Eating is fun.

She loves eating. She had her first taste of food besides rice cereal today (Sweet potato's). Hard to believe that she will be 6 months on Friday. We are taking her pictures tomorrow since my grandma is visiting. I thought people might want so see some pictures of her eating from the last week or two.

On the sleeping front, it is still a challenge. It takes her on average 30-40 minutes to fall asleep. She is waking up around 11:30 or midnight and then around 5, nursing one of thos times. She then sleeps til 6:45 or sometimes until 8pm. The last couple of nights have been tough, but there has also been a heat wave and our air broke on Saturday afternoon so the fact that our house is hottttttt, could be the problem. We will keep you posted.

Night 4 & 5

Night 4 was pretty amazing. It was my birthday. We had my family over for dinner so we would not get her routine thrown off. She was almost falling asleep during dessert so we started her bedtime routine and put her down around 7:50. It took about 30 minutes for her to fall asleep (8:20). She slept until 4:20 (8 hours!), had her diaper changed and fed (Up for about 40 minutes). She was smiling at me as if to say, Good Morning Mommy! Is it time to play? I just smiled at her and put her back in her crib. She went back to sleep without a peop until 6:45.

Night 5 was more like night 3. Justin put her down since I was at bible study. But she only took 15 minutes or so to sleep. She slept until 12:45, when she woke up because she pooped and was hungry. After feeding, and crying for a few more minutes (40 minutes of awake time) she fell back asleep until 6:45 AM.

This is a process, but it is nice to sleep with my husband alone again. I am still not sleeping too well since I wake up several times thinking she is making a sound and she is not.

Sleep Training, Night 3

Well, last night was not as good as night two, but not as bad as night one, so I guess that is still progress.

She had to go to bed a little early since her last nap was around 3 and I have discovered that if she goes to be too early she does not sleep as well. We put her down around 7:20 and she cried for about 45-50 minutes. She slept until around 10:15. She cried for about 5 minutes and then went back to sleep for about an hour. I got up and nursed her, thought she would go right back to sleep but she kept crying for about 30 or 40 more minutes. But then she slept until just before 7am. So overall it was not too bad of a night.

I think if she takes her late afternoon nap, she does much better in the early evening and night is better. We will see how tonight plays out.

Sleep Training, Night 2

Wow! What a difference a night can make. I had plans on Saturday night to go out with my friends and see my favorite artist, Justin McRoberts, in Concord at the Vineyard/Shelter Church. (More about that later). So the bedtime routine and initial crying was in Justin's hands. She did great!

8:15-8:45 Put To bed, Awake- Crying

8:45-2:45- Sleeping (6 hours!)

2:45-2:55 off & on crying/whining (No screaming more whining and may not have even lasted 10 minutes)

2:55-5:55- Sleeping (3 more hours)

5:55- Nursed her and she was still tired so I put her back to bed.

6:00-6:15- Slept until she was ready to get up at 6:15- with a big smile.

Amazing! I hope it just keeps getting better.

I had a wonderful time last night. Justin McRoberts concerts are not expenisive ($10 with his new cd) but are alway worth 5 times what you pay. He plays for about 2 hours. Sings 2 songs at a time and then talks in between. He is almost like a comedian because he tells great stories! It was wonderful. Weird being out until 10:30 ish, but worth it. Plus- since my baby slept until 3, I got 4 hours of initial sleep and then another 3 hours. It was a great way to start of my mothers day & birthday.

Sleep Trainin, Night 1

Last night (Friday) was our first night of sleep training. She is 5 1/2 months old and was still waking up every couple of hours to eat and could not fall asleep on her own. She would only sleep for 30-45 minutes in her crib. Justin & I were tired and we had tried some other, more gentle methods, but all Paige did was scream. So we adapted a method from the Baby Sleep Solution.

We had a plan, and surprisingly we stuck to it.

At 7:30 we started the bedtime routine
8pm put her to bed- no pacifier- awake
8-9:05- She cried. We went in every 15 minutes or so to reassure her that we love her but it was time to sleep.
9:05-9:10- We thought she was sleeping, but...
9:10-9:35- She started crying again
9:35-11:55- She slept. I tried to sleep but I only managed about 1/2 of that because I kept "hearing things".
11:55-12:10- After letting her cry for 10 minutes and she did not calm down. I went in and fed her (We had decided to feed her if she woke up after 4 hours of not eating since she was used to eating every 2-3 hours). I put her down, almost asleep and she stayed that way
12:10-1:20- She slept
1:20-1:50- More crying- Justin went in and re-assured her twice
1:50-2:20- She slept
2:20-2:45- Woke up again- Justin changed her diaper and put her back to bed
2:45-3:25- More sleeping
3:25-3:40- More crying ( I was close to feeding her again since it had almost been 4 hours, but she only cried for 15 minutes this time and then was asleep again)
3:40- ? It is now 6:45 and she is still sleeping.

So night 1 was a little rough, but if she can pick-up the valuable skill of soothing herself to sleep we will all be better off in the long run. Hopefully tonight will be a little better, and tomorrow and little better, etc. Will keep you posted.

Good News I think!

Quick Update. The blood test results are in. She did not test positive to any allergens. So she is not allergic to milk, rice, soy, eggs, peanuts, cats, dogs, mold, pollen, dust and a few other things that she rattled off. So the good news is we can start the rice cereal again and she will like that. The bad news is that we still have to see what it is she is reacting too. She thinks it might be heat. And she thinks the other symtoms are related to teething.

I know I do not update too often, but I thought I would take a minute to post some new pictures of Paige. She is growing so fast. 5 months old now. This post and the next are some new pictures. I hope to post more in a little while when I hear from the Doctor with her blood test results.

This is what I look like when Daddy watches me.
She is so close to rolling over from her tummy to her back.
More time with Daddy.
Finally! A picture with Mom.

Picture Updates

She is learning to sit up
I love her hair in the morning
Sometimes you just need help with the laundry
Play time with Daddy.

Allergy Testing

After weeks of cutting out Milk products, she is still getting hives. They are still mostly on her back (Occasionally one will pop up somewhere else) and don't seem to be bothering her. But since we can't start food again until they go away, this is a problem. After talking to her doctor last Monday, she wanted to do some allergy testing. So on Thursday Justin brought her to the lab to have blood drawn. She did very good, only crying a little. We should know more later this week. I just want to know what it is that is bothering her so we can get her more comfortable. She has been having an upset stomach, slight diarrhea and not sleeping (I didn't know that could get worse) well this last week. So I am not sure if something I am eating now is bothering her more. I always wanted to be a detective, but this is not what I had in mind.

Chelsie's Senior Ball

It is so hard to believe. My little sister (the middle one who is 11 years younger) went to her Senior Ball yesterday. And in two months she will be graduating High School. In 4 months she will be moving an hour away to Santa Cruz and starting college at Bethany. Chelsie, the little girl who I used to play "Chelsie in the box" with. The little girl who used to tell on me, beat me up and steal my things. The one who grew up enough that I started stealing her clothes and eventually became my best friend. But it is true- She is getting bigger and will be an adult in just about 3 months (Legally at least!). It is with tears of happiness that I share these pictures below.

Chelsie, getting ready- Takes a moment to take a picture with her favorite niece (OK Her only one!)
Chelsie and her date- Nate
The whole group-It was hard to fit them in the picture
The Fab 4 and Paige
Sisterly Love

Pics from the dedication

Here are a couple of picture from her dedication. I didn't take too many so I hope to update with more once people send me some. But it was a great day and she was very happy!

Paige with Pastor Ron
Our Happy Family before the actual service.

Today was a big day for Paige. Justin & I dedicated her to the Lord. I have attached a video (About 4 minutes) for those of you who were unable to attend. A lot of family & friends came. We had a BBQ at our house afterwards. I will try to put up some pictures and more information tomorrow.

Things that never go away

Paige has been pretty happy since her 4th month check-up, but we have been back to the doctor once, and will probably need to go again Monday. She still seems to have Thrush (despite having to give her oral medicine that she hates 4 times a day) and she also has developed what they tell me are hives on her back. They started the day after the rice cereal started, so I thought she could be having a reaction to that. We stopped it but the hives were getting worse. But they come and go so it is so hard to tell. You look at her back one moment and she is fine and a little later they look bad. They don't seem to bother her, but it bothers me not knowing what they are. I took her to the doctor on Monday. The doctor we saw thinks she may be having a slow onset reaction to milk. So I had to cut it out of my diet again and switch the formula we have been using about once a day while she is at my moms house. The new stuff is quite expensive, so if this is the solution- I may have to re-think my plan of stopping breasfeeding at 6 months.

The doctor said it would be OK to start the rice cereal again, so we did. I am not sure if the hives are really getting better. It could just be a heat rash. Her skin is just like mine. If you touch her, it will turn red for a short time and then go back to mine. It makes it difficult to tell if there is a problem.

So I think I will be taking her back to the doctors on Monday. I was planning on starting a different grain cereal or oatmeal on Monday as per the doctors original plan (One new food a week). I want them to check out her thrush and her hives if they are still there. We will find out.

For now, we are just getting ready for her baby dedication tomorrow. We will be posting more information, probably on Monday. We have around 30 people coming so far and just spend a lot of money at costco. Our friends Evan & Danielle are coming up this afternoon to spend the night so that will be fun. And my sister Chelsie will be here in a minute to clean my house (We are paying her!).

Paige's 4 month dr visit

We went to the doctors for her 4 month check-up. Here are her stats:

13lbs 7oz
24 1/2 inches long

But she has a small head.

She did pretty well. Until of course, she got her shots. 2 in each leg and an oral one too. She screamed for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours (Not constant- she slept for some of it). But then she was right back to her normal smiley self.

Plus she has thrush in her mouth and on her bottom. So we have a round of Nystatin for her mouth and for her bottom. I am also having to put some cream on me too so we don't pass the infection between us.

So that was our not so eventful, yet eventful day.

The real EASTER Story

A few weeks ago, Justin & I were visiting his Grandma at her ranch in Watsonville. She has had this really cool old car just parked in her garage for about 20 years. We always wondered what she was going to do with it. So Justin decided to ask her. Well it just so happened that a few people were interested in buying it so she was thinking about selling. We said, well if you are going to see it, we would love for you to consider selling to us first. That way it will stay in the family. So she thought about it and decided that was perfect. She also mentioned that it must be a God thing since we asked her right at the perfect time. But God just kept on showing us how much he wanted us to have the car.

Justin was originally going to go get this next weekend, but Grandma & Chrissy were worried about someone stealing it (And he was a little on the obsessed side). He woke me up yesterday (Saturday) morning around 7am (Yes, the one day the baby and I were actually sleeping in until 8am) and had this crazy idea about renting a truck so he could go get this car. I told him he was crazy and went back to sleep. When I woke up, I thought it through and we starting looking for ways to get it. We couldn't rent a truck because it didn't have a tow package and it seemed like none of our friends were available. But by the afternoon, our neighbor Glen was available.

Then they went to Uhaul to rent the trailer, but when they got there the trailer they had was not the right size for the car. The Uhaul guy was calling other locations, but not having much luck. Justin was close to breaking. Right then, a guy that had moved his stuff from Virginia, happened to be returning the right size trailer (Again- God Thing). So the neighbor, Justin and our friend Mike made the journey to Watsonville. It took a little while to fill the tires (Only three would fill up) and get it on the trailer. They did it with just enough daylight to see.

They got back around 9:30 PM, unloaded and then decided to wash it (apparently, there was a lot of bird poop).

This morning, Justin was out there by 8am and neighbors were crawling out of their houses. Several of them were helping him wash this car. He is so excited. Next step- making it run.

By the way- It is a 1956 Mercury Montclair.

Justin & the neighbors washing it.
Paige's real Easter present
Only 23,000 original miles
A new family picture.
A close up.

Paige's First Easter

I will begin this post by saying that I wasn't going to buy Paige an Easter basket. I just did not see the point. But when I was at Wal-Mart with my mom on Friday, she convinced me to buy this one. It is larger than the baby (And so is the bunny I think).

Easter has been a great day. I will tell more about last night and this morning in the next post. For now, I will just talk about part of the day. My grandparents, George & Doris are visiting from Mass. We all went to church (We were going to go to Santa Cruz for church but that did not work out) and then we had a wonderful Easter dinner. We went for a nice walk and it was a great day. Paige has been a little cranky, but I think she is teething and is very gassy so she must not be too comfortable. See some pictures below.

Paige and her first Easter Basket
Daddy & Paige hunting for little chocolate eggs
Mikaila & Chelsie egg hunting
Me & Paige (My finger is in her mout and so is her own finger- She was chewing pretty hard)
Mom had this freezer thing and she just loved it!

March Update

I know I have not been good at updating this, but we have been busy. My Nana and Aunt Kathy were visiting. I went back to work a few weeks ago (always challenging), then I was sick and Justin got food poisining (We think). So it has been hard to keep posted. Paige is doing good. She will be 4 months on Sunday. I will update after her doctors appt. Here are some recent pictures of her.

She loves the exersaucer her Aunt Mikaila bought her.
Sitting at the big table.
With Daddy in our future car.
She had fun in her bumbo

Paige Rolls OVer

Paige rolled over for the first time today. Justin & I were not there to witness it since we were working, but she loved it so much she rolled over several times. I was able to catch this video when I went to pick her up.

Paige's First Laugh

Paige is just starting to laugh out loud. We were able to catch a glimpse of it on video.

3 Month Photos

Since my Nana and Aunt Kathy were in town visiting we decided to have her 3 month pictures taken. She was such a champ! 4 outfits and many pictures later and she was still smiling. Here are a few of my favorites.

Doesn't she look shy?
Almost looks like a flower
My favorite dress
The outfit Daddy picked out, with the shoes he bought her when we first found out we were pregnant.
I love her smile here!

Lydia & Trevor's Wedding Reception

On Saturday night we got dressed up and went to the wedding reception for our friends Lydia & Trevor. Their actual ceremony (all though the legally got married on Friday at city hall) is in Cancun next weekend. We just wish we could have gone to cancun too. We had a lot of fun. Food was good and we saw a few friends we don't see very often. Below are some pictures.

Denise, Laura, Paige and me.

Our first picture as a family

Doesn't she look so cute!
Trevor & Lydia's first dance.

Random pics

Well I am not always good a posting too often, but I do try. The days just get away from me so quickly. I was really sick for a couple of days this week, but am feeling better, and so far Paige is not showing any signs of coming down with my flu. I go back to work in just a few weeks now. I can't believe how fast time flows. Paige is now 11 weeks old. We are still working on sleeping, or sleeping alone, but it was hard to enforce our new "You sleep in the new Amby bed we bought you" rule when you have a fever and daddy is very tired from working all day.

She is a happy girl and is on the edge of laughing out loud. We expect her to roll over soon to. But we will see, she seems to do things in her own time. Below are some random pics from the last couple of weeks.

Mommy & Paige

So close to laughing when Chelsie was babysitting.

Posing for the camera.

Sleeping with Daddy (Her favorite resting place)

Paige's First Superbowl

So it was Paige's first superbowl. We got her dressed up in Patriots gear and headed to two Superbowl parties. We had a good day until the end, in which she proceeded to sleep while our team lost. I was surrounded by Giants fans and the only person rooting with me was sleeping. Well there is always next year....

Stripper dad

My friend Lydia had her Bachelorette party. It was a lot of fun (all though I only made it to the first part). The funniest moment of the night is when her dad showed up as the "Stripper". In order for all the girls to be able to re-live the moment. I have posted the video here.

Tummy Time @ 9 weeks

Her 2month old check-up

Justin & I took Paige to the Dr. for her two month check-up. The first part of the visit went well. She is doing most of the things she should be at this age. She is now 22 1/2 inches long, 10lbs 12 oz. She is in the 50th percentile for both of those.

However, Paige had to get 5 vacinnes today. 4 of them were shots and one was oral. She cried & I cried and now she is sleeping. I have never heard her cry like that before and it was heartbreaking.

But she is healthy so that is what is important.

7 Weeks old

I can't believe how fast time goes by. Paige is a little over 7 weeks old now and growing every day. I need to update with more pictures I know. They will be coming soon.

Yesterday- I went to San Francisco with Chelsie to look for prom dresses. I pumped a few bottles and left Paige in the hands of her father. I was a little nervous to travel so far away from her (It would take me an hour to get home if I needed to), but he is very capable. I think he was excited since I have only left her with him to go to the movies (once) and the store for a few minutes.

Justin is handling most of her nights. We do trade off, but since he has not been working he takes the majority of the load. She is sleeping with him on the couch, or with me on the couch. I did put her down last night in her crib and she slept for about 45 minutes. I think we need to learn the difference between her sleep sounds and her real cries. I am waiting on a book that we ordered. Hopefully it will help with the sleep thing. But at least she is going longer intervals without food at night. Usually 3 or 3 1/2 hours at a time. We are also looking into the Amby Baby bed. It is a hammock bed that makes the baby feel secure, but will also rock/move with her movements. If you know anything about this bed, please feel free to share with me. The research I have found say it is really good for her because she is a restless sleeper and moves a lot. But I don't know if I want to spend $165-$230 on something that will only last about another 6-10 months and may not work. If only I could rent one test it out.

Well- that is about it for now. Stay tuned- her 2 month check-up is on 1/24.

Video

I think I have finally figured out how to put a video here. This is just a start, but I will get better.