still going strong (well, maybe not strong) with one nap a day

I guess it's really one-nap-a-day now. She took only one nap today from 12-1pm. I wish it had been longer, so did Hannah, since Hannah told me that Carolina was so tired she looked like she might sleep for four hours! But, nope, just one.

She was rubbing her eyes by the time 5.30 rolled around. I figured she would, so I got her through dinner and cut short bathtime since bathtime was mostly her sitting turning the pages of her bath book and rubbing her eyes. She was asleep for good by 6.30 after she (barely) finished her bottle.

I got some advice that I'm going to start with this week: I'll keep her busy and go outside during the morning and have her home by around 11/12pm and then get her ready for a nap. Maybe once it's an expected thing that she naps at around the same time each day, like before, that she'll take a longer nap. Lord knows I can't encourage that little one to nap longer if she's not interested.

Tomorrow I am going out again and leaving her with the babysitter. Today she was tired and, I'm pretty sure, teething again. So she was very "mommy mommy" and cried a lot when I left. That bloody molar will just not come through, but it's pushed up the gum/skin as far as it'll go before breaking through. And everything that can be shoved in the back of her mouth to gnaw on, is being employed to do so :)

So I'll start to take Carolina to the farmer's market at Union Square during the week as part of a morning time adventure-adventure! Maybe we'll go part way with daddy to work in the morning. Of course that means we'll be squished in with the commuters and she'll be in the baby carrier instead of the stroller, but I can make it work. Alternatively we could spend an inordinate amount of time on the bus as it snail's pace gets across the Queensboro Bridge during rush hour(s), and more likely get a seat, but that just seems like a waste of time.

Maybe we can start meeting friends for breakfast instead of lunch. This could be the start of a whole new thing. But I'll start easy and keep her around here at first until we both get the hang of what we're doing -- and that means SWINGS AT THE PARK. Man she loves those swings. They've totally trumped the slide and climbing up (and down) the stairs.

Still not much walking. She drags her left leg under her as her right leg is "walking" in a bent position. She's taken, probably, about 8 steps total over the past week. Of course I can't find my camera that takes video -- and I haven't bought the new iPhone that has video capability yet. So it might just be that I miss videotaping, well who uses tape anymore, the first real walking. I guess that's not terrible. It's not like anyone had their first steps videoed before the previous generation anyway. :)

Should be interesting...

a little bit of thanks

In my pursuit to keep a level-headed view of this with-baby life, I thought I'd put down a few things that I've become grateful for:

1. Strangers on the bus (and subway), who take an immediate liking to Carolina and spend a few minutes making funny faces and sounds. So she smiles. Gives me a few minutes to tune out.
2. Swim class with other babies. She loves other babies, and loves water. Now if I could only get her to stop trying to drink up the pool, she'd be a bit happier by the end of each class.
3. Dinner and a movie with my husband. After Carolina goes to sleep. In our living room. We get at least 3-4 hours after she's asleep. And is usually the first meal of the day I can actually finish.
4. Naps. They are now longer than before. I can actually get some sleep, too.
5. Sleep. Still a bit hit or miss, but she's moving towards (with a lot of constant enforcement by mom and dad) longer sleep periods at night. Longer being 4 hours. I'll take it!!!
6. Something of a schedule. For the first time in her little life, she's got something of a schedule. She made it all by herself. So now we can go out and plan to meet up with people. Sometimes. Sometimes the schedule thing doesn't work.
7. Adventure-adventure. It's what I call anything that involves Carolina and I going outside to: visit someone, buy something, or see something where we'll be out of the house for at least 2 hours. 2 hours is her max before needing another nap. sometimes that can be stretched to 3 hours. So adventure-adventure is fun to see how long we can stay out, and just to get out of the apartment.
8. Stoller naps. I haven't been as diligent as I wanted to encourage these on a weekly basis, she's only had a smattering of them since early January. Sometimes she sleeps for 45 minutes, sometimes 10. 10 minutes is bad. Mostly for her. But I'm grateful she can do it.
9. Grandparents. Holy moly, I don't think I've ever appreciated my parents so much. And Abuelos in Mexico are just as awesome.
10. Smiles. It's true that when your baby smiles at you, it makes everything better. And trying to get her to smile, means I have to smile at her a lot. So that keeps us both on the happy side.
11. Spongebob Squarepants (and Dora the Explorer). Two things on TV that will get Carolina smiling in a second. And sometimes buys me 10-60 seconds to leave the room while she's engrossed and doesn't notice I'm gone.
12. Crawling. I'm getting some really great reaction-time/sprint training. Especially when she's about to go off the bed. So I leave her on the floor. And then I have to keep her away from trying to climb up on the TV table and up our dresser drawers. Faster, mommy, faster! Keep up!
13. More bottles, less breastfeeding (and sleep). Now that she's back to taking bottles like a champ, and onward to formula and solid food. She needs me less. I'm completely split on how I feel about this. I'm very proud of her for moving into new food territory and accepting change. Even not needing me to feed her before she goes to bed at night and willing to take a bottle -- WITH FORMULA. But I also miss that time of day's blissful moment when she's had enough to eat, keeps her eyes closed, and moves her head to rest it on my chest while pursing her lips together for a second. She is so calm, I can put her down into the crib and she doesn't wake herself up. It's a necessary trade off to lose that moment to the bottle. It's similar with a bottle but less, well, satisfying for me.

In the upcoming months, we'll be saving our pennies to get some friends to babysit on rare ocassions. Going out takes on a whole new level of expense and planning. BUT! She's sleeping enough during the first part of the night where I can leave her for 4-5 hours, and not feel like I'm burdening someone.

We are looking forward to taking her to the beach next month. Let's see if she likes it more than when she was 4 months old and I thought it was okay to put her feet into cold ocean water. Yeah, memories...