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!!

Lots of visitors & time with Pop Pop

Luci with the handsome Atkins boys, Justin & Alex

This weekend we were blessed with a visit (albeit short) from the Atkins Family. We caught up with them while they were on their way to Raleigh from Seattle. Nigel flies for Continental as well, so a stop through Houston is always required. How lucky for us!

Luci & Aunt Baylee...Baylee arrived Sunday night and stays until Friday. Luci warmed up to her very quickly & the week is going by too fast!!

Luci has been spending lots of quality one-on-one time with her Pop Pop this week while Baylee & I hit the town. We went to Bikram Yoga yesterday & got our butts kicked by the workout & the heat, and then hit the mall last night for a bit of shopping. The morning went pretty well for father & daughter, but last night was a different story. I fed Luci before I left, but didn't get any burps out of her...she was sleeping soundly so I thought it was safe to leave. I was wrong! She woke up 30 minutes later and proceeded to scream for two hours despite Clay's every attempt to soothe her. By the time I got home she was finally worn out and went back to sleep. Thankfully this hasn't deterred Pop Pop...he's still willing to go one-on-one tomorrow morning so Baylee and I can hit Bikram Yoga again before the Thanksgiving indulgences!

Squeals...

Miss Luci has learned to squeal! The last month or so she spent most of her days moaning...quite loudly and with a pretty gruff, deep pitch for such a little girl. She didn't seem unhappy during the moaning, but it gave me mommy anxiety because it just isn't possible to sound happy during a moan. Thankfully, over the last couple of days she has developed quite a squeal of delight and spends much of her day going from a high pitched squeal to a low crackle/gurgle almost, and then back to the high pitched squeal. She was making so much delightful racket this morning when I put her down for a nap that I decided I MUST buy a camcorder soon so that I can record such moments.

She also LOVES to look at herself in the mirror. After every nap we visit our reflections...she smiles & flirts with herself, and then bashfully buries her head in our chests....and then does it all over again! She is SUCH a funny girl!

We've been blessed with lots of visitors lately...our friends Liz, Jen & Paul came to visit last weekend. Luci was pretty well behaved...she saved all of her typical sleepy time antics for Monday night after everyone (including her Pop Pop) had gone. Jen & Paul got to attend Miss Clara's 2nd birthday party with us and meet lots of our Texas friends. Liz came in just for a night before meeting up with her family downtown on Friday. Sadly it was not quite enough time for Luci to feel snuggly with her...but I promise no babies were harmed in the taking of this photo. Liz was very capable of soothing our Luci, just not at the exact moment I snapped the photo!

Aunt Baylee arrives on Sunday for Thanksgiving & we can't wait to see her!! I'm very excited about trying out some new Rachael Ray recipes...and a Pumpkin Gooey Cake recipe by Paula Deen!

In other news, Amanda and I are starting Bikram Yoga next week. It involves 26 postures in a heated room for 90 minutes. I practiced this type of yoga when I lived in DC for just a few months, but really enjoyed it. I've noticed a build up in my aggression level lately, and since I no longer have work* to use as a release (my nickname in a previous life was 'battleaxe') I need to figure out what to do with that energy. I have an almost endless patience with Miss Luci, but I find myself losing my cool at the most random times...like at the Marshall's fitting room clerk when she insists on touching the hanger of each item while she counts it, or at Clay when I chomp on a bite of shell in my eggs that he so kindly prepared for me. I've been doing lots of walking, but it just isn't enough I guess. So...I have convinced myself that this will cure all that ails me, both mentally and physically...and that somehow this mind/body alone time will make me a happier individual, wife & mommy. If only it were that easy, right? We shall see...

*I have finally sorted out my work situation...I'll be returning to 5/3rd Bank, working from home an average of 10 hours a week starting in December. I'll be working on special projects that I can do independently at any time of the day or week, and even change the amount of time I spend from one week to another. It is such a great & flexible opportunity that I just have to give it a try. We'll see how it goes!

Happy Birthday to the love of my life...

and Happy Anniversary!



My handsome husband and Luci's pop pop (a nickname I've started for some reason) turns 38 today. Happy Birthday my love.


These few days of November are big ones for us...last year on 11/10 we found out Miss Luci was coming, the 11th is Clay's birthday, and the 12th is our anniversary! How blessed we are!

Luci's first play date!!

Luci has a friend...her name is Rachel. I met Rachel's mom (Christina) at pre-natal fitness classes at the YMCA, and then we saw each other at 'Breastfeeding Basics' at the hospital, and then again at our baptismal classes at our church! Rachel was born 3 1/2 weeks before Luci so while the differences in their development are noticeable at this point, I imagine soon we'll be running after both of them in the many parks here!

Rachel is showing Luci all about feet! Luci still hasn't found hers!
Luci is sharing her paci...if you look closely you can see it in Rachel's right hand!
Love those baby thighs!! Why are rolls only cute on babies?!?!?