Routines, Milestones, Gertie & Dogs . . .

Well I've fallen behind on blogging. Nothing super exciting to discuss. However we've hit a few milestones. First, Sophie slept through *most* of the night last night. She went to bed at 10pm and slept until 4am. Even then I fed her and she went right to sleep and slept until 8am. Here is a topic I can discuss . . . For those of you who don't know we are doing a mix of Babywise and the Baby Whisperer. For those of you saying, "what in the world are either of those!!??" . . . they are books that help you get a routine for your little one so that life is easier for everyone! And man is it! The Babywise is more controversial than Baby Whisperer as the latter is more flexible and lenient. However, one must know that Babywise does not suggest you are hard-core stuck to a clock. By this I mean that they teach how to get your baby on a schedule so that you feed every 3 hours. However, both books say that if your baby is showing hunger cues you feed her.

Anyway, with that said, they say that you can begin to not wake them in the night for feedings at anytime around 5-8 weeks and let the baby wake if she's hungry to tell you, or sleep through if she will. So we started that. Then you just adjust the amount of food they get during the day so that they get the same amount in the day to make up for lost feeds in the night. They teach you how to get a sleep/eat/wake cycle to get the baby to learn day from night (when they are young and they can often stay up all night and sleep all day) so that you can have a baby sleep through the night sooner rather than later. Tracy did it with Kelton and he's great. He sleeps through the night like a champ and has since he was about 6-7 weeks old. I have also had friends use the Babywise routine and had the same success!

The Baby Whisperer was a woman (she died of cancer in 2004) from Britain who also promotes a routine. She's a little less conservative and is more liberal in her ways, which makes a good combination, IMO, when you take some of both and use them as you wish. Of course I don't go "by the book" on either of these "methods" but just follow the guidelines and what I like in each. The Baby Whisperer does have a great section that I like *a lot* that Babywise doesn't--how to read your baby's crying and body language. It has a chart and table that tells you how to interpret your baby's cries and what their body language is saying so that you can tend to your baby's needs quicker and more accurately. I've read that chart 100 times and it is very, very helpful! I've found that all of her "studies" are accurate on the body language. and most of the cries. For example, she says if your baby is over-stimulated and/or over-tired you'll hear: long, hard cry, starts cranky, irregular frequency fussing; you'll see: may flail arms and legs, grab face, scratch herself, grab her own ear or cheek; Other notes: of all the cries the over-tired/over-stimulated is the one most mistaken for hunger. She says to take into account *when* the baby is crying. Is it after play, someone holding her/cooing at her a lot? . . . Anyway there is more in the chart that says how to interpret your baby's cues and it really helps. Also it prevents me from stuffing a bottle in her mouth just because she's crying!

The Baby Whisperer promotes that you respect the baby. She says not to poke at her and mess with her, she is a little human not a tinker toy! She says you should talk to your baby and explain what you are doing. So we do that. I say, "Sophie I'm going to change your diaper. It may be cold for a second but I'll be done soon." It's rather interesting because she'll stop and look at me when I talk to her now instead of me just yanking her clothes off and shoving a diaper on her while she cries. Don't get me wrong at times she's not at all happy with the diaper change but she does seem to respond when I talk her through things. I especially do it in the bath. She loves her bathes!

Ok. Enough on that subject. Speaking of a bottle Sophie is up to 4 ounces per feeding and Aunt Tracy was over today and stated that she thought she looked "so big!". So she's growing a lot! I don't notice as much since I'm with her all the time. However I did notice when I put one of her newborn outfits on today and it appears to have shrunk . . . but it hasn't, she's just too long for it now! It's one of those gowns and before her little feet fit snug inside the gown now they stick out of the bottom and she looks like she's got a mini-skirt on!

She also graduated to size 1 diapers! Big ole gal! That's the 8-14lbs range. Her newborn diapers are very tight and looked quite uncomfortable, especially when they were full! She's staring and focusing on things and us. We got her a little crib toy that hangs to the side of the crib. It's a fish aquarium that bubbles and sings sweet tunes or makes just ocean sounds or bubble sounds. It has a low light and a remote control that hangs on the doorknob so that we don't have to go all the way into her room to turn it on/off. It's really cute. The fish is a goldfish, so we named her Gertie. Sophie likes to watch Gertie swim, even though she hasn't realized Gertie goes no where and swims in place all the time.

The dogs are doing well. They ignore her pretty much all the time, even when she's wailing. What interests them now is her toys, especially the singing ones that are plush. I shouldn't say "them" it's Noah. He likes Marcel, her singing monkey that hangs from her carrier. I was in the living room with Sophie the other day and I hear singing from the other room. Noah had stolen Marcel without me knowing and when he put him in his mouth he started singing so he busted himself! I walk to our bedroom and Noah is standing there looking at me with Marcel gently hanging out of his mouth. He had been lightly slobbered on and so he made it through the wash and he still sings (I was afraid the washer would break his music box!)

One night, around midnight, I was feeding Sophie in the rocker in her room and all the dogs came and laid on the floor. I had David take a picture. Noah is lying on the towel we used to dry her after her bath that somehow ended up on the floor. Poor fellas, if they want to find me the first place they look now is the nursery. I often see one of them wander in there and then wander back out.

Speaking of dogs I'm back at work. Bills gotta get paid so I decided to start back now. I've got a couple folks lined up, which is good news. I am in good with a Goldendoodle breeder (Timshell Farm Goldendoodles) that sells a lot of puppies and she is keeping me busy with a new litter of puppies she sold to several families in the area. So I've got a lot of those lined up for training!

It looks like 2009 will be a good year. Everyone keep their chins up, the economy stinks but with smiles, prayers and dedication we can start to smell the roses once again!