Another Baby Marin Is Coming!: February 2011

Hi Avery Jo...you are looking so sweet right now in your little lamby seat that you love. We just got back from church and you wore an adorable outfit from your Aunt Nora and family. Too cute.

So, the latest with us is that we have been working on sleeping through the night. We went to your pediatrician appointment a week and a half ago when you turned 2 months (9 weeks) and she gave us a plan for this luxury. Your Daddy and I were thinking we'd wait until three months with you to have you sleep in your own bedroom and crib, but after this appointment, we were convinced to start now. First of all, you are a healthy baby. You weighed in just fine (12 lbs 14 oz) and were growing taller too (24 in). Also, we have a video baby monitor that makes it much easier on Mommy to have you in the other room!

Up until this point, you were up until 10-11pm and then slept great until 3:30am....and then the last part of the night would be on and off, sleeping/awake, until 7am. Not too bad, not too good. =) The new plan was to have us start a routine with you around 7pm. Change your diaper, feed you, read a book/sing to you and rock you....then in your crib around 7:30pm. We would then do a "dream feed" with you at 10-10:30pm. You are barely awake, but give you some more food and put you back down with the lights off, no talking...just eating and back to sleeping. Theoretically, you should sleep through the night after that until about 7am. Of course, the hard part is that middle of the night time you normally woke up and got fed...that now goes away and we have to get you used to just sleeping through that feeding.

To do this, we had to let you cry a few nights...and actually, you still do just a little right around that time. (For all those that do not like letting your baby cry it out, no opinions or negativity please...this is how we do it in order to get a schedule back to our lives since we have a family of five to take care of! And...she was comforted and watched over the whole night when she cried...promise!) The first night was the roughest...you cried for a while...and we went in every 20 or so minutes to rub your belly and let you know that we were there for you, just not in the same room anymore. After that first night of crying though, you have now just let out a few minutes of crying around 4am...like 5-10 minutes...and you are back to sleep until 6:30 or 7am.

I am actually a bit amazed that this little plan works so well. You sometimes cry a little when I put you down at 7:30pm...but sometimes you just play with your monkey mobile a little and crash too. Eventually the "dream feed" session will go away (I think around 12 weeks or so we can start trying this) and you will/should sleep around 10-12 hours. You are already pretty darn good at it...so keep it up! The time after 7:30pm is nice for your Mommy to have with your Sisters and Daddy...and make sure they feel our love too. That time is actually more spent making sure homework is done and we are all ready to go for the next day at school! But, that's showing love too. =)

Some people have a hard time putting a baby on a schedule...and I learned that the hard way on a baby website that I am a part of. Someone wanted to know what nighttime schedules looked like for those on the website with 2-month olds. So, I shared what I said above....and all hell broke loose. I was called an abuser, neglectful and horrible. Letting you cry a little to get to sleep was compared to leaving a baby in a car and going shopping or shaking a baby. And someone even said the police should be called on me. Yep. This was a little hard to take, to be honest. But these women are the ones that let their babies rule their lives. And you ruled our lives for the first two months (and still do, to be honest), but there just came a time where I didn't want to neglect your Daddy or Sisters...we had to balance things out again....and this really helps with that a lot. Trust me though....you still rule this house and will for a while yet. =) Your Daddy and I's stance is that we want to raise you to be as healthy as possible...and that starts with him and I being healthy with our relationship so that you grow up and know what a healthy relationship looks like. You need this as a fundamental piece to you...and only him and I can provide that. And yes, you sleeping through the night definitely helps keep us healthy and helps your Sisters feel like they are still an important piece to our family too.

Other news...your Grandma is here! And is she ever loving on you?! You have won her heart! She loves to hold you and coo at you. I don't think there is anything better for her! She keeps saying how much she is going to miss you. It's great to have her here! Here are some pictures of you and your Grandma...and then some of your cousins when they were over on Super Bowl Sunday last week.

You and your Grandma!

That's your little spot!

Your cousin Nate - holding you during the Super Bowl

Nate was making you laugh - you were better company than even the Super Bowl!

Cousin Jenni and you - she LOVED holding you!

Your cousin Keely and you - you were a hot commodity!

Even your cousin Tyler made sure he got some time with you (I think he even got to hold you twice! Shhhh...don't tell your other cousins!)

I can't believe you are pushing three months now! And you are already out of your 0-3 month clothes. You probably were done with those a week or so ago - around 9 weeks. I have already cleaned out your dresser a couple times to get rid of all your newborn and 0-3 month stuff. This is happening waaaay too fast! You need to slow down missy! You haven't even worn all the things we had for you - and boom! You are too big! Oh well baby girl....I love you so much...just know that. You are so much fun. And like your Daddy always says, you're just so beautiful. =)

Dear Baby Girl,

We have hit the two month mark! Yes...already! In many ways it feels like you have been a part of our lives for so much longer than that....and then other times it feels crazy that it has been two months...where has time gone?

There are so many things at two months that you are doing that I never expected. I never expected that you would be so interactive and smiley! Everything that we do (stick our tongues out, smile, say "ooooh", open our eyes up wide), you try to do right back at us. And then you give us that big ol' smile of yours after you do something that we did, like you are so proud. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my morning times with you. After a good night's sleep (that's key!), you are the most fun in the mornings. We just lay around and jibber jabber, coo, smile and just "talk" back and forth. I usually have a few things that I want to get done, but that all gets shoved aside once you start smiling at your Mama! I love those times when you are entirely focused on me and are in love with your Mama. Then, there are the times where I wish you were focused on me, but you are busy smiling at the ceiling fan and window blinds, and no matter what I do, you are locked on to those things! You love ceiling fans! And I have just started to notice a little dimple on the right side of your chin when you make certain faces.

You can hold your head up pretty well on your own, but you still look like a drunken sailor sometimes, bobbing all around. You love things touching your face (my hand, arm, blanket) and sometimes sleep so hard that even a bath doesn't wake you up! You have found your hands and are learning to suck on your knuckles as we speak! I can't wait until you are officially sucking a finger or a thumb. Some parents may think I am crazy, but that will be so nice to have a self-soothing item attached to you. =)

Your Pa and MiMi just left after being here two weeks. Uncle Dan, Aunt Marjie, Grandma Betty, Uncle Clyde and Uncle Sam were all here too. We had two full weeks with them! Pa and Mimi miss you tons already...they loved holding you and just laying on the bed with you and playing. They watched you for an entire night one time so that your Mommy and Daddy could get a full night's sleep! And as great as that was, I missed you the minute we drove away. And it was your smell that I missed the most!

You have already been to your two-month check up at the pediatrician. You weighed in at 12 lbs. and 14.5 oz and were 24 inches. Your weight was in the 93rd percentile and your height was in the 95th percentile. You are a bigger baby, but you are exceptionally long too. You are almost completely out of your 0-3 month clothes already! I just bagged up half of your dresser's clothes the other day because they are too small already! It was a little sad how time flies! And sad how so many of those cute clothes are already over and done with!

Back to your appointment - you got your first shots - one orally (mmmm....grape!) and four shots in your legs. Poor thing. You screamed, of course, but were pretty easy to calm down. You were a little cranky that night and then slept like a log the next day. Other than that, you were a-okay! It didn't kill me as much as I thought it would. The nice doctor also talked to us about starting to get you to sleep through the night in your own room (as you well know). You can blame her, she's the one that gave us this crazy idea. =) She let us know that starting this now, at two months will shorten the "training" period, as opposed to waiting until four months or so. You aren't as accustomed to eating in the middle of the night yet, so she thinks it should take less than a week to get you sleeping eight hours or so right away...and then 10-12 hours on a regular basis. This would have you sleep from 7:30pm to 7:30am (ideally) eventually. Last night was the first night of the "training" and it was great until 2:30am when you normally would get fed again. the next three hours were tough - lots of crying for you. Daddy kept the monitor by him and not by me, because it's hard for me to hear you scream and cry. I could still hear you though...every half hour of crying we go in and touch your belly and talk to you to let you know we haven't abandoned you. That happened a few times....so we were up a lot after the 2:30am mark. We are just starting night #2, so I'll have to update you in a week or so to see how this goes. =)

UPDATE: Night #2 you slept from 8pm - 7am with just about 15 minutes of crying at the beginning and then 15 minutes around 2am. Woohoo! Let's keep up the trend!

I will never forget last night though, when we first started this new routine. We had our neighborhood group (from church) over and it's a family group so there are a bunch of kids here too. I had to leave in the middle and feed you and put you to bed. We have a video monitor for you, so I grabbed that when I left and rejoined the group about 30 minutes later. Well, you...of course...started crying right when I put you in your crib and you could hear you a little from where we were all sitting downstairs. All the little girls (that love you to death, by the way) heard you and looked at me, very concerned and said, "Dani, Baby Avery is crying!". I just said, "I know.", as my heart is already hurting for you. They were so sad for you! It was cute. Shortly after that, the group time ended, and they all ran over to me to look at you on the video monitor (still crying, with this horrible sad face!). There were three of them saying, "Poor Baby Avery...she is soooo sad....poor Baby Avery!". I just had to laugh, kind of. It figures, the first night I have to put you in your crib and walk away with you crying, which was hard enough....and I had all these little girls fighting for your crying cause, trying to convince me that you need to be held instead of crying. I tried to explain to them that you needed to start sleeping on your own and this was the way to do that, and tears had to be shed in order to accomplish it. But, they just couldn't understand why I would intentionally let you cry and not hold you instead! Eventually you stopped after about 30 minutes and were sound asleep after that....so I made sure and showed them you sleeping on the monitor after that to prove that you were happy after all!

Next on the visitor list? Grandma Frances is headed to see you tomorrow! She is here for three weeks, so you will get lots of love from her, I'm sure! It will be so great to have both sides of our families here...and have held you and loved on you!

Next up for us? We are going to work on rolling from your belly to your side/back next....and to get your neck a little stronger to hold up your head a little better. Girlfriend, you are going to be crawling before we know it...and that makes me sad already just thinking about it!

I'll be back soon with more updates...in the meantime, here are some pictures that I took of you yesterday for your two month milestone. You were groggy from your shots, so you let me mess with you a lot. =) Also, I'm putting in some pics from when the family was here! Enjoy baby girl...and sweet, sweet dreams!