Good Morning.

What do YOU do at 2:48 in the morning when you'd like to be sleeping but are up with a baby that thinks it is time to get up for the morning? Apparently, I blog.

Wednesday, assuming we get the all clear that the ear infection is gone, we begin cry it out. Because as much as I love my girl, I love my sleep too. :)

9 Months

I can hardly believe my baby is 9 months. Though she reached this milestone a week ago, and I loathe going back to retroactively post things (I think I'm going to rebel and NOT post all those December photos...unless I find I just have to share something). But it would be a shame to not document her progress.
Caroline is a happy girl, quick to laugh, smile, and make noise in general. She is reaching the 'into-everything' stage and keeps us on our toes. Everything goes in her mouth and everything makes her gag, and therefore everything makes her throw up too (this girl has a powerful gag reflex. She found a teeny piece of leaf at church this week and threw up in Relief Society-- don't worry folks, just a gag not a flu) . She has found every teeny piece of paper or lint or beads or leaf things that might have escaped our vacuum scrutiny. She finally started taking a bottle and is getting really good at it, but she still prefers to nurse when she is really tired.
Speaking of tired, Caroline's sleeping habits have gotten worse. Poor girl, she has been sick again this month (family visits share more than just love and memories---all the bugs go around too). She has digressed in her nightly sleeping, getting up at least twice for feedings. Her naps are unpredictable too. Some days she only gets a one hour nap total. You'd think those days would have her begging for an early bed time, but she still refuses to go down earlier than 10 every night. Oh, believe me, we've tried putting her down earlier. EVERY SINGLE TIME she ends up throwing up in her bed from crying and then we've got a tired grouchy baby AND a mess. She ends up falling asleep at random times. Like this.
or just looking tired and grouchy like this.
We are all eager for her to stop horsin around and get better sleep. Because she is much nicer when she is well rested. And everyone knows that MOM is much nicer well rested too!

Caroline has 4 teeth and is finally starting to do more with solids. Still not a ton, but she rarely gags on the pureed food now. Yes, we're still at puree. Can't even think about more substantial food yet since she still gags like crazy if it isn't ground up nice and fine. But at least she is enjoying food more these days. She had pizza puree last night and gobbled it right up!

My favorite is seeing her personality come out more and more. She LOVES music and making sounds. I have mentioned before that she loves percussion, well, that has increased. She figured out clapping and is thrilled to clap even when there is no music on. She loves to experiment with hitting different toys together to achieve different sounds. And if you are holding her, you can expect her to slap at you to see what you 'sound' like. She loves the sound of her own voice and babbles constantly when she is happy. Sometimes she experiments with various growls, lip smacks, raspberries, etc. She will find one she likes and do it for 1/2 an hour straight. Her favorite sounds are "geuh-geuh-geuh-geuh" (very gutteral and emphatic, like you just got punched in the belly) and "mahmahmahmah" (which is her chant for food). She ADORES Gwen and follows her around everywhere trying to grab her hair. She also figured out how to pull herself up to standing and attempts to cruise along the couch.

She's growing up so fast and I can hardly believe it! We sure to do love this gal!

Some short video clips for your viewing pleasure. Nothing spectacular, but I know certain grandparents who will like them anyway. :)

Beauty Rest

Did I mention that Gwen is adorable when she is sleeping? No matter how she eventually ends up, she always starts out with her feet hanging out of the crib, cuddling that fuzzy giraffe "blankie". We love to check on her at night and see how she's arranged herself and the giraffe this time!

Sigh. Every time I see her like this, it is a baptism of renewed love, washing away any impurities of frustrations or stress in my heart. She is my angel. .... When she is asleep! :) (well, she's my angel all the time, I just, well, you know, sometimes I just get flustered and forget, and say things that make it sound like I feel differently when I don't, like right now I'm digging in deeper, but, oh well, you know what I mean.)

A Big Week for Gwen

Gwen really made leaps and bounds this week!... well, okay, so no leaping or bounding yet, but she did figure out some things.

a) she now rolls from front to back in addition to back to front. It is nice because she doesn't get stuck on her tummy and yowl at us to roll her back anymore. She just does it herself!

b) she discovered how to get out of her blankets EVERY TIME no matter what double burrito method we try. This has made getting her to sleep a real challenge. (because she has NEVER gone down for even a 2 minute nap without being swaddled) She gets out and then cries and whines in her crib. We wrap her again... and she's out five minutes later crying again because she is so tired and wants to go to sleep. Eventually she gets so worn out that she'll fall asleep before she can get out. But it takes a while. And there is lots of crying involved. Very sad for the lil gal.

c) she discovered the whole-hearted laugh! here she is thoroughly amused by mommy's and daddy's noises:



ps. notice her slightly pink cheeks? A result of a fun day at the zoo without being sunscreen prepared. (bad mommy) Stay tuned for another post on that!

Help! I need your suggestions!

Any suggestions from you moms out there who have ever had a baby go from sleeping 1 1/2- 2 1/2 hour naps to only sleeping 30-45 minute naps? Seriously, I don't get anything done... come on, let's here how ya'll got through this! Anyone know why she might not be sleeping well? I had hoped it was just a growth spurt and she'd be over it soon, but we're going on a week now...How long does it last? How can I get her to go back to sleep if she wakes up so soon when she is wide-eyed and bushy tailed and not even drowsy? Help me out folks!

Beautiful Sleep

I had a roommate my freshman year at BYU named Jessica who was a budding self-taught photographer. She really had an eye for capturing people when they appeared the most pure, the most peaceful, and the most innocent... and her FAVORITE time to snap a photo was while someone was blissfully asleep. At first I found it perturbing because one cannot possibly consent to said photo if one is catching up on Z's (and I didn't enjoy having my photo taken without being aware of it). But I have grown to appreciate what she described as "a moment when there are no cares or worries creasing the forehead or filling the eyes with tension". She thought people looked the most beautiful when they were asleep. What do you guys think? Are YOU or your loved ones the most beautiful/handsome when blissfully asleep? I think Eric looks pretty dang cute in this pic...

What Wakes you Up?

So, lately I've been plagued with light sleep. This is HIGHLY unusual for me, as any of you that ever lived with me will verify! I am a HEAVY sleeper and regularly oversleep an alarm unless a physical person helps me wake up. (Jordan, you remember those good times, right? :P) Funny thing is that I won't hear any mechanical sounds in my sleep, but will startle awake if someone says my name. Don't know why that is.

When Eric and I were engaged I was really busy with a full load of spring/summer classes. He had a much lighter schedule. Naturally, despite my workload, we were the usual engaged couple that stays up WAY late every night just having a great time. especially since it was summer! So, I had Eric call me every morning to wake me up for class. I thought this would give him adequate warning about my difficulty waking up. Turns out, he was still surprised when we got married. Apparently, he thought I just wanted to talk with him every morning and used the 'wake up call' as a ploy to squeeze more Eric time into my day. Boy was he surprised to discover my morning wake up troubles! But I digress. I was telling you about my recent inability to sleep.

Sometimes it is because I have to use the restroom (pregnancy does that to you). Sometimes it is because I wake up hungry (pregnancy does that to you too). And sometimes it is because our sweet 33 week baby is awake and would like to play games in my tummy (pregnancy definitely did THAT to me!). Whatever the cause, despite my exhaustion during the day, I find I've become a light sleeper in the mornings. I get up and stay up at ridiculous hours (3:15, 4:30, 5:45, 6:15 on a Saturday...) and even have trouble taking naps. I just lay there. Restful, but kind of frustrating when I'd REALLY like to be in a deep sleep dreaming or something! This morning I got up early after laying there for over an hour and made omelettes with fresh tomatoes and peppers from our garden, sauted mushrooms, salami, and raspberry-peach yogurt/OJ smoothies for our breakfast. At least I did something productive, right? :)

So, what wakes you up in the middle of the night? What wakes you up in the morning, and would you prefer to wake up some other way? Let's hear some stories, eh?

On Being Pregnant...

Well, it is interesting that I wanted to show SOOOOO badly, and now that I finally am, I have to stop myself from being too self-conscious. I LOVE being pregnant and LOVE knowing that this lil growing belly is home for our lil gal... but I can't say I love feeling heavy, slow, cumbersome, and fat. The back aches alone are not that big of a deal, but combine that with the on-your-feet type of work I do right now... and you get the picture. I'm already tired. And I'm not even technically in the 3rd trimester yet!

However, I am thrilled to report the athletic activities of our lil girl! She is so cute when she wakes up. She kicks and squirms for a good hour, delighting me with her budding soccer skills (during the day), and keeping me awake (at night or early morning)! Then she'll be quiet and peaceful for a good 3-4 hours before deciding it is time for communicating with Mommy or "playtime with Daddy" as Eric likes to call it. Last week he was trying to talk to her through my belly (he delights in waking her up) so he pressed his ear down to try and hear her squirm or a response of any kind... and she full on KICKED HIM IN THE FACE! Our lil gal doesn't take kindly to being woken up, I guess!