Double Digits!

G slept 10 hours last night! We are so excited she has hit the double digit mark! Today she is 17 weeks, I'm starting to forget and have to count the weeks on a calendar!

This week, we took G to the park with some other friends. She did better than last time, no spitting up in her tent, and she even took a nap in it! Moderate heat wave Friday and Saturday. Saturday, to beat the heat, we went to the mall, along with everyone else in the area who doesn't have AC. The Nordstrom's women's lounge was packed with nursing moms, and at one point there was even a line! Three clothing changes and two diaper changes and feedings later, we were headed home with no spare clothing or burp cloths or wipes, and one diaper left. Note to self: remember to put plastic bag (for holding dirty stuff) in diaper bags.

We have her 4 month appointment coming up this week too, not looking forward to that.

We had wanted G to start sleeping in her crib regularly, but we've continued to have "crib bedding incidents," as well as ants in her room (ugh, such a long horrible story, I can't even begin to retell it, but it involves washing every single tiny piece of clothing she has, now finally folded and laid out on the sofa in the living room), so she is back to her bassinet in our room. Hopefully this week she will get back to her crib in her room and I can put all her stuff back into her dresser too.

The price we pay

G slept 9.5 hours last night!

When E picked her up, he noticed her clothes were a little wet and commented that maybe she spit up. Later on, he noticed that the bed was also wet where her head was. After futher investigation, we had to pull off all 5 layers of her bed (two crib sheets and 3 burp cloths) to wash this morning, which means that she's now back to sleeping in her bassinet. I don't know what we will do in this situation once she outgrows the bassinet, let her sleep on our bed? I don't really like that thought because I don't want her spitting up on our bed either, but maybe that's the only alternative. Unless I open up her portable tent and let her sleep there.

Anyways, to finish the story of G's busy morning, while I was still nursing her, she pooped. As I was changing her diaper, she apparently hadn't finished pooping and more started coming out. We thought she was done and pulled away the old diaper, but the poop kept flowing. I think it was one of the first times we had actually seen it coming out (luckily it wasn't shooting out, and didn't get anywhere outside the diapers). One feeding, 3 diapers, I don't know how many wipes.

She spit up again after I finished nursing her, but just a normal amount. And only a little on me (most of it I caught in her burp cloth, unlike last night where she spit up right down my shirt).

I told E that G missed us because she slept so long, so she wanted to give us a lot to do this morning.

Now I'm waiting for my bass to arrive...

Deep in Thought...

... pondering the mysteries of life.

Or just trying to figure out how to get more fingers into her mouth, like this:or this:

Today I wanted to run 4 errands with G. We left around 1:30 with a clean diaper and a full tummy. Our first stop was the post office to pick up a package from Grandma. This is a package we could have received several weeks ago, but Grandma sent it registered mail for some reason and it takes us a while to make it to the post office. For anyone reading this that might send us a package in the future, our neighborhood is safe, please just send packages regularly, without requiring us to go pick them up, it's kind of a hassle with a baby. Tomorrow I have to wait all day (it will probably just be all morning or half the morning) for a Fed Ex package. At least in this case, I've been tracking it, so I know it will arrive tomorrow. What's the package? My new bass! I'm so excited. This is what I'm expecting, my belated birthday, Christmas, Valentine's, and everything else present.

Anyways, I was relaying today's errands... After the post office, we went to BBB. This is trip very long overdue. Before G was born, I went there intending to use my "20% off entire purchase" coupon, to buy a bunch of stuff for the house when we thought we were going to get to move into it. In my pregnancy brain, I forgot the coupon, but they said I could just bring the coupon and receipt and they will credit the difference. The next time I was able to make it out, G was maybe 2 months old. And I left the coupon in the OTHER diaper bag. Oh well, at least I was able to return stuff. The next time I tried to make it to BBB was with my friend, and we were G-less, but never made it to BBB before I got the call that a hungry baby was awaiting me at home. The next time I tried to go to BBB, I again didn't have the coupon because I had put it in my purse last time I was G-less. So this time, I had G, I had my receipt, and I had my coupon. Yay!

Lastly, we went to Target to return stuff and buy E some more cough drops. Today was E's second day working from home. It's funny that he's always whispering, took me awhile to get use to it, because my first reaction is always, she can't hear you, it's ok. Anyways, G was starting to get fussy, probably because she didn't sleep all that well from going in and out of the car. If I had just left her at home, then she probably would have slept at least a solid hour.

So the trip to the bank will have to wait. Hopefully tomorrow after my bass arrives! Oohh, can't wait! By the way, this was the first pic I got of my bass, many months ago (see the pencil outline?)...

Sleeping on the Beach

Capitola was great. Relaxing, nice weather, great retreat. We kind of spoiled G by letting her sleep in our bed for many of her naps. Can you even find her in the huge king-sized bed?

I wanted to take G to the beach to see, and maybe touch, the ocean. Many people live their whole lives never seeing the ocean, so it's a reminder to me of how blessed we are to live where we do. I had bought her a cute bathing suit also, giraffe print, with board shorts. However, the beach was freezing Sunday morning (it was warm and nice Saturday afternoon when I went by myself). So G saw the ocean, briefly...

...before she fell asleep. I guess she was bundled warm enough.

Yes, G was wearing her A's outfit for Daddy. She also surprised him with a photo of her in her A's gear, asking Daddy to take her to a game (E's request for a Father's Day present). G (with Mommy's help) also surprised Daddy with a framed scrapbook collage of photos of them together doing different things. It was a good Father's Day.

So, what's the latest with G this week? She's not rolling over as much, but talking up a storm. She's discovered her vocal chords can make sounds of all different pitches. Soon she will be out-talking E. We're finally (mostly) ready for G to resume transitioning to her crib. She had slept in it successfully a few times, but because of a few mishaps (spit ups, messed up bumpers), we've had to put a hold on transitioning her. Our new strategy includes putting on several layers of crib sheets alternating with spit up cloths. This way, if (when) she spits up, we can just pull off a layer (or two) and be good to go. We are also doing away with keeping her crib pristine. If there's spit up on the crib skirt or bumper, so be it. We can try to spot treat it, and maybe once in a while clean it, but we no longer feel the need to have every bit of spit up washed immediately.

Today, I had to drive to SF with G. My cell phone died over the weekend, and since I bought it while we were still living up there, I had to go back to the same store. Luckily, they are really nice to deal with. I have a loaner phone until mine gets fixed. It was an hour drive each way, roughly totalling $18 in gas. It was fun, though, to take G around the "old neighborhood", showing her where we used to live, and walking around the familiar streets with her.

Heat Wave Chills

It's nice to have a husband who can leave work in the middle of the day to come home to help take care of G and me when I'm not feeling well.

Over the weekend, I felt very weak and nauseous, and thought it was over because I felt much better by Monday. However, this morning, after E left for work and G woke up from her nap, while I was feeding her, I realized that I was shivering and had goosebumps on my arms, and my feet were frozen. I bundled us up on the papasan chair with a down blanket (only covering me, not G), and added long pants and a hoodie to what I was wearing. I figured nothing better to warm yourself up with than your own little 12-lb heater (G). Wasn't freezing anymore by the time we woke up from our 2 hr nap, but still very weak.

My women's group is supposed to be going down to Capitola this weekend for our prayer retreat to wrap up our bible study series, so I hope this isn't spiritual attacks. Two other women in the group have said that their kids have gotten sick this week as well.

By the way, we started studying Philippians when I was pregnant with G, her blessing prayer that we say to her every day (and prayed over her while she was in utero) is from the first chapter: And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ -- to the glory and praise of God. Yes, it's a tall order, but that is what we pray and hope for in G's future. We pray this blessing for her at the end of her bedtime routine every night.

Catch 22

The problem with having a long (3 hours! Down side was that two of those hours were in my arms...) nap is waking up very hungry.

The problem with drinking a lot of milk is becoming sleepy.

G is back to sleep again. This time back in her bassinet. I have no idea how long she will nap for!

We need to buy her a baby bath thing. The sink is just getting too small for her. Since she's learned to arch her back, she arches and kicks, splashing water everywhere.

This picture was from last weekend when I had to prep for a stamping (set of 5 cards) party. I was able to do a lot when G slept, but this is what I had to do when she was awake:

Look Ma, I found my toe!
Our hip and cool baby is also socially conscious.
Her Delive(red) shirt donates money towards AIDS relief in Africa.

15 & 9

G is now 15 weeks old, it's so hard to believe how quickly she is growing. I saw a mom with her baby at BRU over the weekend, and the baby was only 8 days old. I thought fondly back to when G was that small. Yesterday at the mall, I saw another newborn, the mom had to stop in the middle of the aisle to attend to her crying baby, and I smiled at her.

So, what is G up to these days? Well, the big news around town is that G slept NINE HOURS last night! She must have known that her parents needed that because they stayed up late talking. It was a good talk, though both E and S were tired. We need to do more of that, talking, that is, it's good for our relationship. This is how we found her this morning.

This was not the first time she has squirmed into a funny position in her sleep. Here are some other ways that we have found her:


Also in G's headline news, she's outgrowing her newborn and 0-3 month clothes. We are cycling through them, taking last pictures, as S is figuring out how and where to pack them away. We've started putting her in some of her 3-6 month clothes, lots of onsies and summer dresses.

G traveled again this week. Another day trip, but this time to Coloma, a small rafting town near Folsom. It was a grueling drive there and back. We went for E's Grand Canyon rafting trip reunion, one of the guides was giving a talk, with dinner planned afterwards. S and G missed most of the talk because they were in the car trying to eat, but mostly being fussy because G wanted see what was going on around her new surroundings (probably also fussy from the poop she was trying to get out all day, and finally managed to just AFTER we finished changing her diaper).

What are G's favorite activities for this week? She loves to arch her back, probably practice for rolling over. She is getting better at grabbing her ball and is also starting to bat at her hanging toys. Did I mention last week that she started sucking her upper lip? So cute! Oh, and she's also practicing her ab crunches, bringing her legs and knees up and in, then stretching them out and hitting the floor (or bed). When she does this in her bassinet, we can see her feet come up over the sides, which is really funny. We think this is how she gets into the funny positions we've found her in. Also, her naps are becoming increasingly shorter, pretty much just an hour these days, unless she's out, then she might get 2+ hours.

We just got back from a play date in the park. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of G in her play tent before she had a huge spit up all over everything. It was in her hair, her ear, all over her play mat, and soaked through both layers. Guess what we're doing tonight? Laundry and a bath! But at least she fell asleep afterwards and is still sleeping now.