Bikini baby

Tooth!!!

Her bottom front right tooth is poking through!!! I saw something white sticking out of her bottom gum this afternoon. I stuck my finger in her mouth and felt a sharp little tooth there! Now we know for sure for sure that she really has been teething. That could be the reason for her extra night wakings lately, and her crankiness at times, and of course it explains all the drool. I'm so excited for my little girl. She's growing up. A tooth, already!

Party girl

4 months old

Weight check

13 lbs 8 oz

(13 1/2 lbs)

Sunday

She's entering the stage of grabbing things and bringing them to her mouth. She continues to enjoy this vibrating bouncy chair, as well as walks in her strollers. We bought another stroller today. We found the MacLaren Quest umbrella stroller that we wanted on Craigslist. We got a good deal on it and we love the stroller!

More about our new stroller

It is a Phil & Ted's Sport. Bob's highschool friend, Tanya, first recommended the Phil & Ted's strollers to us when she visited last fall and we saw what a nice ride it was for her kids. Last weekend we went to a free car seat and stroller education class at Lullaby Lane in San Bruno. They offer the class one Saturday morning every month, and I highly recommend it to new and expecting parents. It was great! We had all of our questions answered, and Bob and I agreed on two strollers that we'd like to get: 1.) the Phil & Ted's Sport stroller for long walks in our neighborhood and off-roading in the park, and 2.) a MacLaren Quest umbrella stroller for a lightweight and more portable option for public transit trips. Well, I've been looking on Craigslist for used strollers, and boy do they get snatched up quickly! I saw 2 Phil & Ted's strollers that I wanted, but they were already sold by the time I emailed the owners. Plus, the prices are not that much cheaper than buying it new because the Phil & Ted's hold their resale value really well. They are well-made and last. So today I got impatient and I wanted it NOW and Bob appeased me. We drove down to San Bruno and while we were at Lullaby Lane the awesome salesman inspected and adjusted our newly installed car seat, since he is a car seat technician and I was asking him questions about the tether. (We recently switched Juni to a convertible car seat and have a rear-facing Britax Roundabout. She likes it SO much better than the infant carrier car seat. She has more elbow room.) We got our new stroller home, Bob assembled the wheels and the canopy and he put air in the tires. Then the 3 of us went on our walk. It handles really well. We are happy with it!

Sleep update

We returned to swaddling this week, and are using the Ultimate Recieving Blanket by Swaddle Designs. This blanket is big enough and warm enough to wrap her in, yet she can pretty easily wiggle her arms out when she wakes up. I feel better knowing that she can "break free" if she wants to. Yet having her arms tucked in at first helps her stay asleep when we place her down and while she is still in light stages of sleep. Anyway, even though we are swaddling her I'm not sure that she is sleeping any better as a result. But Bob pointed out that I was making too many changes at once and so we took one step back. We continue to sleep with the white noise on (radio static). We went without it for a short time about a month or two ago, but then started keeping it on all night again. It helps to block out other noise in the apartment or on the street. I have decreased the number of feedings during the night, and I noticed a great improvement with her interest in eating during the day. I am relieved about that, because she wasn't eating well last week and now I realize that it was because I was feeding her 24/7 and so she wasn't feeling hungry enough.

We bought a stroller!

Here's my view of Juni in the stroller when she's in a reclined position.

And here's Juni, a bit zoned out looking, after taking a nap in the stroller and then waking up to a live band playing in the park.
We walked with Bob to the Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park. Bob went in to the festival but Juni and I just walked him up to the entrance and then walked back home. It is a nice break on my body to push her in a stroller as opposed to always wearing her. Now that she is heavier, it is time to push her around occasionally. I'm pretty sure she is well over 13 pounds now, but I will try to do a weight check soon and let you know what I find.

Sleep - waking up...

Juniper has been waking up more often at night during the past week, ever since we detached her bassinet from our bed. It is still new for her to be unswaddled, and we've continued to put her in the sleep sack for night time sleep. The last two nights she woke up about 5 times and the longest stretch of sleep was only 2 or 3 hours. This is compared to what used to be a good 5 or 6 hour stretch of sleep at the beginning of the night. This morning I considered trying to swaddle her again, but that seems like taking a step backwards. Then this afternoon I went on a walk with 2 other new moms, and talking with them helped me realize that I can try to soothe her back to sleep at night with ways other than feeding her. I have been nursing her back to sleep every time she wakes up, instead of trying to increase the amount of time at night that she goes without food. So now she is in this cycle of eating many small meals throughout the day and night, and I think that is encouraging her to wake up more often at night. (Because she is always only a little hungry and so doesn't get full enough to satisfy her for a longer stretch of sleep?) Well, I will try to bounce her and/or give her a pacifier to get her back to sleep at night if it has only been a couple hours since she went down. I feel hopeful about this process that we are going through of her gradual move towards independent sleeping. One of the moms shared with me that when her baby moved from co-sleeping in the parents' bed to sleeping in a crib, there were more night wakings for a while. It takes time to adjust.

Sunday at the pool

Juniper's first swim!

Juniper loves the bouncy vibrating chair that was recently loaned to us.

Holding her toy elephant on her own...

...and chatting away to the elephant, too. She's getting so much better every day at grabbing and holding things.  She had a good grip on a chunk of my hair today.  She also petted my face and hooked a finger onto my lip while I was changing her into her pajamas tonight.  Here's some pictures of her playing with her elephant, a popular toy in our living room lately.  

Fireball!

Bob called this her fireball outfit.  She's talking a lot.  Chatting away while I snapped these shots.

Daddy reads a bedtime book

Jeremy visits

Play date

Well, Juniper is a little young yet for a play date, but she did hang out with 14 month old Lucas on Tuesday at his house. He was interested in playing with Juniper's rattle and took it right out of her hand. She didn't mind, and I think by watching him play with it she learned how to hold it better herself.

Her forearm fits in my palm

Separate sleep

Juni is 15 weeks old today.  Last night for the first time she slept with her bassinet disconnected from our bed.  We raised the side bar of the co-sleeper bassinet and moved it to the corner near the foot of our bed.  We put the rocking chair in the spot where the bassinet used to be.  Last night went well.  When she woke up to eat I fed her and burped her while sitting in the rocking chair, and then she went back to sleep easily and stayed asleep when I put her back in the bassinet.  And she was sleeping unswaddled in a sleep sack.  

Previously I had been feeding her at night in a side-lying position in bed, so that I could partially sleep through it.  However, lately neither of us would be able to go into a very deep sleep, and then when I'd finally wake up enough to move her back to her bassinet, often I would wake her up in the transfer.  It wasn't working out that way any more (when she was younger she slept through the transfer better), and also I wasn't burping her since I fell asleep while she ate.  Now I am forced to get out of bed to get her.  The whole process of feeding her, burping and putting her back in her bassinet takes only 20 minutes.  She's been waking up twice a night, and last night she woke up at about 2:30 am and 5 am.  When she woke up for the day at about 7 or 7:30 am, she was happily chatting to her crib toy (a friendly bee).  So I was able to lay in bed a bit longer while she talked with her friend the bee.  Bob enjoyed seeing her so happy and just talking on and on.

Reorganizing

Here's Bob holding Juni while taking a break from cleaning the closet. We have been going through our STUFF, giving some things away, throwing some stuff out, and putting some of it in storage. We reorganized all of our closets and made some more living space in our one bedroom apartment. Though we were planning to move this month, we decided to make it work to stay here for a bit longer. We just love our apartment and neighborhood so much.

She's hooked

One day alone with Daddy and she's hooked.  Today I was out of the house all day to help a friend move and Bob took care of Juniper.  All went well.  Bob took this cute picture of Juniper's hand hooked on his shirt collar while she was sleeping in his arms.  I was happy to see her when I got home.

Pacifier

While rocking Juniper to sleep, she rooted towards my arm, lunged toward it and started sucking.  I offered her my breast instead, but she was unhappy when the milk came out.  She didn't want to eat, just to suck.  I offered her my pinky finger, too, but that wasn't quite right.  She wanted my arm.  So I let her suck on my arm a bit, until I noticed the red welt that formed!  (See the picture and the mark on my bicep.)  So then I gave her the pacifier.  And it helped her to calm down and eventually she fell asleep for her nap.

We recently got two new pacifiers that are orthodontic shape, meaning they are pre-shaped to duplicate the shape of the mom's nipple during sucking.  She likes these better than the pacifiers that are symmetrically rounded at the end like a regular bottle nipple.  She also likes the orthodontic bottle nipples better, and we have been using the Medela orthodontic nipple for bottle feedings.

I have been hesitant to use a pacifier, and I want to make sure we use it only in moderation.  I have been using it to calm her at times (especially for car and bus trips, which usually are upsetting for her).  And once she has calmed, I try to ease it out of her mouth and she usually will stay calmed for a bit without it.  Or, if it falls out of her mouth and she is calm, I don't put it back in unless she is upset again and I can't calm her another way.

Punk rock

Sleep Sack sleep

Friday night she slept swaddled and went to bed at about 9 or 9:30 pm and woke up once during the night at about 5 or 5:30 am, then ate and slept more until about 8:30 am.  Saturday night we put her in the Sleep Sack (unswaddled) and her sleeping pattern was identical to Friday night.  Woke up once at 5 am for a feeding and then back to sleep until 8:30 am.  Finally we had a success with the sleep sack!  Tonight we put the sleep sack on her again, so her arms are free.  She went to bed earlier tonight, at about 7:45 pm, then woke at 8:30 pm for a snack, and went back to sleep for the night.  Now it is 11 pm and so far so good.  Time for us parents to go to bed soon.  We have been sorting through stuff and getting rid of some things (like Bob's cassette tapes and old photographs of me with braces on my teeth).  We are reorganizing our closets and preparing to move some stuff into a storage space that we will rent.  That way we will have a bit more living space in our one bedroom apartment for the 3 of us.  

Deirdre & Joe's baby shower