Natasha's new "Pet".

Bunny Chronicles - Month Three

Three months old, how did that happen??

It was a month of discoveries for Kate. She started reaching/grabbing with a purpose instead of just flailing randomly at objects. Her favourite things to grab right now are the hanging toys on her bouncy chair and my fingers when I feed her a bottle.

She also started to smile, a lot. After naps, night feeds and in the morning when I go to feed her or pick her up, she looks up at me with the biggest of smiles. I love it. I forgot how sweet it is to see those first few smiles. The biggest discovery for her was discovery of how tasty her fingers/fists are. Along with the frustration as to why they won't stay in her mouth. lol

Along with all the new discoveries and changes, she has also picked up her first bad habit. During those first sleep deprived weeks/months we gave Kate her bottle in her crib and from that, it's evolved that she now needs to be drinking her bottle to go to sleep for naps. It does not seem to be an issue for bedtime, just naps. Not a terribly bad habit, but one I'm sure will be fun to break in the future.

The biggest change for Kate this month, and the one that Owen and I are most excited about, is that she finally went from sleeping 2-3hrs at night to 7-9hrs! To say we are over-joyed is an understatement. Having your first child spoil you by sleeping 9hrs at 6w old really sends you for a bender when your 2nd child wakes up every 2-3hrs for the first few months. It seemed a bit never ending for a while. Not only is she sleeping through the night, she also goes to bed the same time as Natasha, so not only are we getting a full night's sleep, we get our evenings kid free together. :0) And we are not too sleep deprived to enjoy each others company.




Memory Lane:

Two Month Vaccinations.

Thursday night we took Miss Kate to the CRHC to get her vacs. I'm a big baby when it comes to this type of thing so always schedule them for the evening when Owen can come along. You see, he's the bad guy, he holds Kate while the Nurse jabs her 3xs with a needle. Yup, 3xs. I thought Tash only got it x2, but she gave K 3 shots. Poor little thing.

She did not have any adverse reactions though and seems to be doing fine. I dug out Tash's vaccination card and they are a bit different when it comes to size. Kate is just a week short of 3w and when Tash had her 2m vaccinations done, she was just 1w short of 4m old. So they are a month difference but, as it follows, Kate 12lbs 3/4oz & 23 and 5/8" long and Tash at just a few weeks older was 16lbs and 25" long! I'm not surprised, I was telling Owen a week ago that at almost 3m old I was not having as much trouble lugging Kate in the bucket seat as I was with Tash at this age. The Nurse said Kate is in the 50% for weight. I don't remember what precentile she was at birth but she said she was steady and that's all that mattered. I remember Tash for weight and height she was in the 90s at that age!

I also think she is going through a growth spurt. She slept from 8pm until 7:15am last night! Then while I was at a class today, Owen said she napped for 4hrs, woke up, drank 8oz of formula (very unlike her, she drinks 4oz at a time), then napped some more. Oh and before nap she ate 8oz too!

Miss bug is growing up. Too fast if you ask me.

Kate Hamming it up for the Camera

I can't believe how quickly her personality seems to be shinning through!



If the slideshow is not working for you, hit 'refresh' on your browser. :0)

Wordless Wednesday

I Feel Spoiled.

Other then her sleeping at night, the only other battle that I've had with Kate (and umm minus the search for the right formula for her, forgot about that!) is her napping in her crib. Now, I know many say you can not teach a young baby a bad habit, so whatever gets you the most sleep, that's what you should do. Whether that be having your baby sleep on you, in a sling/carrier, the swing, the bouncey chair, it does not matter as long as your baby is sleeping.

I personally believe that you can teach a baby a bad habit early on, and with Natasha I tried to avoid doing so. I've learned however since Kate came in to our lives that Tash was one weird/abnormal kid when it came to sleep. :p

I had no problem letting her sleep anywhere when she was very new, because I felt it did not matter and I loved having a sleeping baby on me. But I knew that in a couple of months I'd need to do stuff, play with my other child and get things done, so if my child would not sleep anywhere but on me, it was going to cause some problems. And along the same vein, she was eventually going to outgrow her swing and bouncey chair, so why not just start things off right to begin with then go through a battle later one when she was older and stronger willed. :p

Anywho, the point is, I have been having trouble getting Kate to sleep in her crib for naps. Bedtime? Perfect, no fuss at all. We feed her, put her in her grobag, turn on her mobile and leave the room and she's fine. Nap time however, a completely different story. She fusses which then leads to crying. And then when I finally do get her settled down, she sleeps for a max of 20-30m and then wakes up again. I know there are babies out there that do only nap for 30-45m, but Kate I have learned over the last almost 3m is not one of those babies. If she does not get enough sleep during the day, bedtime is a nightmare!

Yesterday when it came time to put Kate down for her morning nap, Owen came in with me to help. I put my back out yesterday and lifting Kate and numerous other activities are just not doable right now. So I move the grobag out of the way and he sets her down and goes "Why are we not putting her in her grobag?" I stood there a bit stunned and had no words really. I guess I just felt because her room is not cold during the day, there was no need for her to be in it. It never occurred to me that she had fallen into the 'habit' of feed, grobag, mobile, lights out and therefore expected that routine for each time she was put in her crib.

I'm just going to blame this one on sleep deprivation, even though the little monkey is sleeping a lot better now. hah Owen picks her up again, I move the grobag into place, he sets her in, zips her up, turns on her mobile and we leave the room. And you know what? She went to sleep within 5-10m (only coo'n could be heard through the monitor) and slept for 1.5 hrs.

I figured it had to be a fluke, but when naptime came around in the afternoon, same thing, a bit of coo'n but sound asleep for 1.5hrs. And today? Same thing, except this morning after 1hr she pooped and it woke her up, BUT I went in, changed her, gave her a bit more to eat and presto, she was back to sleep for another hour. Afternoon? Yup you guessed it, she is sound asleep.

The only difference is that I was a bit slow reading her cues so when we got up to her room it did take me about 10m to settle her before she'd take her bottle to eat and then go in her crib.

All this to say, I can finally see that light at the end of the tunnel. So much so that I want to cry. Natasha was an 'easy' baby (which I was aware of at the time from talking to other mom's) but I did not realize how laid back easy she was until Kate came along. So the fact that she's sleeping for 5hr stretches at night and for 2 days in a row has willingly napped in her crib? I think it's fantastic. The best part of all this? She's so well rested now that when we go to get her after she wakes up from a nap or in the morning we are given several of her sweet little smiles.

The only downside to this is that 2xs a week Tash has pre-school and depending on when Kate wakes in the morning, her morning or afternoon could disrupt things. Where as before I'd pop her in the bucket seat and she'd sleep from the moment we got in the truck until after I picked up Tash and came back home, lately, she's not been doing that. As soon as she's out of the truck, she wakes up. I'm not quite sure what is up with that, but needless to say, I'm not loving it. So the fact that she's adjusted to sleeping in her crib it fabulous.

Natasha doing her favourite summer activity, blowing bubbles!


Kate sharing with me some morning smiles. :0)

Sweet {Dreams}

Dare I hope? Three nights ago, Kate slept from 8pm until 5.30am. It's the first time she's done that and has us as parents asking ourselves "Did we sleep through her crying?" It's the morning where you wake up, realize your child did not wake up through the night and wake your spouse asking "Did you get up?" "No I didn't did you?" "OMG is she dead?!?"

But know our little monkey slept the whole night. It was divine. The couple of nights since then though she's slept 8-1am and then up again at 5.30am and then back to sleep until 9am. Am I complaining that her sleep through was a one off? Nope! I'll take it. Considering up until a little over a week ago she was still waking up every 2-3hrs, so now that she's sleeping 5ish hours at a stretch? I love it. She may be not be like her little sister when it comes to sleep, but the fact that she's improving in that area gives me hope. :0)

I'm also hoping that today is the start of her sleeping better for nap time in her crib. Today, for the first real time she ate, went in her crib, had a bit more and went to sleep when she was done. No tears, crying, freaking out. And most importantly, she's been napping for over 30m. A feat for her. In her crib when I can get her to nap there, she will sleep 20-30m max (and that's after her fussing for 30-45m) and then wake up and I'd have to put her in the swing to get the rest of her needed sleep.

I know some babies only need 30m for a nap, but if Kate does not get enough sleep, she's miserable. She gets over-tired and makes for a bad day for all of us.

Kate's Newborn Session

I finally picked up Kate's images today and thought I'd share them for those that may not have seen the gallery my photographer put up;