Packing

Should take most of this time and go pack and clean, since our subletter is moving in Saturday and we are not even close to ready! Fortunately, we're leaving all the furniture and storing everything else in Natalie's room, so if it comes down to throwing things in boxes and shoving it away haphazardly on Friday night, it's not the end of the world.

 I haven't taken many good pictures this week, but here' our little chubber on Daddy's lap. Her hips are so small, so her belly is looking enormous! She is getting over some nasty cradle cap ("or as Micah called it, trying to remember the name, "baby crap head") and I think her hair on top thinned a little more.

On Saturday we went to go see Erik perform in South Pacific over in Birmingham. It was FANTASTIC! We're so proud of Erik- he's part of a wonderful show and even had a great solo line.

Micah is working like crazy to try and finish up all of his school work, prepare for tests and get results for a proposal thing that he needs to finish before we leave. Hoping it only takes him a few days into next week, so we can be free to go visit Chere's family and my Dad's!

The magnolia trees have started to bloom just in time for us to leave. SAD! Magnolia trees are my favorite.

We keep trying to get Natalie to laugh. She has some pretty happy moments, but not quite deep belly laughs yet. And she's becoming discerning about when she will smile, so we have to try harder. That little squirt!

Shopping Today

I usually walk to the store a few times a week with Natalie. This week has been cloudy and rainy and busy so we only went once. I needed to get out! Micah was at Tech today, so I did a major trip, walking 7 miles and stopping at 6 stores.I got some nice exercise and scored some sweet deals.

The retail cost of my purchases was $148.08. With sales and coupons, I paid a net $22.60+ tax (Net meaning my out of pocket minus the amount in store cash that I earned for my purchases). I also got rainchecks for more free toothpast, 39c aveeno lotion, get a quarterly 2% cash back on the purchases from CVS (the pre-coupon total), and fuel points from Kroger to get money off my gas there.
My items included:

12 bottles Dove and Ivory soap and body wash
10 packages instant noodles
7 bottles dish soap
4 tubes toothpaste
4 packages Nivea after-shave balm
3 1/2 gallons Smart Balance milk
2 boxes cereal
2 sticks of deoderant
2 boxes of ziplock sandwich bags
2 tubes Aveeno lotion
2 bottles Pepsi (which I drank en route)
A bunch of Bananas....

....which I got for Natalie. We just gave her a taste. She didn't seem too happy about it, but that may be because she's in a tired mood and because she had just nursed.

...so.... tired...

After the measures that we took on Sunday night were so sucessful in helping Natalie sleep, I was opptimistic. Unfortunately, she has quickly become tolerant of the effects of unbreakable swaddling and rice-cereal-spiked bottles and has returned to waking up every 2-3 hours every night since then. It's extremely frustrating.

She has also been leaking a lot lately. When she wakes up at night to eat, if you unswaddle her to change her, she gets really upset. But the diapers we have are not absorbent enough to last til morning. Last night she leaked in her bed and then the morning before that she leaked on our bed. Uuuugh. She was so gross that by the time I got the sheet off, I had pee all over me from carrying her, so I just took her in the shower with me. She seemed to like it a lot. Hope she enjoys swimming this summer. We've already got her suit and swim diaper!

Let it be known that we are taking good care of her little tush. Not a speck of diaper rash to be seen...

I made a yummy dinner to celebrate the Elder on the right's first day in Atlanta. Fried chicken, corn bread, collard greens and mac and cheese. It's AMAZING how much better a $7 pot of mac and cheese is than a $.75 pot of mac and cheese.

She's like 15 weeks and change now. Still wears her 3mo clothes, but we can put her in a few 6mo outfits and it works. Yay!

Here's my new haircut. Unfortunately, it does not deter Natalie from pulling on it as I hoped it would. Oh, well.

Motherhood is NOT for the Faint of Heart

One of the most traumatic experiences with Natalie yet!

We walked to the grocery store a little over 2 miles away this morning. We have done this quite a few times, it's good exercise for me and Natalie enjoys walks, quietly taking in the scenery.

About 3/4 mile before we got home, it randomly started pouring (even though the sun was still out!), so I ducked into the steak n shake we were passing and thought I would wait it out while eating a burger. I hadn't had one in quite a while, so I thought the stop would be a welcome treat.

I am seated, order my burger, notice Natalie making faces like she might start to fuss, so I undo the blanket on her lap to pick her up- and notice her whole right side is soaked with poop from her waist up to her arm pit. Lovely. I go to the bathroom and thank heavens, they had a changing table! (I once had to change her on a Publix bathroom floor on a spread out newspaper bc there was no table...) As soon as I lay her down, she begins to cry. No, not cry. What's a more extreme synonym? Screech? Howl? Wail? Anyway, so she's making frikkin' unbelievably loud noise. Of course I hav to pull off her onsie, getting poop all over her face and arm. I run out of wipes and have to start using paper towels (thank goodness the bathroom had towels and not a hand dryer). Everything I do seems to escalate her crying. Finally she is mostly clean of poop and in nothing but a diaper. I pick her up and head back to my table, thinking that she will stop crying when I leave the bathroom and she has fun stuff to look at. No, no, no. She continues to scream. Fortunately, there is only one other table of customers, who promptly leave. It's a slow time, so many employees are sitting around, staring at me as if I am tearing off my child's fingers. I have nothing to put the poopy onsie in, so I just stick it on the tray of the stroller. My food comes. I shush her. I pat her. She screams and screams and screams. The manager comes over to pleasantly offer some comfort, but soon leaves me alone, realizing that this child is waaaaay too would up for his efforts. Finally I just drape the poopy blanket over me and offer her the boob- this works. I begin to eat my fries while Natalie nurses. Suddenly, she gets the air bubble from Hell stick in her poor little tummy and begins to scream again. I pat her and bounce her until she lets loose a deep, echoing belch. The server sitting at the empty booth in the corner laughs. Natalie then smiles and lays cooing on the bench and sucks her pacifier while I eat my burger. Ahhhh, thinks the unknowing Mom, now she's gonna be good for the rest of our time here. Natalie senses that mom is becoming relaxed. Cannot let this happen. Natalie spits he pacifier up in the air, it falls on the floor under the booth and bounces out of site. Then she begins to scream again, just as earnestly as when she first started up. I look under the booth, even get down on all fours and duck my head nearly touching the disgusting floor, but it is nowhere to be found. I put her in her stroller and get up to pay, just trying my best to pretend that I am not pushing a baby who is screaming so loud that I could not hear what the cashier was saying to me. Realizing that the rest of the way home will bring about evil eyes from passing drivers if she continues to cry like this, I ask for help retireving her pacifier. The cashier very kidly lifts a few of the bench cushions to help me find it. I dip it in my water glass, wipe it with my used napkin and pop it in Natalie's mouth. She immediatly stops crying, slouches over and falls asleep. I walk out of the restaurant in deisbelief of her amazing timing. Several people I pass on the sidewalk stare at me strangely. Maybe because my baby is in nothing but a diaper? Whatever.

Got home and instead of giving her a bath, I just left her sleeping in her poopy blanket.

I have absolute sympathy for mothers who drink.

On a positive note, she slept 7 hours last night and I got $50 worth of groceries at Kroger for $9.42. Unfortunatley, the frutsration from this ecperiences eclipses both of those happy details.

Um.... I can explain.

Sammy played a little too rough with one of the pillows we got from the hospital.

Two significant firsts: First time wearing jeans (if a jean diaper cover counts!) and first time wearing a BYU shirt!

This is how Natalie enjoys her little walker. She doesn't walk in it or anything, but she can just hang or put weight on her feet.

Her fascination with her own fingers continues...

Her sleeping has gotten sooo bad- like, never sleeping longer than 3 hours at a time at night and sometimes waking up every hour for several hours. This little straight jacket-er.. I mean, swaddler keeps her arms snug so she can't wake herself with the startle reflex. In the 2 nights that she has used it, we have seen slight improvements. Last night she slept from 9:30 to 2:50, then got up at 4:30, 7 and slept til almost 10. Each time she woke up to eat or get a new diaper and then went right back to sleep. Definitely the first time she has slept that late in the morning. Yay! Progress!

Pre-Laughing

Just ignore the obnoxious noises that I make and the shake of the camera...

She's not quite laughing yet, but hopefull soon these squeals of delight will turn into nice, big, belly laughs.

Good Times

We've had a busy week of Natalie.

She is getting better and better at holding toys and bringing them up to her mouth, sitting up, standing, talking and spitting. She always has a big wet splotch on her chest from all of her spit bubble blowing.

She is sleeping TERRIBLLEY. I think that as she becomes more aware, she is learning that she has very specific wants. (For example, she often wants to be held while you stand and bounce. The moment that you stand still or sit down, she starts screaming.) She gets up every 2-3 hours, eats for 3 minutes and then falls asleep. I think she just wants company. But it's really tiring. I was so tired yesterday, I came home from church and didn't feel like doing anything. fortunately some ladies in the ward were inviting everyone to dinner, so we just went over there. As soon as we arrived, some ladies took Natalie and we got to both sit and eat and it was a glorious relief.

One of the women commented that I shouldn't let her stand much because she would get bowed legs. She seems to like standing, so I investigated it and most just affirm it as an old wives tale. I did read that if babies like standing they might like toys where they are suspended and can bear some weight on their legs. So, I got the walker from my Dad all cleaned up and put here in it and she loved it. It was way too high until I figured out how to set it to a lower height. Now she can just barely put her feet flat. It's awesome!

Maybe if she gets more worn out by moving she'll sleep better? Last night we put her to bed earlier and Micah got up and gave her a bottle for the first feeding and I think that she did a little better. But I'm eager for any possible helps.

On Friday we watched some friends' little ones. This is grant, who is 3 weeks older than Natalie. He enjoyed sucking on her hand. She wasn't too sure she liked it.

This does not properly capture the funny way that she startled when I turned on the blender the first time. It's so sad that you can't capture those unexpected, hilarious moments!

Oh, Sammy...

Preparing dinner and trying to keep Natalie from crying occupy me pretty thoroughly in the evenings. Seeing this obvious sign of boredum made me feel sad and negligent....

Peek-a-boo

My computer was refusing to turn on- instead of starting up windows it was going to a blue screen of death that said something was wrong. Marty took a look at it and it turns out that the hard drive was corrupted. I don't know what that means, but it was replaced and now it is back to working. My biggest worry was losing most of my pictures, but they all seem to be intact. I now need to back them up in case this computer ever does really die!

I am adjusting to the new look and feel of things on the computer, as well as some annoying little quirks, like how my cursor no longer allows me to highlight fields of text. It's funny how you can get so used to so many little things!

On Saturday we watched conferance at the Jenkins since my computer was not functional and Micah's tends to turn off randomly. Loved Elder Holland's comments on Saturday afternoon. The text of the conferance will be available Thursday and I'm looking forward to going back and reading many of the talks. It's hard to pay attention and really take in everything when trying to absorb it all in such long stretches.

Natalie now smiles quite predictabley if you get close and smile at her. She likes being held and sung to (Micah uses Youtube to find disney sing-alongs) and we are working on her object permanence with peek-a-boo.

She is doing some short psudo-laughs (like at the end of the 2nd video). Waiting for her big belly laughs to start.

She is taking longer naps during the day and spending more time playing. Sammy has learned that he can jump in and out of the pack-n-play, where we put her down for naps. Not cool.

I have taught her a bad habit that is now interfering with her sleep though. After waking up around 6 or 7am, I would always snuggle with Natalie to try and get a little bit more sleep. Now, she is waking up every few hours in the night just to be held and snuggled. She cries, I get up and pick her up, I start to feed her, and she falls asleep within minutes. It's a pain since I know that she can sleep for 5 or 6 hours- she was doing it before. Even though she goes back to sleep quickly, it is really tiring me out because after waking up each time, it takes me a while to fall back asleep. This morning I tried to give her the pacifier and wind up her mobile to get her back to sleep, but she didn't last long until she was awake again, crying for snuggles. I gave in and let her come sleep with me. I need to stop doing that to break the habit, but it's just so hard in the moment not to give in to anything that means 20 more minutes of sleep.

She is starting to grasp things, so we have been enjoying giving her toys to hold and mouth on.

Sorry, beef isn't on the menu yet!