10 Weeks

Annie has reached the double digits - big milestone :) This week has overall been really fun - Ben was home, and it was kind of like every day was a weekend! Plus, for the most part the weather was awesome, so that makes everything better.

We had a few successful outings this week - we took Annie on her first trip to the Minneapolis lakes and walked around Lake Harriet - she actually did fine in the stroller for about 3/4 of the lake, but then I think the wind started blowing in there and woke her up, but then she was ok cuddling with Ben for the rest of the walk :) After that, we tempted fate and went to Gigi's Cafe for coffee and cake and she did great! She was on the bench chilling for awhile, then very suddenly started crying, so I fed her and she did well with that too - all in all a very fun afternoon! I had been getting a bit stir crazy by that time because I hadn't gone anywhere but the doctors for 2 days (I know that doesn't sound long to most people, but to me it is :) so it was great to get out of the house and the neighborhood for awhile.

Annie and I went to visit baby Nathan again, and she did sort of okay, if you don't count the few screaming (and I mean, SCA-REE-MING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like she was being tortured) sessions that she had at Pracna when we were having a lovely lunch on the patio. I was trying to feed her, which she did okay with for about 10 minutes, and then.... not so much. Oh well, I'm getting to be kind of desensitized to her crying. Kind of sad, but whatever. I'm sure the 20-something guys having beers were appreciating that little reminder to always use a condom! Annie also had a shower for her yesterday - I will talk about that in another post though :)

The past few days, Annie has been pretty awful at eating in general - again, I have no idea what her deal is, but she'd eat for like 10 minutes on one side and start writhing around and get pissed, so I'd try to burp her and put her back (because I would hand express some milk so I knew there was still something there) and she'd just start screaming... I don't know if she had just had enough or what - a few times, we'd take a break and change her diaper and whatever and she'd eat more. I hate that I can't tell how much she's eating, it is so frustrating to me. I don't care if she only eats for 10 minutes if that's all she needs, but the days before that she'd be eating for like 40 minutes one side (but a lot of times she'd have kind of fallen asleep there, so who knows). VERY frustrating, especially in public. When she has days like that, I am REALLY tempted to just stop breastfeeding and only pump... but for now, I'm sticking with it!

New developments for Annie this week are that she is just chatting up a storm - she makes tons of noises and it is so cute :) It's fun to have little conversations with her! I also do think she is tracking objects and she's really started to look like she recognizes people which is really awesome. She still greatly enjoys laying on her back and kicking around and has no interest in toys yet. We also noticed that she can stand up pretty well when we hold her in position - she kind of looks like a bobble head but she's getting more and more head control every day :)

The day of Annie's 2 month appointment, I met up with my Mom & Baby group - one woman in the group made a comment to me that really hit home - "do you feel like everyone has a better baby than yours?" and I said TOTALLY! Except for some in that group, I do feel like almost every baby I know is "better" than Annie, and by that I mean less fussy. I do feel like a large portion of our day is spent trying to soothe Annie and get her to fall asleep. When I think about it realistically though, I know she is a pretty awesome baby - first of all, she's so f-ing cute, second, she sleeps at night like it's her job, and third, she is smiley and happy and can entertain herself for pretty large portions of time. I just wish she'd learn to nap better during the day! I know (almost) every parent has their "thing" though - whether it is that their baby wakes up 5 times per night at 9 months old, or that they can only nap in the swing, or they hate strangers, or whatever. I am TRYING to stop comparing Annie to other babies, and to what I think she should be like by this stage, but it is very hard! The sheet we got from the doctor for her 2 month visit said something like "Fussiness decreases by 3 or 4 months of age" - I can't wait for THAT!

I remember looking at this outfit and thinking it would be FOREVER before Annie fit into it :) Still a little big, but it fits!

Speaking of sleep, Annie has been amazing at night for the past 2 weeks now. I am fully aware that she might get worse at some point, but we have really been enjoying her sleeping habits at night! Like I mentioned before, I barely want to talk about it because I'm afraid of jinxing it, but she has consistently been sleeping from about 8 or 9pm until around 6am. AMAZING. This week I finally actually stayed up after she went to bed a couple times - previously I didn't really believe that she would sleep all night so I still went to bed right when she did to maximize my sleep. It was great to just have some adult time! We went out to dinner one night while my mom watched Annie - she had a little meltdown, but was mostly okay. The next night, I went to a gathering at a coworkers house, and when I got back, Annie was already in bed so I joined the neighbors at a bonfire while we all had our baby monitors going :) I stayed up til 11:45pm!!! That was absolutely unheard of, even while I was still pregnant! So really, I had lots of baby free time this week which was definitely nice :)

I have been reading the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" which is fascinating - the author talks a lot about how sleep is a brain development and has nothing to do with whether or not a baby is hungry - some babies just sleep through the night and others don't, and it sounds like up until a certain point, it is just luck. He also talks about the importance of daytime naps, which we are TRYING to help Annie out with! We tried to only use the crib for naps this week, and she did ok, but rarely would she sleep for longer than about 45 minutes. She'd get pretty cranky by the end of the day, so today we are going back to the swing. She's only 2 months old, so I figure this is still fine if it works for her. I don't think they have a swing at daycare, but she'll then just have to learn to sleep in the pack n plays they have I guess! Or we will bring her swing there, who knows :) I haven't finished the book yet, so if there are any helpful tips in there, I will definitely share them.