This & That

Parker's sleeping habits are still not back to as wonderful as they were a month ago, but they have improved since my "sleep regression" post.  Some nights she won't wake up at all; some nights she'll wake up five times.  A couple days this week she needed to eat at 4:30 am; other days it was 6:00 am.  Some days she'll take a nice 2 hour nap at daycare; other days it's four 20 minute cat naps.  We can't figure out a pattern, so we are just gonna keep on keepin' on and hope as she gets older things will sort themselves out.

We are moving Parker to new daycare.  There some things we were not 100% happy with at Banners.  One example is that some days the teachers would clean the floors before all the babies were gone for the day and Parker would come home smelling like Lysol....we just don't like the idea of her being in such close proximity to all those chemicals.  Last week, Parker had her first bruise.  A techer was feeding her in a rocking chair and when she finished and stood up she didn't realize Parker's leg was in the arm of the chair.  It resulted in a pretty good bruise. We understand that things like this happen, but it did prompt us to make a call to the childcare program at the Jewish Community Center.  We were interested in the JCC over the summer when we started searching for childcare, but they had no openings at that time.  Now they have a family moving and so an infant spot is opening up.  We toured the facility and liked what we saw.  Our neice, Clare, attends the JCC in Pittsburgh and loves it.  They have great programs for when Parker is older, like a great summer camp.  We do not have an official switch date yet, but it will be March 1 at the latest.

The bruise

Other than we've just been having fun with our little munchkin! Some recent photos:

always trying to get a smile picture, Parker is elusive, here is a partial smile & blurry picture

Otis joining the adults at a recent dinner party

Flowers from my wonderful husband, just because

trying out her new Bumbo (or as Daddy calls it, Bimbo)

big eyes!  we love the way she looks in blue

Daddy styled her hair at bathtime

not a very good shot, trying to get one of her developing leg rolls

Go Tigers!

New toys

Parker got some great new toys for Christmas, some of which she will be growing into.  Of course, we had to try them out even though she shouldn't really be ready for them yet.

Here is a video of Parker in her jumper, showcasing her favorite new sound to make...I call it "The Monster"

And the trial run of the Bounce-A-Bout, we thought she looked like a bobble head toy.

Sleep Regression

After weathering Parker's first illness with sleep patterns relatively intact, I thought we were home free.  On the contrary, Parker has been waking up in the middle of the night every day this week.  This morning was the worse yet and I know it's going to be a long day at work for me on very little sleep.  She is not four months old yet, but there is such a thing as the four month sleep regression.  Apparently, babies' sleep patterns change around this time and go from "baby" sleep patterns to more adult sleep patterns.  This means they are in and out of deep sleep more often and thus have a hard time putting themselves back to sleep.  We can usually get Parker back to sleep but finally have to give in and feed her around 5:30 (she used to sleep until 7:00 before being hungry).  This could also be attributed to a growth spurt, she's just more hungry!  Another issue could be her lack of sleep during the day now that she is at daycare full time.  She naps, but they are all 30 minute stints, no nice long naps.  I guess there is just too much going on there, too much to look at!  So when she comes home, she is ready for a nice nap.  One night this week, she fell sleep while nursing at 6:00 and at 9:00, so I don't think she ate as much as she needed and therefore woke up hungry.  I am just sticking with the mantra "this too shall pass" and hope it passes quickly!  We'll have to work with daycare about some strategies to help her get better naps during the day, like try putting her in a crib and using a lovey for her to snuggle with.

If anyone has epxerience or advice on sleep regression, we are all ears!!

Here is a cute picture of Parker sleeping in her swing from last weekend.

The Roll Over!

Parker rolled over tonight for the first time!  We're so proud of our little girl.  We cheered her after the big moment and she probably thought we were nuts.  She has rolled to her side a couple times before but just gotten stuck...and then frustrated.  But tonight she made it over the hump!

Look at that facial expression!!!

We tried to get a replay and instead got a nice display of rasberry blowing

Baby's First Cold

Parker had her first cold all week and is finally feeling better.  It started last weekend and consisted of a stuffy nose and a cough.  We used the nose aspirator and of course she HATED that!  We also put a humidifier on her room and plan to leave it in there for the rest of the winter.  I took this little video earlier in the week, gives an idea of how she felt.  Amazingly, Parker handled it very well and was still in a good mood most of the time.  She had a couple nice naps at daycare during the week, but usually doesn't sleep much there, so on Friday I worked from home.  It was a good decision because she took a 3 hour nap in the morning and a 4 hour nap in the afternoon! 

Parker - 3 Months Old

Parker was 3 months old on January 3rd, which also happens to be Daddy's 33rd birthday!

We stopped using the swaddle wraps last week, because she would get very angry when we swaddled her up at night time.  All along she would settle right down, but recently it seemed to take longer to settle her.  She now uses a sleep sack instead and is doing great.  She has been sleeping through the night since 7 weeks old and still sleeps at night like a champ.  We also started using her crib a couple days ago!  She was sleeping in her room but in a Rock 'n Play Sleeper. 

Our two biggest issues have been napping and those dreaded evening hours when sometimes Parker was inconsolable.  Both of these issues have improved.  It has been a long time since we have had a long crying session for no apparent reason (knock on wood).  Parker has always been a great napper as long as someone was holding her or she was in the Baby Bjorn.  More and more, she can fall asleep on her own in the crib or bouncy seat for a nice daytime nap.

Parker decided to go on a nursing strike and would not nurse last Thursday through Sunday. It was pretty upsetting for me, but I just stuck with it and it seems we are back in business.  She has had her first cold all this week, so I wonder if she was starting to feel yucky and that was the cause.

Music really seems to calm Parker down.  She definitely enjoys Jack Johnson and we always have some sort of music playing when we put her to bed for the night.

All in all, Parker is a very happy little girl.  She is smiling more and more and we are working on that adorable little laugh too!

Family Visits

Parker is one lucky girl and got to have her entire extended family in town (except for Grandma Rhonda) at one time!  My parents, Annie, Jason, Jack, & Charlie drove in from St. Louis on Wednesday and Gennie, Eric, & Clare drove in from Pittsburgh on Friday.

Wednesday night we had a raclette party at our house (thanks, Julie Kuprianczyk!).  It is actually a very nice way to eat dinner with a toddler and two babies because everyone is in and out at the table anyway, very casual.  Some pics and video from that evening:

On Thursday, we took Jack to Kango Play Center in Henrietta, where he attempted roller skates for the first time.

Thursday night we had dinner at Dinosaur BBQ.  Friday morning we went to see the massive train table at The Garden Factory and Friday night was dinner at Papa G's for the whole crew.

On Saturday we checked out the Strong Museum of Play and New Year's Eve was low key make-your-own-flatbread-pizza night at our house.

The Lang group left Sunday around noon for the long drive back and the Goforth group went to visit some dear friends from the lake, Uncle Sam and Dolores.

On Sunday night we spent the evening at Larry's.  We left Parker contented on the floor watching football while we ate dinner and Clare decided to join her, such a great cousin!

Daddy got Parker to laugh for the first time too!  Here is a video of him trying to recreate it, with no success, but still cute to watch.