Naps

I am always kind of surprised when I hear people say that they don't ever nap.  I love naps.  Like, I seriously love a good nap.  Since Lilly is a light sleeper I was never really able to get too much housework done as she napped.  When she was an infant even the dishwasher downstairs would wake her.  She is a little better now, but will sometimes ask me not to wash the dishes while she sleeps.  I get a lot of reading or paperwork done and even phone calls if I am quiet enough.  When I was in grad school that was my cram time.

Now that I am home for the summer, I try to get some stuff done the first hour and in the second hour....I nap.  Some days she does not nap at all, or very long.  I am dreading the day she gives up her nap for good.  Maybe she will be a napper like me....

catching up

In the past 2 weeks or so I have been really busy updating my resume, writing a cover letter and applying for some jobs online. I hate writing my resume. I always feel like I can make it better and so then I never feel like it is finished. Oh well...I have to start sending it out ASAP.

Lilly has learned to climb. This is huge because she now wants to climb everything! She is so funny but now I am so nervous that she is going to hurt herself. What happened to the old-fashioned play pen. The pack&play is just not an option to keep her contained anymore because she is too tall for it.

This past weekend while we were out at my in-laws in the Poconos Lilly started splashing in a puddle on the driveway. I eventually moved her to the grass because I was really uneasy with her on the asphalt. I just worry about her pretty face getting scratched or hurt. Well, when I took her in to nurse her and put her in for a nap she was getting so antsy. Every time she rubbed her hands together she was flinching and making little cries. It turns out that she had scraped the pads of her fingers raw playing in the puddles. I felt terrible. I had tears in my eyes as I was trying to see the extent of the damage. She seems to have recovered now, but it took a couple days. Every time she would pick up a strawberry she would drop it. How sad is that? If you see the pictures, she had a great time with her Grandma & Grandpa & aunts & Anthony.

Some good news is that she more or less has a nap schedule now. She has been consistently taking solid morning and afternoon naps. She even slept for 2 5-hour stretches last night, with a nursing break around 2. In some ways I cannot wait to get rid of the morning nap. I am totally tied down with the 2 nap thing. But I am so grateful that she is sleeping that I try not to complain.

Another good thing is that Vinnie and I have been arguing less. Is it reaching that 1 year mark of parenthood? Is it less sleep deprivation? Maybe, but whatever it is I am thankful.

I have a Flickr account now. Check out my pictures! I am in the slow process of uploading all the old pictures. Unfortunately a lot of pictures when the external hard drive got accidentally reformatted. Luckily I have them on Shutterfly and/or Snapfish so I have to order CDs with the pictures. Most of Lilly's birth and newborn pictures were among those lost so I definitely want to get those CDs soon. Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

Lilly is now awake so I am off to get her!

Sunday night wind-down

It is Sunday night and I am sitting with my two cats, Calvin and Mr. Hobbes, lying next to me on the couch. They have come to know that when Lilly is in bed I will give them rubs. Sometimes they even wait outside the upstairs gate for me. Sweet guys, even if they do annoy me at times! The best thing is that Lilly has been sleeping better. There are a few things at play there. Her top teeth are basically in. So the torture of the last 2 weeks had a reason behind it. I have instituted a bedtime routine for her. It is not perfect and sometimes, like tonight, she falls asleep before we can get to the routine. LOL I chose a quiet Baby Einstein lullaby CD that I won't want to pitch out the window next week. I play that every time she is going to sleep in her crib, even naps. I usually stop nursing her before she falls asleep so that she is a little awake when I put her in the crib. Sometimes I need her to nurse more than I need to put her into the crib awake, if that makes sense. I had moved up her bedtime by about an hour. On days when I am school, her schedule is totally messed up, but I try to get right back on track the next day.

I have been putting her down for 2 naps. And...she falls asleep on her own most times. I put her in her crib with her blankie and cookie monster and put the music on. I have even left her other toys in there. She will play for several minutes, then lay down and go to sleep. We have one of those video monitors so I can see exactly what is going on. Sometimes she will give a little protesting cry. The great thing with the video monitor is that I can look to see if she is down or up. If she is already laying down with her blankie, I don't need to go in because I know she will be asleep momentarily. If she is hanging on the crib rail, then it is time for me to go in. That was one of the best gifts I did not know I needed!

The good news is that I am slowly feeling that I am a little less sleep deprived. Hopefully over the next few weeks I can catch up on some much-needed sleep, a little at a time.

I am off to do that right now. Lilly will be up for her late-night feeding soon. I am so glad that I had 10 minutes to myself to unwind!

She napped!

We got through it, as I knew we would.  It did not happen as quickly as it usually does.  The making up and apologizing, that is.  Unfortunately, I could not fall asleep last night.  So instead of trying to reduce the sleep deficit, I added to it.  

The good news is that I was able to get some of my schoolwork done today.  Lilly took a 2 hour nap!  It was a wonderful thing.  I made it through an entire phone conversation.  I almost forgot how to hang up without the baby being the cause.  Later in the day I was able to do an interview I needed so that I can do my first big project.  The woman was kind enough to allow me to bring Lilly along.  Besides doing raspberries in the middle of the library, she was great.  (lilly, not the woman I interviewed.)  

So I have one big project due this Thursday and one the following Tuesday.  Now that I have all the raw data, I am going to get started ASAP.

We are going to attempt to go out to dinner tonight, so off I go.