Perfect Timing

So this morning, after a glorious night of E sleeping for almost 11 hours straight (7 of those in her crib on her own), we heard her get up and playing in her crib. Ian woke up to get her and came in to find her sitting up (on her knees, I think) with her hands on the crib rail looking up. Good thing we had dropped the crib mattress just two days ago! Gilda was thinking that we should get the mattress lowered, even though she hasn't really been sleeping in the crib for several weeks now (she ends up in her bed and we can't seem to move her without waking her). But last night, lo and behold, she slept - which was GREAT! - but that also meant she was in her crib. And now that she can sit up from a lying down position and pull herself up to a certain height from sitting down (sometimes she can even get to her feet, but that requires the "just perfect" height to grab onto and also her legs in the "just perfect" position. Anyways, I'll say it again, It's a good thing we just lowered her mattress, she might have wanted to "explore" on the other side of the rail and fallen a couple feet to the carpeted floor. I guess it's good, then, that she can't yet walk or climb, of which then we'll have to drop the crib mattress to the bottom most setting.

By the way, if any of you know the Armstrongs, this post might seem a bit familiar, since Luke and E seemed to be hitting some milestones together. Kids, so precocious and curious.

It's finally happened!!

E has been scooting on her stomach backwards, stretching forward as she sits and rocking back and forth half on her knees and half on her butt. But this last week she's been rocking forward even more so that she is actually on her hands and knees (for a brief second before falling to her stomach). Today... as she played on the ground, back at home and surrounded by her favorite toys, E crawled. Of course it wasn't the "typical" crawl, on hands and knees, right, left, right, left. It was more of a "I'm on my hands and knees", "I want to go forward to reach my object of desire" and "I know I can move forward when I use my feet". So as she is on her hands and knees, she uses her feet and pushes off the ground(making her legs straighten out and her knees leave the floor), left, right, left, until she moves forward. She doesn't get far and she still hasn't quite figured out how to coordinate the hands so she can really move far, but it's still quite an amazing thing to watch. And so it's finally happened... E is crawling! Soon, she'll be dashing from one side of the apartment to the other, getting into the bookcases (which she has discoverd has fun books to pull out) and causing all kinds of exploratory mayhem.

First Swim

This week our family house sat out in the country. It was about 20 minutes from our house and so we brought a bunch of food, all our gear and came home once midweek to check on our apartment and get things we had forgotten. One of the highlights of staying at this friend's house was that her and her husband have an outdoor pool. I haven't been swimming in over a year! Partly becuase we moved into an apartment complex that doesn't have a pool, but also because I just couldn't find a flattering swim suit when I was pregnant. But yesterday, out in the middle of the country (surrounded only by walnut trees) we all went swimming. This was E's First Swim!

She freaked out. I think it was too big (big blue, watery place that she's never been), too cold (outdoor pool after the heat of the day had passed), too wet (ok, I did dunk with her twice) and just too foreign of an experience. She did much better when she could stand on the steps (with assistance), but other than that, she wasn't too keen on swimming. Hopefully as she grows up that'll change, because I LOVE to swim and spending half of my summers growing up at the pool is something I hope she'll like to do too.

Ninety Four and Cooling?

Happy July 4th everyone!

We had a fairly laid back 4th of July, just in Davis, having some BBQ and playing a game. Then we came home to a very warm apartment and have been trying to get E to sleep. After quite some fuss, we decided to "set up camp" in our living room (the only room with air conditioning). We inflated an Aero Mattress in our living room and will use our air conditioning to help us get E (and possibly ourselves too, if we can't get our bedroom to cool down enough, but that shouldn't be a problem if we're willing to wait a few hours) to sleep. Our apartment currently (at 10 pm) is at 94 degrees, according to our not accurate thermometer. This morning when we got up (and mind you, yesterday was much cooler than today) it was around 83 degrees. Hopefully, we get some good breeze and can turn off the air for some good outdoor cooling of our apartment... but until then, Happy 4th sleeping to us in our living room!

Ch-ch-changes

So the past week or two E's regressed in her sleeping habits, which has made quite a fun time for us: If she falls asleep while I'm holding her then I can't put her down - the minute she goes horizontal she wakes up crying and won't go back to sleep unless I pick her back up and rock her again, which has meant that quite a few naps have spent on daddy instead of in the crib. The only other way she'll sleep is if Gilda's in our bed with her and nurses her off to sleep. And then hopefully we can get her to her crib without waking up (after waiting a while to make sure we have the best chance of pulling it off). On top of everything else, she's been increasingly resistant to being put to sleep. Needless to say, she's been sleeping in our bed with us a lot lately and mommy and daddy have been getting either less sleep or lower quality sleep as a result.

There are a few things that have likely contributed to this pattern: The first is the heat. It's been rather uncomfortably warm. The second is that she is learning to be increasingly mobile (learning new skills causes sleep disruptions in babies). She's actually voluntarily getting on her stomach or hands and knees to get at stuff and can actually scoot backwards - the other day she pushed herself all the way down the hall on our linoleum. She'll probably be learning to crawl any day now.

The third contributor was discovered today - she has her bottom front teeth starting to breach her gums. This morning there was nothing to feel and then in the afternoon Gilda was saying "I think she has a tooth!" Sure enough, you could feel a small sharp thingy there. I'm sure that's fairly uncomfortable.