rollin 360

With the ever-present drool!

Our little lady managed to roll from her tummy to her back today...3 or 4 times. Her technique is pretty much the exact reverse of her back to tummy method. When she first rolled onto her tummy she did it 1000 times the first day...this was not the same. I'm not sure that it has fully sunken in yet...or maybe she just prefers to be on her tummy?

We are getting ready for the big Iowa adventure. I scored a minivan rental for $200 for the whole week so I'm pretty excited about that. Excited about a minivan...who am I?!?!?!

Merry Christmas!

5 months on Christmas Day!


We went to REI and Clay had our pea climbing rocks...to his delight she squealed every time he brought her over there.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! I hope everyone had a blessed & joyous holiday. Poor Pop Pop had to work on 12/23, Christmas Eve, and Christmas day but he returned home on Christmas night. Luci & I went to church on Christmas Eve & got very, very homesick (well at least I did). Thankfully we are blessed with unbelievable friends; the extended Lawrence family welcomed us as one of their own for both Christmas Eve & Christmas dinner. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

On Christmas Day our baby was officially 5 months old! Here are some things we want to remember...

-She is a rollin fool...but only from her back to her tummy...and only to the right. She gets about 1/2 way over on the left, and then rolls back onto her back, and then rolls to her right. She then scoots to get where she needs to go by turning her little body around in a circle.

-She is just starting to respond to her name.
-She has just started to notice the cats...she doesn't really want to touch them yet, but she really likes to watch them.
-She LOVES her soft blocks...especially the one that makes crinkly noises.
-She is in 6-12 month onsies, 9 month pants and 9 month sleepers. Most 6-12 month dresses fit, but are too short and look more like shirts. As of today (12/28) 9 month sleepers are being retired & replaced with 12 month sleepers!
-She has a constant rash on her chin & cheeks from her excessive drool. It might be the start of teething? She loves to mash her red little angry face into our shoulders...I think it must be itchy. -Little patches of eczema have returned to her calves & elbows.
-Her hair is starting to come in more quickly...it is a light brown/dark blond color. She still has the bald ring on the back of her head from all of the back & forth flipping of her head. It looks like it will be curly.
-She loves her paci and is constantly taking it in & out of her mouth. Sometimes it makes it back in correctly, sometimes it doesn't. This doesn't seem to bother her for the most part...she'll gladly gnaw on any part of it that she can get into her mouth.
-She likes the bath...but only if she gets to chew on her rubber ducky.
-She still needs white noise to sleep.
-She will sit in the jumperoo for up to an hour at a time.
-She is very wary of anyone holding her but Mom or Dad.
-She still likes to look at herself in the mirror, smile, and then turn away all bashful like.
-We are still seriously struggling with sleep...both day & night. She's taking 3 naps a day, usually between 25 - 45 minutes long. This does not seem long enough, but no matter what we do she won't resettle & go back to sleep. By 5pm the five o'clock fussies set in & we seriously struggle to keep her entertained & awake till 6pm. At 6pm we start the bedtime routine (bath, lotion, sleepsack, nurse, read 2 books, sing a song, in bed). Usually she falls asleep while nursing around 6:30p or 6:40p. Then she is usually up 45 minutes later, and again another 45 minutes later, and up again at some point between 9pm and 11pm. Then usually again between 2am and 4am for a diaper change & feeding, then back to sleep until sometime between 6am and 7am. Sleeping in past 7am is a real (and infrequent) treat. Sometimes she settles down easily for those first few wakings, and other times she's up for over an hour at a time. It stinks. Last night I fed her a bottle of formula at 9:40p and she slept from 10pm to 3am. So I might stick with that and hope that the 3am feeding goes away on its own.
-Her first diaper change in the morning is almost always poopy. It is often the only one of the day.
-She's starting to sleep on her tummy. She usually rolls over within seconds of being placed on her back in the crib. Given that she is in her sleepsack, we try not to worry too much about this...but still do.
-Just within the last 2 days she has started to raise up on her arms & knees...in the crawling position. We'll see how long it takes from here!
-She can sit in the corner of a chair for a fairly long period of time. She can sit for maybe 10 seconds unassisted on the floor if we put her in that position.
-Finally...and this is the source of much debate...she may be turning the pages of her board books during story time. Grandma Pierse first pointed out that she was doing this & Clay & I thought she maybe had a case of the proud Grandmas. But...I too now think that she is turning the pages. Sure, she doesn't wait until I'm done reading that page, but it is always the right hand, and it always grabs the page & pushes it to the left. Pop Pop thinks both Grandma & I are nuts.

We head to Iowa on Monday & we are all a little nervous about flying. We are planning on the 7am flight on Monday to Minneapolis because it has 84 seats open...so hopefully we can all sit together. Then once we get in we still have the 2.5 hour drive down to New Hampton to contend with...I hope our baby got her Pop's love for traveling.

Are you smarter than a 5 month old?

Happy Pea loves her soft blocks from Aunt Lee & Uncle Keith!

You can kind of see the rash on her little chin :( This is right before a giant scream that was saying...ENOUGH MOM.

Last week while at the doctor with our sick pea, I asked our pediatrician if we still needed to let her cry 5 minutes while going to sleep...he said we could 'give her a little TLC'. I interpreted this to mean 'do not let her cry'. In retrospect I see that, duh, he did not mean do not let her cry. However I managed to convince myself & my husband that we should not let our baby cry, as it would make her more congested & miserable. It started very innocently...first going into soothe her after just a few minutes of crying instead of the usual 5 minutes. Then standing there with her until she fell asleep, not letting her cry at all. Then it turned into picking her up at the first signs of unease...then holding her when we couldn't get her back in her crib without disturbing her...

The culmination of this well intentioned parenting has resulted in the last two nights being spent in the recliner...with us holding our sleeping Pea...because as soon as we put her down she would cry. As you can imagine, we are EXHAUSTED. Today Luci seems to have turned the corner with her cold, so I called Dr. Brooke to see if it would be all right to let her cry 5 minutes before going to sleep. Dr. Brooke told me that Dr. Bhakta most certainly did not mean 'do not let her cry', and that despite my fears, crying would most certainly not make Luci's cold worse...and that it may, in fact, loosen up some of the 'crud'. Then she quoted some doctor like statistic about how many colds Luci will suffer from a year or before the age of 5 or something like that (and it was a lot), and asked if I planned to continue this line of parenting indefinitely.

So tonight I was pretty relieved to let her cry her usual 8 minutes or so...um, yeah. Not so much. I'm quite certain that while, yes, yesterday was a very rough day for Luci (she was too congested to nurse), that she did not need to be held all night long. I am quite certain that our smart baby girl had figured out that if she cried, we would hold her, and therefore, she should cry the minute we put her down. So tonight, while I was all prepared for 8 minutes or so of crying, our baby girl cried for almost an hour. I went in every 4 or 5 minutes to soothe, and she appeared to be soothed, and then the second I turned away from the crib she let out a serious scream. It was most certainly not an "I'm sick, cuddle me" cry...it was an "I seriously protest this change" cry. I guess the good news is that I'm certain her lungs are just fine...

Pop Pop saves the day...and by day, I mean night

A discarded attempt for the Christmas Card photo...

The sweet man I married spent the vast majority of the night sleeping on Lucipea's floor. I failed to mention in my post yesterday that I also suffered from a stomach bug last week, and woke up with a sore throat & congestion on Tuesday...and really, really needed some sleep. I fed Luci around midnight, and the next time she woke up (like 20 minutes later) Clay went in to soothe her. He came back a short time later, and then after another 10 minutes or so Luci called out again...her Pop Pop responded and didn't leave her crib side until 5:30a. I woke up around 5am and went into check on them and it was the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time.

He's getting some much deserved rest at the moment & Luci is up jumping her in jumperoo. She doesn't seem to be feeling any worse than yesterday...and maybe even just a bit better. I ran the humidifier and plugged in a menthol/eucalyptus scent thingy so maybe that helped.

Sick Pea

Well our pea is sick...that is what is up with her. Yesterday the rash on her face really started to bother her...it seemed to be very itchy and maybe it burned a bit? Her whole little face had started to swell up and her eyes were puffy...poor baby. Then this morning she woke up super congested...so we decided to go see Dr. Bhakta. His thought was that last week she had a stomach bug that has been going around, and then this week got a cold on top of it. He thinks the rash on her face is just eczema, and that it was not an allergic reaction to any food. No medicine or anything like that...just some words of advice on how to treat her face and how to keep her runny nose from aggravating it.

That being said, our giant baby is now 17 lbs and 12.9 oz. She's gained over a pound in the last 3 weeks so no need to push the solids...she's growing just fine. Now if we could just say the same for her sleeping...the last few nights have been ROUGH.

From Ugh to Grateful

Well we didn't make it to Indiana...boo....ugh....boo. To all of you Hoosiers...we are very sorry, and very disappointed that we didn't make it up for the Festival of Lights. We had planned to leave on Saturday morning at 7am, but when we checked availability on Friday (we are the last on the plane) it had dwindled to nothing. So we decided to go Friday night at 8pm, knowing that would be much tougher on our Lucipea. Regardless, at 11am on Friday I went into superwoman mode, running around town getting gifts for the family Christmas gift exchange (we had planned to take our time shopping on Friday afternoon), washing clothes and packing for both myself and Luci. But when I got home from shopping Luci had just woken up and was a bit out of sorts...not playful or smiley at all. I nursed her and she proceeded to projectile spit up/throw up most of what she ate for the next few hours...while continuing to seem out of sorts. We checked availability again for the 8pm flight and realized there was no way we'd get even 2 seats together (one of us & Luci in her car seat), not to mention the 3 together we had been hoping for. The idea of one of us in a middle seat with a baby who was spitting up everything & awake well after her usual bedtime surrounded by strangers on both sides for her first flight was just too much...so we decided our first trip to the Midwest would have to wait. Ugh.

So what is up with my pea; I just don't know. She woke up Thursday with a rash on her chin, and by Friday it had spread up the left side of her face. Then the projectile spit up on Friday...I was calling all of my mommy friends for advice...at which point Amanda prompted me with 'any new foods this week?' We'll I realized I'm a bad mom and had broken the #1 rule of introducing solids...I had inadvertently introduced 2 last week. I switched to oatmeal cereal because she hadn't been enjoying her rice cereal. I also had given her a bottle with water & a tiny bit of juice because we had been planning to give her that on the descent into Indy. I hadn't considered the juice a new food, but surely it was. So maybe this is an allergic reaction to white grape juice? Or oatmeal cereal? Or maybe she is teething? Or maybe a stomach bug? Or maybe something all together different? She has been spitting up a ton since Friday and really isn't very interested in nursing (solids are on hold for a few weeks...or months). Her sleeping is also all messed up, compounded by the lack of the swaddle. Saturday night was the roughest night in a long, long time. After being awake from 2:40a to 5:30a (and Luci was still awake) I went into our room & starting sobbing to Clay. He promptly jumped up to help, even though he had a long day of working starting in an hour and a half. Finally after half of a dose of Tylenol she fell asleep...but was up at 7am. And 2 morning naps of 20 minutes each left me desperate to get some sleep. At which point Amanda called & I proceeded to tell her my tired sob story. Ugh.

Then Amanda told me why she was calling (aside from always just being willing to listen, sympathize and offer help)...which was to report that one of the toddlers in the neighborhood had been found not breathing, and the more prayers that were said the better. Tears started to flow and I felt so ungrateful for complaining that my baby was what...too wakeful?!?!?! An hour or so later we learned that said neighbor toddler is just fine; she had a febrile seizure but is doing all right. From ugh....to grateful.

The one good thing about not making it to Indy was that I was in town for the annual Cottage Green Cookie Exchange yesterday. After my crazy night/day I was looking forward to just getting out of the house for a bit. I pulled my tired teary grateful self together and managed to not only get my Rachael Ray's 5 Minute Fudge sliced & beautifully displayed on my favorite platter, but to get Luci fed, AND get makeup & heels put on. I even squished into my one pair of uber trendy jeans (well, at least they were hip 2 years ago when I bought them) and covered up my remaining mama belly with one of Old Navy's finest new trapeze style shirts (thank goodness for THAT trend). Many thanks to Jamie (Amanda's husband & Clara's dad); he babysat for Luci and even managed to get her to take a much needed nap. It was so good to get out & hang with the ladies in the 'hood...I got lots of great advice on Luci's current state and offers to watch her so that I could get a nap if needed. We talked about the toddler who had the seizure and how we could help. Amanda suggested bringing over some cookies...I was worried about invading privacy, but I went with her to drop them off in addition to offering meals or any other thing anyone could do to help because it was important that they knew they were not alone. I should not have worried about invading privacy...we were warmly greeted & hugs & tears were had by all. Bottom line? This neighborhood just oozes support. Grateful.

Tired Pea

Tired, but happy to be in the jumperoo!

My Lucipea is very tired today...we are trying VERY hard to break the swaddle habit. She's a rollin machine now, and we are worried she'll roll over to her tummy while swaddled in her crib & not be able to pick herself up to breathe if she gets in a bad spot. Grandma Pierse took the first & most difficult shift on Monday night in the sleep sack (like a sleeveless blanket thingy) while I was at yoga, so there is no going back now. She often rolls over to her tummy before falling asleep. I know we all slept on our tummies and are just fine, but I am just very anxious about all of it. Her pediatrician said if she rolls to her tummy on her own we should just let her. But she can only roll onto her tummy, not onto her back, so I worry she might get stuck on her tummy; but at least her arms are free. She also keeps getting her feet stuck between the railings and she finds that very distressing. Poor Pea. Brooke had a 6 month old SIDS victim in the ER a few days ago...which is just heartbreaking...makes me cry just thinking about it. I pray for that baby's parents, and I can only hope & pray that Luci will be safe, and that I'm doing the right thing for her.

In other news, my pea is ready to brave the Midwest! We are hoping to make it up to Indiana this weekend for Edinburgh's Festival of Lights. Wish us luck for Luci's first flight! Here she is modeling her new gear...

Visit from Grandma & Grandpa Pierse

Love my frog!!

Where did my frog go?!?!?
Give me my frog! I love my pretty big girl trendy outfit Aunt Deb...thanks so much!

Luci & I are enjoying a lovely visit with her Grandma & Grandpa Pierse. Clay is doing several days with the Navy & they were nice enough to come down so that I wasn't on my own for a week. We went to church both Saturday (it was a Holy Day) and Sunday. She did great on Saturday and less so on Sunday...we tried to take a photo after church on Sunday and she was having none of it...she wanted to roll around, even though it was time to nap!

Her new favorite thing to do is a game Clay calls 'Supergirl'...he flies her all around the house in the plank position. She's getting so strong!

Rice Cereal makes its debut!

The VERY first bite...
Smiles!!
Smiles :)
So long! She's pushing up really well now.



Luci does not think much of rice cereal...in fact, if she thinks anything about rice cereal, it is that she doesn't like it! The first day she had maybe 3 bites...all of which came back up. After those first three bites she would turn her head away when we brought the spoon to her mouth. Yesterday she was up to maybe 6 or 7 bites before all of the progress Aunt Brooke made came back up. Also yesterday she added an 'ick' look on her face to each bite. The 'ick' look continued tonight; I maybe got 10 bites in, but I'd estimate that less than 10% of each bite actually went down. I think I'll give it one more day & then I'm going to try it again in a week or two. She just really doesn't seem to want anything to do with it...she must take after her Pop Pop...her mom would never turn food...

All snugly with Aunt Brooke...





In the last few weeks she's become bashful!

Rollin [cry] Rollin [cry] Rollin [cry]....

I'm over, but my arm is stuck!
Happy to be over, but what about that arm! Help me Mom!
I hate it when you don't help me! I'm going to give up & cry into my blanket until you help!

Lucipea is a rollin machine! She rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time on Wednesday after her 4 month exam and she's probably done it 1000x since then. Usually she gets that arm out, but sometimes it remains stuck & then she is EXTRA unhappy. If she gets the arm out she's content to hang out for 5 to up to 10 minutes, but then she wants no more of tummy time. I usually gently help her roll back over, but I still think she just doesn't quite get it.

In other news we are working REALLY hard on developing a good sleep schedule. Lots of 'experts' say to wait until 6 months, and others say it will be easier if you start at 4 months. It is pretty clear to both Clay & I that she does much better if she is on a regular sleep schedule - there is a serious difference in her mood. It is also clear that she cries when we put her down to sleep because she wants to hang out, not because she is hungry or wet...she just likes us, which is great, but pretty frustrating at 2am.

So after much deliberation (to put it nicely ;) we were all set to implement the 4 hour/4 month plan set out by the Baby Whisperer, but after speaking with our pediatrician we changed our mind. The Baby Whisperer suggested feeding her every 4 hours (instead of the current 3), and picking her up if she cried at sleep time & then immediately putting her back down when she stopped....and we were to repeat this until she fell asleep. Instead, per our pediatrician, we will continue to feed her about every 3 hours (5 times a day is the goal), and will work on her putting herself to sleep for good long naps. At sleep time we do the sleep ritual (reading, white noise, etc), and then put her in her crib (we do not leave if she is crying...if she is crying we soothe but do not pick her up). We leave the room, and let her cry for 5 minutes before going in again to soothe - without picking her up. She's definitely getting the hang of it during the day. The first day I went into soothe 1x at each nap, but she didn't cry the next full 5 minutes. Yesterday there was no crying at nap time, and this morning there was less than 5 minutes. We also do this if she wakes up after her usual 45 minutes. Yesterday she cried for 5 minutes after a 45 minute nap, I soothed, and then she slept for another 2 hours! It is safe to say that this new method makes her very mad, and makes me equally sad...each minute feels like an hour as I watch the seconds tick down on my watch. I have to keep reminding myself that this is for her benefit...that we will need to teach her to do lots of things she may not want to do over the course of her lifetime. I guess this is just first of many.

The method doesn't seem to work as well at night. Either that or I'm sleepy & so it seems more difficult. The first night it went okay, but the second night was awful. Clay had to get up super early for work the next day and there wasn't a room in the house that kept him from hearing her cries. So we didn't really work the method that night because Clay needed to sleep. Last night was pretty miserable as well, but I stuck with it. At night it is tricky because I want to feed her if she is hungry, but it a bit harder to tell why she is crying without observing her behavioral cues. Last night she ate just once around midnight after 3 rounds of crying...which was hard on both of us. After she slept until 5:45 though, and then after 3 minutes of crying slept until 6:30 when we got up for the day. Hopefully it will start to work as well at night as it does during the day once we get the hang of it.

In more uplifting news...we bought a highchair. Lucipea will have her first bite of rice cereal tomorrow after her Pop Pop gets home. Right now we are just getting used to a new chair...you can see she's skeptical!

Aunt Brooke dressed her today...she must like stripes!

Big Girl

Trying to sit up on her own!
This is what always happens!
I caught her before the nose dive!
This was on the way to the doctor. It is actually a bit cold out so we get to cozy up!

My big girl went to the doctor this morning for her 4 month well baby exam. Not a tear was shed...not even during the 4 shots! She was very tired and I think it helped to dull the reaction. What a relief! At her 2 month visit it took me over 10 minutes of soothing to get her calmed down. So far the vaccines seem not to be bothering her, so hopefully it will continue. Last time there was a low grade fever and fussiness for a few days. We started the Tylenol right when we got home per the doctor and we'll keep that up for the next few days as the vaccines do their job.

Stats at four months:

Weight: 16 lbs 3.6 oz; 90 - 95% percentile

Height: 26.75 inches; 95 - 100% percentile

Head Circumference: 17 inches; 95-100% percentile

And this morning after her appointment & nap she rolled over from her back to her tummy! She's been working on this for a few days, but that arm & shoulder kept getting stuck so she'd give up & roll back. But not this morning! Now the only problem is that she prefers to be on her back & she hasn't managed to get back around! Silly baby!!

We received the all clear to start rice cereal! I hope to hit Target to buy a highchair this afternoon once Clay gets home. Fun times!!! Maybe this will help her sleep better? Now I can start obsessively reading about solids in addition to my current obsessions of vaccine & sleep habits reading...

All that obsessive reading is my excuse for the mommy brain that was in full swing this morning...I called Brooke just to chat on the way home from the doctor & asked her what she was doing the next few days with her time off...at which point she reminded me that they were coming here later today en route to a wedding in Austin! I've been so obsessed with the immunizations I knew Luci was getting that I totally spaced! Then once we got home I forgot it was time to feed Luci & instead put her down for a nap. When she woke up at 11:30 I realized I hadn't fed her since 6:30! Bad mommy needs to chill out!!

Four Months!

Our Lucipea is 4 months old today! It is nearly impossible to think of what our days were like before her. What did we do with ourselves!?!??!

Every morning Lucipea greets us with this big open mouth grin...she's got such a pretty smile!
She was very excited to be sitting up by herself in her chair.
Get out of my way monkey!

Notes at 4 months:

-Sleeping is our biggest battle. At 2 months she was sleeping between 8 and 10 hours a night without waking; now she cries every 20 minutes for the first two hours, then wakes every 2 to 4 hours for the paci and/or to eat. The last three nights she's started eating once or even twice during the night. Not sure if we are dealing with a growth spurt, a need for a changed routine, decreased milk supply on my part or something that we haven't even considered. But whatever it is, we are desperate to fix it!

-She is getting stronger everyday. She still has only rolled over once, but she is very close to rolling from her back to tummy. She rolls up over onto her side and arches her little back, but then rolls back.

-Tummy time is still largely spent eating her arm. She'll go 7 or 8 minutes at a time on her tummy now without throwing a fit. When she's mad (the last 3 minutes) she'll push up on her arms and scoot her little bootie & legs like an inchworm...but her head still seems awfully heavy for her.

-She is still being swaddled...which we know we need to stop. Whenever not swaddled she pulls the paci out of her mouth and then might try to put it back in, or just bonk herself on the face with it. Whereas before with arms free she would startle herself, now she just keeps knowingly bothering herself!

-She can take the paci in & out of her mouth, but can't really pick up a paci that is sitting on the floor by itself and put it in her mouth.

-She can and does put link-a-doos in her mouth...they are very lightweight and seem to be easy for her to control. The teething rings Aunt Brooke bought for her seem to be too heavy for her to manipulate up into her mouth.

-She found her feet on Thanksgiving.

-She has a toy that she plays with while lying on the floor...she can reach up & swing at the little creatures and when she hits them they sing to her. For the first few days she only used her left hand to hit the friends...now she's using both. Her newest trick is using her feet to make them sing!

-She also took this new skill of reaching out & grabbing things and applied it to her mobile friends...even catching them & not letting go! Except for the rabbit that is...only the cow & the donkey are interesting enough to catch. How funny! And yes, after we watched her do this (and oohed and awed at her development), we moved the mobile so that the friends were out of her reach. We don't want her pulling the thing down on herself!

-She still loves the ABC song. Last week Aunt Baylee would sing it to her & sign the letters...no matter how fussy she had been she would stop & give Baylee her full attention without making any noise.

-She is in size 2-3 diapers, and only fits into 6-12 month gear.

-She's spending lots more one-on-one time with Pop Pop as I continue to hit Bikram Yoga whenever he's home. I think it has been good for all of us!

-She is a chatterbox! Lots of uuhhmmm, mmmm, baaaaa, buuuuuuffff, gaaaa, hrmmmm, buuuuhhhh. The b sound is a new one I've just noticed in the last couple of days. The moaning has been replaced with high pitched squealing all day long.

-Drool, drool, drool...everywhere...all the time! And raspberries...combined with more drool & bitting!

-When Clay blows in her face she has the same response EVERY time! She sticks her tongue out ever so slightly with pursed lips. Clay's response is also the same EVERY time...he cracks up!

-She still really likes her crib...what a blessing for us! Almost without fail if her bedroom light is on & the mobile is singing to her, she's happy to roll onto her side & scoot around. She's started looking at the speaker of the mobile too...

-Her 'annular eczema' (diagnosed by Dr. Brooke) is getting better due to a twice daily lathering of Aveeno baby lotion.

-She still loves the bath! Her newest thing is trying to suck the water as it gets up by her face.

-She giggled for the first time a week ago yesterday...it was the sweetest sound I've ever heard. We can usually get her to giggle by zerberting her belly (or as Clay calls it, blowing air between pursed lips onto the skin of the stomach...as Jamie pointed out...apparently he didn't grow up watching the Cosby Show!)

-She goes to the doctor for her 4 month well baby visit on Wednesday. I'll post her stats then!

Aunt Baylee left Friday & we miss her already! Come back soon Aunt Baylee!!