We made it

Well, we made it through the mid watch string.

I swear, I have never been more tired except for maybe the first two weeks after Miss C was born. For the past 5 days, I had to get Miss C out of her crib at 930pm and take her over to Mrs J's for a "sleep over" then go to work until 730am. I would get home by 8am, call Mrs J to check on how she slept etc then catch about 4 hours of sleep and go pick her up. In order to avoid that inevitable Mommy guilt about not doing enough, we always did something in the afternoon after Miss C took a nap. It didn't matter how tired I was (and let me tell you, but Wednesday, I was beat!), we did something. By something, I mean we usually went for a long hike around our neighborhood or played in the yard. We did lots of reading and coloring but it still didn't make up for the fact that I had to disrupt Miss C's sleep, which I will be paying for over the next couple of weeks.

It takes time to develop habits and by the time the string was done, Miss C wasn't even waking up when I got her to Mrs J's. The problem is, she kind of got used to Mrs J jumping up at her every noise, which is something I finally broke myself of when she was about 6 months old. Not that its bad that Mrs J did that, its what i expect because she doesn't know when Miss C doesn't need help or what at night. We have figured out what noises need attending to etc but she hasn't had time to figure that out at night.

Well, last night, our first night back at home, Miss C woke up a couple of times and when I didn't jump right up, decided yea, she really needed me. It will take a couple more days before I get her back to herself but I guess if this is the worst that comes from the string, I can take it.

Our next hurdle is a week of eve watches. That week I will be taking Miss C to Mrs J's in the early afternoon and picking her up around midnight to get her home.

I know that she will take it fine, I just hope she doesn't get into the habit of getting up at midnight. Again, we can deal with it, but argh! You all know how it is. We have been beyond this stage for a long time and now... to have to deal with the middle of the night awakenings again is tough.

I can't wait until June. I am taking a little leave and once DH gets home, we won't have to move Miss C anywhere at night (thank goodness). I am also supposed to come off this crazy schedule and become a "day snake." I can't wait.

Well, that's pretty much it. Hope everyone had a great week! I am attaching a new picture I took during the string. I think its just the cutest!

A busy day all around

Today we went to visit the Navy's Child Development center. Let me explain, after Mrs J told me that she was closing down at the end of the summer, DH and I discussed when we should start looking for alternate care. We agreed to move Miss C in July when Mrs J is going home on vacation. I spoke with Mrs J about this and she was fine with it. Well, when we signed up for in home care, we also got on the wait list for the child Development center. Apparently this place is harder to get into than Harvard! We are "Priority 1" because we are dual military and we just got a chance to take a spot after 6 months!
We decided to take the spot (it opens on May 5th) because Miss C does need the socialization with her peers and because Mrs J is closing down. So, today Miss C and I had an adventure and went to meet her classmates and her teachers. She had a great time. I swear little miss thing was introducing herself to everyone, it was so cute! She apparently remembers the group setting from SoCal and is fine with it.
So, I thought that because DH was still here that we would just shift over in May in spite of my being on shift. Oh, I was so wrong!
When DH got home from work today he told me that he will be leaving soon, not quite sure when soon, but sometime in the next few days. He will be back around Miss C's birthday but he has another, albeit shorter trip then. AH, OK, so now what?
I called Mrs J and talked to her. We had discussed this possibility earlier and she is being gracious enough to be willing to help out still. Thank gosh for great people. So, for those interested, here's our plan to make sure that we are using all of our resources.
Once DH leaves, Mrs J will let me bring Miss C over for the eves and mids (on the eves I get her at midnight, poor baby, and on mids I bring her at 10pm, poor baby, and wait until noon the next day to get her so I can get some sleep). Once our spot opens at the Child Development Center (CDC), I will use them for weekday days, but I am paying for all of the services.
Mrs J is nice enough to let me use my 50 hours then charge me the additional even though I will use most of them in the evenings and overnight (oh yea, and weekends). i am really lucky and blessed that she is willing to help me out with this. The reason I will still take Miss C to the CDC is for the school aspect with other kids. I am going to pay regardless.
So, other than that, I learned that in order to advance to the next "class", Miss C will have to be able to walk comfortably, show independent eating (apparently they work on this in her class first) and sit at a little table to eat. Are they trying to make her grow up too fast?
i worry that i am not doing enough then I worry that they want too much!
Alas, on the plus side, I am still home. DH won't be gone the 6 months that most folks are. Mrs J and family are seriously helping save my bacon.
And, one big plus, Miss C is a happy, healthy, well adjusted little girl. Guess that should be the most important, right?

Miss C is 8 months old today!

***Edited to add*** Miss C started to crawl this afternoon!!! Whoa boy are we busy now!!!
Wow! What an amazing adventure we have been having!




























Ok, let's start with estimated statistics:

Miss C, based on home conducted evaluations, is now approximately 28 1/2 inches long and 20 1/2 pounds.

Recent accomplishments:
1. Miss C is very communicative. She talks, babbles, signs, constantly. Her only "real" sign is milk, which she uses sparingly, but she also puts her arms over her head to signal that she is done and ready to be picked up (we started this when she started eating in a chair; we would tell her "arms up" to get her ready to get out of the chair!). She talks to her pooh bear on her crib bumper when she wakes up at night which leads up to number 2~
2. Though Miss C sleeps throughout the night, if she does wake up for some reason, she generally talks to Pooh or her pacifier or whatever else she sees and then goes back to sleep.
3. Miss C kneels to play with her toys. I posted a video showing this and she does it whenever she wants to get into something slightly higher than the ground.
4. Miss C "teleports" (thanks Alphagal!) herself around the room. She is really trying to crawl but as it stands, she she goes from her butt to her hands and knees and moves herself around the room by leaning forward then sitting back down.
5. Miss C slides across our wood floor. She wants to get around faster and faster and explore her world more so this is her method.
6. Miss C has two pearly white teeth coming in on the bottom. She drools like a champ still and chews on everything, bolted down or not!
7. Miss C points! She noticed a wind chime that DH's sister (Auntie J) got us ages ago. Its a group of beautiful butterflies and we hung it up over her changing table. Every time she sees it, which is every time she wakes up or gets changed, she absolutely has to make the chimes sing. She points up at it and grunts until I pick her up high enough to smack at it and stares intently as the chimes play their tune.
8. Miss C tries to stand up, kind of. In her attempts to crawl, Miss C pushes up to feet and hands. Today she let go of one hand. I swear I thought she was going to stand! She has tried to pull herself up a couple of times. I think that she might crawl like e-baby, thump swish!
9. Miss C helps aroudn the house. After she eats, be it a meal or a snack, she holds her bib and puts it in the laundry basket we keep in the laundry room. We started this habit a couple of months ago, but now she gets mad if you even try to pick up the bib for her.
10. Miss C washes her hands. I have to credit Mrs J for this one. She apparently picks Miss C up after a meal and takes her to the kitchen sink where she helps her soap and rinse her hands. When I saw this, I started to do it at home and oh my gosh, Miss C knows what to do! She even looks for the towel so she can dry her own hands!
11. Miss C loves to brush her teeth. A couple of months ago, we started brushing Miss C's gums after her bath. At some point she decided that she was going to do it herself. I use this to help calm her after her bath when we read. Apparently she is able to better pay attention to the book if she is chewing on her tooth brush. So, she sits on my lap and brushes her teeth while we read a book before bedtime.

That's pretty much it for now. I can hardly keep up with the tremendous changes.

Before I go, I have to give a hearty "Thank you!" to Mrs J, the contributor of all of the photos we are using today.

Thank you for making sure we get to be in on these experiences as well! thanks for taking the time to read this and keep up with our wonderful adventures!

Blanket? (No, not MJ's kid!)

Ok, here's a question, did anyone else's little one put blankets on their head?
Miss C has taken to pulling her blanket up over her head when she sleeps. Well, not just that, she is mobile in her crib. I swear she does laps at night to see if we will come see her. She also pulls her legs straight up and thumps her mattress. It sounds like she is wresting in there!
Back to the blanket. It's not just here either, when she is at Mrs J's house, she does it too. I've been freaking out because I go check on Miss C before I got to bed and there lies Miss C with her entire blanket on her head. DH swears she kicks it up there throughout the night. She has woken up a couple of nights recently because she is stuck in a corner with a darn blanket on her head.
Now, let me lay your concerns to rest by letting you know that she can breathe through her blankets. I have personally tested each of them, as has Miss C by now, and there is no issue there. I think its just a habit issue.
Per Mrs. J's suggestion, we've given her a "blankie" (I wrote it like that because it is actually a flour sack cloth we used to wrap her in when we lived down south with the center bunched and tied (multiple knots) with a cloth ribbon) and she cuddles with it and puts it over her head instead of her blanket. Not sure if it will keep her from pulling that darn blanket over her head throughout the night though!
Anyone have any recommendations?

Miss C is 7 months old!

Wow. Where has the time gone? One minute we're moving up to the Pacific Northwest with a little 4 month old and the next, we have a very active, very vocal 7 month old. Ok, maybe not a minute, but you know what I mean. Let's do a quick recap of Miss C's latest talents:
1. Miss C has become much more vocal. In addition to the "ba, ga, da" sounds, she practically holds complete conversations with her stuffed animals, us, her pacifier, anything within range basically.
2. Miss C signs milk! No kidding! I have been signing to her for about 4 months now and every now and then when I ask her if she is hungry, she signs milk and then (to emphasize maybe?) pats my chest!
3. Miss C waves! She learned this one from her Grandpa at Christmas. Well, she perfected it then. She even waved to the check out lady at Target last weekend. She does save it for someone deserving though. :)
4. Miss C scoots around backwards, sometimes its a crawl, sometimes its a slither, in any case, its progress.

5. A follow on of her scooting is, Miss C has figured out how to get from her tummy to seated. Its kind of difficult to explain but basically, she gets onto all fours then rocks back until she is practically in the splits and then sits. Ok, not too hard to explain, just to do. She is trying to smooth out her transition from seated to tummy (its not automatic yet and it's really starting to frustrate her) as well as work on the forward crawling. DH tries to show her but I think she just gets tired of being shown and wants to do it on her own. Wonder where she gets that? ;-)
6. Miss C has a couple of new games she likes to play. First is "Peek a boo." You all already know how much fun this game can be. We can even play it with her animals. She giggles and squeals at the game! Her second game is empty the box. We put random toys (some store bought like rattles, some home made like cut straws in an empty water bottle) and she empties the box. She takes a while to empty it and pretty much ignores us the entire time. Its seems to amaze her that there is so much in such a little space.
7. Miss C kisses "little babies" or anything she associates as such. I mentioned this after we visited Poobou. its true! She does the same hug and kiss to her Pooh Bear and her pink elephant as she did with Cate. Very sweet. Only concern is her new playmate at Mrs J's is going to be a wee little one. Mrs J has been forewarned so I am sure she will protect the new little one like she did Miss C from the toddler who just left.
Well, that's about it. Miss c went back to Mrs J's on Tuesday since we are both back at work. She wasn't quite herself the first day but then again, neither was I. Turns out, we really kind of miss each other! (Yea, big shocker there!). But, as I understand it, today she had a great day. I am just really happy that Miss C is so comfortable there. If everything works out for us, I may not have to find another care provider when I have to stand those silly watches. I just have to get the schedule so Mrs J and I can see what we can work out. I would be so relieved to know that Miss C doesn't have to adjust to another big change just now.
Ok, so, hope everyone is doing great. Post a comment every now and then so I know you all are still out there, ok?