Updates

Thank you to those who commented on my previous post. I don't even want to say it because I'll probably jinx it but I think posting about her bad sleeping habits did (as my friend Shay would say) a reverse-jinx: she slept great last night and was an angel today! Now please please please let that trend continue...it makes life so much more pleasant. ;)

Also, I realized I had not blogged about Lainey's 2 month appointment. Yes, she got the dreaded shots and the band-aids to prove it:


(Sorry this is sideways...I'm not quite sure how to fix this)

She weighed 11 pounds 4 ounces and is not freakishly long. They obviously measured her wrong last time because this time she was 22 1/4" long. So she is right about 50-60% for height & weight. The doctor said she's perfect and seems to be doing just great so we'll keep doing what we've been doing because it seems to be working okay.

As for me, I bit the bullet and got a haircut. I'm not sure that everyone is wild about it because not a lot of people have seemed to notice even though I cut about a half a foot off but I don't care. It's wash & wear which is great. Here are the before & after pictures (bear in mind that this is how the stylist fixed it "after" and it does look a bit mom-ish and that's not how I've been wearing it):





I know it looks like Lainey doesn't like it but she does, I promise. She was just upset that the Heels lost the football game that day. In other news, Troy went to NYC last weekend for our friend's wedding. I stayed behind for the obvious reason and ended up going home to Jamestown last minute to visit with Lainey's Grandmama and Grandpa. They were super excited to see her, as usual. Then I went home the day before Troy came home and it dawned on me that that would be the first night I'd spent alone with Lainey. To be honest, it made me a little nervous. Not that I can't handle her on my own. I'm the one who gets up in the night as it is and I'm with her by myself all day every day. But it's just nice to know that someone is there. You know, just in case. But we did fine and were happy to get Daddy home the next day. That is, until he showed up all sick and stuff. Hopefully we won't be catching that (see previous post about the not sleeping...this is my fear if she gets sick).

So now you're up to date on our exciting lives! :)

Going backwards

It seems that my sweet baby, while still sweet, has decided to start moving backwards in her progress at night. She has always been a pretty good sleeper, generally just getting up twice in the night (but really would only be once when I start back to work because the second time is usually about 5 or 6 and I would have to get up for work then anyways). Plus she is pretty good about eating, burping, getting a clean diaper and going back to sleep. But not anymore. Oh no...not anymore...

Let's take last night for instance. She was screaming and fussy in the evening so we put her to bed in her crib around 8:30. She was out like a light and slept great until 1:20 a.m. Then she woke up hungry so I got up, fed her, burped her, changed her and put her back down and she went right to sleep. Perfect! But...then she was up just 2 1/2 hours later (which incidentally is her span between feedings during the day...it's always right around 2 1/2 hours between daytime feedings) at 3:45 a.m. This time, it was not so smooth. I changed her first to see if maybe she would just accept a diaper change and go back to sleep. Big mistake. She screamed bloody murder as soon as I moved her to the changing table instead of sitting in the glider to feed her. She wailed all through her diaper change. So then I was definitely going to try to feed her to calm her down and get her to go back to sleep. Yeah...she ate for about 5 minutes and then passed out. So I thought, "No problem...we'll just put you back in the crib and I can go back to sleep." Except that the second I put her down, she started screaming again. I tried the paci which worked okay except that it would fall out of her mouth when she was on the verge of sleep and then she would scream (this is why I generally do not use the paci at night). I tried rocking her, walking with her, burping her...everything. Every time I would put her in her crib, she would cry. Finally in desperation, I turned on the little noise machine. It was on the creepy heartbeat sound. She instantly got quiet and quickly passed out. Sigh! So I crawled back in bed at 4:30 thinking that I could finally get some sleep (if I could get over the fact that it sounded like "The Tell-Tale Heart"). And I did...until 6:00 when she woke up crying again. This time I wasn't even going to try not feeding her. I got up and went through the usual routine and she was again a little fussy going back to sleep in the crib but I got her back down. For one hour. Yup, she was up again at 7. Now, I had planned to start getting up this week around 6:00 to get used to it for when I go back to work next week (yuck, did I really just have to say that I go back to work next week?). However, I acquired a splitting headache somewhere around 4 a.m. so I was trying to catch up on a little sleep. This plan obviously didn't work so well.

And this was not a fluke night! She has been doing this the past couple of nights. Plus, today she has been super fussy. Twice she's fallen asleep so I've tried to put her down for a nap in her crib. Each time it has only lasted about 5-10 minutes before she is frantically crying. This is such a change from my baby of a week ago. She had gotten to where she wouldn't even really cry much anymore. Instead, she would "talk" until I came to get her when she woke up, day or night. It was so sweet...going in there and her looking up at me and saying, "Gheng gheng gheng!"

As I mentioned, I go back to work next week so this is rather bad timing for her to suddenly become a bad sleeper. Plus, I don't want her to now become fussy during the day because I don't want her to stress out the lady who will be watching her. The past few days, it has not been enough to hold her all the time, she also wants you to walk around with her. She has always been such a good girl at entertaining herself. I could put her in the bouncy seat or Boppy lounger and get stuff done around the house and she would just hang out. I hope these days are not lost entirely and that she will be back to her old self. Perhaps she's just going through a growth spurt? Or doesn't feel well? If anyone has suggestions, I'm definitely open to them...


Big stretch! It's tough staying awake all night...

The many faces of Lainey

Too cute not to share! She has become very expressive. :)



(Click the above photo to get to a slideshow...sorry the first pic is so dark but it's the only one like that!)

Seasons Change...

I thought I would start out this post with a lyrical tribute to Expose. I do think I actually got that line right, unlike some other songs from my childhood. I apparently had a knack for making up the lyrics when I couldn't understand them and my sister thinks this is hilarious. Just the other day, I had to call her to inform her that I finally figured out that Phil Collins was singing, "She seems to have an invisible touch" and not "She sees a hat and gets it for her top shelf" like I had been singing since I was about 7. Also, Michael Jackson does not say "Show me hot monkeys" but "Show them how funky." I like my interpretation on that one better, especially considering Bubbles but whatever.

Anywho...back to the seasons changing and all that. Who's ready for fall?? I am! I love this time of year. Football is back, I'm not sweating every time I go outside and I don't have to shave my legs every day because I can wear jeans. Troy and I were so excited about the NFL season kick-off last Thursday that I bought some Harvest Moon beer and fixed pigs in a blanket for dinner (you know, in honor of the pigskin). We were so amped that we both fell asleep on the couch a little after 9. Just call us super fans. Thankfully, all the action happened in the first half so I don't really feel like we missed much.

As for Lainey, she is growing like crazy! I know I say that every post but I have evidence this time:



As you can see, she's about to outgrow her Boppy Lounger. Her legs dangle off so she has to pull them up in her froggy position. She's also getting pleasantly plump (I take credit for all of that!). She officially outgrew her newborn clothes & diapers over Labor Day weekend. I knew that she had when she had two back-to-back blowouts in her newborn diapers that shot up the back and got all over her onesies. Her clothes have been getting a little tighter in the belly and her pants had been too short for awhile. So she's now in her 0-3 and 3-month clothes and size 1 diapers. She is smiling a lot more now and also doing a lot of "talking." I bet she's going to be a real chatty Cathy like her Daddy. :) She slept through the night one night last week but it was just a fluke. She's had a bit of a cold so she hasn't been sleeping as well but hopefully that will be behind us soon. Other than that, she's been getting more blond fuzz and new creases in her thighs.



And before you all send notes saying that I look great (really, you don't have to butter me up!), that is a maternity top and I am covering my saggy belly with the baby. But I feel great and have decided to suck it up and buy some bigger clothes so at least I have some stuff to wear now. Will I ever get my body back? (Don't answer that.)

Because I know you've been wondering...

I bet you've been thinking lately, "I wonder how Holly's boobs are doing?" Much better, thanks for asking. ;) They actually have been doing better. It turns out that the lactation consultant at my pediatrician's office lives in my neighborhood (and we actually went to the same middle school and she's married to someone who graduated from Ragsdale with my sister...small world!) She is super nice and actually came over to the house last Sunday morning because my left nipple has been badly cracked since Lainey was just a few days old. It case you aren't keeping up, that is 5 weeks people! That is a long time to have an open wound on your nipple, especially when you have a hungry little animal gnawing on it every few hours round the clock.

But I digress...Jen came over and recommended nursing only on the right side and just pumping the left and giving Lainey bottles for a couple of days. That was the ticket! I am now mostly healed and hoping for a full recovery soon. So maybe I won't have to talk about my boobies all the time now. Maybe.

A (pleasant) side note about then though...Lainey has recently started smiling. I've caught a few little grins here and there on camera but I can't take pictures of when she does the best and biggest grins because they would all have my boob in them. When she is getting ready to nurse, her whole face absolutely lights up and she gets the cutest grins! Sorry world...guess those are just for Mommy. :)

And speaking of eating, I think Miss Benton is going through a growth spurt or something. She has been eating nonstop. Like, really...I feed her and about 30 minutes to an hour later she's screaming and wanting to eat some more. Um, really kid?? My friend Megan said she might just be trying to increase my milk supply. Which is crazy because I'm a milk machine! Either way...it meant that last night I went to bed about 11:30 after feeding her and then was up from 2:20 - 4:00 a.m. for a back-to-back feed, burp, change session. And then up at 6:00 to do it all again (I was just able to put her back in her crib a few minutes ago...at 7:00...after she tried eating for a third time in a row but the last one she was just faking and wanting a pacifier to go back to sleep). These chubby cheeks are proof that she sure is eating well!!