NIght time

Ok so yesterday I got a lecture from the pediatrician about how we should be putting the baby to sleep since that is our biggest issue still and she's not sleeping more than 4-5 hrs at a stretch. We always have to rock her until she's out like a light and when we try to put her down, she pops right back up. Dr. Mancini wants us to put her down and let her cry and not pick her up at all. We can go in and talk to her, but can't touch her. I told her sometimes Juliette has gas that wakes her up, so I can do that and burp her, but that's it. So last night after her bath, Josh rocked her a little bit until she was starting to drift off and then we put her in the crib. I felt bad because that is Josh's bonding time with the baby- when she gets all comfy on him and falls asleep, but it's about what's best for Juliette. She cried for about 20 minutes and then fell asleep. She woke up 30 minutes later, but quickly went back to sleep by 10. Then she woke up at 2:15 and I picked her up to burp her, but as soon as I picked her up she put her head on my shoulder, the thumb went in the mouth, and her eyes started closing. As hard as it was, I put her back in the crib and she cried for about 10 minutes. Then she fussed around 4 and I thought she wanted to eat, but when I checked on her, she had already fallen back to sleep. The next thing I knew Josh was waking me up and it was 7! I got up, SURE she was going to wake shortly. WRONG!
She slept until 10:30! But I kept thinking she would wake up so I didn't shower or get ready, certain that as soon as I did, she would wake up. So then we had had a long day out and now she's playing in her exersaucer. She took a few naps in the car, but tomorrow I'll get her on the two nap a day schedule the dr. wants her on. She told me to put Juliette in her crib for at least 40 minutes. If she sleeps great, if not, at least she knows it's a time when she has to be in her crib. Dr. Mancini assured me that babies her age can learn very quickly and will adapt in a few days...I hope so!

Four month picture

Four Months old!

I can't believe she's already four months old! I remember thinking last year that I would be ready to go back to work by this time- I'll say it again that I'm glad I changed my mind. We tried feeding Juliette her cereal in a bottle tonight. It didn't work too well. She hates sucking a bottle. She does much better with a spoon. I don't know what I'm going to do when I stop nursing her if she doesn't like the bottle. I might just go right to a sippy cup like my mom said. That's something else I need to think about soon- do I stop at six months, go for the full year, or somewhere in the middle? We'll see as we hit those milestones. Tomorrow we go to the doctor and she gets more shots---which means Tylenol! Ok I know it's bad to be thankful my daughter has to be given drugs, but it really helps her sleep! :) The Tylenol we have isn't part of the recall, so we're ok on that front. I'm going to play around with the program for our Flip recorder to see if I can upload a better video of her in the exersaucer. We found out tonight that we can put her in there long enough that we can both eat dinner...it's wonderful! I also found this afternoon that our Kohls sells Juliette's Dolly so in case we lose her, I can get a replacement one there. I also heard it's at Toys R Us. We never leave home without it!

Blowing Raspberries!

New pics and video

here's Juliette in her new toy!

Exersaucer

Oh my lord Juliette loves her exersaucer! I put her in this morning to see if she would fit and she's already setting off the music and spinning around and rocking the base! Her feet touch the bottom already! I'll post pictures and the video when I have a few more minutes!

Bowling Night!

Last night Juliette had her first bowling night with Daddy- he loves showing her off :). I felt better about bringing her there when I learned they had completely banned smoking in the building. She was very happy throughout the night being passed from one person to another. And those of you wondering, no I did not let her put her hands on the balls! Ewww germ city.

Amber- a fellow Bloom Husky!

Hangin' with Jo! Woah...look at those!

Throw a ball....not the baby!

A little early, but still cute!

Dad brought down her costume and a few other Halloween things. Of course it meant a photo!! This isn't her costume, it's still adorable!

Swinging away with Grandpa

I was so happy that Juliette was comfortable now with her grandpa. She hung out with him on the swing for some quality time and some smiles.

Proud grandparents

17 Weeks old!

park

Went to the park today!

Birthday picture

Check out our kid's legs!!! Can you say chunky???? Josh calls this her golf outfit.

Bad night

I wish this kid of mine would make up her mind about her sleep pattern. I would have considered last night great when she was a few weeks old, but for the last 6 weeks it's been pretty regular with her sleeping for 6 hours at a stretch. Last night she was up four times- once to nurse and three times to be burped and cuddled. So at one in the morning, Mom and I were watching Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and I had a song from it stuck in my head for the rest of the night! I don't even know that movie!! It just kept playing over and over in my head. Hopefully tonight is better. Josh has back to school night so it's just me and Mom- Juliliette is in her nana's arms now sleeping peacefully. She'll eat again in a little bit and then maybe once more before being done. Last night she went down at 10 and I think that's why she wanted to eat at one.

We played a lot today because she slept all morning until 12:30. I had her on a beach ball rolling over it to get her stomach muscles a work out. She really seemed to like it. Then we took her to the mall. Juliette loves the toy bar I bought her for the stroller and will now happily sit in it and play while we walk.

A little late

Here is her birthday picture from last week---every Wednesday is her birthday here!! I fear she's going to turn to the dark side of young Hollywood- she's already really good at flashing her belly for the camera!

Bad Hair Day

Someday she is going to kill us for showing these pictures to her future husband!

What a face!

Play time

Check out Juliette on her mat. She is now comfy playing on her mat, in her bumbo, or on her bounce seat for longer periods of time before she wants a cuddle. She's also rolling over more....kind of :).

New sleep=no sleep

It looks like Juliette is challenging us yet again. As soon as we think we've got her figured out that's when she usually changes it up a bit. She's still going to sleep somewhere between 9 and 11 at night, but now she enjoys waking up a few times during the night just to be cuddled for a few minutes or she farted and woke herself up! Me being sick the past few days has not helped, but thank God for Mom. We ran out of batteries in her swing so today's morning nap in her crib was only 30 minutes after letting her cry for 15 minutes. I gave in a rocked her--couldn't let her scream like that!

Fireworks

We went to the fireworks over at Salem Fields church last night after hearing about it from Sue. When Juliette gets bigger she's going to love it. They had so many things for kids and it was all free- bouncy gyms, a little train, a water slide, and tons more. I had a big scare though. I was getting ready to feed the baby and leaned back in my chair and the chair started to fall off the sidewalk! I just screamed for someone to get the baby. Thankfully I didn't fall all the way and Juliette was fine. Her routine was a little disturbed with no bath until after 10, but she still went to bed around her normal time- 11pm and slept until 6 then slept until 9 and now is asleep again in her swing. I think the key to getting her down for the second morning nap is to catch her when she's just starting to yawn so she doesn't get over tired.

Lucky

I realized this morning that we are very lucky with Juliette and her communication. She lets us know pretty much everything she needs by her cries or what she does. We know exactly when she's hungry, when she wants to be played with, when she's ready to be left alone for a bit, and the most helpful one would be when she's tired. This morning she started that high pitched scream of being tired. Personally I like it a lot better when she sucks her thumb and nuzzles to show she's tired, but at least we know what she wants!

Uh Oh

I think Juiliette has figured out who I am. This has only happened today, but each time I left the room she started screaming. A part of me finds this very endearing, another part of me is blaring red sirens that this could be an issue for a while. We'll see.

Where is Baby's Belly Button?

Here's our little reader! I don't know if it's the colors or the moving flaps, but this is the only book we've read to her that she responds to like this!

Back to the Park

A radio station is doing Music in the Park again this month so Mom and I took Juliette to Herkump Park this afternoon. She was awake this time! Last visit she was out cold. On the down side, she hasn't had a nap all day except for when we drove inthe car- knocked her out cold. I'm hoping that means that after her 9 pm feeding, she'll go down for the night. Here's her chilling out in her seat playing with Dolly