and tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see how it goes.
So, that's the baby breakdown. It comes out longer than it is in my head :).
Our friend wkiri visited for a few days through Saturday. It was really nice to have the company, and it's nice that people can stay at our place even with all the baby considerations. Wkiri was especially adaptable, since Spawn had a bad night in there and woke us up crying at 4:15, 5:30, and 6. On Saturday, we took a second pass at our first baby-wearing hike on the east side of the Sandias. We attempted this hike last Saturday, and it was a mixed bag because Spawn got uncomfortable in the carrier and started crying. That was the Ergobaby carrier, which she's only just large enough to use without the infant insert -- or maybe not *quite* large enough. We attempted again with the Baby Bjorn, and that went better. She does still seem to get either uncomfortable or just sick of being in the carrier after a while. The hike and the company were very nice, and it feels good to be able to recapture another pastime we've missed from pre-baby days, even if we can't hike very aggressively due to Spawn's attention span and our current shameful out-of-shapeness.
We finally made it to the "new" Greek place near our house, which we've had our eye on for a year, and loved it. It's another place that goes on our list as a good risk for going out to lunch with the baby.
Studentbane has been out of town Sunday through today. Fortunately, knitclub came to my place on Sunday, and I was able to cart Spawn over to ljedi's place yesterday afternoon to watch TV and play video games. That was definitely sanity-preserving.