How to Drive for 2 Days Straight with a 4-month-old

To figure out if you'll survive a car ride with a baby who is just 4 months, you'll need to make sure the following are in place (especially when you're driving 1,380 without your husband - just parents, sister, and brother-in-law).

The best travel buddy ever!

1. Sanity. You must mentally prepare yourself to endure crying with no escape. As she wails like a banshee, you must remind yourself, "she will fall asleep, she will fall asleep, she will fall asleep, she must fall asleep!" I suggest a good mystery/thriller book to completely occupy your mind - romance novels aren't good enough here.

Faith's little room for 2 days

2. Safe Haven. Try to figure out how you'll create a little cocoon for your babe. With Faith, I took the blanket that we spread on her Pack N Play to sleep on top of and draped it over her rear-facing car seat. Then, I took my phone, turned on her noise machine (the Relax & Sleep app [Android] is amazing! We use the Relaxation Melody and Air-conditioning for soothing white noise), and waited her out. She took several half-hour to one-hour naps throughout the day with a six hour stint in the middle of the night.

3. Comfort item for you. Find a pillow and blanket for yourself and just relax while she cries because the second she falls asleep, you don't want to waste time trying to get to sleep AFTER she's asleep!

4. Heed all Rest Areas. These are your best stops. I would have stopped at each along the way but my dad was driving, and it wasn't imperative. Take a towel or picnic blanket and lay it out while everyone takes shifts watching the baby play. Faith enjoyed the ability to roll around and get out of her seat - which was my biggest concern. It definitely made our trip longer, but stopping for twenty to thirty minutes per waking period wasn't painful and it's healthy for everyone - not just baby!


5. Prepare to re-train sleeping patterns once you reach your destination. We're on day 3 of being in the condo and Faith is having a really hard time sleeping through her naps. I'm going back to hardcore mommy mode and I'm just glad no one is in the condo next to us!

6. PUMP!! If you breastfeed at all, bring your pump! I figured that since Faith only breastfed about four times a day, it wouldn't be a big deal on the road. I'd just feed her whenever we stopped. Nope! I'm pretty sure the fact that we were in a car was a big deal and meant that she wasn't interested in anything but socializing while she was out of her seat. Consequence? Now I have less than about two minutes worth of milk for her during the day. My morning and evening milk wasn't affected because she did nurse then. By day 2, I gave up on hoping she'd nurse so I just hand-expressed into her onesie from the day before to relieve and prevent mastitis.

----------------------------

Overall, it wasn't a terrible trip. Faith did a lot better than I was willing to even hope for and she was able to happily make it through an hour-long trip through Wal-Mart in Fort Myers before we made it to our condo on Sanibel.  I feel really comfortable about our airplane trip back home on Sunday. I think she'll do alright but I am hoping my milk supply comes back in so that I can comfort her enough so she might sleep.

I also recommend packing a ton of bibs. Nothing is worse than sitting next to a baby in a stinky bib because her mother was too stupid to pack plenty of extras.

----------------------------


Do you have any other travel tips with infants? What about venturing into my plane trip on Sunday?

"Don't worry, I got this, Mom."

As I venture into the world of real food with Faith, I am once again reminded of how much my daughter and I are alike.

You see, my whole life I've been told the story of how after I was about 7 months old, I refused to be fed by anyone and my older sister had to dance around to distract me so my mom could get foods in my mouth. This story has always been brought up to prove how I've always done what I've wanted and how ever since I was little.

After Faith got full control of her arms and hands, she's started getting upset over not having control over her bottle. She has even started holding it on her own, as long as she's tilted at the right angle and doesn't have to lift it (not quite that advanced yet!). My mom, again, uses this as a reason to tell me how I hated having help from anyone.

I made Faith some good old homemade Brown Rice for her first food. I cooked it in the rice cooker and then pureed it in the Magic Bullet. It was very gummy - so in the future, I'll just grind the uncooked rice and then cook it. I added a lot of formula to it.

She seemed to like it! There was quite a bit of fussiness because she'd been up for nearly five hours (stinking daycare) but she was really good. After about the third spoonful, she started grabbing for the spoon and doing this.

Thanks, but no thanks!

In fact, I'm not so sure that she wanted the food as much as she wanted the spoon! She was even sucking on the spoon to get all of the food off of it. Isn't she so stinking cute?!

We got through maybe 10 spoonfuls before she was over it and ready to move on.

I'm excited to see where this takes us. The plan is to keep giving her the brown rice cereal until closer to 6 months, if not after. I'm working (or thinking about working) on cooking and freezing squash and zucchini from my mom's garden to use once she's ready for it.
----------------------------------

Practicing Makes Perfect!

Faith has started "practicing" during naptime. It's a hilarious thing to witness. She'll go down for her nap just fine and then wake up way too early. However, she's not crying when she wakes up (unless she's poopy); she just talks to her self and scoots all over her crib. After about an hour or so, she'll be ready to go to sleep and just goes back down.

I've done some reading and I found out that she's practicing her new skills that she has learned throughout the day. I guess babies will do this to commit things to memories (connecting synapses!). A lot of parents have said that their babies have continued it into their toddler-hood.

 It's not so cute when she decides to do it at 3AM.

First Foods, Bad Foods, and Sad News

We went back to the pediatrician today to finish our appointment that didn't go so well. I wanted to talk to Kelly about solids and she mentioned that it'd be fine to start her on rice cereal.

Let me inform you that I'm not a holistic person. However, I do enjoy healthy foods and try to sneak veggies or fish in when my husband isn't looking.

Arming myself with knowledge on good baby food, I am excited to start Faith on brown rice this weekend. I plan to make it into a fine powder using our Magic Bullet system and then cook it. Adding in formula to make it (hopefully) more palatable for her.
------------
In other news, I have completely botched dinner tonight. I'm usually really good at just throwing this or that into the slow cooker and it coming out amazing. Yeah, not tonight. I put in egg noodles, frozen chicken breast, chicken broth, frozen corn, and frozen peas, along with spices. Set on high to cook for three hours. I just checked it and it's nasty.

The noodles are mush, the chicken is bland, there's too much water, and I have no idea how to fix it. I'm thinking about just taking the chicken and veggies out and starting all over - on the stove. If we could afford it, I'd probably be all about just dumping it out completely. Yum.
-------------

Daniel's birthday was Wednesday and we're going to see The Dark Knight Rises tomorrow at 10:40 AM because parents of a 4-month-old are just that awesome. Don't worry, we'll drop her off at the farm beforehand.

My heart goes out to the ones who lost somebody during the Aurora, CO, theater shooting. I believe demons are real and are really using people to do Satan's work. Please pray for the survivors and the young man who decided to take so many lives. My Lord loves him the same that he loves all of us. I just wish others could see that.

Red Knees Must Mean...

She's truly a mover and a shaker!

As you can tell, she's obviously the most amazing baby ever.

Also, now Daniel's Honey-Do List has grown for what is expected while Faith and I are in Florida in two weeks. BABY PROOFING! We have not tackled this at all and clearly it is time. Considering she went straight for the electronic cords that are all over our floor. Plus, now we can't even step out of the room without containing her somehow. Ahh... the freedom of just going pee when you needed.

Alas, we come to days where nothing higher than 12 inches off the ground is safe. When fuzz bunnies must be vacuumed or end up all over her drooling chin. And Yoshi's toys must be safe guarded - or shared.

Anyone else feel like she's moving through the milestones continuum too quickly? If she starts wanting to walk soon (which Daniel is having her practice already), I might just accidentally bump her over every once in a while.

Our First (of Many, I'm sure) Unsolved Mystery

Friday was heartbreaking.  Faith was miserable all day long and we still have no idea why. The morning started off normal but about ten minutes in she started screaming. Try a bottle? No luck. Try a game? A song? Nothing.

Eventually, I just put her back to bed and she just screamed and screamed. Normally, with our sleep training, she'll cry 5-15 minutes before she sleeps but Friday, if she eventually fell asleep she'd just stay down for an hour. Then the process would start all over.

We tried to find our Liquid Tylenol but we have no idea where that might be. We thought she might be teething so I started rubbing on her gums and it did soothe her for a little bit. However, there weren't any bumps along the gums indicating a new bud coming up.

Friday also happened to be her 4-month wells checkup with her pediatrician and so we had to take our screaming infant to get poked, prodded and vaccinated. We weren't looking forward to it, to say the least.

At the appointment, Kelly, our PNP, went over her vitals and weighed and measured her. I'm happy to report that while she was completely miserable, she weighs 16 lbs 11 oz and is 25" long. After that, Kelly didn't feel comfortable vaccinating her because she was running a small fever of 100.3* and wouldn't know if she was having adverse affects to a vaccine or not. She gave us a couple of bottles of Triaminic and a syringe to get us through until we find our own bottle (it's still missing) and gave Faith a dose of the medicine.

Let's talk about that process. She measured out a 1/2 teaspoon and slowly squirted it into her mouth, which Faith promptly would push back out but Kelly just patiently put it back in with her fingers. It made a small mess, but nothing too serious that wasn't absorbed by the paper towel. That dose helped her within fifteen minutes and she was asleep in the car. Four hours later, when she needed a new dose was when the fun began for Mom and Dad!

How NOT to give an infant Tylenol

Faith was screaming for more medicine so we armed ourselves with the same supplies that Kelly used. Then I slowly put the syringe in her mouth and tried to push it out in small amounts. Didn't work.

I mean, seriously, WHY is it dyed red? I'm pretty sure no mom was in the board room when this was decided.

Not only did we mess up on the first round but I did the same thing the second time around, too. Then I gave the reigns over to Daniel to try. Or rather, Daniel said, "How hard can it be to slowly push the syringe?"

And there goes another dose all over our poor baby girl. I can't help but think she enjoyed it somewhat because she wasn't crying the entire time. Or maybe she was just distracted enough. If I only knew what was going on in her mind.

We needed a new plan of attack for this situation of ours.

I remembered a pacifier that my Aunt Carla had gotten Faith and it had a hole in the tip with a measuring cup on the other side so that you could easily give babies their medicine. WHY didn't we think of this earlier?!

So we measured out another dose, gave it to Faith and she took it like a champ. She slept for a few hours, then woke up to eat a small bottle and continued to wake up throughout the night for bottles. She never really finished a bottle.

Anyway, she felt better by morning and was smiling and playing. She still hasn't completely regained her appetite but I'm hopeful she will gradually.

I guess the lingering issue is that Faith has somewhat lost some of her sleep training that she's been so good at for at least a month. I think she'll get back into it but she also didn't nurse all day while she was sick and now I have no milk supply. Not that she's even interested today. When I put her down to nap, she just cried when I tried to nurse her. Hopefully that will get better gradually, too. It's too early for her to wean.

When Faith was Born

At work today, I was talking with a mom whose baby is Faith's age and we exchanged war stories. It made me realize that I should definitely share with you! After all, one of my best friends didn't even know I had a C-section.

Let's start this tale off by saying that I was a miserable pregnant woman. I couldn't afford to take off work until Faith was in my arms and teaching 3rd grade 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant was just not going to happen. So at my prenatal appointment, I begged my midwife to be induced the next morning at 6 AM. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2AM - Woke up three hours before alarm and was too nervous to fall back asleep. I finished packing essentials: All six seasons of The Office on DVD; nursing nightgown + robe; toiletries; all food I could get in there (I had been advised that the nurses are food Nazis and won't let a crazy pregnant woman eat); and homemade alpaca slippers.

My alarm finally goes off around 5 and I try to wake up Daniel.

Me: shaking Daniel vigorously. Daniel, wake up. It's time to go to the hospital.

Daniel: mumbles and turns over.

Me: continual shaking. Daniel, wake up!

This continued for approximately 40 minutes while I'm running around deciding important things like - do I do my make up? No. Hair? No. Contacts or glasses? Glasses. Bra or no bra? Bra.

Finally, in my very pregnant, very moody state I give it one more go to Daniel. 

Me: Daniel, WAKE UP!

Daniel: Just go without me.

Me: deer in headlights stare. You want me to go to the hospital to have our baby without you?!?!

Daniel: rolls over in bed. I'll be there soon. I'm just so tired.

Me: hysterically burst into tears. Fine. See you there.

I grabbed my bags and pulled them to the front door trying to be as loud as possible and cry/scream just to see what he'll do. Nothing. I look over at him, knowing I have to leave for the hospital in 5 minutes to get there on time. 

Me: explicit cursing that is not family friendly enough for this blog.

Daniel: bolts upright and looks at me wide-awake. What time is it?

Me: crying. Time, sniffle, to go. sniffle.

Daniel: runs out of the bed to the bathroom. Why didn't you wake me up? 

Me: I've been trying for an hour! You told me to go to the hospital without you!

Daniel: Were my eyes open?

Me: Are you kidding me?

Daniel: Kirsti, you know I sleep talk. I can't be held responsible for what I say.

Me: YOU TOLD ME TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL AND YOU'D MEET ME LATER.

Daniel: finishes getting ready. I'm sorry, baby. Are you ready to go?

Me: Yes. sniffle.

Daniel: hugs me. 

Me: smiles. Let's take one more belly picture!

So we got in the car and happily made our way to the hospital. Once there, I felt really strange to be walking in to be a patient in a hospital for the first time. We'd filled out most of our paperwork previously so all I had to do was sign things like 'I will not take video or pictures of the birth,' or 'It'd be great to get keepsakes from volunteers!'

Afterwards, I got hooked up to my IV that was pretty neat to watch go in. I'm pretty good at needles - being poked all the time as a kid because of my hypothyroidism - but pregnancy also makes you a beast that can handle anything.  They hooked up the contraction monitor and baby heartrate monitor. You can guess which was my favorite. Hearing her heartbeat was always the highlight of our appointments. Our midwife even let me hang out in the doctor's office one day because Daniel was in class and would be late but she wanted him to be there when we checked that part. :)

Promptly at 7 AM they gave me the pitocin. Contractions definitely started very quickly.

 At 8, Kimberly Negrete, my midwife, came in and broke my water. If you've ever peed yourself, that's what it feels like but it doesn't stop and it doesn't relieve any pressure off your bladder. Watching them catch the fluid was the strange part.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'd been 2 CM and 25% effaced for more than 2 weeks and Faith still hadn't dropped into the birth canal. At a previous appointment, Kimberly had mentioned that this could be a red flag.

Me: A red flag for what?
Kimberly: Well, it could mean that the baby's head is too big to enter the birth canal.
Me: So what does that mean?
Kimberly: That the baby may not come out vaginally without causing you or her stress. It could also mean that there is a lot of amniotic fluid and the baby is so small that she's just floating around.
Me: Which do you think is more likely?
Kimberly: It's hard to say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, as you can imagine, it wasn't because there was too much fluid because Faith still didn't enter the birth canal after she broke my water.

A few hours went by and eventually my mom came in to see us.

By about 1 PM, I was 5 CM and the pain was terrible. I'd tried the birthing ball but standing was unbearable. I just wanted to lay on my side and cry during each contraction. I was finally able to get my epidural - there was no doubt. Get me the drugs!

This was a fun mess.

The anesthesiologist came in. He was a very broad man and commanded the room without saying much. I felt really good about him and tried really hard to not freak out.

 He asked me to sit to the side of my bed and Daniel to hold me still in a hug with just our arms. Made me think about middle school dances where you had to 'make room for the Holy Spirit!'

 DR: You're going to feel a very tight pinch but you can't jerk away from it or I'll have to redo it. Just look at your man and put your energy in him if you have to.
Me: Mhm.
DR: Pokes my spine with something large. So the needle is in your back and now I'm inserting the tube. I'm going to take out the needle but leave the tube in.
Me: probably causing Daniel to bleed with my fingernails in his arms. Look at my mom. She's crying. I look away. Okay. Mom, you can't cry.
Mom: It's just so hard to see you go through this. I know exactly how you're feeling. It's hard.
DR: Okay, we're going to give you the medicine through the tube and it should make you numb from the point of the poke down through your feet. If you feel like something's wrong let us know right away. Leaves.


Twenty minutes went by and I was still feeling all of my contractions. Needless to say, I was getting very upset. I was told it'd be immediate relief! We called the nurse and told them it wasn't working. So the DR came back.

DR: Didn't work, huh?
Me: No.
DR: Let's take a look.
Me: Assumed the position with Daniel tightly attached to my nails again.
DR: I'm going to have to redo the catheter.
Me: That's fine. I can take it.

This time around though, I didn't feel the poke (there must have been something that worked with the first one?) so it didn't really mean anything.

I felt a trickle down my back. I figured it was just saline or some medicine and didn't think much of it. I looked at Daniel and his eyes got really big while he stared behind me.

Me: Daniel, what's going on?
Daniel: Oh you just bled a little. It's not a big deal.

I was content with this answer and didn't worry. Once it was over, the nurse said she wanted to change the pads on my bed. This was when I caught a glimpse of what really trickled down my back. Or rather, poured. The entire pad was covered in blood. I looked at Daniel and somehow didn't freak out. I just wanted this baby out.

After everyone left though, I did go immediately numb.Only on my right side. So we called the nurse. She called the DR.

DR: Alright, this is really rare. You say you are numb on your right side but the catheter is to the left of your spine.
Me: Well, that's how it is.
DR: Okay, instead of me poking you the 3rd time and possibly not getting it right again, I'm going to have my nurse try it.

So the nurse came and got it down and finally I was numb! I was so happy I probably started crying. I kept saying thank you over and over again. When someone gives you relief from that kind of pain, they are your hero forevermore. Especially when someone else "more qualified" messed up twice.

It was around 3 by the end of all this and I just wanted to sleep. With my new found glory, I slept. When I woke up, I had the terrible need for the crackers I'd brought.

Me: Daniel, crackers. Please?
Daniel: I don't think you should eat.
Mom: Kirsti, ask the nurse before you eat.
Me: I know I can't eat but I'm starving! I am burning calories with each contraction! I need energy for pushing!
Daniel: I'm not going to get you crackers unless you ask.
Me: Fine.

So I called the nurse in and asked what I could eat.

Nurse: We can get you a Popsicle but the sugar might make you sick.
Me: Oh, that's fine. I am starving. I'll take whatever you'll give me.
Nurse: brings me a Popsicle.
Me: scarfs it down. 


Five minutes later.

Me: coughs it all back up. Well, I'm not hungry anymore, at least.

By 5 PM, Kimberly came back to check on me and told me that Faith had finally dropped into the birth canal.

Me: That's a good sign, right?
Kimberly: With her down we can start pushing when you're fully dilated. I'd say you're about an 8.

By 8 PM, I was finally ready to push. I was only at a 9 but Kimberly thought that pushing would make me dilate fully before she got too far to rip anything.

Kimberly: I think we should let your epidural wear off so you can feel when to push during your contractions.
Me: That's fine. I've read that's best anyway. famous last words.

At 8:30 I'm screaming in pain and trying to figure out how you're supposed to push anything out of your uterus. Push up? Push up to wear?

Kimberly gave me a towel that she had made into a rope and told me that she was going to hold one end and I'd hold the other. The trick was that I was to pull her with my abs like I wanted to get her on top of me.

Kimberly: Don't let go without telling me or I'll go flying though!

This was the first time I'd ever heard her get a little edge in her voice. And I only did it twice - but she caught herself each time!

Poor Daniel had to feed me ice chips. He'd give me a huge spoonful and I'd ask for only two chips. He got yelled at several times. I always apologized immediately after.

Pushing was a nightmare. All I can remember was about 5 people gawking at my attempts and cheering me on with all sorts of advice.

Pull on the towel! Go through the whole contraction! You can push one more time! She has so much hair! I'm playing with your baby girl's hair!

And finally Kimberly gave me the bad news.

Kimberly: checks my progress. Kirsti, Faith hasn't moved in about the last ten pushes. She was moving steadily at first but this much of a slow down is a concern.
Me: So what does that mean?
Kimberly: Let's push for another 20 minutes and see where that gets us.

So I pushed and screamed for a C-section. I knew in my heart that something was wrong. I could feel every.little.thing. and my baby had not budged. I begged Kimberly to check me and see if I was getting anything done. She did. I wasn't.

Kimberly: I'm going to call the doctor on-call. Dr. Moser is over at the office and can get here in 15 - 20 minutes. When she gets here, we'll see if we should use forceps or prep you for a C-section. Until then, let's keep pushing.

Those 20 minutes went by like 20 hours. I knew I couldn't push my baby out. I was beginning to cry from the pain and registering that my birth plan wasn't working out.

Probably about 15 minutes in, Kimberly told me more bad news.

Kimberly: The baby has passed meconium and her heart rate is dropping steadily. I'm going to get you to the OR so that once Dr. Moser's here we can start right away.

I told Daniel to tell my parents that I was going to have a C-section and that they needed to pray.

Daniel: I want to be with you right now.
Me: Daniel, go, they have to know. Please, I can't tell them.
Nurse: Once you get back, we'll get you scrubs to wear in the OR and you can be there right beside her.

Now, it took about five minutes to get me from point A to point B. The pain was so bad, I had to continue to push just to relieve myself. Trust me, pushing while knowing that it's no use but it's your best option can seriously make you go insane.

Around 10 and in the OR, I was partly delirious and screaming at everyone. To say the least, I did apologize each time I snapped at someone, though. Oh and I got livid when they told me to move myself from my delivery bed to the operating table.

Me: No. You're going to have to lift me or operate on this bed.
Nurse: Just lift your hips and we'll get the bed underneath you.
Me: I can't! I have a head in my pubic bone!
Nurse: You have to get over there. We can't operate unless you do.
Me: attempt to just roll. I can't!

Even now, thinking as hard as possible, I have no idea how I got myself to the table. All I can remember was screaming the entire time.

Anesthetic DR is back: I'm going to use your epidural catheter to give you the anesthesia to numb you completely.
Me: Sounds great.

Daniel came in looking so cute in his scrubs. He had this terrified look in his eyes that he was hiding from me but I knew that something was worrying him. I ignored it.

DR: I'm going to poke you with something sharp on your shoulder. Can you feel that?
Me: Yes.
DR: Now I'm going to poke you on your stomach. Can you feel it less or the same?
Me: The same.

This went on about 4 or 5 times. The DR was getting pretty upset.

DR: I've given you a lot of anesthesia, are you sure you haven't gotten any more numb on your stomach?
Me: Yes. At least, I think. I don't know anymore.

Eventually, they got it figured out and I was numb enough to operate. Dr. Moser had arrived and standing on my right. Kimberly was on the other side facing her to assist. Anesthesia DR was sitting to the right of my head and Daniel was sitting opposite of him. While Daniel held my hand all I could do was hardly stay conscious.

Me: Is that burning smell you cutting through my fat?

I fell asleep for a little bit. When I woke up, blood splattered across the blue sheet in front of me.

Me: start coughing. I'm going to throw up. I'm going to throw up! What happens if I throw up? I can't throw up!
DR: We gave you medicine for the nausea. Do you feel better?
Me: Mhm. Daniel, what're they doing?
Daniel: keeps looking over the blue sheet. Man, that is so cool! I can see everything. I can see the baby!
Nurse: Time of birth 11:05 PM on March 8, 2012.

Daniel tells me that they used a shovel device to pry Faith out of my bone (apparently I pushed pretty hard) and along came my little baby! Everyone disappeared around me and a halo of pain started wreaking havoc on my head. I was screaming even louder than ever telling them about my pain.

Daniel: Look! It's our baby!

I do not know what, if anything, I said because of the pain and drugs I was on. I can remember looking at her and feeling so strange. There was no register of emotion, which I hate, but I think it's just because of what I was going through. We completely bonded later.

I screamed the whole way through stitching me back up, which Daniel says took no time at all, until I got back to my room and finally I could feel again. 

There were nurses all around me and I could hear my mom's sweet voice mixed in there. I wanted my mom so badly. I was so confused about everything and my mom truly always makes me feel better. Eventually, Faith was put on my chest to nurse and I didn't even really hold her. The nurses held us in place with pillows. 

My little baby girl was in my arms. Faith Danielle. 8 lbs 9 oz. 20.5" long. Head circumference? 17". No stinking joke. It made me feel better about "Failure to Deliver."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thinking back on this experience is crazy. I know this is a long-winded story but I wanted to write it all down before I forgot. I've been told by every nurse that I should have all C-sections because of the complications I had. I've mourned the loss of exclusive breastfeeding, but I refuse to outright say I'll never deliver vaginally. 

Would I go through another birth day like that again just to have the same result? That's something I can't decide. 

Oh, remember my pounding headache? They were supposed to give me medicine for my nausea. Instead they gave me medicine for low-blood pressure. I already had high blood-pressure. This made my blood-pressure shoot through the roof. At least they apologized later on for it.

6 Reasons Why He's a Super Daddy

I'm feeling lovey-dovey about my husband tonight so here are some reasons why he's a super-daddy!

1. He cleans everything better than I do. I mean everything. He's always the one who cleans up the kitchen at the end of the day, he'll pick up blankets and pillows around the living room if he's bored, etc. There are a couple of things that DH won't do but for the most part - he's super spectacular.
 
2. He can feed a baby while surfing the Internet. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes this bugs the bejeezus out of me because I feel like he can always just carry on a conversation with me but the other part of me is impressed that he can hold down both arms of our 4-month-old, give her a bottle that she is too distracted to take, and surf gaming websites. Sometimes the bottle doesn't get finished - which bothers me a little -but for the most part, Daniel does a great job of feeding our obstinate child and enjoys himself while doing so.

3. He sleeps through everything. This will probably end up in the blog post that I'll entitle, "6 Reasons Why He's Not a Super-Daddy," if I write one, as well. However, for now, we'll keep it more of a 'I'm jealous of how super you are.' Anyway, Faith sleeps in the Pack 'N Play in our bedroom and she grunts while she's asleep - especially the last hour before she wakes up.  I'm awake by the first grunt and waiting for her to cry for a bottle but she doesn't, for at least an hour. I can wait for her to squeal in hunger, feed her six ounces, nurse her, and put her back in her bed while she plays with her stuffed animals (and I mean she talks to them, loudly). This is about an hour or so long process and it all happens within five feet of him, and he hears nothing.

4. He changes her poopy diapers. Granted, he kind of freaks out over stinky ones (so all of them?) but he will still clean her. After using 15 wipes per diaper, I think he feels a sense of pride because he often yells at me from across the apartment to come see the mess he gets to clean up. This is also the same man who has had multiple picture-wars with people about how 'neat' his poops are.

5. He helped me recover. Since Faith has been born, I've dealt with some not-so-pretty side effects of pushing for an hour with no progression. Daniel has helped me in ways that are too much to mention here but it makes him a super daddy.

6. Faith adores him way more than me. I mean, she's infatuated with Daniel. I noticed it when she was just a couple months old and started showing a spark of personality. Daniel would come into the room and she'd stop drinking - which back then was a big deal - and watch him walk across the room. About a month later, she started squealing during their 'talks.' I would try and try to get her to squeal for me but she didn't start for a good three weeks after she did for me. I'm glad though, he's a good man to adore.


I love my husband.

She's Four!

My little baby girl will be four-months-old on Sunday. I can't believe it! She seems like she should be so much younger at the same time like she's always been apart of our family. Funny how that works!

I've been uploading videos to our Youtube channel that you can find here: DanielandKirsti Youtube Channel

There are some videos of Faith rolling over, buzzing her lips (my favorite trick!), and just being so darn cute. It makes me sad that she has to be connected with so many family members through the Internet but it just makes me that more appreciative of technology. Without it, so many people wouldn't know her as well as they do!

In other news, I thought I'd look back on the milestones that Faith has reached in honor of her fourth birthday.
She can successfully roll over both ways in any direction.
She can scoot herself on her belly using her right leg, which she usually gets a lot of practice while she's wearing herself down in her crib!
She can sleep from the time we put her down (hopefully before seven) until 5AM for a bottle, then goes right back to sleep without assistance for another two or more hours.
She can sit up without help from pillows and hold her balance while she leans forward on one arm (called a tripod sit).
She's also very good at grabbing objects and bringing them to her mouth.
She can buzz her lips, which is endlessly amusing because sometimes she gets tongue-tied and has to restart.
And finally, as we find out during bath, she's able to bring a normal cup to her mouth and tip it. Though she won't drink what's in it!

Goals for next month:
Continue teaching her the signs for: MILK, MOM, DAD
Survive a 25-hour drive to Sanibel Island, FL, with my family
Survive a 7-hour plan trip from FL - MO
Visit the beach for the first time
Visit a pool for the first time
Scoot more efficiently
Sit for longer periods of time


Love,
Kirsti

Sleep Training

About three weeks ago, Daniel and I decided that we should try letting Faith put herself to sleep after her bedtime/naptime routine. I did a lot of research through online articles and interviewing other moms (including mine) about the best way to approach it.

The reason we decided it was necessary was because Faith had been nursed to sleep since she was about 7 weeks old and co-slept with us. I loved this arrangement because I was working as a teacher after Faith turned 5 weeks and getting up in the middle of the night and trying to figure out how to put her to sleep was getting impossible. Co-sleeping meant peaceful nights and more nursing for Faith. Since she is mostly bottle-fed, I try to nurse her before she sleeps now - just to signal bed time. However, this came to bite me in the butt after the summer started and I no longer went to bed with my newborn daughter. And being used to cuddling and nursing as she please, Faith would wake up for the first two hours of napping and sleeping and cry to be nursed. It got to the point where she no longer wanted to be rocked, held or sung to - only nursed. (About two weeks before I started letting her cry, I had been moving the sleeping Faith to the crib without waking her up - very difficult but worth it since she had started rolling and needed to put off of our bed for her own safety.) After debating whether or not I was ready for her to be more independent or not, I went ahead with finding a way to get her to sleep on her own.

I decided that my approach would be to do our regular routine, which had been established very early on, of bath, massage, large bottle, nurse and move her to the crib. If she was to be asleep when she got moved, that was fine, but if she was awake, she was awake and would need to fall asleep on her own. Once the crying starts, I go in within 3-5 minutes and rub her back pretty hard because I don't feel like she feels a light, gently rub when she's so worked up. I sing to her for about 1 minute and leave the room while she's usually still screaming. The next time I go in about 7-10 minutes later, and repeat. Now that we've been doing it for 3 weeks, she's really never crying past the first 10-15 minutes, but there have been a few nights where I've put her to be when she's too hungry still and cried for a long time before I got the hint. 

 The first night, I felt like a failure as a mom. Daniel had gone out with friends and I had to listen to my baby truly scream like never before all by myself. It was the worst idea. I gave in to her after an hour and a half and just held her while she whimpered and tried to stop crying. She looked so sad and almost confused about why she cried so long. I crawled into bed with her attached to me and nursed her to sleep. 

I went to work the following week and talked with a mom-friend and asked her how she did it with her two kids. Turns out, her oldest cried-it-out at 9 months and her youngest was 3 months. I asked which she preferred and she said that doing it younger was the best decision. Her youngest now just passes out when she pleases. Renewed, with the faith that my Faith would be okay if we did it at this age, I talked with my husband again about the plan.

So we tried it again. And it was HARD. She cried for about two hours. She fell asleep for a period of about fifteen minutes before she woke up and did it all over. We went in during our intermittent periods, trading off which parent got to go in, and held strong. Praise the Lord, it was the best night she's slept. And the next morning she woke up, cooed from her crib for about ten minutes while waiting for me to come to her, and gave me the happiest smile. Relief flooded me and it made the crying worth it. Not only had Faith gotten wonderful sleep but she still loved me in the morning.

The next two or three nights she cried for about 30 minutes- 45 minutes at the most but after that she has pretty much gone down every night with about a 5 minute protest, which I'm sure she'll never really get rid of. My baby girl likes to know what's going on - she was that way when she was born. Just watched everyone instead of crying and getting worked up.

Naps have lasted usually 3 hours or more, 2x a day, with nighttime sleep lasting approximately 11 hours. Our little sleeping champ amazes me. I know that some people say not to start earlier than 4 months, but I think you have to know your own child and go with what she needs. Faith is so used to putting herself to sleep she now rarely falls asleep at the breast and will drink all she desires, look up at me and coo - I think it's her way of saying, "All done!" - and I pick her up, burp her, rock her with a little nursery song, and lay her down with her blankie. Sure, she'll whine and cry a little but some nights she just rolls over to her belly and says some prayers to God, and puts herself to sleep.

And every morning, she still loves me.


Love,
Kirsti