Figures

I planned for days to write a post lamenting the fact that my child will not eat anything.  It was going to be good, too.  I thought of adjectives and acronyms and dusted off my sense of humor.  Mostly I was frustrated and you know how much sense it makes for that to bring out the best writing in someone.

Amelia hasn't been a good eater since day 1, literally.  I've been in a constant state of maternal angst, metaphorically and literally ringing my hands worrying about if she's getting enough nutrients and, if she decides to become a fruitarian, will she waste away to nothingness?  My sister gave me good advice.  She said not to push it - not to force her to eat.  I nodded emphatically and agreed with her.  Eating shouldn't be a warzone. 

The next meal I shoved a green bean in Amelia's mouth.  You may think I'm kidding about the force-feeding bit, but I'm not.  Usually if I could just get a taste of a food on Amelia's tongue she would decide she liked it and eat at least a few bites.  If she couldn't bear the taste on her tongue then I didn't push it.  I've had to start pushing it.  She refuses any and every food - even foods I know she has liked in the past like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  She will not touch a noodle.  Of any kind.  Which means she won't eat spaghetti or macaroni and cheese - childhood staples!  I know it's a texture thing and she'll grow out of it, but she needs the carbs!  My waft of a girl is just a few pounds more than her 7 month old cousin!  Granted, he's a tank, but still.

Things she'll eat for sure:
- A Costco hot dog (go figure)
- Fruit of any kind
- Goldfish crackers
- Pizza
- Donuts (that's my girl!)
- Fruit Roll-ups
- Chocolate (of course)
- Sticks of Colby Jack cheese
- Waffles
- Her daddy's Chicken Fried Rice (we tried living off of it for a while and got burned out)
- Ice cream

Things she won't even touch no matter how often she's offered them:
- Eggs
- Pasta
- Any kind of vegetable (although she ate a couple of tiny bites of broccoli lately)

That list may seem short but it covers a vast array of foods that her father and I happen to enjoy.  I still offer her everything we eat but she usually won't eat it.

Mealtimes for the last year have been filled with frustration and crying - and not just from me.

Yesterday she was feeling really sick so she ate next to nothing all day.  I could have penned the most angst-ridden blog from the heart yesterday about what a horrible mother I was.  That is, until about 5:30pm.  She just wanted to snuggle and I realized she had a slight fever and was exhausted and, from what I could tell, had the chills and body aches.  We put her to bed with not much in her tummy.  Even her beloved Fruit by the Foot didn't get eaten.

This morning when she woke up I offered her a blueberry waffle (I made them last week and froze the leftovers) and turkey bacon.  She didn't touch the bacon but she ate almost the entire waffle and about 1/2 of a pear.  That's good for her, people.

Lunch was nothing to write home about.  I cut up leftover pork chops to look like chicken strips and even gave her some dip to dunk them in and all she did was take a couple of bites then suck down the sweet and sour sauce I gave her for dipping.  Then she had a Fruit By the Foot and called it good.

We cut back on the snacks today.  When David got home Millie had developed somewhat of a cabin fever and really wanted to go outside even though it had snowed today and was freezing.  We bundled her up and David took her out and let her run around the cul de sac for a while.  Pizza was for dinner and that's all she talked about until it was ready.  She was offered a slice of pizza and carrots.  David thought the piece of pizza was too difficult for her to eat so he cut it up and she wouldn't touch it.  Ah!  Presentation!  We then gave her another piece that was whole and she gobbled it up...toppings first.  Then she asked for more!  MORE!  I noticed teeth imprints in the carrots but not a full bite - she didn't want anything to do with them.  But after dinner David gave her as much applesauce as she wanted and she had quite a bit.

Hopefully this is a turning point to better eating.  And with that, I'm taking my sick self to bed.
Supposedly we'll have snow tomorrow.  Doubt it.

Happy Wednesday!

The Business. She's a Beast.

It's been two months since I last posted.  To the day.  Odd.
Somehow I have over 760 "fans".  And if I could send free bows to each one I totally would.

But, the business is why I haven't been blogging.  Or cleaning.  Or cooking much.  Or, really, much of anything.  It's pretty much grown into a huge, scary monster that I am afraid I can't handle anymore.  Busy is a blessing, don't get me wrong, and I certainly wouldn't complain.  But I feel an obligation to every single one of my customers to make the best product possible and ship it as soon as possible which is very stressful.

It sounds easy.  You're thinking it sounds easy.

It was easy when I first started and had, maybe, an order a week.  Now I'm looking at my order sheet of orders placed this week and last and wondering how I'm going to ship 16 orders as quickly as I'd like.  The truth is, I'm not.  And I have that disclaimer on my main business page - that it could take 2-3 weeks for in-stock orders to ship.  You'd think that would make me relax a little but it doesn't.  It makes me twitch.  Do you know how quickly 2 weeks flies by?

Christmas is 3 months away!

I digress.  Really.  Because I'm not complaining, I promise.  I could just use one or two of Santa's elves right about now.  He should stop being so selfish and gimme one.


On to other things.  Like my sweet, beautiful Amelia.  She's such a good girl and this age is SO fun.  I don't let my business completely overtake everything in my life, especially her.  We have a great time.  She's hilarious - I'm really enjoying 15 months old.


She can say a lot of things because she tries to mimic everything you say.  Today, she said a word and I didn't understand it (big surprise), so I said "What?" To which she responded "What?  Whaaat?  Whaaaaaat?"  I would be offended that she were mocking me if she weren't 15 months old and learning to speak.


She says "Thank you" ("Tchank Tcho") without prompting.

She says "I love you" ("Ya Ya") and gives kisses and hugs without prompting.

She says "All Done" ("Ahh Duh") as she signs it now.

Give her 100 toys and she will always go right for a baby doll and tote it around with her.

She laughs a lot, but she laughs the hardest at/for her cousin, Caleb.  They are GREAT friends.


The girl will eat any dried or fresh fruit you stick in front of her.  She may be a somewhat picky eater with some things, but fruit is not one of them.

"Default happy" is how my husband describes our baby, and he's right.  She just seems content and easy-going 95% of the time.  She gets that good naturedness from her daddy.  Not that everything is stars and rainbows all of the time - she has her moments.  But, we deal with the attitude and move on.

She will and does walk off with things.  No idea where the remote control for our Blu Ray player is.  She walked off with one of David's favorite pens - can't find it anywhere.  Half the time we can't find our lip balm or remotes for our bedroom lights.  It'd be frustrating if it weren't so funny.


She started walking in mid-August and hasn't slowed down since.  That was the same week we were down in Portland buying our '05 Honda Odyssey Touring.  Yes, a van.  And I LOVE IT.  Seriously, I think people who say they'll never own a van need to drive one around for a week and see how awesome it is.  Remote control doors and rear hatch?  Um, yes, please!  Seats that fold into the floor and hidden compartments in the floor for storage?  OKAY!  The list seriously goes on and on. 



You'll notice many of the photos are from this month. We drove down to Portland last weekend for an early trip to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island. We had a really great time but many of the festivities weren't out yet - too early. I should mention that my sister, Carrie, made the girls' t-shirts. Cute, right? She's making more to sell in my Millie's Bows comment game on October 1st. See my Facebook fan page for details.

And, just for fun, here's a photo of the newest member of the family!  Meet Benjamin!  My sister, Carrie, gave birth to him on July 28 of this year.  He's so squishy and loveable.  That's my dad holding him.


Happy Friday!

Not Millie's 1st Birthday

It's never, ever a good idea to drink a large glass of iced caffeinated coffee at 5pm.  Take it from me.  Learn from my mistakes.  Don't walk in my footsteps.  It's 1:20am and I'm starting a blog that is bound to be long and wordy.

First, a couple of things.

We went to see David's Gramma J last weekend.  She hasn't seen Amelia in months so it was fun to see her and catch up with her.  I tried to get a photo of everyone but Gramma wouldn't look at the camera in any of the photos so this is the best one I have of David and Amelia (to the right).

We bought a big, huge bag of Brookside dark chocolate covered acai with blueberry on the 11th of this month (last Sunday for those of you who don't feel like thumbing through a calendar).  It's gone.  David had 3, maybe.  Amelia had 3, maybe.  I'm not a math whiz or anything but I think that means I had more than 3.

Amelia has learned to say "Please" ("psss").  Up until this point we hadn't really pushed the manners thing since she was still learning how to say a lot of things (important things like "bird") and she looked lost when I asked her to say please.  Truthfully, she's probably insanely brilliant and realized that once she started with please she'd never be allowed to stop.  She's also got the head nodding for "yes" and the violent head shaking for "no" down, although both are just games and we are still trying to help her associate what they really mean.  Well, she knows what they mean but I don't think she knows that's what she's communicating when she nods or shakes her head.  Get it?  Okay, moving on.

She's been signing "More" for months now, but in the past few weeks has also picked up "All Done". 

I was going to make this post about her first birthday but I'm actually getting sleepy and we have plans to go to the park tomorrow morning.  Amelia is teething like crazy - I see about 5 teeth trying to pop their way through.  I put her down for her first nap today around 10:45 and got her up around 2pm.  Lest you think she slept for more than an hour, let me tell you that in that time was some crying, then some rocking, then some more crying in her crib, then me changing her stinky diaper, then some more crying in her crib, then me being a sucker and giving her more milk, then her finally crashing around 1pm and waking at 2pm.  I tried to put her back down to see if she'd take a cat nap around 3:15 but no dice. 

Am I crazy or does Amelia look a little like Emma, the guidance counselor from Glee, in this photo?

David and I went jogging today.  Maybe a 1 1/4 miles.  Definitely a mile - just not sure about the 1/4 part...could be more or less.  I say jogging but of course I mean I would jog in 30-60 second spurts then start walking and mumbling about how out of shape I am.  I tried several times to get David to go ahead of me and I'd catch up but he wouldn't - he wanted to wait.  Isn't that sweet?  At the end of our run we had circled the park and were about to go home but I convinced him to take another lap around the park and he did - a 7 1/2 minute mile was his pace.  When we was running with me it was a 12 minute mile.  Lame. 

I put Millie to bed at 8pm which is half an hour earlier than usual.  She zonked out and we haven't heard from her since.  Actually, that's not entirely true.  She squawked a few times but went right back out.  Usually by now she'll have woken up for a bottle or something.  Not that I'm complaining, it just means that she will probably be waking up around 7:30 or 8 instead of 9 like she usually does.  And here I sit at 1:40 writing a blog.  Stupid.  Stupid.

It's almost 2.  All of the photos with the exception of the Gramma J one were taken tonight while David grilled our steaks.  My baby is not such a baby anymore.

Happy whatever-day-it is.

I can't believe I have over 500 fans on Facebook.  I'm supposed to do a huge giveaway so if you have any ideas of what that could be, please let me know.

Super Lame

I'm all about posting the ups and downs of life.  I never understood why one would post only happy things.  Isn't the purpose of a blog to document real life?  Anyway, I digress.  A balance of both is good, I'd say.

My husband is passed out on the couch and has been since about 9:15 tonight.  He has been staying up until around 11:30pm every night and getting up at 5am for work.  I love Thursdays when he doesn't have to work the next day (he is on a Flex schedule where he works more hours during the week and has every other Friday off), but lately he's had to go in for a meeting for about 4 hours, even when he isn't technically supposed to be working.  Thankfully it's not until the afternoon and he gets to sleep in.  Usually we watch a movie together on nights like tonight.  Or, he'll go work on projects and I'll make bows.  Tonight, he went horizontal on the couch and it was all over.  I feel bad for him - I wish he wasn't so tired all the time.

We bought a bag of Brookside dark chocolate covered acai with blueberry at Costco.  They're good.  Too good.  I'm considering buying another bag and stashing it in my freezer so I can have a surplus when Costco doesn't sell them anymore.  I'm getting the feeling they're a seasonal item.  I made the rookie mistake of leaving the open bag on the coffee table the other day.  Amelia sniffed them out, reached in the bag despite my chorus of "No"s from the other room, and popped one in her mouth.  It was like slow motion, me running from the kitchen to stop her and her shoving the choclatey goodness into her mouth.  I told David about it later and he got the mistaken impression that I had given her one.  So, he decided to let her have one, too.

A little dark chocolate won't hurt her.  She's eaten so many blueberries this summer that I wouldn't be surprised if she starts turning blue.  One thing she won't eat:  meat and veggies.  Our pediatrician assured us that she won't refuse them forever, but right now it seems like the only things she'll have anything to do with are sweet things like fruit.  She actually really likes cheese and hot dogs, but if the cheese is shredded instead of cubed it throws her off and she won't eat it.  Crazy girl.

I'm having a giveaway on my Millie's Bows blog.  I'm giving away some cute clippies, so check it out!
Enter Here! ~ Millie's Bows ~

Happy Friday!

Cuteness

Jillian Michaels kicked my rear-end today and I think she plans to do it again tomorrow so I'm not sure why I'm still awake, much less blogging.  I still enjoy blogging even though it's becoming harder and harder to find the time for it. 

Is it weird that I forget how old I am?  I recently turned 29, and my only reaction to that was "What?  I thought I was already 29."  Nice.  Sometimes I feel like I'm in constant crisis mode, but not about anything important.  Mostly just about how in the world am I going to find the right organization storage for all of my craft stuff?  And...how will I be able to make it functional enough so that I can operate my business on a daily basis?  Right now my workstation is my dining room table which always results in an illusion of sorts by sweeping it all off the table and throwing it in the back guest room.  Ta-Dah!  No more mess!  This has to change.  Here's the problem:  I have 250 spools of ribbon. 

My sweet girl will be 1 in less than a month.  I'm working to plan her party and so far just have some things ordered.  This will probably be one of those situations where the date seems so far away but it sneaks up on me and I'm unprepared.  I'm just tellin' it like it is.

I wanted to share some pictures but Blogger is doing the usual messing them up and I don't have time to fix them so how they are is how they are.  The one above is Amelia with her Uncle Jake and Sage the dog at my in-laws' house.  The very top picture is from the same day - her first "whale spout" in her hair.  Aww...

Here's a couple I took on her actual 11-month day.  If you don't know, I have taken a photo of her next to the same pig since she was 5 months old.  It's neat to see how big she's gotten (Amelia, not the pig).  The pig is special because my dad got it for me when I was 2.  When Amelia reaches the 1 year mark I'll post all of the photos.

Tonight Amelia cried out a few hours after going to bed and I didn't have to but I went in and rocked her.  It didn't work to put her to sleep - it never does - but it was so nice to just love on her.  It feels so good when she buries her head in my neck and wraps her little arms around me.  Often on the weekends when David gets up with her she won't eat and instead looks for me to come in and feed her and rock her.  He's really good about getting her to eat and go back down anyway, but sometimes she just wants me.  That feels good.  And, yet I love when David gets home from work and Amelia just wants to attach herself to him and play with him.  I know she's growing fast but in some ways it doesn't feel like it yet.  I'm enjoying every stage.

Must go to bed.  Happy Tuesday.

P.S.  Please go to my store and purchase a FIND A CURE Flower.  $2 from the sale of every flower will go to the Susan G. Komen foundation in honor of a friend of mine who just found out she has breast cancer. Thanks!

Snot Rockets

I called Poison Control for the first time tonight.  David and I were in our bedroom - he was getting ready for Bible class and I was on the computer.  The baby was playing with whatever she found lying around.  We have toys and baby-safe gadgets within her grasp in our bedroom for occasions such as this. 

Now, I dig a lot of things out of her mouth on a somewhat daily basis.  Mostly ribbon.  I try, but I miss picking up some minute pieces of ribbon from my bow-making sometimes and if it's even a speck, Amelia will find it. 

So, in the bedroom.  Suddenly I turn and David is digging something out of her mouth, asking why I had a pill on my nightstand.  I didn't have a pill on my nightstand.  Apparently, a stray FenuGreek pill had found its way under the nightstand and Amelia found it.  Nursing moms will know that Fenugreek are herbal pills meant to increase milk supply.  I haven't nursed Amelia in almost 2 months, so obviously I was completely clueless as to how and when this pill wandered under my nightstand.  David retrieved the capsule from Amelia's mouth.  She had biten off the top 1/4" of the pill and that part was still in her mouth.  Fortunately, the capsule still held most of its contents.  I go digging in Amelia's now maple-sugar-smelling mouth for the top part of the capsule and its contents.  She is not happy about having my pinky finger shoved in every crevice of her mouth, but I caught a glimpse of the capsule and am determined to grab it.

I finally dug it out and called poison control.  No harm.  They took my name, Amelia's name, and her date of birth.  I can't help thinking that I'm now on file with CPS. 

David took this week off work.  Here was our plan:

- Get home improvement projects done
- Do a lot of spring cleaning
- Go to the zoo
- Go to the aquarium
- Take family walks every day
- I would get to make some bows while David watched the baby

Here's what actually is happening:

- Millie and I got sick

It's so bad that every time Amelia sneezes, David sings "Snot Rockets" to the tune of the "Hot Pockets" jingle.  You can imagine why.

Is there really a worse way to try to fall asleep than with a stuffy, yet runny, nose?  I'm an advocate of the cry-it-out method, albeit a modified version of the method, but when the baby is sick all of that gets thrown out the window. 

I put her down at 7:30 tonight.  I thought I had every possible base covered.  We stuck to the bedtime routine, I also turned her cool mist humidifier on high, Baby Rub-bed her chest and neck, gave her a dose of Benedryl to help with her nose, and slightly elevated her mattress.  She fell asleep quickly and easily.  I was so relieved.

Fast forward one hour and 10 minutes later.  Amelia wakes herself up by coughing and decides it would be a good idea to stand up in her crib and make a huge fuss.  After a few minutes seeing if she would calm down and realizing she clearly won't, I went in and tried the old "I'm right here, I wiped your nose  - oh, hey look!  It's your pacifier! - but I'm not going to pick you up" routine but she flipped out.  I rocked her.

And rocked her.

And rocked her.

The good news is that she let me rock her.  The bad news is that she didn't fall asleep, she just stared at me and played with my nostrils.

I fed her what equaled an obsene amount of formula for what she's used to at bedtime, but she drank it and wanted all of it (she is definitely one to turn down the milk if she doesn't want it).  I laid her down and she did the thing where she pops right up the second I put her on the mattress.

David got home from Bible class and we let Amelia cry in her crib for probably 10 minutes.  I was hoping she would realize how tired she was and zonk out, but I also was realistic in that the more worked up she got, the more snotty everything got.  Snotty - messy, crusty, snottiness. 
I'm a sucker and got her out of bed where she played in the darkness of our bedroom for about 30-40 minutes.  Happy as a stinking clam.  Fed her another 4 ounces which she sucked down then I put her back to bed.  She fussed for a total of 1 minute then completely sacked out.

I'm pretty sure it was 11:45pm.  Now that I'm on record with CPS I'm sure this will go in my file, too.

I'm scared of how this night and tomorrow will go for us, but hopefully she sleeps well.

P.S.  I'm having another giveaway tomorrow on my Facebook fan page, so stop by.

A little weighed down

Millie and I had an adventure today.  We even dragged David, my dad, and a random young couple and their little boy in to it.

I decided it would be fun to take the train to Portland with Amelia.  I figured it would be less stressful to ride rather than drive, so I bought the $28 one-way ticket and, while nervous, was optimistic.  How bad could it be?  Just like taking a plane, right?  A lot of help with bags - just check them at the front counter and carry on your small bags and, in my case, my baby.  So, I packed a very large suitcase and planned to take the car seat by wrapping it in a garbage bag.

There is a train station just about 6 miles from our house and that seemed a little too convenient but, like I said, I was optimistic.  A friend who initially told us about the train and how great of a trip it is came over on Wednesday to hang out with Amelia and me.  I told her that we were leaving from the station closest to us and she said "You know that's an unmanned station, right?  You pretty much just walk up and get on the train.  But, I'm sure the conductor will step off the train and help you with your stuff."

Okay.  I got even more nervous but I was still picturing an actual train station that you walk up to, walk inside, maybe get a cup of coffee, relax, check your bags, and eventually get on the train.

Imagine my surprise when David drove me to the train station in the Back 40 and it was a raised platform with some shabby wooden overhangs as covering and absolutely nowhere to check any bags.  It was pouring down rain and David grabbed the baby in her car seat and the diaper bag while I had my big suitcase rolling behind me as well as another carry-on.  We realized we had to cross to the other side of the platform where the south-bound train will approach via a walkway under the platform then up what felt like a steep incline to the little bus-stop-like shelters to wait for the train.  I have to give a shout-out to David.  He (twice) scoped out the area and went up to walk around the platform to find out where we needed to go so that the baby and I could stay warm and dry in the car.  Love him.

The train approached and the conductor stepped off to help me with my bags.  I said goodbye to David and boarded.  He stood outside the window and waved to us, then snapped this photo:

I think it's a funny picture because Amelia is smiling at David and he's literally jogging alongside the train to take the picture.

The ride itself went just fine.  Amelia didn't want to eat any formula which didn't surprise me.  When a lot is happening around her she just refuses to drink formula and, when I was nursing, she refused to nurse.  So, she got a lot of solid foods on the train including raisins, a toasted bagel and each bite I dipped in apple blueberry baby food, yogurt bites, and Cheerios.  About an hour after we left she zonked out in my arms and I was able to lay her down in the seat next to me which, fortunatly, was never filled even though every other seat was filled.

Unfortunately she only slept for about half an hour until a loud noise woke her up, but I was able to flip through a few pages of a magazine and doze off for a little bit while she slept which was great.

A few times, a young couple walked past with their adorable 2-year-old son who was dressed in blue and white striped overalls and a matching conductor's hat.  CUTE.  The first time Amelia saw them, she said "HI" plain as day.  It was so sweet that I called David and told him about it. 

The conductor who helped me with my bags to get on the train was so nice and actually he stopped by a couple of times during the trip to tell me what a good baby I had.  However, he was nowhere to be found when we arrived in Portland.  Instead, another very grouchy conductor helped me.  I told him where the first conductor put my bags and as he was lifting them off the train and onto the platform he growled at me that my bags were illegal in size and weight and that I shouldn't have been allowed to carry them on.  I told him that I had planned to check them but there was nowhere to check them. 

He said, "Well, there probably was a place but you just didn't get there in time to find it!" 

I was dumbfounded.  I didn't know what to say, so I just mumbled something like "Actually that's not the case..." and then he said "Oh, wait, where did you get on the train?"

When I answered him, he said "Oh, yeah - there isn't a place there to check bags.  Sorry, miss, sorry.  Sorry about that."

Maybe he was just having a bad day - I hope he doesn't treat every customer that way.

He set my bags on the platform and left.  So, picture this.  I'm carrying the following:

- a 17ish lb baby
- a diaper bag
- a messenger bag
- a car seat in a garbage bag
- and I'm pulling a large suitcase behind me

Yeah, it wasn't working well.  I tried, but the train station entrance looked like the finish line of a marathon and I was standing at the start.  I opened my big bag just enough to grab the Bjorn.  Unfortunately, the last time I wore the Bjorn I undid all the hooks and buttons on it so I was having a really hard time trying to hold Amelia and figure out how to put on this contraption.  About that time the young couple with the 2-year-old son walked by me.  I thought I was the only one left on the platform but was relieved to see them and especially relieved and extremely grateful when they offered to help carry some of my load.  I had asked my dad to come in to the train station to meet me since I knew I wouldn't be able to get all of my luggage so luckily he was standing right inside the door as we walked in. 

My dad took me to my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch on the way to their house and Amelia enjoyed more yogurt bites and some sticky rice.  I enjoyed General Tso chicken.

Amelia still, even though I had tried several times, wouldn't drink formula at all.  Of course I was worried because she hadn't had even a drop since 5:45am and here it was 1:20pm.  But, when we got to a quiet room before her nap she drank some and that made me feel better.  However, her nap was only an hour long.  So, she had a total of an hour and a half of sleep between 5:45am and 8:00pm when she went to bed.  For her, being overtired means being upset about bedtime.  I tried rocking her but she fought me so I let her cry.  She fell asleep about 40 minutes later after some crying and whining. 

It's been a long day and I don't know why I'm still awake.  Amelia had so much fun today playing with her cousins.   Here's Amelia and Anna with Caleb.  He's such a good big brother/cousin and the babies love him.
 

Amelia and Kate

The girls with Caleb

Amelia sported her "UW" turtleneck and socks today to support the University of Washington Huskies since they were in the Sweet Sixteen, but they lost to West Virginia.  Oh well!

Tomorrow we have a lot going on but I'm looking forward to this weekend with family even though I miss David.  My mom's birthday was today so tomorrow we celebrate since she was busy tonight.

I have to go to bed - it's almost 1am!  I got 5 hours of sleep last night so I really need to try to squeeze in as much as I can.

Goodnight!

Call CPS, I let my child cry

Sorry for sharing the cord story in my previous post.  I know I freaked out both sets of grandparents, and I couldn't sleep last night because I was literally sick just thinking about what could have happened - I think I finally fell asleep around 4am.  Thank You, Lord, that nothing happened to our beautiful daughter.  I'm going to move on now and try not to ever think about it again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My baby went down at 8pm without a peep.  This makes me so very happy.  Mainly because bedtime lately has been an absolute chore.  I pity the women who think they must rock their children every night until they are fast asleep and refuse to let their child cry even a little.  Especially if they had a child like mine who just hated bedtime and didn't want anything to do with her crib or anything to do with me since my end goal was to put her in the crib and she knew it.  The only person she wanted at bedtime was Daddy, and that's because she knew Daddy wouldn't try to force feed her a pacifier and pin her to his chest while humming "You Are My Sunshine" and attempting to release calming energy. 

Our routine at night goes a little something like this:

1.  TV goes off, then she gets a bottle (4 oz, sometimes 6 oz)

2.  Oatmeal mixed with fruit and water or formula, nuked to a perfect 98°, then some cold fruit puree spooned on top (she loves this.  If your baby won't eat his/her oatmeal one night, try adding some cold fruit puree with each bite).
3.  I strip her down and wipe her with a warm washcloth and a dab of Baby Magic lavender calming lotion.

4.  Diaper change & jammies
5.  To the nursery for storytime and pacifier with Mom (Amelia gets the pacifier) by lamplight.

6.  Rocking with Mom in the glider for 2-3 minutes, then an "I love you", "Sleep through the night", and "Nite nite" from Mom.

7.  Bedtime

Usually at step #5 she starts whining the second I cross the threshold to her room.  The book helps to distract her and by the time I'm finished reading the story, she's rubbing her eyes and will willingly lay on my shoulder.  Laying her down is iffy.  Sometimes she won't fight it, she'll just curl up in a little ball and go to sleep but she'll wake up crying an hour or two later.  Other nights, she doesn't even let me lay her down - she sits right up and begins protest.  Either way, I leave the room.  Our mistake has been to go back in the room after about 30 minutes of whining/crying.  We pick her up thinking,  Maybe this one night...

...her teeth are hurting.
...she has a poopy diaper.
...she's still hungry.
...she will go to sleep if I try rocking her again.
or, my favorite...
...she's scared of the dark.

After offering to fix all of the above and getting completely rejected and totally frustrated, we've been known to walk her into the hallway or into our bedroom just to see what happens.  Crying stops.  Actually, the crying turns off like a light the second David holds her because, as I said before, she knows he isn't going to try to get her to sleep.  We have felt like genuine suckers every single time.  It got to the point that I would get mad at myself for thinking I could rock her to sleep...she fought me hard, no matter what.  I don't even remember the last time she even got drowsy by my rocking her.  It's more stressful to go into her room when she's throwing a fit than it is to just let her cry.  That might sound weird or stupid to some of you, but it's the truth.  Knowing the battle that awaits on the other side of that door really helps us to know that it's not worth the trouble.  If she were at all comforted by us then it would probably be a different story, but she wants nothing to do with us unless we're going to let her stay up.

So, we've let her cry the last couple of nights, no exceptions.  For naps, too.  We've even gotten good at figuring out when she has a poopy diaper.  If she's whining then goes radio silent for about 10 minutes then starts really crying, she pooped.  David called it today during her nap so we changed her (boy, it was a doozy - all up her back) and back down she went.

Tonight, it was too good to be true that I laid her down and she went right to sleep.  David thought she'd for sure be awake an hour later, but here it is 3 hours later and not a peep.  Apparently she just didn't like bedtime.  It was such a frustrating experience until we figured out that nothing was wrong with her and if we leave her alone and stop catering to her every whimper she'd realize that bedtime is nothing she needs to be rescued from and being overtired and wired and forcing herself to stay awake is far more stressful and taxing than just succumbing to sleep.

It's been one night - I'm not going to throw a ticker tape parade quite yet.  Especially since Amelia and I will be going to Portland this weekend.  Anything could happen when she has to sleep away from home.

Don't forget about my giveaway on my Millie's Bows Facebook Fan Page.  Already over 225 fans - I can't believe it!

Happy Monday!

Heart Stopping

I hope it's not a testament to my mothering abilities that I've had two completely heart-stopping, panicked moments involving Amelia in the last 24 hours. 

The first happened last night.  I was making dinner and David was in the living room with the baby.  I thought he was watching her but with how fast she is, he looked away for a minute (watching the NCAA tournament) and she crawled into the kitchen.  At that second I had been broiling garlic bread in the oven and left the oven open for a second so I could transfer a piece of garlic bread from the oven to David's plate which was on the opposite countertop.  I turned around and Amelia was about a foot from the oven, posed to pull up on the blazing hot oven.  I guess I'm not one of those people who remain poised in and calm in a dangerous situation.  I flipped out.  "NO, NO, NO, No!" I screeched as I bolted toward her.  I was able to scoop her up before she could reach her little hand to the oven and I walked into the living room.  "She canNOT be in the kitchen with me when I'm cooking!  She tried to pull up on the oven when I had it open!  I thought you were watching her!" I didn't leave David time to respond, I just handed her to him and left.  We talked about it later - it's not like I normally have the oven wide open when I'm cooking so next time I do that I'll just make sure to tell David that it's not safe for her to come in the kitchen.  Seriously I about had a heart attack.

The next panicky moment was this morning.  This is one of those times I've been really grateful to have a video monitor.  If you remember in the post before my last one there was a picture of Amelia in her crib.  We kept two video monitor cameras on her crib since she moves around so much.  We finally mounted a shelf and put one on the shelf so that we get a full crib shot of her.  There are still times when we can't really see all of her, so we left the other camera sitting on top of the crib.  She had never shown much interest in the cameras and since we recently lowered her crib I didn't even think she could reach them.  I can't move the crib to unplug the camera so I just left it.  If Amelia gets enough sleep, she will wake up and suck on her pacifier in her crib and play for upwards of 30-45 minutes before she starts talking or whining for me to come get her.  She was doing that this morning when I checked the monitor, only this time she had the camera next to her in the crib and she was laying down, playing with the cord.  I didn't panic - I showed it to David on the monitor then walked into her bedroom.  By the time I got in there, she was sitting up and the cord was wrapped around her neck.  I don't mean loosely.  I mean if she would have tried to stand up it would have strangled her.  I can't believe I'm even writing about this.  I know my mom (and probably David's mom) are going to read this and possibly have a minor panic attack, but we've avoided crazy close calls thus far in her young life and it wouldn't be babyhood without her giving us heart palpatations.

Oh, and yes, David is going to unplug the camera and get it out of the crib this morning before she even takes her first nap.

I'm doing a big giveaway on my Facebook fan page.  So, if you have a little girl or know a little girl who would love some hair accessories, go to my Millie's Bows fan page and enter the giveaway.  I think you have you become a fan before you can enter.  Here's a photo of the giveaway:

Have a wonderful weekend!

A lot happens in a week!

I'm a wee bit neurotic when it comes to how my child sleeps.  She moves around in her sleep constantly.  I think this is partly due to the fact that she is an incredibly light sleeper.  God made her this way; we did not.  I am very sensitive to noises and perhaps because of it or in spite of it I tried very hard to make Amelia used to being in the midst of life itself.  All day every day in the months following her birth (until she started sleeping in her own room for naps) she would take her naps in the living room.  David and I would keep the TV at a normal volume, unload the dishwasher, etc., hoping she would just get used to sleeping wherever, whenever.  Didn't work.  I guess with my noise sensitivity and David having been a light sleeper most of his life our child didn't stand a chance.

This is why my blog posts are so lengthy - I get off on tangents and ramble.

Anyway, so Amelia moves around a lot at night and I'm neurotic about checking the video monitor to make sure that she's still covered up and her face isn't too close to the bumper.  David makes fun of me because even though I can see her on the video monitor, I frequently go into her room to check on her.  Sometimes I accidentally wake her up by moving the blanket out from underneath her feet or by grabbing her by the ankles and pulling her away from the side of the crib.  Usually she goes right back out, but since she's been teething it's a whole new ballgame.

First, it takes forever to get her to sleep at night.  Bottle, nursing, teething tablets, Motrin, paci, rocking, more rocking.  You name it, we've tried it.  Gone are the days where I could lay her down and she'd drift off to sleep.  She needs me to rock her now.  I really don't mind - I absolutely love the time I can spend rocking her and cuddling with her.  It's the times that she's so uncomfortable that she screams when she's in her crib and she screams when I'm rocking her that's tough.  Or when I rock her to sleep only to lay her down and have her start crying again.

Can I just stop and say that it's really creepy to be in the living room of your home and hear breathing that isn't your own?  I know it's either the dog or one of the 2 cats, but still...

My entire point is that I didn't check on her tonight at all after I put her to bed.  I saw in the monitor that she was covered but I didn't check the monitor after that.  Usually I'll check it before I go to bed around 11pm then go and adjust her and cover her up, but obviously I haven't gone to bed.  So she woke up at midnight crying.  I tried rocking her to sleep a couple of times but it resulted in her crying and standing in her crib.  She's finally asleep now after I nursed her and rocked her.

She can pull herself up to stand in her crib.  As of, oh, last Saturday.  She pulled to her knees (which I actually think is what's pictured) a couple of times that day so I asked David to lower the mattress.  He did, and after her next nap when I went in to get her she had pulled all the way up to standing.  Whew.

And here she is today.  I caught her in this position when I came back to the living room after having heated up her lunch.  She really loves those Yogurt Bites.

And she somehow managed to prop herself underneath the same table a little later.  You can't really tell, but she's standing with one hand on the diaper caddy and one hand on the table support.  If she moved, she bumped her head.  So, being the wonderful mom that I am I made sure to snap a picture and then help her get out.

After David got home from work today we took Amelia outside for another shot with the tree.  It looks much better than it did even a few days ago.

I want to try feeding Amelia what we eat since I hear that's the best way to raise a non-picky eater.  So David broke out the high chair for the first time and she ate at the dining room table with us.  Well, she didn't really eat.  She posed for a few pictures and shoved the food around.  She wasn't hungry. 

She also might want me to tell you that for a while now she's been drinking out of her sippy cup all by herself.  Not always tipping it far enough to get water and not always attempting to drink it with the sipper facing the right way, but she has the right idea, anyway.  She's still just on water...we are holding off on juice for as long as humanly possible.

Finally, here are a couple of pacifier clips I made for Amelia tonight.  If you have any sewing ability whatsoever, please don't look closely at my stitches.  One of them is just one-sided ribbon.  The other is one-sided ribbon that I stitched together so that it would be a thicker, two-sided paci clip. 

Business is going well...many new items listed and I have a few orders I need to fill which is why I haven't been blogging much. 

Happy Tuesday!

Things are Bloomin'

I'm going to do this post in a bulleted format because simply too much has been going on and if I write about all of it I'll bore myself and you.  So, here goes!

- Millie's first tooth (her bottom left) broke through on February 5th.  This helps explain the terrible sleeping and overall crankiness that is atypical for her. 

- The night before Valentine's Day, David took Millie and me to a local chinese restaurant. I only bring this up because of how cute my baby looked that evening and because I have proof of her cuteness...

-  David and I went to see "Avatar" on Valentine's Day, but it was sold out so we saw the movie "Valentine's Day" instead.  It's a rental.  We finally saw "Avatar" yesterday in 3D and it was good - the animation (especially in 3D) is incredible.  Here's Amelia and David on Valentine's Day...

- David bought Amelia a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy as a Valentine's Day gift.  He also made her a card by drawing hearts and writing "Happy Valentine's Day" on a piece of folded cardstock.  He's not an artist but I hope he does that for her every Valentine's Day - it's pretty special.

- The weather here lately has been incredible.  Mid 50s to lower 60s and beautiful blue skies.  On Friday we took Amelia to the park right up the street.  David thought I was a little crazy for wanting to take her on the slide and swings, but we did it and I think she liked it, even if her face doesn't show it!

Our plum tree is really going crazy right now, blooming really early.  So I couldn't resist getting a couple of pictures of Amelia with it. 

- I thought I had more to say but apparently my memory is short.  Wait, I already knew that.  This is why I need to post often.  Otherwise I forget what I want to say.  Oh, I'm annoyed that the Olympics air live on the east coast and we get a 3 hour time delay even though they are taking place just a couple of hours north of here.

- Here's a cute video I took of Amelia (far right) with her cousins Kate (middle) and Anna (far left) last time we were in Oregon at the end of January. My sister, Lindsay, is the one with the blanket.

Busy week this week, but hopefully I'll post more often now.  Obviously if I wait then I forget everything.
Happy Tuesday!