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

Friday 8/1/08

We tried putting her to bed for the night in a sleep sack twice this week, however she didn't stay asleep that way. Tuesday night she went to sleep in the sleep sack, but then woke up about 30 minutes later and so I swaddled her for the rest of the night. On Wednesday night I tried it 3 or 4 times--getting her to sleep and putting her down--but each time she woke up right away and so I finally swaddled her, and then she fell instantly asleep without even needing to be held. Thursday night I started out with the swaddle but kept one arm out of it. Kind of a way to wean her off the swaddle, that was the idea. It seemed to work pretty well. When she woke up for her middle-of-the-night feeding she had both arms out of the swaddle. I don't know what time it was, though, so I don't know if she slept for a shorter period of time than normal. Tonight she went to sleep in the regular swaddle again. I think I will continue to experiment with weaning her from the swaddle, though. I just want her to have free movement of her limbs. I also want to make sure we all get the sleep we need. She still has the startle reflex, and so her arms move sometimes while she's sleeping and it wakes her up. That's why swaddling helps her sleep.