12 hour nights, new teeth, no boobs -- it's been a busy few weeks

Our trip to Mexico was mostly work, work, work. We were at the beach for a few days, and even have photos of Carolina's first encounter with crawling on (and eating) sand! But mostly we worked.

Cut to the chase, Carolina ended up staying up until about 9.30-10pm three nights in a row. The last two, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant, then dinner at his aunt's house, and then we flew home and arrived in NYC at 8pm. So she was forced to be extremely overtired, take a 3rd nap, be awoken about 7pm and stay up late. She was a little 'crazy pants' but it wasn't impossible. She then slept like a bear the following 3-4 days and nights at home. And her "going to bed" time has been moved from 5.30/6pm to closer to 7pm.

It was recommended to me to convince her to stay up until 8pm, but I don't have the tolerance to listen to her cry for an hour just to prove a point. Plus, I look forward to her going to sleep some days when it's a really 'whiny' day. If and when she changes her mind and she wants to stay up later, I'm all for it.

During the trip, because of our schedules and how tired we were, I ended up weening her off the last night feed to a bottle. So by the time we got to the beach, she was no longer breastfeeding at night and only one feed every other day during the day. By the time we got home, she was on every other day and last week I pushed it to every 48 hours. So she's been 2 days without anything, and I think my body is preparing to stop. It's just in 'holding pattern' right now.

Plus her 4th and 5th teeth (top) are totally in and she looks super cute.

The first time we noticed she could wave "hello" or "good bye" was Sunday, March 14th at Bruno's baptism in Leon. I was taking her for a walk since she was tired but couldn't fall asleep in the stroller and as I was walking away, with Carolina over my shoulder, her father waved goodbye to her and she waved back. She's been practicing on nearly everyone she sees since.

The first time we noticed she could clap was during dinner on Thursday, March 25th. I had been clapping for her earlier in the week and started to clap again. Like, "Yea, Carolina, good job using your teeth to bite food." And she started to clap too. It was really cute. Later that night, after she went to bed, Kari came over. We had a birthday fruit tart for me, and I made a wish "that Carolina will sleep through the night before her first birthday."

Later that night... she slept from just before 7pm until about 7am. She cried out 2 or 3 times during the early morning hours but stopped before we got the bottle ready. So the following night, we had the water in the bottle and the forumla measured out like usual but didn't get up since she cried out very briefly and quietly again. Third night, same thing. I'm considering this a 'new chapter' in her sleeping.

She might decide in a few days that we really do have to go in there to feed her or she super pooped and we MUST change her. Okay, that's fair.

Tomorrow she'll be 10 months old. So a few days shy of the 10 month mark and we have sleeping through the night. Not the 'official' definition of 5 hour stretches, but the real deal.

I'm still prepared for it to go away. And it's not as restful as I imagined. But man, it's nice not to have to feed her and get out of bed 2-3 times a night. We still both wake ourselves up to see what time it is and see if we can hear her. Still fear we will miss hearing her in need. But, seriously, that's not going to happen. She makes the tiniest noise and I'm up like an Army Sergent at dawn.

9 month checkup: healthy, happy nap-misser

Well, today was a "fun" day of missing out on an otherwise stalwart first, morning nap. So without that, I got Carolina and went on the subway to her pediatrician's office for a 10am checkup. At nine months old she is:
16lbs 3oz (bottom 8%)
27.25" long (bottom 25%)
and I forget her head circumference but it's the bottom 25% also

So, par for the course. Her ezcema on her arms is okay, but hasn't gone away and she has a new little one on her left leg. It doesn't seem to bother her, and her pediatrician gave me some probiotics for her and recommended I also try fish oil.

Her doctor also was surprised at how slowly I've been going with introducing more food. So she was very encouraging for me to give Carolina ALL the veggies we normally eat and introduce a lot more protein. That's probably why she's waking up 3x a night, sucking down 6oz of formula, which is a lot for her. She's growing, she's more active during the day, and she's hungry. And whatever I've been giving her, isn't substantial enough even though it fills her belly.

So far she likes turkey if there's plenty of carrots and squash mixed in. Is not a fan of pork or beef, but I should try to mix in more veggies.

We'll be leaving for Mexico on Thursday. I'm sure her Abuelos will be pleased as punch to see her, and feed her new foods. She loves, loves chayote -- and I haven't bought any here and steamed and mashed it up. But they have it in the Gerber jars there. We'll probably give her some meats while we're there. Plus her Abuela stocked up, as usual, on her favorite foods and diapers. So very grateful we don't have to carry all of that with us!

Today, I also took Carolina to the park to meet up with some of the other babies. She was very happy to be there. When we left, she was hiccuping on the way home. So I fed her the bottle and she passed out asleep. I have to go to a funeral tonight, so when Ismael gets home he'll wake her up and get her ready for bed. Should be any minute now...

Gotta go get ready in appropriate clothes!

Solid foods and formula

At first I was sad that I was so easily replaced by a bottle of formula during the night. Now, a few days later I'm glad. I wish she'd not wake up three times a night but she takes 5-6oz each so I know she's hungry. I still am doing my best to stuff her with calories during the day and dream of the might she sleeps through for 11 or 12 hours.

In the meantime, I'm grateful that she loves spending time with Ismael. I did some manhattan errands today while he took her home from swim class where she promptly fell asleep for a 2.5 hr nap. She didn't nap much at my parents place yesterday nor this morning so I'm glad she was able to finally rest. She still needs to go to sleep at about 6pm but with this new bottle feeding going so well, I get to hang out with some friends tomorrow night and not be tethered at home waiting for her to wake up and need me.

She started to grind her little teeth yesterday. I think she's doing it because her teeth and gums hurt. She has three more top, front teeth just about to come down. When I take her to the 9mo checkup on Monday I'll ask about that and her eczema on her arms that still hasn't quite gone away.

Is taking a nap at 6pm a good idea or not? Carolina's mom and dad are about to find out! Yes, seriously

big week last week: teeth and standing up

So about last Tuesday was when Carolina's 3rd tooth (top, front, left-side) broke through, and on Friday (drum roll, please) she climbed up her saucer/activity-jungle thing and let go... standing up, unassisted for about 4 seconds. She looked pleased as punch. Truly proud.

I had even started to lunge forward to catch her since I thought for sure she was going to go down on her butt, but I stopped short of touching her when I realized she was holding herself up on her own two legs! I was totally shocked. I could just say 'Wow!' and immediately got on the phone to her father to tell him.

She hasn't done it since but it's a sign of things to come.

Sleep has still been less than it was before this cold/teething from last week. So since the snot nose has started to let up, we're going to go back to having Ismael bring her a bottle when she first wakes up. She'll either take it, or learn to sleep until after midnight when I'll go in. The last two nights she started crying out at about 8/8.30 and then demanding someone come in at about 9.30pm

We tried orajel, pacifier, but not the bottle last night. We were confused and surprised she was waking up so early, again. She was absolutely hysterical by the time I went in, so I nursed her and she calmed down enough to relax a bit, but was still really edgy and couldn't fall asleep when I put her down. So I left her there and she cried, more like whimpered, for another few minutes. Then up again at about 1.30am, then 5am, then 5.45am, then 6.10am when Ismael found the strength to go in there to pick her up. No poop even!

Lord knows why she thought it was time to get up. We certainly didn't tell her it was :)

She did go to bed at about 5.30pm the night before, since she got up early, took two short-ish naps and didn't take a 3rd nap. So by 5pm she was just crying and clearly beyond exhausted. I could barely get her to cooperate to put on her pajamas.

I am very grateful for the 2 hour nap yesterday morning and the 1.5 hr one this morning. I wish there was more complete night sleeping, but we haven't won that lottery prize yet.

You know, I read somewhere last year that "pajamas" comes from a Hindu word that the English incorporated into their lexicon. It's loose fitting clothing, apparently, but the English mimicked it and wore it to bed. I should look that up again. Might be a useful or fun fact for geeky friends at a party. Ha!

Ok, well I'm impressed. We missed a night waking. Hooray!

With Carolina not feeling quite herself this week, her sleep "schedule" is all off. So I've been following her lead by noting her tired signs and then making it naptime. Even if it was only an hour an a half ago when she woke up.

Last night she missed the 4am wakeup time she had re-started this week and went from 10.30pm until 2.30am and then straight through to 6am. 7am would have been better but I'm not in a position to complain about the nearly 4 hour stretch!

Earlier in the week, I had to let her cry for about 25-30 minutes when she refused to take an afternoon nap but was CLEARLY exhausted and desperate for a rest. After that, she slept for only 45 minutes but it must have been a learning experience.

I've done my best to leave her room when she's either mostly asleep, or this week, more interested in playing with me than sleeping. So I leave, she'll cry out as if to say "But I'm not ready! Come back!", and then gets quiet. She may talk to herself or Baby for a few minutes or many minutes, but it's just her and her crib. And then she falls asleep. Maybe for a quickie 45 minute nap or a monster 90-120 minute nap.

Either way, she knows I'm serious when I leave her and I don't get as stressed out that she's not falling asleep while I'm there. I let her figure it out on her own.

I'd still prefer that all the time she nod off while feeding and then fall asleep soundly once she hits the crib, like this morning's nap. But, again, I'm not in the position to negotiate for this. It's just a boon when it happens.

She's in there now, cooing and talking to Baby. Lord knows what they're talking about. Yesterday I imagined this scenario is what happened in Carolina's head:
Carolina to Baby: I'm not tired. Are you?
Baby: Yes.
C: Well, since you're tired I can show you how to take a nap. But I'm not tired.
B: Okay
C: So we close our eyes
C: Then we stop talking
C: And then we fall asleep
C: And then...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

But since she woke up from that nap super chatty again, but had done a super poop. The conversation was probably more like:
Carolina to Baby: My tummy hurts. Does yours?
Baby: No. But maybe you have to poop.
C: Probably. I should call mommy so she can make it better.
B: We can call her once the poop is out. She cleaned it up last time after you did it.
C: Oh, yeah. Okay, after.
C: I'm tired. This poop will have to wait until... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I don't know what's going on in there now, but there's clearly some debate about something.

snow, in all day, boogers and poop

I'd like to give another shout out to the strangers in new york who continually entertain and engage with Carolina on the bus and subway. Really. I find out some of the most interesting things from total strangers because I'm traveling with Carolina. She's quite the social butterfly.

We've been inside all day. She's just about to get up from her 3rd nap. I can hear her moving around and rattling her 'baby' doll.

With this stuffy/runny nose this week (glad the fever is gone) and uber-teething with 4 upper teeth threatening to come down, she's been up 3x a night and takes 3 naps a day. So after a month of solid effort to get her to wake up less frequently during the night, we're right back where we started.

We had a glimmer of hope this morning when she missed her 4am wakeup, but then she started crying at 5.30am When I went in at a little after 6am, and YES it was still dark out, she hadn't even pooped. Lord knows why she thought she needed to be up that early. The full-on poop came hours later. Which required a complete change of clothes, bed and baby's hair needing to be washed. Oh yeah...

Anyway, after these teeth come in, like last time, I'm hoping for a reprieve. And back to waking up just once a night.

You know what's going to happen. She'll be back to it for like 2 days and then we leave for a week in Mexico with a lot of travel while we're there and she'll be up every 2 hours since we'll be sleeping in the same room. Actually, it'll probably be a surprise whatever happens.

I'm looking forward to going to a friend's house after Carolina is asleep one night soon. See how she responds to daddy bringing her a bottle when she wakes up, and she's expecting the boob. She normally isn't receptive to it AT ALL. So should be interesting for daddy. Good man!

The first cold

Sunday, Carolina woke up with a fever of 103 degrees and all night long had a totally stuffy and runny nose. We went in to her cries for a few hours, every 30-60 minutes until about 3.30am Poor thing couldn't breathe! I never thought I'd be able to shove those bulb things up her nose to get out snot, but I did -- again and again. She hates it but it's got to be done. Anyway, after some Tyenol and a lukewarm bath (per her doctor) but no soaps... her fever went down to 98 and then back down to her normal 97-ish. We kept her pants off all day and she was able to nap a little. By about 4.30pm she was EXHAUSTED. So we did a quick dinner, quick bath and bottle then bed.

Anyway, during the day and mostly during eating she started to make this fish face. The last time she made faces anything like this was about 3-4 weeks before her bottom two teeth came in. We can see, definitely, both her upper front teeth and at least one others on the top. I'm certain there must be more the way she shoves things in the middle and back of her mouth. So I guess we'll be seeing more teeth shortly.

Also, she was tired and not her usual active self but she still crawled around and tried to climb up on things. She was just less aggressive about going back to places we said 'no' to. I swear, she'll be walking any day at this rate!

By today her top two teeth are poking through the gums, ever so slightly. I'm pretty sure this cold is more about teething than a real cold. She's pretty congested but it's only a stuffy nose, it hasn't (thankfully) moved into her chest. She's only this afternoon getting her interest in eating back. She downed 1/2 baby bowl of rice & carrots and then killed 5oz of formula before bed.

She's actually in bed now. She's totally awake but she's there. It's early even for her, but she was crying and rubbing her eyes. The only thing missing was hiccups and it was all her 'tells' she's ready for bed. But just like last night and the night before, I go in there with her bottle. She's relaxing and when I put her into the bed, she's UP!

I'm ready to roll, Mommy.

Good lord she's exhausting. The moment I expect to get a break, no way!

I was hoping to get a break to visit Sang yesterday but he's sick. Got a wicked cold from his brother who was sick last week.

I'm really sick of Queens most of the time, at least this part of it. It's like the subburbs of the city. It's architecturally boring, the 7 train trellis makes it noisy and dirty, there's plenty of ethnic food but there's a TON of crappy food. The supermarkets are overpriced, it's a righteous pain to get around the bus and subway with a stroller, and we're inside a lot of the time now.

I'm equally sick of having an apartment with a dark living room and dishes to clean ALL THE TIME. At least we have a newly refinished bathtub and newly painted walls. I still think the bathroom is icky but at least it looks less so. Really, my problem is not living near anyone to visit... except Sang... Who is actually a great friend to visit during the day since he still hasn't found a full-time job and is also at home. Of course, once he gets a job (and I hope he does soon) he, too, will be too busy for a daytime visit. Good thing Carolina likes Sang.

Once I get some more sleep and she's over this cold, I'm sure my anti-Queens rants will stop. But this week I'm really frustrated and stressed.

So I'm looking into other classes for Carolina. She should really be around other babies. It's just surprisingly hard to get playdates sometimes. Also, I'm at a loss for how to tire her out. There are "movement" classes but most of them are in Manhattan and the one that other moms recommend in Jackson Heights is on Saturdays, and she already has swim class on Saturday morning.

Once she's older, like 12-18 months, there are more classes. Actually for the 18-24 month set there are a ton of things to do, so I'm told.

End rant here.

Oh good lord. It's nearly 6.30pm and I haven't even begun to think about what to make for dinner. shite!