Unbearable Cuteness - now with a slideshow!

Okay, ever since my rant, sleep seems to be getting better and better! Her shortest naps now are 50 minutes (improved from 20), and she's spending a lot more time in her crib and tossing and turning a lot less at night! Thanks for all the advice and sympathy - I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and I hope things keep improving on that front. Now, on to the cuteness!!

Watching mommy dance like an idiot while cleaning the kitchen:
Please ignore the saggy diaper - she was enjoying the breeze on her naked butt but when the camera came out daddy quickly threw the diaper on to protect her modesty :)
Also ignore my crazy hair - it was very windy!My babies:
Updated: I just found out you can embed slideshows from Picasa! Behold:

Update!

Well, I know one night isn't much to write home about, but last night was pretty darn good! I massaged her belly all day yesterday, and the gas was pretty much nonexistent last night! She still slept in bed with me most of the night, but she didn't toss and turn nearly as much. And I left the bed at 6:20 this morning, and she stayed asleep until 9! The world is a LOT brighter when I've gotten some sleep :) I got to catch up on emails and blogs and read the news and drink a cup of coffee in peace - now I can tackle the chores I didn't do yesterday!

WANTED

Good Nights' Sleep

The bandit gang Toss, Turn & Flail has taken over our sleepy town!
It's been over a month since Good Nights' Sleep has been seen round these parts.
Sheriff believes the ringleader is the notorious GAS,
but so far the crime spree continues unabated.

If you have any information as to the whereabouts of our beloved Good Nights' Sleep,
you are urged to contact authorities immediately!

WARNING: Extended cry for help ahead! Proceed at your own risk!

In all seriousness, I am about to LOSE MY MIND if I don't get her to sleep somehow. Right now its 4:30 in the morning and she is babbling in her bedroom after tossing and turning and nursing ALL night long. I really want to transition her into her crib but so far its not working.

Here's our typical night:

7:00pm Bath, Massage, Jammies, turn on "Rainy Ocean Waves" white noise
7:30pm Two books, 0.3mg Mylicon, nurse to sleep
8:00pm Place in crib
8:30pm Cry, Nurse some more, return to crib
9:00pm Cry,Nurse some more, return to crib
9:30 - 11:30pm Sleep quietly in crib
11:30pm Cry, come to bed with exhausted mom
11:30pm - 7:00am Toss, turn, kick, punch, pinch and nurse in bed with exhausted mom

Of course, she wakes in the morning just as happy and bright eyed as can be - but do you see any time in that schedule where MOM sleeps peacefully?? I do get that blissful 2 hours between 9:30 and 11:30, but that 2 hours just isn't enough to sustain me. And of course she won't nap during the day longer than 20 minutes unless I nap with her - and even then we get an hour and a half, max. Now, I am fully aware that part of the problem is that I have gotten her into the habit of nursing to sleep and sleeping with me, so I need to teach her how to fall asleep without me and stay in her crib. I am working on that - I've read Weissbluth, Sears, Pantley & Hogg, and I totally get what they are all saying, but I am just SO FREAKING TIRED that I can't implement any of their solutions and be consistent with them. So I know I need to work on that - but I think right now I could get a bit more sleep if I could just figure out how to cure her gas. I give her Mylicon before bed, and I burp her every time she eats, and I massage her, but she still has massive farts when she wakes up in the morning. So all that gas is floating around in her tummy all night long, making her pretty uncomfortable, I'm sure. She's strictly breastfed, and hasn't shown any sensitivities during the day to the things I eat - no gas during the day, just first thing in the morning. I thought she might be getting all her calories at night, so I've made a conscious effort to feed her every 3 hours or so during the day - and I tried rice cereal a couple of nights but that just gave me an extra dirty diaper to change in the middle of the night. Anyway, enough rambling for now - to sum up, I know intellectually what I need to do in the long run to get her to sleep all night in her crib, but what can I do immediately to get the sleep I need to be able to deal with making those changes? And if it is gas, what are some tried and true tricks that work? I'm seriously looking for any advice moms out there can give me - the only thing I won't do is let her cry it out, so let me know if you can help.

Homemade Chai Snickerdoodles to the person with the best advice!

Four Month Stats

Well, we had our four month appointment today - She's off the charts! She just keeps growing and growing - now she's almost 18 lbs! The doc mentioned that sometimes bigger babies are a little slower with their motor skills, and asked me if she's rolling over from tummy to back yet - ha! She's been rolling both ways for a couple of weeks now, and he said they typically don't do that until 6 months! She also reaches and grabs toys, dogs' ears, faces and mommy's hair, she scootches along the floor (but only backwards), and she's thisclose to sitting unsupported. So she's blasting through all the milestones faster than we can keep up with her! Of course, all this bragging must mean our child is absolutely perfect, right? Well, not exactly - she's stopped sleeping through the night and started tossing and turning and eating all night long, so the doc said we could start giving her up to 2 oz. of rice cereal mixed with breastmilk at bedtime to hopefully fill her tummy and satisfy her for the night. But that's really the only problem we're having with her - she's so happy and playful and silly all day long! Even when she got her shots today, she didn't even blink an eye until the very last shot - and then she only cried for about 10 seconds and was just fine all the way home. Right now she's in her swing singing to the butterflies while I eat some lunch and put these pictures online (there are more at Picasa) -

Here she is playing with her mouth-
she makes the funniest faces now that she's discovered her lips!And here she is, devastated after scootching away from all her toys:

And because it wouldn't be a complete post until I enter another contest, here's one where she's giving away cool little baby products every day in May, and might continue into June!

Four months already!

10 days old
4 months old

Okay, so technically she was four months old yesterday, but I'm slow! Here are some pics I took of her yesterday:I promise the appliances are all unplugged! She was just helping me do dishes :)

And here I am entering yet another blog contest (they're fun!) This one is sponsored by Mason & Matisse - and I am coveting their nontoxic wooden toys!

New pics

Too cool for school, or adorable little mosquito? You decide!

Mes petites fleurs

Happy Mother's Day!

To

hot moms,
cool moms,
funny moms,
serious moms,
moms at work,
moms at home,
moms with partners,
single moms,
moms who teach by example,
moms who learn by doing,
moms who are,
moms to be,
all the moms I know,
and all their moms too -
Happy Mother's Day!

My first Mother's Day came early - I've already opened all my presents!

Doreen sent this lovely set of pampering stuff - it smells so good,
and the lotion really makes my hands soft!

Rick sent a beautiful bouquet of tulips and irises, but they aren't all blooming yet so I'm waiting to take a picture of them.

And here is my present "from Mike" (translation: I told him what he was getting me, then I ordered it myself!)

Hooray Hooray Hooray!!!

Here is the first creation from my fabulous new Kitchenaid - it was supposed to be just a chocolate silk pie, but I didn't think that was nearly fattening enough so I whipped up some Kahlua cream to go on top :)

Of course, all of that stuff is really great but I already have the
best Mother's Day gifts anyone could ask for:

Bathing Beauty

She's so cute we're gonna have to start building a tower so we can lock her in it!



Apparently I'm addicted to blog contests - here's another one!

Bad blogmom

Okay, I know I've been remiss in posting for the past few days! Right now Aurora's sitting on the desk in her Bumbo, grabbing at my pencils and giggling while she creates a little diaper art. I only have a few minutes before she starts clamoring for a fresh canvas, so I figured I would stick up a few of today's pictures for Cathy and Aunt Monya - my daily 'encouragement'!
She's getting better and better at tummy time.. she can hold herself completely up with her arms, and she can pivot in a circle on her belly when she wants to. She also likes to hold her arms and legs off the ground like she's flying on her belly - it's pretty cute!

Shilling

Since I had good luck with winning a t-shirt from POH, I figured I would try to win a custom made mei-tai here!