New Pictures and Update

New picture are up at http://annabellag.shutterfly.com/

We haven't been writing as much lately, sorry about that, hopefully we'll do some more posting soon. Here are a few quick updates:

• Annabella, despite fighting thrush, has been going to sleep much better now.
• At a recent doctor's appointment she weighed in at 15 lbs 6.5 oz which was at the 12th percentile.
  
• She plays peek-a-boo but doesn't quite understand that she needs to cover her eyes. She just lifts something above her head, and then pulls it down and waits for someone to say peek-a-boo.
  

Baby Whisperer

I reached my breaking point Tuesday night. Annabella was sleeping in my bed and was up at 2:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep, instead playing and crying/screaming when I'd try to get her to go back to sleep. We finally got her back down, just to have her wake up at 5am and not go back to sleep for the day. The sleeping in my bed option was great when it was the no-cry method. Now that she was screaming even when I was holding her just right and snuggling with her and doing everything I knew how, I just couldn't take it anymore!

Annabella just couldn't fall asleep on her own, at least not if she wasn't in her carseat in the moving car. And the surest way to make her scream bloody murder would be to set her in her crib.

I know my lovely daughter is teething, and that can hurt. And I know that if I gave her baby Motrin and tried one more night with me that it might have been different, but I just couldn't take the chance. If I'd given her the Motrin and still had another night of her kicking and arching her back to get out of my arms while screaming as I'm trying to get her the precious sleep she needs, I don't know that I could've taken it.

So last night we tried something different (besides the Baby Motrin). We found Tracy Hogg's Baby Whisperer sleep method, and it sounded like something we could handle. Here's the gist of it: We do our nighttime routine, then put Annabella in her crib. If she cries, we immediately pick her up and comfort her. As soon as she is calm, we put her back in her crib. Repeat until Annabella realizes that crying will not mean that she gets to sleep in Mommy's arms and that she needs to sleep in her crib.

At first it was ridiculous. Annabella would be crying before I even set her down. As soon as her body was hanging over her crib there'd be screams. And the book didn't really make it clear what to do if that happened. So I made a rule that I put her down, then exit the room, touch the stair railing and take a breath, turn around and pick her up. Because really, she wouldn't have ever left my arms.

By the end it was taking much longer to console her, but she was staying consoled much longer. Jas and I also found that we no longer had to actually pick her up to console her, which was good as my neck was starting to kill me from repeatedly throwing her weight around to get her in the right sleepy time positions. We could just lean over the crib and rock her or rub her forehead. Sometimes just standing be the crib was enough. That right there was progress.

And after about 2 hours, she was done really crying. She'd half-cry/whimper a little, but was calming herself and didn't need us. And soon she was asleep!

Then in the middle of the night she put herself back to sleep with almost no effort from me after I'd fed her.

And at daycare today she took a 55-minute nap, which is huge! HUGE! I think 55 minutes of sleep might be a daycare record for her, let alone in one nap!

So right now I'm pretty much on top of the world, hoping that we've found our answer. Now we'll just see how tonight goes.

My subconscious might not agree with how great this was though. Last night I dreamed I was locked in my Mom's house and that she'd put a poisonous snake in there that was hungry and was chasing me around. In my dream I even though, "Mom's trying to kill me!" I'm not Freud expert or anything, but if I had to guess...I think maybe my subconscious thinks I spent last night torturing my child. Oh well, my subconscious can just suck it. This sleeping thing rocks!

Round 2

An 8 out of 10 bulging ear infection.

Sounds lovely, doesn't it? The doc said that if you or I had Annabella's latest ear infection, that we'd be on Vicodin. But kids are resilient he tells me, as Annabella sits there stoically.

Right about now I feel like the world's worst mother. You see, Annabella and I both got sick Sunday night. We were both stuffy and altogether miserable. And Annabella had a miserable night, waking at least one point in the night and screaming inconsolably for a minute or 2. Had I not been sick as well, or had she not calmed down and went back to sleep after just a couple minutes, I might have had the foresight to take her to the doctor Monday. But instead I was just consumed by my own sickness and Annabella was in a sour mood, but I mostly thought she was just bored by Mommy who was too tired to entertain.

Then Monday night came. And she was up every 45 minutes whimpering. And she had such a hard time sleeping. And I gave her Tylenol, but only grudgingly. And I saw her pulling at her ear and being unhappy, but I thought maybe it was just the pressure from her congestion. To my credit, the words ear infection did come to mind as well. But the last time we had her checked for an ear infection, she had a sore throat. And I felt dumb.

So Tuesday we make her an appointment at the doctor, partly because I think her ears should be checked, but hugely because we had to get her medically cleared for daycare due to all the swine flu scariness. And at this appointment is where we hear the phrases "bulging ear infection", "an 8 out of 10", and "an adult with this infection would be on Vicodin".

So thank you swine flu. Thanks for making us take our sick little baby to the doctor so that we could learn that she's in pretty bad pain with an ear infection. Mommy was a little too self-absorbed with her own sickness to see it :(

The good news is that the pediatrician went straight to Augmentin this time for her antibiotic, which is what worked last time, and Annabella slept much much much better last night. So hopefully our cheerful bundle of joy will be cheerier soon.

7 Months

How can my baby be 7 months old?

This seems like yesterday:

3 days old, just home from the hospital.

Now she looks closer to this:

Yes. I know this picture is old. We're getting more taken tomorrow though!

She used to sleep with her head buried in my chest. Now she's way too big for that. She won't even fit!

She used to need me to hold her head up for her. Now she cranes her head every which way to see what's going on.

She used to stare up at her mobile, excited by its movement. Now she doesn't just stare. She bats at whatever's in reach. And if she can get it, it goes straight to her mouth!

She used to need Mommy to hold her to put her to sleep. OK... Some things haven't changed!

For the curious, here's her new developments:

• She's teething! It's official. The doctor saw a little nubbin of a tooth well below the surface, but it's on its way! And if I look just right, I can sometimes see the tiny nubbin as well.
• She loves loves loves fruit, especially pears, pineapple, and strawberries And sweet potatoes. Squash, not so much. Carrots are more touch and go. Regardless though, the first bite she still makes that "I don't know what you're giving me but I'm prepared to hate it!" face.
• She's had her first fever. Mommy and Daddy (ok, really just Mommy) panicked because we couldn't figure out what was wrong. No stuffy nose. No vomiting. Didn't seem to be the ears so much. So we took her to the doctor, and she had a sore throat. She seems to be over it and happy now though.
• She's still not crawling, but she's moving around a whole lot more. If I just hold her on the couch, she's wiggling all around, pushing off whatever part of me is convenient. If she sees something she wants she dives for it, and really quickly. She has a new mark today from where she dove towards me while I was holding my laptop and she smacked her face into it. No tears over that one, but it left its mark.
• She's saying "baa baa baa" now. I was getting worried because I hadn't really heard a lot of consonant sounds out of her mouth yet. I don't know when she started this, but now it seems like she's always been doing it. I really do think this is a new accomplishment though. She's also very interested and watches my mouth whenever I make repetitive consonants at her. So I look at her and say "ma ma ma ma ma ma" and "da da da da da" a lot. She digs it though.
• She's finally sleeping better at daycare! She still doesn't sleep for longer than 45 minutes at a time, and one 45 minute stretch is still really good for her, but it's progress.
• She loves daycare. She's happy almost every time I go over there to see her, and I'm still over there a lot. The only times she's unhappy are when she's tired or when she's hungry and I'm running late. Other than that, she's smiley and talkative and loves playing with the other babies and teachers.
• She's screaching at the top of her lungs a lot now. This is her happy screach. She's screached for awhile, but it seemed to hit new levels today on the car ride into daycare. Healthy lungs? Yup.
• She loves being read to. We read Dinosaur's Binkit a lot. I don't know if it's her favorite or ours, but we all seem to dig all the Sandra Boynton books so far.
• She fights sleep still. Bedtime is and has always been the hardest part of our day with her. She's such a happy baby, but starting around 7pm she gets cranky, and it's downhill from there.

OK. That's enough for now. Although it's easy to go on and on about how wonderful I think my little baby is because I think every thing she does is perfect. I totally thought I would be the disciplinarian before we had her, and now it's so totally going to be Jason.

The really awesome pix of Annabella

I can't take credit for most of the pretty pix of Annabella I've been posting. I thought I mentioned it at one point, and I tried to give credit where credit was due on http://annabellag.shutterfly.com, but on closer inspection, it seems that you have to click the "view album" button to see my comments, which are that our friend Justin took the professional looking shots. (We took the ones labeled "Annabella - first 2 months". The rest are all his.)

I've received enough comments/questions now from friends that I realized I needed to make this more clear.

I was hoping to keep this blog a little more anonymous than this, because I'm all worried about the crazies coming to find us... But our friend's website is here: http://justinbelcherphotography.com/ Not that you could figure out who we are just based on a friend's website, but you never know.

Jason and I are starting to get a little bit more into photography. But we are really lacking Justin's mad skills. He's teaching us though, and the photos from the very last post I put up were taken by either Jason or I, and Jason touched them up with Lightroom. I put all the ones Justin took up at the shutterfly site (URL above). Justin was kind enough to give us all rights to the pictures he's taking for us; so if you are not one of the crazies and would like to print pictures of my child (hi Grandma!), you should be able to do so from that site.

6 months and counting

Annabella is already 6 months old! I can't believe how fast she's growing and changing.

My little girl can now sit up all by herself. She laughs and growls and makes raspberries with her mouth, covering everything in site with spittle. She kisses your cheek (with her mouth wide open, again covering you in spit). She loves to grab onto Daddy's hair with both her hands and shove his entire nose into her mouth.


She sits across from her friend, Emma, at daycare, and they chit chat and share toys. Each of them finds the toy the other one has to be the best toy, reaching for it as best they can. I'm pretty sure they're gossiping about the boys.

She is learning to eat solid foods (and has been since 24 weeks and 1 day). Applesauce and rice cereal are big hits. Bananas and carrots are touch and go. Some days solid food in general just isn't going to happen. Some days she just loves it. Most days she reaches out as if she wants to try whatever it is Mommy and Daddy are eating.


She's going through a Mommy's phase, which is both nice and hard. Nice because it makes me feel like she loves me when she puts her arms up for me to pick her up and smiles when she sees me. Hard because she cries when I have to walk away without picking her up. Hard because she looks for me even when Daddy is playing with her and keeping her company. Hard because she wants me to hold her to help her fall asleep. Hard because she cries for other people just because they aren't me.


Everything that she can get her fingers on goes straight into her mouth. Fingers, hair, blankets, toys, anything really.

She loves exploring new textures with her fingertips.


Daddy's already working to make her a Browns fan. It looks like she's well on her way.

Rest in peace, my Cookie Monster

My last remaining childhood pet died this past week. He was a good kitty, and I'll miss him.

My family insisted on naming him Gabby, but I named him Cookie Monster. Eventually I gave in and started calling him Gabby too. But really, I think his true name was and will always be Cookie Monster. After all, he showed a definite preference for me :) Granted, it could have been that I always fed him tuna and always petted him just the way he likes and never touched his ears, nose, or feet, which he abhors. And we got him just after I grew out of that "Let's dress the kitty up!" phase. So he never had to wear dollbaby dresses or bonnets.

Gabby was very sweet, but easily crossed and very stubborn. He went to battle over the whole not being allowed on the counter rule, and I do believe he won. He had a loud purr and loved to sit on your lap. He was also a skilled hunter, bringing us many special furry gifts from his nights out.

We got him on Christmas Eve. We'd just lost another family pet, Snuggles, and there was a hole in our hearts. While no kitty could ever replace Snuggles, Gabby quickly eased our pain with his crazy kitten antics. He loved to play, and played so hard that we thought our sweet little kitten must be sick when he finally crashed. We soon learned that this was just Gabby: pure energy until he was just too tired to move.

Gabby, you'll always have a special place in my heart, and I miss you.