Splashing

Today in the bath Penny splashed her rubber ducky in the water. I know it might sound odd to record that as a milestone, but up until now she always just sat there and chewed on a toy. It was like bath time was neither her nor there for her. She just sat there and was bathed. :) But today she splashed the rubber ducky all around in front of her, which I thought was pretty cool.

I think she's really going to like the water. When I take a bath with her I'll lay her down on my arms in the water and let her "float" and she always laughs. I can't wait until this summer. I plan to take her to some "mommy/daddy and me" swimming classes at one of the city pools. Plus, I get to buy her some of those cute Bummis swim diapers. Oh, I'm a cloth diaper addict - I admit it. :)

Eight Months Old

Penny turned eight months old on Saturday. In celebration, we decided to let her try some Cheerios at lunch. It took her about 20 minutes to finally manage to get one in her mouth, whereupon she choked on it. So, we plan to try again at 9 months. :) Nonetheless, she did seem to enjoy herself:




Here is a video showing Penny "walking" with the aid of Daddy's hands. She looks like a drunken sailor in this video because she was trying to watch me with the camera at the same time, but she's actually getting pretty good at it when no cameras are around. I don't think she is anywhere near walking on her own, but she has fun "practicing" like this.
Also, her clothes are kind of comically big, but we were trying to get some mileage out of some long sleeved stuff before it got too warm to wear it.



In other development news, the last two weeks or so she's been actually falling asleep in her carseat when we go places (provided it is time for her nap). I am so glad, because it was very difficult to have to rush home from places in order for her to take a nap since she wouldn't sleep in the car - or else we had to stay places longer than we would like in order for her to nap there. Plus, it always made me feel awkward around people because there were instances where I would say we had to leave in order to get her home to take a nap and all the other moms would be like, "Why? - just let her sleep on the way home" and I'd be all, "She won't", but I could tell they never believed me - like I was just making up some excuse to leave early. Or that if I just drove around long enough she'd eventually fall asleep. Nope - she wouldn't. I swear. Been there. Tried that. Many times. She did fall asleep one time on the way to Georgia and slept exactly 26 minutes and then woke up and was awake for the rest of the trip. Oh, and once on the way home from Thanksgiving she did eventually pass out from the sheer exhaustion of screaming her head off for two hours. But, anyway, we've had three trips to run errands now where she fell asleep on the way home. It may seem like a small thing, but it opens up a whole world to me because now I can go places and count on her to sleep in the car. That is just awesome.

Good Day

Penny slept through the night last night! She went down in the crib just before 8 and slept until 645 without a peep. In fact, I had to wake her up this morning in order to feed her so I could go to work. What, you might ask, led to this miraculous event? We swaddled her again. She'd outgrown her swaddleme blanket - or so we thought. Last night we decided to try it again and she slept like a dream. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Also today, while I was at work, Penny managed to crawl backwards all the way across the living room dragging her hat with her. Tray took a zillion pictures to show me when I got home and in almost all of them she has the same self-satisfied smile on her face - even after she managed to back herself in between the couch and the recliner.





For several days now she's been trying to pull up on things, but there really isn't much in our house for her to pull up on. Today, I sat her in the crib while I was in the bathroom and when I came back, this is what I found (and she grinned from ear to ear as soon as she saw me - she was SO proud of herself):



(And, yes, we will be dropping the mattress level!)

Oh, and last but not least, she ate peaches today at lunch and actually seemed to like them. What a day!!

Rubber Ducky

Monday evening Penny took her first bath in her new (hand-me-down) ducky bathtub! We think she liked it. We, however, have bad backs and knees from trying to bath her in it. Ha! We had to make a change though; She finally outgrew her plastic counter-top tub. Her legs got too long for it, and I didn't really have room to bathe her back. When we were at the doctor's on Friday for her ear check she weighed 15 lbs 4 ounces, so she's outgrowing a lot of things that have 15 lb weight limits (like her pack n' play bassinet attachment *sob*). She's still pretty small for her age, but when I look at her I can't really imagine her being any bigger than she is. She seems just right to me. :)

Anyway, here are some photos of the big event.

This is her and her cloth-diaper bubble butt reaching for the side of the bathtub:



And this is her laughing with her daddy during bathtime:

Sitting Up

Penny sat up by herself today! By which I mean achieved sitting from a lying down position. Very, very cool.

Look Who's "Talking"

In milestone news, Penny started "talking" today! Up until today she hasn't really babbled or anything. She could make vowel sounds, fussing noises, and blow raspberries, but no consonants. Every now and again I'd hear her make a "g" noise, but mostly I think by accident. Well, today she has been saying lots of "g" noises together with her vowels in what is clearly a very purposeful manner. She's had maybe five or six "conversations" with us today - and we definitely heard a couple "d"s in the mix, so maybe "da-da" won't be far off (or perhaps "good dog"?). It is so exciting! And funny - like a switch turned on that wasn't on yesterday.

A-Ok

Well, the doctor's visit proved that everything is fine with Penny's ears. She does not have ear infections any more, and no fluid in her ears either. Unfortunately, there is still the matter of her waking up at night.

Oatmeal

Penny ate 1 1/2 Tbs. of oatmeal at dinner last night and almost a whole tablespoon with breakfast. So, I am very excited. She still hates apples though. Also, last night I cooked green peas (from frozen - no additives) and I put some on her highchair. Interestingly, she never once attempted to put one in her mouth. Isn't that odd? I thought she might be ready for finger foods because she has the beginnings of the pincer grasp down; she can pick small things up with her fingers. She'll try to put everything she comes across into her mouth - except for food. It was the same when I gave her a little piece of banana and a little piece of sweet potato. It's like she enjoys the feeling on her fingers, but has no inclination to put it in her mouth. I find that very strange. Tray decided to pick one of the peas up and put it in her mouth and she acted like he'd just tried to poison her.
Anyway, I use this blog not only to keep family and friends informed on all things Penelope, but also as a diary for myself so, with that in mind, here is a list of the things we have tried so far:
Of the cereals, she likes oatmeal, rice, and barley in that order of preference, but will not eat them if mixed together.
sweet potatoes - "strongly dislike"
green peas - "mild dislike"
carrots - "sort of like"
squash - "sort of like"
green beans - "moderate dislike"
bananas - "strongly dislike"
apples - "strongly dislike"

Up next on our roster: mangoes, pears, and prunes.


In ear infection news, she woke up a bunch last night even though I took her to bed with us after about 11 o'clock. She would just wake up crying and the only way she would stop is to be held completely upright and then she'd fall asleep on my shoulder. If I tried to turn her on her side she'd wake up and cry again. So, at one point I propped myself up against the headboard and just held her sleeping straight up. Consequently, we have another doctor's appointment tomorrow.

Great-grandmothers

Since getting pregnant and giving birth it has been interesting to me to get some of the same advice from my grandmother (my mom's mother) as I get from Tray's grandmother (his dad's mom). Both of them told me to put socks on Penny to keep her from having colic, and darned if it didn't work. She'd be fussy and I'd put socks on and she'd calm down. I think she got cold in the air conditioning.

Anyway, with the ear infection thing and Penny waking up at night both of them sort of said the same thing (in kind of round about ways) regarding letting Penny sleep with me at night. At first I tried very diligently to put Penny back in her own bed, but after two weeks of that I was exhausted and I knew she wasn't getting any sleep either waking up every time I put her down, so I started taking her to bed with me and just holding her in my arms. She still wakes up every 2 to 2 1/2 hours crying even doing that, but it's better than being up literally all night. Well, without knowing that I have been doing that, Tray's grandmother told him to tell me that she's only little for a little while and that if she needs comfort there is nothing wrong with taking her to bed with me, and not to listen to any body who would give me advice otherwise. And then this weekend when my grandmother was down visiting with my mom, she told me how she'd let her youngest daughter (my aunt) sleep with her such that she refused to go back to her own bed. She didn't tell me that as a warning though - she said it like it was a good thing - and I took her to mean it was ok if that was what I was doing with Penny. And I realized - they are both so right. Here they are in their late 80s/early 90s and would, I am sure, love to have their babies little again and sleeping in their arms. Penny's not going to be little forever and I'll do whatever she needs me to to make her comfortable. She'll be grown and out on her own in the blink of an eye. So, to any nay-sayers out there - I hereby unapologetically declare that I shall continue taking Penny to bed when she wakes up screaming.

Backwards crawling

Penny can now crawl backwards. It's pretty funny when she's trying to get a toy and she keeps moving herself further and further away from it. But, I know our days are numbered and she'll be crawling forwards soon enough.

I'm still not having much luck with getting her to eat solids. I got her to eat some rice cereal at dinner time, but I mixed it so thin it was pretty much just milk. I tried apple sauce, but she didn't like that at all. Ditto on bananas for the last few days. I really thought once I started giving her fruits that she'd like those a lot - aren't kids supposed to love fruit? Anyway, I hope once her ear infections clear up and she gets off the antibiotics her interest in solid foods will pick up again.

She still isn't sleeping well. She slept fitfully until 1 am last night and then woke up crying. I walked her around a bit and she went back to sleep until 315 and then woke up crying. I walked her around and she went back to sleep until 530 and then woke up crying again. I walked her around and we laid back down until 615. Now, to me that doesn't seem like the antibiotics are working - but then again it only took me 3 or 4 minutes of soothing her to get her to stop crying versus maybe 15 or so in past nights, so that is an improvement.

But to keep things in perspective, we know of a family whose baby is very, very ill right now in the hospital at UAB. I imagine they'd give just about anything to just be dealing with ear infections. So, I really can't complain.

Still waiting

I took Penny back to the doctor today because she has been on the antibiotic since Monday and had not gotten any better. In fact, I think she's gotten a little worse. Wednesday night was very rough - she seemed to be in a lot of pain when she woke up and slept very fitfully even though I held her most of the night. So, we got a different, stronger, antibiotic and I hope this one works. She is still refusing to eat solid foods, but the day after we started the first antibiotic she actually ate a bit of oatmeal, so I am hopeful that we can start back up introducing solid foods again if this antibiotic works. I feel like we've fallen so far behind! But, I know I shouldn't compare. I know we only started the new medicine tonight so it probably won't have time to take effect, but I so hope she can get some sleep. I don't think she's slept more than 3 hours at a stretch since some time in mid-February.

Problem Solved!

I took P to the doctor this afternoon and she has ear infections in both ears! I was horrified upon learning this. I totally would have taken her to the doctor sooner had I known, but I thought she would be running a fever if she had an ear infection (let alone two). Oh, I feel awful - and so, so glad I didn't try any variation of the "cry it out" method. It's like I read somewhere, if you plan on asking your child to cry "it" out, you better be darn sure you know what "it" is. Anyway, the doctor says she'll be back to normal in 36 to 48 hours on the antibiotics. She's already doing much better this evening. This time last night I'd already put her to sleep four times. Tonight she hasn't woken up at all yet. Here's hoping she (and I) gets some much needed sleep. Thanks to everyone who wrote or contacted me after the last blog post. It is so nice to have people to ask advice from.

Frustrations

For the past two weeks Penny has been waking up at night and it is sooo frustrating. I don't mean she wakes up once looking for a feeding or something. I mean she wakes up and stays up all night. You can comfort her by holding her and walking her around, but if you so much as flinch like you want to put her down she starts to cry. And, lest you think I haven't considered just taking her to bed with us, I have tried. She cries then too. She's not running a fever and she doesn't pull on her ears, so I'm fairly certain it's not an ear infection. On the other hand, she's not eating that great either. I can't judge exact amounts, but it seems like she's not nursing as long as she used to - and she just shows almost no interest in the solid foods, although she hasn't been very interested in them from the beginning.

Last night went marginally better than the past few. She slept from 830 until 3. Then I walked her around and got her back down in her bed at 320 (which was different from other nights - the night before I never would have gotten her to stay asleep when I put her back down), but then she woke up at 5 and wouldn't go back to sleep. I ended up having to feed her at 6 instead of 630 like normal, but that was only 30 minutes off so not so bad.

Anyway, as I say, it is very frustrating. I called the pediatrician's office on Friday and was told to give her tylenol before bed (on the theory that it's teething) - which I was doing already anyway. And then the nurse told me to let her cry some before going to get her. Well, no duh on that one too. Of course I let her cry to make sure she's serious before I drag myself out of bed at 3 am. She used to be a champ at putting herself back to sleep, but now not so much. In fact just three nights ago I watched her put herself to sleep, so I know she knows how to do it. Well, of course she does - she's woken up at 4 am her whole life, but has always (since she started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks) gone back to sleep on her own. Prior to the last two weeks, she'd woken up during the night enough that I had to comfort her exactly 4 times and 3 of those were when we were staying at somebody else's house.

The only thing I can think is that it might be early separation anxiety? And the only thing I know to do is just keep comforting her. But, something's got to give. I had to miss work on Friday because I'd only fallen asleep at 6 am and there was no way I could get there at 8. And we missed going to Tray's parent's house the last two weekends for Tray's dad's birthday which was last week because we knew it would only be worse up there (see the last sentence of the above paragraph). And, I was making tremendous progress on my dissertation in the evenings, but now I go to bed super early to insure that I get at least a few hours of sleep before she wakes up again. So, so frustrating.

Well, thank you guys for letting me vent. Just to keep it in perspective, here's a picture from this afternoon. She was sitting there spellbound as Tray played guitar for her, but of course when I pulled the camera out she looked at me instead. She's such a sweetheart.