Laura's picture in the Pioneer Press Paper

Fish Wrap Factory -East Side of the River
The newspaper from St. Paul

Grandma Barb had a little surprise in store for everyone today. Little did I know, maybe Mom did, Laura had a pretty big picture printed in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.


As I stated a few posts ago, quite a few of us have been frustrated with the Twinkletoes this year. So much talent, yet they just can't put it all together.

Looks like Grandma Barb agrees...and so does Laura! Congrats Laura, here begins your 15 minutes of fame!

A Laura(less) Weekend

This past weekend was a funny one. We had so many plans but all of them fell through. There were talks of going down to see Baby Cooper in Sioux Falls, that changed to attend Uncle Scott's birthday party. Since that was no longer in the works there were talks of going to the MN State Fair or walking around Minnehaha Fall, again that didn't materialize. Then we heard Scott's birthday party was back in play at the same time receiving an invite to attend the Twins game with Marty, but by that point Mom and I made a deal that we are dropping Laura off at Grandma and Grandpa M's and having a date night.

Mom and I had a night like we haven't had in awhile...if ever. We grabbed a bite at the Nook - hands down some of the best in town! After filling our bellies full of grease and fat, we did the next best thing...bowling. I can't remember the last time Mom and I went bowling? The only time that comes to mind is with Lexi and Jeff at the U of M...about 5 years ago.?.

We concluded the evening with a root beer and movie at home. The only movie remaining on our DVR was Savanna  so we watched that. Then off to bed for a peaceful, quiet night of sleep. AHHHH!

This Laura clip is quite entertaining. It is Grandma Barb showing Laura a bookful of random baby pictures. Laura looks at them and gets all wound up! Take a look...

Laura Is Five Months Old!

Well, Laura just keeps on growing. August especially has gone by so fast; we feel like we just wrote her four month post! Big changes are ahead for us since Mom goes back to work tomorrow and Laura enters daycare full time. We'll keep you posted about our "new life" as we get used to it. No official doctor appointment this month so we'll be estimating Laura's height and weight.

Height: We measured 25 inches, but clearly she is not shrinking...let's just assume no growth, still 25 and 1/4 inches.

Weight: Unofficial bathroom scale estimate: 15 pounds

Likes: Hearing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the ABC song, kicking in her crib (this is how she gets herself to sleep; she may have a future in pro wrestling), playing wild with Dad, swimming and bathtimes, putting her toes in her mouth, pulling hair, sitting up (with a little help), scratching her head, talking in her crib

Dislikes: Sitting in her bouncy chair when mom and dad want to eat, being in crowded, noisy places with lots of people.

In other fantastic Laura news, she seems to have learned how to sleep. Although she still takes short naps, from time to time she can surprise us with naps as long as two hours. At night, she falls asleep quickly, generally has a little wakeup before we go to bed, and then continues to sleep until about 5am. After an early morning snack, she goes back to sleep for a couple of hours. Hooray! We can only hope this continues.

Ghost Crying and A Booger Flaps in the Breeze

2 Quick Things:

1. Sometimes Laura gets a little crusty booger right by her nostril opening, and when she breathes in and out, the booger flaps in and out with her breath. Dad and I think this is hilarious! We usually watch it and laugh for a bit, and then wipe it out for her.

2. Both Dad and I have noticed this phenomenon..."ghost crying"...sometimes we think that we can hear Laura crying, when in fact she is completely quiet and sleeping. Don't worry, I don't think we are living in a haunted house. It's just that I think we have times when we almost expect that she should be crying, so we hear it even though it's not really happening.

Newborn vs. 4.5 Months

Then and Now
After visiting Andrew, Scott, and Lynn in the hospital, I reflected on the delivery of one, Laura Lynn. I thought it would be fun to look back at her facial changes from Day 1 to Day 142. I know I have stated this numerous times, but I don't remember Laura ever looking like the image on the left. Time really did fly by. Should be fun to compare her looks from these pictures to 3, 5, 10 years from now.

The Dads

Laura behaved pretty well during the hospital visit. She talked quite a bit for everyone in the room. Secretly, I think she was trying to divert attention back to herself. Probably not. In fact, the past couple of days Laura has been super chatty.

I have been having so much fun with Laura the past 3-4 weeks. Yes, our relationship got off to a rocky start, I can't explain why she didn't want me holding her other than she looked at us and thought Mom=Nummies, Dad=You don't have anything I want? But now, it is a different ball game. She looks at me and sees Dad=Eat my tummy and make me laugh. And I like that role.

"Oh my!"

Laura's expression illustrates our thoughts on the Twins season. What happened pitching staff? Make a decent acquisition front office! You have been a complete disappointment, except Mauer (aka Baby Jesus).

Or this photo can represent the first viewing of Purple #4 at QB for the Vikings. He sure didn't look right wearing purple during yesterdays preseason game.

New Cousin and Friends

Andrew Schoen
Laura is no longer the youngest cousin. Uncle Scott and Auntie Lynn had a baby boy, Andrew Schoen (pronounced like Shane), at 2:48am this morning (August 22). Andrew weighed 8lbs 11oz and was 21 inches long. Oh yeah, I hear that he has a lot of hair on his head. We are very happy to hear that Lynn and Andrew are both doing great! Looks like Andrew has more hair than Dad!?! JK!


In addition to Andrew, Laura welcomed two new friends this month.

Cooper James
Jason and Shelly introduced Cooper James to the world on August 3rd at 11:57pm. Cooper weighed 6lbs 12oz and 19.5 inches long. Cooper spent the first night in NICU for observation but all tests showed he was ok!


Avery Joy
Derek and Angela had a baby girl, Avery Joy, on August 4th at 2:39pm. Avery weighed 7lbs 4oz and 19.5 inches in length. Mom and baby are happy and healthy!

What's Going on With Laura?

I realize we have brought up a lot of issues on this blog that may seem unresolved, but in fact are settled or getting there - so let's get up to speed. Father B likes when I blog with headings, so here you go, Daddy-O.

Daycare
I think like a day after we posted about the quandary, we went ahead and paid a deposit to the one person we visited, thus reserving Laura's spot. In actuality I think I was more distressed about having to send her to daycare in general, rather than who she would be with. If she has to be somewhere other than home with us, I am happy about where we will be sending her. There are only 3 other kids there right now, and they are really nice and well-behaved. Laura has been very smiley with Kimm, the daycare lady, which I think is a good sign. Kimm has almost 20 years experience and has been great with answering my questions, returning calls promptly, etc. so I am feeling at ease.

I actually brought Laura to daycare for a half day this week while I was at school. Yes, I cried, and it seemed so stupid to me because I've left her with the grandmas plenty of times this summer with no tears. But it felt different and I knew this was the beginning of the end of our time at home together. However, Laura did great and had no problems eating or napping, so that made me feel a little better.

Sleeping

This is improving, but isn't great yet. We are trying the cry-it-out thing, but we're sort of cheating on Ferber's method. You are supposed to keep extending the time you let your baby cry until she gets used to settling herself back down. Well, Dad decided he doesn't want her to cry more than 10 minutes (Mom suspects this is because when Laura cries this long, he actually wakes up at night) before we go in and attend to her. We also replace her pacifier. On the positive side, I haven't slept on her floor since we got into this method. She does wake up about every 3 hours (the amount of time between her feedings during the day...coincidence? I think not.), but it's better because I only get up maybe 2-4 times with her.

Laura has also learned to nap longer than 30 minutes; some days she sleeps almost 2 hours! At other times, though, she still takes these tiny little naps. She has also accepted using a new pacifier (Nuk brand) instead of her round green Soothie (thanks for the recommendation Katie - it falls out a lot less at night!). I must admit I was a little sad about it - are parents always so sad about every little sign that shows your child is growing up?

Eating

Laura is proving to be a pretty adaptable girl when we throw new things at her. She took formula with no problems, and now has 2 bottles of formula a day. I am still feeding her the rest of the time, and I'm hoping to replace one more feeding with formula before it's time to go back to school. A question for the parents out there - what do you use for the water you mix formula with? Tap water, bottled water, filtered water?? My Baby 411 book has this big section about fluoride in the water and how getting too much from tap water can actually discolor baby's teeth when they come in. As of now we are using tap water.

Well, as the summer comes to a close, make sure you squeeze in the last few things you've wanted to do! For us, I hope that includes some ice cream, walks outside, and a date night for Mom and Dad!

4 Month Update!

Laura had her 4 month doctor visit today; you can check her updated stats back on the original 4 month entry. She survived the shots again and actually is doing better this time, I think. We saw a physician's assistant because our usual doctor is out of town. Luckily we left with a prescription for some special shampoo that is supposed to help with poor Laura's crusty cradle cap head. Cereal fans, we asked...but they recommend waiting until 6 months! We will, however, be introducing her to a little formula this week to see how it goes and then begin the weaning process - I think.

I have very mixed feelings about stopping breastfeeding. On one hand, I like that time with her, knowing that it's good for her, dad likes that it's free. On the other hand, sometimes I am frustrated by the way it ties me down, and I think it would really be a challenge to keep pumping while I am at school. Unfortunately the reasons for stopping are all for my benefit and not really for her, so I am feeling a little guilty about it. Probably I'm sad too just because it means she's growing up; breastfeeding is something we've done together every day since she was born. So we'll see - we may try to keep at it a little bit, holding on to morning and night feedings if we can.

Go to sleep, Baby Laura!

Oh, Laura.

There comes a time when things get a little ridiculous and you just have to STOP. After we came back from Ruttger's, Laura was actually sleeping ok. I didn't have to get up very often, and when I did, it was just for a quick "re-plug." She was going down to sleep all right.

In the last week or so, things have just gotten worse. This may be due to suspected teething or what, I don't know. It has been taking almost an hour to get her into bed and asleep, and I probably have been tending to 10+ wakeups throughout the night, as well as trying to settle her spastic little body so she can get to sleep. Monday night, I think I slept three hours or so total. Needless to say my actions are treading into neurotic mom territory, which I am trying so hard to stay out of.

Today after her typical 30 minute nap, I got her up but she still seemed SO tired and could see she wanted to sleep more. When I tried to put her back to sleep, it was not working despite her sleepiness. Grandma Barb was around and suggested I just try to let her cry it out*...after about 15-20 minutes she did fall asleep. She went down nicely and very quick tonight but has already had one wakeup after which we let her cry and she settled down. Dad was good support tonight and Grandma during the day; I don't think it would be easy if I were alone.

I have read probably every book on infant sleep that our library has to offer, so I know all the approaches: Babywise, No-Cry Sleep Solution, Sleep Lady, Baby Whisperer, etc. etc. etc. Over the next couple weeks I believe we'll be trying to "Ferberize" Laura (Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber)...he advocates letting your baby cry it out BUT checking periodically in increasing increments of time to reassure your baby that you are still there. We haven't taken the pacifier away; we'll "replug" at the check-ins unless that becomes problematic. So; good luck to us! Enjoy a couple recent pics of our cutie, which explains why I still love her so much, even when she's stealing all my sleep.

*Note: She is obviously not the first to suggest the "cry it out" to me, but today was a particular combination of me knowing she clearly needed more sleep combined with frustration/the willingness to listen to her cry...I suspect this is usually how this comes about with us reluctant moms.

Laura Is Four Months Old!

Like Dad said, Laura is getting so big, so fast. Where have the tiny infant days gone? While we can't give you a complete list of "Laura stats" yet (Dr. appointment to come on Aug. 10), here's the scoop on our little lovebug so far.

Height: 25 and 1/4 inches

Weight: 13 lbs., 1 oz.

Likes: Looking at trees, pulling hair, the word "boom!," chewing/sucking on her fingers, pacifier, rocking with her head on my shoulder, sitting in the Bumbo, zerberts on the tummy, linking rings, when we pretend to eat her, screaming (not in anger, just for fun), giggling.

Dislikes: Blankets and toys on her face (ahem, Dad), her scratchy cradle-cap covered head, early evening when she has not napped, the dining room at Ruttger's.

Laura has reached a milestone which she will only selectively repeat, rolling from her tummy onto her back. I have only seen it once or twice a few weeks ago, but I guess she finally gave a repeat performance today for Dad and Grandma Janelle. Last month I was bemoaning how horribly she was sleeping. It's better, but not great. She wakes up quite a few times at night, but usually it's just a quick pacifier intervention and then we're back to sleep. She's also napping, although she seems to prefer 3-4 short naps of 30 min. to an hour rather than the 2 long naps she "should" be taking. Any naps are good to me!

We also strongly suspect her first tooth is in the works. There is a LOT of drooling, chewing, poor nursing (and biting! ow!), and some fussiness. Poor Laura. I hope it holds off for a while because I think her big gummy smile is so cute! We are loving her so much; it's fun to see her develop skills and a little personality. I'm trying not to think about a month from now - school for me, daycare for her, boo-hoo-hoo.