Yippee!

So, after a really brutal week of sleepless nights, I've decided it's time to get some help. Luckily, a friend of mine has a baby sitter that happens to need more work. I haven't been this excited in a long time. I hope it works out. The sitter is going to come two days a week from 10am-2 or 3pm. I'm not going to know what to do with myself!

Other than that we'll be taking a road trip for Thanksgiving. I'm a little nervous because baby doesn't really like riding in the car for 20 minutes. I doubt she'll like riding in the car for 7 hours. This is the first time in 4 years that we've spent the holiday with family. The past four holidays involved husband and I booking a table for two at some restaurant offering Thanksgiving dinner. Although I enjoyed the food, I always felt like we were some depressing elderly couple when we dined like that.

I'd love to post a shopping update, but 1) there is way too much to post and 2) I can't even remember half of the stuff I've purchased in the last couple of weeks. One last thing - my birthday is this month and I got my present last week. A Kindle! I love it! I love to read, but hate accumulating books which I have no room for. This has answered my prayers. I've already read 2 books and am reading 2 more. The only drawback I've seen so far is that some of the books I'd like to read are not available on the Kindle. I highly recommend getting one if you love to read.

I dread the night like the thought of getting h1n1.

Been MIA for a while. The past few weeks have been so challenging with baby waking up a lot at night. It started a couple weeks ago. Baby got up one night and refused to go back down. We didn't know what to do. Husband ended up having to get up and let baby play in the living room from 1:30-3:30am. The next night, I figured I'd put a stop to it before it became a habit. Baby went down per normal at 8pm and then woke up around 10:30. I decided to try the controlled crying method of sleep training. She'd cry and we'd go in and rub her belly for a few minutes and leave and let her cry for intervals of 5, 10, 15 minutes. From what I've read, most babies only cry for an hour or so before they go back to sleep using this method. Baby cried for 2.5 hours before she fell back asleep. Then she woke up again 3 hours later.

The next night, since the 2.5 hours of crying seemed like a success, we decided to continue this technique. Baby would not go down at all at 8pm. She fell asleep on my lap, but once I got her into the crib, she wailed instantly. Because I felt bad about her crying, I altered our strategy to the pick up and soothe, then lay back down technique. Needless to say, by 4 am, yes - that's 8 hours of crying, this wasn't going to work. Baby sure is stubborn. I was determined to battle it out with her, but in the end she won. What baby cries for 8 hours? Basically, we've been reduced to letting her sleep in our bed. It's not my first choice, but I don't mind it too much. Our dog sleeps in our bed, so why not our baby?

Husband randomly stuck his finger in baby's mouth last week and made a startling discovery. A tooth! Apparently baby is teething, which may or may not explain the terrible night sleeping. Husband would like to attribute our woes to the tooth and says, well, once we get past this tooth, it will get better. I was like, yeah, this is the first of how many teeth? We're never going to get sleep again!

All this struggling over sleep and our lack of it has really messed with my mental state. I'm super irritable and feel mad all the time. I'm also out to pick a fight with husband over anything. The latest thing that annoyed me about him is his cereal consumption. Last night, every time I went in to take care of the night monster, I hear him helping himself to another bowl of cereal. Granted, we skipped dinner last night, but something about the never ending cereal bowl kind of repulses me.

Also, baby's constipation problems are not getting any better. She'll go 6 days without any action and by then, she's very difficult to deal with. She's not exactly fussy, but she turns into a thrashing fish out of water whenever you try to hold her. Ugh.

All these latest adventures in parenting makes me wonder how other people deal with it. How in the world does that Duggar woman tolerate going through newborn/infant neediness over and over and over again? There's no silver lining in her world?

Anyway, motherhood still sucks!

Ho hum.

I'm kind of bummed about not having much to write about over the last week. Baby had her 6 month doctor visit and is doing great. I was a bit annoyed though, because she was supposed to get two shots then and then the other two in a few weeks. I like spacing them out. Anyway, the nurse gave baby the wrong shot by mistake. Which was fine, but it meant that I had to come back and get the one she was supposed to have. That's kind of scary. That a nurse can make a mistake like that.

So, baby is finally starting to roll over. Babies usually roll over between 4-6 months, but she was a really early sitter, so her delay in rolling over was not much of a concern. Before baby was born, I was really anti gear. It took me quite a while before I could even touch a stroller. I found strollers utterly repulsive - not only because they seemed like a germ mobile, but also because of what I thought they represented. Utter domesticity. Bleech. Eventually, I surrendered to the fact that it's an absolute necessity so, I found the most compact yet stylish one I could find. I chose the Bugaboo Bee in all black.

It's super easy to steer and very light weight. So far, it's been great. Now that baby is getting bigger though, we are finding that it's a bit snug. It's supposed to accommodate kids up to 2 or 3 years old, but with a winter liner, baby is literally wedged into the seat. The winter liner by 7 AM Enfant is like a sleeping bag:

Also, we found the Bugaboo Bee to be great on smooth surfaces, like in the mall, but very rough on the sidewalk and especially on brick sidewalks. It's a wonder that baby doesn't have brain damage. My point is that we need a new stroller. I would never have agreed to this stroller off the bat. It's not exactly the SUV of strollers - the BOB strollers are, but it's close. It's an all terrain 3 wheeler that's not only light, but kind of cool looking. The Bumbleride Indie:

With winter coming, we're definitely going to need a stroller that can handle snowy and icy sidewalks. This thing rides like a dream. The air filled tires and rear suspension make rolling over gravel feel like skating on a rink. It's going to take getting used to pushing around a shopping cart sized stroller, but I think baby will appreciate it. I hope.

Since I'm talking gear, I also just purchased a high chair and travel bed. Until I saw this high chair, I wasn't planning on getting one. I hate high chairs. They're ugly and bulky and plasticky. Yuck. BUT, this one by Valco Baby folds down flat and has a sleek modern look:

Finally for our week long trip to Philly for Thanksgiving, I bought this travel bed by Baby Bjorn:

The appeal of this travel bed vs the Graco Pack and Play is that it is super light weight, un-cheesy looking, and folds down to a convenient size. Also, every where you look, it has rave reviews. It's not really a necessity, but I was afraid to let baby sleep in the bed with us while we're away and then not want to sleep in her crib when we come home. So far, she sleeps in her crib with no fuss and I'd like to keep it that way.

Sneak peek.

So, I wanted to post a preview to the owl costume I'm making. First, I quickly knit this hat. It took about an hour to make:

Then, using some felt and a couple buttons, I fashioned an owl face:

Here's baby wearing it....

Unrelated to today's post, I got an email from a mom from one of my old classes asking me where I shop for baby's clothes. I prefaced my reply email...don't even get me started!! So, I warned her that she might think I'm crazy, but I was more than happy to share all my shopping sources. One thing about my shopping habits is that I'm a sale scrounger. Catching a great sale requires a lot of work. A lot of browsing. Most of my purchases have been summer clearance stuff for next spring/summer. I've had to buy some regular priced clothes for her to wear now, but I haven't really bought a lot. But, come mid-January when everything goes on sale, you can bet I'll be all over it for next year.

Success at the mall.

Our typical weekend includes going out to the Natick Mall. Husband's main motivation is eating McDonalds at the food court. I just like browsing around and enjoying a change of scenery. We usually never buy anything, but today we picked up a few things...

From North Face:

Chocolate Brown fleecy scarf and brown fleece lined cable knit mittens

From Anthropologie:

Then, From Kenzie Kids, I got this dress by Deux par Deux:

I'm almost done with baby's Halloween costume. I'll post the pics shortly. Baby turns 6 months old on Thursday. The past six months somehow seems like an eternity and a blink of an eye at the same time. There are so many hurdles we need to tackle in the next couple of weeks. First, we need to break her of the swaddle. Right now, it is impossible to put her down without being tightly swaddled up. I've been trying this during the day for her naps and the second she hits the mattress, her eyes open up so wide and she looks at me like, yeah right. Oddly enough, she naps during the day not swaddled - BUT she naps on a pillow on our bed. So, my goal is for her to nap during the day in her crib unswaddled. My hope is that by the time she gets used to that, putting her down at night won't be so painful. Our second goal is to break her of the nightfeedings. This is going to be extra challenging because she cannot fall asleep without nursing. One night last week, I tried just picking her up and rocking her back to sleep, but she wasn't having it. She put up a huge fight and all I wanted to do was go back to bed, so I lost that battle and gave in.

I don't know why I have to have these goals. I've read both sides of the fence. Some people say you have to do these things and other people say, do what you want to do. I guess that school of thought is called 'attachment parenting'. I think I fall under that category. At least we don't have a 'family bed'. I guess I'll see what the pediatrician thinks. We'll be seeing him on Thursday.

A little backed up.

Not only have I not posted in a few days, baby hasn't pooped in 6 days. I've fed her prunes the last 4 days and gave her prune juice this morning, so I hope stuff gets moving soon. She's a daily pooper, so this is a bit alarming, but I'm really hoping today will be the big day.

So, the friend making is coming along nicely. It's nice to finally meet some people that I like. Yesterday, after the baby wiggle class, one of the moms walked me to a new store I've never been to before. Maybe it was better that I didn't know about it, because it's definitely going to be a dangerous place for me to frequent. They had a really nice selection of the brands of clothes I like for baby. They had Catimini, Cakewalk, Room Seven and Deux par Deux. And downstairs, they had a huge sale section. Score!

Even though it feels like I've cut back a little on my shopping, my monthly statement seems to indicate otherwise. Some of my recent purchases include:

From Jcrew:

From Oompa toys by Haba:

From Tadpole by Melissa and Doug

From Macys:

Double talk.

For some odd reason, every time I talk to baby, I always repeat myself. For example, "You like this bunny, huh? You like this bunny?" or "Do you see the doggie? Do you see the doggie?" It feels like it's not enough to just say something once...

Anyway, it was really nice having my mom up again this weekend with just her and me. For the first time since baby was born, I slept until 11am!! I was so spoiled by her taking care of baby almost full time. It was great being able to shop around with someone else pushing the stroller too. I was able to run downtown to get the supplies for baby's Halloween costume. We've been invited to a baby Halloween party at someone's house around the corner. I really didn't want baby to have an off the shelf costume...like those from Pottery Barn Kids or Chasing Fireflies. I like making a statement about my creativity. Baby is going to be a pink and brown owl. Basically, she's going to wear a pink footie onto which I'm going to attach wings and "feathers" on the front made from felt. Once I make the costume, I'll post a pic. I also knitted up a hat that looks like an owl's head. It's super cute. Alternately, I also bought the makings for a pink poodle costume. Using the same pink footie, I also found this "poodle like" furry scarf which will go around the wrists, ankles, and at the end of the tail. Also, it will serve as floppy ears onto which I'll attach cute little bows - just like those fancy poodles.

Anyway, husband is back from a weekend away. It's kind of nice to get a break from one another. Kind of re-sets our relationship a bit. Considering that we're home together 24-7, a break is good for us. I hope I can start this coming week on a high note now that I had a break from baby and some me time.