Kodak albums added

I added 2 albums to my picture link on the right-hand side of my blog. One is Sharon's pictures from our trip to Seaside and the other is my mom's pictures from Reagan's baptism weekend.

My first week with Sterling went great. It went smoother than I expected which is always good. I do want to work on getting the babies nap time routines down better. I am having to edit Reagan's routine and for poor Sterling, well I am just not the same as his mommy or daddy! But I know it will get better with time as we all get use to the change.

Reagan has been taking really short naps lately which is annoying. I consider less than 1hr of sleep a crappy nap, especially for my little girl who has always napped like a champ. She is waking up happy after 40-45 mins and "singing" in her crib. I am leaving her until a full hour is up and then going to her. Occasionally she falls back to sleep. I think it might be teething related but I am not sure. It might be that I am missing that perfect time to put her down and she is getting overly tired, therefor not sleeping as well. It is hard to tell. But when she does take a short nap she is ready to go down again after only an hour so I know she is not getting enough sleep. The last two mornings her naps have been better so lets hope that continues.

Some cute things that the girls are doing: Katya wants to be IN her movies. She says, "Katy! Movie!" and tries to climb into the TV. Reagan is "singing" with me during her lullabies. She sings when I do and stops when I do. She is such a happy girl and is so interactive these days!

Reagan stuff

I am so thrilled with how well Reagan is sleeping. She goes down for the night between 6:30 and 7pm, wakes 1-3x's to nurse and is up for the day between 6:30-7:30am. She usually fusses a tiny bit when I put her down, after rocking her and lullabies, but who can blame her?! Snuggle time is so sweet. She is taking 3, shorter naps (1-2hrs) now that she is sleeping more at night which means I have more time to enjoy her during the day. She has completely given up a pacifier but still wants to be swaddled. She is very wiggly and gets herself out of the miracle blanket (which is like a little straight jacket) quite often but does not go to sleep, or stay asleep well without the swaddle. I have tired on several occasions to kick the swaddle for a sleep sack (no loose blankets around my baby!) but she is not having it. Not a big deal, she will outgrow that need eventually.

She is very talkative and laughs a ton. She loves it when I munch on her cheeks and when I return her huge, open mouth kisses. She smacks her lips/tongue really loudly sometimes when she is laying in her crib. Craig and I laugh about the sound it makes and how noisy it is. She often wakes up happy and 'sings' in her crib until we come get her...now that's a sign of a well rested baby! She has also been making a contented grunty noise lately that reminds us of what Katya did as a newborn.

She is rolling from her back on to her side but not all the way over yet. She has not been rolling tummy to back lately, but we know she can. She is really reaching out and grabbing things, bringing them to her mouth and drooling all over them. She does not love being strapped into a carrier (Ergo or Bijorn) but once I get her settled she is fine. She enjoys being out on walks or at stores once we get going and as long as we keep it kind of short. I love, love, love her new car seat and the fact that I no longer lug her around in the removable infant seat.

Her eye color is holding steady at hazel for now. It's hard to know if they will turn brown or stay hazel. I love brown eyes but they sure are pretty and unique at their current color.

That's it for now about our littlest girl. I start work on tomorrow, babysitting for little Sterling. I will let you all know how it goes!

Love to all, Brenda

Katya's favorite saying

The latest thing that I hear all day long from my darling eldest child is, "Katy, do that!" It is pretty funny, especially when it is in reference to something she sees on one of her movies. Example, the end scene in Annie were everyone is dancing and riding around on elephants and such, "Katy! Do that!" And when Mary Poppins is riding the carousel horse, "Katy! Do that! (remembering her ride in Seaside no doubt) Hor!(horse)" And again when Jane and Michael get sucked up the chimney and are tromping around on rooftops. I tell her "Okay! We can pretend," and carry her around pretending to gallop on a horse or marching to 'Step 'N Time'. She is a little young for the concept of pretend but it appeases her for a while. So much fun!

Our goings on

Here is our newly baptized little Reagan in her awesome new car seat! Thank you Aunt Colleen!

And Katya playing in the box:0)



We had such a great weekend with family and friends to celebrate our new little Catholic. It was hard to see everyone go; my parents were the last to leave, Tuesday night. It is once again quite around here, at least most of the time. There are occations when both kids are crying that it gets pretty noisy.

I got another case of mastitis on Wed. I feel like there is no end to these infections, and that I will continue to get them as long as I am breastfeeding. It makes me think about quiting, I just can't be sick all the time like this! Especially since I start work next week, babysitting for our neighbors. I am really hoping to hold out until Reagan is 6 months old before I make the decision to throw in the towel. I was hoping to nurse all the way to a year, when she can start on cow's milk. But it does not look like that will happen. All I can do is my best.

Reagan and Katya both had colds (still lingering) over the weekend which messed up Reagan's sleep a bit. But after a few rough nights she is back to sleeping well in her crib. She is waking 2-3x a night to nurse and is down for a total of about 12hrs. Even though the night wakings are tiring I am happy to do it to keep my milk supply up. I would much rather her get up and nurse then get up to pump in the middle of the night. Reagan's naps are still great, 1.5-3hrs in length. She is up for about 5.5hrs in a 24hr period. Girlfriend likes her sleep! What a good girl.

Katya sure had fun with her cousins and her grandparents in town. It is funny how much she associates Grandma with going on walks. Poor kid does not get out enough with Reagan sleeping so much! We did get a nice, albeit short, walk in this morning. And we spend lots of time in the back and front yards with the baby monitor near by. In fact, I think we will go out now and walk Lacy around our yard. Lacy, Melanie's dog, is staying with us until next Friday when the Tillman crew returns from Europe. Love to all!

Family name??!!!

I can't believe I keep forgetting to blog about this because it is so amazing and exciting to me. Grandma Bev was talking to her cousin about me and my girls, and the cousin told her that Great Grandma Ames's mom was named Katya, but she changed her name when she came to the States from Poland! For those who don't know, Grandma Ann Ames is Grand Bev's mom. So it was my great-great grandma who was named Katya. How cool is that!!

Sleep day 5

Reagan got her naps messed up again yesterday because of her afternoon dr appointment. So she took a late 3rd nap and did not go to bed until about 8:30. Cried/fussed for a few minutes and fell asleep. Total cry time: less than 2minutes!!! Yeah! And then she slept all night, until 6:45am.

I gave her some Tylenol around 8pm because she wasn't feeling great after her vaccines. Poor baby. Before that I gave her a warm bath (she loves her baths!), massaged her legs and did lots of leg exercises to help with the soreness. She was really fussy this morning too; I probably should have nursed her and put her back to bed but I did get some smiles from her and a couple of laughs. We had some nice snuggle time, I gave her another dose of Tylenol and put her down for her first nap.

She sure is doing GREAT sleeping in her crib! She is fighting the transition much less that Miss Katya did:0) It is funny because over all Katya was a more laid back baby but she was SUPER resistant to a few things..namely sleeping in her crib and taking a bottle. Reagan has always been a better napper though, so it probably helps that she is better rested. Sleep definitely begets sleep.

Here is Miss Katya trying to put broken chalk "back" together.

Reagan 4 months old!

Reagan's 4 month check went fine. She is doing all the things she should:0) Dr. Oller was impressed with her head control and said I can go ahead use the Ergo baby carrier instead of the Bjorn (we never bought the infant insert for the Ergo). She weighed in at 15lbs 3oz (90th%) and measured 25inches (75th%).

Here is what she is up to these days!
* Rolling tummy to back
* Smiling, laughing and cooing (she loves being sung too)
* Standing with help just for balance (she hold all her own weight)
* 'Crunches' Trying to sit up when she is partially reclined
* 2-3 naps a day (3 shorter naps or 2 super naps)
* Is awake for 1.5-2hrs at a time.
* Finally sleeping in her crib!
* Wakes 1-2x a night to nurse
* Not wanting or needing a pacifier
* Discovering her hands and feet
* Noticing the dogs more and more
* Teething

She is so much fun. I love reading to her and getting her to laugh. Katya is a fantastic big sister, so sweet and caring. We have a blast together!

Seaside

Katya had such a good time at the beach! We went for a walk 'downtown' to look at the shops. She enjoyed the walk very much. She got to ride on a carousel thanks to grandma Sharon. She wasn't sure at first but warmed up quick and did NOT want to get off! On the drive home she was saying "more, horse." She also liked the ocean water after a little while. She was not too sure about the sand at first but it did not take too long. Doug, Sharon, Don, Joan and the Grands had rented a darling house just 2 blocks from the sand. It worked out great that someone was always at the house to man the baby monitor during Reagan's naps. Unfortunately we had to eat and run after an early dinner to get our kiddos to bed at a decent hour. Especially since Reagan is going through a huge adjustment with her sleep; consistency is so important. The drive home went smooth (Katya was much better behaved) and we got home by 745pm. What a lovely day!

I will post pictures after I get them from Sharon, I forgot the SD card for our camera!

Sleep training day 3 & 4

Day 3: Great naps with little crying. Bed time at 7pm (she does not have a set bed time yet, we just put her down no more than 2hrs after her last nap). Cry time: 50 mins. She only got up once to nurse and slept until 7:30am, fantastic!

Day 4: We went to Seaside today (a beach town about 1.5hr from Portland) so that messed up naps a bit. Reagan took a really good morning nap at the house in Seaside but her second nap was poor. And then she was up way too long because of the car ride home (my kids don't sleep much in the car). She did not go to bed until 8:30 and cried for 20minutes. I went to her because I had to put some stuff away in her room and set up the monitor. I nursed her again because she had not eaten much right before bed. She ate well and when down. Cried only a few minutes off and on! Total crying: 22 minutes

Sleep training: day 2

Last night we put Reagan to bed around 6pm. She screamed; I went to her after 20 minutes to make sure she did not need a diaper change; she did not so I attemped to sooth her without picking her up (no luck) and then left. Total crying time: 1hr 30minutes. She woke up after only an hour and a half of sleep. I went to her, nursed her, changed her and put her back down. She cried for only a few minutes and fell asleep. She only got up one more time to nurse and slept until 7:30am. Not bad (besided the hour and a half of crying of course; how our hearts ached)!

Yesterday she napped in her crib all day. Her naps were not great but not terrible and it makes sense that it will take some getting use to before she is back to her super napping. She only cried for a few minutes each time she was put down for a nap in her crib and the last nap she did not cry at all!

This morning she went down for her first nap about 9:30 and is still down at 1230! She barley resisted being put down in her crib; I am so happy how quickly she is taking to the crib. Craig said that she did wake up after being down for only about 30 minutes and cried very weakly (more fussing than crying) for about 30 minutes. She fell back to sleep without intervention.

Here is Katya in her darling Halloween costum from Grandma and Baba Faulkner. She is the cutest Tinker Bell ever!

Sleep training: day 1

Last night was our first night of 'teaching' Rea to sleep in her crib. We were planning on waiting until after the baptism weekend but she has been increasingly fussy and resistant to bed time lately (even while being held which is the only way she will go to bed without screaming her head off). Craig tried putting her to bed last night and she would not settle down, even in his arms. If she is in need of nothing but sleep, yet still cries while being held, it is real easy to decide to let her cry. But leaving her to cry herself to sleep is INCREDIBLY hard. The thing is, if we leave her for 10, 20 or even 30 mins crying but then go to her she just learns that she has to keep crying and eventually mom will come get her. And then it is that much harder for all of us next time we try and put her down. But what if she really does need something? So hard!

I went to her last night after 30 minutes and discovered that she did infact need something, she had pooped. I changed her and tried soothing her but she was so PO'ed that she kept crying. So I kissed her and but her back to bed. She continued to scream; total crying time: 1hr 35 minutes. She then slept for an hour and woke up crying. I let her cry for a few minutes to see is she would settle back down but then went to see is she needed something and sure enough she had pooped again. I changed her, offered her milk, soothed and then put her down. Immediately she started screaming; I headed downstairs to pump off the rest of my milk, and low and behold, she fell asleep after only a minute or two of crying! What a relief! She woke up once, kicked her legs and wiggled for a while but did not cry and fell back to sleep. After that she woke up 2x to eat and went back to bed in her crib with very little resistance. Success!! It sure makes the crying worth it to know that she is going to sleep so much better in her crib once she gets use to it.

I wasn't committed to trying the crib vs the swing for naps today because I feel that it is more important that she naps well during the day, and is put down in her crib at night. But I definitely wanted to try. I soothed her and put her down sleepy, she did not cry immediately but then started up. She only cried hard for a few minutes, then fussed a little, and is now asleep! Yeah! Hopefully she will stay down, for a good long nap (her morning nap is the longest, usually 3-4hrs) in her crib.

I expect a good amount of "resistance" crying (as Dr. Weissbluth would say) again tonight but I think we are on the right track. I am so anixous to get the worst of it over. It is crazy how hard this is even though I know it is super important and is in her best interest.

Video clips

Here is a clip of Reagan in her bouncy toy. She is slightly young for it still but does pretty good with close supervision. She loves the green frog and is pretty amazed when she inadvertently hits it with her hand!


Here is a clip of Katya 'reading' "Goodnight Gorilla" to Reagan. She is such a sweet big sister! The funny faces she makes is mimicking a character in the book.


Katya amazed us last night by 'reading' "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy" to herself. You have to watch it and know the book to be properly impressed but I will try to explain. She flipped through the book and recited several of the lines, on the correct page. Here is Katya's version of the darling book her Aunt and Uncle Smith got her: "Hello." "Puppy, puppy, puppy!" "Awwww. Puppies!" "Right now! Right here!" "AUUUGGGGHHHH!" "Change mind." "Waawiee." (That last line reads: I want a Walrus).

Love to all, Brenda

Fun with daddy

Here are some picture of Craig and Miss Reagan.

Birthday video clips

Here are some video clips from Katya's birthday. I wish we had a microphone on our camera!
She kept rearranging her table and chairs. She would move an chair and say, "right here!"

She loves all her gifts, even though it may not look like it from some of this videos:0) She is 2 after all...
The sugar high.