Saturday, May 31, 2008

We have teeth!

N was holding Molly this morning while I made breakfast and discovered that Miss Molly has her two bottom teeth. They have *just* broken the surface, but you can see (and feel) them. He took pictures, but he's taken too long to post those so that will be another blog entry. This would explain why she had one hellish night. Poor little one.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

hopefully it was just a phase...

It's been a week and Molly is back to sleeping through the night. Yay! Hopefully that middle of the night nonsense was just a phase. Hey, I live in a lovely town called Denial. You should come visit some time. :-)

N went up to his dad's yesterday for a day of fishing. I picked up my mom on the way to Molly's swim class (she took Molly in the pool this time) and then my dad came over a little later with dinner so I could go to Muay Thai. I had a bit of a hard lump (partially clogged duct would be my guess) and tried to get Molly to work it out before I left, but she fell asleep on me. Want to know what really doesn't feel good when you have a partially clogged duct? Jumping rope. Want to know what the warm up for class is? Yep, jumping rope. I also inadvertently walked into a Thai Pads class. Usually, you beat the shit out of a bag. In Thai Pads you beat the shit out of each other (holding pads, hence the name). Of course I was the only female. I was able to do my routine, but when it came time to hold for the guy I was partnered with my wrist called uncle after the first set. The body kicks did me in. Luckily some other fighters had shown up at that point so my partner was able to continue with his workout.

In other good news, Molly is starting to fall into a routine with her naps. She tends to take one late morning/early afternoon and then another one late afternoon/early evening. Of course this really only works when we're home. If we go out and about it messes her up and she tends to get overly tired that night. But when she does nap she's usually pretty easy to put down. I'm still having some issues getting her to eat solids and she tends to only want the boob when I'm around. I find if I try right after a nap I have the best luck. She's more into freeze dried fruit and veggies (think stuff she can grab herself) than the mushy blended stuff. I haven't really come across anything she doesn't like. She gave a look when she had some fresh blueberries over the weekend, but I think that was more of a texture thing than anything else. Blueberries are considered a choking hazard until the age of 3 (or so I've read) so I quartered them and I think she was just having a harder time picking them up. Cheerios are still her favorite. She loves them and I'd say a good 90% now end up in her mouth.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

long weekend

We had a nice long weekend. It was a little overcast, but the sun finally came out yesterday. We had a bbq here on Sunday and then went over to the Jodoins for a bbq yesterday. Molly tested out some of Robert's toys. She kept trying to jump in his walker. She has rediscovered her jumper recently. We had it on the lowest setting for too long and it was no longer bouncing as much. N then moved it up to the highest setting, but that was too high for her. So we put it on the middle setting (she sounds like Goldilocks) and she's going to town in the thing. Talk about your stress test. I wouldn't be surprised to find her sitting on the ground one of these days after she snaps all the support straps.

Molly is still getting around, but not crawling in the strict sense of the definition. When she gets up on her hands and knees she rocks back and forth a lot, but doesn't get too far going forward. Either an arm will go down or she'll end up rolling over. Still, she wants it so it's only a matter of time. She did a great job standing at one of the toys yesterday. She was fine as long as she was distracted with all the sounds and lights, but once she realized she was standing and it was getting tiring she was done. I've stood her up outside of her crib a few times holding on to that, but she doesn't really like it. I have caught her more and more interested in the Rainforest Waterfall Soother that's up in her crib. She's managed to turn it on a few times by herself and it's mounted pretty high up on her crib. As long as it's her choice to get up she's fine with it.

Friday, May 23, 2008

slept through the night

I think Miss Molly knew mommy went to Muay Thai last night and it would take one helluva meltdown to wake mommy up so she decided it was probably best to just get a good night's sleep. My boobs woke me up before Molly did. I'll take it!

Thursday, May 22, 2008



pics 05/17 to 05/19/2008

Score!

I took back all the 6 month Carter clothing I had that Molly never had a chance to wear. Mostly summer stuff and since it was the middle of winter when she was fitting into 6 month clothing she never had a chance to wear any of these outfits. Anyway, got a store credit for that. I picked up a bunch of 24 month onesies and since the store was having a sale, plus my credit, plus a 20% off coupon I had I ended up spending just 10 bucks for a lot of loot. Hopefully this will help alleviate future blowouts.

spoke too soon

Molly went down last night around 10:30 with very little fanfare. Then I woke up around 2 when I could hear her crying (no monitor, just through the walls so I knew she had been going at it for a bit). N was still up so he had let her cry for about 5 minutes before going in to check on her. He was following the suggestion of the various web sites he had read by just patting her while she still lay in the crib to let her know he was there, but not picking her up. Then I come in and she sees me and the crying escalates to full on meltdown mode. She rolls over to her stomach and starts pushing herself backwards. I pick her up and it takes me a good 20 minutes to get her to fall asleep again. I did not leave her room. I just rocked her in her chair. She showed no signs of being hungry as she calmed down the minute she was in my arms. Then she wakes up again around 6:30. I wait to make sure she's really up and when I open the door to her room I see that she's on her hands and knees in the back corner of her crib looking straight at me. I figure she's up for the day and get her up, change her, and feed her. Well, then she passes out again and sleeps in until 9:30.

Have to read up on this and figure out the best way to handle things if she wakes up again tonight. I definitely do not want to reinforce this behavior.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

phew! back to a normal sleep schedule

For the past week and a half Miss Molly has been waking up in the middle of the night. The first time she did it I just chalked it up to her being hungry as I knew she didn't get enough to eat before falling asleep since I had to pump before going to bed. I tried getting her to eat some solids before bedtime to help her make it through the night, but that didn't always work. At night she wants the boob... at least with me. N has had better luck getting her to eat solids at night when I'm not around. Then we had that nasty heat wave so I thought that might be the reason she was waking herself up. She wasn't getting up every night. Just when I started to think there might be a deeper issue she'd sleep through the night to prove me wrong, but it was still unusual. I know I'm lucky. She has slept through the night since she was a month old and probably would have done it sooner, but I was waking her up after 5-6 hours because I didn't want it to go too long between feedings. So when she started waking up at night (sometimes twice) it definitely threw us. This was also compounded with the fact that she was having a hard time going down. Some nights it was a real fight and I think she finally passed out because her complete meltdown was exhausting.

Molly hadn't been feeling well these last few days (Snotty Mc Snoterson) so I wasn't surprised when she had problems falling asleep. When you can hear the snot rattling around you know laying flat on your back probably isn't the most comfortable position. The last two nights were real battles so N hoped online to do some research after I finally got Molly down and passed out myself. Turns out this is completely normal. Little ones start waking up around this time and need to learn to fall back asleep on their own. The worst thing you can do is go to them and pick them up and tend to them because that encourages repeat behavior. Ooops! Hey, she had been sleeping through the night on her own for so long we both immediately assumed there was something really wrong. Our bad. Of course as soon as we realize this she sleeps through the night without any problems. Of course.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

first swim class

Monday's class was canceled last minute so today was Molly's first swim class. She loved being in the water. The goal for the class was to really just get the little ones used to the water (done), work up to getting them ok with having their head in the water while laying on their back (done), teaching them how to kick (done), and then maybe getting them comfortable with going under the water (did this in class today so another done). There was a 14 month old and a 18 month old in class with us and I'd have to say Molly was definitely more comfortable in the water. Trust me, this is just luck since Molly has loved water since day one and we haven't done anything special. She loves her bath time so I wanted to sign her up for classes so she continues to get exposure to water and hopefully continues to love it. My main goal is to not pick up any bad habits and learn all the tricks so I can pass that info along to friends. Towards the end of class Molly started to let me know she was getting hungry (bite my nose, eat my shoulder, grab at my boobs... the usual) and was starting to get a little tired. My mom dressed her and took her out to N for a bottle while I changed. She was out like a light in the car within a few blocks of the Y. I'm hoping this means swim lessons equals guaranteed nap time. :-)

Monday, May 12, 2008

7 months old

Molly is 7 months old today. Today will also be her first swim lesson. She's going to love it. She absolutely loves water. Can't wait to see how much fun she's going to have in the big pool.

Molly is pretty mobile these days. She can get around a room no problem. I wouldn't say she's fully crawling yet in the traditional sense of the word (up on hands and knees while moving), but she is getting very very close. She can get up on her hands and knees and move a little bit, but tends to resort to rolling or scooting since that seems to be easier for her. I got her an area rug for her room and then a soft quilt to put over that so she has a place to move around that's not hardwood. Although she tends to immediately get herself off of this and onto the narrow hardwood strips around it. More often than not she will scoot herself backwards under her crib or changing table until her big ol' cotton diaper booty gets her stuck. Visiting both grandmas is great because they have carpet. Gives her more practice than at home. I just don't want her scootin' around on the hardwood (her poor noggin) and all the pet hair. She'll be doing that soon enough.

Molly's absolute favorite thing these days has to be cheerios. At first she was all about getting them in her grubby little hands, but now she's actually eating them. Don't get me wrong, a ton still end up on the floor, but this is something that she can do through an entire meal which is great for us. Definite distraction. :-) She is still being breast fed for the most part, but she does have solids every day. More for the practice than anything else. So far she seems to prefer the veggies over the fruit. The one downside to introducing solids is the lack of regularity. She can go a day without a poopy diaper which just means the next one she's going to have is going to be a doozy. That and she tends to like to have these in the car which equals blowout since there's really no place for it to go but up and out. You combine this with the fact that she's wearing 12 month - 2T (toddler) clothing (brands vary so much it's just silly) and it's getting harder to find onesies (aka cloth fabric to cover her booty and contain aforementioned blow out) means we've had some epic messes while out and about. The cloth diaper covers that she wears at home just contain it better. Sure, you'll have to swap out the cover, but at least her outfit is spared.

Another favorite past time is definitely motorboat. As you can see from the various videos posted she loves to do it... and she'll do it for hours. Seriously. That is not an exaggeration. Just plays with her toys while motorboating away. Crazy girl.

No teeth yet. Which is good because Molly definitely loves her boob time. If I'm in the house and someone tries to give her a bottle she'll usually spit it out and demand her meal directly from the source. Side feeding has been a godsend. For one, she's not distracted... let's just say it's a good thing she doesn't jerk her head around with my boob in her mouth. For another, I can doze off if need be. I'm pretty sure Molly would happily sleep through the night with my boob in her mouth.

Sunday, May 11, 2008



pics 05/10 to 05/11/2008

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all the moms out there (new and old) are having a great Mother's Day. I know I am. N surprised me at midnight last night with a new digital camera. My elph is a few years old now and has been starting to do strange things. The batteries are no longer holding a charge for very long and it keeps switching modes on me without any prompting. So, N decided (since I take a majority of the Molly pics) that I needed something new and fancier. He got me a Canon PowerShot G9.
It's pretty.

Then this morning he let me sleep in while he got up and dealt with Molly. They ate cheerios and she got a bath. When I got up we headed down to the cafe on the corner for brunch. Last night we also hit REI. Molly had an epic blow out on the ride over that involved a major pit stop. By the time we got into the store they were closing in 15 minutes. I had wanted to check out the uber carriers for our next trip up to Tahoe. N is going to be Molly's sherpa. We found one we liked (Deuter Kid Comfort III) and when we went to get in line we discovered that it was all the way to the back of the store. Apparently we stumbled on a sale for 20% off one item for REI members (both N and I are members). Since we were in there for a big ticket item N decided to pick up a Bob jogging stroller that he wanted. I can't decide if we're efficient buyers or impulse shoppers. It's hard to tell.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

more motorboat



this was taken earlier today... the girl loves to motorboat...

Sunday, May 4, 2008

down for the count...

Woke up this morning with a splitting headache, but the furry kids were demanding to be let outside to pee so I had to get up... then the cats started bellowing for breakfast... then the dogs wanted breakfast... then Molly was up... you get the idea... normal day around here. Problem was nasty headache was turning into nasty bout of nausea. Not fun. I felt it taking a turn for the worse so I called my mom and she headed on over. Good thing she was around (N's in Alaska) because by the time she arrived Molly was in full melt down mode since she was forced to sit in her crib while mommy had a lengthy prayer session with the porcelain god. Granny took over Molly duty and mum proceeded to have some hellish bathroom time. I finally took half of one of the anti-nausea pills I have when I couldn't even keep down a cracker. That did the trick since it allowed me to sleep long enough to get past the nausea. Woke up and took a long shower and started feeling somewhat human again. My dad came over and picked up some soup from Zanotto's for me. Still have a lingering headache, but feeling a lot better than I did this morning. Why does this always seem to happen when N's out of town? Thank god for grandparents! :-)


pics 05/01 to 05/03/2008

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Thank you Auntie Lisa!

Molly loves her Rockabye Baby (Lullaby Renditions Of The Ramones)! I do too. Little slow. It's like listening to the original songs that punk rock bands cover... you just want them to go faster. Awesome buy! Might have to pick up some more albums from their site.

I'm thinking growth spurt...

Miss Molly slept for almost 12 full hours last night. Something is going on. She never sleeps this much. I like it, but it is unusual. Must be another growth spurt.