Jumping!

This is Judith in her exersaucer/jumper (a gift from my former coworker, Patrick). It's like the an exersaucer in that it's got a bunch of things around the circle to entertain her, but it's actually a jumper - the seat is suspended from three poles so that she can bounce it up and down. She's been not wanting to sit in either her bouncy chair or the bumbo chair - and is squirmy enough that if she doesn't want to be in it, it's not very safe to put her in it! So I've tried her in the exersaucer a couple times. But she'd get bored after a few minutes, and her feet don't quite reach the floor, so she can't jump.

A few days ago, though, I got the idea to put a big book (my cooking class textbook) underneath her feet so that she can push off of something. She will now jump (crowing wildly) for over an hour! She even spins herself enough to move from entertainment to entertainment. We don't have any batteries in it yet - it's busy enough as it is - but she sure has fun with it. It's so exciting to watch her interact so strongly with her environment! (And she's getting lots of exercise with that jumping - she's going to have muscles well built up for walking!)

Sleeping and Eating Update

The last 10 days or so have been pretty rough. It started when we went to Tahoe and Judith seemed not to want to eat very much. I started thinking maybe it was time for me to move from feeding her about every three hours to about every four. And so on the Wednesday after we got home, I tried it. It worked just fine that day. She slept a lot (probably recovering from the trip) and she had no problem with eating every four hours. And I thought, "can it really be this easy?"

And the next day she started a growth spurt and was eating every two hours. That lasted for two days, and even affected her sleep patterns (previous growth spurts haven't). She woke up in the middle of the night for several nights running.

When the growth spurt ended I tried to go back to every 3 1/2 to 4 hours (feeding) instead of every 3. That didn't work, because Judith was screaming hungry after 3 hours. And she continued to wake up hungry in the middle of the night! On top of that, she (I think) is teething and in some pain, which was waking her up every hour or so once we put her to bed (at the usual for-the-night time). She seemed to be almost on a caffeine high when we would try to put her down - overstimulation? She was just spastic.

I spent a couple days trying to figure out what I could do to help her sleep again. I tried cluster feeding her before bed (which didn't really work too well, because she won't eat much if she's not hungry, and apparently she wasn't). I sat with her in the dark to try to calm her down (after an hour I gave that up). But pretty much I had to wake up and get her in the middle of the night for four or five nights. Finally, last night, she slept from about 9 to about 6. (Not back up to 10 hours yet, but close!) I'm hoping that wasn't a fluke. We'll see! (I'm taking comfort in the fact that she WILL grow out of this eventually!)

Bathtime changes

As Judith has gotten bigger (and much more mobile) it's gotten a lot harder to have the little bathtub on the bathroom sink as we'd started doing - the floor was getting soaked. As a result, we moved her bathtub back into the big bathtub. She had so much fun splashing around that I thought "what if I get in with her, and she has the whole big tub to splash in? So that's what we tried tonight. And she had so much fun. Actually, I'm not sure it was fun. She didn't laugh - she very seriously kicked her legs over and over and over, watching the splash and discovering how she could move around. My dad would say that she was "making connections" about how she interacts with the water. It was a lot of fun for us to watch her learning like that. And the best part is that for the first time she didn't scream hysterically when we got her out of the tub. Maybe she'd had enough playtime to not be upset? Maybe the transition was easier? I don't know - but it sure was better this way!

Tahoe Trip (12/7-9)

Lance's parents have a time-share in Tahoe that they've had since he can remember. They go every year about the first week of December, and his aunts, uncles, and grandma join them. This year we decided to take Judith up for a few days to meet the family. We stayed two nights and two days. It was Judith's first night away from home, and she really did much better than I was expecting. Based on how she didn't sleep in the pack-n-play when we went up to Chico a few weeks ago, I was really expecting her to have a hard time. But she even went down for naps in it (albeit fewer than usual), downstairs away from us! She also slept all night (although she was restless, something I think is probably normal; I just don't normally notice it, because she sleeps in her own room!). Unfortunately, she also seems to be more aware of who is familiar versus who is unfamiliar. She took awhile to warm up to the relatives, and would often look around to make sure Lance or I was there, if we weren't holding her. While it's fun to know that she knows who we are, it's also a little harder because she wants to be with us and not someone else. (Yes, I know that this is a developmental stage and will pass.)

still growing!

I know, it's not a surprise that Judith continues to grow :-). It just keeps happening faster than I expect! She received some 6-month-size clothes from her great aunts while we were in Tahoe this past weekend, and I decided to try them on, just to see. And they fit! The sleepers, which have feet, are a little big, but that's all to the good for sleepers. So today I went through the next drawer down in her dresser and pulled out all the 6-month clothes. Her 3-6 clothes still fit (fortunately!), so with the new influx of clothes she has a wardrobe that's as big as mine!

rock & roll, baby!

Judith has begun to roll over! For the past few weeks, she'd occasionally roll onto her side, but it wouldn't go any farther than that. Now, in the past 24 hours, she's begun to roll all the way from her back to her stomach. She gets stuck then, because she can get back over onto the other side (yet), and she gets one arm caught under her body. It's a little scary, because she'll do it in her crib as she's waking up - but she calls for help, and we come to the rescue.

She also, today, seems to be preferring to stand instead of sit. Frequently, she'll lie on my legs, facing me, and grab my hands to pull herself to a sitting position. But today when she does that, she's locking her knees and standing up instead.

(I've known both of these things would happen sooner or later, but that they've happened so suddenly makes me amazed (again) at how quickly she's growing!)

Four Month Checkup

On Monday we went in for Judith's four month checkup (can she possibly be four months old already!?!). She's 14 lbs, 11 oz, and 24.5". (So she's gained 2 lbs 5 oz, and grown 1.5".) Both measurements are 75 percentile for her age. I was a little surprised at her weight, because I was expecting her to weigh more like 16 lbs - mostly because she's moved up into size 3 diapers, and the listed weight for those is 16-24 lbs. Maybe she just has big thighs :-).

We asked the doctor about the rash on her chin, which she's had for almost a month. He diagnosed it as infantile eczema, and gave us some Aquaphor samples to put on it. It's very reassuring to have a diagnosis finally, and it looks like it's getting a little better. Aquaphor just says it's for "dry, cracked, and irritated skin" though, so I think once the sample runs out we'll just switch to calendula lotion, which is for the same thing, and is all natural.

The "rash" on the back of her neck is just broken capilaries. He said she's probably had those since she was born, and we just didn't notice.

She had five shots again. And the nurse (same one) once again said "boy she's really tensing up" as if that would be a surprise! I wonder if she says that to all the parents! This time we were ready with the homeopathics (rescue rememdy, thuja, and ledenum) as soon as the shots were given, and Judith calmed down more quickly than last time. She's also not reacting as much this time--I don't know whether that's because she's older or because of what we've given her. Either way, I've been pleasantly surprised to not have to deal with a cranky baby for the last few days.