Toys!

Eden's started to get more interested in toys - and is able to sit up supported too!  This is a good thing, considering how much she hates tummy time.

We actually managed to get her to be on tummy for several minutes without screaming, just once... Hopefully she's on the cusp of a breakthrough there.

Girls night

Picked up from daycare and now grabbing some dinner at Dough bakery.  She has been in such a good mood today!!!

Family photo!

Grandma (Grammy?) Beth was in town & was able to take a family photo of the three of us:

Eden and duck blanket

And a few minutes later...

Post-cold sleeping/breastfeeding challenges

Breastfeeding post, read on if interested!

Surviving the first week back to work

Well, we survived my first week back at work and Eden's first cold and fever.  It was extremely hard, maybe the hardest week we've had since she was brand new!  Michael and I referred to that time when she was just born as survival mode, and we both agreed that these first few weeks with me back at work are going to be the same thing.  And illness really pushed it to an intensity level I wasn't prepared for!  It was a pretty horrible week, I have to say.  But we are surviving, and now my confidence level is just a little higher (I think).

Feverish little one watching mommy & daddy rehearse, past her bedtime

Click if you want more detail in the form of my rambly unorganized thoughts...

3 months of Eden and Panda

We happened to take photos around the 1 and 2 month marks with this panda, so we figured we'd keep it up!  Here are 1, 2 & 3 month photos....

Urgent care visit

We visited urgent care for Eden's cold and fever. (Note: there are no urgent cares for babies her age in metro Atlanta- I had to go to Alpharetta!)  She was pretty upset at all the poking and prodding but she's definitely got something so it was a good thing we went.  She must have caught this on her very first trial days at daycare--they really don't waste any time in transmitting diseases!  

Looks like no daycare tomorrow!  So I'll start my return from maternity leave working from home and probably on no sleep - lucky I have an understanding boss and lots of flexibility, with zero face time requirement.  Plus I'm starting back part time, so less guilt too.

Despite her congestion, cough, and 101.5 degree fever, Eden squeezed out a smile or two in the waiting room:

First cold

She's been a little congested off and on for the past few days... started coughing Friday night (didn't seem to bother her) and then yesterday afternoon was lethargic and seemingly a bit feverish.  But she got up in a good mood to play in the early evening and video chat with her Puckett grandparents - so we were hoping it was a very minor thing.  We put her to bed at 8, then and then at 930 she woke up wailing in pain and with a low grade fever :(. We were up most of the night.

Hope it gets better not worse - she seems so uncomfortable!  And I'm supposed to go back to work tomorrow and it would be kind of crappy if we had to keep her home from day care on her first real full day of it!!

Sick sleepy baby the morning after:

Daddy baby time!

Eden is such a daddy's girl - she totally lights up around Michael!  Michael had his first full day with Eden last Saturday while I attended an Octave retreat, and it went great!

Sleeping patterns

Sleeping peacefully for exactly thirty minutes, Bubbe's picture behind her
(we'll take that out of her crib when she starts moving around)

Eden's adorable fits upon waking

Is she sleeping through the night?  A very common inquiry - the new parent equivalent of "how's the weather?"  (Note: Here is a good article on why "is your baby sleeping through the night" isn't the most relevant question, especially for breastfed babies.)

Night sleep is (hopefully) getting more pleasant for us - as Michael said, the other day Eden had her longest sleep ever, from 8 PM to about 5:40 AM.  The two nights after that have been good too--we put her to bed around 8, and though she didn't "sleep through" she just woke up after 5-7 hours, nursed for 15 minutes, and then went right back to sleep in her pack n' play for another couple of hours.  I don't mind this and I don't think I'll push for her to "sleep through the night" as long as this is her pattern - it isn't hard for me to get back to sleep after nursing her, so I think I can generally get enough sleep as long as I make sure to go to bed early enough.  And with her being a spitter and slower weight gainer, I don't want to deprive her of calories!

Her previous pattern was rougher on us - she would go to bed for a 4-5 hour stretch (sometimes less), wake up, nurse, and then resist going back in her pack and play.  Then once she finally went down she'd wake up again every hour.  So it made the most sense to put her down for her 4-5 hour stretch at 11 PM or later, to maximize our sleep.  And sometimes I was too tired to insist that she go to sleep in her pack and play, so we'd bring her in bed with us or put her in her swing.

During the day if we're just hanging around the house she won't usually nap for longer than 30 minutes at a time.  Seriously, like clockwork - 30 minutes almost to the minute!!  I don't mind this either, as long as she's getting enough sleep - I worry that she's overtired sometimes, and her total sleep for a 24-hour cycle is usually less than what is recommended for her age.  I hope she does ok with sleep at day care!

Other sleep stuff: she sleeps best in the velcro swaddle sacks (sometimes she gets the Halo zip ones, which are better for her hips), and lately she's been taking a pacifier at some naps and bedtimes too.  She still sleeps in pack 'n play in our room, which right now we plan to continue until 6 months or until she gets too heavy for pack 'n play.

Baby weight

I joined weightwatchers this week.  I haven't quite given up my dream of fitting into the expensive clothes I bought just before I got pregnant (or any of my other pre-Eden clothes for that matter)... though friends tell me that even if I get the weight off, my shape may be permanently different.   I am doing the online-only version because I don't have any time for anything else in my schedule.  So I might write about it here--and bug my friends who have done WW--in lieu of the "meeting" aspect.

This is the first time I have tried any kind of food limitations involving portion control, and I think it's really good for me.  I am a horrible eater by nature. For example, last Thursday Michael and I went to work out together, then I came home and ate a bunch of reese's cups and raw cookie dough (in addition to mac&cheese and soup) for dinner.  Michael said while watching me snarf the cookie dough - why bother working out?  Um... heart health?

For the most part, I think WW is going well so far.  But I have been pretty constantly hungry, and thinking about/counting food all the time doesn't help.  I also worry that it is decreasing my milk supply, as I have felt pretty empty/ Eden has been fussy at her afternoon feedings for the past two days.  We'll have to stay on top of that, but I'm optimistic, and already a couple of pounds lighter!

First day of Day Care & Record sleep! (cross fingers...)

Eden slept over 9.5 hours straight last night!  Woohoo!  Not bad for an almost-3 month old.  She also did her first half-day trial at Suzuki School.  It seemed to go well.  No negative reports :-)  I guess it tired her out!

Here's the happy well-rested baby in the morning getting ready to go out to mommy & baby yoga.

Roller

I put her down with her feet facing the piano keys.  I was listening from the other room and the next time I poked my head in I saw this!

I'm still not quite sure how she did it!

Wubbanub

Eden's daycare doesn't like soothie pacifiers because they can't be labeled with her name (labels and sharpie ink don't stick to the rubber).  In exploring various solutions to this, we discovered the "wubbanub."  Basically it's a soothie pacifier attached to a little tiny stuffed animal, with a tag that can be written on in permanent marker.  Behold:

This is the most "lamb" I will have in my mouth until I am old enough to make decisions.

Surprisingly, having a stuffed animal dangling out of her mouth seems to work for Eden.  She is able to keep sucking on the pacifier, and it's actually easier for her to get back into her own mouth if she drops it.  It's also easier for us to find than the semitransparent soothie pacifier, which often ends up buried in the car seat or wherever.  I don't know about it for sleep though, so I also cut up some of our bottle labels and put it on two soothie pacifiers for daycare - we'll see if that stays put.

Also, she is able to sort of hold the animal, which is adorable!  She isn't really holding objects yet. 

Chillin out with my wubbanub, watching crab TV.

Dry run for day care

Tomorrow is our first trial day at day care - the Suzuki School located in the same building as our synagogue Ahavath Achim.  We're doing two trial days this week and she starts full time next week.  Tomorrow I will drop off and pick up, and Wednesday Michael will.  We're really excited about Suzuki, but it's kind of out of the way for us and so adds a lot to our respective commutes.  We'll see how it goes.  Wish us luck!

Bubbe's birthday!

We had a fun trip to Birmingham for Bubbe's birthday!!

Eden singing in pitch!

Notice the several times Eden's pitch matches the piano!  Not bad for a 12-week-old.
(Captions look best if you make the video full-screen.)

Bumbo

In her friend Annie's bumbo - we tried it as an alternative to the dreaded tummy time (which Eden hates!).  Her day care has lots of them, and she's still probably about a month too young, so we can wait to buy one for a little while!

Crazy eyes baby

Getting up from a nap - she tends to be very cheerful after being unswaddled (and it doesn't look so psychotic in person)

Eden says "hi!"

Eden said "hi!" for the first time!  OK, maybe I'm stretching it a little, but seriously, she has never started with an "h" sound before in her cooing, so this was unique! (Plus, she did some good ones before I took out the camera, of course :-)

Bath

Eden started having real baths after her cord stump fell off and has always enjoyed them.  As of about 2 months old, we have given her one approximately every other night as part of bedtime routine, which is a compromise between two pieces of wisdom we read somewhere: 1) too much bathing dries baby skin out and 2) bathe every night before bed as part of bedtime routine.  Unless Eden is REALLY tired, she will become very calm and content when she gets into the water.  She generally looks in the mirror with a serious face throughout bathtime.  She used to scream when we took her out, but lately she's been better about that.  Perhaps she associates it with bedtime and knows that what's coming next (food + lullabies + rocking) is pleasant?  We're looking forward to seeing if she likes the pool as much!

We currently use Johnson & Johnson head-to-toe wash (our bottle is from before the formaldehyde was removed) + Johnson & Johnson "nighttime bath" which is "clinically proven for better sleep" (not sure how one would go about clinically disproving this).  We also wash her face with Cetaphil, contrary to my mom the RN's suggestion not to wash her face with anything but water.  The Cetaphil seems to be safe and really seemed to clear up her baby acne.  

Washcloth fig leaf?

Her dad is often the one to give her baths, then I do the nursing (obviously).

Daddy baby mirror selfie!

Smiles

Eden has been smiling more and more lately!  I can't seem to capture the full extent of cute on camera, but here are some from the last few weeks:  

Babywearing

I haven't figured out this babywearing thing yet.  I love the idea in theory.  Put baby on, baby is happy, I am close to baby, I do things around the house.  Also, moms wearing babies look like they've got this shit totally under control.

I have found it somewhat problematic in practice, however:

• Carrier is highly cumbersome and/or time consuming to put on, and/or drags on the floor.  
• Baby screams during process of being put on.
• Even before you get to putting the baby on, carrier usually requires some prep work and baby needs to be set down somewhere for this.  Baby screams during this process.
• Baby feels awkward in wrap and/or slips down within three minutes of wearing.  Screams.
• Things done around the house while wearing baby take approximately 200-300% of the time they would normally take. 
• In the event baby stops screaming while in carrier, baby falls immediately asleep.  At which time I think, if baby is just going to be asleep, most of the time I wish baby were lying down somewhere else so I could *ACTUALLY* do things.  
• Upon waking up, baby screams.  To take baby out of carrier to comfort and/or feed baby requires the same cumbersome, delicate, and time-consuming process in reverse, during which baby continues to scream.
• Because of the above-referenced screaming, I have been hesitant to attempt this while running errands in public like this dude in a Wells Fargo commercial does.  The closest I've come is putting her on in a movie theater, and I was too stressed about the straps becoming contaminated with popcorn butter to really enjoy that.

I'm sure that most of the above is user error, and part of it may be Eden's personality.  I admit I have not been terribly persistent.  I'm open to new carriers too, but have tried a number already - we currently own a moby, a mei tai, and an ergo, and I have also tried some of my friends' including a ring sling, a boba, and a "woven wrap" (pictured below).  The one carrier I used without a problem is a hotsling, but she's too big for the carry I was able to do in that one now.

I have been referred to babywearing international, which has a meeting once a month during a time I can basically never go.  Oh well.  Unless/until I get better at this, maybe I'll just wear Eden when taking walks.  Carriers are pretty good for that, because it doesn't matter that it takes forever to assemble your baby - you're just going for a walk, after all.

Eden's first trip to Stone Mountain, with Aunt Becca, Uncle Matt, & Katie (who kindly lent me her "woven wrap" pictured here).  

Hip success!!

Today was Eden's second ultrasound for possible hip dysplasia.  She passed!  She doesn't need a Pavlik harness!!!  

Also, the Comcast guy came over today.  It turns out we had faulty equipment from Comcast for the past SEVERAL YEARS, which is why our wifi sucked.  They replaced it today.  Internet now awesome.  

WOO HOO!  

Eden does not seem to have gotten the memo that today was the best day ever.

Katie's visit

Backdated post - written July 1 (5 months later - crazy!)

Katie came to visit us in early February - and she made lots of delicious food for me to freeze and have when I went back to work.  Here are some pictures of the two of them - have to remember to take a picture of Katie and me and our kids when we see each other this week!

Eden looks like my mom here!