Saturday Blog

Well, here I am 24 hours later.  I'm still a blogger, evidently!  Erica is asleep again and I am so proud of her!  Yesterday after her 2.5 hour nap, she went four hours between feedings two different times and then 3 hours between the other feedings!  I think she must be a big girl as Annessa said!  She didn't even act hungry.  I just kept her really busy and I really think maybe she felt wonderful without being overly stuffed.  Maybe I have been giving her indigestion for five months and one week with feeding her every 2 hours!

Now she is waking up after about a 15 minute nap, so I will take care of her and see what the day holds.

OK I can try a second post since I still can't believe Erica hasn't woken up.

What I meant to explain in the paragraph about schedule in the first post, is that after the predictable morning nap, Erica's day is pretty much willy nilly the rest of the day.  Or whatever you want to call it:  She Has No Routine.  We just try guessing all day long if she is hungry or tired.  I first thought I would like the book, Babywise (need to learn how to underline in this blog).  We liked the feeding, playing, sleeping order of things, and that order still works for us most of the time.  However, we DIDN'T like the recommendation of letting the baby cry for 3o minutes if needed.  It made everyone in the house hysterical and when we asked the doctor on call at midnight on the phone,  he said we weren't ready for that.  I think it was mostly because she was only about four weeks old, but I imagine the doctor didn't think the parents sounded developmentally ready for it either.  

Back to the routine.  I would like Erica to be on a rough schedule of eating about every three or four hours (I want to say "Three" or "Four", not "Oh, around every three or four hours."  Then I can tell babysitters or nursery teachers what time she needs to eat.  Right now I just guess, and it is usually closer to two hours.  Then she cries and cries and nobody knows if she is hungry, sleepy, gassy, or misses her mommy.  My heart breaks at different levels for each of those choices.  I would like Erica to learn how to fall asleep in her bed (or in a pack 'n' play or nursery crib) with a quick comforting routine.  One family I really loved babysitting had a routine of singing "You are my sunshine," putting the baby in the bed, and walking out.  IT WORKED!  But I'm sure they did a lot of practicing this before it actually worked.  Don't YOU??????  Please comment now if you haven't commented yet.

Another thing I might like to blog about is that I am thinking about starting to run again.  I was something of a runner in college and I have jogged on and off throughout my young adult life.  I have quit so many times because I hated it, but really when I am doing well with it I live life better.  I breathe better, my clothes fit better, I definitely sleep better.  I also get some of the same results from swimming, but we aren't members of the Y right now so I don't have a place to swim.  I think running will be easier to do with Erica in the stroller.  Too bad they don't make baby floating strollers for swimming mommies in case we ever get to join the Y again!  Ha!

I don't know if I will blog about weaning, because it might be too personal.  However, running is something that might be a fun treat for me when Erica stops eating that way.  Enough said.

Really I don't know what this blog will be about yet.  I don't necessarily have to decide, I could just wing it.  Like right now, I'm winging it!  Wing away!  Figure out fonts!  Maybe learn to post a picture or a link!  GO for it Jeanettey!

Do you spell that will an -ey, a -y or an -ie?  Jeanetty, Jeanettey, or Jeanettie?  How did I get that nickname back from age 5 to age 38 ( think it started last year sometime).

I could sometimes talk about cooking. This weekend I am going to shop for a birthday meal and for two birthday cake projects.  The birthday meal is for someone I know will be reading this blog, so I won't reveal any secrets.  The second birthday cake project is for one of the teachers at my PDO.  She loves strawberry cake and icing (I took a teacher survey) and I plan to make cupcakes of my favorite birthday recipe.  FUN!

I could sometimes talk about coupon-ing.  I have to get some more coupons before I can use them, right?  Ha.  I have been reading several coupon websites, but I haven't gotten around to finding any coupons.  Also I want to learn the CVS game but I also need to start collecting coupons to do that.

I could talk about cleaning the house, but then I would feel like I should stop blogging and start cleaning.  I have considered a "one room a day" cleaning schedule.  Today would be laundry, but I need to do that anyway, so is that really sticking to a schedule?  Yesterday would have been our bedroom, but I'm still only halfway through the living room which was Monday but I started Wednesday.  I somehow skipped the nursery which was supposed to be Tuesday.

This blog will just be a fun learning experience for me to start.  I will try to add a picture now and stop writing so I can put some laundry in.

Just Trying to Blog a little

It shouldn't be this complicated, but it has taken me several weeks to figure out how to set up a blog account.  Am I just a few months (years) older than the average person who learns anything about new technology?  Is that why it took me forever to accept IMing, texting, facebook?  Now I love all three, so maybe I will love blogging too.

Part of my problem is that as soon as I get started trying to sit at the computer, Erica wakes up.  She is a reluctant napper.  I'll just type right now until she starts to cry.  We'll see how it goes.  Maybe I will be typing for two hours.  I doubt that.

To start blogging, maybe I should describe myself in case anyone stumbles upon me who doesn't know me.  I have been described as short, curly haired, and my cheeks are always pink. This is true, unless I have straightened my hair or put on makeup.  can't do anything about the "short" part, but the first time my husband (Russell) and I went out, he said, "You are short, but you aren't ridiculously short."  I took that as a compliment.

I am 39, a first time giddily happy Mommy of Erica, age 5 months.  She is just the most precious thing ever, and as Russell said in his Facebook 25 Random things, she is sweet as the water that runs down Sugar Creek.  That is a song, but we don't know who sings it.

My job besides mommy and wife is Director of Parents' Day Out.  I have completed three weeks at my new job, and I think I like it.  I won't say the name of the church in case I end up saying anything that isn't going great, that way nobody will find this when googling the church!  Ha!

Maybe it would be descriptive of me to list some topics I like to read about on the computer:  I like to read mommy blogs, coupon blogs, blooper blogs (about apostrophe and quotation misuse), and Facebook.  I wish you could search the 25 Random Things feature so I could read everyone's entries.  They are usually pretty hilarious.

Anyway, today's blog will continue with me telling some things that Erica is learning.  She is learning to sit up.  This is very cute, because of course she has been all wobbly until now.  If you prop her up in the corner of the couch or other similar location, she can sit for several minutes and play with toys.  She might lean over a little, but she can usually recover and sit straight again.  It is very cool to see the pride in her face as she sits like a big girl.

Erica is also trying to get on a better schedule.  I should say that sometimes I attribute my own characteristics or activities onto Erica.  We, her parents, are trying to get Erica on a better schedule.  Usually she wakes up very happily anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30 AM.  She eats and plays and honestly as soon as the clock strikes one hour after she woke up, she starts acting sleepy.  This is the easiest time most days to ever put her down for a nap.  Right now we are rocking her to sleep, which is usually fine for morning naps and very very late nights.  We are thinking about learning to let her cry a little and put her in the bed to all asleep on her own.  This is because most other naps during the day she isn't consoled very easily by rocking, she has a terrible time calming down for a nap at any babysitters' or church nurseries, and we think she will need this skill in life.  We are waiting for a week when we aren't traveling, and will probably put February 8 as the night we start practicing this new skill.  Yikes, that is very scary to me.  I will need lots and lots of help and support.

Another skill we are considering is stretching the time between Erica's meals.  She ate every two hours during the day until about a month ago, and now she is closer to every three hours.  I think she could probably go longer.   We will start solids here within a few weeks.  Oatmeal is the first meal we have in mind.

This entry is really getting boring, so I might just stop it soon.