The Hungriest Turtle

Another hungry turtle

Julia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:34:29 +0000

This is what I imagine Nina is going to look like once she starts crawling.

Fastest Tortoise On Earth! – video powered by Metacafe

Transitions

Julia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:24:36 +0000

I’m sad. I think for the first time Nina and I are going to have to start sleeping in separate rooms. Up until a couple of weeks ago, she slept in her co-sleeper bassinet right next to me in our room, but then I got really sick of worrying that the dogs were going to be loud and wake her up when we came to bed. So, I decided to move her into her crib. There is a twin bed in her room and that’s where I’ve been sleeping. Unfortunately, I think that instead of comforting her me being there is just keeping her awake. If I wake up because I hear her make a noise I can’t even turn over without her waking up fully and wanting to eat. And while I do want to sleep in the same room as her, the key word is sleep. She doesn’t need to be up and comfort nursing every two hours. We both need our rest.

I think tomorrow night I’m going to try moving back into our bedroom and disturbing Alex’s bachelor pad thing that he has going on in there.

Sniff. They grow up so fast.

Pink hoodie!

Julia — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 09:25:33 +0000

Making a turtle face:

Edited to add that it appears to be something that she inherited from me:

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day: Take Action

Julia — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:46:30 +0000

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day: Take Action

October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in
the United States. More than 25,000 children are stillborn in the
United States every year leaving mothers, entire families and
communities devastated. Estimates of the rate of occurrence of
stillbirth make it at least as common as autism.

Stillbirth
is not an intractable problem. Greater research would likely
significantly reduce its incidence, but good research requires good
data. H.R. 5979: Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act is under
consideration by Congress. This proposed bill would standardize
stillbirth investigation and diagnosis, thus providing more data for
the needed research. Better research means fewer children born still.

On
October 15th, remember the thousands of unfinished children lost and
the families who remain to grieve them. Honor them by taking action.
Let’s help pass H.R. 5979.

Action Steps:

Step 1. Use Your Blog to Enlist Others
-Copy the contents of this entire post and publish it on your blog immediately.

GOAL: Enlist 10 of your readers to spread the word

Step 2. Use Your E-mail to Enlist Others
-E-mail
5 bloggers and ask them (nicely and in an unspammy way) to publish
these action steps on their blog. Consider contacting celebrity
bloggers, political bloggers, medical bloggers, or bloggers who are not
part of your reading community.

GOAL: Enlist 3 bloggers outside of your normal blog sphere to spread the word in other online communities.

Step 3. Help Pass the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act
-By
October 15th, publish a post on your blog supporting H.R. 5979
Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act. For maximum impact, title your
post: “Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act.”

GOAL: 1,000,000
Google results on October 15th when that term is searched for.
Currently, Google only returns 20,400 pages – most of which have
nothing to do with the bill.

And the Worst Mommy of the Year Award goes to…

Julia — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:15:14 +0000

Nina’s fingernails are really long, which would be business as usual except for the fact that she has to go to the pediatrician today for her 4-month checkup. Every time I go to the pediatrician I envision the doctor scolding me about her extremely long fingernails, so I decided to try to clip them. Cutting tiny little nails with a tiny little clipper is always a stressful endeavor, and then I proceeded to slice open the top of her thumb.

She actually started bleeding. And then cried for the next 30 minutes. Needless to say, I feel terrible.

You know what they say about good intentions. And the ironic part is that as far as lectures from doctors go, actually cutting the baby is probably far worse than just letting her nails grow too long.

My dad told me a while back that all parents let their child roll off of a high-up piece of furniture at some point. I guess a minor flesh wound is preferable to potential brain trauma. But still.

And, Nina still has to go get her shots. She is really going to hate me by the time the day is over.

99 Bottles

Alex — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:20:07 +0000

Just a note to let everyone know that Nina will still not take a bottle … I find it very frustrating, but I am confident that someday I will be able to get her to take one again. I am open to advice, so next time you see me, or if you want to drop me a note, please let me know what you think.

Fun with Webcam!

Julia — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:01:34 +0000

Bedtime Stories

Julia — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:57:39 +0000

I don’t want to jinx anything, but last night Nina slept for 8 hours in a row, from approximately 9-5. Friday night it was 9 hours in a row. I find this especially impressive because I believe that *I* have only slept through the night twice in my life as well. Actually, she also slept for an 8-hour stretch a couple of weeks back, too, so I think she has me beat at this point.

I really hope that she takes after her Daddy in terms of sleep patterns. Alex and I are basically opposites in this regard. He can easily sleep a 12-hour stretch, whereas I am a terrible sleeper and I always have been. Apparently as a baby I didn’t like to sleep unless I was being held, I only napped for a few minutes at a time, and, like I said, sleeping through the night was just plain out of the question. I took some sort of sleeping pill pretty much every night from the age of 19 or so until I got pregnant. I’m not taking anything right now because I’m breastfeeding but I think I need something for a night or two. Because the ironic thing about Nina’s *fabulous* sleep weekend is that I have barely slept at all. Last night I don’t think I fell asleep at all until after she woke up at 5 a.m. It was rough. As much as I hate to do it I think I need to cut out caffeine for the time being. I had a venti iced latte at around 3 p.m., and while this may not affect the average person for 14 freaking hours I am clearly not average in this regard.

Anyway. I am striving for consistency in Nina’s schedule, although I change my mind about her bedtime daily. (Hey, at least I consistently intend for her to have a bedtime.) I think that 8:30 is good for right now. It’s really hard to get her to sleep when it’s light out, as she loves to stare at lights of any kind. If I am trying to get her to go to sleep in her swing and the kitchen light is on two rooms away she will stare in that direction. Nina loves lights so much that over the past couple of days she has started smiling and sticking her tongue out at them. If the TV is on, forget it: she will stay awake watching for hours. (She also takes after Daddy in this regard, as well). So 8:30 it is for the time being, and I plan to keep moving it back as it gets darker earlier over the next few months. My goal is for her to sleep 7-7 every night before the year is up.

And today I randomly decided that 2:00 is a good naptime. I ultimately want at least 2-3 set naptimes every day but I figure that a set bedtime and one set nap is pretty good when dealing with a 2-month-old who is still pretty inconsistent (and a Mommy who feels perpetually disorganized). She had been awake for a couple of hours by 2:00, which means that we would shortly be heading into a downward spiral of crankiness if she didn’t fall asleep soon. Daddy tried to rock her down but she wasn’t having it, so we decided to just put her down and practice self-soothing. I turned on her vibrating bouncer and miracle of miracles, it actually worked.

I just snuck upstairs to make sure that she was actually napping and I was rewarded by her startling hilariously when I opened the door:

Happy Napping, everybody!