Sick, naps, dentist, bike!

Our week is going okay.  Elsie came down with a cold.  Poor baby!  She is snotty, coughing and congested.  I bought some saline drops for her nose, hopefully that helps.  I got the cold symptoms yesterday and Reagan developed the illness overnight.  I think Katya is getting it too but it is a bit hard to tell with our little hypocondriac.  Needless to say we are laying low today.  My mastitis is clearing up nicely with help from the homeopathic medication.  It amazes me how well that stuff works.



Elsie has done pretty well this week.  She had great naps on Monday.  I try to plan our outings so that she can get a nap in, strapped to me in a baby carrier.  Therefore, I have to plan on being in one place for over an hour.  After her morning nap, we went to the library, the post office, out to lunch and to a park in the St. John's neighborhood.  It was pretty fun; we were able to park and then walk everywhere.   Elsie slept for 2 hours in the Moby wrap.  Yesterday it took two hours to get her down for her morning nap and then she only slept for 30 minutes.  So I put her in the Moby and took the kids to the park.  We came home, had lunch and I put the girls down for rest time all while Elsie slept.  She was out for 2.5 hours in the Moby!  It was not the easiest for me, having her straped to me the whole time, but I was happy she was sleeping.  At this point, I don't care where she sleeps!  As long as she sleeps for at least an hour, I count it as a decent nap (her naps are usually around 2-3hrs).  After this good nap, she went back down for about 3.5 hours.  The evenings have still been rough but I am usually able to get her settled down in my arms between 9-10pm.  She has not let us put her down in the evenings in quite some time.  It is amazing the difference between a rested baby (good nap day) and a tired baby (bad day).  You can really tell.  She is giving us lots of great smiles after she eats.  She is still doing well at tummy time.  She rolled tummy to back again; twice yesterday and twice so far today!  Most babies don't do this til 3 months. 

Last week I finally got the girls to the dentist.  Reagan's first visit being right on time (age 2), but it was also Katya's first visit which was long overdue.  I felt less bad about it after the visit in which all they did with Reagan was count her teeth and put a little fluoride treatment on.  I know the idea is just to get them use to the dentist at this age but that would have been kind of pointless with Katya.  She does great with medical types.  And in fact Katya did do great.  She has X-rays taken, her teeth cleaned and an exam by the dentist.  Aftewards she was telling everyone she saw, "Look-it!  Clean teeth!"  It is a pediatric dentist and I liked him pretty well.  Reagan cried, no surprise, when the dentist looked in her mouth.  But Bunny Bear did great:0)

We finally got Katya's birthday present, a balance bike!  In case you haven't heard of such a thing, it is basically a small kid bike without pedals.  It is all the new rage for teaching kids to ride a bike.  They learn the balance and coordination of bike riding while gaining the confidence because they control everything with their feet fully touching the ground.  Kids who ride balance bikes usually skip right over training wheels and transition easily to a real bike.  We had to look around to find one big enough for Katya.  I am happy with the one we got.  It will fit her for a very long time and it has foot pegs where she can rest her feet when she gets cruising (in the photo, the foot pegs are turned the wrong way, which is how it came for packaging and shipping.  I wasn't able to turn it myself and had to have Craig do it when he got home).  She wasn't so sure at first but I demonstrated for her and then she started practicing like crazy.  I let her practice in the house since the bike is new and she is just learning.  She is pretty excited about it and is getting better all the time!  That's it for now from the Faulkner house!  Love to all, Brenda

   

Mom and baby

Craig did a great job of taking some photos of Elsie and I.

Ladybug girl

Here is Reagan in the darling hat her Aunt Eryn knit for her and her new ladybug shoes!

Reagan is so much fun! She says the silliest things all day long. Yesterday when I was cleaning her up after lunch she said, "Thank you Miss mommy. I am so happy! You are my best friend." She LOVES tape (which she calls 'sticky tape.'). Craig gave her a piece of tape to play with yesterday and when it got messed up and stuck together she asked for help. When he fixed it she said, "Thank you. You are a very good friend daddy."

Oh the crying!

From "Heatlhy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth: "Does your baby require soothing more than three hours a day because he fusses or cries? Does this occur more than three days a week? Has this been going on for more than three weeks? If you answered "yes" to all three questions, your child has extreme fussiness or colic." Damn.

I was in denial as to calling Elsie's fussiness, "extreme fussiness/colic" until I read the above in our sleep book.   I read it to Craig who quickly replied yes to all three questions and he said, "I could have told you that [she was colicky]."  I keep thinking that some parents have it even harder, and while I still know that is true, it is good to acknowledge how hard we are working to sooth our baby.   Dr. Weissbluth's advise, "Enlist all the soothing resources you can to help sooth your baby.   If you want to, or it you need to, consider sleeping with your baby day and night for several weeks or months. Always hold your baby and always respond to her.   Drowsy signs may be absent, so try to soother her to sleep after one or two hours of wakefulness.   Soothe your baby as long as needed to induce sleep. Motion may be needed during sleep to help your baby sleep longer."

We are already doing all of this. It is just nice to know that we are doing the right things. His research suggests that the better parents of extreme fussy/colic babies are able to sooth their babies, the more often these infants turn into 'easier' tempered babies at four months.   It reconfirms my commitment to waiting til four months to let her 'cry it out.' There is so much development going on in these early weeks, I think it is a really important time to always go to your baby.   But it is not easy when she is screaming despite all our bouncing, pacing, swaddling, and shushing.  Dr. Weissbluth says that things that sooth the 'common fussy baby,' often don't work with the 'extreme fussy/colic baby.'   

I had to put her down and let her scream 3 times yesterday afternoon and I felt awful about it.  Once to fix the girls their dinner, once to put the girls to bed, and once to come downstairs and have myself a little cry.   It is SO incredible hard not to have any help 2-3 evenings a week. Not only does Elsie suffer, but the other girls too.  Last week Craig had a Hood to Coast commitment on Wed. night.   Next week is Hood to Coast so I will be without him Thursday - Sunday afternoon.  I am really dreading it.  I don't know how single parents do it.   

I know the fussiness will end and I keep reminding myself of this.  And not everyday is terrible.  She has her good days.  Sleep really does beget sleep.  I am staying positive most of the time and I feel like she will be a fine sleeper when she is older.  I am currently down and out fighting a mastitis infection.  The third fight so far with Elsie.  I usually start to feel bad (achy, tired) first and then get the pain in the breast.  I have had pretty good sucess fighting it off with a naturopathic 'medication.'  This time the hurting came on first and it is pretty bad.  I am glad it is Saturday so I can rest.  Hopefully I will be able to clear it up without antibiotics again.  Love to all!

Elsie bug

I know I am bias, but dang this baby is adorable!  Her first social smile was about 4.5 weeks.  I am getting them about everyday now.  I love it!   

Happenings

Here some things we have been up to lately:

Best friends!

Helping mommy made dinner! I love having them help in the kitchen.

Picking blueberries.

Elsie outside the animal barn on Sauvie Island.

At Washington Park playground.

Reagan at the sandbox, Washington Park.

Riding bike out front.

New ladybug shoes! These are so cute that I ended up buying Reagan a pair too:-)

Next trip to Washington Park, at the rose garden.

Stoping to smell the roses.

Watering the tree.

Running!

Eyes

I thought this was a good picture of Elsie's current eye color. So pretty!

Katay's eyes at 5 weeks. Definitely blue!

Reagan's eyes at 5 weeks. It was the best picture I could find. They were a cool dark green at this age.

Life with three!

Elsie is 1 month old!  It is so funny how time flies now that she is here.  We are on our third week of Craig being back to work.  Overall things are going great.  I have my good days and bad, of course.  We know realized that Katya was our easiest baby.  Reagan and Elsie's evening fussiness is a toss up; both girls were/are pretty hard, though Elsie is a bit fussier overall.  She does well at tummy time but doesn't last long awake and not being held.  It takes a minimum of 20-30 minutes to get her down for a nap, and if she is overly tired or just fussy, that can extend to 1, 2 or even 3 hours. 

Blurry of me but still cute.

As you can imagine, when it takes hours to get her down for a nap and the girls are still up, it can be very stressful and challenging.  It also sucks at 3 in the morning.  I have found that I need a lot of patience in the process, and I cannot rush it or I will end up having to start all over with the soothing.  I am not too surprised that Elsie is a little difficult.  She was my only baby who was fussy right after birth.  They sure have their personalities from the get-go!  Once Elsie goes down for her nap she usually sleeps about 2 hours, in her swing.  We have been co-sleeping at night; her and I in the guest bed (judge if you will:-))  She has one long nap, about 4 hrs, unfortunately it has been during the day lately.  The fussy period is suppose to peak around week 5-6, so I expect things to get worse before they get better.  There is a lot of crying in the evenings and A LOT of pacing the floor with Miss fussy pants. 

The girls are doing great adjusting to the new baby.  They are both very sweet towards her.  They love laying with her during tummy time.   They are getting along pretty well and playing together a lot.  I am thankful that they have each other.  Many days we are able to get out of the house after Elsie's morning nap.  OMSI, the park, playdate, grocery store, etc.  Els sleeps in the Moby on our outing.  When we get home the girls go down for rest time (they have not been sleeping at nap time) and I can work on getting Elsie down.  It usually leaves me a half hour to myself for cleaning, dinner prep or a quick workout.  Elsie's long nap is often the afternoon one.

Elsie is very strong and has good head control. She rolled over, tummy to back three times yesterday! She has not repeated it yet. She still has quite a bit of her dark hair, which I love. Her eyes still have the slate blue newborn color but are dark and 'muddy' just under the surface.  Elsie gave me 3 big awake smiles yesterday too.  I feel like I am handling the sleep deprivation pretty darn well.  Especially considering she is up every two hours at night.  I still maintain being up all night is easier than being pregnant for me. 

It kind of looks like she is smiling in this cute picture. 

Milk tongue!

   

Katya and Reagan

Here is a cute video clip of the girls playing on Reagan's bed (we set up her twin bed a few weeks ago).

Katya on her birthday

I love her piggy tail braids that she asked for! They lasted a few hours before she pulled them out.

This one was on her photo shoot day. Such a great shot; if only I had framed it better! I was in such a hurry to capture her movement, which looks so great!

Sisters

Reagan loves to say, "That's my friend, Elsie! She is so cute!"

Katya is full of love for sisters! Elsie is wearing a darling outfit from Aunt Candace. I love it! She is wearing 3 month sizes at 4 weeks old. It is really fun to have some new stuff. I am finding most of the hand-me-downs from her sisters have some staining ( I am not known for my steller laundry skills).

The girls hanging with Elsie during tummy time.

Elsie is really great at tummy time!

Elsie is starting to seems less like a newborn to us. I have gotten a few open eyed smiles....though they are similar to the drunken sleepy smiles.

I love her hair! It has gotten thinner and I expect she will lose more of it like the other girls did. But both K and R were pretty bald by this point.

It is hard to say who we think she looks more like. She definitley has lots of Faulkner genes, with the dark hair and eyes. I see some of myself in her too.

Such a little beauty already! I can't get enough of her:-)