Sleep!

Kaylee slept through the night again! She went down at 9, woke up at 12:30 and slept until 7:45! I am feeling good today rest-wise, however my back has been killing me again for the past few days. I think I hurt it again trying to toddle around with Kaylee holding my hands. I quickly learned I can't do that, and instead have her walk towards me while sitting on the floor in front of her.

Kaylee met another newborn last night, I brought pizza over to the new parents house. She tried some pizza crust, and choked on it. While I was cleaning up her mess and washing my hands, Kaylee's extensive reach stretched over and whipped over the pizza sauce all over their nice white carpet - much to my embarrassment and dismay! My friends were nice about it, but I wish it hadn't happened. OMG!

Kaylee got some cute orange sunglasses from her Grandma. To the right are some cute new photos! Enjoy!

A good day yesterday

Kaylee’s had a good day yesterday, she drank all her bottles at daycare plus she was still thirsty so Kathy gave her 4 oz. of water that she took as well. She also took two short naps and then slept well at night, only waking once with one nearly 6 hour stretch!

While I was cooking dinner yesterday she was playing with her toy on the floor. I turned around to do some cooking and then all the sudden, she was on the other side of the room. I know she can crawl, she's just been an expert in just crawling to things within her (exceptional, flexible) reach. Basically she crawls as far as she can toss her toys. But yesterday I think the slippery ness of the vinyl floors made it easy for her to scott/crawl far and fast.

Kaylee ate a lot of graham crackers yesterday. We were so happy to see it. We hope to increase her repertoire to things more healthy, but are happy with anything at this point. The other day when Eric and I went out, she had a great time sucking on riblet bones. Quite savory. We tried giving her a little chicken yesterday with no interest. She tried our brocolli but promtly shivered in disgust and began choking to get it out of her mouth. She loves to share now. She offers her food to me and Eric, and to the dogs. Not to get rid of her food necessarily but because she wants to share it. She also shares her toys with us too.

Movin' on up!

Oh lost my post! argh. Basically day care talked to me about moving Kaylee up early to the 12-18 month room because she's the oldest baby in the infant room and a baby was born 3 weeks early. So mid-March she'll be moving up. They've been taking her everyday to get to know the teacher, the room, the toys and the other 2 babies. She'll get loads of attention until all the other babies from the infant room start moving up quickly after her in a steady stream. She will see those friends again soon!

Kaylee took her first steps (while we held her)

Last night we were up every 2 hours. I was a very hard night. At 4:30 we had the worst of it, listening to crying for about an hour. Finally she gave in to me and to sleep, after some comforting from me (but I wouldn't pick her up) and from Eric. She slept then until 8. I do not feel rested at all today. At least the night before last I got a full night's sleep!

An exciting thing happened yesterday, I was holding her up so she could practice standing as she likes to do. She bounced up and down excitedly and they took 3 steps toward me. I got super excited cheering her on. I called Eric who was getting us a pizza, when he returned she did it for him too. I guess some walking practice may be right around the corner!

Oh, and the last few days I've heard a lot more Mom in her cries. She also said Mom once when I came into the room. I was so excited to finally hear her say it when she wasn't crying, I was like, "Yes I'm Mom! Come to Mom! You said Mom, Mom, Mom. Yea Kaylee!" I'll be keeping an ear open for any more "Mom" sounds coming from her!

Kaylee slept through the night!

Wow! I didn't think I'd be saying this so soon after we tried this...but Kaylee slept through the night last night. It has been about 6 months since I slept through the night and I can say that I woke up really proud but also worried because I hadn't heard a peep from her. I was like, "5 am?! Yes! Wait....is she okay? Is she alive?" I went and checked on her twice to make sure. At about 5:30 she woke up, (slept from 9:30-5:30) I nursed her and she decided it was time to get up for the day. She was babbling and kicking her legs (Eric and I call this her Kangaroo Kick and sometimes we call her Kangi because she kicks like this when she doesn't want her blankets on or is ready to get up). I had to have Eric snuggle her to calm her down and she slept until around 7:20. It feels good to get hours of sleep in a row. I hope that it continues! It was just in time actually because I had to give a speech today for my Toastmasters and needed the concentration sleep affords you. I did pretty well with the speech, people seemed really interested, smiling and leaning forward and I almost started to cry during a portion of it and I swear the audience members almost cried too. So I guess they were into it. I only need to get better at my vocal variety and cutting the UMs. Oh well, there's a next time. Wish us luck for tonight for continued success! :)

9 month checkup

Kaylee had her 9 mo check up on Friday. She is 19 lbs 1 oz (50th percentile) and 27 1/4" (30th percentile) for height.  I asked the doctor about how Kaylee isn't eating solids consistently yet, basically not showing an interest. She said I am nursing Kaylee too much at night and only to do it from one side during the night, she thought it would be cruel to go from all to nothing so we are doing that now. She said basically Kaylee eats so much at night she isn't hungry for anything all day. She said we need to get her sleeping in the crib consistently too and not taking her to bed with us when she cries.  So Eric and I worked with her Friday night. She went asleep in my arms and made an easy transfer but then woke up an hour later. I comforted her for a few minutes and she fell back asleep. Another half hour later, she was crying again we both were trying to comfort her, and I still felt she didn't need to nurse. So we let her cry. To distract ourselves we made cookies, I had made something in the oven the day before and it had crusted onto the bottom of the over, smoke poured into our house. So in 5 degree weather we were opening up all the doors and turning on all the fans. Eric comforted Kaylee and she fell asleep despite everything going on. She then slept from 12:30-4:30,nursed slept till 6:30 nursed and then woke up for the day at 8:30.  It wasn't as bad as we expected. So then last night we were at it again. Kaylee and I sat in the rocking chair again next to the crib and nursed. Kaylee kept looking at the crib, the rocking chair and then me putting it all together. She seemed to know what was happening. She was anxious and wouldn't sleep in my arms, figeting. I put her down awake at 9:30 and to my amazement she fell asleep. She stared at me for a few minutes to make sure I was still there and went to sleep. She woke up at 12:30, nursed and was back down by 1:00 and slept until 7! I was so happy, she then went back to sleep at woke up at 8:45! At 6:30 the I was hearing some yipping and yapping from a baby and checked on her and she was totally still asleep. I think our monitor was getting something from a neighbor's house. Anyways, we were very pleased. Both mornings, she ate a bit of banana and a couple puffs in her highchair.  I just got done from working for an hour at getting her taking a nap in her crib with no luck so she is napping with Eric who's sleeping in this morning. We'll tackle that another day. 

Kaylee managed to pull herself onto her knees by the coffee table yesterday. She couldn't get up all the way and her little leg was shaking with the effort. She whined for help while we cheered her on, after a minute or so I rescued her. She hasn't been crawling consistently and somehow made it 4-5 feet on the rug by twisting turning from belly to sitting and back again. We got her some foam interlocking mats for her room so the surface of the floor is soft and good crawling atmosphere. We also got her some rolling balls and they look like a good thing for her to chase after. Kaylee continues to get stronger and can stand by herself for a moment if she's balanced right. We practice walking but she doesn't take her own steps herself yet.  She had a good time with her Grandma being babysat on Friday and had a good time visiting with her Aunt and Uncle yesterday! She loves the attention!

Kaylee visits baby

We went to visit a co-worker friend of mine last night who just had a baby. The baby is three weeks old and it was fun to see Kaylee's reaction to the little bitty baby. She was totally thrilled, she had excitement all over her face, she was flapping her arms and reaching out for the baby. We let her touch the baby's blankets wrapped around her, but I wouldn't let Kaylee get too close to her face. The baby is adorable. It is hard for me to remember already what it was like when Kaylee was that little, how quickly time passes and how quickly memory fades...

Kaylee was hamming it up for my friend and her husband. She noticed them paying attention to her and she loved that. She started babbling happily, showing off and climbing up my friend's husband to try to touch his beard. Kaylee is a sociable little girl and loves to go places.